Guest Bio
Jeff Peterson is the owner and founder of Reelin Family Fun, a company dedicated to introducing families and groups to the joys of fishing. Based in Northern Indiana near South Bend and Mishawaka, Jeff draws on over five decades of personal fishing experience to teach outdoor skills through both live and online courses. His approach focuses on creating meaningful family memories and fostering a connection with nature.
Show Summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Jeff Peterson about his unique approach to teaching fishing to families and beginners. Jeff shares how Reelin Family Fun offers online courses and live Zoom sessions designed to make fishing accessible and enjoyable, especially for those with little to no prior experience.
The conversation explores how fishing serves as a way to bring people together outdoors while creating lasting memories beyond just catching fish. Jeff discusses practical advice for getting started, including simple equipment recommendations, safety tips, and the importance of keeping fishing fun and low-pressure for kids and parents alike.
They also delve into topics like conservation, selective harvest, and how fishing encourages appreciation for the natural environment. Jeff emphasizes the social and health benefits of fishing, along with the value of passing down outdoor traditions across generations.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Fishing can be a powerful way to connect families and create lasting memories beyond just catching fish.
- ✓ Starting with simple gear like a bobber and basic tackle is effective and less intimidating for beginners.
- ✓ Online and Zoom-based courses can successfully teach fishing skills to people regardless of location or experience.
- ✓ Safety precautions such as wearing sunglasses and teaching kids to look behind before casting are essential for a positive experience.
- ✓ Practicing casting at home with non-hooked lines can build confidence and reduce frustration for beginners.
- ✓ Conservation and selective harvesting help maintain healthy fish populations and improve fishing quality over time.
- ✓ Proper fish handling and quick release increase the survival rate of catch-and-release fishing.
- ✓ Fishing encourages respect for the environment and awareness of issues like invasive species and pollution.
- ✓ Fly tying is an accessible and creative hobby that complements fishing and can be calming and rewarding.
- ✓ Fishing provides opportunities for social interaction, health benefits, and reducing screen time for children.
What You’ll Find on Reelin Family Fun
- ✓ Family-oriented fishing instruction designed for beginners and groups of all ages.
- ✓ Online courses combined with live Zoom meetings to provide interactive learning experiences.
- ✓ Practical guidance on equipment, safety, and techniques to build confidence and enjoyment.
- ✓ Focus on conservation education, selective harvest, and respecting natural habitats.
- ✓ Private online community for course participants to share stories, ask questions, and stay connected.
- ✓ Supportive mentorship with direct access to Jeff for ongoing help and advice.
Learn more about Reelin Family Fun and connect with Jeff at:
https://reelinfamilyfun.com/
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Podcast Transcript
This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.
Jason Elkins (00:01.102)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. Today we’re doing something a little different. We’ve got Jeff Peterson here. Jeff is the owner and founder of Reelin Family Fun. Jeff, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.
Jeff Peterson (00:17.026)
Thank you very much, Jason. Looking forward to it and excited to be here.
Jason Elkins (00:22.884)
Well, it’s going to be a lot of fun. And I mentioned that we’re doing something a little different as, you know, the regular listeners to the show. Now we generally interview kind of more full blown tour operators that, are offering tours, day trips, multi-day tours. But we’ve also had on authors and we’ve had on other podcasters. What I thought was interesting about you is you’re just doing something that’s, I kind of want to call it kind of a grassroots thing. That’s just kind of cool. That’s that I just thought it was interesting.
Last conversation we had, thought, man, I’m going to have you come on the show. I want to hear more about this. I think our listeners do as well. Jeff, on that note, in your own words, how would you describe what you’re currently doing now? What is real and family fun? What does that give us the 30 to 60 second elevator pitch? And we’ll go from there.
Jeff Peterson (01:15.704)
Yep. Well, we help families and groups. We teach them fishing. That’s kind of our grassroot thing, but we teach them this in a way to get them outdoors, to get them to spend time together, to make some memories. when we decided to do this podcast, I thought about it. So I I’m basically creating the adventurers to get out and do what you’re talking about with the other people that have tourism type things. And, it’s.
been really fun doing it because we do it in either a zoom course or we do a live event and it’s been really fun and as you know I’ve been doing it for 57 years I’ve been fishing that long I hate to say it but it’s kind of it’s kind of allowed me to have experiences with family that I’m teaching to others that my dad taught me and my family taught me.
Jason Elkins (02:10.638)
I think that’s very cool. Cause I know you’ve listened to some of the podcast episodes and anybody that has listened has probably come across at least a few of, of the people that we’ve spoken with that. That got started by somebody like you, know, somebody showed up in their life and expose them to whether it’s fishing, hiking, the outdoors, any, any number of things, but almost every one of them can look back and point at somebody.
that inspired them, whether it was a family member in their family, or maybe their mother got them involved in some sort of activity and they went to a camp and they met somebody like you that got them inspired. And that’s why thought this was kind of cool, because here we’re able to kind of start it. Where does it start at the beginning is to get kids out and get them inspired. So I love that you’re doing that. Where are you located?
Jeff Peterson (03:00.808)
I’m in Northern Indiana around South Bend, Mishawaka area. we’ve, we’ve developed the courses we’ve developed, are some of them are online and we can have them go through the course and then we do zoom meetings. So we bring like your podcast is the big world made small. It’s kind of what we’re doing with our courses and stuff. It kind of draw people in from all over the world that can partake in this. And that’s what makes it so much fun for me.
that I get to meet so many cool people and so many cool children and families that are looking to do this. And a lot of them don’t know exactly how to, so I’m kind of that person that gets them started.
Jason Elkins (03:37.923)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (03:44.728)
It’s pretty cool. mean, there’s, there’s a few things that have happened over the last several years that kind of got us to this point where most of us are so comfortable now doing zoom and having these virtual meetings. I mean, I think you’ve been around long enough and you kind of hinted on that, that if we’d imagine doing some sort of virtual fishing course online and sitting in front of a computer 10 years ago, that would have been, what are you talking about?
People would have thought you’re crazy if you said this is what I’m going to do. And now things have shifted enough that we’re able to do that, which, is pretty cool because quite honestly, when, when I was young and wanting to get out and about and do things, I was fortunate that I had some people around me, but not everybody does. So now it doesn’t matter. You know, they can be sitting in, in their house and you know, Milwaukee or California or whatever, and tap in, even if they don’t maybe have the resources to go out and fish locally.
or the confidence maybe just to do that or the inspiration and now they can kind of do that online. So it’s pretty cool, isn’t it?
Jeff Peterson (04:49.198)
Definitely. And we just got, we just finished up our first, version, our first sessions, I should say of the course. and we got good things happened. It, everything being the first time I did it, I wasn’t sure. Like you just said, how do you do a course online? You know, how do the people interact? So the zoom meetings were kind of a hybrid online course, live zoom meetings weekly.
Jason Elkins (04:50.873)
Yeah.
Jeff Peterson (05:18.252)
to help them answer their questions and it went well. I’m really excited. We’re doing a little tweaks to it that the families told us what they thought we should add that I didn’t even think of. So it’s really been exciting and I’m, we actually gave, they graduated so we give away a certificate that’s signed and all that kind of stuff and a smile on their faces that it just gets me so excited because he’s
interested and wanting to do it, but also the mom is excited that they get to spend time together doing an activity that they had no idea how to do.
Jason Elkins (05:57.636)
Well, it’s whether it’s a mom or a dad that maybe didn’t have exposure to that stuff growing up. When, know, when your kid comes to you and says, I want to go fishing. can feel incredibly overwhelming. If, if you’ve never been fishing or you just really have no idea where to start, back in the day, hopefully, you know, you could just take your kid into, I’m going to say Bass bro shop. Cause it’s just the one that’s on the top of my head, but any little,
Jeff Peterson (06:09.89)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (06:27.28)
fishing store, fly shop or whatever. And it’s intimidating to walk in there and say, look, I have no idea what I’m doing. My kid really wants to go catch a fish. I don’t know where to start. Maybe I don’t have the resources to pay a charter boat captain or a fishing guide to take me out for the day. so what I see here is this is something they can sign up.
No pressure, know, they’re sitting in their living room or in their kitchen watching this on Zoom, just having a conversation. There’s no pressure. They don’t feel like, I’ve got to buy $800 worth of equipment in order to spend five minutes talking to the guy and asking him where I should take my kid. So I can relate to that. That’s pretty cool. then what’s the goal? So by the end of the program, in your mind, kind of what’s your goal?
Jeff Peterson (07:17.24)
for them to be able to confidently go out and go fishing. And one of the things we also offer as a private Facebook group, just for the people that are through the course, that they can go on, they can share their stories, their videos, they have questions they can ask us. I’m available, I give them my cell phone numbers, they have my email address. I’m there to help them. If they have a problem, they can get a hold of me and I’ll try to guide them through. The main thing is for them to enjoy.
fishing, also get outdoors, enjoy everything that the outdoors has to offer and spend time with their family. And it’s, it’s really, as we spoke before, you know, I’ve been doing this for 57 years and you had mentioned the person who got me started and that was my dad. And that was in Ludington, Michigan. I think I was five years old and, Ludington, Michigan, Hamlin Lake.
Jason Elkins (08:04.175)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (08:12.614)
And we went there on vacations with family. So all that’s been ingrained in me for my whole life. How to enjoy the outdoors, but also enjoy it with family. I mean, we used to, we’d go fishing, but the whole experience we’d have campfires, we’d play cards at night, play euchre. Indiana is a big euchre state. Some people don’t even know what euchre is, but it’s something my family loved to do. We cooked and eat dinners together, you know, and it was just an amazing experience.
This kind of transpired when COVID hit me and my grandson, Jeremiah, we’re trying to figure out a way how we could do something because we enjoy teaching people. And we were able to do some group events locally with some boys and girls club as one central County parks is another. And we kind of got a feeling for what people were looking for and that they actually wanted it and needed it. And so we’ve developed our programs and what we do.
Jason Elkins (08:51.61)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (09:10.944)
around those things. I also mentioned to you that my grandson, my granddaughter, and my wife taught me a very valuable lesson. Even after all the years I was fishing, we went fishing and I was struggling to catch some fish. So I’m looking at the depth finder, I’m getting upset because we’re not catching fish because you know, me, I want to catch the fish. Well, they all told me they looked at me and they said, well, Papa, take a look around.
Look where we are. Look what we’re doing. And it took the pressure off me for catching the fish. Now I look at my trips in a whole different way. We get there before sunrise. You know, we love to see the sun come up as we’re getting ready to get the boat out. You know, the animals that are around the geese, the ducks, you know, and it’s important to me over all my years, I can identify most of the animals. Well, my grandkids can do that now too. So it’s really cool to see them.
enjoy the experience of not only and trust me I want to feel the tug on end of my line too. I want to catch fish but it’s not you know it’s not as hardcore for me. I’ve looked at it in a whole different aspect now and that’s kind of what we’re teaching people too that it’s not about the catch just about the fish you catch it’s about the time you spent together and also the memories you make.
Jason Elkins (10:34.256)
You know, I think that’s, that’s super important. It’s you basically said it. It’s not, it’s not about the, you could say it’s not about the fish. It’s not just about the fish, but it’s about all the other things that go around. I mean, honestly, going out fishing is actually just kind of a pretty good excuse to go out and enjoy nature, to enjoy, you know, the company with your family, friends, that type of thing. I remember I had a hot air balloon ride business for several years and
One of my crew one day, you know, was kind of getting all wrapped up in the ballooning and the balloon and all this stuff. And he came over to me and said, Jason, it’s not about the balloon. Look around, look around, you know, I’ve got five or six guys out that are just out. It’s their, their, you know, Saturday morning adventure. You know, they go, we go ballooning and it was just an excuse for us all to get together, to bond and made friendships and fishing’s, know, fishing’s the same way. And.
Some fishing guides, some fish, you know, we’ve spoken with a few of them here on the show. I’ve been around a lot of fishing guides. Some fishing guides are so intense about the fishing that they haven’t got to the point where you’ve gotten to where to kind of realize, hey, I need to kind of absorb and appreciate everything around me and help my clients to appreciate everything around me.
that intensity can be part of why people are intimidated about going fishing. You can get that intensity from the guy at the fishing shop. You go in there and he’s so focused on the fishing, it can be very kind of intimidating for people. So I love that you brought that up. And…
I don’t know where I’m going with this, but I think it’s important for anybody that’s thinking about going fishing is, know, go find somebody like yourself that can kind of appreciate all of it. You mentioned, I do want to dig into that train of thought really didn’t go anywhere. unless it prompted you to think something.
Jason Elkins (12:44.016)
What’s your advice to people if they haven’t done your program but they’re listening to the show? I mean, obviously my advice would be go look at your program. But for somebody that’s just listening to this and think, man, I’d like to take my kid fishing. What’s the best advice to get them into it other than doing your course? I think your course is great, but.
Jeff Peterson (13:08.416)
Yeah, the good thing for them is to just start with basics. You know, don’t try to, you know, there’s so many different lures, so many different presentations, so many different ways to fish. The best way to start out a family or a child that’s just learning a bobber is awesome. Bobber just a red worm. And you fish for bluegills, panfish, they’re the most abundant fish in the lake. They’re readily like to bite.
Jason Elkins (13:29.988)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (13:38.022)
And that is like just a little candy for them. You give them a little red worm, simple presentation and cast it out. There’s a lot of parks out there now that have fishing at their parks at whatever area they’re in. You know, you can search the internet to see if I have a park locally that has a pond and that’ll have some fish in it. And the other important aspect to remember is that if you’re an adult,
and you’re taking your child fishing, there are some states that require the adult to have a fishing license. Even if they just help them cast or do anything like that, it’s considered fishing. if the state DNR guy was there, possibly could be against the law. Hopefully it wouldn’t be, but that’s the way that where I’m in Indiana and Michigan reads that way that you have to have a license over a certain age. So.
Check regulations too, very important, DNR in your area. But that would be the basics and make sure that the child do safety things like wear sunglasses, not only for the sun, but to protect a lure or the hook coming back towards your child’s face. I’ve been protected many times where it’s just that. Well, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Jason Elkins (14:55.632)
Or the parents, the parents face, they should probably wear some glasses as well.
Jeff Peterson (15:00.416)
It protects you from the sun, but it’s also protecting an object from hitting the eye. And we don’t want it to be a negative experience. We want it to be fun and enjoyable. Some of the other things that we do offer, if they go to my website, we have some PDF free things that they can get. The do’s and don’ts of fishing with a child that I’ve learned over the years. And then basically some checklist stuff, what to bring, what to wear.
So yeah, for us, we also want to make sure that the child’s and, you know, they’re enjoying the experience. Another important factor, if it’s their first time doing it and they’ve caught some fish, they’re having fun, but then they get a little bored, it’s best just to stop. Go play on the playground, you know, go get something to eat. Just go do something else they can enjoy because the most important thing is positive experience and a safe experience.
Jason Elkins (15:34.063)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (15:58.468)
I think if you have never taken your kids fishing or haven’t been fishing yourself, you don’t, it’s hard to estimate the interest level. You your fish, your fish, your kid may be besting you to take them fishing, fishing, fishing. So you think, okay, great. We’re going to go do this and I’m going to go rent an Airbnb on a lake and we’re going to spend, you know, the three day weekend doing nothing but fishing.
You’re probably setting yourself up for a little bit of failure. would say, you know, kind of like you said, take it slow. Just go out for a couple, two, three hours. you know, and if the kid loses interest, don’t say, well, no, we, you know, we’ve, we plan this. We’re going to stay here all day. Cause that’s a pretty quick way to get a kid out of fishing.
And my experience, and I know because I’ve, I have young kids, well, they’re not young anymore, but I had young kids and I was that guy that would take them out. No, we’re going to, you know, we’d get in my boat and drift the river and it was eight, eight to 10 hours on the water. And it didn’t take long before they’re like, yeah, dad, I don’t really want to go fishing with you anymore. You know, and I wouldn’t bring enough stacks or, or other things to do. So I think that’s good advice.
Jeff Peterson (17:01.388)
Yeah. Yeah.
Jeff Peterson (17:12.952)
Yeah, and you just mentioned the snack thing. do want to touch on that. Snacks are very important to make sure they have those. cause my grandkids, I think I told you the story, but my grandchildren, when they were younger, got in the cooler without me knowing it. So by the time I got to the cooler, wasn’t much left. And then the other one that I want to touch on real quick is teach your child to look behind you behind them before they cast my.
brother when he was a lot younger, didn’t look before he casted and caught my sister in the back of the calf and then he set the hook on her. So we actually spent some time in the emergency room getting the hook removed. So it’s very important to teach your beginner children to look behind them before they cast.
Jason Elkins (17:53.882)
Uh-huh.
Jason Elkins (18:05.044)
That’s exactly why I mentioned that the parents should have glasses as well. Because you might think, I’m not actually fishing, the kid’s fishing, yeah, when you’re learning to cast, especially smaller kids, who knows where the lure or the hook is gonna go? And it’s always a good thing to kind of be paying attention to that.
Jeff Peterson (18:09.656)
Yep. Yep.
Jeff Peterson (18:27.328)
And some good advice also is to practice with them at home without the hooks to start with. You know, you can tie on a little washer, put on some split shot weights and go outside outside and just practice the casting. That way there isn’t a sharp object yet until they’ve learned a few times to practice. And then you can go to the pond or the lake and have a little confidence that they know what they’re doing and eliminate those mistakes.
Jason Elkins (18:34.52)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (18:55.31)
Well, I agree and it’s a lot less frustrating when for your child, probably for you as well. It’s a lot less frustrating if you’re out in the park or whatever. And this is just about casting practice because what happens, you know, anybody that’s done this, you know, get everything all lined up. You got your bobber, you got your hook, you got your split shot, you put the worm on the hook or whatever. And then the cast goes three feet.
or it goes in the tree or it goes wherever it goes, it can be incredibly frustrating for everybody. When it’s just a washer or a little nut or something tight on the end of the line and you’re out in the park and they cast it out, goes three feet, no big deal. You know, it goes 15 feet behind them, no big deal. And it’s just more fun, know, set a little target out on the grass or something to give them something to aim at. And then it’s more about just the casting. then once you’ve done and whether it’s with conventional or even fly fishing.
You know, it’s great to go practice your fly casting out in the grass. It’s a lot less frustrating. So just, that can be a fun thing in its own. You don’t, you don’t even need to know where the fish are. You just go out in the park and you know, get, so, so I think that’s great advice. And you also, you mentioned boat. I mentioned boat and I suspect a lot of people think, you have to have a boat to go fishing. So let’s, let’s address that myth right, right here. And now,
and give people kind of an idea of what’s really involved. What are they, you mentioned a license, but what’s really involved? What kind of investment might be out there for somebody that wants to do this? What did they not need? What do they need? That type of thing.
Jeff Peterson (20:34.85)
Well, we, like I mentioned before, the panfish are usually the most abundant species in a lake or a pond and fishing from shore, you can definitely catch fish that way. the main reason, main thing to look for is weeds, depending on the time of the year, but look for weeds. But you mentioned the cost Walmart, you know, just for example, around here, they carry a lot of kid friendly, fishing rods.
and they can start out with the push button spin cast ones. They have the spinning reels. We just bought a couple and there’s some that are $10 for it. And then you buy a small pan fish tackle box. It’s already got what you need in it. You your investment can be $25 to $40 just on a fishing rod and reel and stuff. And you know, they have the bobbers already in there. You know, I don’t…
Jason Elkins (21:24.624)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (21:30.646)
I’m not affiliated with any products, but something that is really cool that just came out is called a rocket bobber. And it is a bar that’s actually kind of weighted so you can cast stuff a long way without adding a lot of weight to your line. And we started using them last year when we were the guy up North showed us them and we love them. They’re very neutrally buoyant.
Jason Elkins (21:48.239)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (21:58.318)
And for a beginner, that’s a perfect bobber to get. the cost is probably around $40 just to get somebody going in it and to practice. And again, if you’ve got all my information and stuff, people are more than welcome to email me, call me if they have a question. I’ll help them. I can help them out, I’ll do it. Because I want them to have a fun experience. And I want the kids to get out there. Like I said, the people we just had go through our course.
Jason Elkins (22:18.926)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (22:26.466)
Her main reason for getting the child into it was what you mentioned earlier. He wanted to go fishing and she had no idea what she needed, what to do, how to do it. And she went through it and she loves it because she’s excited that they’re doing an activity together. And, you know, being outdoors, getting them, you know, those cell phones are great, but, you know, the kids can spend a lot of time on them.
The thing I always tell the parents use your cell phones for pictures for, you know, finding the location you’re going to fetch, some videos and you know, don’t do the, don’t let them play on it with the apps and everything else. When you’re doing this, try to, you know, get them to do it. Most kids we’ve taught, I told you before we did, uh, three, I think three days, four hours a day with kindergartners to fourth graders through the boys and girls club.
And this was indoors. They didn’t even get to actually go out and fish because they wanted just to learn about it. So we had our casting game set up and the kids loved it. They took it all in. You know, we did a presentation on safety and what to use and all that stuff. We had live bait there for them to play with. And it’s so cool to see the kids eyes light up to something that they’d never done before. And they’re excited about it. And I had mentioned to you before we had a young girl come up to us after
that particular presentation and said, her dad has fished. She never wanted to go, but after going through our program, she was going to go home and ask him if she could go with him. And that, that was so cool because it, I know what, what it can do and just giving them the chance. It’s so important nowadays just to spend time together and to get outdoors and to enjoy what we have because it’s.
It’s a wondrous place that I see cool stuff every time out and that’s what excites me.
Jason Elkins (24:24.484)
Yeah, and because…
People might not realize, I mean, there’s other things in the water besides fish. There’s other things on the bank of the river. There’s so many cool things to see. I remember my daughter used to…
really just kind of enjoy like I was into fly fishing. So I was working on teaching her fly fishing. I think she was more interested in looking under the rocks and finding the little bugs and the aquatic insects and, and, catching frogs or whatever. And it didn’t really matter. It’s fine. Okay. Yeah. We were quote unquote fishing, but those were the funner moments as opposed to those times when I put her in the boat and we’re going for 10 hours. That wasn’t so much fun. So I learned eventually.
And something back on the conversation of kind of getting equipped, because that can be a challenge for some people. Some people just have that mindset. If I’m going to buy something, I’m going to buy the best. And if you walk into a fishing shop and say, I want the best, you know, I want the best fishing rod and best lures and best this and best that.
In my experience, think that there’s the potential there that they’re going to sell you a bunch of stuff that’s going to not be very enjoyable, especially when you’re dealing with kids. So I think that I think what you said is wise. You know, Walmart, Cabela’s, wherever there’s places to get relatively inexpensive. Maybe you don’t want the absolute cheapest one, depending on what they have. I mean, they may have something there that’s.
Jason Elkins (25:57.964)
Not too well suited, but you don’t need some something super expensive. just buy it by the basics. Start with that. You mentioned bobbers, which anybody that’s listening to this isn’t sure what that means. The bobber is just something you put on the line that floats on top of the water. that, and then the bait hangs down, but elite I’m kind of simplifying it, basically the baits somewhere down beneath it. So when the fish grabs it, the bobber will move. So it gives you an indication. So, you know, a handful of bobbers, you know, a handful of hooks and.
and some worms or something like that is, yeah, it can be relatively inexpensive. And also some of the more advanced equipment can be a little bit less user friendly, less child friendly. And you don’t want to get out. I mean, I know you’ve had the experience where, you you’re with a kid and they’ve got an advanced bait casting reel or something like that. They cast it out and everything gets tangled up and then you’re spending 15.
Jeff Peterson (26:41.934)
Well, and it’s yeah, we
Jason Elkins (26:55.886)
minutes to an hour trying to untangle the reel and it gets unfun real fast. Real fast. Pardon the pun.
Jeff Peterson (27:05.102)
And it’s, you know, if they decide to go with the more expensive unit, um, rods and reels, the combos Walmart again, you know, it goes up to a hundred, probably $150 on what you want to get. My grandson and I, we’ve since he decided he loves fishing so much, we are adding rods and reels all the time. And we’re, our tastes has gone up quite a bit. We buy products that we know.
are good and reliable, but just for a beginner, just to see if they like it, you know, a cheaper version just to get them started is the way to go. And trust me, if they get into this, you know, you’re going to, you’ll have a lot of stuff. I mean, we, we probably got 40 rods and reels, you know, we’ve got two dozen tackle boxes. I mean, we, we’ve got it, but we love it. That’s what we do. And by grandson and I, spend time together with this and
I have a blast with it. I’m blessed with the fact that he loves to fish and that my wife, you know, when we got married, she fished too. So we actually honeymoon fishing. So fishing is a part of our life and has been since I was five. it’s, and as you can tell, have a
Jason Elkins (28:14.896)
Hmm.
Jason Elkins (28:21.744)
You bring up.
Jeff Peterson (28:25.238)
really good passion for it.
Jason Elkins (28:25.658)
I was going to, yeah, I was going to say you bring up a good point for people that, you know, it’s, it’s kind of a pun, but it’s easy to get hooked, you know, on fishing and it can sometimes take control of your life as speaking as somebody who, you know, quit has quit a few jobs to go fishing. When I was in, when I was at the university, you know, I was going to school in Montana at Montana state university in Bozeman and
Jeff Peterson (28:47.106)
Well, and it’s.
Jason Elkins (28:54.106)
There were quite a few days I’d be walking to class and I’d say, man, it’s really nice outside. think I’m going to go fishing instead. And you talk about the rods and the reels and the accumulation of equipment. It can get kind of out of control. Not everybody does that. But I’ll tell you what, would you rather have your kid out of control wanting a new fly rod or a new spin casting reel or a kayak or something like that or all the other things that they could be focused on?
Wouldn’t it be great if your kid’s like, I’m saving up money to buy a new fishing rod instead of I’m saving up money to buy a new phone or to save enough money to do whatever with it, right? So it’s.
Jeff Peterson (29:33.282)
Yeah, definitely. We’ve done fly fishing classes also and taught children and, you know, it was a family class. So we did the presentation. We actually had them tie a fly during the presentation and me and Jeremiah, my grandson would walk around, see how they were doing, help them to finish it off and all that stuff. And then we went out and actually went fishing at a pond with what they just tied. And you mentioned fly fishing.
Jason Elkins (29:58.914)
Mm-hmm, that’s cool.
Jeff Peterson (30:01.93)
And fly fishing, make it sound so hard to do. And it’s really not hard to do. It’s just a matter of timing. And we tie our own flies to, you you talk about the stuff we’ve collected over the years. I’ve got a big pile of fly fishing stuff that we use and we love fishing bluegills, fishing, you know, little topwater for a bluegill. That is so cool. You talked about the bobber. That’s a visualization for the child.
The bobber goes down. They’re excited because you don’t know what you have on the end. And. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (30:36.172)
It’s dopamine. Jeff, you and I can both, we both have to admit that fishing is very much a dopamine. It’s that, what are they, what’s the, when the casinos, they, it’s based on a intermittent reward behavior pattern or something that becomes addictive because you never know when you’re going to, you know, hit the jackpot or whatever. Fishing’s the same thing. You and I both know that. And which is part of why it can become so addictive.
Jeff Peterson (30:53.838)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (31:05.567)
is you never know.
Jeff Peterson (31:05.858)
And there are health benefits too. You just mentioned that, you know, the feeling you get. Yep.
Jason Elkins (31:09.402)
Yep. What a great way to get dopamine as opposed to doom scrolling on your phone or playing video games. So it feeds the same reward circuit, but the difference is you’re outside doing something that’s, you know, that is, I’m going to say healthy. I’m sure there’s a few people that probably have taken it so far that maybe it’s not healthy. Maybe myself included. Yeah.
Jeff Peterson (31:28.782)
No, it’s very healthy because you’re outdoors. You’re in the sun. For the parents that are thinking about their child may want to go fishing and stuff, there are health benefits for it. The stress level goes down, not always for the parents, for the beginner, but the stress level does go down with the kids. But I notice it when I’m out fishing. I breathe a little easier.
Jason Elkins (31:41.572)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (31:55.01)
You know, I’m looking around. just, feel that I’m less stressed. My heartbeat slows down until I catch a fish, of course, then it spikes again. But you know, it, there is so many, and if they want to, if they search health benefits of fishing on Google, they’ll find the benefits that there are for those parents that are thinking, I want something healthy for my child to do. That’s not only fun, but healthy. Have them search that and there’s a whole list of stuff.
Jason Elkins (32:02.746)
you
Jeff Peterson (32:24.024)
So it is being outdoors is very beneficial, not only for the fun, the excitement, the things that we like to do, but the health benefits involved this, know, being out in the sun, vitamin D, you know, and the stress levels and that stuff. It just, it’s really a cool place to be.
Jason Elkins (32:24.048)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (32:43.012)
Well, and the conversations that you get to have, you know, with between parents and children or just adults, you know, a group of people going out fishing that you’ll have conversations, especially if you’re bobber fishing, you know, with worms, you’ve got a little bit of time to sit around and kind of chat and think, and then it gets interrupted by a bit of excitement. And so that can be great. And then also if.
Jeff Peterson (33:06.638)
Well, that’s that’s I’m glad you brought that up because that is a very important factor that we have seen personally. You get the child away from the cell phone, get the parent and the child together in what you’re talking about fishing. The conversations tend to go more than just about fishing and you’re learning together, but you’re also checking stuff out. And we like to go to lunch afterwards after we’re done fishing. We mainly fish mornings.
Jason Elkins (33:26.158)
yeah.
Jeff Peterson (33:36.854)
And when we go to lunch, it’s amazing. The conversation stays with the fishing. You talk about the enjoyment you had, the fun you had, and you talk. It’s so much easier to open up conversations with them in an area like that. So I’m glad you brought that up because that is very valuable.
Jason Elkins (33:57.136)
You know, it’s, I had two sets of grandparents as most people do at some point, you know, they may not necessarily be close with both sets and I had good relationships with both sets, but I had one grandfather that he was the one that took me fishing. He was the one that got, got really got me into it. And we would, you know, hop in the truck and go up in the mountains and spend all day out in the mountains and fishing and, talking. And I just remember had such.
a strong connection with him around that topic. mean, other things came up, of course, but it was kind of, this was our thing that we shared. And I remember I gave a eulogy at his funeral when he passed and the eulogy was about how he had taken me fishing and, how I liked fishing because my grandpa liked fishing and I like, and I wanted to be like my grandpa. And it brings upstairs just thinking about it. You know, I mean, I was standing up there.
17 year old high school kid, you know, crying, delivering this eulogy, speaking about that, he really, really, really left a mark. I had a great relationship with my other grandfather as well. But that fishing was created a connection that I really would not have had with him otherwise. You know, he was an interesting guy. He was a good, good dude. wasn’t super talkative. You know, when we weren’t fishing, you know, I was hanging out at their house. He was there.
Talk a little bit, but man, was when we were fishing. It was just, I was a chatterbox. I still am a chatterbox. And I just have so many fond memory. remember the time when we had a stringer of fish, you me and my brother were with him and we had a whole stringer of fish. We’d been out fishing all day on, on his boat. And we’d come back and I stuck the stringer in the ground, um, on the bank of the lake. And we kept fishing a little bit more. And then I guess I got bored and I started playing with the stringer and managed to.
let go of the stringer. So the whole stringer fish was floating away in the lake and he was so calm. I wish I had that kind of patience and calmness or the times that he was undoing the tangles and the reels because we weren’t listening to how we were supposed to cast or whatever. So obviously a lot of fun memories. I think that that human connection part is such an important aspect of that.
Jeff Peterson (36:10.848)
And we get we get adults. I’ve had actually grandparents come up to me and say, you know, I went fishing at a young age. I don’t remember how to do it. Can you help me learn something? So when I take my grandkids fishing, I don’t look like a fool or I don’t know what I’m doing so I can look good in front of the grandkids. And the parents the same way the parents will will be in a presentation. We’ll get done with it. The kids will be out fishing. know, Jeremiah and Jada, my grand daughter, I’ll be out helping them.
And the parents will come up to me and say, man, I went fishing so many years ago and I have such fond memories, grandparents, aunts, uncles, parents. It is so cool to get them to relive a memory that they may not have even thought about for years.
Jason Elkins (36:55.408)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. It just, I mean, just you and I talking about fishing is causing me to, you know, come back with all these memories and thoughts of both with my grandfathers, you know, my specific grandfather. My mom took me fishing quite a bit after that, but I think it was, I think it was, you her dad kind of started us on it. She didn’t really, it wasn’t into fishing that much when she was growing up.
but she saw how much it impacted my relationship with my grandfather and she wanted to continue that and would take his fishing and.
I have memories of standing in, I think it was the Oswego River in upstate New York, with water up to our nipples and trying to catch salmon. And my mom was such a good sport, standing out there with us. And it was a lot of great things. And that’s a big part of why I wanted to have this conversation with you today, that maybe somebody’s listening to this, that fishing is not my thing, but.
Okay, but it might be the thing for your kid. And if right now they’re sitting on the couch playing video games all the time, maybe this is an opportunity. Maybe this is what I could call, hey, here’s something you can take them to go do. They’ll get the dopamine heads and they’re doing it in a much better way. The other thing I want to touch on, cause you brought up fly tying. So anybody that’s listening to this is not aware of what that’s really all about. I guess in a nutshell,
Well, you do it. You give us the idea. What is a fly? And what do you mean when you say the kids tied their own fly and caught a fish with it? So give people kind of a visual of what we’re talking about.
Jeff Peterson (38:38.574)
Okay, the first thing to kind of remember when you’re fishing with like a spinning rod or a bait cast or anything like that, the weight of the lure carries the line out to where you’re casting. Now in fly fishing, it’s the weight of the line that carries your lure, which is a fly, you know, that was pretty much can be weighted, but cannot be. So what you’re basically doing in fly tying, you’re using synthetic materials, natural materials, deer hair gets used, squirrel hair gets used.
Jason Elkins (38:49.669)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (39:08.022)
And what you’re doing is trying to imitate an insect, some larvae that, and for people that don’t know in streams and in ponds and lakes, there are larvae of insects that start in the bottom of the lake. And then they come up and end up being flying insects and there’s worms. basically you’re imitating something that the fish has eaten before, or, you know, something that makes them mad that says, Ooh, that looks like food. I’m going to eat it.
So in fly tying, you’re imitating insects, but they get really creative. There’s people that tie with deer hair to make it look like frogs. They tie insects that make dragonflies, caddisflies, mayflies. I mean, there’s so many different insects, but yeah, it’s basically imitating something the fish would like. And you’re doing it with fibers and hair that makes…
Jason Elkins (39:38.383)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (40:06.274)
The fly basically weightless, the ones that you want to be on the surface, but the ones you want to sink, can tie a little weight to it on the hook. And it’s just a process of starting with a bare hook and you just start tying it with it. Anybody that wants to take it up, it’s basically called a recipe for the fly. You look at what I call a recipe, but it’ll tell you the size hook, what materials you need. And usually the way it is written,
is the way it goes on the hook. You start at the back and end at the front.
Jason Elkins (40:37.957)
Okay.
And what’s pretty cool now with all the YouTube, all the online resources, you know, back in the day, they had some books, you could buy a book and there’d be pictures and you could try and figure out how to do this. But now you can go, there’s tons of resources online for, you know, fly tying, start with basic stuff. What I think is interesting about fly tying and why I wanted to circle back around that is because whereas…
The fishing itself tends to be kind of a dopamine type of thing. I think the fly tying is more of trying to think of maybe a serotonin type thing. It’s generally sitting, you can sit in front of the TV and do it if you want, but it’s, you’re sitting at a workspace, you’ve got a little, or maybe your kitchen table or whatever, you’ve got some materials and you sit there and make these flies and you can become very focused.
on what you’re doing. And some people are able to sit there for hours and tie flies and maybe they tie a bunch of them or maybe they spend hours and they tie three, whatever. But I’ve heard it called knitting for men. I’m not sure if you’ve heard that expression, but it’s kind of like knitting for men. Some people like to knit because it’s the same thing. They knitting, just kind of, it can be fairly repetitive.
Jeff Peterson (41:52.558)
No, I never had. Yep.
Jason Elkins (42:04.248)
some design elements involved, and you can just kind of quit thinking about the rest of the world for a little while.
Jeff Peterson (42:09.36)
exactly. it is an art, I call it almost an art form because some of the flies people tire are so amazing that you wouldn’t have thought that it started with a bare hook and it ends where they are.
Jason Elkins (42:14.447)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (42:23.588)
Well, you use the term recipe, right? So yes, there’s a recipe. There are standards for particular flies. You can say, OK, I want this is what I’m going to tie and this is the recipe that I’m going to follow. But it’s like anything. It’s like cooking. Maybe you start with recipe, but you know what? I’m going to switch out. Instead of using the onions, I’m going to use fennel or something like that. And you can do that with fly tying as well. So you can get very, very creative.
Even if you never use the fly for fishing, even if it doesn’t actually look like anything that a fish is ever gonna see in the river, it can be fun. Cause you can make elaborate designs that are just beautiful. Some people will make just, it is art, you know, they’ll actually frame it and put it in a little shadow box and put it on a wall. So here’s the cool thing about fly tying is you don’t actually have to go fishing. Maybe you don’t even want to go fishing or you can’t. Maybe physically it’s a challenge.
But fly tying is something that can be a pretty cool hobby for people because of the benefits of just being able to kind of zone out and focus on something specific. So maybe some people with ADHD or something, it might be good and calming and soothing and that type of thing. Maybe they’re not going to get a lot of dopamine out of it or maybe they do. I don’t know. I don’t know the science behind it. But anyway, I thought that I thought that the conversation about fly tying would be would be useful.
Jeff Peterson (43:44.054)
yes. And my grandson, I taught him to do it. He, you know, he loves all types of fishing and he asked me about fly fishing. I said, okay. I said, you want to learn to fly. I’ll sit down or fly fish and we’ll tie some flies together. Well, I got him to do it. Bought him a little kit at Bass Pro Shop. Very inexpensive, you know, like 40 bucks had some materials in it to start with. Again, I got a half a wall full of materials over the years, but
Jason Elkins (44:10.064)
you
Jeff Peterson (44:11.84)
He was able to sit down and concentrate and do it. And, know, he was so excited when he got done to show me and show his grandmother and show his mom, everybody had to see the fly he tied. And it is the good thing is you can actually use flies with spinning gear and stuff like that. You just have to add a little weight to get it down. You can’t really do a surface bait with it, but if you have a fly that goes under the water.
that would imitate like a nymph of some sort. You can actually use it on a spinning gear under a bobber, so to speak, and that nymphs waited so it goes down. You can catch them that way. But for ones that are interested in the fly fishing, it is a fun sport to do. like you were saying, in the early days, I didn’t have anything. There wasn’t the internet or anything like that.
Jason Elkins (44:43.024)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (44:48.196)
Hmm?
Jeff Peterson (45:10.378)
And the only place I had to get my fishing tackle was a hardware store down the road. They had one aisle. So I would go down that aisle when I made some money mowing lawns or doing whatever I did. I went there and immediately spent my money and I would spend, you know, an hour walking up and down this one little aisle at the store. And back then, like you said, the only things you can find there’d be like one or two magazines to learn about this stuff. I
back and looking back on it, I played sports, you know, I played baseball and basketball as a kid, but I was always drawn to fishing. It became my passion. And, you know, I remember buying every magazine I could find, which wasn’t very many back then to learn. Nowadays, people have so many different options to do, to learn and to figure this stuff out. But we, you know, we developed our courses and stuff because we also, we teach the fishing.
but we also teach conservation. We teach selective harvest to keep our fisheries healthy, you know, to make sure they know that. We teach some etiquette my dad taught me years ago, you know, leave it better than you found it. You know, we, go ahead.
Jason Elkins (46:23.312)
Well, I think this is a probably good point to actually have the conversation around harvesting fish, catch and release, because I think you both, both you and I know, or in my experience, some people have resistance to fishing because of something related to, you know, catch release or, or harvesting fish. think a lot of people intuitively think fishing is all about going out and catching a fish and killing it and eating it.
But you and I both know that there’s an awful lot of fishermen out there that don’t kill anything. You know, they really, and I’m not judging one way or the other. I actually think there is some value to harvesting a fish periodically, especially early on. think, I actually think if we eat meat and we eat fish, then I think, I think it’s a good thing to personally harvest something. think it reminds us of, you know,
I don’t want to go into a political conversation so much about that. But I’ve, you know, I grew up hunting. I grew up fishing. I’ve eaten a lot of fish. I’ve eaten things I’ve harvested. I personally think that’s good. think I’m actually closer connected to my food maybe than some people that have never done that. I don’t know. But, but anybody that’s listening to this, I think it’s worth discussing with them about catching release and the fact that you can go out and go fishing.
you know, your whole life and never you might. Well, I’ll let you discuss that. What do you want to share?
Jeff Peterson (47:53.114)
Okay, well the conservation aspect of it, technology has improved so much. You know, when I was taught to go fishing, we’d go out to the edge of the weed line in our boat, dad would anchor up and that’s where we would fish. Nowadays you have depth finders, there’s live scope stuff they have now, is you you can find the fish rather easily. And the important thing that I try to teach is that conservation is important to the fish.
and the fishery, but also to us. We want to keep the fish in there. We want to catch, who doesn’t love to catch a big fish? Well, you have to, when you harvest and there’s nothing wrong with harvesting some fish, there are the regulations say you can keep X amount of fish. Okay. We don’t, in my area, you’re allowed to keep 25 pan fish. I never keep 25. If we keep fish, we keep 10.
Jason Elkins (48:28.793)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (48:47.93)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (48:48.686)
The selective harvest that I mentioned comes into the aspect you’re harvesting the most abundant species, you know, size structure of that fish and throwing back the big ones because those are the genetics you want to keep in the lake to provide excellent fishing for years to come. They’ll be your prolific spawners. They’re going to be the ones to keep the fish larger, the growth structure in ponds and stuff. For example, if you over harvest a bigger bluegill,
and keep taking them out, you’re going to end up with four inch bluegills. They’re not going to ever get any bigger because the genetics have gone down over the years. Selective harvest, like I said, is to select the most abundant size structure of a fish, which most of the time for us, it’s the mid range structure. You know, for us around here, a 10, 11 inch bluegill is huge. That’s a giant bluegill. So we try it. If we’re going to keep a bluegill, we’ll keep seven, eight inches.
Jason Elkins (49:41.657)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (49:48.27)
And you know, we fillet all our fish and so, you know, you can keep as many as you want as the regulations allow. But to keep our fisheries healthy, we have to start thinking of the mindset of protecting it. And we don’t during the spawning cycles of the fish in my area, which they’re just getting ready to get going in. We don’t keep any fish during this time. We let them do their thing. Hatch the
you know, and then after that we’ll start selective harvesting, keeping a few fish as we go. The days, unfortunately, you know, some people, and it’s not wrong because legally they can still do it, law says they can, but you know, when I was younger, we did big family fish fries. You know, we’d have 200 fillets and everybody would gather up for the fish fries. And that’s fun and great, but over the years I’ve noticed that that type of
Jason Elkins (50:34.052)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (50:44.93)
thing can decrease the fishing, you know, the size structure of fish. We fish the lake locally here and I’m not going to name it, but we catch years ago when I started fishing with my grandson, we’d catch 10, 11 inches. Well, then over the years, now we’re bringing in 15 and a half inch, 16 inch crappies. And that’s because the bigger ones have been allowed to get big. And if you
Jason Elkins (51:01.722)
Hmm?
Jeff Peterson (51:14.252)
keep the bigger fish your structure is going to end up going down and the quality of fishing won’t be as good.
Jason Elkins (51:22.33)
So is that on the Department of Natural Resources, the organizations that oversee the fishery, or is it on the actual fishermen?
Jeff Peterson (51:33.806)
A lot of you can, there are organizations that talk about this stuff. The selective harvest aspect for me began with fishing shows like the in fishermen is one that really talked about selective harvest and why we do it. There’s a lot of scientific studies that show catch and release. As you mentioned, you keep releasing a big fish and it’s you release it properly, proper holding techniques.
Jason Elkins (51:34.463)
Whose job is that?
Jeff Peterson (52:03.79)
If it’s hot out, don’t take it out and hold out for a picture for five, 10 minutes. You want to keep it in the net, bring it up, get your picture, let it go. And that way the fish has the chance of surviving. There are fish in my area, muskies, for example, that the regulations say you can keep one, but it’s frowned upon. In some of the…
Wisconsin I fish a lot in the summer for our vacation and that area is a big musky area and you know years ago and I look you were mentioning years ago thing you know and I don’t know the exact years but they used when they caught we’re talking 20-30 years they would catch a musky and hold it on the side of the boat take out a revolver shoot it in the head and then take it to the bar to show her made a big fish they caught and they were eating
Jason Elkins (52:59.407)
Yeah.
Jeff Peterson (53:00.418)
They were eating muskies back then. That philosophy has changed. They don’t do that anymore up there at all.
Jason Elkins (53:08.154)
Do you think, I just had a thought that occurred to me. Do you think that the advent of digital photography and now the fact that everybody has a camera in their pocket actually has helped fish conservation? Because what you just said is catch a big musky, take it up to the bar and show everybody the big fish they caught. Because I know a little bit about fishermen, right? They kind of like to brag and show off what they’ve done. And then I was like, well, yeah, they couldn’t take a…
picture of it. I mean, they could take a picture, but they couldn’t get that immediate gratification, that immediate validation of look at me, aren’t I great? And now we’ve got Instagram, Facebook, and you you catch a big trout out in Montana. I mean, honestly, I guess if you catch a big trout in Montana, or wherever, I’m just saying Montana, because that’s where I was at. You know, you take a big nice picture of that big trout.
You release it, you walk away with this cool picture that you get to put on your LinkedIn profile or your Tinder profile or whatever. Not that I would suggest fish pictures on Tinder. you’ve got that. That’s more enjoyable than having to clean a fish and cook it and that, you know, deal with it.
Jeff Peterson (54:26.808)
Well, you mentioned that and in some ways it’s good, but in some ways it’s bad. The social media aspect of it that, and when I take pictures and stuff, I try not to show the background because of the fact that there are people that can physically figure out where you’re fishing and it does.
Jason Elkins (54:32.73)
Okay.
Jason Elkins (54:46.832)
Spoken the words of a true fisherman right there. I hear you, Jeff.
Jeff Peterson (54:51.278)
The problem is with that that not everybody thinks like I do. Social media if look on it, there are some people that look at all the big fish I caught, look at all the ones I’ve kept and look at me, know, it’s, legally again, they can do that. But to me, it’s a bad thing because now you’ve taken out all these big fish instead of taking the right size structure, this fishery is going to hurt. But there are
It is good that the fact that you can take pictures, you can take videos, but like you said, I guess the good thing is they’re not killing the fish just to show people.
Jason Elkins (55:32.366)
Right, yeah, and that’s, guess, where I was going with that, but I also realized that…
Jason Elkins (55:40.108)
some well it’s a whole thing right there’s some people that really get upset seeing a fish picture i get that and the presumption is depending on how you take the picture and how you kind of set the stage is that every time i see a fish picture online or something i think that’s another it’s a dead fish i guess you know could come up for some people
But maybe those pictures where it’s like the fish is still kind of, I’m using hand and arms gestures here. I know we’re on a podcast, but where that fish is dipped down in the water or a picture of the fish being released or, you know, I don’t know. Because, because.
Jeff Peterson (56:16.942)
It’s it does work. We we will, you know, in our courses and anywhere I can tell people I talk about proper holding techniques. You know, if you’re going to release the fish, make sure you’re holding it properly. You’re not a big fish. You hold them by the mouth. The way the fish is pulling down on his jaw. And there are sometimes if it’s a very large fist, break their jaw. So grabbing it by the mouth and bringing it up, holding it, supporting it is good with the muskies and pike fish that have teeth.
Jason Elkins (56:25.712)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (56:38.768)
Yeah.
Jeff Peterson (56:46.36)
There are proper holding techniques too that you don’t want to lip a pike. You don’t want to lip a musky and you know, there’s ways to get up. Well, there’s ways to get up under the gills, you know, not into the gills, but the slits that are under the fish and have them video or get on Google it again to see it. But you can do it to where you’re not hurting the fish. You get up quick pick back in the water. for example, some muskies I talk about in Wisconsin.
Jason Elkins (56:53.392)
It won’t hurt them, it’ll hurt you.
Jason Elkins (57:03.109)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (57:16.014)
At the water temperature reaches the 70 degree. I think it’s mid 70s. I don’t know the exact temperature rate. They tell people don’t even take the muskies out of the net. Leave it in the net. If you want a picture, take a picture of it in the net and then release it. If you bring it out of the water during, you know, it’s already stressed out because the water is too warm and you’ll catch them accidentally fishing for walleyes bass and it’s best to just keep them in the water. So just.
have the well-being of the fish in mind if you’re going to release it to make sure you’re releasing it in the best shape it possibly can be to survive.
Jason Elkins (57:53.712)
Yeah, because if you have this attitude, well, I didn’t bring any fish back. Well, doesn’t mean you didn’t leave half a dozen dead fish in the lake because you mishandled them or if you, you know.
Jeff Peterson (58:03.528)
And that’s, know, in ice fishing, you know, during the winter months, a lot of the fish will go to the basins of the lake. And there’s something, it’s called barrel trauma. If you bring them up too quick, if their swim bladders can’t adjust, you’ll have bulging eyes and they’ll really, the fish will look like it swims away, but they’ve done studies that some of them, not all of them, some of them end up under the ice dead.
Jason Elkins (58:18.125)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (58:30.146)
you know, laying up right on the ice because they brought them out of too deep of water. And some fish can adjust their bladders, but a lot of the panfish cannot. There’s a lot of studies going on about that on how to do it, how to properly release it. And, you know, they tell people, you know, try not to fish over a certain depth for the fish, but it’s, you know, and again, if you’re going to keep fish, that’s fine. Whatever ones you bring up, keep, because they’re, they’re probably going to die anyway. Keep them.
you’re harvesting them, that’s good. Because fish are really good to eat. They are nutritious. I remember the fishermen saying they’re nutritious and delicious. But nowadays with the technology and everything we have, I’ve lowered my fish keeping. We don’t keep hardly like we used to. But again, legally, they can keep what the DNR regulations say.
As a fisherman and I think I want to touch on this also that it’s really important if you buy a fishing license to me, it’s your responsibility now to take care of the fishery and to want it to serve, you know, for future generations to make it for my grandkids, their kids, that they can enjoy the sport that I’ve enjoyed all my life. And it’s so important to look into the conservation aspects and nowadays.
you know, the way the world is with recycling and all that stuff, the mindset’s changing with a lot of people. And it’s a good thing that we do look at the fisheries as a resource, but you know, if we take the wrong ones out, it’s not renewable like it should be.
Jason Elkins (01:00:18.008)
Right. And also when it comes to conservation and protection, I imagine that, you you take two kids, two people, whenever one person is introduced to fishing, exposed to fishing, spends time on the water and the other one is not. I think the person that has spent some time fishing, you just kind of walk through the world a little bit differently. You look at storm drains on the street a little differently. You look at, you know,
somebody changing their oil, dumping their oil or gas station spills. You look at things, you kind of start to think about the water a little bit more, where if you don’t do any fishing, you don’t spend any time on the water. I’m not sure you really think about things like drainages and where things go. So I think it’s a good, just from that standpoint, you know, if you want to kind of teach your kid to.
to appreciate those things. They’re gonna get that out of fishing, I think, for sure.
Jeff Peterson (01:01:14.518)
And they’re taught this stuff, you know, that there are a lot of organizations, Unity Gardens is one that’s locally, have, it’s just as the name implies, they have a garden that the community can come use, but they teach all these things about the renewable resource, you take care of your garden and that stuff. And they’ve asked us, even though it’s about gardening, we’ve actually done some fishing classes for them.
Jason Elkins (01:01:36.176)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (01:01:39.718)
and have talked about, you we go to their events, we have our booth, we have our games and stuff, and we talk to people about this. And the mindset’s totally changed from what it was 30, 40 years ago with looking at things differently. You you mentioned that oil thing, and I know my, you know, my dad, when I was still a kid, I remember, you know, just pull the plug out, let the oil go in the ground, it’s fine. That’s where it came from. You know, but it was, you know, it’s a bad thing.
Jason Elkins (01:01:54.17)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:02:04.524)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jeff Peterson (01:02:09.546)
Invasive species, for example, you know, they’ve taken over a lot of our lakes, get them zebra mussels for one have gotten into a lot of our lakes. They make the lake clear, good and bad. But they found some fish are eating it. So that’s good. But something to touch on is that your minnows that you fish with that you get at a bait store or your night crawlers you get at a bait store. Those are not native fish and are not native.
Jason Elkins (01:02:30.896)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (01:02:38.07)
minnows, not native night crawlers, which I did not even think about that. But just recently I found out that if you’re fishing with night crawlers, after you use them, keep them in the container and throw them in the trash. Don’t let them go in the ground because they’re not a non native night crawler to our area. Same thing with the minnows. If you introduce a non native species of minnow by just dumping your minnow bucket into the lake, now there’s a chance maybe detrimental things will happen.
Jason Elkins (01:02:42.137)
I didn’t either.
Jason Elkins (01:02:54.607)
Hmm.
Jeff Peterson (01:03:07.49)
you’ve introduced a new minnow that shouldn’t be there. And it’s going to upset the whole cycle. yeah, it’s and recycle fishing line, for example, monofilament line, you can recycle it. There are companies, Berkeley is one. And if you go out fishing, if you see these tubes are usually PVC tubes at the lake at the launch, you can actually take your monofilament line and put it in there. Berkeley turns them into benches.
Jason Elkins (01:03:10.628)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (01:03:34.636)
okay. That’s cool. All right.
Jeff Peterson (01:03:36.514)
So you’re not throwing away the line. I’ve seen it. I’m sure you might’ve seen it since you fish, but an animal tangled in used fishing line, dead or dying, suffering, that can be prevented just by recycling or cutting it into little one inch pieces and then throwing in the trash. Cause then you’re not going to have the same problem as you would if you released it in a wad.
Jason Elkins (01:03:43.768)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (01:04:00.816)
Yep. Jeff, there’s a lot of stuff, a lot of topics that I think that anybody that just listened to this conversation realized, wow, this is not a small subject. can go into conventional fishing, bait fishing, fly fishing, conservation, communication, human connection. There’s so many things that we already have just discussed in this hour. I’m curious, I feel like we could do several more episodes.
Jeff Peterson (01:04:26.582)
you
Jason Elkins (01:04:27.354)
But I’m curious, Jeff, what should I have asked you? What did I forget to ask you? Or what else do you want to make sure our listeners know either about you fishing life in general before we wrap up?
Jeff Peterson (01:04:38.968)
Well, I think we covered a lot of it. And the most important thing to think about fishing is, you know, it can be done as a communal thing with groups, with families, with friends, getting outdoors. I mean, I’ve mentioned the vacations we had and how much we enjoyed grilling out, the fishing experience, playing cards, all that stuff brings us closer together and helps us to connect.
with the people we want to hang out with the people we love and connection with the social media with the phones right now is kind of hard. I’ve seen it. I’ve seen it in restaurants. I’ve done it. So, you know, you’ll be in there and you’ll start scrolling and get sucked into scrolling where you’re not spending time with your, your family, your friends and the outdoors and fishing is an awesome way to do that. And like I said before, I think you’re going to have all my information at the end of this.
Jason Elkins (01:05:19.696)
We’re all guilty.
Jeff Peterson (01:05:36.098)
have them feel free to contact me. I’m happy to help. I’m happy to show them, know, give them hints, give them help, whatever they need, because I’m so sold on the fact how important fishing is and being outdoors to us human races.
Jason Elkins (01:05:54.008)
well said and something else that just popped into my head as we were wrapping that up was about this human connection thing. I’ll tell you what, if I was someone that maybe didn’t have a large friend network, I show up at a new place, I work online so I don’t have a lot of personal human-human interaction.
Fishing actually is a really good way to make friends that maybe is not obvious because you might think, well, I don’t have anybody to go fishing with. So therefore fishing is a solitary sport and I would just be out there doing it by myself. What’s great about fishing. Yeah, it’s solitary in the sense that if you want to be, you can decide where you want to go. There’s a lot of places you can go. But I’ll tell you what I’ve met. I’ve had a lot of conversations with people sitting on boat docks, piers, the bank of the river.
you know, at restaurants close to fishing, look, you know, there’s, it’s actually a really good way to get out and meet people. And we kind of have a little bit of a loneliness thing going on in the world right now, where people, you know, are isolated and don’t have those opportunities. And I would say this is a pretty good one, you know, wouldn’t you? mean, that’s kind of, yeah, it’s a great way to meet people.
Jeff Peterson (01:07:06.476)
Yeah. Yeah. The social media aspect you mentioned is that is a good thing about social media is meeting people doing that. And we, know, the Facebook groups I formed are more private just to keep bad things out of my Facebook groups. But it, you know, with the course we’ve done, it’s a private group. They’re encouraged to
Jason Elkins (01:07:26.864)
I get it.
Jeff Peterson (01:07:33.102)
stay in there after they do the course, after they do stuff with us. You know, and like I mentioned before, they can post pictures, videos, ask questions, you know, meet other people. And that’s the thing about the course that I mentioned before, due to the fact that it’s online, but also Zoom, the interaction in the Zoom, families that are interested in exactly what we’re teaching are all together in there, and they may learn from each other too.
Jason Elkins (01:07:57.978)
Mm-hmm.
Jeff Peterson (01:08:01.864)
as they asked their questions. That part of the Zoom thing is so fun for me. I wasn’t sure how it was going to work. And we just completed our first session and it went great. The kids asked questions. They were enthusiastic. They were interested. to me, I’m excited about getting our next session going and to continue doing what we’re doing because everything came out
what the mom wanted was exactly what we gave her. She learned to fish. She learned to do an activity worth her child. And the kids excited about it. And the connection to them has grown. She’s a mom that homeschools. And the one we talked to, she is on the road a lot. She has a delivery business. So she said she’s going to take her fishing rods with her while they go on these delivery trips.
Jason Elkins (01:08:57.146)
Okay.
Jeff Peterson (01:08:59.278)
throughout the whole state, know, the United States, she’s all over the place. And I told her, I said, well, look on the DNR stuff in areas you’re at, look for ponds, look for parks. And I guarantee the stuff that we taught you is gonna work if there’s panfish. So she’s thrilled and excited about being able to do this on the road with her son.
Jason Elkins (01:09:21.402)
Congratulations. I’ve had the pleasure of this conversation. You know, we’re recording this as a video. Most people listen to it, the audio, but I’ve had the opportunity to watch your face through the conversation and I could see the passion and I can see the, you know, it’s just, it’s really cool to see that. And I’m happy we had a chance to have this conversation. I will have in the show notes, we’ll have a link over to your website. So I encourage anybody that’s listening that is remotely interested in this type of thing, take a look, you know, reach out to Jeff and.
Let’s get, you know, if this conversation got a few more kids or just people in general out on the water, then I think we’ve done a great job here. So Jeff, thank you so much for helping me work on making the big world feel just a bit smaller. Appreciate you.
Jeff Peterson (01:10:05.538)
Yep. I thank you so much for having me, Jason. I’ve enjoyed it thoroughly and, and, I can, I can talk about this for a long time. It is my passion. And, I was excited to be on this. And like I said, I’ve watched your, a lot of your podcast stuff that you were sending me and seeing, and it does that the internet thing does make the big world smaller because we connect in different ways than we used to. So thank you again.
Jason Elkins (01:10:31.546)
Pretty cool, it? Well, I look forward to collaborating with you on some more projects. Thanks, Jeff.
Jeff Peterson (01:10:36.898)
Thank you.
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