Blog 7 - Second Interview Preperation

1.  Who is your mentor and where do they work?  If their workplace does not reflect their expertise, what makes them an expert?

- My mentor is my father, Delbert Nuñez, who currently works at American Sample as the production room manager. As you can tell, his workplace doesn't reflect his expertise in sport fishing, but he has over 40 years of experience in this field and he has also been a part of the California Department of Fish and Game for over 30 years.

2.  What five questions will you ask them about their background?

1. What is your most fond memory involving sport fishing?
2. Who introduced you to fishing that got it all started? And how old where you then?
3. How much experience do you have compared to others with sport fishing?
4. How many associations or clubs have you been a part of with sport fishing?
5. What helps you to decide that you want to keep on fishing after all these years?

Blog 6 - Advisory Prep

Above is a picture of myself targeting trout in a beautiful stream located in Sierra Nevada.

1. What has worked well for you concerning senior project this year?  What has made it a positive experience for you?   

- Interviewing my interviewee and spending mentorship hours wit him has really had a huge impact upon with my senior topic. It has made the world and topic of Sport Fishing not just an activity or subject to me, but rather a way of life and a connection. It has made a huge positive impact on me with inner-self and seeing Sport Fishing from a whole different perspective that lights a world of fire and lets me see ways that many others can't see. So, overall this has all been a great experience in teaching me so many different things about it in different ways. 

2. What are you finding difficult concerning senior project?  How can you adapt to make that portion work better for you?  How might the senior team help?

- The only thing that I find difficult is finding time with school now in session, to get out and get more hands-on experience with Sport Fishing rather than verbal stuff. I can adapt with scheduling by adjusting my schedule to evolve around this area and the senior team could help by dedicating an entire day to senior project hours which is highly impossible, but it would be nice. :)

Blog 5 - Interview 1 Reflection

Here is a picture of my interviewee (person on the right) and I (person in the middle).

1. What is the most important thing I learned from the interview? Is there anything I would do differently for other interviews?

- While interviewing my interviewee, I learned lots of informations on laws and regulations and basics of all round sport fishing. But of next time, I think it'll be a great idea if I give my interviewee the questions a day or two ahead so that they could read the questions and come up with a good answer to give once I ask them the question.

2. Did I get additional resources and contacts? What is the most useful? Why?

- Yes, for a new resource, I can start reading the Western Outdoor News and I have a new contact that my interviewee mentioned whom goes by the name, John Woodrum who is the owner/operator of the Pursuit which is a well know sport fishing vessel out of San Pedro.

3. What makes my interviewee qualified to help me?

- My interviewee is a certified and licensed fisherman.

- He is also a member of the California Department of Fish and Game.

-He also has over 45 years of experience with Sport Fishing which is 30 more years than me.


Link to my interview: https://soundcloud.com/mikeymellark/fishing-interview-91515-333-pm

Blog 4 - House Advisory Prep 1

As the year goes on, and as our senior projects come close to a final completion, I hope to have more knowledge than ever about sport fishing. I hope to accomplish many goals as well that involve sport fishing, like most fish caught and released in one day. Plus, I hope to accomplish my goal of catching my biggest fish ever, but most importantly I plan to accomplish a major goal involving my peers. I hope to teach my peers and many others about sport fishing to give them a reality check that sport fishing does not kill. Sport fishing promotes catch and release as well as fish farms to help grow our huge populations of fish. Commercial fishing is what kills, and it angers sport fisherman because we are not what you think. 

Blog 3 - First Interview Preparation

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  Why?

• I plan to interview my father.
• The reason behind this is because my father has over 40 years of experience in sport fishing, and I'm much closer to him that any other fisherman, so because of this, my interviewee will be more comfortable with my questions and give me a full answer with more detail and possibly more detail than the best fisherman could possibly give me.

• The second person I plan the interview is main owner at Sav-On Tackle because he owns a fishing tackle shop and knows not only from his perspective, but he talks to thousands of customers and other fisherman who have information to share, so he must know a lot of specific details in and out of fishing.

2.  Five questions will be assigned to all seniors to ask.  What additional questions do you plan to ask?

1. What is the most important factor when it comes to sport fishing and why?
2. How would you describe a good day of fishing?
3. Is there a difference between commercial and sport fishing? Which is better and why?
4. Why do you continue to sport fish after all these years? Do you ever get tired or bored?
5. What is the best thing anyone has ever taught you about fishing? 

Here is a picture of my interviewee while we were at           

San Clemente Island.     

Blog 2 - Summer Mentorship

Senior Project Hours

1. List the contact name, phone number, and organization of the person with whom you volunteered.

• Contact Name: Delbert Nuñez
• Phone Number: 626-392-7803
• Organization: California Department of Fish and Game

2. What qualified this person as an expert in your topic choice?     

• Delbert has over 40 years of experience with Sport Fishing.
• He has been a licensed angler for over 30 years.
• He is currently involved with the California Department of Fish and Game.

3. List three questions for further exploration now that you've completed your summer hours.   

• How can I become the best Sport Fisherman I can possibly be?
• How many different style can you sport fish?
• Does sport fishing help increase the population of fish species?

4. What is the most important thing you gained from this experience? Why?

• When I first came into this topic, I had just seen fishing as a hobby that was designed basically around catching fish and throwing them back, then repeating the process. But, as my summer went on, and as I continued to learn about Sport Fishing with my mentor, it started to become more of a spiritual connection instead of a hobby. I started to realize that there was more to fishing than just trying  to catch a fish, in fact, catching a fish was just a bonus. This helped me become an even better fisherman because I started to feel a connection with water and the living beasts that rule the underwater world which made me truly respect them. Whenever I was around or in the water, I was in their territory and had to respect them for it, so I had to be even smarter than they really were and trick them into a hard fighting battle where I could net and release them, or they could snap the line and break my heart. But at the end of the day, you'll learn from your mistakes, even the best fisherman in the world learn new things every time they go fishing, but it's how you put these new answers into effect. So in the end, I learned  how to truly connect with the sport of fishing which made me ten times a better angler.

5. What is your senior project topic going to be?  How did mentorship help you make your decision?  Please explain.

• My senior topic is going to be "Sport Fishing"
• My father who is my mentor helped me to decide to pick this topic as my senior project topic because ever since I was a child, he always influenced me by taking me fishing and teaching me the ways of fishing. But over this summer, we really dug deep into sport fishing, and he told me to pick something that I really want to know and connect with because I'm going to have to spend my entire senior year on that topic. So, I really thought about it and I wasn't one hundred percent sure that I wanted it to be sport fishing, but one morning my father spoke with me and really helped me connect with sport fishing, suddenly this world of colors and things I've never seen nor felt before just hit me and that was when I knew that I really wanted to do my senior topic on Sport Fishing.