If you’re reading this, the chances are high that you have already read, what very-well may be the last published article written by the late and legendary Frank Daignault. That article was sent to me several years ago and, for reasons I can’t recall, it was never published. When I rediscovered it earlier this year, I knew I needed to fix that. After discussing where we’d run this lost article with my editing counterparts, Matt Broderick and Jim Hutchinson, Jr., we settled on the September edition, which has long been our ‘unofficial’ surfcasting special issue; but then, we found ourselves with a “content overage” and the Daignault piece was set aside for October.
The universe works in mysterious ways. There are what, 8-billion people in the world? And all of us course through time on our own unique trajectory, some might call it an orbit. Whether you see it as a long ellipse or a laser-like line that shines until it doesn’t… throughout life’s journey, our paths cross with others on a daily basis. Sometimes it almost seems like a greater consciousness whispers a subliminal reminder into our psyche. You think of that guy from high school that you used to fish with and then he friends you on Facebook two days later. Or an old memory flashes to life and then the main character in that memory calls you out of the blue that afternoon. I love that stuff, it really makes you believe that we’re more connected than any of us realize.
In the case of this Frank Daignault article, it’s almost one of those things that would defy anyone to call it a coincidence. I came across the article over this past winter, it had been sent in 2022. So that’s already 4 years in which I could have run it in any of the issues spanning that time. Frank was a great guy and he was also a stickler, not the type to let you sit on an article for too long without publishing it, but he never asked about this one again and so it sat, like a time capsule, until I found it. Then we have the fact that I considered running it in March and May of 2026 as a local contribution, but I offered it up as a possibility for glossy publication in an editor’s meeting in the early spring and, after some consideration, we elected to put it out in the fall. We then, of course, moved it from September to October, at the last minute… and to push it even one inch further, the printing company had a delay and the magazines shipped one day late.
To paraphrase a common Frank-ism, “and this, dear reader, is where it gets good,”
The October edition shipped, and few days later we received two emails from the Daignault family. One from his widow, Joyce and one from his daughter, Sue. They told an amazing story. The Daignault family had planned a reunion for a late-September weekend, their first reunion in 9 years. On that Saturday morning, their copy of The Fisherman arrived in Joyce’s mailbox, with the “Frank Daignault, The Last Article” callout displayed on the cover. With tears in their eyes, the family passed the magazine around the room, soaking in the words of their lost loved one. The things that transpired in the 4 years since that article was submitted that lead to its eventual arrival on the EXACT DAY of the first Daignault family reunion in nearly a decade would almost seem to be guided by the spiritual hands of Frank himself.
It’s rare in life to experience one of these moments that truly fells like it was meant to happen exactly as it did. But this example definitely ticks all of the boxes. As an up and coming surfcaster in my late-teens and early twenties, I read Frank’s books like bibles that would guide my new religion. Playing this small part in adding a touch of magic to his family’s first reunion after his passing, feels like the perfect way to pay my last respects.
And his widow wrote to close out her email, speaking of the article itself, “It was so Frank.”
And it truly was.
