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/315021
JUNE 2014 • NEBRASKAland 31 30 NEBRASKAland • JUNE 2014 Long Live Anglers Text and photos by Jenny Nguyen M any men don't live to be 98 years old, let alone have the ability to fish that long. Fred Egley, Jr., a Nebraskan born and raised, is one of those people who can boast both. I had the pleasure of meeting Egley last winter, shortly after his ice fishing trip with long-time friend Don Kraemer. Kraemer had sent photos to the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission's Norfolk office of his 97-year-old friend sitting on the ice, grinning wide with a fishing rod in hand. These days, Egley mostly fishes in the spring and summer, but after a couple years of being off the ice, Egley took Kraemer's offer to go ice fishing. "I thought 'well, it might be foolish but I believe I'll try it,'" said Egley, recalling the day. "Don said he would do all the pulling of the sled and the equipment on the ice, and he could park near the lake so I wouldn't have far to go on my walker. But I did catch probably 10 fish before Don got ready to put his equipment into the water," said Egley, chuckling. "It was a pleasant day and we caught a few fish. We kept them and filleted them, as I recall. We ate them and they were good – they always are." Fishing Is a Way of Life For dabblers, fishing trips are merely occasional moments that dot a lifetime. For true anglers, life seems to happen around fishing. Egley's story starts in Holdrege, where he was born in 1916 and the fishing "bug" first bit him. "I had some older boy friends that taught me how to fish, but I mostly learned by myself," said Egley. "My dad fished as much as he could, but he was a railroader. He had to be on the road quite a bit." Egley's love for fishing was also reinforced during visits with his grandparents in Washington. They had a fish hatchery on Whidbey Island out in Puget Sound. Egley fondly recalled fishing for trout in his grandparents' ponds during his boyhood. When Egley graduated college, he moved to Norfolk in 1939. His favorite places to fish were by Pierce and Yankton, but Egley also made many memorable trips to Canada, starting in 1955. "No one else went to Canada then. Everyone else went to Minnesota, because it was the place to fish. But then it became out- fished, so everyone started going up north," Kraemer explained. Egley remembered traveling with four other men his age on that first trip to Canada, all of whom are now deceased. "Where we caught the fish, they didn't have electricity but they had ice piles covered with sawdust, and we just buried the fish on the ice and covered them. And that's the way we brought them back into Nebraska, in boxes packed in ice. Later years, we filleted them and always brought them home frozen," Egley recalled. Over the years, Egley would make the fishing trip to Canada with 30 to 40 different men, and sometimes with his wife Marie as countless numbers of walleye, northern pike and bass were caught. "Back then, it cost us $8 a week to stay in a cabin for four people. That was when I was making $100 a month. Marie enjoyed the fishing part of it and the camping part very much. We were high school classmates in Lincoln," said Egley. "I lost her in 2004." Marie and Fred married in 1940, and in 1943 Egley accepted a commission in the U.S. Navy, which slightly altered his fishing activities. He was in the service for two and a half years, and was sent to New Guinea and later the Philippine Islands as commander of an 80-foot patrol torpedo boat during World War II. He and his crew had a close call in the Pacific, when they were attacked by kamikaze bombers Above: In the 1950s, when Fred Egley was in his 30s, he walked more than one field for pheasants. Right: Egley often fishes at his son's lake in Norfolk. This photo was taken early last fall when Fred was 97 years old. For Fred Egley, nearly a centenarian, the fi sh are still biting and the beer battered fi llets are still enticing.