Bird’s Nest
My conversation with Three Percent Co. about untangling the hidden parts of our lives
For young outdoorsmen, buying your first baitcaster is a rite of passage.
At least it was for me.
I remember standing in the store feeling like I had entered some new level of manhood. I had outgrown the days of bobbers and cane poles. Spinning reels were fine and had their place. Zebcos were, of course, ancient history.
But baitcasters?
Baitcasters were for the big boys.
My dad, being a wise and salty sage, told me to buy a few practice plugs so I could refine my casting in the yard before bringing hooks into the equation.
So I went home, set everything up, walked outside, and made my first cast.
For half a second, I felt incredible. In my mind, I was a professional bass angler, like the ones on TV, about to make a tournament-winning cast that only a serious angler could make.
Then…the reel exploded.
If you’ve never thrown a baitcaster, the problem is this: the spool holding all the line keeps spinning even when the lure slows down. If your thumb doesn’t manage the tension, the line overruns itself and turns into a snarled, hateful little monument to your own confidence.
Anglers call it a bird’s nest.
Learning to untangle a bird’s nest is just as important as learning to cast in a way that does not cause one.
It is hard to describe how frustrating it can be when you are on the water, picking your way through a knot like a monkey eating bugs. It stops you in your tracks.
Not to mention, it is a somewhat humiliating endeavor.
But, if you want to keep fishing, you have to slow down and untangle the mess.
There are parts of us that work in a similar way.
Things that, if not properly monitored, can cause big knots and tangles internally.
The difference is that we can tuck those knots away and choose not to deal with them. We can hide them from others and “push through.”
I say this because, regretfully, I have done it. It comes from a part of me that I call “Varsity,” and that part is still tempted to do this every single day.
And while you might be able to hide those knots in the dark for a while, there come moments when the truth gets forced out of the shadows.
It might start like a small oil leak. Quietly staining the pavement underneath. Or it might erupt like some sort of science experiment volcano.
I know this because I have lived it.
I have hidden needs, wounds, resentment, and a grocery list of issues I accumulated throughout my life. Even once light was shined on some of those things, I spent the better part of a year trying to tuck away whatever parts I could.
Varsity was working nights and weekends trying to project that everything was under control. It was not.
Throughout my life, I learned how to endure. I learned how to keep moving. Keep producing. I learned how to put things in compartments and get through the day.
And I while I am grateful for many of the lessons that I learned through all the time I spent in the woods and water…I did not always learn how to be honest about what was happening inside me.
And eventually, the things I refused to untangle started showing up in ways that the people I loved.
When you have an internal birds nest, the result is not as inconsequential as no longer being able to throw baits at fish. I wish it were.
That is part of why I wanted to sit down with the guys from Three Percent Co.
Not for a sterile therapy conversation. Not for a lecture. Not because the outdoor world needs another person telling men they are broken and causing harm.
But because I think a lot of us are carrying knots we have learned to hide well.
The outdoors can teach us a lot about strength. It can teach patience, humility, responsibility, important aspects of brotherhood, and improve resilience.
But it cannot automatically make us whole.
At some point, the same principles we admire on the water have to come home with us.
The strongest man is not the one who keeps tucking away his issues. It is the man who is not afraid to sit down with honesty and begin to untangle the knots he had long neglected.
He is not intimidated about the time that it might take to really get things right.
He is not afraid to be vulnerable and real. That man is more concerned with how he is living, than how others see his life.
In this podcast, I share some of my own experience with that process.
I want to be clear: I am not an expert. I’m just someone who has had to start picking through a few knots of my own.
My hope is that this conversation gives some of you the courage to look honestly at whatever you may be carrying, and maybe begin the slow work of untangling it.
Because there is real freedom on the other side.
Hunter Leavine is the host of the Captains Collective Podcast and cofounder of Drifter Fish Club. His work explores fishing as a lens into culture, travel, and the people who shape the places we love.
Sponsors: Skinny Water Culture, Purpose Built Optics, Turtle Box Audio, YETI, My Captain, and Hone Health.
Learn about traveling with the Drifter Fish Club HERE.
I’m also grateful to be partnering with Hone Health this summer. A lot of my recent work has been circling around what it means to take better care of ourselves—holistically.
If you’re interested in taking a more honest look at your health, longevity, and focus, you can learn more below.