But let's not get ahead of ourselves. First I've got some questions, like are there any etiquette things I should know?
"Somebody gets a fish on they'll yell ‘Fish on!' Take your line out of the water, keep it out of the water until the fish is noticeably out of your path, same thing if you get a fish," said Warren Gregg, a longtime Ship Creek fisherman. "And that's about it. Everyone here is pretty nice, pretty helpful. Just watch where you're casting."
Plenty of anglers make that "Fish on!" call during this trip to Ship Creek. The kings, they were a biting, even the youngest pole-toting enthusiasts were having success.
Still not sure what I should do I continued to ask around for advice, some with tips on what to use -- eggs seemed to be the popular choice -- some more concerned with where along the creek to stand.
But the simplest advice seemed to make the most sense to me:
"Put your line in the water," one angler said. "You can't catch a fish if you don't get in the water there."
However keeping my line in the water was a bit of an issue. After making three casts I totally, unbelievably tangled up the line, so I switched poles.
New pole in hand I made another go but on the first cast -- yeah, a little bit stuck. Clearly I needed more instruction which is where multi-talented photographer Mike Nederbrock steps in.
"So what you do is flip the bail, pinch the line, throw it back," Mike said.
Oh! Like a light bulb went off, I start to get the hang of it. Maybe. Just a little.
"I think he's doing a great job," Channel 2 intern Dacia Idom said. "Looks like he's got the hang of it now, at first started off a little shaky but good job."
So my attempts at casting continued to get better but the results, they stayed the same.
That had me thinking about this fishing quote from comedian Steven Wright: "There's a fine line between fishing and just standing on the shore like an idiot."
Sadly, I think I know which side of that line I spent the day on.
Contact Charlie Sokaitis at csokaitis@ktuu.com
