A sudden stroke left Wallace Kingston completely paralyzed in his left arm. There are many things you can accomplish with only one arm, but fishing is not one of them. Wallace had fished for 60 years and to give up a sport he truly loved was a real blow.

      Fortunately, Wallace had a nephew who likes to tinker with things and wouldn't accept the permanency of his uncle's predicament. Gil Maddox, from Richmond, began to fiddle with straps and plastic fittings and buckles and hinges and soon came up

with a contraption called the "Fisherman's Friend." Maddox's creation allowed his uncle to cast his rod with one hand, then transfer it to the Fisherman's Friend, which held the rod during the reeling process. At last week's BASSARAMA in Richmond, Kingston gave several demonstrations of the product that has allowed him to resume fishing.

      There are many people out there who would probably fish if they had a device like Maddox's creation. In fact, Maddox has even designed his rig to adapt to a wheelchair. Whether it was a stroke, arthritis, a birth defect, an accident or any other number of situations where a person lost the use of an arm, there's still hope for the fisherman.

      If you know of someone who might benefit from a device like the Fisherman's Friend, contact Gil Maddox at P.O. Box 9743, Richmond, VA 23228 or call him at 804-266-2096. Thanks to Gil Maddox and his Fisherman's Friend, just because a fellow can only use one arm doesn't mean he has to stop fishing.