This is a companion post for my article appearing in the Virginia Dept of Wildlife Resource’s fishing notes. The article is titled, “Small Water, Big Fun: Retention Ponds can be great places to Hone your fishing skills.”

I’m dedicating this article to John Massey, my father-in-law. John never judged me for not knowing how to fish and has always been a willing fishing guide for his granddaughter Hannah. Thank you, John.

There’s an old writing adage that goes, “Write what you know.” That served me well for my first ever published piece back in 2000, when I wrote about my buddy and I ministering on USS Mobile Bay (CG-53). Preaching and the Navy were all I really knew back then, outside of a little farming, so selling an article based on my ministry at the time was the easiest thing to do.

Since then, I’ve written about cystic fibrosis in addition to topics related to ministering in the Navy, but by and large, the old adage has held true for me. With a child affected by cystic fibrosis, that too is something I know.

That hasn’t stopped me from writing about other topics, and it shouldn’t stop you from it either. The topic of my most recent published piece, “Honing your skills at the Retention Pond,” published by the Virginia Dept. of Wildlife Resources, shows this in full color. I didn’t know how to fish, but my daughter wanted to, so I had a choice to make. I could disappoint her, or I could learn a new skill. Turns out, fishing isn’t all that hard and becoming decent at it is fairly straightforward.

By the way, for those coming from the DWR website, I had to cut out a section on fishing for catfish in retention ponds. It’s too bad, because it was great info. Here is that cut information for those also trying to land the cats:

“Another fish species that offers pond anglers an attractive fight is the ubiquitous channel cat. These catfish are plentiful in Virginia waters and have amazing senses of taste and smell. They sometimes croak when caught as well, which makes for an interesting experience. “Use a Carolina rig, aka fish finder rig, to fish bait on the bottom,” says McCrickard. The DWR has an informative video that shows how to fish for channel catfish with this setup.”

The same goes for writing something I’ve never written about before. While I’ve never considered myself much of an outdoorsman, I know what I’ve learned so far and turns out, it made a really good article. I could apply what I’d learned as an amateur angler, combined with my interview skills (thank you, Alex McCrickard!) and get a really good product.

So here’s to learning new things, stepping out of comfort zones, and writing about new loves.

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