Very sad news I will learn from.

[Iron Cowboy]

Hey all, Last night my wife came home and told me I better have a talk with my sons. She works with a lady that lives in Big Lake Mn. She told her a few days ago a 13 year old boy in town drown while trying to recover a lure he lost in the lakes weedy bottom. I guess like my kids he had caught hell from his old man for losing his lures before. I had a talk with my sons and will NEVER again yell at them for it. I'm just so sorry I had to learn something like this in this way. I dont even know the familys name. If anyone els knows more please post.I would like a name to go with the people I'm praying for.

[Uncle Bill]

Big Lake boy, 13, drowns while fishing
July 29, 2004 DROWN0729

A 13-year-old boy from Big Lake, Minn., died Tuesday night in an apparent drowning in Mitchell Lake.

Chad Judge was fishing on the shore with friends when a lure got stuck in the weeds, Big Lake Police Chief Sean Rifenberick said. The boy tried to free the lure but was caught underwater for five to seven minutes, according to police reports. "Either the water was too deep or too weedy or he panicked," Rifenberick said.

He was taken to Monticello-Big Lake Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. The investigation into his death continues, the police chief said.

[IFallsRon]

A fund has been set up in Judge's name. Donations for his family can be sent to Preferred Bank, P.O. Box 340, Big Lake, MN 55309.

It's sad to see a child die.

We can talk to our children without raising our voices. They're kids. They don't have value judgment yet. They've got different priorities and other things on their minds.

I volunteer occasionally at my kids' school. They're not all angels and I know the homes and circumstances that many come from. Four of my daughter's best friends live in split homes.

These kids are our future. We need to encourage them not discourage them.

[Ole1855]

That is unbelievably sad, I truely hope the reason he was so intent on retrieving the lure wasn't because he would have caught heck from his father.

My sympathy goes out to his family.

Ole

[This message has been edited by Ole1855 (edited 07-30-2004).]

[Iron Cowboy]

Ron, I'm not looking for someone to impose thier way of parenting on me or preaching. I guess i'm sort of old school and not p.c in my parenting but I believe kids should behave a cetrain way and respect others. Yes if I feel they need it they will get a spanking or a scolding and lecture. Have you ever seen a kid in public behave thats never had to face any consequence for his actions? I dont want to get off the subject here, all I'm saying is I am guilty of getting frustrated and yelling at my boys about things like losing a few expensive rapalas or leaving my tools lay around to get run over by the lawn mower etc. I think I'm probably like a lot of other guys and it never occured to me something like this could happen as a result.

[bigbucks]

I agree with Iron Cowboy that kids need discipline, crave it in fact. I got plenty of spankings & chewing out sessions as a kid. They weren't fun, but it made me think about what I was doing. I got them at a young age mostly, which seems to be the least painful in the long run.

This is a good reminder that when we are raving about some relatively small thing that our kids do & want them to stop, that we at least periodically temper it with explaining that's it's not worth risking injury for. Just like they don't get that rapalas cost money, they don't get that some things are really dangerous & not a good idea. It sounds like this was just an accident & they happen, but I can't even imagine how terrible I'd feel if I'd happened to have just chewed the kids out for losing tackle & that happened.

[say_der]

Very sad news.

I use the 6 month rule when it comes to fishing with kids and losing lures (and a lot of other things in life). Am I going to care in 6 months that my lure is lost? Heck no, so why worry about it now. I'll never forget the look of horror on my little 12-year-old sister-in-law's face when she got her first Rapala hung up on a tree. Thankfully I was able to convince her that I was proud she had snagged the branch and that made her a true angler.

Lures are meant to be lost.

[BDR]

Very sad!

[Beef46]

Sad deal. My prayers go out to the family.

I will be having a talk with me 2 boys as well.

[Big Laker]

I knew Chad, in fact I walked past the boys just minutes before the accident. Makes you wonder what would have happened if I came by just a little later...
Anyway, they were just some boys having some harmless summer fun. Who knows why he went in after the lure? I hope the other boys can eventually overcome this tragedy and can eventually get to enjoy the sport of fishing again.....

[wastewaterguru]

I don't know about the rest of you guys, but when I was a kid....the only lures I was allowed to use were the ones my dad didn't want anymore or that I bought myself with lawnmowing money.

This is certainly tragic and I can't possibly think of what you'd do different as a parent. The kid knew the water wasn't that deep......he could probably swim very well.....why not go after it???

It sounds like he got in the weeds and panicked a little and got himself wrapped up.

This is the lesson to be learned from this.....it doesn't matter what he was going in after or what the value of it was. The kid didn't recognize the dangers that weeds can impose on a swimmer.

Teach your kids think twice about diving into weeds like that.....

I can't even imagine what the kids family is going through.

[The Grebe]

Tragic things happen and when it invovles a young kid, it's even worse. For those of us that are parents, something like this would be the worst of nightmares, my sympathy goes out to the parents and relatives of this young boy.

But, the idea that somehow the dads admonishings come into play here, is a pretty gray area? I agree with Iron-Cowboy.

A parent can't speculate on what bad thing might befall ones child if he, or she is in someway disiplined. You do the best you can.

How many of us out there used to hop the slow moving freights, while we we shooting at pigeons under the bridges with our sling shots? Diving from the bridge into the lake, swimming from one point to the other, or across the lake and back, where others had drowned in the past? All kinds of things that could have ended tragically, but did'nt.

A simple little swim for a hung up lure and fate steps in, tragic.