Just A Couple Of Outdoor Guys

George W. Bush unwinds by clearing brush. John Kerry has a weakness for windsurfing. But both the President and his Democratic rival stress their more macho outdoor pursuits in interviews in the October issue of Field & Stream, due on newsstands this week. (They are on the cover for newsstand readers, but are supplanted by a whitetail deer in editions sent to subscribers.) The two answer questions on a variety of policy issues, from the environment to gun control, but also make a strong pitch to the rod-and-gun crowd.

President Bush, it seems, favors bass fishing (he once hooked a 9.5 pounder on Rainbow Lake in Texas) but also likes to fly-fish for ocean stripers and hunt quail with his dad. "You know, I'm not a very good shot," the President admits. He likes to fish with Barney, the family's Scottish terrier — "a great fisherman," who "sits on the bow of the boat for hours." Kerry, for his part, favors saltwater fishing, mainly for bluefish and stripers. A good shot, the Senator says he occasionally goes bird and rabbit hunting and has hunted deer but has never bagged one bigger than an 8-pointer. "I once had an incredible encounter with the most enormous buck," he says, "16 points or something. And I failed to pull the trigger at the right moment." Don't tell Dick Cheney.