Cast Away: Five Generations of Family Fish Stories

When a Molotov cocktail was lobbed over the security fence at my TV station during the protests of 2020 and a ball of fire exploded under a vehicle, I hoped it wasn't mine. Not because I cared about my car. I cared about my fishing gear inside, and as soon as I was finished anchoring five hours of continuous riot coverage, I planned to escape to the woods, water, and walleyes far away from the mayhem.

It's what I do. It's what I've done since I was a kid. What I didn't know, until I found a pile of old photos from the 1920s, '30s and '40s, is that escaping to go fishing is the thread that binds five generations of the Boel family.

A Belgian immigrant farmer, blinded in a dynamite explosion, planted the seed.
His son harvested a crop of crazy fishermen.
His son showed his family how the best life is lived on the water.
His son took it to another level.
His daughter trumped everyone before her with monsters we all dreamed about.

Five generations of fish stories. Funny ones. Sad ones. Ones that got away. Times we got it right.

I've worked my whole life on this book. One cast at a time. One story passed down at a time. I finally caught my limit. Now they're yours to enjoy.

About the Author

As he approaches the 100th Emmy award of his journalism career, John Boel has devoted much of his life to the craft of storytelling. From Mondays through Fridays over the past four decades, his investigative, general news, and feature stories have appeared in the newscasts he has anchored at WREX-TV, WLKY-TV and WAVE-TV.

The real trophies in John's life are his wife Brenda and his daughters Kelsey and Brianna.

When he isn't out fishing, he's been out running, biking, and swimming his way to 13 Ironman Triathlon finishes.

His first book, On the News... In the News, written in 2011, took readers along on his humiliating fall from grace and his addiction recovery journey. With three grandchildren now, he can't wait to add more chapters to his lifelong enjoyment of fishing.

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