Wayne Hankins told me I should find “Prime Time” wearing a black Nightmare Fishing hoodie out on the pier.
Stephen Williams was near the end of the pier casting for Chinook during the fourth Slamming Salmon Nightmares Tournament Saturday at Jackson Park.
Clyde Swan did the best catching, winning the belt with a 34-inch Chinook—weighing 14 pounds, 14 ounces—caught late afternoon. That’s no fluke, Swan won the Silver Bass (drum) Tournament for four years, an event that Hankins runs in the summer.
When I asked Williams about “Prime Time,” he said, “When I walk in the house, it’s like Monday Night Football with the Cowboys and Steelers. Fish are good to me. They know their Daddy.”
At least he got one team right.
Hankins, Nightmares founder, made this year’s tournament in memory of two South Side fishing notables: Danilo “Dax” Xhamilton and Sean Buckner.
About Xhamilton, Williams said, “He caught the first salmon of the year, almost every year. He could catch the fish, clean the fish and cook the fish. He could do everything.”
As we walked in the pier, Williams saying, “Dax was the originator of `Walk and Troll.’ He was so tall and he used a 13-foot rod.”
Some North Side anglers might quibble about who originated “Walk and Troll.”
A salmon porpoised on the inside bend of the pier. Rob Washington cast toward it.
“A lot of times when they are here, you can smell them,” Williams said. “Not like sardines, but it is fishy.”
Back to Xhamilton.
“Dax was one of the first to hit salmon on the South Side, Sean was right behind,” Williams said. “When they said, `Dax caught one,’ we knew the season was here.”
Xhamilton was a Renaissance man with an artistic bent. He even modeled in his younger days.
“Dax was a cook, too, he was a profound cook,” Williams said.
It sounded like Jamaican influences were in Xhamilton’s cooking.
I did a story on Xhamilton in 2000 during lead up to the BASS Master Classic in Chicago. He was then steward of Southern Shore Yacht Club on Jackson Park’s inner harbor and offered advice to the bass pros, except they weren’t allowed to receive any information then.
At the time, his biggest fish was a 35-pound Chinook caught off the Jackson Park Bridge.
Washington knew Buckner well. Looking distinctive in full camo over a green Nightmares hoodie with his dreads peeking out, Washington cast at the end of the pier. He had fished for hours and had caught a king (Chinook) near dawn on a glow Moonshine spoon, well before the event started.
He said Sean had patience and watched people, noting “He was always willing to use a new technique. Bass, crappie, whatever, he would think about it, ‘What is the best presentation?’”
When I asked, Washington said he smokes his salmon, using different marinades and alder wood.
Why alder? “It’s a lighter wood and smoother than apple,” he said.
Around noon, anglers filled in the corner of the harbor mouth where Nolan Martin fried french fries and fish fillets, as Rick Ross’ “Big Meech” beat in the background (a younger guy told me the song). Anthony Curry shared chef duties with Martin. Shannie Hankins made two huge pans of spaghetti that were wiped clean quickly.
While I worked on fillets doused in hot sauce on a bed of spaghetti, Larry Powell squatted by me and said, “With the socializing and drinking, I scope out what everyone is using. Right now, everybody is using a crankbaits. there are a couple spoons on the lines of course.”
Powell, who won two of the last three belts, was doing something different, throwing a Blue Fox spinner.
“I applaud what Wayne is doing bringing together the older and younger generations,” Powell said. “Any opportunity we have these days to help the young guys out, it capitalizes in keeping them off the block.”
There’s a seriousness behind this gathering beyond fish, food and friends. Some traditions are life events.
“I’ll trade this for a day of work any time,” Powell said.
Spits of rain dabbed the afternoon.
It was time.
On my way out, I met Jerome Washington, whom I didn’t recognize from the 1990s when he was a hotshot kid in the Chicago Park District fishing program. Like any real fisherman, he pulled out his phone and found the photo of a monster smallmouth bass he caught near Jackson Park.
