05/13/2026
Repost for our new followers.
I was 10 years old in 1976, and there was no better place on earth than the south pier in South Haven.
We spent our summers there. Every morning my mom would take me to the bait shop, and I’d buy wigglers — that was my secret weapon on the pier. She’d drop me off with my old three-piece cane pole, and I’d break it down so I could fish three lines at once. In my mind, that was advanced strategy.
I’d sit out there all day, watching the water, feeling every little tap on the line. One day I caught the biggest jumbo perch on the pier. I thought I was the king of Lake Michigan. That fish meant we were having a fish fry that night — and that made me feel like I had provided something real.
Mom would pick me up at sunset, tired and sunburned, but proud. Those were simple days — just a cane pole, a handful of wigglers, and the whole summer stretched out in front of me.
Still some of the best memories of my life.
