A-Jay, your post is no surprise knowing you as well as I do. I started fishing in trout country and just liked to go fishing for anything that would bite. In my teens other sports rolled in including bird hunting.
I stumbled into motorcycles and my hobby life was centered around moto- cross, which I miss even at my age. Family growth and a broken back led to my MC retirement. A move to SW Washington opened up an opportunity to fish but not for bass initially. I was bit by the steelhead bug and bad. I don’t dabble. I jump all in. I had a drift boat, started building my own custom rods and added fly fishing to the bucket. The progression was normal, tie flies, build fly rods, raft rivers.
I met Big John and was invited to a bass club meeting. I met some very good anglers and two fished Classics by way of the Federation route. I liked the guys and joined. It was several years before I chose to let the cold water fishing go. It was too “predictable” and access had become a problem.
I went all in with bass fishing. I tried to golf so my boys and I had a common interest. Golf and I don’t get along. My bass fishing became my priority of hobbies. I also like “the stuff.” Now I fell into the progression. Catch fish, catch lots of fish, catch big fish (5) and catch lots of big fish. Of course the desire to fish other bodies of water fell in line.
But this is where it got fragile. My Dad was diagnosed with cancer, I lost my job and sold almost all my tackle and small boat. My Dad died three years later and I had started a new career that allowed me to rebuild. My wife was then diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I could not bring myself to fish at all. I fished three small tournaments in a four year span and that was it.
A couple years later I got another boat and things took a turn for the positive. I could breath again. It was at this point that I got a real taste of what good smallmouth fishing was. That was juice for me. Then my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. I didn’t fish for three years or so.
The last several years have been hit and miss. I’m retired now. COVID dumped most of this season. Now I just hope to fish. I signed up to be a coach for my club’s student anglers and help those kids out. My grand children are approaching the age to get out with me.
I honestly don’t care about fishing competitions. I do like fishing certain techniques and will target smallmouth over largemouth. Oh, and I still like the stuff!