Another Memorable Weekend on the Water with Dad

By Ryan Brown

Northwest Bass Pro Staff Writer

As some of you may or may not know, my dad and I spend a lot of time on the water fishing for fun as well as competitively. 

 The 2008 local bass tournament season was coming to end and I think both my dad and I were pretty anxious for the N.W. Bass Championship in Tri-Cities.

 The fall season on the Columbia has been very productive for a lot of anglers, but the last couple of years my dad and I have done rather well at times.  Unfortunately the majority of these great days have come on days we were fun fishing, and just getting away from the weekly grind we all face Monday thru Friday.  Still great memories though.

 Day One of the NW Bass Championship was definitely one to remember.  The day started out like any other, but within a few hours of blast-off things began to develop into one of the nasty weather days we all dread on the Columbia River system.  By 10:00am the wind gusts were hitting 30-35 miles an hour, when the forecast the night before was saying 10-12 mph.  For some reason that seems to happen a lot in the Tri-Cities area.  Fortunately we ran up river that morning and had started heading back down shortly after the winds began to increase.  Obviously we weren’t putting together  a very good bag of fish.  As the day went on we joked about the non-existent game plan we had, and began to discuss some of our more memorable days we have had on that stretch of river.  One day in particular was approx one year earlier when my dad, Don Hogue (brother-in-law) and I were fishing the upper part of the river and I caught a 7.2lb smallmouth.  We weren’t exactly fighting the winds that day, but it was bitter cold.  We continued to laugh and joke, and really not put a lot of effort in running up and down the river fighting the wind.  The nice thing about this was I don’t think either of us really cared.  We managed to put together a 9lb sack of fish that was a little disappointing, but we knew we had plenty of spots to check on day 2 if the weather cooperated.

 Day Two was a completely different day.  On day one we entered a little bay just off the main river and I notice two huge (5+lbers) Largemouth’s cruising the weeds in gin clear water.  The amazing thing is they didn’t seem to even care we were there.  On the second day of the tournament I thought we may as well start there and see if we could, one find those fish, and two get them to bite.  Well that never happened.  So after completely striking out on these largemouth, that were acting like spawning fish, we headed out for our good weather milk run.  Little did we know, just like a lot of times out fishing, that the next spot was going to change everything.  We finished day one in 29^th place and we joked that same day about making a huge comeback to win this event.  Well that didn’t happen either, but we came damn close to doing just that.  The next spot we pulled up on Willy (dad) caught about a 2.5lb smallie, and then it was on.  We continued to swap catches for about the next two hours, one right after another.  Little did I know at the time that the 7.2lb fish I had caught almost one year ago, and had reproduced by Dave Campbell (the fish artist) would be out done.  At approximately the same time my dad and I called for the net, we continued to look at each other and question who had the bigger fish and who was going to drop their rod and net.  I would yell out “how big is your fish” and dad would yell back “how big is your fish.”  As we continued to argue on who was going to net, I noticed my fish was heading straight out to the main river, and peeling off line like a carp or salmon.  The head shakes had stopped and this fish was really moving out to the main river.  At that time I knew that this was a very large fish, but wasn’t quite sure it was a smallmouth.  Fortunately it was, and then I really yelled for the net.  Running to the front of the boat I could see the look in my dad’s eyes when he saw this golden/brown football swimming along side the boat.  Neither of us could believe what we were seeing, but we knew we needed this fish in the live-well.  After catching our breath, and stopping with the high fives, all talking/conversations ceased.  We didn’t weigh the fish and the competitive spirit took over.  For roughly another hour we managed to put together an 18+lb bag of fish.  Still not knowing exactly what the big smallmouth weighed we made short runs to different spots, and then headed to the weigh-in at 4:00pm. 

 Pulling into the marina and tying up the boat, the dock talk for the remaining teams began.  The teams that finished strong on day one were waiting to weigh their bags, and it looked like it was going to be a shoot-out.  I went over to Paul and Jarrett to see how they had done.  Paul and Jarrett had an amazing year tournament fishing, and their day one weight was right there to win this event.  After talking to Paul about his bag, he asked Dad and I how we did.  We proceeded to tell him that we had a pretty good bag and one that might go 6-7lbs.  Standing there in dis-belief that news spread rather quickly.  Stepping up to the scales the tournament MC knew about this fish.  He asked if we thought the fish would go 7lbs, and dad and I said maybe but probably high 6’s.  Wrong, this fish tipped the scale at 7.88lbs and took the big fish trophy for the event.  Happily we finished in 5^th place, and left this event with probably one of the best memories a dad and son could ever hope for.

 I have been very fortunate to have a dad like mine.  We have had hundreds if not thousands of these types of days together.  Not just fishing, but playing ball, going to games, traveling, working, spending time with family, and last but not least just spending the time together.

 I just hope that I can create this many memories with my kids, and maybe just maybe they will admire me as much as I admire my dad.  Thanks again Dad.