The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
A TRUE FISH STORY
Man attributes to God his 30.5-inch walleye catch to win Walleye Fall Brawl
While some think catching a large fish is a matter of luck, Clarence Mitchell Jr., of Sheffield Lake, attributes his recent capture of a massive walleye to God’s will.
On the third day of fishing at Edgewater Park in Cleveland, Mitchell, 63, pulled in a 30.5inch 13.745-pound walleye Nov. 30 to win the 2018 Walleye Fall Brawl.
Mitchell along with charter boat captain Darryl Smith and fellow fisherman Chris Johnson had been on Lake Erie near The Cleveland Crib, which is the main intake for the city water supply at Edgewater, about 3.5 miles off shore.
Mitchell and his crew had been fishing for about three hours when the behemoth fish
“We was hoping. We was praying. We was talking it, but we didn’t think we actually would do it, and it happened. We had a good time.”
— Clarence Mitchell Jr. on landing “the big one”
took a bite of his line, which was bated with a Bandit lure.
“He hit it,” he said of the fish.
But when Mitchell and his crew hit the calm waters that day, he said they didn’t really expect to bring in “the big one.”
“We was hoping,” Mitchell said. “We was praying. We was talking it, but we didn’t think we actually would do it, and it happened. We had a good time.”
Mitchell and his friends caught the winning fish after a month into the contest.
When asked why he was able to snag a big one when so many had failed, he attributed his success to God.
“They called it luck, I called it God’s work,” Mitchell said. “I didn’t put the fish to my lure. We was talking about winning, hoping and it happened.”
Mitchell, a retired auto worker and former U.S. Marine reserve, suffers from multiple sclerosis and transverse myelitis which makes hooking such large fish difficult, but he said Smith and Johnson helped him land the winner.
“They did pretty good,” he said.
He said as soon as the fish was hooked, he knew it was a winner.
“My buddies, they were netting it in and they said, ‘Clarence, this is a big one. This is it. This is it.’” he said with a laugh. “When they laid him on the floor (of the boat) I said, ‘That’s it.’ ”
For defeating the other 6,336 anglers from 26 different states, Quebec and Ontario who entered, Mitchell walked away with a fully-loaded Warrior V2121 DC boat worth $100,000, said Frank Murphy, president of the Walleye Fall Brawl, who lives in North Royalton.
Mitchell said he sold the boat and the gear it came with for $75,000, which he
intends to share with Smith and Johnson.
“It’s only right,” Mitchell said. “It’s a team, and I couldn’t have done it without them.”
He said he plans to use the money to buy his wife, Betty, something nice, pay some bills, give some to his friends and donate to his church, Unity Spiritual Center in Westlake.
Mitchell said he learned to catch walleye and perch by visiting Erie Outfitters, 5404 Lake Road in Sheffield Lake, each morning and drinking coffee and talking with other men who do the same.
It actually was fishing that brought Mitchell, a native of Flint, Mich., to the area. He said he had been living in Mansfield after retiring from General Motors and was spending $100 to $130 each time to drive up to the area to fish.
Rather than cut down on the fishing, he and his wife moved to Sheffield Lake in 2010.
This wasn’t the first time Mitchell placed in the annual Fall Brawl.
He won fourth place two years prior and he has plans to enter next year as well.
Mitchell will have competition from younger anglers, though, as the winner of the children’s division, Santiago Navarro, from the Columbus metro area, was close behind with his 31inch long 11.275-pound fish which netted him a boat as well.