Sunday Sounds April Edition
On a rainy Sunday morning strolling through FB and Ebay with a cup of coffee in hand I came across a post of a Frog Spot Jamison Coaxer lure for sale, and if there is one thing that goes with Jamison in my head, its my buddy Joe.
These were owned by a good friend of mine who passed last winter. He was my traveling buddy to nationals and many of the regional shows. This was taken one weekend he brought his collection down and spent the weekend at the house, while the wife and kids were gone, we ate like kings (grilled steaks), talked lures, history, the club, collecting and life till the wee hours each night which usually was capped off with a nightcap of a good single malt.
It was like having a lure show at my own house. We photographed, talked about, shared our knowledge about each lure we both had like we just had purchased them. We did this despite having owned and seen each others items many many times before before. Or like we would do at shows at the end of the night. Joe would gather a pile of my items together, tell me to put together a pile of his, and we would swap, and if any money changed hands its was secondary in nature. He would say, its your turn Matt to take care of these things for a while. While we exchanged these we would pass on any stories of where we got them and from who or how. You see it wasn’t about the money, or even the lures themselves, it was about the story, the people behind the lures. This was a theme that many who knew Joe would come to know that there was a greater picture not just in lures but in life.
While this was 6-8 years ago, never thought at the time it would be one of those times I would remember forever or not be able to do again with him. Moral of the story baits/lures are great but they are just the vehicles by which we are driven to what is really important and that is the friendships we make along the way.
I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, Ocular Melonoma two weeks ago at the age of 44, and will have my first surgery and radiation treatment this week. They say the odds were 5 in a million to get this, and how fitting for those that know me. Ive never seemed to pick the easy way in anything in life, either by choice or happenstance, not even as a child. With that, Im not sure if I miss my buddy Joe more to talk about lures with, or to talk about the C word more. Many who knew my friend knew he didn’t mince his words. I could count on Joe for a matter a fact and frank conversation about what I needed to do. I know he would sit quietly until I was done talking about it, or asked him a question or his opinion and then he would respond with “Matt you know life’s not meant to be fair, Matt life it is something meant to be cherished as We aren’t guaranteed tomorrow. Don’t worry about tomorrow put your energy into today. So pull your pants up by your boot straps son, as you’ve done many times before and meet it head on.” Thanks I’m listening Joe you may not be here, but I hear ya.
My goal is to keep telling the stories for anyone who wants to listen. Ive got things to do, stories to tell, I don’t have time for the C word, so I will put it in its little box, and only give it the floor on my terms, instead of letting it put me in the box and define me.
Thought Id share a few pictures that were taken that weekend of Joe’s collection, as he would want to share, and a song for you fly fishermen about that elusive Madison Brown.
Jamison Lure Collection
