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Paradise can be just up the road
Spend a winter Saturday morning at my house and you’ll likely experience a little blue-collar bass fishing mixed with a dose of walleye action and a splash of saltwater.
With my coffee cup in hand, I shuffle out to the TV and typically tune to the block of fishing shows my cable provider delivers. Before the weekend hustle takes charge, I like a little vicarious high-def casting and catching at whatever locales the shows’ producers scheduled into their season.
Some of the programs are pretty exotic. Bahamas, Brazil, Panama and other far-away fish paradises are the stuff of dreams when we are enduring February in Ohio.
I’ll occasionally let my attention drift a bit during my Saturday morning tropical excursions. I don’t mind the sweat dripping from my ear lobes or hands made sore by battling oversized tarpon at the mouth of a Central American river.
As my “day” winds down, I imagine sipping a cold drink in a tall glass as I lounge on a breezy veranda while the staff plates fire-roasted fresh fish topped with a fresh mango-chili-lime salsa. Sometimes I might even have another one of those drinks.
Yep, that would be a nice fishing trip.
Inevitably, however, I snap back to home. I realize we have our own version of paradise all around Youngstown – no passport, immunizations or rickety propeller plane rides required. I can pack in an hour after dinner Friday for Saturday’s pre-dawn departure with no worries that my tackle will end up somewhere other than where I’ll be fishing.
Paradise is where you find it.
Someday I may run up my credit cards and go halibut fishing in Alaska or book a peacock bass expedition in the Amazon jungle. I may sign on for a week in the highlands of Mexico where 10-pound largemouths are minutes from the lodge’s dock.
But in the meantime, I find more than enough excitement at Erie, Mosquito, West Branch, Shenango, Pymatuning, Milton and a few more of my secret spots.
Truth is I’ve got a better chance at catching a 10-pound walleye 50 miles north of Youngstown than 500 miles away in Ontario.
If I want to battle a 40-inch muskie, I can make a trek to the Northwoods or slip over to Milton or West Branch for a couple of hours before the Indians game.
I have more options for a 20-bass day within 90 minutes of my house than any angler might reasonably expect.
Pretty scenery? Unless you require snow-capped mountains as your backdrop, we’ve got some great scenery here.
Wide-open spaces? I can run my gas tanks dry on the Ohio River and Lake Erie.
Shorelines bounding with flora and fauna? What’s more special than a deer sipping a drink from the edge of a lily pad patch at Mosquito? Or an eagle soaring the Shenango headwaters?
Our fishing near home is often outstanding great. There’s something for everyone – from big-game action to picnics-and-panfish family outings. The price of admission is affordable. And we can sleep in our own beds.
Paradise is where you find it. And for those lucky to live around Youngstown, we can find it just up the road.