Family

Family is everything. You start learning your life with them, you learn to walk, you learn to talk, and you can even learn to fish from your family. The first and best part to fishing is when a family member buys you your first fishing pole and tackle box, you know, the little mickey mouse pole that usually comes with the “starter” tackle box with a couple bobbers, hooks, weights, and a stringer. from that moment on you are hooked to fishing.

As you grow your fishing skills, you learn from your family. Fishing in my family goes back over 100 years. From the time I was born I pretty much had a fishing pole in my hands. I first learned from my dad, who would take me out with my Mickey pole, Donald Duck bobber and just a plain hook and worm. He would help me cast and I would do my best to reel a sunnie in. My grandpa gave me a minnow net and told me to go catch some frogs along the shoreline. I did that so much that I had a very specific route i would take.

Go back one more generation and we get to ice fishing with great-grandpa, He taught me once to sit at the hole and jig ten times, count to ten, and repeat this until the fish would bite. Now I am almost sure that it was a lesson to catch fish, but I’m also sure it was to keep me busy while they were all having a good time. Well this lesson stuck with me a few years later when my family and I went up to Canada walleye fishing. My dad, mom, cousin, and I went out with the guide and they put me at the back of the boat so I was “out of the way”. I used the lesson and killed the walleyes! After about my tenth fish, everyone on the boat turned their eyes to me to ask “how are you doing that kid?!” And i told them the simple answer “I’m just doing what great grandpa told me to do” all in that 6 year old voice.

Now I am older and have had the privilege to teach and introduce fishing to my nephews. The oldest one, the one to whom gave this site its name “Where’s Your Fish?”, he is doing great and I have got him hooked into fishing. The thing with fishing is, it means being part of the family tradition. Even if you are not related by blood you can still teach someone to fish. And that is what this site is all about, teaching the art and history of fishing to those that want to learn or to learn more!

Where’s Your Fish?

At Where’s Your Fish? We strive to bring you the newest information on fishing. From fishing reports to weather updates and conditions, we will have it all for you! Each week will show case a story about fishing, with tips and tricks that I have personally tried as well as product reviews! There will be a calendar with events, shows, and tournaments. The seasons and what species will be gone over as well as a special winter blog about spear fishing. And of course a lot of you like to eat the fish you catch, I will be posting recipes! A lot of the fishing information I will be covering will be from Minnesota and Wisconsin with a few places I travel to. I love fishing so much that there is usually a fishing day involved on each trip, or at least talking to locals about what’s biting. If there is anything else you would like me to talk about fishing related, just let me know and I will do my best!

So where does the name “Where’s Your Fish?” come from? Well the funny story is, We had my nephew (5 years old at the time) up at the cabin by Fergus Falls, MN. We all went out on the pontoon for some afternoon sunfish fishing. As I was helping him catch his fish and teaching him the ropes as to what to do he did what ever 5 year old kid would do and got a little bored with the pace of the bite. Well he ended up letting me fish, I started to do my thing. As i was pulling up a few descent sized sunfish he would go from my father-in-law back to me asking, who ever wasn’t pulling a fish up at the time, “where’s your fish?” Now that I have started this blog, I was struggling a bit with a name for the site. I came up with a few different names but they all just seemed “OK”. So one day i was doing some fishing meditation and remembered that afternoon with him saying “Where’s Your Fish?” for about 20 mins straight. And so the Where’s Your Fish? site is born!