All right, let's start with tell me some of your earliest fishing memories like do you remember being a little kid but the first
You 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 well wet the ice a bit
So it's super slippery and we'll take our feet and we'll just go flying and I remember
Oh, yeah, I'll set booby traps on the ice what I used to 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 hammers 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 prank sir. Yeah, but that's that was part of the phone. Oh, yeah
Too mad at you. No, well, so your dad was telling us a story about how you caught the northern. Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm
So how old were you about when that happened? I don't know
It's probably about two years ago. So probably 12
11 or 12 and yeah, that was my first time 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's 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 just really fun
So when you are when you so when you see the tip the flight go up. What's 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 sprints and then people will try and catch up to the utv because
dads will ride in the utv's 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 book out?
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's stopping then starting
I'll pull it on one of the stops and I just start pulling it up set the hook and
Keep holding it and so when you feel it's something down there. What's 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 and 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 and never gets old
So we were out on the boat today and you caught some small tissue
But you caught a couple bass later on. Yeah
And so you talked about pipe being one of your favorite ones. I'm assuming you caught musk and walleye before right? Yes
Is there something different about a walleye? Is there? Yeah, it's surf
It's the way they kind of fight when you're pulling them up. Um, well, I 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
It goes off or 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 a sudden boom
We get to fight a fish. I mean, do you have
other bad days in the boat a
Good day fishing is
No, a bad day fishing is better than a good day
to a nothing here
So I mean, do you ever say to your dad? Hey, let's go fishing. He's like, no, not today
I'm not interested
No, I don't think there's any time he would say no fishing unless we're about to go somewhere
Otherwise, it'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 live here and you had to like what we did
Well, we've modeled this place a bit
I'd say it was a while ago now about four years ago. So
When we were building it, we weren't on the lake when we were renting a house. So I
Never realized until then how much I really love the water like anyone really enjoyed it
But like when you're away from it that long. It's only 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. Mm-hmm
So of all the activities that we've been able to just to watch you do today
Slide you got your dog, you got your pads
Envision, like where do those rank? Oh, I don't know if I can rank those
They're all just really fun. Um
Swimming it's a great kind of communal activity like we'll gather all the neighbors and we'll swim together
People come over when they're born and they're like hey, can I come swim? It's super hot. I'm bored
I don't know 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 into the raft to with goggles and we can see schools of fish and they'll come right up to you
It's that's really cool
So we met you doing some of the walleyes for tomorrow thing. What was that like for you?
But what was fun about being able to do that? That was the funnest thing ever. I look forward to it every spring
Um, 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 got a job to do I've got something to do and then we come back and we'll check on the fry
I'm like get to see the little babies grow and it's it's just really cool to see how
They're like made and watch them grow up. It's something pretty interesting and then I mean just to feel
Yeah, um
And be able to like figure out how oh, yeah, I'm just thinking
Female walleye from male walleye. This one's bigger. This one's got 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 prized 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 old guys 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 right now 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 because they'll make comments and dig at me for fun and yeah
But it's a fun environment, right? It's a it's a really fun environment, especially
All right, 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 silenced
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 to?
Times on the day most of the time I enjoy it though. Okay. I mean, it's it's a it's a way to spend time together, right?
Yeah, 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?
Yeah, 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 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 the stress of what like school work is at home and
Chores, but out on the boat. There's no chores. There's no school work because I'm never bringing that out there. That's like
Stress free so then we can just kind of hang out and it's fun
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 don't like that
When am I gonna get my mountain when I'm right if we're gonna finally get my mountain?
and he's like it's gotta be either really big or there's got to be 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 until 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?
I think we found that piece or something
Anything else you want to add?
Not really. No. Okay. Can I get you to say and spell your name for me?
Yes, Sage Haldeman
S-A-G-E
H-A-L-D-E-M-A-N-N and you are 14. Yes for now
All right, great. Thank you