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 in the
gravel pit and swimming and fishing in the gravel pit was our our thing there. Okay so you
fished from a young age? 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 cows milked at night
he would sometimes take me down to Hancock to one of the lakes he borrowed one of the guys bolts
down there and we go down and pan fish a little bit and he was he fished anytime he could it wasn't
you know more 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 did he spent his time
ice fishing and so we kind of grew up with people fishing and stuff but um I'm probably the only
one in the family that really took to it a lot more so um my one sister just now started fishing
because of me but otherwise yeah we just did fishing most a lot a lot of times in the farm
and what was it about fishing that your catch it or it still gets you I guess? I think it's just
to go out there and see if you're going to catch something it's 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 just the unknown of what what you're
out there for so did you get into walleye before you met your husband or was that around the same
time um once I got married he'd walleye fished in so I started walleye fishing then I had never
walleye fished in uh stuff I basically just sure fished or 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
four hundred dollars a little flat boat and then worked our way up um till at the end at the last
boat we had bought was a London then we went um we would go to Canada quite often and then after
at one point we started going up to um 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
general all of our vacations were always fishing with the kids we would rent cabins and fish or
you know all that kind of thing but any kind of vacation we took it was pretty much always
related to fishing um that had to be one of the things that helped get you guys together
that you found out you had something that you had in common yeah right yeah that and um bowl hunting
he got I had been bowl hunting by myself and then he was a hunter and his family was real um sports
fishing and hunting and so I just kind of fit right in with all of them too well i'm
from that point of view it's a perfect woman i don't know maybe sometimes you wish i'd stay
at home i don't know but i mean that had to be something special that you guys could share it
was yeah we would always i mean basically we would go fishing you know all of the all of the time
and then hunting together so we fished and hunted because i'm sure there were probably other couples
that you knew or other women or other men or 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 said i wish i wish him i
would do that would fish like that and stuff i'd have somebody to go with and stuff i was told
him be careful what you wish for so how did you guys treat fishing when you were in a was a little
competition was it friendly was it front of the boat back the boat it was always i was always in
the back he was always in the front unfortunately he always had to run the trolley motor and he had to
deal with the wind so that i always caught the first fish it was pretty much that way
that's hard harder when you're in the front of the boat and have a you have to deal with all
of the other elements that are all through then just sitting in the back and throwing your line in
and stuff but um we would always try to see who would catch the first one who would catch the biggest
one but that kind of type type of thing and we did a lot of catch and release so if i'm sure you
some but a lot of it was just the enjoyment of being out there correct yeah just being something
to do something outside um just uh nature you just can't beat it so i mean for some people like well
fishing's what you do and it's nice out where what kind of was there any restrictions if you if
you're going to fish with um if you're going to walleye fish um it's going to be the worst whether
you can fish in as the best walleye bite the wind's got to be blowing the rain's got to be going
otherwise um yeah i think can i get that i'm like i can hear that
there you go even worse as i can hear it in my ears oh it's like my hearing aids it's like
whoa this is really distracting i want to cut that part yeah yeah no worries okay
this is so so repeat run that by me again like so oh wait just let me just shut this completely
off here let me turn it down otherwise it's going to ring again
come on let's shut off here there we go
there now i won't do that okay if i could decide you do it the tiny bit here right
perfect okay so funny that that 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 walleye fishing the walleye i always say my husband always said it is
the crappier the weather the better off the fishing will be and it it seems to run that way
they don't like a bright sunny day walleye i don't know if their eyes are more sensitive to
the light or what it is but they like chop on top of the water they like um rain they like wind um
that that is when you're walleye fishing that's when you'll catch more fish and that's gotta be
why some people don't 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 and you're gonna 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 walleye fished all the time we very seldom ever panfished 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 and so when you had kids
did they grow up as too yeah that 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 the kids were in there
because you had to give them something to entertain or um when the kids were real little just make
sure you had a bucket of minerals and they just play in the middle bucket while you're fishing and
that kind of thing so but yeah they 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 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
he passed away it'll be ten years in august okay and was that sudden or yeah we um we were
actually on a fishing trip up in minnesota um our annual christ our annual vacation that we would
take and we always take ten or like ten to fourteen days and go up there and rent a cabin
and um we were up there and we were only there a few days and he said you know he said 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
there's not good you know so we we came home and then he waited a week or so and then went in
and uh found out he had cancer and um that was like in 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 hard to but it was just hard to believe
it happened that fast i mean that had obviously that's a very quick devastating loss yeah and
once he was gone i was like okay you know i was just lost i look i was still working so i had my job
and um but i figured i'm never going to be able to fish again you know so i sold everything i had a
sale and i sold all of all the baits that we sold the boat we sold all of the fishing stuff and stuff
and then about two or 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 um i
actually bought a little pop-up shack on marketplace for like fifty dollars 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 want to get something to haul my stuff onto the ice and that um i posted on ice fishing
junkies asking about snow dogs and the snow dogs um we're 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 um maybe put it on the back of a carrier and so i put that out there and i got a response i got
a lot of negatives because they would just come out and then one of them and 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 um 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 know yeah it was
it was and and we tell all the new members don't 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 uh the winter um beginner one
and i um you drove up there and it's like you almost turn around and go away because you don't
know anybody and and within like five minutes of being there you just it's like you've been there
forever and stuff so it's it's scary at first because you don't know anybody and it 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
it is and and and they're so helpful there they they
Wisconsin women fish aren't a competitive group they basically share all of their knowledge they
basically help each other um if you you ride together for events sometimes you borrow equipment
they have a lot of loner 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 um so it's just really it's just
a 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 um you know
not necessarily always fishing either i mean could you i mean what 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 i wouldn't even be able to weigh that that i think it's it's just the combination of the two
having the having the avenue and and the ability to go do the things like i said i don't have a boat
so um boat fishing when we have events and i can get into the lady other ladies bolts and go out
on the water and stuff that's so so great but um when i get a message from one of them or or
a phone call from one of 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 i mean it may be hard to think and like what would your life be like if you hadn't found
that group i have no idea i i always tell my 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 be sitting in the window looking out the window like all old people do but i just um i
have no 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 got to be the worst weather ever that that i'm sitting at the sewing machine
otherwise i'm outside doing something but um yeah my sons and daughter both they said they're so
glad i found the club because they've worked and they've got their families and their lives and
um 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 i sometimes
think that you know i say hey come on you know get out there and chase one and fish my way or
do this or that you don't come on mate let's let's get going up there you got your job too
so i do i do talk to him when i'm out there a lot of times in my head and um i think that um he's
with me when i'm out there and i think 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's still with me broadening out how important is
relationships with fishing because in this story we've 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 brought in their lives by the people that surround them in fishing now well i think that if
you're i think if you're a married couple and if one of the i'm not going to say man or women
because it can go either way if one of the spouses is just always away from the marriage
doing their own thing honest to me that would make it make it a hard marriage
you know it would be hard to you wouldn't have the the closeness and stuff when you're 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 doing it together i think it it just bonds you know Larry and i were married 42
years and um we basically spent every weekend pretty much every weekend you know he would go with
the guys on occasion fishing and i went with women and did different things and stuff but
um most of the time there it was always together and i think that just tight
strengthens your 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 the fish pics 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 fit they do they do and and then the
memories of it when you look at the picture and you remember what you were doing who you were with
and and how it happened that they just that is just all part of that picture that one picture there's
always a big story behind everyone and those stories sometimes are inflated a little bit and
sometimes they're not well walk me through some of the photos that you share with me like you've
got the the the biggest walleye i have a picture you have of me with uh caught that last year um
with um Justin he was out guiding me for for the um the walleyes and that was the biggest walleye
i've 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 um what our club
has is 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 um but yeah my big walleye um that was the biggest one i caught
you have a picture of me with a musky um that was the first musky i had ever voted had ever got
in a boat um i actually did catch a musky this last summer in my kayak which was like 33 inches
long and got him in the kayak but i couldn't get a picture of him because of that um you have a
picture of me i actually have gone to Alaska um and fished up there i've had a caught halibut up
there and salmon and stuff uh you have got photos of those um and you've got some older photos of
you and your husband right yes um there are those any specific those those are probably they're
wrong yeah this that that top those on there um one is a picture of my husband and my myself and
my granddaughter and um the fishing boat the ones and 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 um we found the place up up um elkra 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 him every year up there fishing
and stuff and then um after larry passed away they're the ones who actually got me to go to
alaska um after he passed they were going to alaska and they sent me him no one to know if i
wanted to join him in alaska and so i've actually met them um i actually went out to colorado with
and visited with them one year and then two years um 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 um basically your friendships stay um it just
it's not it's locked in you've got something in common i think i want to go grab one thing real
quick okay this this was a photo this was the last time larry and i went fishing together um
this was our may vk our may and june vacation just before when he got sick um so this was the
last picture i have of him in the boat and um it's just a special memory because of it being
being the last one but this was um our last vacation up in up at the ash river that's a
that's a good size fish it is it is but i'm sure i kind of bigger one but that i mean that's
the front of the boat that's the him in the front and and um it's walleyes and as you can see
check the weather out um we've got the storm colds in the back you've got the top on the water um
that's that is exactly that's a perfect scenario for walleye fishing and so what what's the sound
that you or him would make when you you know you had one on got one every time got one
and the other person would know that they have to grab the net that was always the the key and
who's the better netter um he's the better netter because he had more practice because i was
catching him that's a good answer you gave him more experience all right that and so that's june of
2016 correct yeah 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 now i've heard that
you're not allowed to have a beer until after you catch a fish and i've also heard that you have
to have a beer in order to bring the fish in yeah it depends on how bad it depends on how slow the
fishing is yeah what the scenario would take you yeah yeah now when i went fishing with Lauren and
Sandy up they're the ones from Colorado when i would go up and meet with them if you're fishing
their boat anytime you catch a fish and they fish strictly walleyes to anytime you catch a fish
then you have to have a swig of some snaps and everybody in the boat has to have a swig of stops
when you catch a fish so it's it can be a really bad day or good day yeah you really get into it
yeah all right so every every person that fishes they have their own little rituals or their own
little like works that they think make it better but i think it's strictly it's going to be up to
the fish at the end he's going to win all right anything else that you want to add i don't think
so i well thank you so much for telling us your story oh thank you um i think we're good with this
part i'm going to have you um kind of walk even through like
as you can see i'm not a fish monster were those his deer down in the basement well two out of three
oh one is mine i don't mind two areas he used to mock fish all the time i had some really big
northerins that he'd had and we had uh 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 are my living room
good i said you guys get out of the picture yeah
so even with your friends you still get your kind of yeah they you know that the first when i first
here 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 it was a wider space open but now they've they've
gotten so they've gotten so they trust the the narrow spot too i'm like laying it i didn't think
you know at first i never had any i never had a deer in this yard till i planted an apple tree
i planted that apple tree over here and uh do some show and tell with Ethan i'll be over here just
kind of walk us through okay um what your wall of trophies is and where they came from
oh this this is my wall this is the wall um this this was the first award i ever got with the
Wisconsin women fish and that was the rookie of the year i i was totally blown away because
one i didn't consider myself a rookie and two at my age to to win a rookie of the year thing was
awesome that's so that you were a ringer i was a ringer i was a ringer rookie um 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 um let's see
the second one let's see there's these are these are our fish camp um we do a fall fish camp um
event every year and then we i have a small um one day tournament up there so um 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 pan fish in 23 so 23 was my
really good year for for winning awards um last year i did um was runner up for master angler of the
year um so last my goal again this year to see how many master anglers i can get but i i keep trying
when you you had a lot of years where walleye was the main thing now with master angler it's a
little more diversity all right are there moments where you're like you know i bet the walleye are
biting but i'm trying to catch something different it's hard it's hard because you want to go fish
is 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 um still working on the walleye for this year but um 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 bolt
so i rely on guides to take me out in their bolts or club members that call me up and take
me out which is awesome and so yeah anybody that wants to has a bolt and wants to take me master
angler fishing i'm right there i take it um so but yeah it's it's hard to target a lot of those
fish without a bolt i do kayak fishing all summer and 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've just not that
comfortable on by myself so i well i we've got ladies that actually salmon fish with kayaks and and
they go to big you know big waters with them and i'm just not quite that brave
any other no those are that's it yeah that's it so far sure there'll be more and i hope so
you
You