The Knut Barth and the Salmon Fishing Story

                      

The Knut Barth and the Salmon Fishing Story

                                                   1998

                                            A true story of how I tried to fool Knut Barth   

                                            Written 11/16/2015 and Re-written 1/2016

                                                                     Howard Yasgar

     We had a very dear friend named Knut Barth.

     Knut was once the vice president  of Detroit Diesel Military Division, he retired and started a company he called Barco.

     Knut spoke 34 languages fluently and a few more that he was not fluent in.

     During his career he said he had been to every country in the world except outer Mongolia.

     Also in his younger days he said he had a girlfriend in ever country. He said he left Japan by the skin of his teeth as his girlfriends father, who was a Japanese dignitary, was preparing for a wedding     

     I don’t think Knut who was semi retired started his company Barco with the intention to make a profit, it gave him an excuse to travel and go salmon fishing.

     Knut lived in Michigan, and whenever he headed to South America he stopped in to see us.

     Knut told me Salmon fishing was his passion, and he traveled to Chile quite often supposedly doing some business there but he said his real reason to go was for salmon fishing.

     One day in June of 2000, my wife and I were shopping in a local Winn Dixie supermarket in Key Largo Florida.

     We stopped by the seafood department, they were having a salmon sale. They were selling fresh whole Chilean Salmon for $2.99 per lb.

      Each Chilean farm raised salmon was in its own Styrofoam container. We couldn’t believe how cheap it was. The air freight from Chile was probably more than they were selling the salmon for.

     I had a terrific idea for a gag that I could play on our friend Knut.

     Everyone knows  that Salmon was a cold water fish and not found in Florida, so I purchased one whole 20 lb. fresh farm raised Chilean Salmon.

     That very afternoon I posed for my wife, as she took pictures of me fishing in the canal behind our house on Plantation Key in Islamorada Florida.

     I had purposely put a heavy weight on my fishing line so it would look like I was fighting a big fish.

     Then I proudly stood on the dock with my fishing rod in one hand and the 20 lb. Salmon in the other hand.

     I had a big smile  like I had just that moment caught the fish in the canal behind our house.

     We sent the pictures off to our friend Knut Barth in Michigan.

     Knut called us up as soon as he received the pictures.

     “Nice Chilean farm raised Salmon”, Knut said.

      It was not exactly what I had expected to hear from him. How the hell did he know it was a farm raised Salmon.

      Knut said, “All Chilean farm raised Salmon have clipped tails, they do it to make the fish less powerful.

      Knut said, “ The moment you hook a Salmon in Chile you can tell if it is wild or if it was an escaped farm raised fish, you can feel right away the way it fights.”

      Well, we couldn’t fool our friend Knut, my gag had backfired, but we did eat the fish.