My Father had always been a casual fisherman. Never really serious about it, but , like everything else he seemed to be a perfectionist in anything that he spent his time at. In that I mean, in retrospect, I see that while my father was not a serious fisherman, he didn't settle for anything less than the best in tackle. He was and still is a big fan of quality spinning(Mitchell) reels. He never really got the touch to baitcast reels. I was about 10 or 12 when he saw my great interest in fishing. My Father proceeded to buy me my first baitcast reel, a Shimano Bantam from the local KMart. He took me to the local lake, dropped me off at the boat ramp, explained the basics of baitcasting reels, in which he was not an experienced in, told me what he knew what it took to make it work, even though that he wasn't able to do what he told me.(Or maybe he was, as my thoughts have always been, because his detail to the asthetics of baitcasting were really clear as to the control of the spool) He told me what I needed to do to use this reel, as it was the choice type of reel for bass fishing. I spent many a day there at the ramp casting out to perfect my abilities as my Father jogged around the lake as it was a park. I began to get the feel for everything and was soon proficient in casting.
That started my extreme zest for bass fishing. I soon became quite adept at plucking bass from any of the many strip pits in bicycle's reach of our house. It was when I was 14 that I pursued employment with a local tackle shop/restaurant on the same city lake that I met Murvin Berry, the entreprenuer who ran the shop. Murv was and I guess is still the greatest kind of boss that a kid could ask for. Hard as nails in taskmastering, being able to give you the same negative shake of his head when you did wrong as my own Father gave me. It was the kind of headshake where you just wished you were dead, instead of having to admit culpability. You know the sting of it if you have been there yourself. Next to my Father, there was no other person that I ever wanted to let down than Murv. He knew what ulterior motives that I had for working for him, to glean as much fishing knowledge from him and his cadre of bassing customers that would sit about and talk bassing in the restaurant half of the store.
Murvin Berry was perhaps the best in his hardline tactics of management of me, in that he always drove me the hardest of any boss since(I was 15 then and I am a manager now at 34) Between my father, who drove me to my strong work ethic(and to the Bait Shop) and Murvin, the semi Pro angler in national tournaments who ran the shop to pay his bills, I couldn't have asked for stronger guidance in life. These lessons learned have proved to be the ones that can never be ignored.
On my sixteenth birthday, Murvin had planned to surprise me by making me his partner in an open tournament on Lake Monroe in Indiana. I know that I didn't have an idea what to do, but Murvin proceeded to establish a shallow cranking pattern involving rocks and rip rap to make us the winners in the tournament. It was a huge amount of money to me as a kid at the time, and a sizeable amount to even my partner. Murvin shared that money with me, though I have to think he knew it was going to be going to him regardless, as I spent it within his shopwalls stocking my boxes. I cannot thank this great man enough for his tuteledge in competitive bass fishing enough. As well, I cannot thank my Father enough for starting me on the path to a sport that luckily kept me away from the dangers of youthful choices that I could have made at the time. I never had the money to spend on drugs or alcohol because I had the greatest of addictions. Looking back, yeah I have problably competed in dollars spent as any drug addict, but I have something to show for it. It's something that wont ever go away, I could lose it all in any manner of ways, but this addiction will always consume me and my dollars in the quest for peace and a hard tug on the line.
So I thank my Father, Steve Houchins, and my first real boss Murvin Berry, for all that they have instilled in me, to enjoy all that God gives us. I might not have been a championship bass fisherman yet, as I wanted to be as a youth, to repay these great men for their attention to me as a kid, but I can promise these two that I will never quit trying.
Apologize for being so verbose, but things just need to be said.
God Bless any fisherman that teaches this to a young kid!
Curt Houchins
