While waiting for a catfish to bite, Vernon Lovejoy (left), Captain Dave Magness (center)
and Frayne Berg discuss some of their time in Vietnam.
Lines in the Water, Brothers at Heart
Story and photos by Richard Hines
After 42 years, two Vietnam veterans reunite and go catfishing on the Mississippi River.
Fifty-eight years had passed since First Lieutenant Vernon Lovejoy and Sergeant Frayne Berg left Vietnam. Both had served together with the198th Light Infantry Brigade in I Corps from 1967 to 1968. Vernon, an officer, served in various capacities. Frayne was the company medic.
After returning home, Frayne worked in construction, eventually building a successful insurance business in McVille, North Dakota. Vernon returned to West Virginia while continuing to serve as a captain in the 19th Special Forces West Virginia National Guard. During this time, he completed a Master’s in Outdoor Recreation at Eastern Kentucky University, which led him to a career managing public lands throughout the Rocky Mountain Region.
After all the years went by, they had not seen each other until they met at a military reunion. Both realized they still had a great deal in common, mainly their love for hunting and fishing. It wasn’t long until a fishing trip was discussed, and since neither Vernon nor Frayne had caught a large catfish, they decided that’s what they wanted to do.
That’s when Vernon turned to me for suggestions. I told them the best location in September would be the Mississippi River, and as I was beginning to sell them on the idea, Vernon jumped in and said, “Set it up!”
The first person I thought of was David Magness who owns Cat’n Aroun’ Guide Service. He guides on the Mississippi River near Memphis, which made it perfect to pick up both Vernon and Frayne at the airport. After they arrived, the next stop was dinner, and in Memphis, dinner means barbecue. I took them to my parents and now my favorite barbecue, Corky’s.
The next morning, Captain Dave met us beside the Mississippi on Mud Island Park boat ramp in downtown Memphis. As we were loading our gear, he told me he was excited about spending the day fishing with two Vietnam veterans, and I don’t think he was disappointed as both vets told several of their stories, not to mention fishing stories from their home states.
Both vets had plenty of fishing experience, but neither had used Garmin’s LiveScope. The electronics kept these two friends continually monitoring the river bottom, and because it was their first Mississippi River trip, Dave was continually explaining the history of the river, the boat traffic and towboats pushing barges, and the meanings for the various buoys.
One location we fished was near a 65-foot-deep hole that the river had gouged out near a barge-loading facility. Both anglers watched the screen intently hoping to see a catfish lurking in the hole.
Dave uses B’n’M Poles exclusively and rightly so. I think they are the best catfish rods on the market.
Each of Dave’s rods are equipped with Shimano reels with 80-pound-test line. The good news was we had the right equipment and were on the river, but the bad news was the river was falling, and the barometer was not cooperating.
Everything seemed to be against us, but Dave recommended that we bait our hooks with smaller pieces of skipjack shad while we were anchored just off a wingwall. While we were anchored, two guys came paddling by in a canoe. Frayne said, “check out the decal on the canoe.” The decal was the distinctive white eagle head of the 101st Airborne Division.
Frayne yelled at the canoeists, “Screaming Eagles.” We got a quick wave from them as the canoe shot by us in the 10-mph current.
Vernon shouted, “How far are you going?” Their response was, “All the way,” meaning they were heading to the Gulf of Mexico. But as the fast current took them out of sight, none of us knew they would end up in the Gulf of America!
In any case, the conversation shifted from the remaining 700 miles of paddling those guys had ahead of them to 1968 and some of the events that happened in Vietnam. About that time, a channel cat took the cut-bait that was suspended three feet off the bottom. Frayne grabbed the rod and begin reeling it in, all the while comparing how it felt to some of the walleyes he had caught on a lake near his home in North Dakota.
Both veterans had left home while in their teens and enjoyed talking about fishing while they were growing up. Interestingly, Vernon grew up in Hamlin, West Virginia, the same small town that the famous pilot Chuck Yeager grew up in. Their families were friends, and Vernon’s dad and Yeager hunted and fished together as young men. Vernon told of fishing identical sections of Mud River for yellow cats and rock bass where Yeager and his dad had fished as kids. Frayne talked about catching yellow perch in the larger pothole lakes near the North Dakota farm where his parents homesteaded in the early 1900s.
It was a great day for both veterans, and it will not be their last fishing trip together as both were planning more hunting and fishing trips in the coming months. The men also wanted to thank David Magness for the trip and B’n’M Poles for their continued support of our nation’s veterans.
(Richard Hines is a wildlife biologist, book author and award-winning freelance outdoor writer and photographer. Since 1985, he has published hundreds of articles on hunting, fishing, conservation and natural history. Hines is President of the Tennessee Outdoor Writers Association.)
