WOW!
Several months ago, I was contacted by a gentleman (Charlie Smith) whom my son-in-law works with, in regards to helping out in any fashion I would be comfortable with, at a Wounded Warriors Fundraising event on Skiatook Lake in April! In response to Charlie’s request, I volunteered to donate a guided trip for 4 on either Skiatook or Keystone Lakes and offered myself with boat for use on the day of the fundraiser. All I can say is I was blessed beyond measure in doing so!!
Charlie teamed me up with a family group! A very fun family group that would have otherwise been stuck fishing from the docks at CrossTimbers Marina, Team Blair!! The senior member of the team was Tom Blair, a 93 yr old wheelchair bound WWII Veteran who was no stranger to haulin in fish! Tom’s son Bob (age unknown) and Bob’s son Robert, a two (2) tour Iraq War veteran!! Needless to say, there was a lot of good ole’fashion” family smack talkin going on throughout the day, but even better a whole lot of good ole’fashion fish CATCHING going on to boot!
Our day didn’t start until shortly after 9:00 A.M., but that was just fine as the first rule of the fundraiser was to have fun. The fundraiser was in part, a multi species fishing tournament, followed by a fish fry followed by raffle drawings and weigh-in wasn’t until 4:00 P.M. so there was no need to rush! Shortly after stopping to try one spot, I got a call from a fishing friend on the water who said “if your not on biting fish right now, GET OVER HERE NOW, so we did! Didn’t take but a few moments go get hooked up on the first of many, hard fighting, rod bending, line stretching Hybrid, and the first one to hook up was (you guessed it) Tom!! Just to watch him as he fought the fish almost brought a tear to my eyes as I saw him just “light up” with a broad beamed smile, and watch his chest puff out as he turned to Bob and Robert and declared “I got the first one, TOLD YA!!
I’ve already made a book out of this report (didn’t mean to) so I”ll make the rest short! No problem catching them a full legal limit (overs & unders)! They took Big Fish trophy and Most Fish Trophy and took home two stuffed one gallon zip lock bags of fillets!
Wonderful day, wonderful people, wonderful organization and a special thanks to CrossTimbers Marine for hosting the event and helping out every way they did! Again, I didn’t do a very good job of taking pics as I got pretty busy netting fish, re-baiting etc, but I’ve go some pics coming and will get them posted as soon as I do!
Thank You Tom, Bob & Robert Blair!! You made me proud to have had you in my boat and look forward to the next opportunity!!
Tight Lines
Steve
AFTCO
Power-Pole