Ailing child inspires downcast Jocumsen

How long will Micheal be able to fish? Elite pro Carl Jocumsen helped friends and family answer the question when he took the 9-year-old fishing on May 23.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Carl Jocumsen’s pro bass fishing career appeared to be on the upswing. He’d cashed Top 50 checks in three straight Bassmaster Elite Series tournaments. Then he got knocked off his feet.

During the second week in May, Jocumsen finished last – 108th – at Toledo Bend Reservoir. On his way home to Frisco, Texas, the engine fried in his Ford F-250 pickup – his home-away-from-home that both houses his camper and pulls his bass boat.

“It couldn’t have gone any worse,” said the 31-year-old, second-year Elite Series angler from Queensland, Australia. “I finished dead last, lost all the points and might have put myself out of the (Bassmaster) Classic. Then I lost about a $60,000 truck. It was just shattering.

“Then I heard about Michael, and I literally haven’t wasted one second worrying about any of that. In perspective, my problems are just nothing.” (See 64 photos of their day fishing together here.)

“Michael” is 9-year-old Michael Cano of Cabot, Ark., who is also known as Mikey. In March, well into the second semester of his third-grade year at Mountain Springs Elementary School, Michael began vomiting in class. What was initially diagnosed as strep throat didn’t get any better after several doctor visits, and it progressed into “screaming headaches.”

Lindsey Cano then took her son to Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock on Friday, March 18. After an exam, she was told Michael needed to be admitted to the hospital that day because he had a brain tumor. It was a thunderbolt out of the blue. The following Monday, a “lemon-sized” medulloblastoma tumor was removed from his cerebellum ­­– the lower rear portion of the brain.

Michael has been undergoing radiation treatments at Children’s Hospital since then. As a result of Michael’s illness, an on-the-fly, unofficial make-a-wish foundation formed. That’s what brought Michael Cano, an ailing youth, and Carl Jocumsen, a suddenly down-on-his luck pro bass fisherman, together. The result was unexpected, both heart-rending and awe-inspiring.

How long will Michael be able to fish? That was the question on everyone’s mind when a group of people gathered at a convenience store parking lot in Stuttgart, Ark., on Monday morning, May 23.

“An hour, maybe an hour-and-a-half,” guessed his uncle, Norm Blasingame, the primary facilitator of this gathering. Blasingame had asked his nephew if he could go anywhere he wanted to go ­– Disney World, wherever – and do anything he wanted to do, what would it be?

“I want to go fishing,” was Michael’s reply. So Blasingame started making phone calls, including one to his friend and former Elite Series angler Kevin Short, and a fishing trip with Jocumsen was arranged.

However, the estimate of how long Cano could go appeared optimistic when Michael got out of his mother’s car that morning. He was wearing an eye-patch to correct temporary double-vision that resulted from his surgery. Radiation had removed what had been a thick mane of dark hair. A mask covered his nose and mouth to filter the air he breathed. And Michael steadied his gait with his hands on Jocumsen’s BassCat boat as Jocumsen showed him around it.

In short order, a caravan proceeded south of town to one of the hundreds of rice farm reservoirs sprinkled throughout the Grand Prairie region of Arkansas. Stuttgart is billed as “The Rice and Duck Capital of the World.” The reservoirs serve primarily for irrigating rice fields. But they are seldom drained dry, and many are managed as bass fisheries as well.

It was a warm, humid, sunny morning – unpromising conditions for a 9-year-old undergoing radiation treatments post-brain surgery. However, Michael Cano might as well have been on the Yellow Brick Road to the Land of Oz. Once he got started, he didn’t want to stop.

It was just plain ol’ hot 3 1/2 hours later when Cano reluctantly agreed to call it a day. Yes, 3 1/2 hours later, at 12:30 p.m., that’s when the adults talked the kid into quitting. Michael had never caught a bass before this day, and he caught 20-plus, including a 4-pounder, under Jocumsen’s guidance.

“I didn’t keep count,” Cano said with a smile. “I caught too many fish.”

Cano’s catches didn’t come from a place where bass were jumping in the boat. Jocumsen quickly taught Cano how to work a spinning rod-and-reel for the first time. Then they had to figure out what lure the bass preferred. No live bait for these two anglers. A wacky-rigged plastic worm produced a few fish. But a Texas-rigged Strike King Rage Craw eventually proved to be the ticket.

Cano had made a cast, set the hook and reeled-in a couple of small bass within 30 minutes under Jocumsen’s guidance. Jocumsen supplemented the fish-catches by hooking some and handing his rod to Michael.

“He was so switched-on, and he knew when I was hooking fish for him,” Jocumsen said. “I was doing my best not to let him see it. When he caught that big one, he immediately said, ‘I caught that one all by myself.’ That was pretty cool.

“It was amazing to see the patience he had because we went a long time between fish. It was hot. And it wasn’t easy to catch ‘em. That’s what made it really cool. It wasn’t just catching a fish every cast. He worked for them. So when he got one, it just meant so much.”

Michael, Carl and “Uncle Bubba,” as Cano calls his uncle, were the only people in Jocumsen’s boat. But there were friends and family all around the reservoir. Michael’s mom, Lindsey, and her mother, Kathy Green, were in another boat. All eyes were focused on Michael and his new best friend, Jocumsen.

Uncle Bubba was impressed.

“It was amazing how Carl interacted with Mikey,” Blasingame said. “I was fighting back tears.”

Even more amazing was what happened after Jocumsen’s boat was put on the trailer. Jocumsen gave Michael one of his jerseys. It was covered in signatures from many of the other Elite Series anglers. Jocumsen had stopped at the Texas Toyota Bass Classic to get it signed before driving to Arkansas.

When Michael got back to his home in Cabot that afternoon, he asked his mom to take him fishing at a local pond. He didn’t catch anything, but he stayed there until 9 p.m. Two days later, Jocumsen’s jersey continued to be the only shirt Michael had worn since it was given to him. (And it still may be, to this day.)

But here’s the final kicker to an unforgettable day: The adults surrounding this 9-year-old were as uplifted as he was, if not more so.

“That was a first for me,” Jocumsen said later. “It was tough. It took every ounce of my strength to be strong for him. It was tough to see him, but at the same time I cherished every little thing we did because I know what fishing does to people, and I could see the enjoyment in him.

“He’s the toughest person I’ve ever met, and he’s 9 years old. It was probably the most life-changing day for me ever. I did my best to show him a great day, but he did a lot more for me than I did for him.”

“For it is in giving that we receive…”
— Prayer of St. Francis

There’s a GoFundMe website set up: www.GoFundMe.com/loveformickey

The GoFundMe is for anyone wishing to contribute to Michael Cano’s healthcare bills and, most importantly, to provide a reliable vehicle for Lindsey Cano to make the 45-minute, one-way drive back and forth from Cabot to Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Michael will begin chemotherapy treatments in July.