Big pond in sky got a good guide
The phone would ring now and then with a greeting on the other end that could belong to only one person.
'Hey you fat little bastard, you want to go fishing?'
Even after such rudeness, it was nearly impossible to say no. Fishing with Dominic 'Big Knob' Culjan usually involved an experience that would make you shake your head and say, 'What a character.'
Unfortunately the chance to enjoy Big Knob's antics are gone. The colorful Utica fishing guide died Tuesday night at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria. Big Knob, 57, is survived by three children and five grandchildren.
His death carries a sobering message for deer hunters, who are entering the busiest part of their season. On Sept. 30, one day before the archery opener, Big Knob fell 15 feet from a tree while attempting to put a final strap on a treestand.
He was found in a small patch of timber near Utica by his brother, Darrell 'Buster' Culjan. Although coherent after the fall, Big Knob's condition steadily worsened. Within 24 hours he suffered three heart attacks and was placed in a coma to reduce stress on his body. He never recovered.
A visitation will be held from 4-8 p.m. Friday at Burgess Funeral Home in Utica. There also will be a visitation from 9-10 a.m. Saturday at the funeral home, followed by memorial services.
No doubt, stories will flow. Many will focus on Big Knob's relationship with the Illinois River he fished so fervently. At the peak of his guiding career, Knobby spent as many as 250 days per year on the river.
One of the happiest days came in 1998 when he and Mark O'Connell won the Masters Walleye Circuit tournament.
'There are a lot of good sticks out there and I'm not saying I'm the best,' Big Knob said then. 'But I can stay with the best.'
Former Journal Star scribe Jack Ehresman recalled his first meeting with Big Knob at a Peru sport show in the early 1970s.
'Here was this funny-looking character with a bucket full of sauger he said he had caught on the Illinois River,' Ehresman said. 'I thought, 'Oh, baloney.' But by God, he did catch those fish on the river.
'He's the guy that I think really kind of opened up the sauger and walleye fishery on the Illinois River.'
Over the years Big Knob guided countless clients to livewells full of sauger, white bass and catfish. For the past four years he spent more time working on a pipeline and had less time to guide.
Even so, he was always quick with a quote. When a tornado tore through Utica in 2004, Big Knob witnessed the event firsthand from outside his home:
'All of the sudden I couldn't see my neighbor's fence any longer. I thought, 'Hey, that's the tornado.' '
Big Knob escaped that with a bruise on the head - an injury reminiscent of the childhood fall down a stairway that raised a knob on his forehead to earn him his unique nickname.
Brushes with death were nothing new for Culjan, though. In 1996, he successfully battled tongue cancer. Years prior to that, Big Knob was the subject of a frantic search one evening when his vehicle was found submerged in a shallow Illinois River backwater.
Unbeknownst to the search party, Big Knob had walked home from the scene of the accident. The next day, he delighted and frustrated friends when they learned he was still alive and had been safely asleep during their muddy search.
Sadly, there's no happy ending to Knobby's latest adventure.
JEFF LAMPE is Journal Star outdoors columnist. Write to him at 1 News Plaza, Peoria, IL 61643, call (309) 686-3212 or e-mail jlampe@pjstar.com.