The lighter side of fishing--Melinda Mize
August 29th 2007 00:21
"I can't remember not fishing." Melinda says. "It was never something I was pushed to do. It was just something we did as a family."
Both of Melinda's parents began fishing competitively before she was born and continue to do so. In fact, Melinda's mother, Lucy, is one of the leading female anglers currently touring. Considering this lineage, it's no wonder that she inherited a competitive edge which led to a victory in the 11-14 category of a Casting Kids competition.
Next was college and a marketing degree. Working toward her future, marketing, along with public speaking courses, helped prepare Melinda to seek sponsors and be an effective representative of their products.
It would be a great Cinderella story to say Melinda graduated and went on to become a champion. However, as John Lennon told us, "Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans." Melinda's National Guard unit was called into action and deployed to Iraq shortly after she attained her degree, shattering dreams of competing in events she had already scheduled.
Since fish are even more scarce than water in the Iraqi desert, Melinda's angling career was on hold. However, while there she practiced casting with her "off" hand, the left, to become an ambidextrous and more efficient angler.
Happily, Melinda was unscathed during her tour of duty and returned to the States in April 2007and plunged back into competition, literally, days later. The rust was definitely there as she finished 110 out of 201 anglers in her first competition. "It's taking me a while to get going again," she said before adding the optimistic, "I'll be all right."
With an attitude like that, this isn't the end of the story. It's just the beginning!
Until next time--watch yourself and watch your line!
*image and quote from bassresource.com/final quote from Ft. Smith Times Record
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