So anyways…Took my youngest little Deerdragger to the Second Annual Phil Windorski Youth Fishing Tournament on Saturday in Grand Rapids. (Windorski was a helicopter pilot who was KIA in 2009.)
Jacob (age 8) and I hit the ice and he started pulling small perch and silver-dollar-sized sunnies right at the start. Total weight of all fish caught by each kid was what determined the tournament ranking (1st, 2nd & 3rd prizes awarded).
It was a nice day on the ice, and they did a great job of organizing it. Plenty of sponsors, and Jakes was thrilled by the contents of his door prize bag. Oh, and he won a ice rod/reel combo in a random drawing.
Anyways…he fished and fished, and kept catching a few fish here and there. We’d take them to the weigh station every half hour or so…and with about an hour to go, we looked (for the first time) at the leader board. He was in first place! By a pretty significant margin, even. Wow.
We returned to the Frabill trying to hide our smiles. He only caught one more fish in the last hour, and we saw several other kids bringing fish in to be weighed. Resigned to the reality that his lead would certainly have been demolished, we continued to chat and talk about what a great day it had been. Spirits were high.
The horn blew, and we walked over to see who was going home with the big prizes…with no thoughts of being even close to the lead. Holy Cow! He took second place! And what did he win? A Vexilar FL8 Genz Pack!
He’s 8 years old! I didn’t have my first flasher until I was like 30 years old. And it was used.
He was elated. I was elated. And his older brother (who missed the even because he had a B-Ball tourny at the same time) shared in his excitement. The fact that he wasn’t jealous made me as proud of him as I was of Jacob.
Just wanted to share…It was a great day and I’m a proud dad. 
