John Schaefer called a while back and wanted to take his grandson William, walleye fishing on Lake Erie. We set a couple of dates but the weather didn’t want to cooperate until last Thursday. They showed up at 8 AM on a beautiful sunny day with a brisk wind out of the southwest. William 16 and John who, claims to be 77, fooled me because I thought we were close to the same age. We bonded quickly and started to share life stories but he really hit me with a shocker. William developed non-hodgkin’s lymphoma and had been in remission for 2 years. This really hit home. My sweetie, Linda, wife of 45 years is a 22 year survivor of non-hodgkin’s lymphoma. We had an instant friendship based in understanding the battle we had both witnessed.
Trying to turn to the subject at hand, fishing, we started trolling west of Lorain harbor and had only one fish in the first hour as the wind shifted out from SW to W and the waves were building. I decided to head for the east side of Lorain harbor that was somewhat protected from the wind. We were able to find calmer water and some hungry walleye. William and John limited out on their 12 walleye, plus my 3 bonus walleye, 2 giant catfish, a fish Ohio sheepshead and a bunch of throwback walleye that hadn’t reached the 15 inch legal size. We limited 2 hours early and it was a good thing because the wind switched to to the NW. When we pulled lines we were seeing 4 and 5 foot waves. It was just an awesome day with my new friends, a grandfather John making memories with his grandson William! Better to be lucky and blessed than good!