Happy Birthday Dad.

[Walleye Express]

Today would have been my dads birthday. He passed away in January of 1978 at a very young age of 54. Funny, now that I myself am now 55 and realize just how young that really still is to be leaving this world. Of course when I was but 26 in 1978, I thought dad was an old sage and well past his prime at that ancient age of 54. One thing I know for sure, dad would have loved to see the return of our Walleye fishery.

He would have really flipped if he had not died so young. He was born in 1925 and raised just as the walleye fishery started going down the tubes by the mid to late 30's and died just prior to it's glorious first return in the early 80's on the Saginaw Bay. By the time I was born in 1952 she was all but over for most things except for perch, cats and pike on the Bay and the connecting rivers. Fishing walleyes for me/us then when growing up involved a 250 mile drive one way to Michigan's U.P.

Gramps killed more then his fair share of walleyes (But what he called Pickerel) for many years on the Bay, as he was born in 1888. He'd spend weeks in a shanty spearing them on what they called the Pickerel grounds, straight out from the old water works. Made his winter house payments during the depression selling them at .10 a pound to buyers from New York that drove their Model A pickups out on the ice every week to buy and/or barter using wood stove fodder. A couple of Summers grandpa would get into what he'd called a chain gang transfer line with about 30 other guys down at the docks, and unload what he called the "Bean Boat" for .50 a day.

Actually the walleyes are the lucky ones that Dad died so early. After drawing a crowd daily at the fish camp cleaning table, some of these same guys would show back up at our camp site that night at one of dads crawler harness tying and technique seminars. The price was always a cold Drewerys Beer. And as the seminar progressed, the instructions and techniques became a little more fuzzy and vague. Man that beer was hideous.

Heres an older picture of one of our earlier trips (1959) as well as one of dad the winter before he passed. Happy birthday Dad. I still love and miss you very much.

[Priority1]

I hear you Dan. My dad been gone 10 years, but he was fortunate enough to make it to 80.