Memorable fishing with a memorable fisherman

By Bill Prater

I sat down to have coffee this morning and think about going fishing tomorrow. And then I thought about Norm. At first there was just sadness at his passing -- but I for one can’t think about Norm Engelbrecht without also smiling. He brought happiness to every crazy adventure he talked us into over the years. And I don’t think I ever saw him scowl. 

For a look at club photos of Norm over the years, click on this Google Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/viPA5ytzu3RVG1qs6 

Norm passed away on Sept. 20, after a lengthy illness. I now find myself looking over stories on this blog about some of the stranger adventures this club has survived over the years. It’s uncanny how many began over coffee with Norm. Here, for example, is what I wrote about an unforgettable, kinda disastrous, trip to central Kansas:  

“Anyone who participated in that ill-fated, Engelbrecht-led catfishing trip to Lake Glen Elder can testify that the journey itself is frequently the highlight of a club trip."  

Yeah, that was a Norm-led trip all right.

- About 15 of us showed up at Glen Elder Lodge that hot summer afternoon about 15 years ago, ready for a promised evening of guided catfishing -- only to discover the owner had forgotten about us and gone golfing. Anyone else remember how we snugly bunked together in the lodge’s former kitchen? Or that rancid soybean bait (and equally smelly life preservers) the guy wanted us to use, on that eventual evening trip on a leaky pontoon boat with no running lights? I'm not sure why, but long after we’ve forgotten more successful fishing trips, we can look back fondly on that and other nearly fishless adventure, and smile. And speculate on what hair-brained scheme Norm would conjure up next. 

- I am pretty sure he was instigator on the very first ice fishing trip I ever took, to Lake Grandby in January 2003, when we awoke to go fishing and found it was minus 23 degrees. Someone’s snowmobile got stuck in water up to our knees, and the day proved nearly fishless, but hilarious. I for one have been hooked on ice fishing ever since.  

- Norm was definitely the guy who talked us into fishing for giant, prehistoric spoonbill on the Grand Lake of the Cherokees, OK, and damned near got me and Tom Miller drowned when the weather turned as sour as the disposition of our supposedly legendary spoonbill guide. As club president, he also led us (many, many times now that I think back on it), to a small, wind-swept lake on a remote central Nebraska ranch, where we went in optimistic search of pike and usually found only skunk.

- Who but Norm would have introduced us to Bruce’s Bar and Restaurant? And now who’s going to stand up at our next meeting and declare it time for another club outing for Bruce’s infamous Rocky Mountain oysters and rooster rocks?  

But forget memories of great Engelbrecht road fishing trips that possibly fell a bit short of expectations. Others were spectacularly successful. And that old rascal could really fish. He won the club championship in 2013, and the lunker walleye he landed on Boyd Lake this spring makes him odds-on favorite for 2022 Angler of the Year. 

I recall writing a few years back that the closest I would ever come to a great fisherman was standing next to Norm Engelbrecht.  When I think him now, I still miss him tremendously. But I can’t help but grin.

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