Offshore With Russ Baccaglini, A Rodent of Unusual Size
I met Russ Baccaglini during my freshman year of college, either late in 1988 or early in 1989. It was a hazy time in both of our lives, so it’s kind of hard to remember the details, but I do know that we lived next door to each other for the better part of three school years in a house that should have been condemned. But for the incredible amounts of dust and dirt which went unremoved, it likely would have fallen down around us. I don’t know that the debauchery that ensued there was unusual for college students of that era, but I do know that Russ handled it better than most. One moment he was passed out on a set of outdoor trash cans, getting written on with indelible magic marker, the next minute he was acing some sort of complicated engineering exam.
My only mistake in our friendship was that I let him install a toilet in the bathroom adjacent to my room, where previously there was only a hole in the ground (long story). That gave him a permanent easement to use said toilet, which would not have been so bad except for the fact that the bargain basement model required you to jiggle the handle to stop it from running, or else it would overflow. Despite repeated reminders, I often came back from class to find my room flooded. I guess that Russ had to devote his available energy to those engineering problem sets and exams.
During that same time, he met his wife Jolanta, a recent immigrant from Poland, at a Paul Simon concert in Central Park. She was wise enough not to darken the doorway of our house any more than was absolutely necessary. They got married shortly after we graduated in 1992, and out of that chance meeting built a strong and long-lasting marriage as he climbed the corporate ladder and they built a family. He’s been wildly successful in his career, and their three children are somehow poised to be even more successful. The oldest, now 29, is engaged and has a high level position with a major museum. The youngest is about to graduate with a bachelor’s degree in engineering, following in dad’s footsteps. The middle daughter has just started an MD/PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania, with the latter degree focusing on biomedical engineering. Russ was and is quite smart and driven, but the addition of Jola’s genes (and likely her nurturing) pushed things up a notch for the next generation.
Over the course of the 30-plus post-graduation years we were of course not as close as we were during college. How could we be? We lived a couple hundred miles apart. Russ was raising a young family and building a business. I was – well, I suppose I was mostly off fishing, thinking about fishing, and writing about fishing. We saw each other every couple of years when our friends got together, but those who remained in the New York area were tightest.
He did attend my 2005 wedding in Chicago and managed to make a splash there. To recognize my fishing interests, we had live goldfish in the centerpieces (“I’m glad you’re not an equestrian,” my uncle deadpanned.) At some point during the reception we heard a cheer go up across the room. Then another. It seems that Russ, recalling our non-ASPCA-compliant college efforts, had swallowed one or two of the flushable pets. Reverting to the peer-pressurable state of my 19 year old self, I crossed the room and did the same.
The COVID era was bad in many ways, but it was good for rekindling friendships with my boys from college. Many of them who lived close to one another had been getting together for years, but during quarantine we had regular Thursday night Zoom calls. I joined a WhatsApp chain that continues to this day. Even though we have lots of differences, we were able to discuss and debate meaningful issues mostly respectfully, an opportunity that doesn’t frequently exist in other corners of my life.
Several of them signed up for my Half Past First Cast newsletter, but I never suspected that any would join us on our trips. I suppose that I knew Russ liked to fish – his family owns a house at Pennsylvania’s Lake Wallenpaupack and he’d sent pics of halibut, rockfish and lingcod he’d caught with Jola’s relatives in Alaska, but I figured it stopped there.
Then one day, in response to a newsletter I sent, he shot me a text: “Hi Pete. Jola and I and her cousin from Alaska and his wife might be interested in going to Panama fishing on your trip next January. Are spots available?” It turns out I’d timed it perfectly – they were all on a diving trip to Cozumel, and her cousin Krzysztof, who will only travel to hunt, fish, or dive, became enthused over the idea. Quickly the four of them signed up, and later added another Alaskan doctor by way of Poland, their friend Marek.
I worry about every group that joins us on these trips – that they won’t have a good time, or that the fish won’t cooperate as expected, or that the weather will just plain suck – but with this group there was no need to worry. They were going to have a blast even if things didn’t go according to plan. Fortunately for all of us, though, things went exceptionally well. They simply crushed the fish from start to finish, to the point that Krzysztof, who came into the trip not wanting to catch anything non-edible, became excited by with the sporting side of things, even admitting that releasing certain fish gave him a bit of a thrill. They caught tuna galore over the first few days, and then went looking for Mr. Big on the last day – they succeeded, with two blue marlin, a black marlin, and a sailfish. I’m at the point in my life where I’m truly happy to see anyone catch a bucket list fish, especially if we’ve booked them on a bucket list trip, but I especially loved it for my friend Russ. He’s spent so much of his life working his balls off, making things better for his family and others, that his smile was a reward every day…and he never seemed to stop smiling.
Beyond being able to deliver a superior fishing experience, the true joy for me was watching someone who 35 years ago was covered in the ink from a Sharpie and perhaps a bit of his own puke, having built an incredible relationship with a very special woman. She’s lived the American dream, but he likewise got an incredible deal, marrying into a family that is beyond exceptional. Sometimes things turn out even better than expected and the good guys win.
