Veterans enjoy fishing, fellowship during Red River catfish event
Sep. 29—EAST GRAND FORKS — They battled rain for the better part of the first day, but a group of 14 military veterans from the Dakotas, Minnesota and Wisconsin found out firsthand why the Red River of the North is one of the best channel catfish destinations on the planet during a recent two-day fishing event.
They caught catfish — lots of them — they swapped stories and they might even have bragged a little bit. But in the end, the inaugural World Class Catfishing Event was an opportunity for the participants to get out of the house, enjoy the outdoors and connect with other veterans who could relate to the experience of serving and the challenges of returning to civilian life.
Held on Thursday, Sept. 21, and Friday, Sept. 22, the event was based out of LaFave Park in East Grand Forks.
"Having something to look forward to, it keeps us going — it really does," said Lisa Juve of Fargo, a veteran who participated. "This is good for the soul, and it just recharges those batteries."
Several months in the making, the veterans catfishing event was organized by
Fishing for Life,
a faith-based Minnesota organization. Founded in 2004, Fishing for Life provides outdoor and outreach opportunities, not only for veterans and their families, but for inner-city youth, youth from single-parent families and military families, and kids who either have lost a parent or have a parent who is incapacitated as a result of military service.
They do this through eight different programs that include everything from veterans fishing and hunting events to youth day camps, resident camps and special programming on lakes for young people and adults with disabilities, said Chad Lanners of Maple Grove, Minnesota, COO of Fishing for Life.
Between camps and other activities, Fishing for Life offers about 120 different events throughout the year, largely through the efforts of volunteers and partnerships with communities, churches and other organizations.
"Our whole goal is to get people in the great outdoors and have that opportunity to have some camaraderie and share their stories and find some healing in nature," Lanners said. "I heard from a number of the veterans who said it was good just to get away and sit back and relax.
"We're just blessed to have a great opportunity to get out here and enjoy some world-class fishing."
Veterans Chris Hudson of Andover, Minnesota, and Chad Landt of Cambridge, Minnesota, spent their second day in a boat with James Lindner of Baxter, Minnesota-based
Lindner Media Productions.
A host of the
"Lindner's Angling Edge" TV show,
Lindner was one of seven volunteer guides for the Red River catfish event.
He learned of the event through Sam Bauer, a friend from Detroit Lakes, Minnesota, who helped Lanners organize the Red River catfish excursion and also was a volunteer guide. Bauer became associated with Fishing for Life while living in the Twin Cities, where he served as a volunteer guide for muskie events on Lake Minnetonka. He now works for Ramy Turf Products and said the company decided to work with Fishing for Life as a way to give back to veterans.
Considering everything Fishing for Life does, spending a couple of days as a volunteer guide on the Red River was an easy sell for Lindner, as well.
"They run numerous programs like this," Lindner said. "It's an amazing thing, what they do, because they only have a limited number of (staff), and it's like nonstop."
Volunteers keep the workload manageable, said Landt, the Cambridge veteran whose involvement with Fishing for Life is traditionally as a volunteer and not a participant. Hudson also volunteers more than he participates but says his kids have attended several Fishing for Life programs.
"They're teaching kids skills they'll be able to use later in life and having fun with it," Hudson said.
Spending time in a boat, catching fish and sharing experiences with fellow veterans is healing, he says.
"It brings everybody together," Hudson said. "It gives you that piece of mind, and sometimes that's what veterans need. During a standard deployment, we make only like six decisions. We know where we're eating, we know what we're doing. And out here, when you're amongst people that you've been with, you build that camaraderie, you already have that understanding. It helps, I think, with some mental aspects as well, so there are multiple things that go in with it — the camaraderie, the fishing ... it gives them a kind of peace."
Fishing the Red River was a new experience for most of the veterans, including Hudson and Landt, but Lindner has fished the Red for years, both for fun and while filming TV fishing show episodes.
The average size of channel catfish in the Red is without rival, he says.
"It's just such a fabulous fishery, and catfish are such a cool fish," Lindner said. "It's really relaxed fishing. You put out lines, and the fish, they have a tendency ... they just like to bite a lot."
The catfish bug really hit, Lindner says, when he'd bring his son and some buddies up to the Red when the boys were in their teens.
"They just loved it," Lindner said. "Over the course of a day, we would actually weigh in 300 to 500 pounds of catfish, and it was just amazing."
Over the course of the two-day Fishing for Life event, the veterans and their volunteer guides landed well over 200 catfish, along with a handful of other species including walleyes and goldeyes. Among the fishing guides, Jason Aleshire of Wayzata, Minnesota, landed bragging rights, putting the veterans fishing with him on 38 catfish the first day and 48 catfish the second day.
"They kept me busy," Aleshire said. "It was a blast. Now, they can take this and (fish the Red) on their own."
Lanners, the Fishing for Life COO, said the goal of every event is to make sure the participants have a great experience. Based on the emotional comments from some of the veterans at the end of the second day, the goal was met.
Mission accomplished.
"I appreciate you all that have done this for us," said one of the veterans during a post-fishing awards ceremony. "It means a lot. It's hard to say, but it gets people out of the house to socialize that normally don't get out of the house to socialize that much. Hopefully, we can get more people out of that group and back into society by doing this kind of thing.
"I would have been fine with doing two more days, it was that much fun for me, and I don't even fish. This was excellent. I loved it."
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