3B Outdoors was a locally produced hunting and fishing television show that lasted for 17 seasons from 2006-2024! It was created by Nathan Light and Freddie Neeley and had quite a few other people who regularly contributed over the years. A mutual video production friend introduced me and Nathan as he needed some immediate assistance with some closed captioning. Since I was doing that already with MMA: Inside the Cage, I was able to knock it out really quick for him. That lead to some new work and wonderful friendships!
I came along in Season 8 doing the closed captioning and ended up getting them connected with TuffTV (later moved to RightNowTV) to give them national exposure! Nathan edited all the episodes on top of filming all of his fishing ones AND working his fulltime job! Seasons 9 & 10 I was taking Nathan’s edited footage and wrapping it all up and delivering to the station. Season 11 I started editing all the episodes from raw footage. Nathan sure had his hands full as there were HOURS of footage from each fishing and hunt to go through to make an episode!
I got to go on a few fishing trips and filmed some episodes as well as got some fishing time in. Prior to this, my last time fishing was in my youth with my dad! Nathan taught me a few things about fishing, and I taught him (and the crew) a few things about camera work. It was a win-win! I give them a lot of respect because filming in the heat of the action is difficult. They’re fishermen and hunters–not videographers, but I was impressed with what they did. Somehow, I was given the nickname, “The Natural.” 😆 I got lucky a few times and caught some really nice fish, but Nathan said it was just natural… He explains it a bit more with this message that he had printed out, framed and given to me at the show’s retirement dinner.
This show was unique in the fact that it was NOT scripted! The fish catches and hunts were real, live, action. With the exception of some b-roll and some show intros and closings, the content you saw was recorded as it happened. Some of the fishing episodes were really intense! I can’t tell you how many fish catches didn’t make the cut simply because there wasn’t enough time in the episode!
This is one era that will be remembered and missed by many. One thing I wanted to do was go turkey and deer hunting with Freddie. Perhaps we can still do that sometime. All of the episodes are on the 3B Outdoors YouTube channel so be sure to check them out if you are into hunting and fishing.
Here is one of my favorite episodes. Nathan took me to North Palm Beach, Florida as a thank you for helping out with that Season. He had a friend down there who had been inviting him for a saltwater fishing excursion. That whole trip was an absolute blast and is just a fraction of all the great times I’ve had with Nathan and crew!
Thank you, Nathan, Freddie, Big Bass Barry, The McDavid’s and the rest of the 3B Outdoor crew for your years of business and friendship! The world needs more people like you all!