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A Lifetime of Fishing

I started fishing when I was 7 years old with some friends from down the street. Their parents took a bunch of neighborhood kids fishing to an old creek near Memphis, Tennessee. We fished with closed faced reels with hooks, sinkers and bobbers for catfish. And while we didn't catch very many, we caught enough to catch on with me.

After that initial trip, my uncle, Benny Craig, who was a local celebrity (network sportscaster) in Arkansas got wind that I wanted to fish. One of the first things that he did was take me to Maumelle Harbor on Lake Maumelle, outside of Little Rock. The manager of the dock at that time was a young man that would become one of the most famous of U.S. fishermen, Jerry McGinnis, with the longest running outdoor program on television, The Fishin Hole. But back then, he was just a nice young dock manager. Jerry let us fish off of some of the private docks where we caught massive bluegills the size a small dinner plate. After we had filled our limit from that dock, he let me catch a couple of his pet bass out from under a cut hole in the dock where they stayed waiting for their daily minnow feast. Of course they were promptly released. That was enough to addict me to fishing for life.

Uncle Benny was a rather large man and didn't like to engage in a lot of physical labor, so when he would take me out on Lake Maumelle in a boat, it was never a small boat. It was always a party barge with plenty of comfortable room, lots of snacks and comfortable seats. And instead of casting for bass, we would troll. Tie the bait on, let the line out and let the boat do the work. And work it did. We caught bass left and right and Uncle Benny knew just the right places and depth to catch them. I got started right.

That was 46 years ago, and my passion for fishing today remains in high gear. It has had it's ebb and flow over the years, but it never goes away. I now live in Fort Smith, Arkansas with my wife Cindy, and my daughter Jacquilyn, three dogs and a ferret. Fort Smith sits on the Arkansas/Oklahoma border and the Arkansas River is less than a mile from my house. Living in Arkansas "The Natural State" has great advantages for somebody who loves to fish. Not only is the Arkansas River within rock throwing distance, but a multitude of small and large lakes, creeks and small rivers populate the area and the entire state. Right across the border in Oklahoma, some serious fishing is to be experienced on the River, Kerr Lake, Lake Tenkiller and many other smaller waterways.

My fishing has become more sophisticated as to rigging and electronics, but the kid that thrilled at watching the bobber go under over four decades ago, still lives in me and the bobber going under still makes my blood pressure go up and my heart race. And while I spent a number of years bass fishing including 5 years tournament fishing (two years full time), I now fish out of a 15 foot flat bottom boat rigged just for me. And I catch as many fish out of it as I did from my bass boats.

This is how I roll now

Now the following pictures are of me when I was fishing out of larger boats, but are put here just so visitors know I know how to fish and where to catch them. The results of me fishing from small boats are in another section.

So, that's a brief summary of my fishing background. I love the water and I love to fish and fishing from small boats has taken on a whole new dimension for me now that I'm in my 50s. Manageable, efficient, stealthy, and effective. I decided that the millions of people with small boats needed their own presence on the web. The internet is full of high end bass boats, fishing techniques, and electronics. But that's not where most people dwell. The most frequently used type of boat is anything from a 10 foot aluminum boat carried in the back of a pickup to our luxury rig, a semi v bottom aluminum rig with 25 horse motor and electronics. A range of things to float and fish from. That's what I'm about in my sport: fishing from small boats. - Mark Rogers

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