It didn’t take long for Bob Lisher to establish his presence at Clinton Lake. It only took two seconds – literally.

Two seconds after the Free State High football coach’s lure made contact with the water of Clinton Lake, a white bass jumped out.

“Now that’s fishing right there,” Lisher said, laughing. “That’ll probably be the only one I catch today.”

Lisher, 47, set the tone for Wednesday’s fishing expedition with a calm attitude. Fishing with his father, Mel, Lisher was laid back and excited to be on the water.

“It doesn’t get much better than this, does it?” Lisher asked, pointing to the seemingly endless blue water with his right arm.

Lisher said he fished at Clinton Lake purely for relaxation. Asked if he could compare coaching to fishing, he said that would be impossible.

“Coaching is a fun thing to do, and I love it, but there can be a little bit of stress involved pretty much year-around,” Lisher said. “Out here, there is no stress. There are some determined fishermen who are a little under stress when they fish. I’m not. I’m just coming out here to relax and enjoy the outdoors.”

Free State High football coach Bob Lisher casts from his boat at Clinton Lake.

Lisher was dressed in a gray Free State football T-shirt that said “Let’s play” in big, green letters on the back.

It was evident that football symbolized intensity, while fishing symbolized serenity for Lisher.

The closest hint of stress that afternoon took place off the water, when Mel went into a shop near the marina looking to purchase bait. Ten minutes later, he came to the boat empty-handed – and a bit dissatisfied.

“They make me wait 10 minutes, and then say they don’t have any bait,” Mel, 73, said, jokingly. “You’d think they could just put up a sign that says, ‘No bait.'”

The Lishers salvaged the expedition with artificial tube jigs, instead of live bait.

Mel taught his son to fish. Although he served as Lisher’s mentor, his wife, Becky, didn’t seem to take the fishing advice as well.

About 25 years ago at Melvern Lake, Mel and Becky went fishing for walleye. Becky decided to give fishing a try, so she cast, but the rod slipped.

Fishing rod overboard.

“She sat there for about a half an hour, and I said, ‘Now get my pole and get fishing,'” Mel said. “Finally I talked her into it, and on her first cast, she caught her pole right on the back end.”

Free State High football coach Bob Lisher and his father, Mel, left, tried their fishing luck Wednesday.

So how do you catch an overboard fishing rod that sank in the water 30 minutes ago?

“Absolute luck,” Lisher said, quickly responding before Mel.

Lisher has been fishing for more than 40 years.

In high school, Lisher caught a 12-pound channel catfish, to his surprise. It took 25 to 30 minutes to land, according to Lisher.

“I came home and woke up my parents because it was late at night, but I had to show them,” Lisher said.

Mel remembers the night.

Was he mad that Lisher woke him up so late?

“No,” Mel said. “That was part of our lives. If he was excited hunting or fishing, we were all excited.”

Bob Lisher usually fishes with nightcrawlers, but his bait shop ran out of the live stuff, forcing Lisher to dig into his tackle box.

It’s still the same way today, in a different generation. Lisher said he enjoyed taking his three children – Jayme, Brett and Michael – on the boat to fish during the summer.

“He can mess up on the boat and miss a fish or something, whereas on the field, if you mess up, he gets pretty upset about it,” Brett said.

Bob Lisher knows as fall looms, his fishing days are numbered.

“During football season, it’s all football,” Lisher said. “I hardly have time to go out and do anything with my family during football season.”