Wounded Warrior
Had the pleasure and honor to participate in the Hero on the Bay event, Saturday 4 Oct 08. I had support from my slip mate, Michael Sanborn.
We were assigned 83 year old Hank, a World War II and Korean War veteran. There are not too many WWII vets left out there and it was my honor to provide a day of fishing from him and his daughter Karen.
We ran to the 3rd island with perfect conditions, flat seas, bright sunny skies, warm temps. Perfect conditions to take him fishing. Arrived at slack tide. I had 20 live spot and we tried drifting the tubes of the 3rd and 4th with the live spot hoping for stripers on opening day. We did see a few boated around us but all we managed were bluefish.
We put some cut squid and out and had a steady pullage of bluefish, seabass, and croaker. Even got a cute pufferfish.
Caught a dozen or so 10-11 inch sea bass but did manage 2 keepers at 12 and 12 1/2 inches for their dinner.
On the way back we spotted some working birds and made some casts hoping for some striper but again, bluefish feeding. They wanted to keep the bluefish so we brought back the 2 sea bass, some croaker, and several of the good sized bluefish for their dinner.
Great day on the water. We simply cannot do enough to honor our wounded veterans. The team of organizers did an absolute first class job at organizing this event considering it went from concept to reality in a few short weeks. I know they spent countless (unpaid) hours putting this together and the results were simply outstanding. I do believe that a day on the water is about the best therapy that anyone could possibly receive.
Special thanks to Michael Sanborn (whose middle name is ironically Avery) for mating for me and making it a special day for this wounded warrior.
Look forward to doing it again next year.
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