By DAVE HURLEY
PITTSBURG — Sometimes a great story just happens, and this week featured one of those times that make you happy to be alive. Young Donoven Bowen of Sonora has to be hooked up to life support every evening in order to stay breathing, and his dream has been to land a slot-limit sturgeon. Donoven’s father and mother made arrangements to help him achieve his dream with Mitchell on Tuesday, but the winds were not cooperative with gusts up to 40 miles per hour on the Delta.
Jeanne Bowen, Donoven’s mother, said, “Our son’s dream was to catch a slot sturgeon, and although he has many health challenges, but it has never it dimmed his love of fishing. He started following Captain Steve Mitchell over a year ago, and he was always so excited to see the success each trip! He would share with everyone at his hospitals about the “Captain Steve fishing report”. Finally, it was his turn.”
Fortunately, Mitchell was open the following day, and they stayed over in the hotel one more night in order to fish on Wednesday. Mitchell said, “We arranged to start at 11:00 a.m. in order to take advantage of the outgoing tide. After they arrived, we started off the day with a prayer since Donoven was worried about both the wind and his ability to actually fight a sturgeon due to his endurance. He was still recovering from heart surgery in December, and according to his parents, he has exceeded his life expectancy by seven years already. It was just one of those days when everything just fell into place like it was meant to be as we arrived even before the tide turned, and I went looking for fish and found what I was looking for. Within 10 minutes of setting up at the top of the incoming tide, Donoven was on the hook with his first legal sturgeon. It was like a boxing match since Donoven got to fight three rounds with sturgeon, and after each round, he went downstairs for a procedure before coming back up to the deck. In 40 minutes, Donoven got to fight his sturgeon, his mother’s, and his father’s, and they came in at 44.75-inches, 47, and 47.25 inches, and the last fish gave him quite a battle. We could have stayed and landed crew fish, but we decided that it was very hard to improve on this day. Donoven had his dream come true!”
Jeannie Bowen ended with, “What an amazing day!! Captain Steve and deckhand Tone Ruvalcaba went above and beyond to make sure Donoven realized his dream. This was an awesome memory that will forever be cherished. Dreams do come true!”