Michigan Hunting and Fishing Stories

April 13, 2018
By Julie Traynor
Correspondent
 
Ron Helmboldt learned at a very tender age to hunt and fish. He had no choice. It is in his blood and deep in his genes.

Now a retired teacher and successful author, Helmboldt will visit his hometown Marion Public Library, Thursday evening, April 19, 2018, 7pm, to talk about the great hunting and fishing in the Marion area. Ron will bring along his latest book Born to Fish, Bred to Hunt, a collection of hunting and fishing stories, published by Parkhurst Brothers. He will no doubt find time to reminisce with Marion friends.
Helmboldt learned the finer points of hunting and angling as a kid in 1950’s and ‘60’s Marion under the tutelage of his grandfather and father, the well remembered barbering team of Fred and Mel, who themselves had a fine collection of hunter versus hunted, or angler versus fish stories, as the case may be.

Hunting and fishing tales are basically universal. Deer, rabbits, birds, trout. Neither the season nor the prey really matters. It is the ritual, the tale of the hunt and the bonds and friendships between hunters which really matter.

In this well told collection of hunting and fishing camp tales, set both in the Michigan of his youth and excursions in the West, Helmboldt shares personal events as well as tales of youthful exuberance and love of the sport.  Throughout it is clear that he has not forgotten the friendships of his youth or their stories, which he tells with great flavor and care.
Helmboldt graduated from Marion High School with the class of 1963; moved on to CMU, where he earned a teaching degree in 1967. Ron is the son and grandson of a sporting family and his mother is the well remembered Marion Elementary teacher, Lois Helmboldt. Ron and his wife Cathy currently reside in the Manistee area where Ron finds the fishing fine.

Since his retirement in the early 1990s Helmboldt has concentrated on writing and is remembered for his popular monthly column in the Marion Millennium. His first book, Bicycle Cowboy, is a collection of poetry and prose relating stories from his Marion youth. It was published by Parkhurst Brothers in the fall of 2016. He plans more, including a couple of novels.

Ron still hears the call of the outdoors and yields when the seasons and the wind are right.

Paperback - $18.95 - ISBN 978-1-62491-130-9

Email Ron to buy a book!

Ron Helmboldt took to the outdoors early, catching his first brook trout at age four with a hand-me-down bamboo rod. He started hunting at age nine with a single-shot .410 gauge from his Grandpa Helmboldt. During his youth, hunting and fishing stories flowed through his grandpa and dad’s barbershop a block from the Middle Branch River in Marion, Michigan. At age 73, he continues to hunt or fish during his retirement in Manistee, Michigan. Here he is shown with the rack from his first buck which he shot on Thanksgiving morning 1962, at Rocky’s Gravel Pit near Marion in Osceola County.
Author and cover photos by www.artistonduty.com.