DOW Warm Water Clinic 2006

A Fishing Memory Just Came Full Circle

by Dave Kooser

From 30 years ago I can still see the look on my grandfather’s face, shadowed from the southern Texas sun by his “Gilligan” hat when I’d cast his favorite Redfish lure onto the crushed shell banks in Galveston Bay. Crushed shell does a number on monofilament line and rarely did I get his lure back. I was only 12 years old at the time and very much a student of the fishing sport. He deeply planted the fishing bug within me and despite having a limited number of fishing trips with him, to this day I fondly recall each trip and every fish caught. Of special fondness was the smile on his face when I’d eventually and probably accidentally, hook and land a keeper Redfish, Sea Trout or Flounder. I can still clearly see that ear to ear grin on his face that was accompanied with a little chuckle and the question, “do you want to keep it?”

Jump forward to June 4th, 2005. The South Chapter of the Colorado Walleye Association volunteered to help the Colorado Division of Wildlife with a Warm Water Clinic for fishing novices. Being an active member of the Walleye Association and the Promotions Director for the club, I had helped line up the volunteer, seasoned fishermen that would take these novices out on the water in our boats. As I stood on the dock at Pueblo Reservoir, eyeing the novices and wondering which ones would be assigned to me by Gary Dowler (DOW Officer and originator of the Warm Water Clinic idea) I only hoped we could get these people on some fish. Gary reached back in the crowd of beginners and ushered two students toward me. One was a middle aged woman, Mary Ann who seemed a bit apprehensive and out of her comfort zone as she carried her DOW gift pole and gift jigs and lures. The other was an older man, decked out in a “Gilligan” hat and carrying his own newly purchased rods and tackle box. Kurt and Mary Ann gingerly with land lover legs and aged knees eased onto my Crestliner as I assisted them. Once settled we cast off from the North Marina dock.

We had a few minutes of “no-wake” travel to get briefly introduced to each other. Mary Ann is a widow who had a passive interest in fishing and when she saw the DOW article in our local newspaper decided to see what Colorado really had to offer in the way of warm water fishing. Kurt is a retired accountant who likes to fish for any species but had not been successful on Pueblo in all of his past trips. Our first spot provided us with a few taps on the line but no aggressive fish and after the first 30 minutes I decided to try a second spot. On the way to our second destination I was remorseful that we had not hooked any fish and was really concerned my students might lose interest and confidence.

Upon arrival at our second spot, I suggested we switch to using night crawlers on our Lindy rigs instead of leeches. My two students agreed and Kurt had his offering bouncing on the bottom of the lake for about 2 minutes when he hooked into the first fish of the day. As his senior bones and muscles struggled to bring it closer to the surface, I could see the dim outline of a decent sized walleye. I netted his first ever walleye and unhooked the 20 inch fish. After a quick measure of the fish, I looked up and told Kurt “it’s a keeper, do you want to keep it?” The ear to ear grin, head nod and chuckle sent me back 30 years and stirred memories of the past but in this case I was the teacher, not the student. It was a good thing I had my sunglasses on, a fish that needed to be put in the live well and a different student in the front of the boat on which to focus at that happy and yet sad moment. I say sad because my last wish before my grandfather passed away was that I could have taken him fishing just once as he had done for me so many times. One spring about 8 years ago I was minutes away from hooking up my boat and driving to Galveston just to take him out on the water one last time, instead I drove down to be a pallbearer. To this day I regret that I could not make that last wish happen…..or just did I?

Mary Ann caught her first walleye soon after Kurt landed his keeper and the two of them kept a running tally of how many fish each had caught up to the moment when I had to return them to the dock. I could not have asked for two better students. Thanks Kurt, Mary Ann… and Grandpa…

The Division of Wildlife plans on holding similar Warm Water Clinics in the summer of 2006 and the Colorado Walleye Association will be there to help fulfill the dreams of future fishing novices.