Years and years ago my brother and I spent a day fishing in the rain. We stopped in Angelo's Pizza in Morrow to dry out and get something to eat. The lady took our order then said, "You guys been fishing?" "yep." "I thought so, you smelled like it"
Well one day I decided to join the ohiogamefishing forum. We had just been talking of that day long ago and I made my handle Oldstinkyguy. A decision I would come to regret. For you see OGF is huge. 48,000 thousand members that post plus a legion of guys that just come there to read fishing reports. In the dead of winter there may be 500 or 600 people on at once, in summer thousands. Tons of great fishing information. Probably dominated just a bit by Lake Erie because, well because Lake Erie is just so good.
So I began to post my little fishing reports. On wading streams for smallmouth or catching shovelheads at night. I'd tell how many deer I saw, what birds were around. Lots of photos. If you've read my blog you know the drill. I think I struck a cord with the guys that only got Erie every now and again or never, that didn't own a $20000 boat but still loved to fish, loved the outdoors.
A couple times I'd be out fishing and someone would say aren't you Oldstinkyguy. Dave, the guy I fish with all the time said I'd better start watching who could see me park where to go fishing, that I was getting famous. Never in a million years did I take him serious.
Well at the end of January every year OGF has an Angler Of The Year contest. First they take nominations, then people can vote for ten days. I was nominated, then renominated, then again till the moderator told people to stop. A couple dozen guys were chosen. Several fantastic fishermen. Charter boat captains and guides. And this good old boy who caught smallmouth wading creeks and wrote stories about it.
Long story short. I won. Oldstinkyguy. By the largest margin in the contests history. There's a lot more of us out there than you might think. Guys that stop at the river on the way to and from work. Guys that care as much about seeing a beaver or a deer as catching fish (well almost as much). It's nice to know sometimes that people do read what I put out there. That the world of fishing and the outdoors is bigger than what they are selling in the magazines and on TV. Hopefully in my small way I'm making a difference. Getting a kid out from in front of his playstation and into the water. Getting a dad to just once in a while skip the local tournament to spend the day floating a river in an old canoe. Falling in love with nature as well as fishing. At least I like to think so. Or hope so...
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