Steve Ford: Every month, literally, is a good month for fishing for Everett Turley and friends

Retirement takes on many forms.

Some folks walk away from work, go home and vow never to hit another lick at anything. Unfortunately, they don't tend to last too long.

Others never quit working at something and they tend to last, which brings me to one of my favorite people, Everett Turley.

When I stopped by the family business, Turley Jewelers, on Friday , Everett was there working away at his craft, which is watch repair. He's 93.

But we don't talk about watches. We talk about fishing when he looks up long enough to notice I'm there.

"Have you caught your January fish yet, Turley?" I ask him.

"Yes," he said with a sly smile. "I got that out of the way on January 1st. Caught a 12-inch bass on a black worm."

"So how many years is that now, Turley?"

"Four or five," he ansered. "I kind of lost track. I just know it's still going."

Then his son, Bryan, interjected: "It's five, pop. I know it's five."

Satisfied with the answer and himself, the old watchmaker turned back to his meticulous work while I pondered his simple, continuing quest.

His goal is to catch a fish every month of every year, which he has done now for more than five years. But it wasn't Turley's idea.

That came from a customer, Bernie Fehribach, who retired from teaching at North Posey High School in 2002 and still lives in Poseyville.

"I retired in May of '0-2 and as far as I know I kept the string intact every month since then," said Fehribach, 69. "It's nothing special, just something for an old retired guy to do."

Fehribach takes his membership in the Fish Every Month Club seriously. Then when he brought it up while talking about fishing one day more than five years ago in Turley's store, the semi-retired jeweler decided he would, too.

"Did Everett get his December fish?" asked Fehribach. "I know that can be a rough month for him since he works almost every day, which is pretty amazing since he's 93."

After telling Fehribach that both Turley's December 2011 and January 2012 were secure, I shared this story from 2009. But Bryan tells it best.

"We were at Pop's house on Christmas opening up presents," said Bryan. "It was cold. Then I looked out and there was a bobber frozen in the the ice in the middle of the lake.

"I told him it didn't look too good, but if he did catch a fish it would probably take a state record to pull that bobber down through the ice.

"But two days later we had a little thaw and there was some open water at the shallow end of the lake. Dad went out there on the 27th and caught what he called the prettiest little rock bass he'd ever seen in his life."

Fehribach let out a laugh that only a man in the Fish Every Month Club could appreciate and let me know his 117-month long angling streak was sailing along, too.

"I got out Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week," said Fehribach. "Wednesday I caught three bass, all females, that were about 14 inches long. Thursday I caught one bass, another female.

"They all had eggs that looked like they were about one-third developed. They were in shallow water, too. Then Friday I caught just one fish, but it was one of the best crappie I've ever caught, probably 13/4 pounds."

So the quest continues with no end in sight. It is neither noble nor remarkable, but it is something signifcant that all fishermen could use.

It's another fine excuse to go.

Source: http://c.moreover.com/click/here.pl?r5719585631

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