Back Cast
Standing on a gravel beach with a verdant backdrop of vegetation over his casting shoulder, Marvin Howe, dressed head to toe in camouflage, blends in.
That said, I can’t shake just how much he stands out.
As he repeatedly casts a simple rig of a worm threaded on hook into the Game and Fish Department’s OWLS Pond, Marvin says that today, June 25, marks his 144th day of fishing this year. He knows this because he keeps written records of his time on the water and the species of fish caught and how many, and so on. In 2025, his notes tell him, he fished 283 days, putting in roughly 1,630 hours into doing what he enjoys.
To anyone who fishes, or engages in whatever activity in North Dakota’s outdoors, that stands out.
A decade ago, Marvin, a longtime deputy county attorney in eastern Montana, retired on his 66th birthday, and moved with his wife of 47 years to Bismarck to be closer to their grandchildren.
Between casts, Marvins tells me that Bismarck is at the top of the list of the places he’s lived. He likes the fact that it’s easy to get around town and that he’s close to where he spends most of his time on the water. Nelson Lake. Heart River. Fish Creek Dam. OWLS Pond. Crown Butte.
For the bulk of June, Marvin’s silver pickup was already in the Game and Fish parking lot when I got to work. I knew he’d been here before sunrise and likely caught and released his first fish of the day before I rolled out of bed and made my way to the shower.
At 76, Marvin looks fit enough that he could jog from his home to the OWLS Pond if he wanted. And it doesn’t surprise me when he talks about playing tennis with friends, pheasant hunting mostly on his own and wading the Heart in spring to retrieve two tom turkeys he harvested on the opposite side of the river.
I asked him what he did after he shot his turkeys, knowing the answer I was pretty certain to get.
“Once you get a turkey in the morning and clean it, you got the rest of the day, so you have to go fishing,” he tells me with a smile.
Without having to reference the small notebook he carries in his pocket, Marvin knows he catches, by far, more bluegill than any other species throughout the year, followed by crappie and bass.
“Crappie are my favorite because there are days you can catch one after another … my record is 18 casts in a row at Nelson Lake,” he says. “Bluegill are kind of like that too, but they’re not as exciting as crappie.
Marvin and I have been visiting for about 30 minutes, and I know that I’m holding him up but he’s too polite to say. Yesterday, he had a great day wading the Heart River in hip waders for walleye and smallmouth bass. He was hoping for a repeat today, his 144th day of fishing thus far this year, once I finish peppering him with questions.
“I fish because it’s so much fun,” he says. “Another reason is that I don’t know for sure how many more years I can do this. I mean, I’m 76 years old and in good health, but you just see things happen.”