Mark Hewkin was a whisperer of smallmouth bass. He and Dave Davis won the Sturgeon Bay Open four times, the first three matching the second championship run of the Bulls and a final time in 2007.
“If you actually look at it, he did the same thing in the Michigan BFL,” his son Jeramie said. “He knew how to catch smallmouth, 100 percent. It was amazing.”
That comes from a son who both partnered with and competed against his father. Take 2001 when Jeramie and his father finished 1-2 in a BFL event out of Grand River in Michigan. Jeramie won with 15 pounds, 14 ounces; his dad had 13-1.
“We were both going to the same place and I got out there before him,” Jeramie remembers.
He weighed in early, then walked back to his dad.
“I said, `Some a------ is leading with 16 pounds,’ “ Jeramie said. “Then he asked, `How much did you weigh?’ I said, `16 pounds.’
“He looked right at me and said, `You #@#@#@#.’ At the time, he probably weighed 300-340 pounds. I picked him up and shook him. I picked up everything from him. We did everything together.”
Donald Mark Hewkin, 64, of Zion, died of a heart attack on Oct. 14, found beside his running truck on Route 41 after an hours-long search.
Among those searching was Greg Dickson, owner of Triangle Sports and Marine in Antioch. He fished with and against Mr. Hewkin, as far as Sturgeon Bay, Detroit River and Lake St. Clair.
Asked to explain Mr. Hewkin’s skill, Dickson said, “There’s a monster question. Let me put it to you this way. If all of a sudden grocery stores ran out of food and you needed to find food for your families, this is the guy you would want.
“He seriously had such a connection with Mother Nature and the habits of things, different animals, including fish. He understand migrations, spawning and how to get them to bite. He had a tremendous amount of fishing experience but also he had an uncanny ability to put it all together to trick them. @#@@#@ sick how good this guy was, one of the finest fisherman anywhere. You would be hard pressed to find anybody with more natural ability.”
Truly an outdoorsman.
“He went to Alaska eight times, and once got horned by a moose and survived,” Jeramie said. “He was on [The Jonathon Brandmeier Show]. He loved to hunt and fish.”
And he loved jig fishing. Gitzit even made special tubes, known as the Hewkie, of smoke with black, copper and silver flecks by the thousands for him.
Dickson summed up with a story, saying, “When he showed up, he was the guy to beat. The first time we went to the Detroit River, we took my boat. When we pulled into the parking lot, he got out to register. The guy parked next to me, asked, `You come with that guy?’ When I said, `Yeah,’ he put his head down, shook it and said, `I was hoping that sonnabitch had stayed home.’ “
Illinois hunting
Friday, June 30, is the final day to apply for free dove hunting permits.
Wild things
Fireflies are here.
Stray cast
If both the Sox and Cubs make the playoffs, one group of four wins an October charter for kings on me.
