I think that a bio is one of the hardest things for a writer to write. You can either love writing it or avoid it all together: on one end of the spectrum you have narcissus, on the other is self-loathing. I like to think I’m somewhere in the middle. A real biography is just too big and serious. In broad strokes I was born, went to school, and started working. More succinctly, I am a fisherman who lives in Maryland. I love living here beside the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. When I daydream at work, it’s not about salmon in Alaska or bonefish in the Keys, it’s about schoolie stripers from Tangier Sound or bluegill from Eastern Shore mill ponds. I am decidedly content to fish right where I am.
I attended and graduated from two Maryland colleges – Washington College and Salisbury University. Both schools were conveniently within easy driving distance to some fantastic fishing on the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. Out of all of the instruction I received during the eight years I was in school, one thing has stayed with me the longest and remained central to me.
My first creative writing class during my freshman year at Washington college was with Kathy Wagner. In this class I learned the important difference between the concrete and the abstract. This understanding is not only important in good writing, but in good living.
Answering a big question with an abstraction is not much of an answer. If someone asked me, “What do you love about ice cream?” and I answered, “I love the way it tastes.” that answer would not convey what ice cream means to me at all. Saying, “Ice cream is wonderful during any season of the year, not just summertime,” is a little better. But the best answer would be, “Ice cream is wonderful but what I love is the smoothness of Kohr Brothers frozen custard from the boardwalk in Ocean City. Just plain vanilla. No chocolate syrup or sprinkles to distract me. I like to relish in the texture.” Concrete vs. Abstract. Thank you, Ms. Wagner.
Because what else is a bio but a big question like, Who are you? In the context of this blog, a better question to ask would be: How is fishing central to your life? Below are some specific examples:
- Christmas with my family: When I think about the holidays with my family, I picture me and my dad sitting in our living room next to a wood-burning stove. My dad is poking at the logs and I’m reading a Cabela’s catalog that we’ve both been looking at for the past 2 months. The pictures of the gear lead to talks of the fish we caught that year and trips we’d like to take during the following year – perch fishing as soon as they start running, bass from farm ponds, maybe finally getting around to taking that trip to Canada. We’ve done this since I was 10.
- Marriage: I proposed to my wife next to my favorite stream on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Bluegill and pumpkinseed were still spawning and small turtles were swimming with the current. It was a beautiful summer day, not super hot yet, but comfortable. The obvious question is: Did you fish after you popped the question? I did. She encouraged me to and that solidified the idea that she truly was the girl for me.
- Solitude: Aside from my dad, I am one of the few people I know that fish more often by themselves than with a friend. I know that this is totally normal, but I think it’s a fair distinction to make: some guys go off on their own, other guys want company. I can honestly go either way, but I tend to have a better time when I am by myself.
Clips
- KayakFishingMagazine.net
- The Mid-Atlantic Fly Fishing Guide
- The Salisbury University Flyer – Salisbury, MD
- TidalFish.com (formerly worldwideangler.com) – Regional Editor
- The Star Democrat – Easton, MD – Outdoors Columnist
- The Record Observer - Queen Anne’s County, MD – Outdoors Columnist
- The Kent County News - Kent County, MD – Outdoors Columnist
- The Bay Times – Kent Island, MD – Outdoors Columnist
- The Washington College Review – Chestertown, MD
- The Washington College Broadsides Series – Chestertown, MD
