Father's Day Mexico 08

[Rich D]

I had the pleasure of fishing with Chris, his brother Mark,who has just returned from Iraq after his third tour, and their father Joe. I meet Chris last year when he brought his friend Matt and Johnny Linde out on the boat for some trout and salmon fishing out of Henderson. Johnny was being deployed in the fall so I made it so that he was up for the first fish. Well Johnny got his biggest fish of his life, a nice slob laker around 14lbs. Well as some of you know Johnny was killed last year in Iraq. I told Chris that I would take him or any of his friends out that were serving our country. He called me a week ago and told me his brother just returned and wondered if I could take his brother and his dad out also. I said no problem, so we made Father's Day our trip. We setup in the area I did a couple of fish the day before, 2 riggers 2 weighted flatlines and a couple of lead cores. I felt Johnny riding with us, Mark was up to bat first, the full core fires off with a sweet 8 lb brown, the smiles have started. Set back up a little while later the 3 color core with weight fires and Joe(dad) is up, and he lands a nice 6lb brown. So now it is Chris's turn, he is telling us he going to get a big smallmouth, lol. Well one of the weighted flatlines fires with a nice fish, after a few minutes he brings a sweet 7.5lb brown to the net. Pressure is off now, 3 in the box, so we just enjoyed the rest of morning. One of the weighted flatlines fires off the board, Mark is up, grabs the rod, 30 seconds later, the other weighted flatline off the other board fires, Chris grabs the rod. We are locked with the first double of the year. Mark gets a nice 6 lber, and Chris lands a colored up 5 lber. We missed one fish off the Flatline, it was a great day. The fish came on a Glow froggy NK, Dirty White boy stinger, and a orange crush Pro King. Lots of bait and fish in the area, sounds like most did well, heard a few kings taken this weekend also.

I want to Thank all of our service men and women for protecting our country to allow us to enjoy the life we live. We may think we have it bad sometimes, but it is nothing like what they go through while they are stationed out of this wonderful country. Thanks Mark and Chris.

Chris will be deploying to Iraq again this fall, wish you did not have to go buddy, just get back here safe and sound so we can fish again. It was a pleasure to fish with you, your brother and your dad, you guys are welcome any time.

Good Luck, get out there and have some fun. Sorry for the long post, but I really appreciate what these guys do.

Rich

Here are a couple pics from the trip:

Mark's first brown of the trip:

Here is a pic of the boys with the double:

Here is the crew, Chris, Joe, and Mark:

[muskybob]

Great report Rich. Nice pics too. I'm really glad they caught the fish they did. I'm sure Johnny had a part in that.

[InTheBox]

Nice job Rich.

[Tank]

Rich, very cool and very sad. Thanks for sharing. Tank

[jobena]

Great post. Very very nice. What a great Father's Day Dad had. I echo what you say about our armed forces. Thanks as well.

[Russ]

I appreciate you taking the guys fishing! I'm in John Linde's unit here at Ft. Drum and we all appreciate the great support from everyone in the North Country. I didn't know John but did attend his funeral to represent all our Soldiers still in Iraq - he was definitely an awesome man!

Thanks again, Tight Lines!