The reason why I fish...

As a youngster, my dad fished every weekend. I always knew that there was a spot in the boat for me. He never pushed me to go, but always invited me. I never will forget the gleam in his eyes when I would catch a big one. Because he never forced me, I never lost interest in the sport. While on vacation as a kid, while he was on the boat, I often times fished from shore and anticipated him coming back to take me.

Not too many kids these days are interested in fishing as much as the one I met over memorial weekend.
At about 6 in the evening the day before our the BBT memorial 100, Nick and I were looking for spawners and Nick took me to a channel which he said usually has fish. "There is a catch", he said. "The cove that I am going to take you in usually has a sprinkler on keeping fisherman out. This little boy's dad keeps the sprinkler on all day until him and his friends have a chance to fish for the bedding bass that lay all throughout this cove."

As we rounded the bend, sure enough, the sprinkler was on. Knowing how determined Nick is, he went under the sprinkler and found the mother load of keeper bass. About 4 to be exact. All of them around 2 - 3 pounds. About 3 minutes in the cove, out came the boy's dad to talk and describe why he keeps this sprinkler on. Little did he know that Nick talked to him 2 years ago about the same thing. The gentleman was extremely nice and asked that we don't catch them because of his son David who is an avid outdoors men. He said that his son would be back in a minute and would love to talk fishing with us. He even went out of his way to ask us if we wanted a cold drink. Although we were both really thirsty, we kindly declined on his offer but told him that if he can get his son out by the time we double back from fishing the remainder of the channel, we would love to give him a few baits and talk with him. In the back of my mind, I surely thought with a little barter, we might get them sprinklers off for the tournament the next day.

As we turned around to head out of the channel, out came David with a grin from ear to ear. We talked to him quite a bit and even offered the bounty to possibly fish his cove the next day. Nick offered him a 7'0" American Eagle baitcasting rod and a pinnacle reel (the exact combo that he lost over the side of the boat 3 weeks later) in return to fish his spot in the morning. David rubbed his hands together like he was making a business deal, thought about it pretty hard, but decided against it. We told him that even though we were going to stay away from his spot, we couldn't promise him others would do the same. He still agreed that his friends would be really mad at him if he let us catch all of the fish out of his little honey hole. David's Dad again invited us in their home to talk fishing, and perhaps get something to eat or drink. We obviously couldn't deny them twice so we went in to take a tour of their home, which was absolutely beautiful. We exchanged numbers, used their facilities, and were off on the water to launch the boat before it got dark.

The next day we entered their channel to fish another spot and saw two tournament anglers get under the sprinkler and catch a few of David's pet fish. I didn't quite feel sorry for David by the end of the day though. We shortly ran in to him and his Dad in another marina where David was catching anything he could put his eyes on. While Nick and I only had 2 fish in the boat. Attached is a picture of his stringer from that day. He himself could have cashed a check during that tournament.


David is the reason why I fish. I can only hope that my little Spencer grows up to be just like him. I sure know that I will sleep better at night with him in his bed, excited to get up and fish with me in the morning. Now I realize why my Dad had that gleam in his eyes while fishing with me.