When Attica’s Brody Berntsen is in the outdoors, he feels like there is not a care in the world. He feels lost with nature.

“When I’m outside, it’s calming and peaceful and it feels like nothing else matters around me,” Berntsen said.

Berntsen started his relationship with the outdoors when he was young and it has only grown over the years.

“I started fishing when I was two years old,” Berntsen said. “I got my first gun when I was 10 years old and begin hunting. I hunt with the seasons, but I’m always fishing from spring to fall and any nice day in the winter. I can be fishing daily.”

Berntsen fishes for a variety of fish and hunts several types of game, as well. He even shoots in competitions.

“I love fishing for catfish, and also enjoy catching crappie, wipers, and gar, and I also like to set limb lines and kayak fish,” Berntsen said. “I hunt deer, turkeys and waterfowl, and I also help my brother with trapping. I’m also in competitive trap shooting and I have done archery competitions in grade school.”

Throughout the years, Berntsen has made a countless number of memories, but there are two that stand out.

“One of my memories is I caught my first blue cat on my brother’s pole, while he was sleeping. It was 11 pounds and 30 inches,” Berntsen said. “My second memory was I hiked up a mountain in Colorado to fish at Lost Lake. It was my first time trout fishing, and the trout were so hungry. You didn’t even have to bait your hook. They would just bite the hook.”