New Angler lands 2 NCARP Citation Fish in One Trip

**Backlash** Sat Jan 28, 2012 7:00 pm

The day started out as any other crappie fishing trip, but as things have gone at Shearon Harris lately, we were catching a little of everything, except for crappie. Though , we managed to pull a few specks of good size from the water, we just haven't beeen catching the usual number of fish. However, there was a silver lining in today's clouds. In that, we have been falling into schools a large bass and having a great deal of fun in doing so. Even though the bass made up for the lack of crappie action, there was still an extra special experience in store for one of newest members, Eric Laprad.

Eric began his journey as an angler a little over a year ago when joined the FAAN and it has been a pleasure to watch Eric learn and experience fishing and even help others take their first steps in our sport. Eric sets his fishing goals not as how big each fish that he catches may be, but he measures his sucess with each new species that he catches, as a first experience. Eric informed me this morning that he had never caught a Largemouth bass and with fingers crossed, I was able to witness him catch two bass today, one a very respectable 2 1/2lb. The greatest accomplishment came later , when he landed 2 white perch that were just shy of 13 inches, qualifing Eric to a citation for both from North Carolina's Angler Recognition Program. Please, join me in congratulating Eric on his fine accomplishment. Most anglers go there entire life without landing a trophy fish of any species, but Eric may now boast of the day that he landed two in one day.