Fishing season begins
Today is opening day for walleye and northern pike on U.P. inland and Great Lakes waters.
Fishing is an interesting sport. It’s a combination of pure relaxation, with equal parts of anticipation and frustration thrown in to keep it interesting. In all my years of fishing I am unconvinced that more skill equals more fish caught. Those fish just aren’t always biting so someone with all the skill and experience in the world can still get skunked.
My family would go perch fishing a lot when I was a kid. We would be pulling them up faster than my dad could take them off the hook and rebait it. Those were fun days! Throw a worm on a hook, drop the line over the edge of the boat, and feel that familiar nibble. A slight jerk of the pole was all that was needed and then you’d be reeling in the little guy. Occasionally a feisty bluegill or rock bass would surprise you and put up more of a fight.
I always loved that bit of mystery about fishing. You never know what’s on your hook until it surfaces. Fishing gives you that same joyous anticipation, whether you’re 8 or 80.
The love for fishing lasts a lifetime.
Like golf, fishing is a sport that families can do together over an entire lifetime. Special memories are made and stories repeated year after year of “that big one that got away” or maybe a big one that you landed after a long fight and a pole nearly bent in half from the weight of the fish as you lift it from the water.
And then there’s the seemingly endless variety of baits you can use: lures, spoons, jigs, and the live baits like minnows, night crawlers and worms. Fishing equipment can be the game changer or at least we convince ourselves of that when we rotate different baits as we wait for something to hit!
It’s a waiting game for sure that requires lots of patience and I’d say a bit of luck. But in the meantime you relax, breathe in the fresh air, and enjoy the company you’re with or even the solitude if you’re fishing solo. Fish or no fish, a day on the water is still a good day.
Photos courtesy Deb Webster, Joel Greathouse, Kathy Potgeter, Bud Ball.