Al Lindner says he found God just after he founded In-Fisherman, the multi-media empire that revolutionized how people fish.

He credits being born again for his company's success, his happy life and for helping his brother and In-Fisherman partner Ron "win the battle against booze."

		Fishing Notebook: Franklin Park man hooks huge muskie

In January, Lindner brings his faith-based angle on fishing to New Castle, where the fledgling Christians Hooked on Fishing and area churches will hold a family fun event. Western Pennsylvania walleye pros Keith Eshbaugh and Dave Rhodes and members of Pennsylvania BASS Federation also will be on hand. Tickets include a buffet dinner.

"I'll be sharing fishing information," said Lindner, 59, of Brainerd, Minn., who sold In-Fisherman in 1998 and began Angling Edge, an Outdoor Life Network show. "But when I come to something like this, I make it clear, I will also be sharing my faith, my walk with the Lord."

Lindner will be making his appearance gratis, according to Rev. George Yates, pastor of New Covenant Evangelical Presbyterian Church, which is anchoring the event with support from area businesses. Yates said the inspiration for his fishing ministry came to him in an Iraqi desert last year, where he was serving his final tour of duty as a military chaplain.

"I knew I'd be retiring soon and so I said, 'Lord, what can I do?' " said Yates, 52, and an Army lieutenant colonel. "And it came to me. Fishing! It's good clean family fun."

It is also ideal, he said, for the sort of preaching he calls relationship evangelism. "You can't club people with the gospel like a baseball bat," said Yates, who started his church in an auction barn 10 years ago and estimates that about 280 people worship with him. "We invite congregants and searching people into the boat and invite them to talk, to tell their story. Everyone has a story."

Lindner, a traditional Christian, tells his story -- of how he found religion at age 37 -- at just two or three such gatherings a year although he receives scores of invitations. One reason he chose New Castle is that he's never been to the Lawrence County area he said. "I like to go where I've never been and I rarely go back to the same place again."

It is like that with his fishing, too, he said. "I love going to new places and figuring them out, seeing how quickly I can read the water and get onto active fish. Once I know I can catch fish with consistency, I pick up my boat and go somewhere else. If I had to go on the same lake, day in, day out, I'd get bored pretty quickly. It isn't important for me to stay and catch 50 fish."

Considered the bible of freshwater fishing, In-Fisherman, through its magazines and videos, markets a system based on understanding three things, species, environment and presentation, although Lindner said there's no education such as time on the water.

Lindner said he and his brother succeeded by making hard-to-grasp concepts accessible. "The market place was crying for that level of information, but I had no idea the impact would be what it was," he said. "It was the right idea in the right place at the right time."

He said he found God when he was least looking. "My wife enrolled our son in a school because it was excellent academically. It also happened to be Christian," he said. "That's how she started going to church. She would try to get me to pray with her and the kids, but I didn't know how to pray so I'd always say, 'I'll just pray later.' " One day, he was cuddling with his youngest son, Troy who was 4 1/2 at the time, and the child whispered in his ear, "Now that we're alone, show me how you pray."

"That really jerked the slack out of my line. I ran into the bathroom, crying. But that's how it began," Lindner said.

He said his greatest joy is fishing with his family and he has an as-yet unrealized dream, to win a prestigious Rainey Lake July smallmouth tournament on the Minnesota-Canada border, with Troy.

"I would love that," Lindner said. "Both of my nephews have won it. The competition is so incredibly tough, and that's one thing I'd like for us to do together, and that's win. We've been trying for three years."

That more parents don't fish with their children concerns Lindner, who said single-parent households and families pressed for time is the problem.

"If there's one thing we should all do, it's take a kid fishing. The magic years are 8 to 12. Chances are, if you expose a kid to fishing and it turns their crank, they'll do it for the rest of their lives. Exposure. That's our challenge."

Though people who fish are fishing more, the industry shows that fewer folks are fishing, said Lindner, and yet there has never been so much good stuff available in any price range. "Dollar for dollar, the quality is excellent, no matter what you spend," he said. "And you don't have to spend a lot. A $40,000 boat and $4,000 in tackle, they're nice toys, but they're not going to make you catch fish."

Likewise, fisheries have never been so bountiful, said Lindner, thanks to the catch and release, and selective harvest, as well as good management by state agencies. "Muskie, bass, walleye, they've never looked bigger and better, not 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50 years ago," he said. "The only question might be panfish because they're so heavily harvested."

An admitted Type A, Lindner said he has never felt burned out by fishing 200 or more days a year, and never felt that the pressures of fishing for a living took away his passion for the sport.

"I am still fascinated by fishing and by the fishing industry, that there is always something to learn," he said. "I pray all the time. I give thanks that I can do what I do for a living and be here to enjoy God's creation and catch a fish and appreciate a beautiful sunset. I know a lot of really good fishermen who appreciate God's creation but don't know the Creator. When you do, a whole lot happens that you'd never expect."