NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: http://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/1536042
30 Nebraskaland • May 2025 orld War II veterans. Ninety-year-old nursing home residents who had never fi shed and caught their fi rst fi sh. Hospice patients who caught their last. Alzheimer's patients. Twenty-somethings who have been blind since they were infants. Youths from the Boys & Girls Clubs in Omaha. Those are some of the nearly 10,000 individuals who have boarded the Live Well. Go Fish. boat. The Lincoln nonprofi t knows the therapeutic value of fi shing and simply being on the water. The people they serve have lost plenty of bobbers, but they also have caught plenty of fi sh, and shared an untold number of smiles. Retirement Gig Live Well. Go Fish. is David Rudder's retirement venture. When he left his career, he thought he might be a fi shing guide, but then came up with a better idea: guiding seniors, veterans and others who wouldn't otherwise have a chance to fi sh. "There are a lot of programs already out there for the kids, but there's just not a lot for mainly the seniors and people with disabilities," Rudder said. In 2016, Rudder started knocking on the doors of care, retirement and veterans' services centers to see if they would be interested. Enough of them were that Rudder formed a nonprofi t and ordered a custom-made, U.S.-Coast-Guard- approved 26-foot pontoon boat that could accommodate up to three wheelchairs. He recruited some volunteers, and in 2017, started fi shing. All but a few trips have been at Lake Wanahoo near Wahoo. The nonprofi t now serves about 75 care facilities and organizations from 17 counties in eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. Rudder is not only the CEO of the organization, he is also the on-board entertainment, armed with plenty of bad dad jokes like "Why are the fi sh so smart? Because they've been in school all day." He's also the DJ, starting each trip with a patriotic song as a salute to veterans, followed by various fi shing-related songs and assorted tunes to fi t the crowd. There is plenty of dancing, even for those who can't stand and swing with a volunteer from their boat seat. During each cruise, they break out the bubble machines and fi re up "Tiny Bubbles" by Don Ho, often for the entertainment of shore anglers. As they move parallel to U.S. Highway 77 on the dam at Wanahoo, they all turn into kids, pump their arms and see how many semi-tractor trailer drivers they can get to blow their horns — many do. They fl y a kite from a fi shing pole. Early on, some people who had signed up for a trip would cancel when they found it confl icted with their regular bingo game. So Rudder and company came up with Bobber Bingo, Live Well. Go Fish. Catching Fish, and Smiles Story and photos by Eric Fowler W