Growing up in the Philippines and having limited resources, we would enjoy a day of fishing with a bamboo stick, couple of metres of fishing line and freshly dug up worms or sometimes shrimps that we would get from a trap that we put on the night before. As I grow older I lost interest in fishing as I found it boring at the time and I got busy with other stuff. When I was 16 me and my family moved here in Canada.

Many years have passed until I was re-introduced to fishing, two years ago a friend of mine invited me to go fishing at Reesor Pond. Without having any knowledge nor fishing gear, I drove to the nearest Canadian Tire to pick up an outdoors card and a fishing licence. I was a bit excited to go fishing since it has been years since I last went. When I get to the pond I met up with my friend in the parking lot and he handed me a spinning rod and reel setup, to be honest it was my first time holding a proper fishing rod. I had no idea how to use it my friend was kind enough to take time off his fishing to show me how to rig, cast and generally how to work a spinning setup, after a few tries and rons of wasted line I got the hang of it. We were using worm on bobbers and with that I caught my very first fish!

A decent largemouth bass, reeling it in all the memories from my childhood came flashing back, I remembered how and why I enjoy fishing -since that day I got hooked! We would then spend our free time fishing the pond. It was the only spot we would fish that year until colder weather at the time I was not aware of any fishing opportunities in the winter so we would hide our fishing gear when the weather turns single digit. I would then watch and read a lot of fishing related stuff that in my opinion broadens my knowledge on fishing. The next year we went fishing up north almost every-time we went out and somehow forgot about the pond. Finally, this year I had a chance to go and fish the pond after almost two years of not going. I was surprised to the amount of people that fishes the pond as I was walking to the usual spot I've noticed there were a lot of garbage that was left behind by irresponsible anglers and people in general there were plastic bags, worm containers, water bottle, beer cans and anything you can think of is left lying on the grass and on the pathways. I would suggest installing a couple of garbage bins, and maybe an old line receptacle as well around the pond so people will have somewhere to put on their garbage. To add into that a "no littering" sign should be put up to try and educate people to clean up after themselves. Another idea is to have a family fishing day at the pond to try and educate people that fishes the pond regularly on not only proper fishing etiquettes as well as conserving and protecting the pond all in all.

This is my watermark.