The Heart of the Sport

Altruistic, creative and clever anglers will always be the soul of the sport of fishing, and we're grateful beyond measure for the helpful handful we've met.

​Paul Williams: If all that you knew about Paul Williams was how the man decorated for Christmas, that might be enough. Williams, every year, would set up a display in his front and backyard that rivaled anything I’ve ever seen on television, in movies or in person. The sheer number of lights, moving parts, and work that went into the enormous arrangement was downright incredible. Williams was a high-pressure steam boiler operator for a company that he wished to remain anonymous for many years. After warning his employers time and again that the operations were increasingly dangerous, he saw no changes in procedure, largely because the cost of said changes would be prohibitive. The anxiety of dealing with what he described as a ticking time bomb became too much, and he retired to start a new life and career, making indestructible soft-plastic baits and working at Bass Pro Shops. The baits he constructed were ingenious.
 
He searched for and tested materials far and wide before settling on a fabric that he would bake into soft plastics so that said fabric could hold a hook without tearing, like the soft plastic bait itself. The fabric he found was the material used to make veils for wedding gowns. He toyed with procedure and details in his home oven for months before building a soft-plastic bait with an interwoven mesh that in essence would not tear off the hook, or at least not tear very easily. His attention to detail and determination were incredible, but that wasn’t the most amazing part about Williams. No matter the customer at Bass Pro, no matter how tired we were, how busy it was, or the nature of the question or concern, Williams took as long as was needed to make sure everyone he encountered was ready to fish with confidence and joy. He taught kids knots, he rigged up rods, he took soft-plastic baits out of bags and hooks out of packaging to show different rigs to new anglers. He’d come out on the floor after unloading a 1,000-piece Christmas-apparel-laden truck and help a pre-teen angler untangle line on a newly-purchased pushbutton reel.
 
When you came into the store, he treated you like a friend asking for a hand, no matter who you were, where you were from or what you needed. It was that spirit of kindness and patience that was even more impressive to witness day in and day out than even the most incredible of Christmas-light displays that he put together every year. Williams was forced to retire when a condition that affected his lungs made physical work impossible. I learned, after a text in which he asked me to pray for him, that he had passed in his sleep from the condition. I remember his kindness, joy and light every day and make every attempt to infuse my interactions with customers with the joy, and the light, he brought into the world.

Roy Bilby: If a complete novice told me they had only one day to learn everything they could about bass fishing, and asked me who to spend that day with, I'd put them in touch with Roy Bilby. Bilby was originally our store pro here at the Utica Bass Pro Shops, but he's added stores to his repertoire, and now works out of Auburn and Connecticut as well. I have been enormously fortunate to have fished with a number of anglers all over the country, but I've never met anyone with the attention to detail, knowledge of a species, and ability to predict, down to the most minute detail, what is likely to happen next on the water. Consider this: I fished with Bilby on his home creek and we combined for 70-plus smallmouth bass. I forget the exact number I caught, but it was south of twenty. Now, consider for a second that a 17-bass day on a creek pretty respectable, unless the guy you are fishing with CATCHES FIFTY. The discrepancy just highlights how attuned to this species Bilby is, how careful he is with preparation and presentation, and how very, very rarely he makes mistakes. On that day, and in general, his ability to avoid the common mistakes most of us make [he sharpens hooks while on the water, only one great example] is the absolute difference-maker for a lot of fish that most of us will never even know we had a chance at. 

​Mark Usyk: To describe Mark Usyk solely as a talented fishing writer would be selling the man short on several fronts. Although he is a gifted storyteller, that’s a small slice of the ways in which he brings creative insight, beauty and laughter into the lives of anglers fortunate enough to be familiar with his work. His books have titles like “Carp are Jerks,” and “Not All Trout are Geniuses,” and they’re a reflection of the humor and perspective with which he looks at the sport. Rather than a lecture about the finer points of fly-fishing, his books read like a collection of hilarious stories a friend is telling you about mishaps, blunders, amazing moments and good people on the water. Perhaps the most impressive and endearing thing about Usyk’s writing is his honesty, he talks candidly about the difficult of grinding away at a thankless job, about the hardship of divorce, and he recognizes and appreciates the redeeming moments we find when we pay attention. As writers, an honesty that connects us with our readers is the highest ideal we can aspire to, and Usyk achieves it in his work again and again.

Bob Janiga: Janiga, a dedicated and thoughtful member of Mohawk Valley’s Trout Unlimited chapter, and retired teacher, is an impressive angler on several fronts. But the thing you’ll remember most after fishing with him a few times is his ingenious little boat. Using mostly second-hand, free or inexpensive materials and accessories, Janiga built a tiny boat, that still comfortably seats two anglers, and outfitted it with everything from an anchor to a trolling motor to a fish-finder. It’s so small that it’s easy for two people to carry and launch, it hardly drafts any water whatsoever, making it incredibly capable of getting into very shallow flats and coves. With a 40-pound-thrust trolling motor, it’s light enough where you can still cover a good amount of water in a day and have battery left over. It’s the perfect combination of size, convenience and utility. It has everything you need and nothing you don’t. Janiga in generous in offering the other seat to fellow anglers and is a craftsman in his own right, fashioning fish-inspired designs from metal as decorative reminders of the species we find so endearing.

​Ryan Lorensen: The Most striking thing about Lorensen, once you get to know him, is just how much time he spends with clients on the water. This is a guy who, while working a full-time job in a Syracuse hospital, will still run two daily trips throughout salmon season on the state’s fabled Salmon River. When you consider the amount of work and preparation it takes to run a single daily trip in inclement weather, then double that, then add a full-time job on top of that, it’s hard to fathom how this guy has the energy. He’ll describe to you the process of setting up rods for clients days in advance to be ready when he barely has time to sleep, but that doesn’t make it any easier envisioning doing it yourself. Top it off by adding that the guy guides not only float trips down the Salmon, but boat trips on a variety of New York lakes, and ice-fishing trips all winter, and all you’ll keep thinking after you spend an afternoon with him on the water is: “I could really be more efficient with my own time…”

​John Pitarresi: I’d always known John Pitarresi as the local sportswriter in the greater Utica/Rome area of Upstate New York when I was growing up there as a young man. You’d see Pitarresi’s column, read his take on the local games, and learn from his experience and insight with every copy of the Observer Dispatch. His Outdoors column was always a witty reflection on a species of fish, a great angler, a season or time of year or just the sport in general. His writing had humor and wit, history and perspective and it shared valuable insight on some of our favorite pastimes. I would later learn that Pitarresi volunteered more than twice a month at the local food pantry housed in a church less than a mile away from his house. Every other Saturday John would be in the church parking lot, directing traffic, making jokes, talking highlights from the prior night’s game, and just bringing a sentiment of warmth and patience and joy to what was likely an otherwise unenjoyable experience for several patrons who had to wait an hour or more for food that they badly needed and couldn’t afford. Knowing what to feed a fish in a given season to get it to eat is an admirable quality in an angler, but feeding human beings, with both food and compassion and friendship, with your personal time and energy is even more impressive.

​Mike Huynh: Huynh is the Director of Campus Ministry for the entire S.U.N.Y. education program, which is an admirable and daunting task in of itself. He functions in a variety of capacities that include conducting and overseeing retreats for confirmation candidates at various parishes throughout the diocese. Inspiring faith in young adults during one of the most difficult and crucial points in their lives is a tall order, and one Huynh tackles with optimism and spirit on a regular basis. His knowledge of and passion for chasing steelhead and salmon in Western New York rivers is equally impressive and he has chased and caught these fish in all manner of weather in one of the most unforgiving climates in the Northeast. But it is the fish he has helped others catch that he is most excited to talk about. He has books in his office that are collections of photos of students and colleagues with their first steelhead. Hunyh has been part of the Catholic worker movement, where he has helped build homes in impoverished communities, and he currently serves as the advisor to the Fishing Club that he helped to create at S.U.N.Y. Oswego. Young men and women anglers could hardly hope for a better beacon of light to guide a future life on the water, and off it.

​J.R. Cooper:
Cooper, the grandson of guides who catered to gangsters during the Great Depression, remembers his first few fish coming on a cane pole with worms. When he first began ice fishing, without the financial means to invest in something as luxurious as a shanty, he simply dragged a cardboard refrigerator box onto the ice. He would go on to build a guide service than employed 18 different guides. His cardboard-box days are behind him, as he’s landed pike to 51 inches, muskie as long as 56 inches, and has won more than 60 tournaments. He and his wife Cindy run a school every winter to teach young anglers how to ice fish. He’s removed errant hooks from both legs, his ears, the nose and the crotch, he explains with a laugh. He’s suffered a chipped tailbone on one dramatic run into the tournament podium. He politely excused himself from the post-tournament interview by saying: “Okay, I have to go to the hospital now.”
                     “It will give you respect for God, for the unbelievable nature that is out there,” Coop says of his years spent on the water. “I’ve talked to psychiatrists and psychologists,” he says. “And a day on the water is incredible for your health and mental stability,” he says. His Coop’s Classic Fishing Tournament has raised money for cancer research, he routinely helps anglers with illness or disability get on the water, and the ideology resonates when you speak with him.
                     “In this business, there are a lot of people who tell you what they’ve done but I want to give back as much knowledge as I can. I want to help those next in line so they don’t struggle,” he says.