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Schrader’s ‘why’ is enjoying nature, learning

Intuition driven by the experience Bill Schrader of Canfield gained across the Great Lakes region prompted him to flip the switch last June to win the Muransky Companies Bass Classic, hosted by Aqua Ohio at Pine and Evans lakes. Schrader and teammate Eric Sevenich blew up the scales with more than 22 pounds of largemouths to win the Pine Lake half of the 2023 tournament benefiting the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. Fishing aboard Schrader’s vintage Ranger boat, the winners made a mid-day move that proved pivotal in their pursuit of the victory. The defending ...

A blessing in disguise leads Doyle to fishing

A defining moment in Rich Doyle’s fishing life came in 1962 when the Little League baseball team manager posted a roster that did not include his name. To cushion the disappointment, young Doyle’s dad took him to a local hardware store and bought him a fishing rod and reel. The father and son then went to Pine Lake south of North Lima, and the rest is history. The stinging cut and the subsequent fishing trip certainly contributed to the “Why?” that lit the fire for fishing that burns in Doyle’s soul. “I was an OK ball player, but I was the last guy cut,” he said, ...

Frosty winter serves as a break from the waters

As passionate as I am about fishing, I do draw the line at enduring bone-chilling cold to satisfy my yearning to get on the lakes. Perhaps it is age (or let’s call it “experience”) that has changed my attitude about sub-freezing weather, or perhaps I’ve just become a wimp. Whatever, it is a fact that once the frosty days outnumber the balmy, I tuck the Bass Cat away for the winter. Cold weather is not the only hiatus in my fishing schedule. I’ve suffered months-long stints away from the boat several times because of various encounters with surgeons’ scalpels. Those were ...

Anglers best be well-stocked of supplies

The two activities that keep me busy when I’m not writing columns or enjoying good times with Barb are remarkably similar in their appetite for my discretionary spending. The activities are fishing and golf. While I do catch a bunch of bass and hole out a few pars and the occasional birdie, I am not especially talented at either fishing or golf, especially when I compare what I spend to the results that I achieve. In business, one measure of performance is ROI — return on investment. CEOs can be fired when ROI disappoints stockholders or receive big bonuses when the return ...

Breedlove discusses passion for steelhead

I know a lot of anglers, many of whom would rather fish than eat, sleep or whatever, and rarely go more than a week or two between fishing trips. John Breedlove, however, is in a class by himself. Fishing to Breedlove is one of life’s necessities. It helps sustain him. It’s like the air in his lungs and the food in his belly. He is perhaps the gold standard for the man who lives to fish. And when it comes to fishing, he immerses himself in the phenomenal steelhead trout of Lake Erie. Breedlove is knowledgeable and skilled at catching a variety of fish species close to home ...

DePaola discusses preference for muskie

For Chris DePaola, a high degree of difficulty has a direct correlation to his fishing enjoyment. It’s not that DePaola doesn’t enjoy the times when the fishing is easy and the catching is remarkable. But he is pulled irresistibly to the waters where he can deploy his instincts and talents to generate reactions from creatures at the pinnacle of their food chain. DePaola was raised as a walleye angler. He gets a kick out of probing Ohio’s Lake Erie tributaries for steelhead and hunting northeast Ohio’s whitetail deer. But he is a muskie man first and foremost. Why muskie? ...