I want to applaud the Oxford Village Council for its decision last week to participate in the Water Residential Assistance Program (WRAP).

WRAP provides low-income residents with up to $1,000 per household per year in assistance to help pay their current and back water bills (see story on Page 3).

This is great news for village residents who are struggling to make ends meet as the price of everything keeps going up.

It’s always nice to see a local government exhibiting some compassion for its less-fortunate citizens.

I hope Oxford Township follows suit and gets involved with WRAP as well. There are plenty of residents in need out there who could benefit from a helping hand.

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On Saturday, I got to cross something off my bucket list that had been on there ever since I could first hold a fishing pole.

I landed a beautiful 33-inch muskellunge (or muskie for short) on Lake St. Clair.

I’d always wanted to pursue these large, toothy, underwater predators, but I never had the opportunity or the appropriate tackle. It takes some mighty big lures to convince these beasts to bite.

But thanks to Oxford residents Bob Offer and Tim Speed, I finally got to net one of these monsters and it was quite the thrill.

They graciously invited me on their expedition and I jumped at the chance.

They helped me out and showed me the ropes. Trolling for muskie is a hell of a lot different than my experiences bait-casting for bass and fly fishing for trout.

Going into it, I fully expected to walk away empty-handed because muskies are notoriously difficult to catch.

It’s been called “the fish of 10,000 casts,” but we beat those odds because we landed not one, but two muskies that day.

The other was reeled in by Offer. He hooked a nice 34-incher. It was his first muskie, too, so he was grinning ear-to-ear like a big kid.

Unfortunately, Speed didn’t get one, but he put a hard-fighting 28-inch pike in the net as we were heading in.

It’s always a great day on the water – or in the woods – when nobody gets skunked.

Thanks again to Offer and Speed for helping me achieve a dream. I had a lot of fun.

Now, if I can only shoot an elk . . .