With roughly 15,000 lakes and over 84,000 miles of rivers and streams, there are plenty of opportunities for Wisconsinites to fish around every corner.
Free Fishing Weekend is coming up this weekend – Jan. 16-17, 2021. It’s the perfect opportunity to give ice fishing a try. Grab some gear and find your adventure on any water bodies in Wisconsin where there is currently an open season. All other rules and regulations apply. Learn more at bit.ly/WisconsinFFW.
On this episode, we spoke with Emily Edge, a self-proclaimed “die-hard fishing lady” and the 2020 Wisconsin Women Fish Rookie Of The Year. Emily talks about her unique fishing mission, tells us some pretty incredible fishing stories, and discusses what’s so special about fishing in the Badger State.
Follow Emily on Instagram at @the_reel_em_angler.
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TRANSCRIPT
ANNOUNCER: [00:00:00] Welcome to Wisconsin DNR's Wild Wisconsin "Off the Record" podcast. Information straight from the source.
KATIE GRANT: [00:00:10] Welcome back to another episode of Wild Wisconsin Off the Record. I'm your host DNR's Digital Communications Section Chief Katie Grant. With more people finding their adventure outside in 2020 due to the COVID-19 public health emergency, the DNR also saw a large increase in the number of fishing licenses purchased. And we expect that trend to continue as we start out the new year. Thinking about giving it a try? Now is the perfect time to grab your gear and hit the ice. Our annual Free Fishing Weekend is coming up January 16th and 17th. That means you can fish for free. No license or trout stamp required on nearly all Wisconsin waterways. All other normal rules and regulations apply. Check out our website for more information.
To celebrate this upcoming event, we sat down with 28-year-old Emily Edge, a self-described diehard fishing lady to get her take on what's so special about fishing in the Badger state. Emily was born and currently lives in southwest Wisconsin and has fished all over the US. While she's been fishing her whole life, she got serious about it around three years ago when she revisited her childhood pastime in honor of her late uncle. Emily was named the 2020 Wisconsin Women Fish Rookie of the Year. And her ultimate goal is to catch all of Wisconsin's fish species. Sit back and listen in to learn why this hobby is about way more than just landing the big one. And maybe even get inspired to give ice fishing a try yourself.
Welcome to the Wild Wisconsin Off the Record podcast. Why don't you go ahead and get started by just telling us who you are, what your name is? Um, a little bit about what it is that you do and where you're from.
EMILY EDGE: [00:02:03] Yeah. So my name is Emily Edge I go by the "Reel Em Angler" and I am pretty much a die-hard fisherman or fishing lady.
Um, I'm from southwest Wisconsin, um, and that's where I currently reside.
KATIE GRANT: [00:02:17] How long have you been fishing?
EMILY EDGE: [00:02:18] Um, so I've been fishing my whole life. I grew up doing it, however I wasn't big into it, back then I kind of thought it was like dumb or silly, you know? And then when I got to be a teenager that definitely was not a hobby of mine.
Um, but I've been fishing religiously like I like to say the past three years now. So since 2017, when I moved back to Wisconsin. And I grew up fishing with my mom and my uncle. They're big into fishing. My mom likes to catfish, so that's kind of what I grew up doing. And then now it's ventured into... I do all sorts of fishing for all species and all types of... all types of fishing not just hook and line fishing. I like to noodle, or I like to try other techniques too.
KATIE GRANT: [00:03:00] What got you interested in giving it a try again, back in 2017, give or take?
EMILY EDGE: [00:03:05] So I don't really have a great answer for that. I guess, um, an uncle of mine passed away and he was the big fishermen and he got me into it. Um, so when he passed away, I kind of just felt that that was something I kind of needed to try to do more, to be like, close to him, if that makes sense. Um, so I kind of just picked it up and then I discoved that, wow I love this and it's so great being outdoors and being by myself or going out with other people. So I just started, you know, I didn't really know much at the time, just fishing with a bobber and nightcrawler on a hook and was catching little bass or a little panfish.
And I thought it was the greatest thing in the world. And now fast forward three years, and now I'm doing all sorts of kinds of fishing. So it's really taken off from just, just trying it essentially back in 2017 or 2016 and it's really exploded.
KATIE GRANT: [00:03:56] You're on a bit of an interesting mission. You're out to catch one of each of 160 plus fish species. What inspired you to give this a try?
EMILY EDGE: [00:04:07] I don't even have an answer for that really, because, um, last year, last September in well, 2019, I was fishing on the Wisconsin River by myself and I caught my first Sturgeon. Um, and that was wild. And then, uh, like two casts after that, I caught my second Sturgeon.
Um, and that took what? 27 years to catch one, let alone two back to back. Um, so from there I kind of just got researching this different species of Wisconsin. Yes. I know like the basics at the time, like Panfish, Bass, Muskie, Northern. Um, and then I really got digging into it and I've realized that there are so many fish in this state that aren't talked about mostly and I was just fascinated. Uh, so I'm now after all fish in Wisconsin. Is it possible? I have no idea. Uh, it's going to be a really hard task. Especially when I get into like the micro species and all the different rough fish. But it's something that, um, I've set as a goal and hopefully will try to accomplish as many as I can. It's been difficult kind of, uh, but in 2020, uh, from March until I think in the last one was like October, I caught 11 new species. So in that short amount of timeframe once I, when I started this, um, I accomplished a lot of species in one year. So hopefully 2021, will be double that for species.
KATIE GRANT: [00:05:38] Absolutely. I it's just such a cool, unique way to go about doing something you love, which I just think it's, it's really cool that you've decided to do this.
EMILY EDGE: [00:05:48] Yeah. And there's so many fish that when people ask me, well, what haven't you caught? And I'm like, well, I honestly haven't caught a lot because when you break it down into like the rough fish and especially the trout, um, I've only caught really just a couple, um. A lot of people think that for, um, Redhorse, for example, which is a sucker, um, they think that every single like sucker, they catchis the same kind, but really there's like Shortnose, Redhorse, uh, I think Blue River Redhorse.
So, um, there's a lot of different species of each fish that, um, or classifications I guess, if it is. I don't know the proper terminology, but there's a lot more in depth than what people think. So I think I've caught more species than I've thought I have. I just have not gone through my pictur...
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