Do you know someone that is a jack of all trades master of none?  I had the privilege of knowing and living next door to a jack of all trades and master of ALL trades, (seriously).  Whatever the issue was with a car, boat, lawnmower, snowmobile, furnace, water heater, roof it didn’t matter, this man knew how to fix it and would always be the first one to help. That’s why twenty years ago, Monica and I didn’t know how lucky we were when we moved into our old house and met our new neighbors (Karl and Sue) and became great friends. In the first few years, we learned Sue loved to go on vacation and Karl loved to fish, so in 2004 Monica and I introduced them to the Northwoods. I truly believe they both fell in love with the area because each year, the four of us, along with others would head up north for a week of fishing. The stories I could tell (SUE), but we all know, “WHAT HAPPENS UP NORTH, STAYS UP NORTH”.

Karl would fish for any species, but he preferred fishing for Walleye and was given the name WALLEYE KING by me, because of the knowledge he possessed for catching walleyes. There could have been a cold front that just passed through, and Karl and Sue would catch walleye. We could have 90-degree days with high sun, 50-degrees and rain, wind out of the Northeast, it didn’t matter, this man could find and catch Walleye when others could not. If the four of us met (MAYBE ONCE OR TWICE) for a few drinks in the afternoon on a day KNOWBODY was catching fish and I would ask Karl, “catch any fish so far today?” Karl would smile and say, “caught 15 Walleye and kept 3”. It wasn’t just Karl’s ability to catch fish on days others couldn’t, but he would invite Monica and myself out on their boat and show us where and how he caught those Walleyes.

I can’t count the times Karl said he was going night trolling (Michigan side) of Cisco Chain and asked if I would like to join him, and my answer was definitely, and we always caught fish. Over those years, I learned so much about fishing for Walleye from this man, like where to fish, what to use, how to use it and when to use it, but I will never come close to being the WALLEYE KING. Sadly, we lost Karl in 2013 at the very young age of 53. Once the shock wears off, you realize how short and valuable life is and because of this, every time I catch a walleye, I think of Karl the Walleye King, look up and say, thank you Karl for everything you taught me, and you are missed by so many people.