“They won’t start biting until we get there.” — Wayne Bailey
Wayne Bailey was a dedicated angler of the Lake Champlain International Father’s Day Fishing Derby. He died at age 63 in a boating accident last year.
WAYNE BAILEY
VERMONT ANGLER REMEMBERD ON FATHER’S DAY
R
BY EVAN LLOYD JOHNSON
ae Washburn has a favorite fishing story involving his friend Wayne Bailey. They were fishing on Lake Champlain and Bailey was helping Washburn land a lake trout. In a painful and awkward moment, the Moretown resident found himself pierced through his finger with the fishhook that was already protruding from the mouth of the wriggling trout in the net. 18 — A Publication of Vermont Sports
Wayne Bailey jumped in to help his friend. “He had a cast on his right hand, but Wayne was right handed. He was trying to help me out by hitting this fish with a pair of Vise-Grips, but he was doing it left handed,” Washburn said. As a solution, Wayne suggested they tape the fish to his chest and attempt to remove it on shore. Fortunately, they were able to dislodge the hook before any further action was needed.
For last year’s fishing season, after the death of his friend in a boating accident, Washburn said he used hardly a tank of gas in his boats. “The day that he died was the day fishing died,” he said. A familiar face will be missing from Lake Champlain this spring as well as from the Father’s Day Fishing Derby, hosted by Lake Champlain International. Wayne Bailey, age 63, of Berlin was a Vermonter and dedicated member of the Canadian Club, Masonic Temple, and the Central Vermont
Boating Club. While he was an avid outdoorsman and hunter, his true love was fishing. From trolling for lake trout in the summer to fishing for perch on the wintertime ice, friends and family described a man constantly in pursuit of the next big catch, guided by his motto, “They won’t start biting until we get there.” Wayne Bailey grew up in the Montpelier area fishing on rivers and ponds with his brothers and father. (See Bailey, Page 19)
