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Client Profile - Shelly Kaplan
“We interrupt this marriage for the duration of the fishing season.” This message is printed on a cushion on Sheldon Kaplan’s SeaRay. In short, it sums up his priorities from ice-out to freeze-up on Minnesota’s Lake Minnetonka and beyond. “Beyond” includes 18 years at Nueltin, the first few with his son, Jay, of Jackson, Wyoming, and the past 10 years with his son-in-law, Jim Fitzmaurice of Bend, Oregon. July will see them both here again. For Shelly (the nickname he’s known by), Nueltin is the ultimate joy. His “limit” of Lake Trout Trophy Certificates heads his list of proud achievements. And that’s saying a lot of a man whose legal and business accomplishments are chronicled in “Who’s Who” and who has fished in the waters of every continent except Antarctica. But let’s back up 91 years to February 15, 1915, when Shelly was born with a “silver spoon” in his mouth. We’re not talking riches here, we’re talking fishing lures! Since his early cane pole days of catching sunnies and crappies with his dad in front of their lake home, he hasn’t missed a summer of fishing the 100 miles of Minnetonka shoreline. Exception: the war years when he rose from Private to Captain, serving in both the U.S. and North Africa. He also managed to make history on Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, 1941, when he and his bride, Helene, became the first couple to be married during WWII. Shelly’s brother, Sidney, also played a historic role in that period as one of the prosecuting attorneys at the Nuremberg trials. Shelly’s education includes a BA at the University Minnesota and a law degree at Columbia University in New York. Still practicing law in Minneapolis as the senior partner of Kaplan, Strangis and Kaplan P.A., Shelly has served on the Board of the Minnesota Vikings, Lone Star Industries and several regional banks. The Kaplan family includes Jay (mentioned earlier) who showed early fishing talent by winning a local casting contest at age 10; another son, Jeffrey, Executive Director of the Americana Music Association in Nashville; daughters Mary Jo, Senior Writer/Producer for Showtime Channel in New York; and Jeanne Fitzmaurice, Bend, Oregon, founder of the online card company, Design Her Gals. Add to that, four grandsons, four granddaughters and a growing contingent of in-laws. But to get back to what this piece is really all about:
The fishing experiences that have highlighted Shelly’s life. To mention just a few: - The 150+ lb. Nile Perch caught at Murchison Falls in Uganda, with a trio of curious hippos hardly more than 100 yds. away.
- The record Tiger Fish boated on his last cast in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.
- The Peacock Bass and big-toothed Payara pulled out of Venezuela’s Lake Guri on his 75th birthday – using piranhas for bait.
- The Rainbows, Char, Grayling, Silvers and Sockeyes that took his lures on the Kulik and Togiak Rivers in Alaska.
- The five kinds of trout caught in the streams of Patagonia’s Lake Traful (no Lake Trout among ‘em.)
- The casting lesson given to an enthusiastic group of young Chinese boys on the Yangtze River – who had never seen a rod and reel.
- The giant golden Dorado reeled in on the Parana River in Paraguay and shared at dinner with the American Ambassador who was camped nearby. How often does one get to fish with an Ambassador Reel and a real Ambassador?
Truth be told, not all of Shelly’s fishing expeditions were “cheer-worthy.” It’s only fair to mention a few of those: - Getting mired in mud for six rainy, miserable days trying to reach Lake Arapa’s famed Rainbow Trout in the Peruvian Andes. Alas, for Shelly, there was no rainbow at the end of that pot of gold!
- Not being able to put down on a Lake Victoria (Kenya) landing strip because of hippos on the runway.
- Getting skunked for two days off the coast of Thailand, and similarly, coming back empty after losing a monster marlin on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef.
But skunked on Lake Nueltin? Never! There have always been trout for a fresh, hot shore lunch and more than Shelly’s quota of documented trophies to measure, photograph and ease back into the water. He, Jay and Jim agree that Nueltin is as close to paradise as you can get on this earth. Sound like exaggerated hype from a travel brochure? Take it from Shelly Kaplan —he’ll even write you a legal affidavit — there’s nowhere on earth he’d rather be.
–Helene Kaplan, Shelly’s wife of 64+years |
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