Posted on 05/15/2006 7:23:25 PM PDT by girlangler
Age no handicap for 105-year-old fisherman 105-year-old man still hauling in fish By DENNIS ANDERSON MINNEAPOLIS-ST.PAUL STAR TRIBUNE Pulling his driver's license from his billfold, Floyd Doty, Minnesota's oldest angler, on Wednesday confirmed the state would allow him to pilot a vehicle on its roads until 2009 - at which time he will be 108 years old.
Floyd, 105, lives alone in the west-central Minnesota town of Glenwood. A huge northern pike adorns one wall of his apartment.
On Wednesday Floyd was out, like thousands of Minnesotans in advance of Saturday's first day of fishing, seeking a license.
Unsure exactly when he purchased his first Minnesota fishing license, Floyd suspects it was 1929, the year he married his wife of 66 years, Grace, who died in 1995.
"I fish for anything that bites," is Floyd's answer to a visitor's obvious question.
That response came just before he and his 60-year-old son, Alan, stepped into Fish On Bait & Sport in Glenwood in search of a fishing license.
"The year Dad turned 100, the electronic licensing system couldn't handle an age that had three digits," Alan said. "The guy at the bait shop called the DNR in St. Paul and asked what he should do. He was told the license for such an aged fisherman must be free. So we got the license and didn't pay a thing.
"A couple weeks later, the DNR sent Dad a bill in the mail."
When last I checked in on Floyd, he was a mere 102. He owned two cars then, one for cruising and one for pulling his boat.
That craft, a vintage fiberglass tri-hull marketed long ago under the Shakespeare name, is now in Alan's possession. Ditto the cars, the boat-puller a Dodge Omni that rightly could be sold as clean, low miles, only driven to boat ramps.
Throughout his life, wherever there was water, there was Floyd.
And won't be this season - though it's unlikely Saturday's chilly opener will find him on the water.
"The walleye is my favorite fish to eat," he said.
And his most productive lure?
"The Dardevle."
Later, at his apartment, Floyd settled in for the evening only a short distance from the shores of Lake Minnewaska, a lake he has fished many times.
And will again.
But for now, on this evening, there was TV to watch, and soon Floyd would be flicking the remote, looking for his favorite program.
Would it star angler Al Lindner? Or perhaps the equally famous Babe Winkelman?
Not quite.
Said Floyd, "Lawrence Welk."
Such was the nature of many of the people that built this country and expanded it out to the west coast. Glad to hear
you still have such an aunt to enjoy.
BTTT...:)
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