3938 Lacey Swope

Right now it's starting to move up towards Washington State and it's going to drift down to the south and east. This week on Outdoor Oklahoma, Lacey Swope is a popular meteorologist on News 9. But did you know she's a huge hunter and angler as well? She's become a role model and an outdoor ambassador for us all. Get to know Lacey Swope right now on Outdoor Oklahoma. Hello and welcome to Outdoor Oklahoma. I'm Todd Craighead. Now many of you are probably already familiar with meteorologist Lacey Swope on News 9 in Oklahoma City. And if you've been watching, it's obvious that Lacey is passionate about her work. But if you've been paying attention, it's equally obvious that Lacey is also passionate about the outdoors.

A lot of guys whenever they find out that I hunt, their first question is, do you really? I grew up hunting. I grew up in a family of hunters. I had no idea that not everyone did this. It's what I do. I hunt and I fish and I've done it my whole life and I'm proud of it. I'm proud that we are able to do that. I feel blessed to be here on this creation. And I feel like every animal that I'm able to harvest was put there for me to do that. Well, as Lacey and the crew forecast, we did get some severe weather yesterday. We got some good rains. That was the nice thing. Yes, we had some hail. We did have some wind, severe hail, severe winds. We had a little bit of wind damage. Some places in Southwestern Oklahoma, but we got some very, very decent rainfall out of it in Southwestern parts of our state.

This is why no matter how severe thunderstorm is, you go indoors, my friends, because that would not be fun. All right, that's what it looks like in the air yesterday. Luckily, no tornadoes out of this system. Just the lightning, the hail, the strong winds. We can handle that here in Oklahoma. Go back to computer now, show you some of this. I got into the weather business and interested in meteorology, simply just from being in Oklahoma. I think we're all so weather aware. My dad was always a big hunter. When I was teeny tiny, I just grew up around it all the time. My mom big and a bass fishing. My parents bashed this together, and they did a lot of tournaments, that sort of thing. And I just grew up with my brother being three years older, we were super close. And I don't know why, but I was always obsessed with anything my brother was doing. I was doing too. So if he was playing with talking trucks, I was playing with talking trucks. And I had my camo overalls on to match his camo overalls. And whatever we were doing all the time. So when my brother started getting interested in the hunting and fishing, I did too. Just because he did it. I feel really blessed to be in the position that I'm in. And I get told a lot by young girls or moms that,

Hey, you know, my daughter looks up to you. She doesn't have any of her friends that like to do these kind of things. But she thinks it's so cool that you do. This is Saturday, hybrid of hail, and wind. Sunday is really going to be dependent on what happens Saturday. Exactly where this dry line sets up will be Keith Saturday. And that will play out Sunday right now with right Sunday. Looks to be right along I-35. And I think what's so funny is a lot of people are like, oh my gosh, you're so dressed up. And you're, you know, all the makeup and the hairspray and, you know, all that. How in the world do you, do you really do that? I get that question a lot. And I'm like, yeah, this is, I get to play dress up five days a week. That's the way I feel. You know, I get to come in here and they do my hair and my makeup and trust me. This takes a long time and it's, it's, it's, it's me, but it's not me. Me, the real me is whenever I get to go home and, you know, I have my ball cap on and,

and my camo and I'm out in the woods. And so I love that other little girls and other women think that's me, you know, because they, they feel like, you know, there's more of us than it's a little bit more acceptable. Music My dad started bringing my brother and I here whenever we were really little. Actually, a whole family would come out and then we both just, he bring us out individually by ourselves or together. And we've been coming out here since we were really little. And really both of us, you know, just kind of know the lake like the back of our hand and, and caught some really nice fish out of this lake. Usually, you know, we start fishing in the spring and we'll fish all summer. We've done a lot of night fishing out here. And I've caught some of my biggest, actually, my biggest fish ever that I have on my wall. My pride and joy came from this lake.

So we don't, we don't spend a lot of time on other lakes, actually. Because it's kind of quiet. There are no sea do's allowed or anything like that. So it's strictly a fishing lake and you see a lot of fish other people catch. That's usually my luck. The boat next to me will pull out the big one, but it's a lot of fun. It's always quiet. She's got a real nice career going now. Got a great, great husband and so on, which is really all a brother could want. And to see her basically keeping in touch with the roots, coming out doing things like this, hanging out with us, staying close to the family. She, yeah, it's been real nice. I couldn't ask for more. Did you see that? He just came up and grabbed it right as I was taking that water. I actually wasn't watching. He's so cute. Is that a minnow? He's ambitious. Is he a minnow? He almost picked it out of all. Look at that.

Are you kidding me? What? I think mine's big. And what's your head? Oh, you got a lot of hooks. I think that it's so incredible to just be out in the public and to have people come up to you and say it's nice to see somebody else actually does this. And you're willing to talk about it. And what's weird to me is I'm just learning. In some cases, it's a taboo subject. I never knew that. I grew up. I grew up hunting. I grew up in a family of hunters. I had no idea that not everyone did this. A very, very nice viewer sent you this hiking stick. This is a hiking stick. And it is the coolest handcrafted hiking stick ever. And it even says Channel Mind Weather Girl Lacey Swope. And this comes to us from Allen and Betty Moore from Roosevelt, Oklahoma. And they watch the noon show every single day. And they said, this is so whenever Alex or David or Kelly Ogle tell me to take a hike, I will have something to take with me. And look at this. It is a full blown hand made hiking stick. It is really nice.

So thank you so much for sending that in. I love it. It's going to get put to good use because I get told to take a hike at all. Oh, for the record. I don't think I've ever told her to take a hike. I have a finger to really awesome special finger. It doesn't bend. Because a certain someone threw a rock on it when we were little and broke it. I don't feel like the one's picking us to do this. So whenever we, when I fish, I'm supposed to, you know, bend your finger. And you can't bend your finger. Oh, that's the one. That's the one. Hey, now. See, it's perfect eating size, right? This is a monster. Oh, you've done it now. Oh, you've done it now. Just a rusty hook. It's okay. I have to give multiple tetanus shots a year. There we go. There he is.

It's huge. It's a monster. These are those trophy bass. I was telling you about from this lake. They get huge like this. A very small chunk of my time is actually spent on air. It's usually 30 minutes to an hour. The rest of my eight hour to 10 hour to 12 hour day is spent looking at data, computer models, looking at current conditions on the Oklahoma Mesonet, figuring out exactly where storm systems are, and also checking out radar and looking at all the data that's available to us, but together the most clear concise forecast. Everyone in their dog calls you and wants to know what the forecast is going to be on this day for this particular reason. And I was already looking at the exact sunrise, exact sunset, exact day break, that sort of thing, and I just decided if I'm looking this up and hunting so huge, and hunting season is opening, I really try to really focus on the opening of seasons because that's when the most people are going out. Why don't I just try to put it on air? First, we've got to get down to business. And that is the fact that archery season, I'm going to call it archery season, not both season. Bobby was thinking about bows for her daughter's hair when I showed this earlier.

Okay, it's archery season, both seasons. Yes, archery. Okay, late in the morning, 58 degrees with light winds. This is Tuesday coming up. First, light 7 a.m. sunrise at 725. If you're going to be out in your stand, hey, take a break midday, it's going to be hot. And for the evening hunt, winds picking up out of the South-Southies, 10 to 15. Last, light 739. If you're like me, you count down to this, like you do Christmas, and it's almost here. Hunting and fishing is huge, and I think it's even more common now than it was when I was a little kid. And you know someone in every family that loves to do, you know, hunting or fishing or, you know, hunting birds or upland, whatever it is they're doing. Someone loves it. And most of our viewers know somebody that is. So I still get, you know, elderly women that don't message me. Like, my husband loves, so you see those forecasts, even though she's like, I don't hunt at all, and I could care less, but my husband loves it. So I watch just so I can tell him, or my grandson's going to go out this weekend. So I'll watch that way. I can tell my grandson what to do.

Light Northeast winds, 57 degrees Sunday morning. Hey, do you clean your own deer? I do. I do. I was one of my dad's things. Whenever I first started hunting, when I was like 11, 12 years old, was that if you kill it, you clean it, you help process it, and you eat it. So. I love that. Swagos. We love Swagos. In the Ebb and Slow family. There you go. We love some lacy, slow. I know your parents are proud right now. Oh, yeah. They say they are, but they say other things too. Yeah. They're watching right now, and right now, and they're camopajamas. Absolutely. Yes. I actually got interested in her because she hunted, and I was a big hunter, and her father, of course, is an outdoorsman. And he took to me, thank goodness, and he kind of showed me the ropes on bass fishing. Of course, we both like to do it together. It's not like you have to leave your spouse and go out for the weekend,

and do something completely opposite. We do everything together. Hunting, fishing, camping. Growing up, being real little, doing it, you know, it's kind of all I ever knew. It was normal to me that that's what we did. That's what we've always done, is to fish or even to hunt to do the same thing. It's what you do on the weekends. That's what I thought everyone did. I found out that's not what everyone does. But I've just done it ever since, and carried it on. And, you know, when you grow up doing something, you don't know any other way. And now, when we're, you know, in the city on the weekends, that's fun, but you're always wishing you were here with nothing else. So, thankfully, and I'm so thankful for that. I'm thankful that they took the time to take us out here, to bring us out here as kids, and as a family to learn how to do this, because it's definitely something we'll pass down to our kids, and continue to do. I mean, there's a lot you can do in the Oklahoma outdoors. There's lots it has to offer. And luckily, our parents spent the time with us, and our grandparents spent the time with us, to teach us how to do all this stuff.

And... So, we still come out here. I mean, every chance we get... Yes! It fishes on! Get the net! Get the net! Look! All right. I'll net him, Kate. I'll net him for you. I want you to lose him. He's pretty big. Oh, we do. This is the kid one. Look at that! It's a trophy. Hey, that'll eat. Yeah, it will. Finally, when to put in the kitty. Mine was a little bigger, but that's okay. That's okay. I think mine was just a little bit bigger. Let's go ahead. We already got one in the kitty. He wants to join his friends. Mine... My fish have been getting real lonely in here. Oh! Get the net, somebody. Oh, we've got another bath!

Yes! This is a good eatin' size, too. That's what I call a good eatin' size. It's perfect. I just want to point out that that's three to nothing. My husband has no fish right now. Not that we're competitive at all. Oh, yeah. How weird have I cut the first fish? You did. Yeah. You caught one already? Yeah. Oh, I see. It's negligible. So small. This one is perfect. This is what I come for. It's so much fun. He thought he was big. He pulled like he was big. Finally, on the grass beds. It's working out. We keep going like this. We will have a mess to eat, at least. It's so exciting now, too, to see how many women are into hunting and fishing. I mean, growing up as a little kid, I was the only girl I knew most of my life that was interested in those things. And because of that, you know, there was no clothing for me. I had all my dad's camo, my brother's camo, they would give me.

And I still do. I still like to wear those things and whatever. But now, I mean, you can go to stores and you can find an entire section dedicated just to women hunting. The bows now are geared more for women. I grew up with, you know, hand me down bow for my brother. And that sort of thing. And, you know, now they have... There's pink on everything. Which is hilarious cost more. But it's nice. And I know now, especially having, you know, the Facebook and Twitter available, there are so many women hunters out there. And it's just exploding. And it's so great. It's so great to see. I get seriously more little girl fishing pictures sent in than I do little boys. I mean, they're so many little girls that are interested and they're picking up bows now. They're archery classes in the school. It's so exciting. I don't... I think we're really seeing a shift in the way people think about it about hunting. It's no longer just a men's world. You know, a man's world. It's women are right along there, able to do the exact same thing. And I've always... I was raised that way, though. I was raised. I was never talked to like I was different or that I couldn't do anything.

But I couldn't go out in bohunt or I couldn't go out in, you know, fish or whatever it was that anyone else was doing. And I was going to prove that I could. And I tried my whole life to do that. I'm only ever truly happy whenever I'm away from the city life completely. That's why every single spare second that I get if I can drive away, that's what we do. And that's what we've always done. And it sometimes is difficult, but I can tell you whatever extra second that we have, my husband and I, we're hitting the road, we're heading to our property and we're going to get out there away from the electricity and the running water. And we're going to enjoy, you know, what we have out there, the campfire and the stars and just enjoy, enjoy Oklahoma wildlife.

And I really don't know why you wouldn't do that every spare second that you have. Thank you. .

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. . . . . . . One of the hardest things that I have as a woman in the outdoors coordinator is convincing ladies to free up the time to come and to learn something on their own.

The one thing I like to tell me, women are so over committed, they've got to make sure they've got everybody to care of before they can take care of themselves. But one thing about it is if they learn to not only make everybody else happy, but they need to learn to make themselves happy and nature is a good place to go to for that. Women have a tendency to be a little intimidated, but there's a lot of great resources out there that we can go to. I mean, number one, I start with the men in my life or the people I know that hunt and fish or do the things in the outdoors, the hiking, the mountain biking. I go to them and ask, you know, can I tag along? You know, I'm interested.

And most people that love what they're doing are more than happy to share what they love. You know, for a woman, I would say find a local lady. I know we as an Oklahoma State Lido program are going to start trying to put together more women hunts, ladies hunts, because we were a little more comfortable when we can go as a group of ladies and learn together. That way it's not quite as intimidating. We're all learning at the same time, and we always have professionals with this. We're using when we go on a hunt. We have a whole array of ladies from beginners to some experience and some all in between. I would suggest starting out with the women in the outdoors event. And then if you like it, you can pursue it further and you've just met a bunch of ladies that are pursuing it with you. And there's comfort in numbers. The National Wild Turkey Federation's Women in the Outdoors program is just one of several ways that women can get connected in the Outdoor Recreation lifestyle.

To find out more information about events around the state, log on to our website and check out the Outdoor Calendar page. Hey, thanks for joining us today. For all of us at your wildlife department, I'm Todd Craighead, and we'll see you right here next time on Outdoor Oklahoma. MUSIC