Fishing with Clifford
by Wayne Wooten

Lake Deerfield Chronicles 09.012.13
Clifford Dollar / Mark Calhoun

I received a telephone call from my brother-in-law, Mark Calhoun. Mark wanted to bring his father-in-law, Clifford Dollar to the house and fish. I was extremely happy to say yes! You see, for years I have been trying to get him to come up and fish. He always wanted to come up but due to knee surgery, he was afraid he would injure himself. Clifford is 88 years young and with the help of his stick, and walker gets around fairly well. Clifford also served during WWII in the Pacific, and I am always glad to listen to his experiences during his tour.

Mark told me they were leaving at 6 am, but they were going to pick up bait and a biscuit on the way. They arrived shortly after 7 am, and we headed out. Clifford didn’t want to go out in the boat. He just wanted to sit in his chair and fish from the bank. So we headed down to the lake and got him all set up; chair, cooler, tackle box and his trusty Zebco 33. He armed with red wigglers and crickets ready to catch some fish. He told me “I love pink worms, but they didn’t have any at the bait shop we went to. I like to hook them in one end and let them sit on the bottom."

We talked about fishing for a while and in that conversation, he said, “I had two passions; one being golf and the other is fishing. I know I’ll never play golf again, but I felt like I could still fish, and so I am up here, and it feels wonderful to be outside sitting by the lake with a line out. Hey, I can still cast too”! He also told me it had been more than five years since he had been fishing.

Fishing was tough and only produced a couple of small bream. Because of his balance problem, we went over to our community area where it is flat, but it is not the best place to fish from the bank. On the way back to my house he decided to ride with me in my Kawasaki Mule and maybe go by the area of the lake at my place and see if he might be able to get around down there. I checked his seat belt, and off we went the 400 foot long road to the lake, which includes about a 75 foot steep drop. When we got to the lake he said, “well; I didn’t fall out, and this looks good to me." I ask him after we went back to the house. How was the ride? He replied; “it was tense and bumpy and fun. I want to come back and fish down there”! I told him by all means it would be my pleasure to have him.

I can’t end this story without mentioning Mark, who drove him up here and patiently cared for him the entire time. Mark is an avid fisherman and a good guy! We have fished together for most of the 39 years I have been married to his sister.

I am always happy to take folks fishing, but today was a special day, and I am honored to have had Clifford come here to fish. He expressed his enjoyment several times, and you just can’t know how much that means to me. I will always say, “Fishing is the best therapy.”  I look forward to Mark and Clifford’s return in a couple of weeks.

 

About the author: Wayne Wooten is a freelance writer, lure and lure kit designer at Wayne’s Baits, LLC. He has over 35 years sales experience and was Vice President at Custom Services Inc. Now retired he devotes his time to creating and promoting products for the outdoor industry. He has been fishing since 1960 and enjoys taking people fishing on his home lake, Lake Deerfield, and writing stories and sometimes filming these trips. He has also worked in television doing commercials on outdoor shows. He lives in Ila, GA with his wife, you can contact him at wayne@waynesbaits.com or (706) 255-8504