His name is Steve Peters, but to those who know him personally, he is affectionately known as “Bubba.”
This is also the name that has been appearing on signs around Morden and Winkler.
The mysterious signs materialize now and again — always worded differently — but what remains consistent is that they poke a little fun at Peters for a particular reason: his fishing ability.
‘Bubba sucks at fishing’
Recently, Peters has cut his losses with the prank and harnessed it to help children in the community.
It all began with a phone call last year.
“I was working in Morden and somebody who works in the area sent me a picture,” he says. “It was a sign that just said, ‘Bubba sucks at fishing.’”
Peters says he took a picture of the sign and posted it on Facebook, accompanied by a joke that there might be “more than one Bubba” in the area.
Less than a week later, Peters got a response — it was on a sign in clear lettering:
“There are those who can fish, and then there's Steve Peters.”
In Winkler, too
At this point, Peters knew he was the subject of the signs. What he didn’t know then (and still doesn’t know now) is the identity of the individual responsible for the messages.
What is clear, however, is that the mystery prankster knows about his life, his route to work, and his Facebook page.
Soon after Peters began working in Winkler, a shiny new sign seemed to follow.
“A comment I made the other day on Facebook had the word ‘therapy’ in it, so now it talks about a therapist telling me to embrace my mistake: fishing,” he says.
‘I wanted to do something cool with it’
Now that Peters has seen a third sign about fishing, he’s taking action to embrace the theme.
“I wanted to do something cool with it,” he says. “So I put it out there. I made a Facebook live video saying that for every like and share from my page, I was going to donate a dollar and buy fishing gear for a kid to get them into the sport.”
Peters says that the last time he checked, the post had nearly 100 reactions, and shares are growing.
The community is also getting involved.
Since Peters went live, two of his friends have agreed to match whatever he puts into the fund, and there have also been four anonymous donors so far.
Peters says that he and his friends have capped the fundraising at $250 each.
An invitation to get involved
Now that the fishing fund is growing, Peters invites the community to join in. He’s accepting monetary donations as well as fishing gear donations via his Facebook page.
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He also invites anyone with a child who is interested in fishing to enter the draw to win the collection of gear.
“Depending on how many kids and how much money we have by the end of next Monday, we might do a set amount of prize packages for [more than one kid],” he says.
But... is Bubba good at fishing?
It’s clear that local children will benefit from the sign prank, but one might also wonder about something pressing: Is there any merit in the messaging of the mysterious signs?
Peters says he has been fishing for thirty years now, and he has a “lot of great memories” from the hobby.
As for his skill level — he didn’t comment.
He did have a message for the mystery sign trickster, though.
“Whoever you are, ... I hope to take you out for supper because this is genius,” he says.
With files from Jayme Giesbrecht