Telling a couple of embarrassing stories about fishing with Dusty Baker
I was thinking about some of the many times I have experienced episodes that I can now look back on as being funny but at the time were not funny in the least.
I had a couple of embarrassing episodes while fishing with my friend Dusty Baker, the former manager of the Chicago Cubs.
The first time was in 2004. We decided to spend an off-day on Lake Michigan looking for big smallmouth bass on the far south side. We were being guided by my buddy, Hall of Fame angler Mike Norris. When we got to the harbor, we found conditions too choppy to launch. We decided to put in on the Calumet River and fish smaller water while hoping the wind would die down on the big pond.
Later in the day, we decided to make the run to the lake, but the Coast Guard had instigated a very slow speed limit because of anti-terrorism safety reasons. We realized that we’d never reach our destination at our slow speed, so we decided to flaunt the rules and travel at a much higher than legal speed.
As we rounded a bend, we spied a Coast Guard patrol boat lying in wait for errant speeders. The lights and sirens went on and we pulled over to the side. The captain announced who he was and identified his watercraft and the reason for stopping us. The Coast Guard is always totally professional in their work.
I explained to the captain that we were in the presence of Dusty Baker and Gene Clines, the manager and a coach of the Chicago Cubs. He smiled and stuck out his hand and said: “I’m pleased to meet you, sir. I enjoy watching the Cubs. Now, if you would kindly dismount your craft and get on our boat while we perform a complete inspection of your boat.”
Oh, darn. I guess we weren’t going to get a break by playing the celebrity card with these guys.
They let us off with a stern warning after an inspection that took an entire 45 minutes of our fishing time. The worst part of the whole fiasco was that the Coast Guard broadcast over the marine radio that they had hauled in the manager of the Cubs for speeding. The report was picked up by all police radios and every media outlet got the news that Dusty Baker was a speeder.
Dusty is a great guy and a good friend, but let me tell you, that was an incident that he would have preferred to have never mentioned. He ribbed me about it for ages.
Another time, Dusty, Gino and myself joined guide Darrell Baker for a day of walleye fishing on a pontoon boat on the Fox Chain. We put in on the far northern end and ran to the river on the south side.
It was an awful day weather-wise. The temps were barely above freezing and the winds were wicked and pierced our foul weather gear. There is no give-up in Baker and Clines; they are hard-core anglers. Our results were horrible — no fish.
After working the lower lakes and the south river we decided to head north. Darrell started the boat and gunned the motor. We heard a huge splash in the water and the boat didn’t move. We were perplexed. Upon close inspection, we pulled up our outboard to see that there was no propeller on the motor. Our prop had spun off and we had no motor. We had no alternative than to sit and wait and freeze our butts off.
Between calling someone for help and them coming to get us and then tow us back to the other end of the Chain took a total of 3½ hours. Halfway through the trip back, snow began to fall. Things couldn’t have been worse for us.
The next day at Wrigley Field, the sports writers asked Dusty Baker how his fishing trip was on his off day. He replied: “Man, that was the worst day of fishing I ever did in my life. I swear it was so bad, it might cause me to give up the sport entirely.”
Dusty kept it a secret as to who it was that ran this ill-fated trip. He called me to tell me that I owed him one for protecting my reputation. A couple of weeks later, I learned that he sent Darrell Baker a check for $500 and a note telling him to buy a couple of spare propellers. Definitely a good guy.
• Daily Herald Outdoors columnist Steve Sarley can be reached at sarfishing@yahoo.com.