Sunday, January 11, 2009

Tricky Dick

Tricky Dick was my best buddies Dad and a friend of mine. Unfortunately, he's gone now. I miss him and I know his son Brian does too. He was his best friend as well as his Father.

His son is my hunting partner, "HeyMan Brian" because he's not the same as my other buddy from Chico "Brian". He addresses everyone he knows as "Hey Man". My other buddy Ken was like, "don't let him know we call him "Heyman". But when I told "Heyman" he was like, "right on, I'm Heyman". He named his old boat, "The Heyman". He would've named his new boat, "The Heyman II" but we all know that it's bad luck to rename a boat.

Anyways, "The Big Dick" as he was affectionately known, was the nicest guy you'll ever meet. Whenever he came up to hunt with Heyman from his home on a golf course in SoCal, he would want to know how everything was going. "Cliffy", he would say with his deep vibrato, "how the hell are you?" I remember when we went dove hunting last fall and we reverted to "poaching" birds off the power lines somewhere near Chico. Everyone took a turn knocking them down. When it was my turn, I missed twice. "Cliffy", he said, "don't you know? When you're poaching, (everyone waited for his words of wisdom) YOU ONLY GET ONE SHOT!" I know somewhere he's still laughing about that one.

The Big Dick (another one of his many pseudonyms) also had a unique way of reeling in salmon. Apparently (I only heard about it on the next trip out) he liked to reel in his catch from a seated position. The entire week after their trip, Pattyo kept teasing Heyman about Tricky Dick's fish fighting tactics. We all had a good laugh.
The following weekend found us out trolling all day near Duxberry when Heyman got a bite. It was one of those rare times that I told him his rod was going off and then patiently waited for him to make a move (usually I just grab it while he threatens to kill me). It took a second for him to realize that 1)I wasn't going to try and reel in his fish and 2) this was the only bite all day. He lunged for his rod con mucho gusto, knowing I would snatch it if he hesitated. The boat sorta rocked as he flew across the deck and he ended up slamming on the floor of his boat in a seated position, fighting that fish (which ended up making up for a slow day at 30 lbs.) nearly the entire time from a seated position. Like Father like Son.

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