Okay everyone I may as well submit my first story into this blog to get us started. I’m going back a long way with this one but I feel it is fitting since this is the first submission in this blog then I will tell you about the first fishing experience I remember. I was 4 years old. We were camping at a lake called Sandy Lake. My father was a weekend fisherman and really didn’t know a lot about fishing. He knew that you put a Len Thompson Red Devil on your leader and tied your leader to 30 pound test line. Then you casted as far as you could and reeled in fast to keep the hook from sinking and getting caught in the weeds. But hey this was my first experience and I look back and that day is what turned me into an addict.
My dad was showing me how to cast. He was really getting frustrated at trying to get the hook out of the weeds every time I casted but he was my dad and he loved me. Finally he and I both thought I was in the weeds again until the weeds started to fight back. At that point my dad told me I had a fish on. He told me to reel it in. You have to remember I had a five foot, three quarter inch rod with an old closed face real and 30 pound test, it was about as strong as a tow truck. There was no playing fish or tiring them out it was just reel and pull them in. About a minute later I landed my first pike. It weighed about one and a half pounds and it was the most beautiful thing I had seen.
This was my thing. I knew I would be fishing for the rest of my life after that day. I’m 39 years old now and I still get that feeling every time I land a fish.
Dale Mazurek