Your Biggest Fishing Influence????

So… Sitting in front of the fire here in Borderland looking over Rainy Lake I’m sipping a little more Baileys and a little less coffee as the weather cools. I can’t help but ponder what gets anglers to the point that they live,breathe, talk and write about fishing. For many it was a father that took them out on the water when they were young, or maybe their grandfather. I was fortunate enough to have a grandfather whom loved fishing as much as I do now. It didn’t really matter what we caught as long as we were on the water. We spent many of days on river banks in Ohio when I could visit catching bullheads, carp, Gils… He and my grandma would come to Northern Minnesota each summer for an Up North trip in which we would fish walleyes. We weren’t exceptional walleye fisherman by any means, and many of days we’d have a basket full of rock bass, perch, northerns and then an occassional dumb walleye. We didn’t know it wasn’t cool to keep rockies?? I learned that later!! It wasn’t until I was about 11 that I became completey addicted to walleye fishing. I suppose the Lindner boys threw me over the edge as I still can picture myelf glued to the TV watching all there highly technical approaches to landing walleyes. As I grew up in Southern Minnesota my mom would take me down to the good old Lake City Pier in which in all honesty I probably cut my teeth on jig fishing for walleyes. A couple unnamed older gentleman took me under jig slinging wings as many of many days my mom would take the time to bring me all the way down to Lake City and let me fish. Back in those days we weren’t worried about abductions and crap like that. Although I do remember being very uncool fishing with my lifejacket on!! I could remember watching these guys work handmade jigs and bucktails in amazement as they didn’t even have bait!!! I can remember telling my dad that these guys don’t even use bait. “Wow they must be wizards or something!!” It was those two unsung heroes without sponsorship or flashy boats that I credit for teaching me the fine art of walleye fishing with jigs. I remember explaining to my mom that my line was too heavy and my pole wasn’t what I needed “I needed to UPGRADE!! I was fortunate enough to be able to upgrade my $15.00 set up for a $35.00 fine Walleye slaying machine through a self pioneered used golf ball business. We would sit shoulder to shoulder down in the rocks working our jigs. Wasn’t much small talk as there was really only one thing we were there for, and that was being ready for walleyes to come through!! I was plenty excited when they would hook a fish, and usually hustled over to try help them with the net or at least string it up, and they graciously let me even though surely they didn’t really need any help. As the summers went on I started catching a few of the dumb ones out of the school, and started earning my keep as the “Kid” I was part of the TEAM!! I was coached and watched very intently as they were masters at finessing a jig through hazards. Each spring I would return towards the middle of April and each year we were reunited. As I became a bit older the “Kid” was able to drive new ride down there, and had gained a ton of confidence in my jigging game. The older gentleman would now SOMETIMES see what I was using or fish over in my hole I had found. Together we would Lay the Wood to the walleyes with bucktails, big twisters, fuzzy grubs… I too didn’t need any bait anymore. LOL!! They were no doubt MY biggest influence in walleye fishing. Today as I ponder being a full time Licensed Captain here on one of the greatest Walleye fisheries in the world I can’t help but think back on how the simple joys of fishing have got me here. I also know that those two gentleman aren’t fishing anymore, but wonder if they knew the influence they had on my career!! KUDOS to the old guys with no bait!! You were the best fisherman nobody used to know!!