Fishing Experience?

[MuskieBait]

I started fishing when I was 10 year old (that's going to be 20 years soon).

It took one trip to Lake Simcoe and one visit to a fly tying demonstration at CNE to get me completely hooked.

Initially, I wanted to catch all the usual targets...bass, panfish, perch and pike. Then I wanted to get into the big game which was salmon, steelhead and brown trout. Then I kinda went the other way and wanted to learn to icefish for bluegills and crappie and fly fish for small stream brook trout.

In 2003, I met a co-work at my lab and he introduced me to a whole new world of fishing...this thing called a Life List. This is a life mission to catch as many species as possible during the angler's life. From there on, he introduced me to a lot of the less utilized species such as white bass, freshwater drum, redhorse suckers and minnow species.

In 2007, I graduated from university and planned a 2 months trip to visit my family in Hawaii, plus visit my friend mentioned about who moved to British Columbia for work. This started another big chapter in my life. It was a great adventure where I caught over 30 species plus my biggest fish in life, a 120lb yellowfin tuna!

Ever since, I have brought rods and reels with me whenever I get a chance to travel, either for work on conferences or to visit family in Hawaii, California or Florida. I would never travel without any rods today. In fact, I usually bring at least 4-5 combos with me, ranging from a medium-light spinning rod all the way to 12' heavy surf rods and light tuna rods.

There are so many species yet to be caught and so many destinations world wide to visit. There is an endless amount of fishing information and fishing techniques to learn, plus all the fish and their behaviour and habitat to understand. That is why I love fishing so much...you will always have something new to learn and try.