Scooted to within a few feet of the bank, Ben Kludt reels in his
catch, pulls back on the fishing rod and brings home his latest
fish, a large glistening bass. The hook removed from its mouth, the
fish is held up through the gills by the fisherman who admires it
with glee.
By Perry Shirley Staff Writer
Gilroy – Scooted to within a few feet of the bank, Ben Kludt reels in his catch, pulls back on the fishing rod and brings home his latest fish, a large glistening bass. The hook removed from its mouth, the fish is held up through the gills by the fisherman who admires it with glee.
“That’s the biggest one I caught,” the teenager said, emphatically showing it off to those around him.
This isn’t a day to remind Kludt that he is wheelchair-bound and suffering from a mental disability that leaves him dependent on others. This is the annual Fishability Day, when more than 120 special athletes gather around Hilltop Springs Lake in east Gilroy, which was stocked full of fish by the local club Sporstmen Chefs for their fishing pleasure.
The land is lush, a healthy dark green hue and brush thick around the edges but it’s the cheers and high spirits of those fishing that enliven the ranch.
It was a special day for Felix Kirchner. Given a chance to get out among other special athletes and away from Gilroy High School where kids are “sometimes mean to him,” said his mother Dolores Kirchner. The 16-year-old was overjoyed at the sight of his catches.
“We put the night crawler on (the hook) and I got a really good bite and I was reeling it in real fast and I just caught it,” Kirchner said excitedly with his arms raised above his wide-brimmed straw hat. “I’m one lucky guy. I just caught a fish, that’s how lucky I am.”
It was his first time at Fishability, but he recently attended a special prom and bowling outings, all events meant to help him socialize, his mother said.
“When he is out with people, he is happy,” Dolores Kirchner said.
Most of the special athletes in the area and at the event are not kids at all, but adults in their 40s, said Sandra Sammut, who coordinates programs for handicapped residents with the city of Gilroy.
“The majority of them are adults. That’s why we try to mainstream them, bring them to movie theaters and malls, normal things,” Sammut said. “The majority are autistic or have Down Syndrome … they look forward to this every year.”
One of the older special athletes, 57-years-old Michael Carter, has attended the event several years running. He has been fishing with his brother, and said he had a pretty good idea where to set up this time – away from the main bank. Posted across the lake, on a slope carved with pathways by volunteers for better accessibility, Carter said there were fewer trees and people. The tactic paid off, as he went home proudly with three large trout.
If the fish seemed to bite more than in recent years, it’s because the Sportsmen Chefs took extra measures to enhance the special athletes’ experience. More than a 1,000 fish were brought, except this year they took the extra precaution of bringing them in one week in advance instead of a few days ahead like in the past. This ensured the fish settled into their new habitat and were hungrier than in past outings, members explained.
After catching fish, the anglers placed them in buckets with water and brought them to the fish cleaning table. There, experienced fishermen from the club cleaned them, put them in zip lock bags and placed them on ice. Attending his third Fishability Day, Dave Holley, 24, said “it was kind of gross seeing all the guts” but got a surprise when the fish he brought to get cleaned out turned out to be filled with eggs.
“I had a great day. The staff does a good job of setting everything up,” Holley said. Having learned from past fishing excursions, he said he brought a foliage-patterned jacket to blend in with the habitat and for luck.
Sharing and learning about one another is just another product of a special day for the mentally disabled. Sammut, who works with most of the attendees year-round, praised the Sportsmen’s Club for coming through year after year. Every year the event has grown in size with participants now coming from Gilroy, but also Hollister, San Martin and Morgan Hill.
“I think the (mentally handicapped) has always been here but I think we’re doing more for them so they are coming out more,” Sammut said. Family members and friends also crowded the banks and often took turns fishing. Sammut said she brought her young son because she felt it was “important to expose him to people with special abilities and to show them they need compassion.”
When asked, the group in charge of the event was almost entirely deflective of praise. The owner of the ranch, Don Voigt, a club member, delivered worms to fishermen and cheered them on, but declined to comment.
The Sportsmen Chefs is an exclusive group of 65 fish and game enthusiasts from Gilroy. The all-male group usually has a waiting list of 10 to gain membership and gets together once a month for a large dinner and raffle. All the money raised from the raffling of items such as gun racks, barbecue grills and compressors – and, in the old days, from fines for swearing, said member Gary Delorenzo – goes to fund the annual event.
“The (club) provides everything you see here,” said senior member John Garcia. “A member owns the place. They provide the poles, the burgers, the bait, the fish.”
Another member, Scott Smith, who owns farmland nearby, said the only thanks they needed came from seeing the athletes’ faces light up as they cast a line or proudly pose for pictures with their catch.
“All you have to do is go out and look at them fishing and you can see it: they are happy,” Smith said.
Perry Shirley is an intern who attends California State University, San Francisco. He can be reached at (408) 842-9404 and ps******@**********rs.com
