Everybody has their niche. For some, it’s fantasy football, or bowling. SEE Team teacher Jame Holt has a niche not many people in this area also have:  hunting and fishing.

“I grew up on a lake in Minnesota. I could actually hunt when I was 12, but I remember around the age of six I would go with my dad and watch him hunt,” Holt said.

From ages twelve to sixteen, Holt had to be accompanied by an adult, his father. When he was twelve, Holt won a 20 gauge single shot shotgun at a hunting banquet. He used this gun for most of his hunting as a youth. However, this wasn’t the gun he used to take down his first deer when he was fifteen.

“It was the first time my father or I had shot a deer, so we had no idea how to field dress it. We dragged it back to camp and a neighbor helped us cut it up,” he said.

Holt teaches on SEE Team, a section of teaching for the freshman that is centered in ecology. The fact that Holt hunts and fishes does not affect his job as a SEE Team teacher.

“We as humans have been very good at taking out a lot of natural predators. If you over hunt, then you will put a species into extinction. However, if you don’t have enough hunting of the smaller animals, then the ecosystem will still be upset. There needs to be a healthy balance. And we always eat what we kill, it isn’t just for sport,” Holt said.

Holt indulges his hobby both locally and back home.

“I can go fishing around here,” he said.  “Usually when I hunt, I hunt on a piece of land I’ve got in Minnesota.”

Holt has killed two eight-point bucks, the biggest deer he has ever hunted. The biggest fish he has ever caught were a 39 inch muskie, a 29.5 inch walleye, and a 28 pound salmon.

Holt also enjoys hunting and fishing because it is a bonding experience. It is something he has done with family members in the past, and something he continues to do today.

“I would hunt with my father, and my grandfather would pay me to shoot at raccoons and rats that would come to their campground. It was a great experience to bond with both of them. Every day after school I would come home, and sit in an old fish house with my dad. We would play cards, talk, I’d do my homework. It was just a nice way to spend time with my family,” he said.

It is not just a blast from the past to hunt and fish with his family however.

“I like fishing more than hunting at the moment because I go fishing with my daughters. They really like it, and have expressed interests in hunting as well. Even if we don’t catch anything, it’s still really a great way to be together and make memories,” he said.