Once upon a time in a very small and remote village located in the shadows of Mount Fuji, Japan a child was born. The child was a boy, born into a long line of Japanese Royalty. The boys born into this family were raised to be strong with the sword and smart in wisdom. For generations this family was respected and looked upon as a noble and upstanding family unit. Back to the boy……..ever since he was a wee lad he was always drawn to the water. When other little boys were working on their judo chops and leg whips he was sneaking off to the local fishing holes and catching fish. At first he mostly caught carp and other native Japanese fish. Then one day an American showed up in town and he was loud and bold and stood out like a sore thumb. Most people didn’t like this man but this young boy became friends with the “Ugly American”. His name was Gary and he was from Indiana…..that’s right…..Gary Indiana. Well the boy’s family didn’t like the fact that he seemed to care more about fishing than learning the ways of his ancestors. So his family for bided him to go fishing and they enrolled him in a prestige Japanese Academy where boys where trained in the art of Samurai battle and they were taught by the smartest teachers in all the land. For 10 years the boy was trained in the foothills of the Fuji Mountain Range and he left his passion for fishing back in his youth.
Then one day as the boy was shopping in the local market for the head master he saw something that he had never seen before. He was in the meat section of the market and there…… laid out in front of him were 3 of the fattest, greenest big mouth fish he had ever seen. He asked the man behind the table what kind of fish they were and all the man could tell him was “Green Fish”. He couldn’t get over how healthy they looked and how big their eyes were and again, that mouth was huge. He thought for a second, just a brief second, of what fun it would be to catch one of those fish. As quickly as that thought entered his head though it vanished just like that. The 10 years of intense training, both mentally and physically had totally squashed his love of fishing. He went back to his campus and delivered the goods from the market to the headmaster. He stood out on the edge of the hillside and looked down to the local lake that was shinning as the sun was hitting it with its rays. He had to figure out where these “green fish” were coming from.
So the next morning the boy woke up very early and he slipped down to the lake in hopes of seeing someone catch one of these “green fish”. So he stood upright underneath a big bonsai tree and did his best to blend in with the bark of the tree. The sun was just peeking over the mountains and the lake was still in darkness except for this one spot where the sunlight had fought its way over the mountain range. The boy watched as an elderly grey haired man rowed his way over to this lighted spot. There was a thin layer of fog slowly creeping across the water and the boy tried his best to keep his eyes on this man cutting across the water but at times he would lose sight of him due to the fog and the darkness. Then, like a boat coming into a harbor the man eased into the lighted area of the lake and by this time the area had grown from about a 15 yard section of shoreline to about 40 yards. The old man stood to his feet and in one quick zing he had cast his bait through the early morning air and right up onto the bank. I mean it was sitting on the shore. The old man just let his bait sit there and for a moment the boy was wondering if the old man had forgotten that his bait was sitting in the grass. The old man waited for what seemed liked hours but then he gave his fishing pole a quick jerk which in turn sent the minnow looking bait screaming towards the water and as it hit the water it skimmed the top for a few feet until it was violently met by the explosion of a very large fish. The old man reared back and set the hook on this fish and next thing you know the little row boat that the old man is in is being pulled by this fish. He is letting the fish run and he really isn’t doing anything to stop it. He seems to be keeping a tight line on the fish, but he is only cranking his reel a little here and a little there. The fish went air born and that’s when the boy notices the beautiful green color of this fish. This was the type of fish that he saw in the marketplace. By now the sun is starting to really reach its way over the mountains and the fish had pulled the row boat all over this corner of the lake and the old grey haired man was fixing to reach down into the water and grab this fish. The boat was only 10 feet away from the boy and the bonsai tree he was standing under. The boy’s heart was racing because he was finally going to get to see a “green fish” up close and personal and most importantly alive. The old man reached down and he pulled up a fat bellied “green fish”. He looked over to the boy on the bank and asked him if he knew what kind of fish it was. The boy did not know but he replied…. “Green Fish”. The old man laughed and when he did, the boy knew exactly who this old man was. He knew that laugh……he knew that man. It was Gary from Indiana.
For the next 7 hours the boy and Gary from Indiana wore out these “green fish”. The row boat had just enough room for one more angler. Gary went on to tell the boy how he had went back to the U.S.A. after he lost touch with the young boy and he gathered up largemouth bass to bring back to Japan. After he had collected 200 bass ranging from 1 pound to 7 pounds he placed them in a travel safe tank and shipped them back to Japan where he stocked them in this lake. Some of the local fishermen would catch bass and eat them but most that fished these waters were catch and release anglers and that the high quality fishery was due to the pristine water that came down from the mountains and filled this local lake. A fire in the boy was lit…..or should I say….re-lit. It was always there but it had been stuck on a slow burn for the past 10 years but within the last 7 hours it was on fire again and it was blazing out of control.
The boy left his training and bass fishing became his passion. He was so into bass fishing that his passion and desire for this new sport spread throughout the land and kids began to fish and fish and fish. Local farmers started bass fishing, women and girls got in on the action too. The school that had trained the boy for some many years finally came around and they started to see the positive effects of bass fishing and they let this boy teach other kids in the school about fishing. He became known as “The Fishing Ninja”. Many lives were changed in a positive way due to this new lifestyle of bass fishing. The Fishing Ninja now travels the world spreading the love and the passion of bass fishing.
I believe there is a Fishing Ninja in all of us. All we got to do is put our head band on……sharpen our swords……perfect our judo chops……..get precise at throwing our Chinese stars…………and get in tune with that ole “green fish”
WAAAAAAAA YAYYYYYYYY !!! (That was a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick right there…….just in case you were wondering).
