Meet Kayla Nevius

My name is Kayla Nevius and I'm a California girl.

But not that kind. The other California. The California where I grew up in a small town surrounded by mountains, with a local lake and river nearby where I grew up hunting and fishing.

As soon as I could walk, I started fishing. When I finally was old enough to legally hunt, I stopped begging at the door and was finally able to join in.

I enjoy pretty much everything outdoors but spend most of my free time hunting and fishing. Like most everyone, I have to fit my outdoors time in before and after work.

I grew up fishing for trout, crappie, bass and the occasional catfish in my home lake. I love to catch big crawfish in the river, going frogging and bowfishing. I recently had the chance to catch tuna for the first time and that has quickly turned into my second-favorite species. So what's my first? Largemouth bass.

Bass fishing has become more of an obsession than a hobby for me over the past couple of years. I spend some time almost every day at the lake whenever possible. I bought myself a bass boat for my 23rd birthday, and started fishing tournaments. I discovered swimbaits and as soon as I caught my first bass on a swimbait I was hooked. Two years ago my biggest bass was about 6 pounds. This year I caught mostly 6-, 7-, and 8-pounders. Yeah, you could say I'm now addicted to catching big bass on swimbaits.

I grew up hunting rabbits, dove, quail, ducks, and deer. Last fall, I did a lot of duck hunting – which was awesome – and I went on my first goose hunt. That was incredible.

A week before deer season opened last fall, I got my first bow. The experience of archery hunting was a game-changer for me. I loved figuring out how to shoot and sight in my bow, hiking every day before and after work, all day on the weekends, paying attention to every detail, smell, sound and getting way closer to deer than I'd ever been before but still not being able to shoot because I wasn't close enough.

Then everything fell into place on the final morning of archery season when I was able to spot and stalk a buck and finally get close enough. The buck was down less than 10 seconds after I shot at 35 yards! That made me put my riffle to the side for now. This season, I had two archery-only tags and was on the hunt!

One of my other passions is helping others. I graduated from college with a BA in Child, Adolescent, and Family Studies with a minor in Psychology. Right after college I was fortunate enough to get a job working with ids during difficult times in their life, and to also do some substitute teaching here and there. When kids are struggling with something whether its academic, behavioral, emotional, social issues, they always hold a special place in my heart and helping them is something that I absolutely love to do.

So that's who I am. Just a normal California girl.