And in other Operation News.............................

[Frank Walsh]

http://www.grandforksherald.com/outd...aising-auction



In June 2013, I wrote a feature story about Operation Muskie, a fishing excursion held every year out of Oak Island on Lake of the Woods as a way to thank recent combat veterans for their service.

It's a great event, pairing 20 veterans from across the country with 10 of the top muskie guides the region has to offer, including several from Wisconsin. Frank and Laura Walsh open their resort, Bay Store Camp on Oak Island, to the veterans and guides for the better part of a week, and demand for participating exceeds available slots.

This year's Operation Muskie, set for June 29 through July 3, will be the eighth annual event.

Staging an event of this magnitude requires considerable funds, and one of the major fundraisers for Operation Muskie is a live auction, which this year was held Feb. 13 during the Milwaukee Muskie Expo.

Jeff Wiegand, a Wisconsin veteran who attended the inaugural OM and now serves as fundraising director for the 501(c)3 nonprofit Operation Muskie organization, shared a story about an act of generosity that occurred during last weekend's auction that deserves to be retold.

Frank Walsh shared Wiegand's email account of what happened, and it struck a chord with me.

To paraphrase Wiegand's email:

A young fisherman who attended the auction only had a budget of $30 to spend for the evening. And while he bid on several items throughout the night, he kept getting outbid.

According to Wiegand, the grand finale item up for auction was a custom-made red, white and blue "Just Encase" tackle box filled with lures Operation Muskie guides had donated.

A bidding war ensued, Wiegand said, and the tackle box sold for "a real good amount of money."

He didn't reveal the price, but suffice to say it was several times more than the young fisherman with a $30 budget could afford to spend.

As Wiegand explained, the man who won the tackle box went up on stage, saying he and two buddies had started a bidding war because they wanted to help OM "in a big way."

He then called the fisherman who kept getting outbid to the stage, where he presented the young man with the custom tackle box filled with lures.

The man and his two buddies who also bid on the item "just up and gave" the young fisherman the custom-made box and tackle, Wiegand writes.

The young man -- and everyone else -- was floored, Wiegand writes, but that's not the end of the story.

After the auction, the young fisherman approached the event's organizers and donated his $30 to Operation Muskie.

"And while we of course tried to refuse it, he adamantly insisted," Wiegand writes.

The young man's generosity -- and the generosity of the men who gave away the custom tackle box -- was like going out and catching a 50-inch muskie, Wiegand writes.

Any way you measure it, that's a trophy of a tale, the kind of tale that can't help but reaffirm your faith in humanity.

The kind of tale that explains why Operation Muskie has grown into the successful event it is.

[Ed Spoerl]

when I think about musky fishing all I really think about now is the great people and friends I've met over the years. Not So much anymore about how many or how big the fish I have caught.

[c green]

DITTO. The OM folks have become an extended family.