How I Got Into Fishing

Me, fishing

A lot of people are confused with my love of fishing.

Especially those who have known me a long time. My interests seem very incongruous if I really think about them, I suppose. Music, video games, computers, technology, Mexican food, cooking, fishing, kayaking. Then again, I try to like things I like and not worry too much whether they go together or not. My favorite type of music is probably hip-hop (the Mos Def and Common variety, with Q'tip and J-Dilla thrown in) but I also love traditional Cuban music, jazz, death metal, Les Baxter, etc. Genuinely, not ironically. There's something about west African mbira music that gets me going. And I'm a huge fan of anything that is released on Berlin's Kompakt label. I listen to contemporary country music on the radio- for enjoyment.

(...But I also do lots of other weird things, like when two songs accidentally play at the same time - like two youtube videos opened simultaneously - I like to just let them both play and hear what they sound like together)

I guess the point is, I like stuff and can't always explain it. That's how fishing is.

It doesn't really make sense. Sure, I can say the idea of little meals swimming around the lake appeals to my interest in cooking. And I like understanding the whole process of making something, like cooking beans from scratch, or carving wooden fishing lures, or writing a messy bash script that does something ridiculous on my computer.

But it doesn't really explain it. I love fishing, and I love other stuff, for no particular reason.

Me and a little fish

My new buddy Sam Bennett, who you may remember from such CB Fishes posts as this one, is putting together a new site dedicated to fishing the Fox River. Turns out it's called the Fox River Fishing Network, and I highly recommend you check it out! Sam invited me to contribute some posts, and the first one went up today.

As much as I've talked about learning to fish, my trials and tribulations, I haven't really written about how it all started. I still can't figure out the why, but I can certainly relate the how and especially the who. If it weren't for Mark, Rob, and Luke - my fishing teachers, my dog Walter, and Kevin Smith who works at Cabela's, there would most likely be no CB Fishes. CB would not fish.

So if you're curious how an indoor dude like myself suddenly developed a love for the outdoors, head on over to the Fox River Fishing Network and check out my post. While you're there, check out the other posts too- there's some good stuff going on.

Lately I've been expanding my outdoors knowledge; after so many trips to the Fox River, standing there in the water with nature all around me, I've started to get curious about it all. What are those tracks in the mud there? What kinds of birds are those? How many of these plants lining the river are edible? Last week I finished Bradford Angier's How to Stay Alive in the Woods, and today I'm almost done with the book The Mindful Carnivore by Tovar Cerulli. Maybe I'll write a review about it. It's an amazing book. If you eat food, are vegetarian, or are a hunter, or either or neither of those things, I highly recommend the book.

This is a carp that lives only a few feet from
the Itasca Metra station

That's all for now... if I get around to it maybe I'll share this past Sunday's trip to the Fox. No fish caught, but I stared down some deer for a few minutes. I made some more lures, bought a swiss army knife, and now I know how to get vitamin C and protein if I'm lost in the woods (pine needles and bugs, in case you were wondering).