Details remain fuzzy. I’m the littler guy on the right — 4 or 5 years old — and I can’t claim any actual recollection. However, that outing started my fishing journey and the core of my career path.
I’m pretty sure it’s the only time my family ever went fishing together. I don’t even know where we got fishing tackle, and I assume the camper that’s hooked up to Dad’s Charger was a rental.
We were somewhere around Bemidji, Minnesota. I know that because pictures from the same trip include shots of us with Paul Bunyan and Babe in Paul Bunyan Park beside Lake Bemidji.
It’s also uncertain who actually caught the perch in the picture. I always assume it was me because I was the fisherman in the family. My brother Scott assumes it was him because he was older and more able. Maybe it was a team effort.
Subsequent Fishing Trips
What I do know is that this trip created a spark. The spark grew to a flame on visits to friends and a great aunt and uncle who had cabins in Northern Wisconsin, where I would spend every minute I could catching sunfish from docks while the rest of my family did whatever people do when they spend days visiting family and friends.
Then there was the small footbridge over a creek that was a short walk from our house in Clearwater, Florida. I spent countless hours leaning over the rail of that bridge and standing on a lone cleared bank spot beside the bridge, fishing for golden shiners, bluegill and occasional largemouth bass.
Eventually I began riding my bike to neighborhood lakes and getting rides to park lakes and to bridges and piers on Tampa Bay, the Gulf and the Intracoastal Waterway. Sometimes buddies would join me. Often I fished alone. Didn’t matter to me. I was fishing, so I was happy.
And I toted my rod & reel and tackle box to any event that was near water, if I was allowed to do so. Youth Group, Scouts, family picnic, vacation… anywhere I could.
Learning to Fish
My family moved from Minnesota to Florida when I was 6, and my grandfather followed a year or two later. He was a lifelong fisherman and taught me some fundamentals and helped my parents pick out early tackle for me. I don’t specifically remember fishing together, except for one day on a 1/2-day deep sea fishing trip.
I mostly learned by doing. I watched Bill Dance, Jimmy Houston, Roland Martin and Orlando Wilson, read Florida Sportsman and Bassmaster magazines, and soaked up all I could from anyone I met who ever fished. But mostly I leaned by trial and error.
Every now and then a Scoutmaster, a buddy’s dad or some family friend would take me out in a boat for bass or inshore saltwater species. Mostly, though, it was Fishing on Foot, so I suppose that’s why that style of fishing resonates so strongly in me and why I’m glad for the opportunity to share things I’ve learned in this blog.
Fishing on Foot 