But for some twist in the road back around about the time John F. Kennedy was president, I might be writing today about a topic other than fishing.

Indeed, something about fishing lit a fire in my soul when I was a youngster. I often reflect about my earliest fishing experiences, and I’ve reached way back in my brain to try to pinpoint the moment I was bitten by the fishing bug.

Despite trying, I still don’t recall the exact event to spark my fire, but I’m happy the flames today are as hot as ever. Indeed, fishing and thinking about fishing helps melt snow, thaw ice and warm long dark nights in Northeast Ohio so we pass more easily to spring’s new season.

Fishing fever pushes me to our lakes and rivers 50 or more times every year. It takes me where I want to be and brings joy when I get there. Each outing, I believe, is a link back to the day when fishing became important to me. I wrote about this in my 2021 book entitled “The Common Angler”:

“For all of us who call ourselves anglers, some distant catch flinted a spark, a flicker of heat that fell on a place in our souls where it could smolder until the next cast, the next catch, the next trip to the water. All of us who fish share that smoldering ember. It is our common denominator. … It stays warm because we have the perfect place to keep it in our soul. And it fans to flames every time the water calls.”

With winter barging into our region like a snarling polar bear, we can look back on our 2024 on-the-water experiences for the promise of good times returning.

I recall my first ’24 spring outing on Mosquito Lake, where swim jigs and Senkos tricked up a dozen or more largemouth bass, made frisky by the warming water and approaching spawn.

Another spring highlight was the Muransky Companies Bass Classic on Aqua Ohio’s Evans and Pine lakes, the annual fundraising event for the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. With the warm sunshine heating up the action, teammate Ted Suffolk and I sorted through several dozen keepers to build a hefty bag of Pine Lake lunkers.

Lake Erie is always a hotspot, as Ted and I experienced with a couple of visits in late June. Smallmouth bass loved our jigs and goby-fed sheepshead kept us busy between bass bites.

The days of summer lounged long and languid as I explored various lakes around eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania. Some days were better than ever, but none were a bust, as even a slow day on the lake is better than a fast day of chores.

The fire burned bright in September and October with hot fishing on the Ohio River and Lake Erie’s waters off Ashtabula. Big Erie bronzebacks, fat walleyes and silver bullet steelhead provided the action as summer gave way to autumn.

The Ohio River was the bright star of my ’24 campaign, with three October visits that yielded a true bumper crop of shad-fattened smallmouth bass, along with spunky walleyes and saugers.

My fall treks on warm days with gentle breezes are the perfect finish to another fun fishing season.

Thank goodness for that fork in the road so many years ago. It put me on the road to my lifetime of fishing fun. I shudder at thoughts about a lifetime without amazing days on the water.

Jack Wollitz writes frequently about fishing and anglers’ passion for the sport. Contact him at jackbbaass@gmail.com.