In the 1950s, a father and son steered their gill net fishing boats from the open waters of Puget Sound, through the eddies and whirlpools of Whidbey Island’s Deception Pass, to their home in the more protected waters of Cornet Bay.

To young Arnie Deckwa, fishing with his father was the only life he knew. He didn’t wonder at the fact that his parents let he and his friends man their own small boats throughout the bay, camp weekends on some of the little islands throughout the area, or let him take charge of a commercial fishing boat at 14-years-old.

To Deckwa, his idea of an extraordinary life consisted of becoming a cowboy and singing at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tenn. The young Deckwa dreamed large and of places far away from his quiet island bay, but he said he could never have imagined the road in store for him, and how it would bring him back to his family’s home, boats and fisherman heritage on Whidbey Island.

Deckwa would return to the island as a cowboy, musician and successful businessman, with his own Cornet Bay Company line of seafood dips, dressings, spreads, sauces, seasonings and canned smoked salmon, which he will soon market in Oak Harbor.

Life as a fisherman’s son

Deckwa said his family was one of the three first families to settle in the Cornet Bay area. His parents, Oliver and Rena Deckwa, started their family in a small log home on Cornet Bay and worked the land and sea.

Deckwa’s father was a boat builder and commercial fisherman, and Deckwa said some of his earliest memories are of boats and fishing with his father.

“From the time I was old enough to walk, I was fishing with my dad,” he said. “You just learn it.”

Deckwa has many memories of fishing all night with his father. He has stories of thunder storms, when he thought his father fell overboard; falling asleep at the wheel, while his father stayed awake all night picking dog fish out of their nets; and watching the red eyes of the hundreds of fish they caught.

At 14, Deckwa said his father put him in charge of his own boat, and he joined the other local men who fished to feed their families and earn a living.

“It was a life that I had no idea was so magnificent,” he said.

At this time, Deckwa saw seafood and salmon as part of his common diet, he had no idea they would become the main ingredients in his gourmet line.

The singing salmon man

In January 1987, after living on Whidbey Island for 45 years and working as a building contractor, a deputy sheriff for Island County and a touring musician, as well as starting a family and helping out with local rodeos, Deckwa found himself at a crossroad in life.

Finally, he decided to head south and fulfill his longtime dream of becoming a southern cowboy and country musician. He packed his belongings and moved to Nashville, Tenn. to try his luck at the Grand Ole Opry.

Deckwa said it wasn’t easy trying to make it in the music industry at 45, even though he claims he only looked 30-years-old. He said sometimes money was scarce and food scarcer. He said he remembers eating popcorn for a week, because that was all he had in his apartment.

When food became evasive, Deckwa’s said he looked forward to his mother’s packages of smoked salmon.

Deckwa said one day he shared some of his smoked salmon with a friend from the Grand Ole Opry, and that set into motion the events which would eventually birth the Cornet Bay Company and the renown that dubbed Deckwa the “Singing Salmon Man.”

“I brought smoked salmon down … to give to my bud Brent Burkett, as the story goes,” Deckwa said.

The story continues that Burkett tasted the salmon and exclaimed that Deckwa should sell salmon instead of sing. Deckwa said the idea sounded crazy. He wanted to sing; not sell fish. But with a little prompting, Deckwa took his salmon to a local grocery store.

“I took smoked salmon into the Brentwood Kroger store, and Buddy Hayes was the head seafood clerk at that time. I told him, ‘I got some of the best smoked salmon, partner, that you ever laid your lips on,’” Deckwa said. “He laughed and said, ‘Is that right?’ and he took a bite. The next thing I knew, he put it in his store.”

Cornet Bay Co. offerings

Over the past 19 years, Deckwa, and his wife Joanne, who he met and married in Nashville 16 years ago, have worked to create new and tempting recipes of smoked salmon, seafood dips, sauces, dressings and spices for their company, which they called the Cornet Bay Company.

Deckwa said the road has had its ups and downs. For instance, a little after Deckwa got his smoked salmon into stores, Hayes told him, ‘Pard (partner), your salmon’s good, but nobody knows what to do with it – they barely know seafood.’” There aren’t many salmon around Nashville.

Deckwa said he had to do some quick thinking, because if he didn’t get the salmon moving through the stores, Kroger managers wouldn’t make more orders. So Deckwa told Hayes to get him some wet ingredients and he would experiment with the salmon.

“I’ll make you a dip that will knock your socks off,” Deckwa said, in response to Hayes’ challenge. “Everybody knows what to do with dip.”

Joanne said her future husband shut himself up in his small apartment and started mixing ingredients together. Over and over again, Deckwa attempted to make a dip that suited his taste, price range and reproduction standards.

“The truth of the matter is darlin’, I’d never made smoke salmon dip in my life. I had no idea how to make a dip,” Deckwa said. “So I had to figure this thing out.”

Joanne said when she met Deckwa, he was trying to master his dips.

“That would be our dates,” Joanne said. “He would say, ‘want to go deliver smoked salmon dips?’ Or I would go help make it, help open up the plant, paint the floor, put in the fixtures …”

Over the past 19 years, the Deckwa family has worked to get their business off the ground, promoting it with samples, Deckwa’s music and road trips throughout the United States, to check on their product and sales in Kroger, QFC, Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer and Sam’s Club stores. They also have had to learn the business side of food production, establish production plants and find places to can, package and label their products.

Home again to Cornet Bay

In 1996, the Deckwas returned to the Pacific Northwest and Cornet Bay. They moved into a house that stands in front of Deckwa’s childhood home.

At first, they moved home, because they were tired of the long struggle they had faced in trying to get their business going. They decided to open a fly-fishing shop and art gallery, but soon learned that stores still wanted their product and that they had a growing demand.

So, once again they found themselves in the market, taking cross country trips to promote and supervise their product production and sales and oversee negotiations.

In-between trips, old friends on Whidbey Island started asking Deckwa where they could find his products. His responses consisted of New York, the south and Florida, which wasn’t good enough for many locals.

Deckwa said he started negotiating to get his product into local stores.

“How cool would it be if a guy could just go to Oak Harbor or Anacortes to check your product,” he said.

Feb. 5, at Oak Harbor Saar’s Market Place, Deckwa will debut the Cornet Bay Company’s products and promote them with his country music and smokin’ samples of dips and salmon.

“When we landed these stores in Oak Harbor and on the island … all of a sudden, you realize you’re starting to make this thing happen right here,” he said.

Store manager, Scott Caveness, said he put Deckwa’s products in the store about two weeks ago. In that short time, he has sampled some of the products from the Cornet Bay Company and already has a favorite.

“They’re great,” he said, speaking of the seafood dips. “Especially the shrimp-artichoke — that thing is to die for.”

Caveness said he thinks Deckwa will find his products are welcome and enjoyed in his hometown.

“We’ve got a banner up for him, and we gave him a nice display,” he said. “It’s a local item, and I think it’s going to do real well.”

Cornet Bay Company products are also available locally at Red Apple stores in Bayview and Coupeville, Payless Foods in Freeland and on the Web at www.cornetbay.com.

Now, Deckwa said he has the pleasure of sharing his gourmet flavors with other islanders and island visitors, enjoy the view of his quiet bay home, see old friends and run his successful business from the livingroom of his childhood home. For Deckwa and Joanne, this is the life.

“It’s a little nostalgic when you look around and come home,” he said. “I didn’t realize I had a story until I went to Nashville.”

Like the salmon Deckwa cans and flavors with his gourmet sauces and seasonings, he also returned to his original home and ensures his family’s legacy. But unlike the salmon, Deckwa looks back on a full past and forward to a successful future, where each salmon’s future is canned into dips and spreads for those who enjoy fine eating and gourmet food.