I thought it might be fun to document my experiences in my first year of Fish Ferris and my first year of fishing in general. Fishing is a sport that is completely new to me and I am learning something new every week. This whole participation in the Fish Ferris group started at the ITS Christmas party at the Blue Cow restaurant. I was sitting at the bar when I was approached by two seasoned anglers. They started talking fishing to me and I was lost from the start of it. I was then asked by these two to join their fishing club and take over as the treasurer for this season. For one, I don’t know a thing about fishing and for two, I don’t do well with handling money.

After a few beers and lots of talking about fishing, I thought I would give it a try and see how it goes. Remind you, this is winter time and I had some time to figure out if I really wanted to fish or not. As the time got closer to the start of the fishing season, I figured I should probably get some equipment to help in the catching of fish. I talked with Mike J. about what to get and he gave me some great pointers on what to look for. Then I discovered the greatest store ever, Cabela’s. This place is huge and awesome. I could spend hours and money in this store. I found a helpful salesman and he helped me find a pole that would work and that he’s had success with. So, I left there with a pole and some bait, and nothing else surprisingly.

The first night out on the lake was fun and I got some great tips as we started. I began to figure out how to cast and be able to tell the difference between a bite and some seaweed. I threw the line out several times that night but never got a fish, but I feel it was good practice to just get out on the water and see what others were doing. The next couple fishing nights resulted in much of the same, throwing the line and and not getting any fish. I started to play around with different bait and different hooks as well as some weights and beads. I think it was the third night where I caught my first fish. It wasn’t a keeper but I got one in the boat.

That same night I caught a pike as well and got to see what one of those lovely creatures looks like. I let Mike handle that one for me. The next fishing night I got to go out on on Scott T’s boat and I picked up some good pointers from him, although I didn’t take him up on his offer to change my rigging and bait for some reason as he was just pulling in the fish left and right. I caught a couple fish that night but again they were too short to keep/count. The next week I went out with Rick and we were catching fish all over the place, but again, most of them were too short to count. However, Rick did get a few keepers and we each caught several fish and a few pikes. My confidence was growing just seeing the fish on the hook and in the boat and I knew I would get one soon that would be put me on the board.

The following week I was on John U’s boat and we were on Martiny Lakes. I had heard from others that this lake isn’t the greatest and not many fish are caught there. The weather was gray and windy. The boat was hard to control with the wind changing directions but John and I were still throwing the line out and seeing what’s out there. Finally, I got a bite and it was a nice bass that I could keep and it would put me on the board. It was 1 lb 10 oz and came in nice and easy for me. I was excited to have a fish on the boat that I could bring back and get on the board with. As we kept drifting and moving around with the wind, we kept throwing out the line. We moved into an area where other anglers were and then moved from and threw the line out a few times. I cast mine out a couple times and then I felt a bite. I set the hook and began to reel in the fish. I could tell it was bigger than the first one and was giving quite a fight. I made sure to keep the line tight and reeled it in slow. The fish came to the surface and jumped out of the water. John and I saw it and knew it was a huge fish. John started running around the boat to get the net and to keep the boat from going over my line, which wasn’t easy with the wind. I kept bringing in the fish closer to the boat and finally got a glimpse of it. This thing was huge. I got it close enough to the boat and John put the net in and got this thing in the boat. John and I were hootin’ and hollerin’ at the size of this fish. The fish came in at 19.5″ and 4 lbs 4 oz. It was a hog of a fish and it took the hook and worm deep in it’s mouth. I struggled to get the hook out and needed some assistance as this was the second fish I’ve actually caught and taken off hook and it was the biggest as well.

We got the fish off the hook and took some pictures. It felt great to get that fish and to bring it back to show everyone what I caught. I was so excited and can’t wait until the next fishing night to get back out on the water. Scott T. made the comment that Martiny Lake may stay on the list for next year that fish and I hope it does and I hope there are others out there.

It has been an exciting, fun, and educational first half of the fishing season for me and I am very excited to see how the next half of the season turns out for me and my fellow anglers.