~Captain Dirk Reich~ At the OV in Islamorada, October 28, 2014, Community Event of love, precious memories and appreciation. Juanita Cunningham: He is so wonderful and I love him so much. I am so glad that I am here to take care of him. I will always remember fishing with him. We grew up together. My brother wouldnt let us date until I got older. He finally told Dirk he could start dating me about 5 years ago. Hes been one of my best friends forever. Hes a genius out on the water. Im not so sure about on land. Dirk: I really had a good time at the OV the other day. I was so tired, but, I hated to leave. I wanted to stay all night with my old friends and I felt so special. Im fighting this thing, dont give up on me yet! Helen and Dave took such good care of me down in Islamorada and now Juanita is taking good care of me in Key Largo. Man, Im lucky to have such good friends. Dave Morrison: Between Dirk and me weve got a 100 years out there fishing. We met down at Bud N Marys years ago. We became friends. We grew up and got jobs on charter boats. About 1982 we started working together on the Hammerhead. We started doing sailfish tournaments here in the Keys. We went to the Bahamas and fished the championship over there. We won a lot of tournaments. We were in the Top 10 Anglers for 10 years. After that we went out on our own for a while. I went up to the Panhandle and fished about twenty years and came home 4 years ago. I hooked up with Dirk again and we started fishing again. Been fishing together since I got back until he got sick. We were over in Bimini fishing on a boat owned by Phoenix Yachts on a test boat, fishing for blue marlin. The owners wife was our angler. On the first day out we hooked up a 1,000 pound blue marlin. She fought him for 4 hours and the fish stayed right on top, so I told her if Dirk backed the boat up toward the fish, you could just muster your strength and keep turning til we get to the leader and Ill gaff him and get him in the boat. I got the leader in my hands, Dirk put the boat in neutral, I put my knees under the covering board, the fish took off, I went backwards into the bulkhead and knocked myself out. Our fish was gone. But, he weighed a 1,000 pounds at least. I swear. Me and Dirk and Bartow Rainy were fishing at the Big Game Club on North Bimini. Bartow told us there was a couple of containers of Cool Seal below deck, so we ended up working on Bartows house instead of partying with everyone else before the tournament. At the Kick-off banquet for the tournament we wore sandwich signs Painters Union 420, Bartow Rainey, Unfair. Bartow was not too happy. Dirk is the kind of guy that everyone in town loves. He never did one single mean thing to anybody. All he ever wanted to do was laugh, have fun and catch fish. Hes priceless, unforgettable and irreplaceable.
Posted on: Thu, 30 Oct 2014 16:39:40 +0000
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