APPLING, Ga. - No uniforms, no weapons, no enemy lines. Sunday soldiers from Fort Gordon set out on Clarks Hill Lake for some bass fishing to clear their minds and get to know each other.

“For me it's almost like when I step on the boat, I leave everything behind on that dock,” Captain Shawn Dalrymple said.

He is a captain in the U.S. Army and he has served for six years.

“I just got back last April from 15 months in Afghanistan,” Dalrymple said.

However, Sunday the only thing Dalrymple and about 60 other soldiers were armed with were fishing rods, as they took part in the second annual Take Our Troops Fishing Tournament.

“I pulled up this morning and got paired up with someone I don't know, which is a good thing especially for these guys,” Dalrymple said.

Guys like his partner, Cody Lubek, who just joined the military in March.

“I think it's just a neat idea that people come out and support the troops,” Lubek said.

Dalrymple volunteered his boat for the day's event.

“I fish all the time and have a boat where I can go fishing. Alot of these guys don't have that ability to do that,” he said.

The two men, one at the beginning of his service, the other well into it, are getting to know each other. Something Dalrymple says can benefit young soldiers.

“It shows them at the beginning of their time of service that there are other things out there besides training,” Dalrymple said.

He also says fishing can be the break a soldier needs from the harsh realities of war.

“They're going to have to live with some of the things that went on in Iraq and to have something like fishing to get away from those experiences is a great way to step away from it,” Dalrymple said.

So now, if only for one day, two guys get to step away, leave the rest of the world back on the dock, and just fish.

The tournament was hosted by The Freedom to Fish which is an organization that honors service men and woman.

The winners of Sunday's tournament received Visa gift cards.