Father-son quest: 50 trophy waters in 50 states in 50 days

[Spiel]

Father-son quest: 50 trophy waters in 50 states in 50 days

 

 

SUN., MAR 15, 2009 - 12:59 PM

BRAD DOKKEN / madison.com

 

 

GRAND FORKS, N.D. — Jeff Turner has never fished Devils Lake; or anywhere else in North Dakota, for that matter.

 

That will all change July 10, when Turner, 47, and his son Taylor, 17, spend a day on Devils Lake with Grand Forks fishing guide Mark Bry as part of an epic angling adventure they’ve dubbed “50 Trophy Waters in 50 States in 50 Days.”

 

The marathon fishing trip begins June 13 — the day after Taylor finishes his junior year of high school — on the Susquehannah River in Pennsylvania and concludes July 30 on Hawaii’s Kona Coast.

 

In between, they’ll fish some of the best water the United States has to offer for everything from steelhead and sturgeon to bass and blue marlin. According to Turner, who lives in Warrenton, Va., the trip is part charity, part adventure and all about promoting father-son relationships.

 

Call it a “Bucket List” item, of sorts.

 

“I’ve been asked numerous times in life, ’What would you do if you had no real limits? If you could take a summer without any consequences, what would it be?’ “ Turner said this week in a telephone interview. “My response was always fishing.”

 

Turner said the inspiration for the upcoming trip came from the John Eldredge book “Wild at Heart,” which he’d read in 2002. The book, he says, challenges men to rediscover their passions in life and not shy away from adventure.

 

The point hit home last June, Turner said, when a friend who’d founded a men’s ministry called “Band of Brothers” died suddenly of a heart attack. Sitting at the funeral, Turner says he was touched by the number of people whose lives his friend had touched.

 

Turner said he realized then that he and his son had only one summer left to do something really special.

 

That something, the pair decided, would be a fishing adventure.

 

An expert in satellite and aerial mapping, Turner was partner in a company that developed 3D mapping technology that’s gained wide use in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. A contractor purchased the company, Turner says, which gave him the time and the resources to take a marathon fishing trip.

 

And when his wife, whom Turner calls a realist, agreed they should make the trip, the seeds of this father-son adventure were officially planted.

 

“I often tell people that, as men, we have this desire for adventure, but we also have this desire to create what I like to call a ’Remember When’ moment,” Turner said. “It’s kind of like the guys sitting around the boat in the movie ’Jaws’ and talking about their shark bites.

 

“It’s neat to think about what this summer will mean in that respect.”

 

Turner and his son started planning for the trip by poring over every magazine, book or Web site they could find to lock in their list of trophy waters.

 

Trophy, by Turner’s definition, didn’t necessarily mean big fish. He says he chose the Androscoggin River in New Hampshire, for example, because the stream, once badly polluted, inspired Congress to pass the Clean Water Act of 1974.

 

“I very purposely avoided any aspect of geography,” Turner said. “I didn’t want to know how I was going to get there; I just wanted to say, ’This is a reasonable, defendable trophy water area.’ “

 

Once they’d nailed down their list of fishing destinations, Turner said he broke out a map to see how grueling the route would be. It’s possible to cover the Lower 48 states in about 7,200 miles, Turner says, but he and his son will cover about 15,000 miles in a used compact RV he bought just for the occasion.

 

Flights to Alaska and Hawaii — their last two stops — will put the total trip at about 21,000 miles, he says.

 

Next up, Turner started contacting guides across the country. He also set up a Web site to help publicize the trip.

 

Many of the guides offered their services for free, or at a reduced rate, once he told them more about the trip. In Florida, for example, Turner says a tarpon guide who commands $1,000 a day in mid-June initially offered a discount. The next day, Turner says, the guide called back and said he’d do the trip for free.

 

And in Alaska, a bush pilot offered to fly Turner and his son anywhere they wanted to fish and set them up with a guide — no charge.

 

“He said, ’I don’t know exactly what this is, but I want to be a part of it,’ ” Turner said. “That’s been the response so often.”

 

A native of Wichita, Kan., Turner says he almost attended graduate school at the University of North Dakota in 1984, but a geology and petroleum project he was set to work on in the Williston Basin fell through when the funding was canceled.

 

As a result, his North Dakota travel experience is limited to passing through the state en route to fishing destinations in Manitoba and Ontario.

 

Turner and his son will travel to Devils Lake from a fishing stop in the Black Hills of South Dakota before heading to east to fish muskies on Lake Vermilion near Tower, Minn.

 

In researching North Dakota fishing, Turner said Devils Lake kept coming to the forefront as a prime destination. He found Bry’s name on the Internet and contacted the guide about six months ago.

 

Bry, who also teaches at South Middle School in Grand Forks, says the concept behind the trip immediately caught his attention.

 

“When he called me, I was thinking 50 states in 50 days, how is that going to happen?” Bry said. “Then I went and looked online and I could tell right away he was a very organized guy. He had everything lined up. Just to get his son involved — I think that’s so important. I thought it was really cool how he wanted to do that and publicize it all.”

 

Bry recalls Turner saying not to worry about catching fish. But like any guide, Bry’s hoping to put some fish in the boat.

 

“I don’t want to blow my own horn, but I think we can catch a few fish,” Bry said. “I’m looking forward to it.”

 

Turner says about a dozen companies and organizations have gifted equipment for the trip. The donations and reduced guide fees will cover about 25 percent of the trip’s cost, Turner says.

 

“That leaves me with about the cost of a car to get the rest of the things done,” he said.

 

Some days, Turner says they’ll be able to fish two states in a single day. That will allow them to fish 48 states in 46 days.

 

Other times, Turner says, they’ll have to drive 10 to 12 hours to get from one state to the next. He says the logistics, including the purchase of two fishing licenses from each of the 50 states, are almost in place.

 

He also has a Plan B for nearly every aspect of the trip. As always in fishing, weather is the wildcard, and there might be days when they can’t get on the water.

 

“If the guide won’t go out, do we just fish from shore and check the box? For some, we might have to do that,” Turner said. “The weather is the one thing we’re really going to have to make some concessions on with the quality.”

 

Worst-case scenario, Turner said they’ll make up any states they might lose by adding them at the end of the trip.

 

Turner said he’ll update his Web site daily throughout the trip with videos and journal entries. People also will be able to track their whereabouts in real-time through GPS technology called Live View.

 

In the end, though, the reason for the trip is simple: to encourage fathers and sons to connect.

 

“It’s so easy for us to let time get away and not take advantage of the opportunities we do have,” Turner said. “We do have a special relationship and should cultivate it.”

 

Not everyone, he says, has the resources to embark on such a lofty undertaking.

 

“By no means do I expect people to go off and do what we’re doing, but I’ve had guys come up and say, ’Because of what you’re doing, I called up my dad and went on a fishing trip — or camping,”’ Turner said. “That’s what it’s all about.”

[kemper]

Thats awesome, and timing is ironic.

 

My dad and I were just planning a trip for when Im done school...a week long trip with 4 or 5 different destinations