Quite the Fish Story

The Westra kids grew up with a bit of fishing going on. Most of the fishing trips were with Mom/Margie's parents ... but Grandpa Joe had been a fisherman too. Or perhaps it was Dad/LaMar who got his dad into it! Here's an exerpt from Dad/Lamar's history ...

I remember having a thriving nightcrawler business. My dad and I would go out at night and gather nightcrawlers from golf courses around the valley: Nibley, Forest Dale, and Bonneville, and Fairmount and Liberty Parks. I would store the nightcrawlers in my basement in large flat wooden boxes, spread with damp gunny sacks, and feed them Cream of Wheat until we sold them. I would take orders in advance, so often we would have to make special night excursions to fill orders of 10-12 dozen nightcrawlers. I charged 15 cents a dozen, or two dozen for 25 cents. My sister Sharon would be my helper and help customers if I wasn’t home. We even put electrical rods in our back lawn to bring the night crawlers out. It worked pretty well, but the worms became a little woozy. 

I got my dad to take me fishing. We would go down to Spring Run on 9th East about 50th South. It was the final point of one of our bike trips. One time, when I was about 10 years old, my dad and I were fishing in Mill Creek, near Granite High. The water was very deep there, and I caught a whopper. I pulled it out and it came flying out of the water up on the bank, and the hook came out. It was about to flop back into the water when my dad grabbed it and tossed it up on higher ground. It was a 21 ½ inch rainbow trout. We took it home, and somehow the newspaper got word of it, and my picture appeared in the newspaper, with this big trout hanging over my shoulder, and hanging almost down to my waist. It would be about 16 years later, after I had married, and we had moved to Richland, Washington, when Margie’s dad called us and told us that my name was on the big yellow Dees cup for being the record holder in Utah for the largest rainbow trout. It was listed on the cup as a 21 ½ pound rainbow trout, caught in Millcreek Reservoir. That record actually stood up for many years. It was the listed record until they built the Flaming Gorge reservoir, and grew rainbow trout bigger than 21 ½ pounds.

While working on the Westra History project, Chris inquired "Dad, on reading your Dad's histories, it was intriguing to find out that he didn't fish until he happened to take you fishing that first time, and you had success with a willow stick. One history said you were 10 years old, and another said you were 8 years old. Do you have memories of that first fishing trip with your Dad, and do you know how old you were?

From Joe's history written by Grandma Lucille ... He really didn't take up fishing until his son LaMar was 10 years old and was selling nightcrawlers. They didn't even own a fishing rod, but decided to go to Mill Creek Stream and try their luck. Joe fixed two willows with line, hook and bait. LaMar pulled in a 21 inch German Brown. He had his picture taken with the fish, as one of the largest caught on opening day. That did it. They went out and bought fishing tackle and have enjoyed the sport ever since.

Dad/Lamar responded to Chris's question ...

I checked back into my History in Dropbox. My dad was very much into golf, every weekend, including Sundays, until I finally got him into fishing. In my history, I talk about the nightcrawler business that my sister and I had. Then I thought I might like to actually try using the nightcrawlers, and go fishing myself. I think I was about 8 when my dad started taking me fishing. I caught the big rainbow trout when I was 10. The stories that my mom has written about a willow, I’m not sure if I can believe. I’m pretty sure we would have had fishing poles, right from the start, with a reel to let out the line. I can’t even imagine how I could have used a willow to catch anything. How would I have strung it up, and reeled it in, with just a willow, perhaps just a bit of line tied to the end of the willow, with no reel. It doesn’t make a lot of sense. I checked the year 1947 in Dropbox, and there are 3 photos of me in that year, with the big fish. In one of the photos, I appear to be holding a willow, but it could also be a real fishing pole.

Look at the second listing - 1947 21.5 lb Rainbow from Mill Creek Reservoir

Caught by LaMar Westra (when he was just 10 years old)

Mom/Margie added to the memory ... When we lived in Washington, some of our friends came back from a visit to Utah. They gave us one or more Dee's restaurant cups that had Dad's name as having caught the biggest fish. The Dee's cup had different records set in Utah. That was the first we knew about the mistake. The length of the fish had been recorded as the pounds! The false record has now been broken by a true fish.

One thing I love about these old photos of Dad/Lamar ... 

his 10-year old self looks just like his adult self!

... anyone want to go fishing?

Fishing has been mentioned in a few posts so far ... and there will be more!