Sometimes something just touches the heart.
In February at Lake Guntersville, the Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series and the community surrounding it were introduced to 15-year-old Alexander Bolding. The fishing world at large got to meet Alexander when he attended the Bassmaster Classic in Knoxville this past March.
Alexander, from Owasso, Okla., is a young man who began battling brain cancer at 7 years old at St. Jude. As a result of the relationship with St. Jude, Alexander’s mom, Jillian, became a Lead Staff member of ALSAC, the fundraising and awareness organization for St. Jude in the Tulsa and Oklahoma City areas.
Through her work, she became acquainted with Gretchen Simon and Katie Cummings, the pair who are responsible for the Love Bass, Stop Cancer program and the Dick Hiley St. Jude Bass Classic in Wabasha, Minn. When Simon and Cummings asked Jillian if Alexander could be a part of representing the Love Bass, Stop Cancer movement, knowing how much her son loved to fish, her answer was a resounding yes.
That brought Alexander to the Bassmaster family and interaction with professional anglers and the industry.
While at the Lake Guntersville Elite Series event and the Bassmaster Classic, Alexander made friends with several of the anglers, including Easton Fothergill and Mark Menendez.
Menendez, the veteran Yamaha Outboards pro from Paducah, Ky., decided to set up a fishing outing with Alexander for when the tour went to Muskogee, Okla., for the Gamakatsu Bassmaster Elite at Arkansas River there in April. Knowing they couldn’t go on the river itself, Menendez reached out to fellow Elite Series pro Blake Capps from Muskogee to see if he knew of any place they could take Alexander for an outing prior to the event.
Capps reached out to a friend who works for a company that has some private fisheries on their properties, and the outing was set.
While taking kids fishing is an opportunity to grow the sport of fishing and to do some promotional work – a vital part of a professional angler’s career – to Menendez and Capps, the day was much more. Both anglers’ families have been touched by cancer. Menendez lost his wife Donna to Pancreatic Cancer and Capps lost his grandfather to Leukemia.
Menendez said there is always a soft spot in these kinds of situations. “As someone who has been fortunate to make my living on the Bassmaster tours for so long, I desire to share my passion for the sport with others to help them enjoy bass fishing and to be a part of helping the sport grow, but there is more to it with someone like Alexander,” he said. “I will always try to make time for someone who is fighting cancer, but Alexander is so fun and full of life that it made it even more special.”
Capps said he came across Alexander at the Lake Guntersville event but had not seen him since. “I knew he was at the Classic, but I didn’t know he was from the Tulsa area until Mark called me,” he said. “I reached out to a good friend of mine from church who had access to this lake, and he arranged it for us to go. It was a very special opportunity, because it’s not often we get to fish there.”
Growing up, Alexander was his grandfather’s (known as Poppy to the family) little “outdoorsman shadow” and has always loved fishing. His experience has mostly been fishing from shore around ponds, so the opportunity to get on the boat with some professional anglers was exciting.
Menendez said they spent time working on skills and sharing tangible fishing experience for him to work with. “We shared a lot with him that day,” said Menendez. “I worked with him to adjust his Lew’s baitcasting combo and work with him on casting mechanics and helped him learn more about fishing a spinnerbait.”
Capps said the weather created some interesting memories as well. “Fishing in the rain is always a challenge, and we ended up doing that for much of the morning,” he said. “But the day turned out to be nice after that and a lot of great memories were made.”
Jillian reported the learning has not stopped since the outing. “Mark and Blake gave him the tip of practicing casting in the driveway into a bucket to work on his technique and his accuracy,” she said. “He has been working on it and has already begun seeing a lot of improvement. But the experience was the best part; he was pumped, he said it was the best day ever.”
Menendez and Capps had similar personal responses to the day. “Cancer – in any of its forms – is a terrible disease, and it affects people all over the world,” they said. “But when someone like Alexander and his mom go through this with the positive approach to life that they have, it touches you. They are so joyful and such kind people that they put a smile on your face.”
Alexander has plans for a fishing future as an eighth grader. He had a guest fishing experience competing with the Owasso High School Fishing team, and he hopes to join the team when he attends the school. To join the team, he needs to have a boat captain and a partner, and that has become the family’s goal as well.
The future looks bright for Alexander, he is currently NED – No Evidence of Disease, seven years later, and building towards possibly fishing professionally or being a part of the fishing industry in his future.
That future will likely include more outings with two Elite Series anglers who are now his fans.
