Alright, let's start
with, tell me some of your earliest
fishing memories. Like, do you
remember being a little kid, like
the first few times?
Oh yeah, uh,
I know, I remember a lot out on the
ice when it was frozen because
when we're ice fishing, we just kind
of play around and wait for a tip up
to go off.
When we're ice fishing it's kind of
like, I just remember sledding
around or we'll wet the
ice a bit so it's super slippery and
we'll take our feet and we will just
go flying.
And I remember,
um, oh yeah, I'll set booby traps
on the eyes so like used until
I fell in once.
On my own booby trap, but people get
so mad at me, and I'd just sit there
and laugh.
Or when we drill holes, we have
to take ice skimmers and skim them
out. And I'd follow
my uncle around, and after he'd
skim him, I'd take my skimmer and
fill all his holes.
So you were quite the little
prankster yeah but
that's maybe that was part of the
fun I'm sure oh yeah too mad at you
yeah well so your dad was
telling us a story about how you
caught the northern oh yeah
right mm-hmm so how old
were you
I don't know uh
it's probably about two years ago so
probably 12 um
11 or 12 and yeah that was my first
time I ever drilled all
the holes set the depth put
everything together on my own and
then did it in a tournament and then
I won it so we decided we
had to mount that one.
So what do you enjoy about fishing
other than setting booby traps?
I really just like hanging out with
everybody and then
especially when it comes to ice
fishing it's just a rush to get
there and there's so much excitement
and adrenaline over
something that some people would
consider so simple but it's
really fun.
So when you are, when you
see the tip of the flag go
up, what's the reaction?
What's that like?
Finally, oh my gosh, we gotta go.
Let's go, let's go.
Come on, everybody run, and
everybody sprint.
And then people will try and
catch up to the UTV because
dads will ride in the UTVs
and drive over there and we'll try
and race them, which we lose every
time, but, let me try.
And so what's your process
for knowing when to pull the
line, when to set the hook, what are
you looking for?
Well, for tip-ups,
and summer fishing is kind of
different, for tip- ups, like all
the lines going out, so
I'll watch the thing and
see if it's spinning on top,
and then once it stops spinning a
bit, then I'll pull it up, or
if it stopping and starting, I'll
put on one of the stops, and
I just start pulling it up.
Set the hook and keep pulling it.
And so when you feel that
something's on there, what's that
like?
It's like, okay, I'm
doing this. Okay, don't lose it.
Keep going. You got it, you got it.
And then when I get it up there, my
dad will reach out and grab it from
the hole. It's just like, oh, we
did it. It's there.
It's right here.
It never gets old.
So, we were out in the boat today
and you caught some small fish,
but you caught a couple bass later
on. Yeah.
So you talked about pike being one
of your favorite ones.
I'm assuming you caught musk and
walleye before, right?
Yes.
Is there something different about a
wildlife? Is there?
Yeah, it's a way they kind of fight
when you're pulling them up,
while they don't really fight.
They just kind of let you pull them
up. They're like, okay, we're
coming.
Whereas northern or bass, they'll
try and fight you a ton.
I honestly kind of like winter
fishing more than summer fishing
because we can just play around
until a tip-up goes off, where
summertime you're casting all the
time, which depends on kind of the
mood I'm in, whether I like to cast
or not. Where I also like northern
fishing because we can just kind of
let the suckers just sit in the
water. And then all of a sudden we
can call it productive because we're
technically fishing while we're just
reading or hanging out.
And all of the sudden, boom, we get
to fight a fish.
I mean, do you have other
bad days in the boat?
A good day fishing is,
or no, a bad day fishing is
better than a good day
doing nothing here.
So do you ever say to your
dad, hey, let's go fish?
And he's like, no, not today.
I'm not interested.
I don't think there's any time he
would say, no fishing.
Unless we're about to go somewhere.
Otherwise he's like, huh, let's go
throw a few lines out on the pier.
Yeah.
I mean, that's one of the beauties
of being living on the wall.
Oh, of course.
Yeah. Can you imagine if you
didn't live here and you had to
like.
What we did,
well, we remodeled this place a bit.
I'd say, oh, it was a while ago
now, about four years
ago.
So when we were building it, we
weren't on the lake when we are
renting a house.
So I never realized until then
how much I really loved the water.
Like I knew I really enjoyed it, but
like when you're away from it that
long, it's like, oh my gosh,
how do people live away from this
thing? This is amazing.
It definitely made me a lot more
grateful to be spending all this
time on the Lake.
So of all the activities that
we've been able just to watch you do
today, you've got your slide, you
got your dog, you have your pads,
in fishing, where do those ring?
Oh, I don't know if
I can rank those.
They're all just really fun.
Swimming, it's a great kind of
communal activity.
Like we'll gather all the neighbors
and we'll all swim together.
Or people will come over when
they're bored and they'll be like,
hey, can I come swim?
It's super hot, I'm bored, I dunno
what to do. Of course, come on over
and we've got all these different
games you can play.
So swimming, I think, is definitely
my number one up there.
Then I'd say tubing.
Playing with the dog in the water is
the best part of swimming, though.
She just absolutely loves it.
She goes crazy, and she'll jump in,
try and save us when we don't need
saving, just swim with us.
Or we can go under the raft, too,
with goggles, and we can
see schools of fish, and they'll
come right up to you.
That's really cool.
So we met you doing some
of the wall eyes for tomorrow thing.
What was that like for you?
What was fun about being able to do
that?
That was the funnest thing ever.
I look forward to it every spring.
I like just kind of seeing a
difference being made and that
I'm helping create
baby walleyes and
running back and forth.
I feel like I've got a purpose
there. I've a job to do, I've
something to do.
And then we'll come back and we'll
check on the fry and we
get to see the little babies grow.
And it's just really cool to see
how they're
made and watch them grow up.
Something pretty interesting.
And then, I mean, just the feel of
the weight of it in the neck, right?
Yeah.
Um, and be able
to like figure out how,
oh yeah, I'm distincting
female walleye from male walleye.
This one's bigger. This one has more
colors. Boom.
It's a female.
And then you run them over.
It's like, I don't know, it kind of
feels like you're a
secret agent bringing
prize possessions there
and guarding the walleye,
it's really fun though.
Do you ever notice that, like,
you're one of the only kids there?
Oh, yeah. Like the old guys?
All the-
all the time.
It's pretty funny to
always have the old guys there
because it's all guys
too and so I
am a girl that's
a kid so it's just me and Raina
there and occasionally there's
another kid there but he's
a guy so the older guys don't bother
him as much but I fight
back with them Cause they'll make
comments and dig at me for fun
and...
But it's a fun environment, right?
It's a really fun environment.
Especially, alright, old fishermen,
there's no way you can put this
other than they are great
storytellers and really funny and
very charismatic and
because they know how to feel
silence. They've been in a boat
before for hours on end with people
so it's definitely fun to hang
out with them.
Either way. Do you enjoy fishing
with your sister or is it just she
gets to come along too?
Um, depends on the day.
Most of the time I enjoy it though.
I mean, it's a way to spend time
together, right?
It's something that we both, like
she's got her sport of soccer, I've
got my sport of diving, but we both
fish with dad.
Something where we can kind of come
together on.
Yeah, and it's probably one of the
places where you can be together and
still ignore her if you need to,
right?
That too.
She won't get too mad if I just pull
a book out and read,
especially because we've been out
there for hours on end or
when we're out on the ice.
I can just go to a different part.
It's nice where we
can be together and there's
like, it's just kind of perfect
out there.
There's no stress of
home, well not home,
stress of what like schoolwork is at
home and
Chores.
But out on the boat, there's no
chores. There's no schoolwork,
because I'm not bringing that out
there.
That's like, stress-free.
So then we can just kind of hang out
and it's...
So what's it mean for you to have
your fish up on the wall, along
with your grandpa's and your dad's?
That was a big thing, like I was
fishing for years and years and
years and like, Dad, when am I going
to get my mount or when am I gonna
finally get my mouter?
And he's like, it's got to be either
really big or there's got to a
really big significance to it.
And when I finally caught that fish
and he's like, hey, if
you win this thing, you can mount
it. And so the entire time I was
just like, nobody catch another
fish. Please nobody catch another
fish because it's kind of like
You're going, enjoying the wall of
legacies and stories and stuff, and
finally, I am a good enough
fisherman that I get my fish on the
wall.
Did you get to pick out the piece of
driftwood or did that just come from
a taxidermist?
Um, I think we found that piece or
something.
Anything else you want to add?
Mmm, not really, no.
Okay, can I get you to say and spell
your name for me?
To say that correctly.
Yes, Sage Haldeman,
S-A-G-E-H-A
L-D-E M-A
N-N.
And you are 14.
Yes. For now.
Pfft. Alright, great, thank you.