Photo courtesy of Deborah Martinez/Photographer/Madison, North Carolina
 

 FISHHER, an e-store with gear for women, has come out with a new line of fishing rods called “Aspire”.  I couldn’t get the word aspire out of my head after seeing it on the rod tags, so I looked it up in the dictionary just to refresh my  “senior” memory.

The word, aspire means; to draw a bead on, aim or shoot for something. How appropriate I thought! That is exactly what an angler will be doing when they pick up this rod and head to their favorite fishing spot. The name of the rod in itself is a one-word instruction course for casting and for living one’s life.

As I was sitting there looking at the “Aspire” rods in the FISHHER e-store, I begin to think about what I have aspired to be as an angler. What exactly have I been aiming for in the past 17 years I have been bass fishing? Even though I am a female angler, I don’t feel that my fishing goals have been any different than that of a male angler. There is no way that they enjoy it anymore than I do and the fish certainly don’t know which gender is at the other end of the line.

It was my boyfriend and now husband that taught me to bass fish after we met in 1987. I had always just fished for whatever was biting like I did when I was growing up. Once I got hooked on bass fishing, I couldn’t learn enough about it. We fished at every opportunity. Most of our dates were spent on the bank of a pond with him teaching me how to use artificial lures and tie knots. It was a new experience for me, but I loved it.

I have aspired to be a tournament bass angler since the early 90’s when I saw an advertisement on TV about a tour for women bass anglers. At the time, it was Bass N Gal.  I couldn’t wait to fish my very first tournament on Lake Seminole in Bainbridge, Georgia. I found out quickly that I was not the only aspiring female angler! Several women’s trails have come and gone since that time and I fished as many as time and money would allow.  I have even fished several tournaments on other trails that were predominately male anglers. At each tournament I aspired to improve my skills and knowledge of the sport and become a better angler by learning from the more experienced anglers I was paired with.

 All tournament anglers aspire to win a tournament. That is the whole point of tournament fishing, to cash a check and out-fish the rest of the field, but my love of fishing goes deeper than that. I was born with the ‘fishing gene” and grew up in a small Northeast Texas town called (appropriately) Hooks, Texas. My mother was my fishing mentor as a child.  Now that I think about it, the only times I ever saw her truly happy was when she was  fishing.                                                                                                                      

Mama took my siblings and I on many early morning outings, just so she could fish. It wasn’t easy for her  loading 3 small children into a station wagon before sunrise just to enjoy 2 or 3 hours of fishing while trying to keep us from falling in the water; not to mention all the times we got “hung up” and she had to lay her rod down to fix ours. She aspired to be a good mother as best she knew how.

I have great memories of those days, especially the trips to my Papa’s house in Arkansas. He had a pond that my mom had fished in as a child, so that was always one of the first things we did when we went to visit. He had the cane poles and bait ready for us. My youngest sister Denese and I visited our Papa’s old home place a couple of years ago. The new owners were very kind and understanding as we made our way down the old path to Papa’s pond one last time. For some reason, it didn’t look as large as it did when we were children.
                             
                                                                 Photo courtesy of Denese Freeman
                              The path to Papa's pond in Waldron, Arkansas
                                                        

                           
                                                              Photo courtesy of Denese Freeman
                                             Papa's pond                                 

I drifted away from fishing as I became a teenager. I had other aspiring goals to pursue. I wanted to get my feet wet in the “waters of life” and fishing became something I once did as a child. As opportunities presented themselves along the way, I started to re-kindle my “fishing gene” in my twenties while moving about the country. I got the taste of saltwater pier fishing in San Diego and San Francisco, California and fell in love with trout fishing in the mountains of Colorado. I learned to surf fish on the North Carolina coast. I finally settled in North Carolina.

When my daughter was born, I couldn’t wait until she was old enough to “go fishing”. I wanted her to enjoy the same fishing experiences I had as a child. She however, had other aspirations! Much to my horror and dismay, my daughter was not born with the “fishing gene”. I have tried everything over the years to change her mind, including bribery. We have finally been able to come to a compromise. She aspired to be a photographer! Now, she takes pictures for me at tournaments and other fishing events so I will have a record of my life as an aspiring angler!  I only wish I had photos of the family outings my mom enjoyed so much. My sisters and I searched through all the old family photos and did not find one picture of my mom holding up a fish. What I wouldn’t give now for just one snapshot!                                                                                              

 My mother tried to understand tournament fishing once she saw how much I enjoyed competing. She never felt comfortable with the fact that I had my own boat and wasn’t afraid to fish all day by myself.  Ironically, my mother could swim, but was deathly afraid of water. I never learned to swim but I have a healthy respect for water and always wear my life vest. My sisters and I wanted to take her fishing one last time while she was still able to sit up and hold a rod. She never did let us. I guess her memories were enough. I aspire to fish forever but know there will come a time when I will have to pass the rods and reels and tackle down to another aspiring angler who will keep my dreams alive in my absence.                                                                                                                           


I have now turned my attention to my grandson. He seems to have the “fishing gene” but he is only 3. I try to be patient with him just as my mom was with me. He loves winding the line in… and in… and in. He is also crazy about my boat, so maybe that is a good sign!
                                                        
                                                 My grandson Roberto, aspiring to fish like Grandma!

In the meantime, I will continue to enter tournaments and work on my fishing skills. I love traveling to new lakes and re-visiting old ones. I enjoy watching my reflection on the water’s surface while drifting down a bank waiting for that tug on the end of my line that allows me for one brief moment to forget all my troubles while I tangle one on one with a largemouth bass who thinks he is smarter than me. Sometimes I see my mother smiling back at me from the glassy surface below as if to say thank you for keeping her “fishing gene” alive and then I look up and tell her;  “Thank you Mama for taking me fishing when I was a little girl”.                                                              

So many fish, so little time, isn’t that how the saying goes? Guess I better add one of those Aspire fishing rods to my collection. A tournament angler can never have too many rods. Aspire; I just love that word for some reason! Whatever you aspire to be, do it with passion.