Matthew Schaller Fishing Memorial

September 10th, 2022

Matthew was a kind and gentle soul and was loved by all his family. Matthew enjoyed fishing, the outdoors, water sports, and was a shark enthusiast. To best honor Matthew’s life and legacy, we put together a fishing memorial and taught kids how to fish!

Tim Schaller and his family worked hard to plan the special details of this event that made it so special. We had 25 youth and their guardians attend this event! They all had the luxury of going out to fish for bluecat at Milford Lake. We were very lucky and had 8 individuals with boats and pontoons commit to mentoring these youngsters for Matthew’s memorial. A close friend of ours made the comment that “if the Tim Schaller fleet of Milford fishermen are involved, it’s going to be a great time!” and that source was not wrong! Upon arrival, Tim’s family greeted mentors and youth with hot doughnuts! We made sure that everyone had a name tag, lifejacket, and knew what boat they would be fishing out of for the day. We hit the water after that!

Mother Nature had some other plans for us that morning. After about 1 hour on the lake, a windy, little rain storm blew in and put us back on land for about 45 minutes. Thankfully, that weather did not stick around for too long, and we took to the water again! We had a handful of boats reel in some great sized catfish! One boat went to another part of the lake and got into some wipers and the kids were hooked! There were a couple of boats that were skunked by those pesky fish, but all still had a great time out on the water fishing.

Once we were done fishing for the day, everyone headed back to the boat ramp where we had a couple shelters reserved for our large group. Tim’s family prepared hamburgers, hotdogs, chips, cookies and had an assortment of drinks for everyone. There is nothing quite like a cheeseburger after casting a line all morning! The mentors helped the kids clean their fish and package up their catch to take home with them while everyone shared stories and laughs. Each youth that attended the fishing memorial took home their very own fishing pole and tackle box courtesy of the Schaller Family.

Though Matthew may no longer be with us, I think he would be very pleased with the fishing that the kids got to experience! We want to thank the family of Tim Schaller, our mentors, parents, and youth for attending this very special event!