COEUR d'ALENE - For a young Brett Surplus, going hunting and fishing every weekend with the men in his family was never really about bagging trophies.

"It was all about coming back to the camp trailer at night to play Yahtzee," said Surplus, a Coeur d'Alene native. "The men would just sit there and laugh. They'd killed a fair amount of game in the past and now it was all about having fun and teaching the next generation."

When it came time to market his line of camouflage apparel and hunting bags to a wider audience, Surplus channeled his earliest memories of hunting and fishing. The CEO of Reel Sportsman and Yello-Jakit Extreme Hunting Apparel said that by focusing the company's upcoming television show on exposing kids to hunting and fishing, they educate the next generation and separate themselves from the competition.

"Everyone with shows right now has these shows that are 'Look at me, I'm a great hunter and I kill big animals,'" Surplus said. "We're looking for the experience and capturing the moment that the kids have. People get more enjoyment out of a kid getting their first deer - they can think back to when it was their first time and their heart was pounding."

To celebrate the launch of the show, Reel Sportsman is hosting an Outdoor Expo and Fishing Tournament at McEuen Park on June 13. Surplus said the daylong event is family friendly, with bounce houses for the kids, vendor booths, food and beer, and prize giveaways.

Surplus added that the Pursuit Channel loved their motto of "tackle box instead of Xbox" and the fact that he is a native to the Northwest who has been hunting in the region since he was a boy. The market for outdoors shows is primarily based out of the East Coast, he said, with program hosts filming in the Northwest for a week on guided trips.

"We don't have guides, we live it," Surplus said. "It's our backyard so we want to be able to show off our area and have an impact as far as kids are concerned."

Similar to popular programs like "Extreme Makeover," Surplus said his show will try to give children who have experienced trauma or adversity a chance to get outdoors and learn about hunting the same way he did as a child. Surplus is going through candidate applications for the show. When asked what type of children they wanted to work with, he gave an example of 13-year-old twins whose father died suddenly of a brain aneurysm.

"Their lives have been hugely impacted," Surplus said. "After a while though, people forget what happened and go on with their own lives. But it sticks with these kids, the impact doesn't end after the funeral."

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Being a local who built his company from the ground up in Coeur d'Alene has provided Surplus with additional opportunities from community businesses looking to be a part of positively impacting the lives of children. He told The Press that the owners of Steel Structures of America and Surf's Up Car Wash pooled their resources to donate an African hunting trip for two hunters and two observers.

"We also got set up with the Seattle Seahawks," Surplus said. "So we will be going over to training camp and a couple of the players are going to go fishing with some of the kids featured in the show."

Planning the television show has been an unexpected adventure for Surplus. By passing on the sense of adventure and passion for the outdoors he developed as a child to the next generation, his hope is that kids will learn how to fend for themselves and continue passing on hunting skills to future generations.

"We want to impact the youth because they're going to be the ones who keep this market alive and maintain the outdoor areas we love so much," Surplus said. "I would rather the show be known for something admirable versus what I can line my pockets with."

The Reel Sportsman television show's premier 13-episode season is scheduled to air on the Pursuit Channel at the beginning of 2016.