2nd Annual Bass Yakin' Classic! Benfiting H.O.W. Portland!

Thank you again to the great folks at NA for putting on such a wonderful event.

We started the day at the mouth of the Tualatin hoping for a coho to start the day and a bass to end it. It was not in the cards and I only heard of the one jack that waterman caught. We decided to head upriver to try our luck at some bass
It was windy.... 

No bites on the mile or so troll upriver. I tried the center channel of the islands also with no luck. The dog was getting bored..

Until she found some ducks to play with 

After trying that area for another couple of hours we decided to pack it up and head down below the falls.
Back on the water we ran into last year's champ Rawkfish and stopped to chat for a moment.

Convinced that none of us could catch a bass if our lives depended on it we switched over for some sturgeon action. Our Vet Pete looked ready for some action

Wobbler dropped anchor and started warming up the hole,

Eventually we got Pete into his first ever Sturgeon, first fish from a kayak, and first fish landed by a PDX HOW.





Mission accomplished   

Jake,

Again, I want to express our gratitude for your generous donation to HOW and all the great publicity your event generated for us. And thanks to all the Next Adventure team that made this possible as well as the Portland HOW team who spent the entire day working hard to make Pete's experience a positive and productive one.

And a special thanks to  Dino and Dulce for making the long trek to support us, that's team spirit!

You can mail the check to:

Heroes on the Water
101-C North Greenville Ave. #55
Allen, TX 75002-2200

Make sure to note that this is for the Portland Chapter.

We also got $23 in the collection jar, I'll be forwarding that as well.

Pete has expressed his joy and appreciation for the chance to get on the water with us and is spreading the word far and wide!

H

Here's the note I received from our Hero Pete. HOW National has expressed a desire to get his personal story for their newsletter (he's a 10 year Army Vet who was a Scout Chopper Pilot who served in Desert Storm).

Hi Aytch,

I want to express my heartfelt thanks for a really fantastic day on the river with you and the rest of the guys from Heroes on the Water (HOW).  I've been telling anybody and everybody what a fun time I had and how helpful everyone was.  Between you, Steve, Noah and Jeff I felt like I didn't had to worry about a thing the whole day.  Also, many thanks to Next Adventure for the cool swag, the BBQ at the end of the day and for their support of HOW.

I also want to thank you for taking on HOW in the Portland area and giving veterans like myself the opportunity to do something uniquely fun and interesting.  Not all wounds are visible on the outside.  What you are doing provides a low stress environment full of healthy distractions which helps with healing of our minds and hearts.  Sure, I was tired and sore the next day but that was a small price to pay for all the good that came from being out on the water with a great bunch of guys that let me put my worries aside for a day.  There is no way to put a price on the sort of healing that comes from that.

You can be sure I will spread the word about HOW the best I am able.  I certainly will support your efforts in any way that I can.

I look forward to going fishing again in the near future!

Thank you again. 

Pete