Aric and Scott had asked me to go fishing with them before. I never did, it simply wasn’t my bag baby. My fishing experience consisted of a day in a boat on the Connecticut River when I was in 8th grade with my friend Robbie Thomas and his dad. I don’t even remember what kind of fish we were catching. That was spring of 1979. The next time I went was later that year with my Grandpa Guingrich. He used to fish a bit. We went down to the river by IPFW and caught a few little sunfish. Grandpa had one of those cane poles that seemed to 15 feet long at the time. Fast forward to my third time out. Chain O’ Lakes State Park. I’d guess it was 1993. A couple of my brothers in law wanted to go fishing. Not into the fishing thing at all, I bought a blue light special combo and a ridiculously large crankbait. Dan was rowing us out into the main lake there near where we rented the boat. I was casting my huge lure out and cranking it back. On one of the retrieves, it came in with a little bass on it that was almost as big as the lure. I was the only one to catch anything that day. That rod was used to fly kites for a couple of years before being thrown out.

OK so that was where I was coming from. I just wasn’t interested at all. Aric and Scott had been going up to Strawberry for a couple of years. This time, I gave in. It seemed that even if I wasn’t into the fishing thing, it would be a good time hang with some old friends and get out of the city for a while. Those guys were more than generous. I used their rods and reels; I was welcome to their tackle boxes, and they were patient and informative. They both agreed that In-Fisherman magazine was an excellent source for information about freshwater fishing. Anyway, since it was October, we were using offset hooks, bullet sinkers and Berkley Power Worms Texas rigged. Of course, the trip was fun. I mean even without the fishing, being able to camp out with friends is fun and the weather was especially nice. We split up our fishing time between Texas rigging for bass and slip bobbing for bluegill. We all did well with the bluegill, but Aric and Scott were also doing well with the bass. I couldn't get the hang of “feeling” the bottom. I did manage to get one or two.

Scott was the man on fire. He seemed to have it dialed in. Just after dark on Saturday, we were drifting around what has now known as the “Basshole” the boat was turning a bit and, in an effort, to keep my line from crossing Scott’s, I lifted my rod up over his head to come around to the other side of the boat. It was at this instant that I accidentally hooked into a 21 1/5 inch Largemouth. It was like a balloon of excitment had burst all over us. I was twilight and we could see a big slab of silver a few feet below the surface. With the expert guidance of my friends, we were able to net and boat this big guy and I won the hat. The comments from my colleagues were “I’ve been fishing for 5 years for that fish” – Aric and “I’d trade all 7 that I caught today for that one” – Scott . Yes indeed, it was a great trip but I wasn’t hooked on fishing yet.