A Mount Clemens native who worked for his father in the family fish market,
Charbeneau was a sportsman and a fisherman.
He was skilled woodworker who made his own decoys, duck boats and duck boat tenders.

Charbeneau became a highly accomplished ice fisherman and in
the long Michigan winters fabricated his own spears and fish decoys.
He did most of his hunting with ,
Louis Jock, Don Riley, Pecore Fox and Dave Dreschel, a local group renowned
for their prowess and endurance who frequently hunting for weeks at a time
in remote parts of the Lower Peninsula.