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There are few hard and fast rules when it comes to metaphors expressing your love.

You can compare your love to the rising sun, or flowers or beautiful music, even a burning flame.

However, even the greatest of poets would advise you to tread carefully when comparing your dearest love to a fish.

But when you’re an angler of the caliber of Dennis Oxendine, even the life aquatic isn’t out of bounds when it comes to expressing your love.

“She has been my best catch,” Oxendine said of his wife Kaissen.

Lucky for the angler, he elaborated.

“My wife is the biggest fan ever. She supports my dream. She supports my passion,” he explained. “When I come in from a hard day on the water it’s her beautiful smile I looked forward to.”

Oxendine is a semi-pro fisherman who casts his line in area tournaments when not working his day job as a warehouse supervisor at ColorTech, which both sponsors him and supports him in his aquatic pursuits.

Though you can find Oxendine on the water, practicing his craft year-round, as the weather warms and tournament season approaches, he’s ready to get back into the grind.

“The No. 1 question I’ve been asked is what drives me,” he said. “For me, it’s not about fun fishing. When it comes to tournament fishing, it’s about being competitive. You’re trying to be the best.”

Whether for fun or competition, fishing has always been a part of Oxendine’s life. Like many, he learned from his father.

“I love to bass fish,” he explained. “I love to pan fish, but bass fishing was more challenging because you use artificial lures.

When he came to Morristown more than a decade ago, his interest in competitive fishing grew. He reached out to a local marina that was hosting a teen trail. That first year he finished in the Top 50 out of 300 boats.

Then began the search for sponsorship.

“I just started fishing and fishing, started looking at the business side and reached out to lures and equipment makers, seeing if they’d sponsor me,” he said. “After hundreds and hundreds of emails, I had a first sponsor.”

He got interest from Strike King and Lew’s who became “my two big sponsorships in the fishing industry.” ColorTech has been on board for eight years.

“Entry fees are not cheap to fish these tournaments,” he said.

Though he competes on local tournaments now, there was a time that he pursued a broader path, competing in tournaments in Missouri and Texas.

But, as a single father at the time, he had a larger responsibility at home.

He mostly competes on local lakes now like Douglas and Cherokee. But, he says, you have to be diligent not to take the home lake advantage for granted.

You have to consistently look at the lakes with a fresh eye, especially reservoirs like Douglas and Cherokee which change drastically from winter to summer due to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s lake level management.

“You have to stay on the water in the off season,” he said, adding that you have to stay current with the lake’s habitat. “Sometimes history can be your worst enemy.”

While there are other boats on the water, he said, the competition isn’t rally against the other anglers.

“You’re fishing against Mother Nature and the fish themselves,” he said. “You’ve got to stay in touch with Mother Nature. You have to know where they live, what they want to eat. It’s all about presentation.”

Though he admitted a few moments later that he’s fishing against the other anglers, too, at least a little bit.

East Tennessee has produced some of the best bass fishermen in the world,” he said. You get a chance to fish against them. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what keeps me motivated. That’s what keeps me going.”

It’s all about life balance as well, In addition to his work at ColorTech and his fishing, Oxendine balances family life and is active in the community. A leader of the Men of Vision Group, he mounted a campaign for school board a couple of years back. Now, he’s also becoming a minister.

“You got to balance out your family time, worship time. I’m becoming a preacher. Life is about wearing hats. You’ve got to wear the right hat at the right time,” he said.

And while he’s wearing all those hats, he wants to make sure he handles himself in the best way possible.

“Not only am I representing the Oxendine family, I’m representing the ColorTech family,” he said. “It’s why I maintain a high level of professionalism, not only on the water but off the water.”

Another family he represents is the Morristown Task Force on Diversity, which sponsors his efforts as well.

The Task Force President Dr. Alpha Alexander was a four-sport athlete in college, went on to be the Women’s Athletic Director at Temple, chaired the Arthur Ashe Foundation, founded the Black Women in Sport group and worked for the YWCA and multiple Olympic committees. She’s a mentor to athletes at Walters State.

She is as woman who understands the value of competition. Once she found out how competitive bass fishing tournaments can be, the Task Force wanted in.

“The Task Force became a sponsor last year,” Oxendine said. “They support my drive, too. Dr. Alpha is a gem in our community. She didn’t know bass fishing is as serious as it is. She really does support me. She calls and we talk.”

Oxendine says it’s a blessing to do what he loves and, more than that, he believes events like bass fishing tournaments – or anything that brings a community together – is exactly what’s needed in the world.

He encourages everyone to follow his journey on the various social media platforms and says his first tournament of the year is happening this weekend.

“With everything going on in the world, we need each other,” he said.