Pat Jones II has stepped his game up in a big way this season.

The Vikings outside linebacker has 5.0 sacks through Minnesota's first five games, including logging two sacks apiece in Weeks 1 and 2. When Jones isn't chasing down quarterbacks, though, he's out on a boat catching fish.

He first fell in love with the hobby as a child, going from hooking 'sunnies' to a 2-pound bass, and – like his football prowess – it's only grown from there, from his high school days in Virginia to college at Pittsburgh.

For this Water Break presented by Crown Royal, we joined Jones and his friend Luke Hentges on the Minnesota River to chat about fishing and watching film.

Q: When you got drafted by Minnesota, did you right away think about fishing here?

A: I'm not gonna lie. I didn't know anything about Minnesota. I got drafted and was like, 'All right, cool. I got drafted by the Vikings – let's go!' But then I'm like, 'Minnesota … where is Minnesota?' I literally pulled up my map and I'm like, 'Yo, Minnesota's, like, far. What's out there?' But I remembered the state slogan, 'Land of 10,000 Lakes.' Funny story: My mom used to make us write out all the states, their capitals and their slogans when we were young, and we'd have to remember them. So when I heard Minnesota, I'm like, 'That's the state slogan – they've got 10,000 lakes. I bet they've got fish out there.' It took me about a week [after moving to Minnesota], and I found a tackle shop out here. The dude there was like, 'Hey, yeah, I'll take you out fishing,' so we went out fishing and he showed us a couple different spots. I've been fishing here ever since.

Q: What is it you like so much about fishing?

A: I feel like it teaches you so many lessons. Every time you come out here, the first lesson it teaches you is patience. Right? We haven't caught a fish yet, so we've gotta be patient. … It also just teaches you how to relax, chill. It helps me relax a lot when I come out here.

Q: You posted an IG Story about watching film of upcoming opponents while out on the boat; when did you start bringing your tablet along?

A: That was really something I started doing this year. I was like, 'Man, if I'm gonna be out here, I might as well be productive.' So I started bringing my tablet out here just to get some extra time watching film. If I'm out here for four or five hours, I can at least watch, two, three hours of film.

Q: Now in your fourth season, have you changed your approach to watching film?

A: It's definitely something you have to learn how to do. There's a right way to watch film, and there's a wrong way to watch film. I think when I was a younger player, I would try to see too much. There's kind of a saying, 'See a little, you see a lot.' And that's where I got to when I was watching film. I started watching it to, really, watch for the little things – and it allowed me to see a lot more.

Q: Did you learn that from someone, or is it more self-taught, practice makes perfect?

A: I would say it's a little bit of both. Definitely some of the older players that have been on the team, I'll ask them questions and take tidbits from [their experience]. And then when you do stuff enough, you start to learn over time, and I feel like I've learned over time how to watch it [more effectively].

Q: Tell us about the giant catfish you caught; that thing looked prehistoric!

A: It's crazy. When we caught it, Luke told me, 'Bro, that's like a 40-year-old fish. That fish is older than you.' We were out here on this river, and the fish bite differently during different times of the year. During summertime, they'll just come up and smack it, like, the rod will bend over, and the whole boat will shake. But around this time of year, it's tricky because they'll just kind of pick the bait up, swallow it [without the hook] and just swim off. So you'll see the line moving really slowly. We're sitting here, like, 'Is that a fish?' We grabbed the rod and just set it, and the second we set the hook, we're like, 'OK, yeah, that's a fish.' It was a big fish.

Q: You know the people who get in the water to catch the massive catfish? Noodling? Have you ever done that?

A: It's actually illegal in Minnesota. But even if it was legal here, I still wouldn't do it. That's crazy.

Q: Catching the 40-pounder, was that your top fishing experience?

A: It was definitely in my top five. There's another fish I caught that was huge, it was a red drum – like 70 pounds. Back home this summer, I did my first football camp, and then some of my friends from high school, they do a charter now, so we've fished together since we were in high school, and whenever I'm back home we go out and have a good time. That night, we happened to – all the stars aligned, and we ended up catching, like, 20 fish that were all over 50 pounds. It was crazy. It was like a movie, seriously.

Q: You've also gone shark fishing, right? So are there any bucket-list items left?

A: I want to catch everything. I grew up watching the show River Monsters with Jeremy Wade. I promise you I didn't miss a single episode. I watched them all and was like, 'Man, this dude is really traveling the world and catching all these fish.' That's something that, when I get done playing, I can definitely see myself doing – traveling all over the world catching all different types of fish.