FISHING THE FIFTY QUEST

David Howard traveled from Virginia to catch an Indiana Steelhead

 No doubt there are dozens of reasons people hire me to take them on a fishing trip on Lake Michigan. They want adventure, sport, to try something different. Perhaps fishing Lake Michigan is on their bucket list or they know it’s one of their best opportunities to catch a big fish, close to home. Some just like catching tasty fish or fish they can keep to eat without feeling guilty. Few people climb into the Brother Nature because they are on a quest.

That’s what happened a few years ago when I met David Howard at the docks one morning in late June. David originally scheduled his fishing time to see how many fish of different species he could catch. Once he caught most of the species available in his home state of Virginia, he started traveling to other states to fish for other kinds of fish. Which brought him to me.

My website (www.brother-nature.com) has a fishing calendar for people to use in planning when they’d like to come or what to expect when they get here. Howard saw the calendar and scheduled for late June when it's expected to get a mixed bag, each time out. Specifically, he wanted a lake trout, a steelhead or a coho salmon to add to his list. Catching even one of these three would be a successful trip, two of the three would be great and all three would be fantastic.

Lakers were not to be.  A cold front had pushed through leaving miles of 3 to 5 foot waves between the beaches and the deep water where lakers could be found. So we concentrated on nearshore, Skamania strain steelhead. Success came quickly with a 14-pound steelhead. Next a brown trout came to the boat. Browns are rare in summer. He'd already listed a brown caught in a Virginia stream, but those fish are measured in inches. This one weighed over nine pounds, still his largest ever brown trout.  

The waves diminished by mid-morning. The lakers were still out of the question but I was able to steer the boat to slightly deeper and cooler water where Howard caught a beautiful coho weighing over seven pounds. Another fish for his "list."

Soon after our outing a new quest was born. Howard realized his original goal to catch a variety of fish had taken him to more than half the states in the USA. Could he fish all fifty states?

Not David's first brown trout, but his largest! 

It looks like it!  A trip to Hawaii in 2015 will complete his journey. How many people can say they’ve visited all 50 states, much less fished all 50 states.

In anticipation, Howard has set up a website www.fishingthefifty.com which includes photos from each trip along with a short essay detailing what fish he caught in each of the states. Click it up, it’s very interesting and he's caught some magnificent trophies.

I’m happy and proud to have been a part of David’s quest.