Heroes on the Water 20 June

brian.

is that northwest adverntures at american lake or on North Ft. Lewis. if so how do we go about getting permission to be on the base and to get a temp pass for those who dont have base access.

Marilyn

Its the Northwes adventure center.  On the American Lake AND on Noth fort

Oh yeah!! I forgot that we will be having a free BBQ at the lake after fishing.  Please bring a chair or two if you want to hang around but please no alcohol
Brian

cobrakak   you seemed to have a good grip on the lake saturday i think you would make a great guide.

Lookin' forward to this event!  Is there any chance to do any fishing before the orientation meeting?

something to throw out here for you oregon folks that might be interested in helping and dont just want to do do a day trip.

There are several places to camp around there in RV's and i have a back yard big enough for a few tents if some families want to come hang out up in my area also.

So we could do the HOW on saturday and a NWKA on a lake around here on sunday.  i know i know. you oregonians prefer your ocean. but we do have some nice lakes for bass and trout here.

Just my .02 cents

Marilyn

Thanks for everyone jumping in. Brian has a great handle on this. Can't wait to see the pics and read the story. BBQ -- That's sounding pretty tempting!! 

To emphasize a point - NO ALCOHOL. And there are several very good reasons for this.

Ft Lewis and Madigan have a No Alcohol policy. HOW could lose the program if there is alcohol at the outing.

Some of service members that are in the same situation as the folks coming out use the bottle to drown thier sorrows. We don't want to worsen that.

And MOST importantly, some of them are on drugs that do not mix with alcohol. One drink could do some major damage or worse.

We have no idea which soldier may fit in one of these categories, if any.

I wanted to make sure everyone understands. I like a drink as much as most, but we have a very strict no alcohol policy with HOW, mainly because of the last reason. Thanks for understanding.

Jim

Jim Dolan
National Director – Heroes on the Water
Kayak Anglers Society of America
101-C North Greenville Ave. #55
Allen, TX 75002-2200
214-295-4541
http://www.HeroesOnTheWater.org

    ok folks, the suspense is killin me over here... how did things go??     

Everything went really well.  I'm working on a report, but to be honest, I'm gonna get a few chores done and then sit my lazy butt on a couch for a few hours.  Full report pending.  It's still stewing in the brainpan crockpot...... 

First of all i want to thank everyone that volunteered THANK YOU!!  

The first event was great.The soldiers were so excited at the end of the day just to catch a few fish and have a great day on the water. a couple of them this was there first time ever fishing and we have them hooked now.

attatched are some pics and if you want to see more let me know and i can put them in the gallery here.

 These events are a lot of work and I am usually pretty wiped after. Thanks to all the volunteers, Danita, and mainly Brian for making this event happen. I know the soldiers had a blast.

Your partners over in Virginia had a good event also. Here's the newspaper report. Great story, except the reporter got the Wounded Warrior Project confused with the Marine Wounded Warrior Regiment HOW was the sponsor and ran the event. The WWP was not involved.


http://hamptonroads.com/2009/06/wounded-warriors-leave-hospital-hit-water

Again, Thanks to everyone for getting this up and running.  

Jim

Wow what an adventure!! 
Full story to come.  Thank you again to everyone who participated and helped these guys out.
Congratulations to Karl (Yarjammer).  Karl's team won in the the most fish, the biggest fish, and the team with the most points* categories
Karl won a brand new G-Loomis salmon rod (SAPR982C)  and generously decided to let it go for auction on this site with all the proceeds going to the FT. Lewis chapter of H.O.W.   

More to come!
Brian

I had great time and look forward to future events.  The first time is always difficult as you don't quite know what to expect or how to prepare.  Having said that, it went extraordinarily well with a tremendous thumbs up to Brian and everyone else who showed up. 

Considering most of these guys had never paddled and in some cases, never fished, they did very well.  Some of these guys made do with kayaks most of us wouldn't even attempt fishing from and still managed to get some fish.   

BTW... Karl is Noggin Yakker.

'Yak Monkey's Report:

   I had been anticipating this event for months, knowing that it would be an interesting and worthwhile experience.  I kept the upcoming trip in mind every time I went into Joe's while I was picking over the gravesite,  ,always trying to figure out what the soldiers might need.  Then I got smart and decided that there was no way to anticipate those needs until I knew the water we were to fish, and how many of them had fishing gear and knowledge.  So, I changed gears and just planned on making myself available with enough time to do a good pre-fish, enough cash to stock up for several fishermen, enough gear to hand out and to help cobrakak76 however I could.
   I must say that Brian (cobrakak76) really took this project to heart and did a LOT of coordinating that went undisclosed on these forums.  Not only did he coordinate us, as guides, but he was able to communicate with several different agencies within Ft. Lewis, volunteers who donated time and money for the catering of lunch and the BBQ, WDFW for a group fishing license, each and every one of the soldier attendees and their safety certification, as well as some private parties who donated some of the prizes that were given out.  He also came up with a scoring system for a derby that made the day a lot more fun and interesting.  Oh, ya, and he and his family put up with ME while I was there helping out!
   
  I arrived in Lacey on Wed. night and met up with Brian at the Cabela's store.  Nice place, lots of dreamy stuff, a little overpriced.  I should have brought a hankerchief to wipe the drool off my chin.  After grabbing a little bit of gear and chatting about what was known of Lake St. Clair, we headed off to Brian's for a beer and some planning.  The plan was for the two of us to get up early and head over to the lake and get in an early pre-fish, then to head over to the Post to attend the orientation and safety training that was required for the Soldiers.
   The alarm went off in the A.M. and we headed out to the lake.  We found a few bank fishermen already there, which was encouraging. Once we were out on the water, we headed to some of the spots that Brian had previously fished and we went about experimenting.  Squidgirl showed up a little after we were on the water, and she joined us in the research.  The coloration of the water required that we use bright colors, or silver flash to attract attention.  Two tone senko's proved to catch bass in shallow water and near walls and docks, while we found that spinners with silver blades and kastmasters were doing well on the trout troll.  Crawlers under a bobber pulled out some bluegill, perch and small bass as well.  None of the fish seemed to be of exceptional size, but that is typical of WA lakes and especially those that get as much pressure as this lake seems to be accustomed to.
   Once we packed up and got our passes to get on post, we made it to the Adventure Center and commenced with the training. They had a very nice video of kayaking safety, paddling technique, terminology etc. that we all watched.  I believe it was produced as a joint effort by Johnson Outdoors, Paddler Magazine, NRS and maybe a few other prominent kayaking entities.  (If anyone has the title of it, I'd love to know where to get a copy!)  After the video there was some Q&A time as well as some discussion of the difference between the kayaks in the video and the boats we would actually be on.  After the indoor session, we headed down to the small beach at the nearby lake and put our personal kayaks in the water.  This gave the soldiers a chance to paddle around a little bit and become a bit more acquainted with what to expect on Saturday.  It was fun to show the boats to the soldiers and all of them were able to get on board and get a feel for it.  I think all of them enjoyed it and became more relaxed and comfortable with what was ahead for them.  Once that was done, the three of us (myself, Brian and Marilyn) grabbed a bite to eat, after which Brian and I headed back to his place where we spent the evening comparing tackle stashes and getting poles and gear ready for Saturday.
   As Friday was a regular work day, I was free to head off to the lake to do some more pre-fishin'.  Marilyn had expressed an interest in going along, so we decided to meet that morning and to give it another go.  Fortunately we made it an easy morning and showed up at a time more consistent with what would be a realistic start time for the actual event.  There was a little lag in the morning meet-up, but we worked it out and things went well that day.  Marilyn caught several trout, landing most of them, so we were secure in knowing that the trout troll would work out well for folks new to fishing.  I targeted bass for most of the day, with success mostly on smaller, flashy baits.  None of them were of any real size, but they are still fun!  I stayed out until dusk, and was able to stay long enough to see the evening bite pick up.
   It is interesting to note that the bass population of the lake was spread between 3 species.  I was catching largemouth, smallmouth and "rock" bass.  I don't have any pics, but I can say that they had black spots in the center of the scales on the lower half of their sides and down into the light area of the belly.  I believe the pics that have been recently commented on in another post are pics of the same type of fish.
   The day of the event arrived, and we woke up with the sun. We headed down to the lake to get set up, and although it took a few hours to get everything ready, it went very well.  We got everything prepared and we ended up with just enough boats for the attendees.  Soldiers and attendees trickled in, and we had just about everybody in place on time.  We drew names from a hat to divide up into teams and to assign specific soldiers to their respective guides.  Then the job of assigning kayaks to soldiers was accomplished by having them draw numbers. We had to make a few adjustments based on the physical needs of a few of them, but all in all it went well.  Next we started handing out paddles, pfd's fishing rods and jokes.  The overall tone of the morning was quite jovial.  The anticipation was palpable, yet subdued.  The folks that were ready early paddled around a bit before we all rafted up, and wouldn't you know it, one of the ladies actually caught a fish while we waited!  Come to think of it, even before half of the folks arrived one of the guys caught a nice trout right off the boat dock.  All this put a smile on my face, as it was most important to me that everyone have a good time and catch at least a few fish.  Once everyone was ready, we rafted up and reviewed the rules and safety procedures, performed a radio check (all guides had vhf) and counted heads.  Then, a-fishin' we all went!
   The day was divided up into 2 sessions, with a lunch break and score tally after the first session and a nice BBQ and final tally after the second session.  At first, I thought that the fishing sessions were a little on the short side, but I came to realize the logic in it when it became apparent that not all of the soldiers were going to be able to stay out on the water for that kind of duration.  When I think about it now, it was very well timed.
   I would love to be able to provide a play by play of how my group fared, but I'm not sure all of you will have read this far into my uber-long report, let alone what would be here if I related all the details.  Let it suffice to say that everyone had a good time, and we created some kayak fishermen from folks that had never kayaked or fished, let alone both at the same time! My day was spent teaching techniques of several varieties, helping rig up gear, deciding on when to apply what tactics and chasing boats around with my net trying to help them land their fish.  It was a lot of work, but a blast!
   There is one story, however, that I'd like to relate in it's details.  One of the fisherman, who was lucky enough to be able to use Karl's Outback, was a trolling king that day and was the overall points winner of the event.  He also made the most unique catch of the day.  He caught a young goose.  Yes, you read correctly.  A goose.  He had been trolling relatively quickly, and a gaggle of geese swam across his line.  One of the young geese (still all grey with no flight feathers) ran it's foot across his line and the spinner he was trolling got caught in the skin of its foot.  Once this happened, you could hear the shouting clear across the lake!  I was close enough to be able to keep my eyes on my team as well as run over and help him out.  I booked it over (set a new personal speed record on the Adventure) to lend a hand trying to free the goose from the line.  Well, as Murphy's Law dictates, the knot on the lure failed, so now we were chasing a flightless goose with enough age to be fast, no flight ability, but a nice Rooster Tail in it's foot.  Fortunately, by this time we were joined by another of the soldiers and by a local who jumped in his kayak from shore to help out. We started circling the geese in order to try and get a hold of the injured bird, and wouldn't you know it, Murphy got another blow in on our unlucky goose-catching soldier and he had his first huli!  Fortunately, the lake had been chosen very well and the 68 degree water took a lot of the stress out of his re-entry, which went quite well.  He made it back into the Outback on his first attempt.  A few epithets flew around for a few minutes, and we had to gather up a few of his things (fortunately he had a death grip on Karl's pole.) By this time the geese had settled down a bit and had surrounded the wounded bird and were headed back toward shore. We gathered back together and our luck turned positive when the geese decided to run for land.  At first I thought it was a going to be bad, as it would be harder to chase the geese on land, but they actually chose a small beach that had a tall wall.  This allowed us to corral the group into a corner.  Once we had them cornered, one of us used a paddle to very gently separate the wounded bird from the rest and to hold the adults at bay.  You should have heard the hissing and spitting coming from the parents!  The soldier in question was able to get a hold on the young bird without doing it any harm by netting it and picking it up.  He held it against his chest and controlled it's head while another of us was able to hold the injured foot still.  We were then able to pull the spinner free.  It turned out that only one hook from the treble had made it into the skin, and had actually exited the skin on the same side, so the injury was very minor.  No damage done to anything other than skin.  I never realized how tough the foot of a goose was.  So, all in all, it was a most interesting lesson learned for all.
   The rest of the day was eventful in that the fishing was quite a success, but nothing happened that had quite the uniqueness of the goose adventure. To summarize the event, I have to say that it was a grand success!  The forethought was well done, the organization and coordination well timed, the needs of all were met more than adequately, and there was no lack of anything required!  Bravo!

Peronally, I'd willingly do it again, no problem!

Yak great report couldnt of said it better myself. I was shore support for the event and i think it went very well.