Taken Bythe River
Surrounding themarina was a forest on 3 sides filled with wildlife and a river to the front. Iwas constantly playing in the forest with my two older brothers and wasconsidered to be a river rat by most people I knew. My feet were always wetfrom playing in the water but this allowed me to get in touch with my passion.
From an early age(~6) I discovered that I loved fish. I was fishing all the time, during summerthere wasnt a time when I wasnt trying to catch a fish. I was gifted at it. Ifigured out ways to catch fish with my bare hands, and little butterfly nets,that people often thought were impossible but Ive probably caught more poundsof fish with a net then on a hook and line. Some of my best memories is when Iwould just sit beside a fisherman with a rod with my net and catch more fishthen him/her. The look on their face was always priceless and the follow upquestion of can you teach me never got old. The key was to approach the fishreally slowly with the net, create no surface agitation with the net or else itwill spook, then as the fish is just inside the net lift straight up. I now usethis strategy when removing fish from aquariums. Using nets has allowed me tocatch and discover more fish than most. You experience a completely differentset of species when you incorporate net fishing. This is how I discoveredshiners, dace, rudds, suckers, gobys, and hundreds of more. My biggest catchby net was a few 40+ pound carp.
Then around theage of 8 I purchased my first minnow trap and dip net. I placed the minnow trapin the cats tails by the river. I went out every morning and evening to checkit. Then one day a juvenile largemouth bass was in the trap, I immediatelywanted to keep it so I placed it in a bucket and brought it home. I had noknowledge of keeping fish at this point but I had a 10 gallon aquarium thatcame with my leopard gecko. I put the largemouth in there with an air pump andunder gravel filter. Then the next day I checked the trap and there were threemore juvenile largemouths. Again without knowledge I threw these 1.5 fishinto the aquarium. By the end of the week the aquarium had 11 largemouth bassin it. Yet I was still not done stocking. The next morning I checked the trapand fish keeping changed for me forever. In the trap was a juvenile northernpike, this was my favorite fish at this moment in my life, I had dreams ofthem. I didnt bring a bucket with me this day so I ran home with the fish inmy hands and immediately tossed it in the 10 gallon. I kept these fish allsummer in the 10 gallon, there was a pond down the road filled with fatheadminnows. When I say filled there was probably 100 minnows per cubic foot ofwater, this was a big pond probably half a million gallons. So using this pondI fed my fish, they ate around 65 fathead minnows a day, but I loved feedingtime. Watching the bass round up the minnows in seconds was amazing to see. Thefish grew fast.
Eventually Istarted researching fish and their requirements and realised my aquarium wasway too small for the fish. So I started looking for bigger. I found a 20gallon at Value Village for 10$ and started there. Then one of the boaters sawthe aquarium and donated a 75 gallon to me. Now my hobby was just being fueledand I always wanted bigger. When I was 12 I sold the 75 and bought a 90 gallon.I had this aquarium planted with juvenile largemouths. One day a friend of mydads saw the aquarium and loved it, he just so happened to know a guy who wasmoving houses and had a rainbow trout pond where the fish would swim up intoaquariums to spawn. Since he was moving he was looking to give away 6, 12ft by4ft x 3ft tall aquariums. My jaw dropped when I heard I could get one. Thefriend and I went to the place to pick 2 up but when we got there the tankswere smashed. I was so sad when I saw 1 inch thick pieces of massive aquariumsshattered. They couldnt wait 1 day!!!! Oh well life goes on.
As I aged myinterest in the river did as well. I became fascinated with the littleecosystems within. I started to incorporate more woods, plants, and rocks intomy aquariums to resemble this river. I began collecting my own stuff, I had acollection of driftwood that I pulled out just lying in the shop (all my tankswere in one of the mechanic shops at the marina, it quickly became Matts shop J). I was always taking stuff fromother lakes as well. Everything changes from lake to lake, Simcoe began to lookcompletely different then Georgian Bay. I spent every second of my child hoodby the water, walking up and down the docks noticing something new every day.At the marina itself I knew all the locations where bass spawned, I knew thetime of year when they spawned, and I knew that if the bass and the fry are allcaught and transported to say a pond, the parents will continue guarding themin the new location. I discovered this when stalking the pond by my house. Thiscould have been illegal, never looked into it and I wouldnt second guess mydecision for a minute.
Being by the riverhas definitely changed my life and the way I look at nature. I dont know toomany people who can name almost every fish they look down on from above thatswims in the water. Its a skill that took me years to master and countless hoursto perfect. The amount of hours spent by the water is too much for me to thinkof, Im a born River Rat but I love every second of it.
