John Bratkovich once caught a fish … this … big.
“No, I really did,” the 10-year-old said Friday morning at Chestnut Mountain Ranch, “but I threw him back.”
No fish story, here.
While he’s a little guy, yes, it (the wiggling trout that went back in) really was that big.
He had the selfie to prove it.
John was there, casting a line in the water with his dad, Joe.
The father and son were among the anglers who turned out at the wooded expanse just off Kingwood Pike for the fun.
Chestnut Ridge Ranch, which is nestled on 225 wooded acres, offers a faith-based refuge for boys and young men in trouble, or fleeing it.
It was founded in 2004 by Steve Finn, a former detective who worked with youth gangs in Atlanta before returning to his native West Virginia to launch the enterprise.
The mission, as said, is to reel young people out of harm’s way.
On this sunny morning, however, it was more about reeling in, as per however many trout, catfish and bluegill a zealful Zebco wizard could plop into the net.
“Yeah, this is great,” Finn said. “I think we’re gonna have a good day.”
Mike Lee, meanwhile, surveyed the scene with a smile.
“We don’t just want to sell cars,” the owner of Freedom Kia said. “We want to build community.”
The Morgantown-based car dealership does that by way of sales and altruism.
Every month, Freedom Kia donates $50 from every car sale to a nonprofit in the region selected by employees.
This month, it was Operation Welcome Home, the Mylan Park outreach organization that helps military veterans transition back to civilian life.
Especially those veterans coming back from war zones.
“Anything we can do,” Operation Welcome Home’s executive director Nicole Gerard said.
Gerard is an Army veteran who served multiple combat deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan during her tour in the service.
On this day, she was deploying hooked lure in the water, like everyone else.
“I snagged something,” she said, laughing. “It’s definitely not a fish.”
She was definitely happy to snag onto the day at Chestnut Mountain Ranch, she said.
“We’re hoping to see a lot of our veterans and families out here today, the executive said, “but it’s really for everyone in the community. We just appreciate Chestnut Mountain Ranch and Freedom Kia.”
The dealership provided more trout for the stalking, Lee said.
“I know we put in 500-plus trout in the water,” he said. “It’s gonna be really hard to not catch a fish today.”
“Got one!” Eric Loudin said, as he did just that.
Loudin is a Buckhannon native and a 46-year-old veteran who did stints with both the Marines and Army, seeing combat in Afghanistan in both branches.
Operation Welcome Home helped him with school when he got out.
He especially enjoys the agriculture program for vets, he said – “Although it’s my wife who can really grow stuff. She even has a greenhouse.”
He was a growing an ever-expanding grin on this day.
So was the aforementioned Master Bratkovich, the now-expert angler, who, as it so happened, caught another trout – just minutes after the first one.
Which, it should be noted, were his first two fish, ever.
“The first one was kind of squiggly,” he said. “I knew what I was doing with the second one.”
