My old buddy John and a special crew
Posted By: JJ
For some of you who have seen some previous blog posts, you may remember John. John is a guy who has fished with me several times over the years and is a guy that I love to see on my boat. John was born blind but he does not let that slow him down a bit. He continues to impress me each time we fish together. The first few times together, we were live baiting which really plays into his hand. This year they came a little early so we had to freestyle a bit to get everyone in the game. We began casting jigs and I rigged john up and just casted for him. He'd retrieve the line and twitch it occasionally as I had instructed him too. Soon he was catching fish along with the others. He showed equal proficiency with the popping cork, popping, waiting and hooking fish when he felt the pull. For me, it is just a real pleasure and very humbling to see John in action. We broke up the day with some bottom fishing and it was lock and load. I felt like I was on a headboat with 20 people on it just trying to keep up with John. His sense of feel is uncanny. Another treat was finally getting to meet John's mom, Renee. She is a first class angler and a wonderful woman who hails from an area not far from my old stomping grounds. She was a Tabb girl, but I didn't hold that against her....She brought her husband Herb, who I learned is a doctor at CHKD and was very familiar with many of the children from our area who have fought for their lives, several of whom I know and love dearly. After our trip, I put things into perspective and realized just how lucky I was to be in the presence of such special people. They would all shrug it off, because that's the kind of people they are but I am very thankful to have spent a little time with them and sincerely look forward to doing it again soon. Dr. Bevan even ended up the day in style with a 40 lb cownosed ray hooked right in the mouth with a grub!! Thanks guys for a great day and keep making a difference in people's lives....
