After I Moved

When I moved to Delaware, the setting changed big time. I didn't have all the familiar places I used fish that I knew pretty well. And my best fishing buddy was still in California, being shipped out for deployment regularly. I couldn't even share stories and recent catches i had. Kinda sucked. I got real itchy to set the hook on something after about a month so I grabbed a license and a guide book and went at it in the spillway of Silver Lake in Dover. That was when I found my new love; the senko worm. I could throw one of them just about anywhere I knew there would be bass, and I would get bit. What a blast! The spillway offered so much shoreline to fish that it quickly became commonplace for me and my older son, Andrew, to fish there. I will admit now, that this spot is definitely an amature place to fish. Well with all the fishing going on and we finally got all settled in, something was missing. I didn't have a job. No job; unhappy wife. Unhappy wife; makes it harder to fish. Much, much harder to fish. So I went on the job hunt with little luck. I had an offer from Dover Downs, but the hours would impede upon my time with the family which was against mine and my wife's preference. I still don't quite know what propelled me to do so, but I contacted the Natural Resources Department about work. It turns out that jobs in the Fish and Wildlife field are few and far between, I got a big NO. However, I was offered an opportunity to volunteer. So I did, with the notion that I might be able to show my desire to be an outstanding employee and be offered a full-time job. After about a month somebody did end up quitting and I was able to move into that position which was seasonal. I worked the rest of the 2006 summer with Greg Murphy and Cathy Martin of Delaware Division of Fish and Wildlife earning little pay; but I loved doing what I was doing. I did research on Delaware's most prominent waters and I learned them [somewhat]. The Nanticoke River offered me the chance to see first hand what size fish was attainable in Delaware. It fueled my fire. I wanted to fish more and more. After work I was hitting the small impoundments next to the laboratory I worked out of. I did my research to find out how I could be more productive in the conditions I was fishing in. Something was growing inside me that could not and would not control.