McChord and Mason 3

I had the privilege last week to go to McChord Airforce Base to MC their first annual salmon derby.  As is always the case with these type of events I was very humbled by the outpouring of hospitality from a group of guys that we all owe a debt to.  When I first arrived I was greeted by my own special parking space designated by a nice sign with my name and number from my playing days with the Seahawks.  I was then greated by Kevin Ritter an FLW bass pro as well as a member of the Airforce.  Kevin helped me MC the event and showed me around the facility.  After a meet and greet with a few of the Airmen and a chance to welcome their new Commander we had the weigh-ins and award ceremonies.  It was great to see the first and second place winners catch their first keeper salmon ever.  It was also great seeing that these two fish were seperated by only 2/10ths of a pound.  All in all it was a great first year event and one that I hope I will be invited back to year after year.

After seeing the salmon being weighed in and hearing some good reports I had to get out on the water Friday morning.  My son mason and I came through the locks at about  5:30 am and dropped some crab pots before heading to Elliott Bay.  After winding my way around a couple hundred other boats Mason and I decided to head on up to Meadow point.  We kept hearing of fish being caught on the radio but we weren't seeing any action at Meadow Point se we kept heading north up to Jeff Head.  Immediatley we felt better about our chances as we didn't see the crowds that we had seen in Elliott and unlike Meadow we were marking bait. 

We had made a bet on who would catch the bigger fish and after Mason boated a 3# pink he started with the smack talk as he didn't think the old man would come home with anything.  Shortly after giving him a warning and telling him we still had a lot of fishing left my rod went off.  I could tell immediatley that it was a good fish.  I was excited because it was my first fish on my new Featha Stix True Hero downrigger rod.  Both the fish and the rod performed and after a 15 minute battle I was rewarded with a fiesty 20 lber.  After boating that fish I decided that maybe we didn't have much time left to fish and we headed to pull some crab pots.  Sometimes it's good to be DAD!!