Jaxton's Journey: Fishing, Faith, Family...and High School!

Jaxton Orr is quickly becoming known as a top contender in the kayak fishing community. As the youngest member of our Fishing Online Pro Staff, we often find ourselves forgetting how young Jaxton actually is all thanks to his professionalism, devotion to helping others and love and dedication to the sport of kayak fishing. If he isn't orchestrating charity tournaments, studying, or spending time with family, no doubt you can find Jaxton on the water! But how in the world does he balance his devotion to his fishing career, family, faith, and life as a high school junior? Below, Jaxton gives us a small glimpse into his life as an aspiring professional angler all while balancing life as a teenager, Christian, and high school student:

"Walt Disney once said, “All of our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” As a 17-year-old, that specific quote continually inspires me to chase my dreams fearlessly and do everything in my ability to achieve them. For me, my dream is to travel, fish, and compete in kayak fishing tournaments across the country. In my ongoing “kayak fishing career”, I have been extremely blessed to have many friends, family, and sponsors that support me and help me transform my dreams into reality.

I am currently a junior at Homestead High School in Fort Wayne, Indiana and it makes it difficult and frequently stressful to miss two to sometimes five days of school in a row as I am traveling and competing in different states across the country. To that point, I do my absolute best to prioritize my time and take school very seriously so I can pursue my dream with relentless passion and do what I love to do. During 2018 and 2019, I was unable to travel to a lot of the larger events that I absolutely wanted to compete in, but I MORE than understand and have learned that sometimes that is just how life works.

As the years have progressed, I have gotten much closer to the man upstairs, and none of my experiences and accomplishments would be a reality without him. That is something I am extremely grateful for. I have spent a lot of time trying to walk through my 2020 schedule and how it is going to look with school and all of the national level tournament opportunities. I have come to the conclusion that school will always come first, (after the family of course). In my opinion, dreams do not come true without hard work, sacrifices, diligence, and invaluable help from my peers. That being said, I am going to do my absolute best in school so I am able to travel and pursue many incredible opportunities in order to chase my dream of becoming a fulltime professional angler.

Something that I learned about myself during my first year of competition in 2017 is that I was a “dreamer” and not a “doer”. In other words, I had numerous dreams and goals, but I would never put in all of the energy, effort, and time to achieve those dreams and goals. I learned that in 2018 while competing as a 15-year-old. With my 2019 season in the books, I can now conclude that “anything is possible with hard work, diligence, time, with a positive attitude, and help from peers”.

Over the course of my three years of competing in kayak fishing tournaments, I have been incredibly grateful to be able to improve my mental positivity and learned what it takes to be successful. Not only that, but every outing on the water is a new opportunity for a learning experience. No matter if it is during a tournament or fun fishing, I always learn something new whether it's mentally or physically. Now, with the 2020 season starting, all I can say is that I am going to give it my ALL and put everything I have learned over the past three years, mentally and physically, into motion. At the end of the day, whether I succeed or don’t succeed, catch fish or not, it is truly a blessing to even have the opportunity to be on the water and in the company of such elite and nationally recognized anglers. With a positive attitude and mindset, the ability to learn from past experiences (good or bad), persistence, and time; any dream can be made possible."

Thank you for reading our blog; we hope you enjoyed it! Don't forget to check out Jaxton's tips & tricks on how to successfully fish Picasso Lures all season long in our 'Four-Season Bass Fishing Secrets from Jaxton Orr' article.

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