Pro anglers recount their lives in fishing
It doesn’t matter they come from Alabama, Virginia and Wisconsin or they grew up in different circumstances and with different challenges.
The three men have something in common – a love of fishing – that overrides everything else.
It’s what has shaped their lives and driven their livelihoods.
It’s why decades after their first casts John Crews, Pete Maina and Gerald Swindle are known by millions as professional anglers and they are in demand as speakers on their favorite sport.
This weekend the paths of the three anglers converged in West Allis for the 2024 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports Show.
Each gave at least one presentation at the show and afforded fans the chance to see some of fishing’s brightest stars up close.
Even in an age when Americans struggle with sedentary lifestyles and an unhealthy level of attachment to digital devices, fishing remains popular and an important part of conservation, culture and economy in the U.S.
Data released in the most recent National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found 40 million Americans over the age of 16 went fishing in 2022. The number of anglers has held stable or increased slightly while hunting (14.4 million in 2022) has declined in recent decades.
Put another way, the survey result says 15% of Americans over the age of 16 went fishing in 2022, more than played golf.
And fishing contributes $148 billion in economic output and supports 945,500 jobs across the U.S., according to the 2023 Economic Contributions of Recreational Fishing by the American Sportfishing Association.
The report also details the importance of fishing to conservation in the U.S. Through excise taxes on gear and license purchases, anglers in 2023 contributed $1.8 billion toward conservation, according to ASA.
The funding goes to habitat improvement projects, fish stocking, fisheries management and maintenance and installation of public boat ramps and piers, for example.
It’s all part of what makes fishing relevant and important in America.
But the spark that leads people to fish is something more elemental. It’s something the three pro anglers also have in common – they felt it at an early age.
Maina learned to guide and pursue muskies in northern Wisconsin
For Pete Maina, it came in northern Wisconsin where his parents ran Balsam Lodge on the Spider Lake Chain near Hayward.
“When I was a kid growing up in the ‘60s, people came to the resort for one thing, fishing,” Maina said. “I got nuts about fishing as soon as I could hold a rod and I lived in one of the best places on the planet to do it.”
Maina credits his father, Tex Maina, for getting him started in fishing and then giving him the freedom to roam and gain experience in the sport.
Maina started his career in fishing by cleaning fish for resort guests. Then at age 11 he began to guide guests on fishing trips. The trips were mostly for bass, walleyes and panfish, but occasionally for the larger, toothy species Maina is now most famous for.
“Actually, my first guide job was for muskies,” Maina said. “Our normal resort guide didn’t show up and Dad said to the client, ‘Well, the kid can row and he likes to fish.’”
Maina’s client that day wanted to pursue muskies and did catch one.
By age 14 Maina was guiding fulltime in summers and after he graduated from high school he stuck with fishing as a career path rather than go to college.
Maina evolved his personal interests and his guiding business to focus on muskies. He said it was partly an “ego thing” and he wanted to target the “biggest, baddest fish in the waters.”
Over time he stopped guiding and transitioned to designing lures and hosting or appearing on fishing television shows, further enhancing his reputation. In 2011 Outdoor Life named Maina one of the “Top 20 Anglers on the Planet.” He also pursued muskies across the continent.
“There’s no living humanoid than me who’s caught (muskies) in more places,” Maina said.
Along with catching muskies, Maina places high importance on promoting fishing education and proper fish handling and catch-and-release practices.
These days in addition to writing, photography and producing videos for his YouTube channel, he continues to work with “John Gillespie’s Waters and Woods” television show.
Maina’s appearances at the Milwaukee show are among a half dozen or so he does each year. He’s looking forward to a challenge – demonstrating a figure 8 at the end of a retrieve – of presenting at the Mercury Marine Hawg Trough Stage.
“It’s a fun deal but not the easiest situation to do some of our musky stuff,” Maina said. “Bottom line is it’s a great opportunity to see people and help get them excited about fishing.”
Swindle went from a small Alabama river to angler of the year
About the time Maina was taking out his first client, about 1,000 miles to the south Gerald Swindle was learning to fish on the Locust Fork River near Locust Fork, Alabama.
“We were poor,” Swindle said. “Any free time the family had we squirrel hunted or rabbit hunted or went fishing. It was all we knew.”
Swindle said he can’t remember a time he didn’t fish. The Locust Fork had several species of bass.
“My favorite thing was floating down a river in an aluminum boat with my dad,” Swindle said. “I thought that was the greatest thing in the world. That was my Disney World.”
Swindle’s fishing provided food for the family, yes. But over the years as his skills improved he also started seeing a possible career path.
“I learned a ton of lessons on that river, throwing a crank bait behind rocks,” Swindle said. “When I graduated high school I was framing houses, doing construction, but didn’t like it. It made me work harder at fishing.”
When he started winning a few hundred dollars in fishing tournaments, it was the “catalyst in the fire,” he said.
“Do this better, fish more,” Swindle said. “When I got to my mid-20s I made the change. I didn’t know if I could make it. To me I just wanted to make enough to buy a sandwich at the truck stop.” He’s done much more than that. In April 1998 he won the Walmart FLW Open and earned $150,000. Over his career he’s twice been Bassmaster Angler of the Year (2004 and 2016) and has about $3 million in tournament earnings.
“After 1998 I knew I was going somewhere, even if it was wrong,” Swindle said. “And I knew no one would work harder than me.”
Swindle includes “positive mental attitude” lessons in his fishing presentations.
College grad Crews opted for the business of fishing
John Crews was also raised south of the Mason-Dixon Line and learned to love bass at an early age.
For him it was a pond on the family’s property in Jetersville, Virginia.
“Not long after I was old enough to walk, I wanted to go down to the small pond in my backyard and fish,” Crews said. “My dad has the pictures or I might not know it as well. But I definitely remember always wanting to fish as a kid. I loved it from the beginning.”
Crews branched out as he grew and started fishing big public lakes in the region. He said he was an avid reader of Bassmaster magazine and “ready to do it like the pros.”
“But I discovered it was harder than I thought,” Crews said. “Those lakes were big so where do you start? Somehow I didn’t get discouraged, I guess because I was on the water and doing what I loved more than anything.”
Like millions of other American youth who watch pro bass anglers on television and read about them in magazines, Crews set his sights on a career as a tournament angler.
At age 15 he fished his first tournament and was hooked.
He continued to fish as an amateur through high school and after he enrolled at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. He started to score top-10 finishes in regional bass tournaments and thought, even though he earned a bachelor’s degree in business and economics, he was ready to try for a career on the water.
After Crews graduated in 2000, his dad helped him trade up to a bigger boat to fish the bigger waters he had qualified for on the BASS Invitational Trail. It paid off. He finished third at the Bassmasters event on Lake Okeechobee in December of his first year.
He eventually earned his way to all the top bass tours and has about $1.5 million in career tournament winnings. In 2012 he also started a fishing lure company called Missile Baits.
“I treat the sport with a lot of respect,” Crews said. “I do see myself as an ambassador and it’s a privilege to be able to present to people. I hope that every kid who sees me wants to fish, too, and maybe even make a life out of it. That would be cool.”
Sports Show nears end
The 2024 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Sports Show ends Sunday at the Wisconsin State Fair Park Exposition Center in West Allis. Now in its 83rd year, the show includes seminars, exhibitors, demonstrations, food and entertainment. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday. Pro angler Pete Maina will appear at 11 a.m. Sunday and bass pro John Crews will appear at 1 p.m. Sunday. For tickets, a schedule of events and more information, visit jssportsshow.com.