CATHLAMET, Wash. — Just how big is a Chinook salmon? How do you catch one, and what do you use to catch it? Those questions may echo across the lower Columbia River during the second annual Warriors and Widows Salmon Derby.

Most of the derby participants are from other parts of the U.S. and have never seen, much less caught, a big fish like a Chinook salmon.

The special event, held Aug. 29 and 30 at the Elochoman Slough Marina in Cathlamet, is for soldiers who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and are now in the Warrior Transition Battalion at Madigan Army Medical Center at the Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington. Wives and children of soldiers who were killed in the Middle East will also participate in the derby.

“This year we expect 56 salmon derby participants, dozens of boats and community volunteers to be involved in the two-day event,” said Bob Roche, derby coordinator.

Event sponsor and volunteer Jeff Mason is used to providing fishing experiences to military personnel; his nonprofit Fish’n Trips For Heroes offers free salmon or steelhead fishing trips for veterans in southwest Washington. “While there are programs like mine that take individual soldiers fishing — usually one or two at a time — to our knowledge Cathlamet, Washington, is the only community in the nation that has organized a large-scale salmon derby specifically for warriors and widows and really engaged the community in the event,” Mason said.

Twenty-seven local anglers will provide their boats, equipment and expertise to help the warriors, widows and children succeed in catching a salmon. Just as participants compete for prizes, there is also a friendly competition among boat captains and anglers — they’re already polishing their lures and closely guarding information on where they’ll cast their lines.

As derby participants climb aboard boats in the early morning, they may mutter that anglers are crazy to get up so early just to go fishing. But soon they’ll learn what local fishermen know: the importance of fishing the tides on the lower Columbia. And if they catch one of the big Chinooks, they too will be hooked on fishing — even at dawn.

The boats will return to the marina in the late morning; all fish must be weighed by 1 p.m. Then follows pictures, catch cleaning and bragging rights. Participants will be treated to a salmon and oyster barbecue prepared by volunteers. A 3 p.m. awards ceremony will present prizes to the derby participants before they return to the joint base.

A new dimension to this year’s Warriors and Widows Salmon Derby involves two southwest Washington residents, John Doumit and Bud Mickelsen. Several years ago, the two teamed up to teach Wahkiakum High School students the art and skill of building fishing rods. Mickelsen had been building rods as a hobby for 60 years, and Doumit was the vocational agriculture teacher.

“The class just took off,” Doumit recalled. “Within 10 minutes I knew we had a winner on our hands.”

The two went on to teach others, and last year’s salmon derby got them thinking about taking their rod building experience to a new level: What if soldiers and veterans learned to build rods, taught other soldiers and veterans, and became interested in fishing?

In March, Doumit, Mickelsen and other local rod craftsmen taught a fishing rod therapy class to several veterans from Joint Base Lewis-McChord and military family members, and the classes have continued. About 25 to 30 fishing rods have been completed, and more are on their way.

“We have five active instructors and a permanent classroom that is near the joint base,” Mason said. “The fishing rod therapy classes began in Cathlamet, where it seems to be part of the community DNA to build and create something good. Now that DNA is being replicated in other parts of the state and benefiting soldiers, veterans and their families.”

One student in the March class, 13-year-old Brian Trujillo, lost his father, Spc. Ryan Adriaansen, in 2014. Trujillo has taken up building fishing rods and will attend this year’s derby as a participant and volunteer with his mother, Catherine Trujillo-Adriaansen, who is president of the Tahoma Chapter of the Gold Star Wives of America.

Trujillo and other volunteers will demonstrate fishing rod building during the Warrior and Widows Salmon Derby. The public is invited to attend the demonstrations, which will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Aug. 30 at the Elochoman Slough Marina.

The salmon derby is sponsored by Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5297 and its auxiliary, American Legion Post 111, and Fish’n Trips For Heroes.