Back in 2004 my wife passed away from cancer and 2 weeks later my Dad passed away from old age, sad times for sure. Since we were both alone, so to speak, I moved in with my mother, Anna Marie Mauk, so we could help each other during these times. Mom and Dad had a tri-hull fishing boat, so we started fishing around Brewster, and that was about the year they opened the King Salmon Season here on the upper Columbia River.

We started going on fishing trips and enjoying the beautiful Columbia River. We would get up at dark-thirty, launch out of the Brewster Boat Launch and cruise out to the middle of the Brewster Pool. When we got to our fishing hole, we would have to mess around getting poles ready to go fishing. Mom was very impatient - a trait most all of the Mauk family has - and just wanted to fish. We knew there had to be a way to have our poles ready to go so we weren’t fumbling with it in the dark on the boat.