Dreaming of warm fishing waters during dog days of winter

These are the days that drive many anglers absolutely bonkers.

These are the days when constant daydreaming shows up as the key element that takes on the shape and ghostlike appearance of the magical key that opens one's wallet and allows those precious dollars to fly off into oblivion.

While daydreaming is a natural occurrence for us, it also plays an important role in a retail store's bottom line as we enhance everything we try to do on the water with our little plastic credit cards.

I often go into a deep catatonic state after attending multiple sports shows focused on our outdoors pursuits.

And then I realize that our lives are basically flashes of imagined time, a part of the daydreams so many of us hold dear to our hearts. Quite a bit of all that includes hours remembering that jaw-snapping northern pike or canabalistic trout working its tail off to escape what could be it last moments swimming freely through the weeds and eel grass on its way to a sanctuary escape route.

From where I stand, outdoor sport shows are designed to target hungry, eager and vulnerable psyches. It's in the show's location or venue if you will, where the poor consumer later realizes his wallet has either been removed through some magical retail trick or it appears to be considerably lighter. Whatever the case, Florida on a year-round basis sounds better each Chicago winter.

But my wife won't leave our new granddaughter or our two daughters living here.

So I have to tough it out and somehow escape to look at my casting and fly rods at least a couple times a month.

Speaking of the warm water fishing, I happened to be home a recent Saturday and found there was hardly a thing I cared to watch on 500-plus cable channels. And what I witnessed turned my stomach into a knot.

A day before I had a long conversation with a highly visible television fishing personality. I truly don't know how we got to the topic, but in the end we both agreed that hardly any of the fishing shows on cable television are worth the price of admission.

Once before I received an email from Mark Zona, a far southside television personality who has his own fishing extravaganza. Some of his other efforts included tournament cast-by-cast shows with Tommy Sanders.

I believe Mark is a pretty good bass angler as he continues to learn some of the tricks of the tournament trade. I am not taking issue with him. He happens to have a fishing show that has some spice or lively aspects to it. And he also unleashes his electric personality on the show, unlike the other dull affairs put on by the boys with three first names.

The fishing business has dramatically changed in the more than 50 years I've been in it.

In my telephone conversion about the mediocre television fishing shows, the other person noted that it feels like anyone can grab a camera, get some editing software and become another wannabe.

Please don't get me wrong. I never wanted a television fishing show, nor do I pine for 20-foot long bass boats and 300-horsepower outboards.

All really want to is be able to fish 12 months of the year on "soft water" and eat some fresh seafood, if my slightly empty wallet can handle all the fishing accessories I've purchased and secretly stashed in a dark place.

• Contact Mike Jackson at angler88@comcast.net, catch his radio show 7-9 a.m. Sundays on WGCO 1590-AM (live-streamed at www.1590WCGO.com) and get more content at www.mikejacksonoutdoors.com.