Well, I guess let's start back at
your beginning.
So when you were a kid, did you go
up around here or where'd you grow
up?
Okay, I grew up in Hancock,
Wisconsin, and my
parents had a dairy farm, and
we had a gravel pit right across the
street, and that's where we spent
our summers, was in the gravel pit.
And swimming and fishing in the
gravel pit was our thing there.
Okay, so you fished from a
young age. I did.
I did, yeah.
Was that just, that was all you guys
could do for fun and it was always
available?
I did that and then my
dad would, after he got
the cow's milk that night, he
would sometimes take me down
to Hancock to one of the
lakes. He borrowed one of guy's
boats down there and we'd go down
and pan fish a little bit.
He fished any time he
could.
He did ice fishing almost all
the time because that's the time of
the year that farmers have that they
can actually go do something besides
work. But so he
spent his time ice fishing,
and so we kind of grew up with
people fishing and stuff.
But I'm probably the only one in the
family that really took to it
a lot, more so.
My one sister just now started
fishing because of me.
But otherwise, yeah, we just
did fishing a lot
of times in the farm.
What was it about fishing that, you
know, gotcha, or it still gets you,
I guess.
I think it's just to go
out there and see if you're gonna
catch something.
It's the unknown, you never know
what you're going to catch or how
big it's going to be or are
you going to be there all day and
nothing or all day and catch a ton
of them or I think it's the just the
unknown of what you are out there
for.
Did you get into walleye before you
met your husband or was that around
the same time?
Once I got married, he'd
walleye fished, and so I started
walleye fishing then.
I had never walleye-fished and
stuff. I basically just shore-fished
from the gravel pit and stuff before
that, and then when we got married
we got our first little boat.
It was like a little bitty
$400 little flat boat
and then worked our way up until
at the end, after the last
boat we had bought was a Lund, and
then we went, we would go to
Canada.
Quite often and then after
at one point we started going up
to upper Minnesota
instead of going into Canada and
found that the fishing was just as
good in Minnesota.
So we basically we fished there for
11 years in a row.
All of our vacations were always
fishing.
With the kids we would rent cabins
and fish or you know that
kind of thing but any kind of
vacation we took it was pretty much
always related to fishing.
That had to be one of the things
that helped get you guys together.
You found out you had something that
had in common. Right.
Yeah, right. Yeah, that and bowl
hunting.
He got I had been bowl hunting by
myself and then he was a hunter and
his family was real sports
fishing and hunting.
And so I just kind of fit right in
with all of them to.
Well, I'm sure from that point of
view, you were the perfect woman.
Well, I don't know, maybe sometimes
you wish I'd stayed home.
I don't know.
But that had to be something special
that you guys could ship.
It was, yeah.
We would always, I mean, basically,
we would go fishing, you know, all
of the time and then hunting
together, so we fished and hunted.
I'm sure there were probably other
couples that you knew or other women
or other men are probably like,
well, I wish my wife would fish.
I could go fishing more.
I actually, my brother-in-law said
that all the time.
He's like, I wish Emma would do
that, would fish like that and
stuff, I'd have somebody to go with
and stuff.
I just told him, be careful what you
wish for.
So how did you guys treat fishing
when you were in it?
Was it a little competition?
Was it friendly?
Was it front of the boat, back of
the bow?
I was always in the back,
he was always in the front,
unfortunately he always had to run
the trolling motor and he had to
deal with the wind so that I always
caught the first fish.
No, it was pretty much that way.
It's harder when you're in the front
of the boat and you have to deal
with all of the other elements that
are out there than just sitting in
the back and throwing your line in
and stuff.
But we would always try to see who
would catch the first one, who would
catch the biggest one, but that
kind of type of thing.
And we did a lot
of catch and release.
So I'm sure you ate some, but
a lot of it was just the enjoyment
of being out there.
Correct, yeah, just being something
to do, something outside,
just nature, you just can't
beat it.
So, I mean, for some people, like,
well, fission's what you do when
it's nice out.
We're, we're, what kind of, was
there any restrictions? Was there any restrictions?
If you're gonna fish with, if
you're in a walleye fish,
it's going to be the worst weather
you can fish in is the best walleye
bite.
The wind's gotta be blowing, the
rain's gotta go on.
Otherwise, yeah,
I think, can I get that?
I'm like, I can hear that phone.
Oh!
I'll grab that.
Okay, yeah.
I was like,
even worse is I can hear it in my
ears.
It's like, my hearing aids,
it's like whoa, this is really
distracting.
You might want to cut that part.
Okay so so repeat
run that by me again like so
oh wait just let me just
shut this completely
off.
Otherwise it's going to ring again.
Come on, let's shut off here.
There we go.
There, now it won't do that.
And if I could just have you scoot a
tiny bit to your right, perfect.
Okay, so that
probably doesn't make sense for some
people. Maybe that's why people
don't catch as many walleye as they
should, because they think of
fishing as a nice weather activity.
Right, yeah, the walleye fishing, I
always say, my husband always said
it is the crappier the weather,
the better off the fishing will be,
and it seems to run that way.
They don't like a bright sunny day.
Walleyes, I don't know if their eyes
are more sensitive to the light or
what it is, but they like a
chop on top of the water.
They like rain.
They like wind.
That is when you're walleye-fishing.
That's when you'll catch more fish.
That's got to be why some people
Even bother trying, right?
Could be, could be, yeah.
You go out and you try.
You always, if you want to go out on
a nice sunny day and you're
going to walleye fish, you're not
probably going to be as successful.
So what is it about walleye that
made it worth it for you?
Versus pan fish or something else.
That was just my husband's thing.
He just walleye fished, and so
we basically just wallay fished all
the time. We very seldom ever pan
fished and that kind of thing and
he would get annoyed with me when
I'd say, well can't we like just go
throw a bobber in for a while or
something, you know?
But so it just that was his his
thing was walleye.
So when you had kids, did they grow
up in this too?
Yeah.
Yeah, as soon as they were old
enough to be in the boat they were
in the boat with us and then we did
start doing pan fishing more when so
the kids were in there because you
had to give them something to
entertain or when the
kids are real little just make sure
you had a bucket of minnows and they
just play in the middle bucket while
you're fishing and that kind of
thing so but yeah they
they grew up fishing.
My daughter she still likes fishing
a lot. My son he's got his own boat
and he fishes and so
they're still into fishing probably
not.
They're still working so they they
don't have the advantage I do of not
working that the time and
stuff with kids and growing up but
they still fish.
And so when did your husband pass
away? He passed away it'll
be 10 years in August.
Was that sudden, or?
Yeah, we were actually on
a fishing trip up in Minnesota.
Our annual vacation that we would
take, and we always take like 10
to 14 days and go up
there and rent a cabin.
And we were up there, and we were
only there a few days.
And he said, you know, I just don't
feel good. He said, I think I want
to go home. And I'm like, well, if
he wants to go home, that's not
good. So we came home,
and then he waited a week or so and
then went in and found out
he had cancer.
And that was the
end.
Early May-June, and then
he passed away the first part of
August, so it was fast,
yeah. Which is good for him,
I mean, you don't want to see
anybody suffer with that if they
don't have to, but it
was just hard to believe it happened
that fast.
I mean, obviously that's
a very quick, devastating loss.
And once he was gone, I
was just lost.
I was still working, so I had my
job.
But I figured I'm never going to be
able to fish again, you know, so, I
sold everything.
I had a sail, and I sold
all the baits, and we sold the
boat, we sold all of the
two years or so later
when everything settled down more
and like I really want to be fishing
again. And so I started going out
and buying that stuff again.
And I actually bought a little
pop-up shack on Marketplace
for like $50 and I bought an
auger and I went out and I kind
of drilled, I did my own thing with
it for a while and then I thought I
really wanna get something to haul
my stuff onto the ice.
And that I posted on
ice fishing junkies asking about
snow dogs.
And the snow dogs were just coming
out at that time.
And I thought, well, maybe I could
get one of them because I can't back
a trailer up.
I suck at that.
So I just would maybe put
it on the back of a carrier.
And so I put that out
there and I got a response.
I got lot of negatives because they
would just come out.
And then that's when
Ricky from Wisconsin Women Fish
contacted me.
And she said, did you ever hear of
our women's fishing club?
And I'm like, no, I have never heard
of it and stuff.
And so I wound up finding out about
the club through that one post on
social media.
And I've been with the club ever
since.
What was that like the first time
you you showed up and it was like
your first day at school or you
don't know? Yeah, it was
Yeah, it was.
And we tell all the new
members, don't be afraid.
It's hard. You drive, you drive
to the event that you signed up for.
The first one I signed up for was
the winter beginner
101.
And I drove up there and
it's like you almost turn around and
go away because you don't know
anybody.
And within like five minutes of
being there, it's just like you've
been there forever and stuff.
So it's scary at first because
you don't know anybody.
Everybody is so welcoming when you
get there that it just you don't
even realize you're in that
environment once you get into it
I mean, it's got to be a different
feeling just to feel
welcome in a group again, right?
It is and they're so
helpful.
Wisconsin Women Fish aren't a
competitive group.
They basically share all of their
knowledge. They basically help
each other.
If you ride together for
events sometimes, you borrow
equipment.
They have a lot of loaner equipment
that people can use through the club
to get started so you don't
invest in stuff that you might not
want to do afterwards.
So it's just really...
It's just an educational thing
and a friendship, and the
friendships go so far beyond the
fishing part after a point.
I have ladies that I meet up and
do this or do that with now that,
you know, not necessarily always
fishing either.
Could you, what's more
important to you in that sense if
you can balance like being able to
fish again or having that group of
friends?
Oh, I wouldn't even be able to
weigh that. I think it's just the
combination of the two,
having the avenue and
the ability to go do the
things. Like I said, I don't have a
boat, so boat fishing,
when we have events and I can get in
other ladies' boats and go
out on the water and stuff, that's
so great.
But when I get a
message from one of them or
a phone call from one them,
just checking up or just seeing
what's going on, You know.
That is as important as being
in that boat fishing, but the
combination of the two are like,
like that's a bonus.
It may be hard to think of what
would your life be like if you
hadn't found that group.
I have no idea.
I always tell my son, he always
says, yeah, that's all she does is
fish all the time.
Now she's never home and stuff.
And I said, well, I said I could be
fishing or I could sitting in the
window, looking out the window like
all old people do.
But I just, I have not
idea what I would be doing with my
time.
I do, my backup for fishing
is quilting.
And so I do do quilting, but it's
gotta be the worst weather ever that
I'm sitting at the sewing machine.
Otherwise I'm outside doing
something.
Yeah, my sons and daughter both,
they said they're so glad I found
the club because they work and
they've got their families and their
lives and if I,
you know, I don't know what I would
be doing if I wasn't doing this.
I mean, do you think your husband
would be happy to know that you
found this? Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely. I'm sure he's
a lot of time.
I actually, most of the time when
I'm on the water, I think of him.
And I sometimes think that,
you know, I'll say, hey, come on,
you don't get out there and chase
one of them fish my way or do
this or that, you know come on mate,
let's get going up there, you got
your job too.
So I do talk to him when I'm
out there a lot of times in my head
and I think that
he's with me when I am out there and
I that's maybe part of why I like
it so much is the fact that I
still feel close to him even after
10 years that he is still with me.
Broadening out how important is
relationships with fishing because
in this story we've found a lot
of guys who it's like their singular
thing they've kind of given up
families they've lost wives
and friends because they are
so focused on it but then there's
other stories of people who
have broadened their lives by the
people that surround them in
fishing.
Well, I think that if you're
a married couple
and if one
of the, and I'm not going to say man
or woman because it can go either
way, if one the spouses is
just always away from the marriage
doing their own thing,
to me that would make it
a hard marriage, you know,
it would be hard to, you
wouldn't have the closeness and
stuff when you're working together,
whether it's on a job or
out in the boat or...
You know, doing whatever you're
doing and you're going it together.
I think it just bonds.
You know, Larry and I were married
42 years and we
basically spent every
weekend, pretty much every weekend.
You know he would go with the guys
on occasion fishing and I went with
the women and did different things
and stuff.
But most of the time it
was always together and I think that
just tightens, strengthens your
relationship.
Um, I don't know how familiar you
are. Maybe you've heard about it
from some of the younger women in
your group, but online dating
today could be a difficult thing.
And we hear from some women about,
you know, some of the guys that they
see on the dating apps, just
all of them have fishpicks.
Oh
That's the only time they smile, but
I mean when you think about the
pictures that exist in your life I
mean some of the biggest smiles come
with a face
They do, they do, and
then the memories of it, when you
look at the picture and you remember
what you were doing, who you were
with, and how it happened,
that is just all part of
that one picture.
There's always a big story behind
everyone, and those stories
sometimes are inflated a
little bit, and sometimes...
Well, walk me through some of the
photos that you shared with me, like
you got the big one.
The biggest walleye, I have a
picture you have of me with, I
caught that last year with
Justin, he was out guiding
me for the
walleyes and that
was the biggest wall I have ever
caught, it was 27 inches so that's
my goal now is to beat that 27
and that's how I do fish,
I don't save a lot of fish because
I'm just by myself, I don t need a
lot of fish to eat so when
I do um fish I try to
beat my personal best.
And I also try to obtain what
our club has as master anglers,
which is a specific length on a
specific species.
And then, so I try to see how many
of them I can get each year.
But yeah, my big walleye,
that was the biggest one I caught.
You have a picture of me with a
musky.
That was the first musky I had
ever got in
a boat.
I actually did catch a muskie this
last summer in my kayak, which
was like 33 inches long.
Got him in the kayak, but I couldn't
get a picture of him because of
that.
You have a picture me.
I actually have gone to Alaska and
fished up there.
I've caught halibut up there and
salmon and stuff.
You have got photos of those.
And you've got some older photos of
you and your husband, right?
Yes.
Are those any specific?
Those, those are probably,
they're all, yeah, this,
that, that top, those on
there,
one is a picture of my husband and
myself and my granddaughter
and
the fishing boat, the ones
that he's in the boat, those were
all taken up in Minnesota.
That's where we went for vacation
every year. We would go, we did that
for like 13 years in a row.
We found the place up,
up,
Ash River Trail is where it
is at.
And we would go up there every year
and we actually, the very first
year we were there, we met another
couple up there and we got to be
very close with them.
And we'd meet them every year up
there fishing and stuff.
And then after Larry passed
away, they're the ones who actually
got me to go to Alaska.
After he passed, they were going to
Alaska and they sent me a note
and wanted to know if I wanted to
join them in Alaska.
And so I've actually met them.
I actually went out to Colorado and
visited with them one year, and
then two years I went to
Alaska with them and stuff.
So the friendships that you build
off of fishing, you
know, they carry on forever.
Even though we're so far apart and I
don't go up to the Ash River hardly
ever anymore. Once in a while when
they are up there, I'll drive up for
a day with them, and stuff,
but basically your friendships,
it's
locked in. You've got something in
common.
I'm gonna go grab one thing real
quick. I have a new talker
spirit.
We've got that you just want to
walk us through that
Okay, this was
the last time Larry and I went
fishing together.
This was our May and
June vacation just before he got
sick.
So this was our last picture I have
of him in the boat.
It's just a special memory because
of it being the last one.
But this was out last
vacation up at the Ash River.
That's a good size fish.
It is, but I'm sure I
caught a bigger one.
But I mean, that's the front of the
boat.
That's him in the front,
and it's walleyes.
And as you can see, check the
weather out.
We've got the storm clouds in the
back. You've got to chop on the
water.
That is exactly, that's a perfect
scenario for walleye fishing.
And so what's the sound
that you or him would make when you
know you had one on?
Every time, got one.
And the other person would know that
they have to grab the net.
That was always the key.
And who's the better netter.
He's the better netter because he
had more practice because I was
catching on.
That's a good answer.
You gave him more than two.
More experience.
And so that's June of 2016?
Correct. OK.
And guaranteed that if you're
fishing all you have to do is get
your sandwich out and the fish will
start biting or get your beer out
and open it up and as soon as you
open a beer up the fish will start
biting and you'll never get to
finish it.
Those are a couple extra things to
go with the bad weather, you can try
to prompt the fish to bite.
No, I've heard that you're not
allowed to have a beer until after
you catch a fish, then I've also
heard that you have to have beer in
order to bring the fish in.
It depends on how bad, it
depends on how slow the fish...
When I went fishing with
Lauren and Sandy up there, the ones
from Colorado, when I would go up
and meet with them, if you're
fishing their boat, any time you
catch a fish, and they fish
strictly walleyes too, any you
catch fish, then you have to
have a swig of some snops.
And everybody in the boat has to
have swigs of snops when you catch
the fish.
It can be a really bad day,
or a good day.
To do throughout.
You really get into it when you get
into...
You could, yeah.
So every person that fishes,
they have their own little rituals
or their own little quirks
that they think make it better.
But I think it's strictly going to
be up to the fish at the end.
He's going to win.
Anything else that you want to add?
Hmm, I don't think so.
Well thank you so much for telling
us your story.
Oh, thank you.
I think we're good with this part.
I'm going to have you kind of
walk Ethan through like...
And as you can see, I'm not a fish
mounter.
Were those his deer down in the
basement? Well, two out of three.
Oh, OK. One is mine, and one
is mine too, or his.
He used to mow fish all the time.
I had some really big northerns
that he'd had, and we had different.
But as they get older, and then I
moved, and I'm like, they're not
coming in my living room.
I'm done with the animals in my
little living room!
Can I send you guys to
get out of the picture?
There we go.
So even with your fence, you still
get deer kind of in the grass.
Yeah, they you know that the first
when I first hear they wouldn't come
through that side because it's
pretty narrow But they come around
they go across my front yard and
come in this side because there was
a wider space open But now
they've they've gotten so they've
got and so they trust the narrow
spot to I'm like
dang it I didn't think you know at
first I never had any and never
had a deer in this yard till I
planted an apple tree.
I planted that apple tree
over here and do
some show-and-tell with Ethan.
I'll be over here, just kind of walk
us through.
Okay.
What your world of trophies is
and where they came from.
This is my wallet.
This is the wall.
This was the first award
I ever got with the Wisconsin Women
Fish, and that was Rookie of the
Year.
I was totally blown away
because, one, I didn't consider
myself a rookie, and two,
at my age, to win a Rookie
Of The Year thing was awesome.
You were a ringer.
I was a ring out.
I was a ring, yeah, there you go, I
was ringer rookie.
I have a lot of names at the club,
but we won't go into that.
So anyway, that was the first award
I got.
Let's see, the second one, let's see
there's, these are our
fish camp.
We do a fall fish camp event
every year.
And then we have a small one
day tournament up there.
So in 2023,
I had the third place
for the pike.
And I had first place for walleye.
And then in 24,
I had, let's see which one is
this, walleye again for this one.
And then this was second place for
panfish in 23.
So 23 was my really good year
for winning awards.
Last year I did,
was runner up for master
angler of the year.
So that's my goal again this year to
see how many master anglers I can
get. But I keep trying.
When you...
You had a lot of years where walleye
was the main thing.
Correct. Now with Master Angular,
it's a little more diversity.
All.
All right.
Are there moments where you're like,
you know, I bet the wall I are
biting, but I'm trying to catch
something different.
It's hard.
It's hard, it's hard because you
want to go fish or something you
know you're going to catch and then
it's like oh but I got it I got to
move on and stuff so right
now I'm still working on the
walleye for this year but it
it'll it's hard to choose which
species and it's hard
to catch a lot of master anglers
when you don't have a boat.
So I rely on guides
to take me out in their boats
or club members that take call
me up and take me which is awesome.
And so, yeah, anybody that has
a boat and wants to take me master
angler fishing, I'm right there,
take it.
So, but yeah, it's hard to
target a lot of those fish without a
boat. I do kayak fishing all
summer and you can do some
of them for kayak and
I probably could be a little braver
and do more of them, but some of the
waters I'm just not that comfortable
on by myself, so I.
While I chop, isn't it?
Well, we've got ladies that actually
salmon fish with the kayaks,
and they go to big waters
with them, and I'm just not quite
that brave.
No, those are, that's it, yeah.
That's it so far.
I'm sure there'll be more.
And I hope so!