Here's to Lewy

In Tuesday’s Oklahoman, there is a tragic story out of Guthrie about a daughter and boyfriend accused in a murder plot of the girl’s father back in May.
The 15-year-old girl, accused of enticing her 21-year-old boyfriend into killing her father, was ordered on Monday to stand trial on a charge of first-degree murder.
The victim is Lewy Fryer of Guthrie. I can’t say I really knew Lewy. I only met him once a few years ago when Oklahoma City still had the tackle show at the fairgrounds.
He stopped by my table and introduced himself, said he liked the job I was doing on the Outdoors page, so of course I immediately liked him.
I met a lot of people that weekend, but I remembered Lewy. We only visited for a few minutes but he made an impression. It was easy to see that he loved to fish. He just grinned from ear to ear while talking about it.
That was the only time I met him, but we did have a few more conversations over the phone and via email in recent years. From time to time, he would provide me information about his bass fishing club, the Backwater Bassin’ Club.
Three years ago, Lewy was my main source of information and photos for a story I was writing about tube fishing. Lewy could catch more fish in a float tube than most do in a bass boat.

“In the spring, I would much rather be moving along with my feet on the ground working the shallow spawning areas and the water weeds in a tube,” Fryer told me at the time. “It is much more quiet. And on a windy day, I have no worries about boat control.”
Fryer and other members in his club fished in modified float tubes, adding depth finders, trolling motors, dip-nets and multiple rods as accessories.
“When we want to fish a bank against the wind, we turn our trolling motors on number one speed and move right along and work the bank, just like a boat would do,” Lewy said.
A memorial bass tournament has been organized in honor of Lewy. Part of the entry fees will go to help Lewy’s son who is still in high school.
The tournament will be Sept. 25-26 at Sardis Lake. For information, call Jeff Joslin at 370-7702.
I’m just sorry I never got to fish with Lewy. I bet it would have been a lot of fun.