A Compassionate Story...

I want to take you back to June 11, 2009, the first day of the Genuity River Rumble. On that date, a bunch of Bassmaster Elite Series anglers demonstrated to one another and to the whole wide world that there comes a time to put aside man's inherently intense competitive spirit, even when the stakes are high.

For those of you who never have read or heard this story, or perhaps have forgotten it, let me share the pertinent details.

Elite Series pro angler Derek Remitz was following a line of other anglers into a backwater lake on the Mississippi River when his boat hit an underwater object everyone else miraculously missed. The jolt sheered off the lower unit of the boat and sent it into a hook and slide across the canal where they were running. At the same time, Remitz' marshal, Jerry Dean Van Sickle of Oelwein, IA, was thrown from the boat and ended up in some thick kudzu lining the bank. He was unconscious and had a shoulder injury when Remitz got to his side.

Gerald Swindle rounded the bend just in time to see Remitz's boat sliding down the embankment minus its two passengers. Thinking they were in the water, he immediately started ripping off his clothes to jump in and look for them when he heard someone yell that they were in the woods. Flashing a glance in that direction, he saw Remitz searching for Sickle in the thick kudzu.

Swindle joined Remitz and, after finding Sickle face down, worked to make him comfortable. By this time, other boats had joined the scene. No one knows exactly how many boats were involved, but it's estimated there were about 30, and everyone jumped into action to help.

In Swindle's own words, "I'm telling you, for a moment the world just stopped for all these guys, and they wanted nothing more than to make sure that Sickle was safe."

Among those boats that had stopped to assist was the one driven by Randy Howell, who Swindle characterized as always open about his Christianity. He said, "Randy, you are the closest man to God we got; please come pray with this man."

When Howell got to the scene, he put his hand on the shoulder of the visibly shaken and weeping Remitz and started praying that Sickle would regain consciousness and be OK. And, as if in answer to that prayer, Sickle opened his eyes just as Howell said, "Amen."

Moments later, a physician, who also was serving as a tournament marshal, was on the scene rendering aid, which would have made it easy for at least some of the anglers to start slipping away to resume their fishing. "But not one angler left," said Swindle. "Not one angler idled by. Everyone stopped and pitched in whatever way they could... . The focus they normally shared of putting five fish in the boat was minimized by the new focus, as many of them said, of taking care of 'one of our own.'"

That caring didn't end, either, even after Sickle was safely en route to a hospital, and the anglers had consoled Remitz.

"No one was really ready to start fishing," said Howell. "We weren't rushing to get to the best spot. We were like, 'You go.' 'No, you go.' Normally in a situation where everyone is crowded in a lake like that, there can be some territorial issues. But we didn't have that. The realization took hold that there were far more important things in life than who was fishing where."

All the photos above were taken at the 2009 Genuity River Rumble by B.A.S.S. photographer James Overstreet. Original news release by Steve Bowman.

...With a Sad Epilog

Jerry Dean Van Sickle

Additional research today into how Jerry Dean Van Sickle's  shoulder surgery ultimately turned out revealed something far less than the good news I had hoped for.

He survived the June 2009 surgery and recovery period OK, but as related in a recent issue of the Olewein Daily Register, he died July 22, 2015, at University Hospitals in Iowa City from cancer. The 47-year-old wrestling fan, New York Yankees supporter, golfing enthusiast, and avid fisherman leaves behind his wife, two daughters, two stepsons, mother, three brothers, one sister, his parents-in-law, six brothers-in-law, four sisters-in-law, and many nieces and nephews.

Just goes to prove yet again that we never know when the circle of life is going to be completed. Reckon that's why they say, "Live each day as if it's your last."