This is my 36th year visiting Grand Lake Stream, Maine. That is a milestone for me. For students of gematria, the number has significance, though I will leave it readers to research this.
I made my first trip when my son Mitch was 13. We flew to Portland, then traveled by rental car to Freeport, parked the car in Pat Keleher’s driveway, got into Pat’s truck, and drove five hours pulling his Lund boat. When we finally reached Weatherby’s Fisherman Resort, we were greeted by its owners, Charlene and Ken Sassi. They were wonderful hosts and welcoming. There was a small group from a Wall Street firm staying there, too, and that allowed for some interesting conversation. That firm had done a small fishing retreat in years past.
Over those early years, I returned to Weatherby’s a number of times. The Sassis became like family to us. When the resort was empty, we would eat in the kitchen together. Prior to 9/11, there were only a handful of people — sometimes just two or three, sometimes five or six.
In time, the Sassis sold the lodge and retired. New owners changed its character and obtained a liquor license. By then, there were a handful of “regulars” who would join me. We changed lodges and have been repeat customers at Leen’s Lodge for years. (For details about Leen’s Lodge, see https://leenslodge.com.)
After 9/11, everything changed.
Friends who had declined invitations to join me reversed their decisions. The group expanded. The timing became late summer — first July and now August. The group expanded. Discussions and panels were introduced. The group expanded again, always without PowerPoint and always informal by mutual agreement. Conversations were under Chatham House Rule AND the Jackson Hole Rule. The group expanded still further. It wasn’t just a few guys going fishing anymore.
The gathering has been covered by Bloomberg, CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Reuters, and many others. Its first nickname was coined by Jon Hilsenrath. He called it the “Shadow Kansas City Fed” retreat when he wrote about it.
But that subsequently changed.
It happened on a Friday morning at 8:30. I was standing with Steve Liesman on the deck overlooking the lake, doing an interview. We were live with a camera but no monitor. CNBC broke for two minutes, and when we returned to live TV, Becky Quick asked, “How are things at Camp Kotok?” She caught us by surprise. The CNBC control room had created a banner that was running, and it said, “Camp Kotok.” We couldn’t see it, but everyone watching did. We were the last ones to know. The new nickname has stuck ever since.
This year we are “sold out” and had a waiting list in case there was any last-minute cancellation. Our discussion focus was a broad theme of defense, geopolitics, finance, markets, the Fed, etc. The Global Interdependence Center (www.interdependence.org) now handles the administration and organization and some of the programming. Over the years, special guests have included a Fed president or a senator or a governor or a congressmember or a presidential candidate or a diplomat from another country. The gathering still has no PowerPoints. We still follow the privacy protocol. Some panels are now “on the record” and therefore widely quoted in media and in newsletters. Rick Newman (Yahoo Finance) moderated the defense panel last night with Byron Callan, Mike Drury, Patricia Gruber, and Claudia Sahm.
Here are highlights and fond memories from years past:
Bringing the catch in for lunch
Trophy smallmouth bass & popper on 4-weight fly rod
Abigail teaches my granddaughter important skills on lobster night (2015).
Trophy fish replica on Leen’s Lodge wall
For more photos and history see the Camp Kotok Section on my personal website: www.davidkotok.com.
More on this year’s Camp Kotok later. I’m going fishing this morning.
