Pursuing the dream

I can still remember that sunny day in June when I went to that Cabelas two summers ago and bought my first fishing rod, a Pflueger President spinning reel and a 6’6” Ugly Stick medium-heavy rod. Before this, I liked fishing but not that much, and only did it when I was at my cabin. But the summer of 2020 was when my love for the sport really grew. 

After I got that first rod I was able to bike down to the river in town and fish with my friends, we would do this all summer and make lots of memories. I wasn’t as good at fishing and didn’t know a whole lot about it, but after a couple of months, I started to get the hang of it and learned lots of things about fishing. Later that summer, I bought another rod and used it for different lures and other applications. When I first started fishing I would really fish for anything that swims, but after that first summer was when I got into bass fishing and wanted to learn just about everything in bass fishing.

Towards the end of the fall of 2020 I broke my rod and reel and got an actual bass rod for Christmas, this rod was way nicer than the one I used before. And later that spring I switched out my first rod with another nicer rod. So this year, my friends and I only wanted to bass fish, and instead of fishing the river in town that has mostly northern pike, we would drive out to my friend's house out in the country and fish a little pond next to it that only had bass in it. By doing this, we learned a lot of new techniques and got better at catching bass. In fact, I have learned all about different techniques that if you would ask me about them I could tell you the best length of the rod, the best lb line, the right weight or hook size, etc for that particular technique. I probably caught more bass in that year than I have in my life before.

This last winter was when it hit me, that I could make it big in professional bass fishing, because I know almost everything in bass fishing, I would say I’m pretty good at it, and it’s just about all I do in my free time. Some things I will do to pursue this dream further are to get a boat and fishing in tournaments, fish bigger lakes instead of ponds, and just keep learning, by researching, watching how the pros do it, and just learning from any mistakes that I make.  

Now I have kind of liked fishing when we would go to my cabin every now and then, but after I bought that first rod at Cabela’s two years ago I stopped enjoying it and started to love it.  From there I got better at catching fish and my knowledge of the sport grew rapidly. And now it’s all I want to do and I am going to try and make a living doing it.