I wanted to give everyone an update on my great friend and our forum brother KWP (Kendall Palmer).
Back in September, Kendall suffered what was believed to be a stroke. That initial diagnosis was incorrect, and as his condition worsened in October and early November he was hospitalized and eventually was in the ICU. Due to massive and increasing seaziure activity, Kendall had to be placed in a medical coma about 4 weeks ago.
Earlier this week, a new test finally revealed the cause of his illness. Unfortunately, it is not good news. Kendall has Creutzfeld Jacob Disease (CJD), a rare brain disease in the family of so-called prion diseases. The test combined with a continued decline in his bRIs makes CJD diagnosis definite. There is no treatment or cure for CJD and it is so rare that literally more people are struck by lightning every year than contract CJD in the US.
Kendall’s family is honoring Kendall’s wishes and nothing else can be done for him other than to make him comfortable and pray for his quick departure to better fishing spots in the sky.
Kendall is an extraordinary man, friend, and outdoorsman of astonishing capability. His occasionally matter-of-fact posts here on the forum were typical of his modesty, but I feel they also kept his real self partially hidden, which is in many regards, a shame.
Many will have gathered that Kendall is a brook trout disciple of the first order. He fished brook trout in their last great stronghold, the Canadian sub-arctic with a devotion that certainly rivals that of any living Minnesotan. I wish I had an exact count of his Canadian sub-arctic trips, but they number over a dozen with certainty.
His talents and devotion to brown trout, steelhead, walleye, and bass are known here on this forum, but again I feel that the surface modesty masked the depths. In 1999, Kendall fished in some capacity on 100 of 104 weekend days and logged over 250 days where he fished at some time during the day. He fished over 30 days of that year for steelhead alone, an astonishing feat for anyone, much less someone who lives over 100 miles from any steelhead water.
He was the sole owner of his own Canadian walleye destination, Kampkitchi. It has been my great honor to share 12 trips to his paradise in Canada and I could write a book on his exploits just at Kampkitchi. We shared the greatest day of walleye fishing of my life in 2015 at his camp, we hiked into a lake that literally has no name and savaged hundreds of walleye in a situation that can only be described as “sight fishing” for walleye. The fish were in 3 feet of water on a reef they hammered our lures with reckless abandon for 8 hours. Kendall literally goaded me into going that day, I was reluctant, but he just had a feeling that today, of all days, would be it. And it was so.
Once at Kampkitchi, Kendall came in to dinner after spending about 10 hours that day on the water. He bolted down 3 fillets of fresh walleye, wiped his mouth, drank half a can of Coke (he was a teetotaler), and announced, “Evening bite! Who’s coming?” He was gone in 5 minutes and as the 2 stroke smoke from his Mercury still hung at the dock, I said to the others at the table what now proves to be sadly prophetic:
“You know, Kendall fishes like he’s never caught a fish in his life and he’s dying tomorrow.” The truth of this is so painfully prophetic that it leads me to wonder if he somehow knew all the long that he had no time to waste.
I am sad beyond measure at this long goodbye being said to my friend. He was a mentor to my son and I feel we were cut from the same cloth as we both loved the outdoors and the tools and adventures that come with it. He was the greatest fisherman I will ever know and he will live on in my mind and I will fish with him in my memory forever.
J.M. Hruby
The Famous Grouse
