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Worm Dunkers Limited
A REAL incident. The names have been changed and story modified.
It was Fall 2004 and The Harry Worm Chapter of the Worm Dunkers Limited were making plans for their annual Creek Spring Festival. I was
not a member of their organization but I liked helping with anything trout related in the area.
The Creek Spring Festival was sponsored each year by the Harry Worm Chapter. There were casting demonstrations and bucket raffles donated pieces of fishing gear and some donated guided trips. I usually donated a trip to good causes.
One of my friends I made during my guiding days was a retired Green Bay Packer. He played in the Ice Bowl and Super Bowl I & II.
I will call him Bob Lineman. Bob Lineman told me he was interested in helping the Harry Worm Chapter out. Bob was going to donate his time and 300 photos of him from the Glory Days. He was going to appear at the Creek Spring Festival to help out the Worm Dunkers Limited.
I thought this was a great idea. Bob got about 10 dollars minimum for his autograph and at such a Festival there would be many generous people. Bob's generous donation would be given to the chapter for stream habitat improvement. This was basically a 3,000 dollar donation and the news that he was there would increase the typical turn out and the sale of bucket raffle tickets would be 4 fold and the Creek Spring Festival would be a SMASHING success
I called the president of the Harry Worm Chapter. I told Fritz Davidson the President about the generous donation. He was all pumped up about the donation. He said he would bring it up in the general membership meeting.
The night of the meeting came up and Fritz called me. He wanted some more details about the donation. He asked me what type of angler Bob Lineman was. I told him Bob was a fly angler.
The next day Fritz called me and told me that the vote went to closed session and the board members voted 3-2 to reject the donation. The reasoning Fritz gave me on the phone was the Harry Worm Chapter didn't want ALL of the masses coming to their Creek Spring Festival. It would have become a ZOO and they did not want that. Fritz told me that he was one of the 2 to vote for the donation.
One month later I met Fritz Davidson on stream. I had heard he quit his president job of the Harry Worm Chapter. I asked him about it. He told me their board of seniors in the chapter were too tunnel visioned and that the REAL reason they declined the donation was because Bob Lineman was a fly angler.
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What do you think of this?
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Spinner,
My first reaction is "unbelievable". AND after further thought, WHY the question even came up as to what type of angler the donor was. Describing the senior members as " tunnel visioned" would NOT have been MY first choice of words.
Mark
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Spinner,
I have past experience in "Club" politics, so I am not surprised. In my opinion, it probably had more to do with a few folks that let their power go to their heads, and not anything against fly fishing.
Doug
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I don't worry about folks like that I fish with flys AND worms and don't apologize for it. I also use all other types of tackle and make jigs and sinkers. I'm an all around fisherman!!!!!!!! :p:p:p
Fatman
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read first line of original post (modified)
