On a recent fishing trip to Ontario, Canada, the lodge owner and I talked late into the night about the interesting history of the lodge. As the owner recalled the best and worst times of the past several decades, he described how the 1999 season was one of his worst, and it was partially caused by an outdoor celebrity who spoke before he thought.

While the lodge owner offers some of the finest fishing in the north, his lodge specializes in archery bear hunting. On January 15, 1999, known as “Black Friday” by many Canadian sportsmen and lodge owners, the Ontario government eliminated spring bear hunting in the province.

While the decision was a major economic blow to the outdoor industry and the many lodge owners and guides of Ontario, it became worse when a major outdoor celebrity from the United States inserted his opinion.

The celebrity felt he could teach the Ontario government a thing or two and promptly told his fans to boycott any and all trips up north in protest of the decision. The idea seemed like a good one to many sportsmen at the time.

What they didn’t consider is that their actions didn’t hurt the Ontario government but the individual lodge owners and outfitters who already were feeling the loss. The owner of the lodge said that it was his worst year ever and it took several seasons of hard work to get the numbers back to normal levels.

The lodge owner recalled another incident in which one particular celebrity who likes to do things “his way” came to the camp for a bear hunt. It was only then that the celebrity publicly berated the traditional practice of baiting bears and made it known that his way of spot-and-stalk hunting was the only “right” way.

It occurred to me, as the lodge owner shared his stories, that we as sportsmen can often be a very opinionated group. While everybody deserves to have an opinion, sometimes the people expressing them, including myself, should give them a bit more thought.

It reminded me of an incident in February of 2007 when well-known outdoor celebrity Jim Zumbo nearly blogged his career away and, in his own words, made him “radioactive in the industry.”

Zumbo is a perfect example of the loose lips sink ships phenomena when he stated, “Excuse me, maybe I’m a traditionalist, but I see no place for these weapons among our hunting fraternity. I’ll go so far as to call them ‘terrorist’ rifles.”

Zumbo was referring to “black rifles” or military style rifles many of which resemble the same firearms carried by our servicemen and women and have become very popular among hunters, shooters and gun collectors.

His blog didn’t stop there. He continued by saying, “Sorry, folks, in my humble opinion, these things have no place in hunting,” and further on stated, “Let’s divorce ourselves from them. I say game departments should ban them from the prairies and woods.”

In an apology days later, Zumbo said, “The last few days have been an educational experience, to say the least. My ill-conceived, inflammatory blog, as all of you now know, set off a firestorm that, I’m told, has never before been equaled. I’m not proud of that.

“They say hindsight is golden. Looking back, I can’t believe I said the words “ban” and “terrorist” in the context that I did. I don’t know what I was thinking when I wrote that. I can explain this as sheer ignorance and an irresponsible use of words.” he wrote.

Since his monumental slip of the “blog,” Zumbo has worked hard to mend the holes in the boat that his words caused to gun owners throughout the country. After around five months his television show returned to the air along with some of his sponsors, but the damage from a few loose words issued in an Internet blog nearly ruined his lifelong career.

I could name hundreds of outdoor issues that could be hotly debated for hours, but when it comes right down to it we’re all sportsmen, outdoorsmen, conservationists, etc. While we may not always agree on every issue or topic, we should all consider our comments carefully, lest the outdoor ship we’re sailing begins taking on more water than the bilge pumps can handle.