Myishia Haynes is one of the most cheerful, exuberant fisherwoman you'll ever meet. She practices catch and release fishing, and has a pretty good track record, especially when it comes to fishing for bass. Myishia has made it her mission to show the world that anyone can fish and get outside.
Myishia Haynes is one of the most cheerful, exuberant fisherwoman you'll ever meet. She practices catch and release fishing, and has a pretty good track record, especially when it comes to fishing for bass. Myishia has made it her mission to show the world that anyone can fish and get outside.
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Myishia Haynes:
You can go fishing, you can still look cute, but you can also go out there and show them out too. When I'm out there, I'm pink flower shirts, and all that, and the guys, they look at me when I come out, they're like, "Oh, she's so cute." I'm like, "Oh, how long you guys been out here?" They're like, "Oh, it's kind of slow." I'm like, "Oh, okay." I love to hear that, and then here I go, "Pow, got one." In that pink, in that glitter, baby.
Shelby Stanger:
Myishia Haynes is one of the most cheerful, exuberant fisherwoman you'll ever meet. If you see her on the water, the first thing you might notice is that her style and her gear are totally one of a kind. She has these long glittery nails that she uses to remove fish from the hook, and she wears stylish clothes that don't look like typical fishing outfits.
Myishia is a catch and release fisherwoman, meaning she puts the fish back in the water after catching them. She has a pretty good track record, especially when it comes to bass fishing. With thousands of followers on Instagram, Myishia has made it her mission to show the world that anyone can fish and get outside.
I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production.
Myishia Haynes grew up in Oakland, California. Every once in a while, her family would hang out and fish at a local lake or river with the hopes of catching dinner. While the adults were relaxing, chatting and leisurely waiting for a nibble on their line, Myishia had energy to burn. She would watch the fish, see how they reacted to the bait, and move her pole to try to get their attention.
To everyone's surprise, Myishia, who was five or six years old at the time, started catching a lot of fish. In fact, she caught six bluegills on her first day. From then on, Myishia was hooked.
Myishia Haynes, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Myishia Haynes:
Hey, girl.
Shelby Stanger:
You have so much energy. I mean, your Insta handle alone, glitterandgills.
Myishia Haynes:
Yes.
Shelby Stanger:
That is so fun. So, you were five years old when you caught your first fish-
Myishia Haynes:
Yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
And that had such a profound effect on you. Now, you're still fishing.
Myishia Haynes:
Oh, I can't stop.
Shelby Stanger:
So I mean, not to use a total fish pun, but what got you hooked? What about fishing lured you in? I'm sorry audience, I know these puns are probably killing you, but-
Myishia Haynes:
That was a good one though.
Shelby Stanger:
I didn't even mean to do that. It's just like, what got you? I don't even know how to say anything without saying hooked-
Myishia Haynes:
That's it.
Shelby Stanger:
Without using fish analogies.
Myishia Haynes:
That is it. What got you hooked?
Shelby Stanger:
I mean, fishing is such a great metaphor for life and there's so many words.
Myishia Haynes:
Yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
So for you, what about it grabbed you?
Myishia Haynes:
It was just being in nature. I mean, just being out there for me was always great as a kid. You know what I'm saying? But to actually be able to draw these fish, those type of things for me were just like, you're connecting with something that has been created, but it's not human. You know what I'm saying?
It's not on earth, it's not on land, it's underwater. It's something for me about the unknown of connecting with water and this little creatures in the water. I don't know, something about it as a child was really amazing to me, because I'm like, "You know you can't go in there." But it was almost like you were pulling out-
Shelby Stanger:
It's a surprise.
Myishia Haynes:
Little treasures or something, because it wasn't always the same type of fish. They're blue, they had tones of pink or super shiny silver. Big ones, small ones. So for me, it was always like I was just grabbing out a new treasure, and I wasn't scared to hold them or anything. Even to this day, I love holding the fish, I love doing the catch and release, that's so amazing to me every time.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay, so you just made me think of something really interesting. I mean, in so much of our world today we can see what we're going to get.
Myishia Haynes:
Yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
We can Google it, we can use a map to find out what the place we're going to go to looks like.
Myishia Haynes:
Exactly.
Shelby Stanger:
When you fish, there is this element of mystery and surprise.
Myishia Haynes:
Yes, that's the exciting part about it, because you just never know. Even if you know you're going bass fishing and you're putting on your bass jigs or your bass bait, or whatever it is that you use, you still don't know if you're going to catch one. If you do, you don't know if it's going to be that big one or if it's going to be the small one, so that is always the intriguing part for me.
You're trying to lure him in, you're trying to get him to want to bite your bait, which is ... me I use plastic baits and artificial baits, so for me it's even more exciting, because his thing is to look for food. It's just like you never know what you're going to catch.
Shelby Stanger:
That's a good metaphor for life again, you never know what you're going to catch in life. So, logistics. Do you mostly fish in lakes?
Myishia Haynes:
So mostly I fish the California Delta, it's really amazing. If you look at it on a map, it looks like spaghetti, so it's really cool. It's miles and miles of just water, it's a really large water system. For me, I mainly bass fish when I fish the California Delta, but when I do, most of the time I'm catch and releasing. Especially for bass, I always catch and release my bass.
Shelby Stanger:
What's that mean?
Myishia Haynes:
Catch and release, some people like to call it CPR, so it's catch, photo, release. So what it is is that once you catch your fish, you want to get your pictures, you want to go ahead and admire them really quick and everything, but we actually release them back to the water and let them go back into the fresh water system that they are in.
It's really awesome to just watch them swim away. Sometimes they'll sit there for a minute and kind of just hang out with you. You're like, "Look, you're free to go." They just stay there sometime and they'll just wait in the water and then they'll take off. Sometime they splash, water hits you in the face, but once they slap that tail, it's so weird, it's so cool to just feel them just slide right out of your hands so gentle.
That for me is also just another part of experiencing nature that a lot of people will never experience, because you think about it, these fish, they live in the ocean. They're doing their own thing, yeah, minding their own business until they meet me. But I mean, you think about that. Who's petting a fish? Who gets to spend a little time with a fish really quick?
Shelby Stanger:
These days Myishia fishes three or four times a week. She works from home and takes any opportunity that she can to get out onto the water, even if it's just for an hour or two. Over the years, Myishia's become more knowledgeable about the species in her local waterways.
Through trial and error she's learned about the types of bait that attract different fish, and in her spare time, she studies maps looking for new water sources. But even with all of this knowledge and commitment to the sport, Myishia doesn't participate in fishing competitions. Instead of collecting trophies, she's picked up some good stories along the way, like the time she caught the biggest bass of her life.
Do you have any really fun fishing stories that you just love to tell people? A time that just blew you away?
Myishia Haynes:
Yeah, let's see. Okay, well, it was the year before last, we were out night fishing, I caught my PB. So, a PB is your personal best. I was bass fishing for large mouth bass, and oh my God, maybe at 12:01, I'm just throwing out and then I'm just like, "Oh my God." I just feel my line is pulling like crazy. My husband, he's like, "What is it?" I'm like, "It's a fish." He's like, "What?" He's like, "No."
Oh my God, it's pulling so hard. So I'm fighting it, fighting it, but of course we're in the dark. We have our little headlamps on, and so it's fighting me and all I can feel it doing is just ... my husband, he's like, "You sure you're not stuck? You sure you're not hooked on the lock?" I'm like, "Dude." I'm like, "Get the net."
The fish is just diving down, diving down, and we can't see. I'm telling you, we were in the country. When I tell you, it was complete darkness. Oh my gosh, girl, I just knew that ... I've never felt a tug that hard or that strong from any fish that I've ever caught, so I knew it was a big boy. So, I'm just like, "Is this a carp or something, a catfish?"
Oh my god. So, my adrenaline was going, I'm like, "I got to see, I got to see." So when I finally got closer, I was like, "I just need to just try to pull the line up. If it falls off, it falls off, but I got to see." When I pull it up, oh my God, it was the biggest fish head I ever seen. So at that point, I was so locked in, I was just like, "Oh my god."
You can hear it. I have a video on my channel and I'm just like, "Oh my God. God, please let me keep this fish. Oh Lord, please let me." I'm praying as I'm pulling him up, 'cause I'm just like, "Don't fall off." The biggest bass I've ever saw in my life, she was almost nine pounds. That is trophy bass size for a bass fishing world. Looks like you're holding a freaking kid. The mouth, oh my God, the size of a bucket, and they call them bucket mouth.
That was the best night ever, so exciting. We released her, got our pictures in. Released her back, because of course I feel like fish go through a lot to make it to get that big. She's been around for a long time. I mean, she's dodged other fish eating her, she's dodged being caught and eating. It's a lot that she has made it through it.
She's a big thing in that lake. You know what I'm saying? She's kicking out these kids, so let's let her get out and do her thing. I was so emotional, so excited, because it's just like, that's why we're out there. To just catch a trophy bass, that was amazing.
Shelby Stanger:
That is such a cool story. You have a really interesting relationship with fishing, it's really cool.
Myishia Haynes:
They call me the fish whisperer sometime.
Shelby Stanger:
It sounds like you need to be confident and also it helps that you have so much fun.
Myishia Haynes:
Yeah, I think that's the main part is that I'm just enjoying it. I drive people crazy, because I'm releasing these fish all the time. When I'm out in public, oh my God, that drives people crazy a lot of times too. If there's someone near us, and this happens all the time, someone can be sitting there and they're just waiting and they're not catching. So of course I'm catching them, but then I'm throwing them back, but a lot of times if they say, "Hey ..." If they ask for it, I'll give it to them. I'm like, "Sure. Yeah, you can have it." But yeah, it definitely irritates people to see me doing that, but I mean, that's my thing. I'm happy too.
Shelby Stanger:
I think you just said something really important, you're happy.
Myishia Haynes:
Yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
Fishing makes you really happy. What has it brought to the rest of your life?
Myishia Haynes:
Well, it's peace for me. It's just being out there and you have your everyday life of being a mom, working, whatever it may be that you're doing that distracts you from your peace sometime. Fishing does that for me. I can get out there and when I'm out there, I don't worry about anything. You're not worrying about your phone, you're not worrying about what bill is due, what time you got to check, none of that. It's just when I'm out there, for me the main part is just getting away.
We can't always go on vacation all the time, but the water for me every time is therapeutic. A lot of times we hike into a lot of places, and just to hike and just to get different locations to explore and find these. We go on Google Maps and we just look for water that's just sitting in the middle of nowhere. That's why a lot of people, they say, "Where'd you catch that fish?" But we put in the work. We get our backpacks and we hike into these places and find just a pond that's just there, or just water. Just that alone for me is just so therapeutic, and I feel like we all need that.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah, so I get the lore of fishing when you're actually catching the fish, but there's this part of fishing that's a lot of waiting.
Myishia Haynes:
Yeah, well, so see for me, that's why I'm more attracted to bass fishing, because if you're fishing for maybe trout or catfish maybe, I think they do wait a long time, because I grew up with my parents throwing their line out and then they just sit back and kick back, and they just waiting for that bell to ring or something like that. That could take hours.
But you do have to know the areas of what you're throwing. You kind of got to know what the fish like, where they like to hide. It's things like that. That's the part that excites me as well, is the hunt. You're tracking down their behaviors and where they like to be. We're never out there just sitting and eating sandwiches and just waiting for it to happen, I'm always moving. We're casting, walking, casting, walking. We have our backpacks on and then we just go and just hike the whole way. If there's a lake, we're making it around at least halfway.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah, I didn't even think about ... the way you fish is unlike a lot of the way I imagine fishing.
Myishia Haynes:
Most people, that is ... and when I tell people about fishing, that's usually the thing. They're like, "Oh, it's going to be boring, or, oh, I never catch anything." But bass fishing, for me, I'm always catching something, and then when I don't catch, it's still a good day for me, because I'm enjoying the outdoors.
Shelby Stanger:
Many people think of fishing as being a pretty static activity. You pick a spot, you cast your line, and you sit in your folding chair waiting, but when Myishia fishes, she's researching locations, moving constantly and enjoying time in the wild, even if she doesn't get any bites. When we come back, Myishia talks about her colorful Instagram profile, glitterandgills, her thoughts on fashionable fishing and her passion for getting kids outside.
Myishia Haynes might be one of the only fisherwoman to wear long bedazzled nails when she's out by the water. She spends her free time exploring the California Delta in a big silver Jeep with hot pink rims. Whether she's driving or hiking, Myishia is always on the lookout for the best spots to catch bass. She makes videos and tutorials about her adventures and shares them on her Instagram page, glitterandgills.
You've got this Instagram handle, glitterandgills, which is so good. You kiss the fish on your Instagram, you kind of explain how to fish, you give some tutorials, but what's really interesting is also your outfits are really fun. When I think about fishing outfits, they're not the most exciting.
Myishia Haynes:
Right.
Shelby Stanger:
So, let's just talk two seconds about the fashion.
Myishia Haynes:
Right. Well, for me, it's a must. I think that's also a way to get the girls to want to go out there, but it's who I am. That confuses a lot of people, because they're like, "You're out here and you're pink decked all out. You have your little bling going on." But I mean, that's who I am. I feel like a lot of people don't find that other side of them, because they don't explore out, so we all kind of walk one way.
So in my world, I probably should just be the girly girl, pinkies up. Yes, my pinky, it does go up when I sip my cups, but also, I can get down and dirty and I can have fun. I'm always out there cute. I'm going to put my gloss on and I'm going to get my good sunscreen, so I have my nice glow. My outfits, I'm always looking for new outfits.
My nails, I'm known. That's another thing that attracts a lot of people is because I'm known for my nails. They're always like, "How are you fishing with those nails?" But these are almost like another tool. I don't know, I feel weird when I don't wear them, but I'm always going and getting my glitter nails. Very cool pics when you're holding this fish with your nails.
I love having my hair done, my cute outfits, and I get a lot of women that are always inspired by that. They're messaging me and they're like, "Oh my God, I loved your outfit. Where'd you get that? Or, oh, I need to put a outfit together like that. Or, I didn't know I could wear that out." I'm like, "You can wear whatever you want."
Shelby Stanger:
I think what's really interesting is the fashion has helped attract probably a lot of other women to go fishing.
Myishia Haynes:
Yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
I mean, it can be intimidating to see these camo drab outfits.
Myishia Haynes:
Right.
Shelby Stanger:
They're for a reason, but-
Myishia Haynes:
Yes, nails all dirty and stuff.
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah. But I know from surfing, when I started surfing there was only men's board shorts. When I had a friend who wore leopard print pink, cool outfit surfing, it made me want to surf. I don't know why, I don't even really like fashion that much, but it just seemed fun.
Myishia Haynes:
But yeah, and you don't have to choose. I feel like a lot of times within sports and with outdoorsing and things like that, which are usually male-dominated, it's like you have to choose. We've been told this is a guy sport or something like that, then you got to look like one, you got to keep up. So for me, no, I'm coming with my super hot pink, girl.
I have a Jeep that's a beast. She's silver, and then she has neon hot pink all over. She has the neon pink grill, my rims are pink and black-
Shelby Stanger:
Awesome.
Myishia Haynes:
And on the back, I have a big old sticker that says, we are not the same. She's lifted up. I do donuts in the mud and all this stuff, and it's like you don't have to fit into this certain way. So I just want women to be able, you can go fishing, you can still look cute, but you can also go out there and show them out too.
When I'm out there, I'm pink flower shirts and all that, and I'm ripping fish like this. The guys, they look at me when I come out, there're like, "Oh, she's so cute. Hey, you know what you should do? You should try this, you should try that." I'm like, "Oh, how long you guys been out here?" They're like, "Oh, it's kind of slow." I'm like, "Oh, okay." I love to hear that. Then here I go, "Pow, got one." In that pink, in that glitter, baby. So I just feel like women should be able to dress how they want, and I mean, I'm going to.
Shelby Stanger:
So you're showing up, you're glowing up, but you're also sharing that with other people.
Myishia Haynes:
Yes.
Shelby Stanger:
So, let's talk about how you're sharing the joy of fishing with others.
Myishia Haynes:
Well, of course on my social medias, I'm able to take pictures every time I'm out, so I love posting and just sharing my videos. I'm always smiling, I can't help it. I'm always smiling, but I'm having a good time and I love being able to share those moments with people. So every time I get a chance, I'm like, "Hey, let's go fishing."
I don't have a lot of friends that want to fish. They're just not into it and that's fine, but one thing attracted me to my Instagram page and things like that, I felt like I found my tribe. I always say that, because I had no idea that there were so many people that were into fishing like that. You kind of just think that it's something that you kind of like to do. You may see a couple people here and there, but I was just like, "Oh my God." Then a lot of women as well that I came across.
Shelby Stanger:
By showing how much fun she has when she's fishing, Myishia hopes to encourage more women to get outside. Another part of Myishia's mission runs all the way back to her childhood. She was introduced to the outdoors by family, but she really fell in love with nature at summer camp. Out of gratitude for that experience, Myishia wants to expose others, especially kids, to the activities that captured her imagination at camp, fishing, hiking, and kayaking.
Myishia Haynes:
For me, growing up in Oakland, my mom, she was a single mom, and so we had our hard times growing up. I stayed in the areas you call the hood, and so there was no lakes, there was no ponds or things like that, so when we went fishing, it was a big deal. You might get the whole family together and we drive for maybe an hour, two hours to get to some water.
But my main thing, for me, I had no idea that there was a thing of kayaking or that there was this thing of bass fishing or jigging artificial baits, or you can go to this lake or you can go to a pond. I didn't see that. I didn't see all this fancy equipment, because we couldn't afford that type of thing. Then when you look at TV, I never saw anyone that looked like me fishing, or that was kayaking or surfing, any of those type of things. So that's a part of me wanting to diversify for younger kids, because when you don't know, you don't go.
Even my adult friends, because I kayak as well, "What are you doing with that? What the heck, girl? Oh my god, you're crazy." This is as adults, but because they were never exposed to that as well, they still to this day think it's kind of odd that I'm doing that.
It's the whole thing [inaudible 00:22:08] the kids when I was growing up. I was the only child that wanted to do these type of things, but when I went to camp, maybe about 11 or 12 years old, it was an opportunity for low income kids to be able to go away to camp. Camp Mendocino was what it was called. My mom, she was able to get us there, and it was kids that came from all over, San Francisco, Richmond, Oakland, but it was all the areas of kids that were low income.
So we get on this big old bus, they drop us off. All of that for us was exciting. For me was so exciting, because I'm just like, "This is a journey." But for me, I mean, I even get emotional sometimes just thinking about it, because it was the greatest experience of my life, because for a kid like me that loves fishing, loves the outdoors, I never knew that there was places that had beautiful lakes. Trees, it felt like as a child I was looking up for miles, and I never saw anything like that.
I never saw a cabin, I never knew about a campfire. You know what I'm saying? That was just because we didn't have. So to be able to see these things, to see raccoons, what the heck? What kind of cat is that? You know what I'm saying? We didn't see that type of stuff and it was the greatest experience just to be able to be there.
Oh my God. I heard them on the loudspeaker. We had a night when all the kids were hanging out, and they were like, "Tomorrow is the fishing tournament," whatever. I was like, "A what?" They were like, "Fishing tournament, all you boys come down." I'm like, "What?"
I went and talked to one of the camp guy and I'm like, "You can go fishing here?" She's like, "Yeah." I'm like, "But they said the boys." She was like, "You can go and sign up." I'm like, "Is this for real, girl?" I went and rocked that little contest. I was the only girl.
Shelby Stanger:
And you won.
Myishia Haynes:
Yes, and that was the-
Shelby Stanger:
Of course you did.
Myishia Haynes:
Most exciting thing ever. I mean, just everything to me was just like, "Wow." Once I knew that you could do that, the girls that I had met, we were all like, "Yeah, we're going to hang out and we're going to do this." Girl, they were looking for me all the time, because I was over at the little small lake fishing all the time.
For me, I never was exposed to these kind of things. So for why camp is so important to me, because I know for my thing, for my mom, it was just the financial, you can't do it. I'm sure that's why we were never exposed, because go where? I mean, I do stuff. To this day, my mom, she's like, "Girl, what are you doing?" She's like, "Be careful." I'm like, "It's fine." "Don't flip over in that kayak. Why are you standing up in that boat?"
Shelby Stanger:
What are the lessons that you've learned from fishing that you've really applied to the rest of your life? You've talked about release, joy-
Myishia Haynes:
Yeah.
Shelby Stanger:
Patience.
Myishia Haynes:
Yeah, definitely patience. Number one is patience, because you do have to wait. It's not always going to be a big fishing day, you're not going to always catch, but just being able to enjoy life. That's what I try to teach my daughter as well. When we're out there, it's like ... because she doesn't want to go all the time. "Look, come on, let's go and get out here, because you need to get away from your social medias and all this stuff for a while," because you need to be able to relax, relax your mind. For me, it's so peaceful sometime to just be quiet and just-
Shelby Stanger:
You don't have your phone with you except for to take pictures.
Myishia Haynes:
Exactly, yeah. But to be able to be out there and just enjoy just the sound of everything, and I notice that I'm actually living. You know what I'm saying? I feel like when we're working and we're doing our shuffle, we're existing. But when you get out into nature or when you do whatever it is that you love. You surf. You know what I'm saying? I'm sure you feel so alive when you do that. So when I'm fishing, I feel like I'm living. You hear everything, you feel everything, your senses are at an all time high. For me, the joy is just out the roof, and so I feel like for me, that's living.
Shelby Stanger:
I love that. You just brought so many things to my mind. Any advice to people who want to get into fishing?
Myishia Haynes:
Just start small and just go. Pack your little sandwich and just get out there and go in the mind of having a good time. While you're packing your baits and packing all this cool stuff, pack your smile and go.
Shelby Stanger:
I love that. Pack your smile and go.
Myishia Haynes:
Yeah, you always got to pack your smile.
Shelby Stanger:
Myishia Haynes, thank you so much for coming on Wild Ideas Worth Living. It was such a joy to talk with you. Thank you for being you. It's so fun to see how many people you inspire by staying true to yourself.
If you want to learn more about Myishia and follow along with her latest fishing and outdoor adventures, check out her Instagram page, @glitterandgills. That's spelled exactly how it sounds. Glitterandgills, G-L-I-T-T-E-R-A-N-D-G-I-L-L-S. If you watch her videos, you'll hear her sign off.
Myishia Haynes:
Thanks for having me and catch you smiles and I'll catch you guys later.
Shelby Stanger:
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, written and edited by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are [inaudible 00:28:04] and Joe Crosby.
As always, we appreciate when you follow the show, rate it and review it wherever you listen. Remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.