LAKE CHARLES, La. — One minute James Holbrook was reeling in a 2-pound bass caught on his first cast of the day. The next minute he had a crankbait and Bassmaster Elite Series pro Dennis Tietje’s face in, uh, an unfortunate place – Holbrook’s crotch.
Blood was spilled, which is nothing new for Holbrook. He survived an AK-47 round to the helmet and suffered shrapnel wounds in his forehead and both knees in 2007, while serving as a Navy Hospital Corpsmen in Afghanistan’s Korangal Valley.
From a distance, it looked as if rabbi Tietje was performing some Bassmaster version of a bris as he went to work on Holbrook’s crotch, where one treble hook was buried in one side of the angler’s pants and one hook was snagged in the other, very near where the inseams meet.
“Hold on, dude,” said Tietje, trying to suppress laughter, as he clipped off the hook barbs with pliers.
The blood (only a bit) came from Holbrook’s hand that got hooked momentarily when he initially tried to remove the crankbait from his pants.
There was no more bloodshed, but the smiles and fish catches continued well into the afternoon Saturday in southwest Louisiana. Holbrook, 29, of San Antonio, Texas, and Tyson Scott, 29, of Houston, Texas, were the first two participants in Elite Series angler Edwin Evers’ “Healing Heroes In Action” campaign. Combined with one of Evers’ major sponsors, OPTIMA Batteries, there will be four more events this season where combat-wounded Purple Heart veterans from the Wounded Warriors In Action (WWIA) Foundation participate.
Combat veterans
In addition to being the same age, Holbrook and Scott are both married and have two young children. Scott, a Marine, was injured four days into an Iraq deployment in 2006 when a 120-millimeter mortar shell landed only a few feet away from him.
“The concussion (of the exploding mortar round) rocked me pretty good, and shrapnel went into my feet and lower legs,” said Scott.
After three surgeries in a Baghdad hospital, Scott eventually rejoined his helicopter avionics unit in Iraq. He retired after 10 years of service.
“My injuries caught up with me,” Scott said.
Holbrook and Tietje caught 72 bass during the day, which included a lunch break. Scott and Evers landed 58, and Scott took home the trophy in this friendly tournament format for biggest bag of the day. The three-bass limit included each veteran’s two biggest bass, plus one from each pro. Scott and Evers had 12 pounds, 7 ounces; Holbrook and Tietje’s total was 11-3.
“This was a world-class experience for me, just all of it,” said Scott, when asked to describe the highlight of his day. “It’s pretty overwhelming.”
The anglers stayed at Grosse Savanne Lodge the night before the tournament and fished at Grosse Savanne’s 484-acre manmade Miller’s Lake. Both veterans had prior fishing experience, but not a lot in the specialized version of pro bass fishing. Both started the day using spinning gear and ended it by catching bass on baitcasting combos, after some instruction from the pros.
“This is something I’ve been working on with OPTIMA for two years,” Evers said. “It’s a chance to give back, say thank you, raise awareness and hopefully raise some money for veterans who have served our country. Plus it’s a way to introduce them to something they’ve never done before.”
Evers clearly enjoyed doing it. About 11 a.m., he looked around at the islands of aquatic vegetation in Miller’s Lake and said, “This looks like flippin’ paradise, doesn’t it?”
He was referring to the bass fishing method. Evers and Scott had already caught 22 bass, all of them on bladed jigs. Evers switched to flipping a jig with a soft plastic trailer and promptly landed No. 23. Then Scott landed No. 24 on a bladed jig – a 3 1/2-pounder. Evers flipped up No. 25. All three catches came within five minutes.
“I’m having fun, dude. I hope you are,” Evers said. Scott confirmed that he was most definitely having fun, and Evers added, “It means a lot to me for you to be here.”
Changing plans
Evers had to do some ad-libbing with the format last weekend. It originally consisted of a bidding process to determine who would bring a friend here to compete against Evers and a WWIA participant. Jimbo Taylor of Oklahoma City won the auction with a $2,000 bid. But Taylor mistakenly thought it was for a later date and had previously scheduled a skiing trip this weekend.
“I’m going to take (Taylor) to Grand Lake the week after the Sabine River (Elite Series tournament),” Evers said. “He’s going to get a nice prize package too.”
There was nothing wrong with this format-on-the-fly, aided by Tietje, who lives nearby in Roanoke, La. It allowed two WWIA members to participate instead of just one.
Evers also assembled a generous package of fishing gear for the veterans to take home, including a Wild River backpack loaded with accessories, like a solar electronics charger.
“I can’t wait to show that off,” said Holbrook. “Getting this free stuff means a lot. The last time I fished was probably a year ago. But I learned more today than I have in a lifetime of fishing. With this experience and the equipment I’m getting, it makes me want to fish more.”
Both Scott and Holbrook have been on previous WWIA trips and have encouraged other wounded veterans to do the same. But that’s not always easy to do. Holbrook still suffers from anxiety related to post traumatic shock syndrome (PTSD).
“(PTSD) is why a lot of veterans either won’t go on these trips or they’ll back out at the last minute,” Holbrook said. “The anxiety begins with a fear of the unknown, when things get out of routine. There were times I questioned myself on this trip.”
All the questions seemed to have been answered by the end of this day, thanks primarily to Evers. It was a few years ago, during an Elite Series All-Star event, when this idea was born. That’s when Evers first spent a day on the water with a veteran who had been injured in the Middle East wars.
“I can’t put into words the way I felt after that day,” Evers said. “It was just a really cool experience.”
That also seemed to be the way everyone felt Saturday at Miller’s Lake.
“Every Wounded Warrior needs to come on one of these trips,” said Holbrook after the 3 p.m. weigh-in. “You guys did a great job for us.”
For more information on Evers’ and OPTIMA’s “Healing Heroes in Action Tour,” see Evers’ Facebook page.