Bill Scholle: Fishin' for fun and profit

0 Comments | Oakland Tribune, Jun 17, 2009 | by Bill Scholle

HERE IN DISCOVERY BAY we have a group that meets the second Tuesday of every month. The guys call themselves "SIRS." Few others call them Sir but that doesn't seem to bother them. Few things do. For example, the group has a "Big Sir" and a "Little Sir." The Big Sir this year is Eric Jensen, but he's smaller than the Little Sir. I thought that was a bit odd but, like I say, it didn't seem to bother anyone else so you're the first I've told.

This year, with Eric in charge, there have been many new developments. In his creative way he has introduced new ideas, he has promoted new plans to give (even more) fun to an organization, which is known for having fun. SIRS has always had a bowling group and a bridge group and we go a lot of places to play golf and we have dined in most of the fine restaurants of Brentwood and beyond.

Well, and if you're over 50 (or close to being) you should join us. The little woman would like having you out from underfoot once a month. Possibly more.

"So," you ask, "just what did this Eric do?" Here's what Eric did (with the help of Little Sir Bob Damico). He asked all the members what besides the bowling and the golf and the other stuff that we were already doing would they enjoy. You still following me? What happened was that some of the guys liked to go to movies, so Eric went to the new Rave, and Eric went to the old Brentwood movie house and he negotiated and he negotiated and he got some special deals for SIRS. That was nice. Some other fellows liked playing poker, so Eric said to Dick Donald, "Dick, why don't you put together a poker group?" Dick did.

Other fellows had heard stories about the fabulous fishing you can do right here in the Delta and they wanted to go and do that, so Eric said to Ray Serpin, "Since you are a great fisherman, why don't you put a group together and show others how it's done?" And Ray did.

The members recently held their first fishing derby. Right there off Ray's dock. Ray had bought some muffins and bought some bait and had some water to drink and the first ever SIRS' derby began at seven o'clock in the morning. Lefty Brabeck was there. So were David Lopes and Gary Hess and LaVan Bock Each tossed in five dollars.

"Why," you ask, "would you pay five dollars to fish off of Ray's dock?" Does he always charge people when they come to his house? And why so much?"

"Well, muffins aren't cheap." Everyone knows that. "Then there's the cost of bait and there's the money prize for the one who catches the biggest fish." "That makes more sense now, I didn't know that Ray had a prize fund. Did someone actually win?"

"Well, first off, the weather wasn't too good and when that happens sometimes the fish don't bite."

"What you're sayin' is that they didn't catch many fish, is that what you're sayin?"

"Yes."

"Did anyone catch a fish? Was there even one fish caught?"

"One."

"Did you see the fish?"

"How did it look? Did it look fresh like a newly caught fish should look or did it look wrinkled, old and mealy like it had been dead for days and maybe some one snuck into Ray's yard the night before and tied it just under the dock so they could pull it up when they wanted to?"

"Yes"...."

Bill Scholle is a Discovery Bay resident. He can be reached at bandvdisc@comcast.net.