Wednesday Sept 1:
Dan writes:
I called Operation Bass this morning before we went fishing, to find out if any decision had been made as to where the tournament would be held They said that they had committed to Kerr Lake, but moved to a different site (Hibernia Park). All right, we’ve wasted a day wandering around Gaston, but at least we know now and don’t have to split our practice days between two lakes.
We drove over to Kerr, looked at some launch ramps, and found only two that are open because of the low water conditions. Lake level is 292.8. We spent a lot of time looking for a campground where we could leave the boat in the water overnight, yet be close enough to run electricity down to it. Ended up at Henderson Point.
Spent the afternoon prepping the boat and tackle, and cooking dinner for Annie, who has come down with a cold. I was in bed at 7:15, anxious to start fishing tomorrow.
Annie writes:
I tried not to do to much today because I am fighting a cold. So I caught up on my rest. I called all the kids to find out how their first days of school were. I got to talk to Chris, Jeff was at football and Kate was in the shower, he said it went good (as good as school can be for a 12 yea old boy). I also got to talk to my niece Kaitlyn who had a lot to say about her first day of 2nd grade, and Brandon who had his first day of Kindergarden. Thank goodness he loved it.
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Thursday Sept 2:
Dan writes:
Up at 4am, worked on the computer for 2 hours before daylight. Launched the boat at 7, and started fishing in the back of the little creek arms right around the campground. This is really just to get warmed up - get a few baits tied on, check water temperature (73), water clarity (fairly clear), and see if there’s any activity up in the ends (a few shad). Went 2 hours without a bite, so moved out to fish the wind. Hurricane Dennis is about 200 miles away, and though the skies today are bright and blue, we do have wind, and lots of it. It’s from the north at 20-25mph. Decided to go look for a spinnerbait bite out there on the windy points.
Fished the wind for about 3 hours and caught only 2 fish, and only one of those might have been a keeper. Thought there should have been some more shallow, active fish with the wind up the way it is, and the water temp so low. Water was warmer than this in October last year, the last time we were here. Maybe the bright blue sky is bothering them, or maybe Hurricane Dennis is having some effect that I am not aware of.
Moved over to have a look at the grass out in front of North Bend Park. There was some real good hydrilla there last year, and it held fish. Today I couldn’t find a single sprig of it - either they’ve killed it all off with chemicals, or the extremely low water level has killed it off, but it just isn’t here.
Fished another little "secret" spot I found last year - an offshore hump about 2 feet deep on top but dropping off quickly to 60 feet. This year the hump is 2 feet out of the water, but I fished around it and caught 4 bass. Even though they were all small (12-14"), they may have taught me something. They all came on power baits (crankbait, spinnerbait, and topwater), but as I moved in closer I realized that each one of them had been holding tight to a deep stump situated right on the edge of the drop into deeper water. There were no bites on top, no bites on the shallow sides of the hump, and no bites on any of the shallower stumps. Tomorrow I’ll go look for similar structure, and see if I can get bigger fish to bite by pitching some plastic to the stumps.
Annie writes:
We launched the boat and I waited while Dan drove around to see if we can leave it tied out in front of the campsite overnight. Dan radioed me and it looks like we can, so I dropped the trailer off in a field and moved back onto the campsite without it. Much easier. Big weekend coming up (Labor Day) and most of the choice, waterfront campsites are already reserved.
My cold is getting much better, it seems to be ending now, but I stayed home again today. I went to fill the water tank, dump our holding tanks and washed the front end of the motorhome. I talked to Dan’s mom for a while and made a commitment to Dan’s cousins wedding we will be attending in October with Dan’s family. I can’t wait, I love going to weddings. I also caught up on all my email letters and wrote to Jeff to find out about football. I am planning on going fishing tomorrow so I must get to bed early. I cooked us a big dinner and I went to bed around 8:30…….Surprise it is 10:30and I am still awake. What to do???? I know…. I got up and had a nice bowl of ice cream.
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Friday Sept 3:
Dan writes:
Fishing started out good this morning - caught 2 bass right out in front of our campsite. Caught 2 more at the next place we stopped, then 2 more just a little later. The first 5 of these were small fish, but at least they were biting good today, and the last one was over 4 lbs. Caught him on a Pop-R, and had another big fish follow it up to the boat right afterward. This was at about 11am. I fished that Pop-R for the rest of the day, along with a crankbait, and never had another bite. It was a quick bite this morning, and then it just stopped completely.
Craig Sahms, a friend from South Carolina, showed up this evening. He drove all the way up, 266 miles, just to help me practice for this tournament. We met Craig 2 years ago on the B.A.S.S. trail, and he has gone out of his way to help us ever since. This is not the first time he has taken time off of work to go fishing with me. We sure do appreciate having friends like this.
Annie writes:
I thought I would be awoken at 5:30, but Dan had some things he needed to do before going fishing so I got to sleep in later than I though, YEAH! I am really not a morning person. I made our lunch, checked our mail and Dan was still busy so I caught up on a few other things.
We eventually made it out on the lake. I am so out of fishing shape! Dan had a BIG project for me. He got about 600lbs. (slight exaggeration) of new baits from his Gambler sponsor and it all need to be sorted out & put away in the correct tackle boxes. I have never seen so many plastic worm, crawdads, lizards, jig trailers, and the list goes on . I don’t mind organizing the tackle, but it took hours, was very slimy and smelly. That is just one example of the things I do to help Dan so he can have more actual fishing time. As a matter of fact, while I was organizing he caught a 4+lb fish that was beautiful, although I am sure he did not forget to write about it in his part of the journal.
Dan dropped me off at our campsite around 3:00 because we had a water problem with our motorhome this morning. There was an easy solution, we needed a new garden house. The difficult part was that no stores were around for more than 15 miles. I had to unhook the motorhome and drive around looking for a store with a hose. I really lucked out and found one at my first stop about 5 miles away at some little (scary) gas station. I got the hose and was all hooked up again by the time Dan came back in from fishing.
Craig showed up just before dinner. I cooked us a big dinner consisting of 3 pork tenderloins. There was 1 bite left when we were done. I stayed up very late and made lists of things I want to do tomorrow.
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Saturday Sept. 4:
Dan writes:
Craig and I were out at first light, a little before 7am. We fished around the same area, Dodson Creek, where I had caught the big fish yesterday. No bites. We decided to move out of Nutbush, where I have spent almost all of my time so far, altogether. Went up into Keats Branch, started fishing the points up in there, and seemed to get about one bite on each point. Fish still though are all 13-14", except one that Craig caught that went over 5 lbs.
Next we moved out into the main lake and started fishing similar-looking points, closer to the main river channel. Had about the same results, with never more than one bite per point, but these fish on average were bigger. Also, we’re starting to notice that all of the bigger fish are coming off of a crankbait, instead of the Carolina rig.
The wind had been blowing strong all day, and the rain had started around 1:00. We quit around 4pm, with the rain coming down sideways. When we got home to the camper we found out that it was Hurricane Dennis, which had finally come ashore and was headed our way. After supper, we loaded the boat onto the trailer; it was obvious that we weren’t going to be fishing tomorrow, and Craig decided to head home tonight, before the worst of the storm hit.
Annie writes:
I was awake before Dan & Craig even left this morning which was way to early. I had very bad dreams, Dan was surprised to see me awake. I told him it was one of those dreams where you close your eyes and it starts all over again. He told me about when he was younger and he had bad dreams his mom told him to sing a song (not out loud). I asked him what he sang and he said he always sang Jingle Bells. It made me laugh and next thing I knew I was singing Jingle Bells and finally fell back to sleep. It works, because you are thinking of the words instead of the dream.
I finally got up around 9:00 and had a very busy day. I started a big cleaning project. I am cleaning every inch of our house. I have accomplished the kitchen, hallway and a good part of the living room. I was very happy, then of course it started raining. The men came home drenched we had clothes drying all over the house. It seems as though tropical storm Dennis has turned again and is now on shore. It has been raining since about 1:30pm and we have a tornado watch until midnight. I went to bed fairly early and read, but could not sleep once again, I am still on my summer schedule and have to try and get back to my fishing schedule. I am sure after a couple days on the water I will be so exhausted that I will not be able to stay awake late.
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Sunday Sept. 5
Dan writes:
This is not a good time for a storm – I need to be out there practicing. Both of the next two days are going to be short – Monday we are shooting a commercial down in Raleigh, and Tuesday we have the registration meeting to go to.
Our campsite is surprisingly well protected from the storm, but we can look out to the end of the cove and see the wind and waves bend around the corner and crash onto the shore across from us. The rain though, is not too bad, so I go outside to do as much of the pre-tournament prep work that I can today. I want to make the most of every hour we have available on the water once the storm lets up. I write out my rod & reel chart, which sets out on paper exactly which rods will have which reels, with what size line, and what baits tied on. I restring new line onto all of my rods, tie up 8 or 10 new Carolina rig leaders, and put oil in the boat.
By 4pm the worst of the wind had died, and the sky had brightened up a bit. I could get in 2 or 3 hours of fishing, so I had Annie put me in the water. I ended up in a quiet area where the water was flat and there were thousands and thousands of shad up top, and a few fish busting them from below. I had no bites on the deep crankbait or the Carolina rig, so I fished topwater and shallow crankbaits and caught a few, but no big fish. Towards the end I was throwing a spinnerbait out on a nearby point when it was eaten by a HUGE striper. The fish came up to the boat; and it was about 3 feet long. It turned and raced away, stripping the line off my reel, then he stopped, turned sideways for an moment, and took off again with an even more powerful lunge. I couldn’t handle him, and my brand new, 30lb. Spiderwire, which I had just spooled on today, snapped with a loud CRACK and the monster was gone.
Annie writes:
I woke up around 8:00 and it is still raining, as it has been all night. It was also very windy, leaving no thought to going fishing today. I worked on cleaning the house all day. My mom called to make sure we were safe.
This afternoon it started clearing up and at about 4:00 Dan decided he could get in a couple of hours fishing. We unhooked everything and I launched him in the water. I finally finished cleaning everything except for a few closets. Dan came in around 7:15pm. His parents called to make sure we were safe and I informed them that we were drying out and the weather was fine now. Little did I know!
We ate dinner and at about 9pm our neighbor came over and informed us that a tornado had just touched down in the next county. We were glued to the television, and we got prepared. I cleaned & put away all our dinner dishes, got out our flashlights, and prepared our tornado hide out, which is under the couch. We figured that that is the safest place for us because we are not going out in a ditch, the bath houses are wood, and at least the couch is bolted to the ground. We all fit (Dan, Cooper, and I). It is snug, but if we were to flip or be thrown around, I think it might hold out. HOPEFULLY WE WILL NEVER FIND OUT THOUGH!!!!!! Wish us luck for the evening and I will tell you about it tomorrow.
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Monday, Sept. 6
Dan writes:
The fishing keeps going from slow to slower. Every day I wake up with renewed confidence and a plan for how to catch fish today. We go out there and execute the plan, and nothing. Today we caught a total of 3 fish, and the biggest one about 8 inches long. We quit fishing at 1:30, got cleaned up and ran down to Raleigh for our Citgo shoot. Afterwards we went to eat, and in the parking lot of the restaurant developed an electrical problem with the motorhome. We had put the hydraulic jacks down to level us and something shorted out, causing us to lose all 12 volt power inside the coach. We still had the automotive electric power - to start the engine, run headlights, and drive the vehicle, but we couldn’t drive because we were stuck up in the air on the jacks. In addition, it was now dark out, we had no lights inside the camper, and no power to start the generator or run the water pump or the refrigerator. We ended up under the hood, running jumper cables from one system to the other, enabling us to jump start the generator. This provided power to release the hydraulic jacks and at least get us back down on the ground. We were able to drive back to the lake, but as of now we still have no power inside the coach unless we get out and jump start the generator, or hook up at a campground.
Annie writes:
We are still alive, although I woke up to more rain and very miserable day. We went out fishing and the weather man last night said it was going to be in the 90’s and hot. We had sweatshirts on all day and every time I took off my raincoat it would start raining again. I fished though, and I was throwing whatever Dan wanted me to throw, finally and about 12:00 we started going hysterical. We were both wet, miserable, frustrated, and wondering if this is what we should be doing. It is suppose to pay off eventually but……………
Instead of crying though, our minds went the other way. I started laughing uncontrollably about everything. Dan was at the front of the boat "TRYING" to remember the words to the Beach Boys songs, and singing them loudly. It made the bad situation seem a little better.
We had to come in early because we were meeting Marty (JM Productions) at a Citgo station to finish shooting our commercials. We met him and had fun shooting, it did not take to long. We decided to go out to a very nice restaurant after and that is when the day went from bad to worse, as you read in Dan’s writing.
Dinner was the best! We forgot about everything and had an extremely romantic meal. No matter if we are having good days or days like today, I am forever thankful that I have my wonderful husband.
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Tuesday, Sept. 7
Dan writes:
Once again I went out this morning with confidence and a plan , but by 12:00 hadn’t caught even a short fish yet. I was pretty discouraged, to say the least. But then, at about 1:00 I was way up in the back of a little pocket fishing a Pop-R. A 3 lb’er hit and I brought him up to the boat, and two other fish came up with him. That was nice. But then, in the back of the next pocket 100 yards away I caught another 3 lb’er. That was VERY nice. Maybe all these fish who were out on the points the last time we caught any have moved up into the shallows now. The water has risen almost 2 feet since the hurricane. I ran around and fished other pockets real fast for the last hour of my practice, but caught no more fish. I went home to the camper, got Annie and Cooper and took them out in the boat for a swim. While idling out I saw a shad jump out of the water, so since I hadn’t put my rods away yet I ran over and threw the Pop-R on the spot. When I threw over a stump in about 2 feet of water, I caught another keeper fish. Yeehah! Nothing like waiting until the last minute to figure something out here. I guess this means I’m going to be fishing fast and shallow tomorrow, when the tournament starts.
Annie Writes:
We decided I should not go fishing with Dan today because we have to many things that need to be done. I set up our new campsite after I launched Dan in the water, unhooked the trailer and went into town. At 9:00 I started calling Operation Bass to sign up for next years FLW, I was shocked that I got in as soon as I did, and we have a good feeling that that will keep us in for next year.
I went to do groceries and then had to search the town for a laundromat with a big enough parking lot so I could fit the motorhome in. I finally found one and as I was loading one of my machines I hear someone saying "Annie?". It was the tournament director’s wife, Connie Stakely. We get along well and have come to know each other from all the tournaments. We talked for a few minutes, but she was all done, as I was just beginning.
I left there and got back home around 2:00, Dan & I agreed to meet here by 3:00 to go to registration. He came in with a great idea to go swimming, we went out in the boat, found a nice beach and the 3 of us went swimming. When we got back home we did not have much time so we just packed up the motorhome and drove to the registration site. We talked about how we used to get nervous going to these meeting and now we look forward to them. It is like another family with all the people we met through the years.
After the meeting we went to subway and then came home and sat on the beach for few minutes and watched a very pretty lightening storm in the sky.
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Wednesday, Sept. 8
Dan writes:
Everstart Challenge Tournament - day 1: Fished that Pop-R hard today. Kept telling myself that if I never gave up on it, never put it down all day, it would catch me some fish. Kept on saying that it’s an afternoon bite - the shallow bite has been much better when the sun was high and hot and the winds calm. Had decided to just run around all day between 5 or 6 spots, fish them fast, see if the fish had shown up. If not, then move on to the next spot. I visited all of my spots at least 3 times, and my best spots 4 or 5 times. By 1:00 I had had only one bite, and my partner’d had none. My fish are gone. This is what has been happening all week - they’re here today, gone tomorrow. But so are the bait fish, and this is probably significant. The bass are just following the bait. We decided to spend the last two hours of the day just running from one pocket to the next, looking for active shad. We agreed that we would not fish at all unless we saw shad up on top in an area. We ran to maybe 20 pockets before we found some, then we stopped to fish. Sure enough there was at least one active bass in there, busting shad up against the shore. We couldn’t catch him, and we ran out of time. I weighed in one fish, for 2lbs. 4oz. It was a tough day for everyone, with lots of people catching only one fish or less. Tomorrow I am starting all over again - I am going to fish lots of new water, and I’m not going to fish anywhere unless there is bait present.
Annie writes:
I woke up by 8:30 am and once again packed up the campsite, unhook the motorhome, hooked up the trailer and then moved to another campground. The problem is when we go here we camped at the campground where the weigh in was going out of. Then, the water was so low they had to move it, so we moved to the new weigh in site. Well, the water came back up so they moved the tournament back to the original campground. It makes it easier for us here because I do not have to drive to the weigh in.
I worked on my calendar most of the day to try and figure out our schedule. Dan is due in at 3:20 and I am on my way to see him weigh in his fish. I walked to the weigh in on the beach. I am lucky I even made it. It was so far. I had all these coves that you can’t cross, you have to go around. It was nice to walk barefoot on the beach though. It took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to get there and Dan was just coming in when I got there. You know how the fishing went, so we were not in the greatest of moods.
We drove back to the campsite by water and I noticed he was not going the right way. We ended up on a secluded beach and went swimming and playing in the water. It was exactly what we needed.. We cam home I cooked some dinner as Dan worked on his tackle. We then lounged and watched the season premier of 90210.
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Thursday, Sept. 9
Dan writes:
We had a plan, it sounded good yesterday, but it didn’t work today. We ran around a lot, fished a lot of new water, but only fished places where there were baitfish active. Caught a few short fish, but no keepers all day. Like yesterday, lots of other fishermen had the same results. I don’t have a clue what’s going on, or what I should have done differently. I heard that some people were catching them on jigging spoons (not one of my strengths). Also, lot’s of boats were just camped out on the ends of the points - probably Carolina rigging and waiting the fish out. I can’t do that - I’m not a patient fisherman. I have to be casting and reeling, and moving the boat, all the time. I figure in a lake this size, with this many fish in it, there have to be some aggressive fish somewhere. I still believe this, even after today, I’m just no good at finding them. Maybe I’ll learn something this weekend, at the weigh-in for the Top 10. I get to take tomorrow off - sleep late and try to get the motorhome problems fixed, but I’ve been roped into driving a camera boat again for Saturday.
Annie writes:
I got out of bed around 8:30am and started picking up the campsite again. We are not sure if we are leaving tonight or not, so I want to be prepared. It really looks like it is going to rain. I walked to the weigh in again at 2:00. Dan was due in at 4:00 today. He had no fish, we socialized a bit and then came home by boat. I did not mentioned the fishing at all. I waited until Dan was ready to talk about it, that was about 8:00. We had a nice dinner and then our good friends John & Laraine called us to because they know we are having motorhome problems and John gave Dan some ideas on what it could be. My mom called me tonight to chit chat and catch up on things.
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Friday, Sept 10
Dan writes:
Got under the motorhome and ran some tests. Cleaned and wire-brushed all of the battery terminals and connections. Found a small crack in the jumper cable that connects the two 6 volt batteries in series, and think the system may have been grounding out to the frame when under a load. Repaired that, and everything seems to be working fine now.
Went to the weigh-in at 5:00, and watched the field of 10 cut down to the top 5. It took only 6lbs. 4oz. to make the cut today. Fishing’s still pretty tough, I guess.
Annie writes:
It was great having Dan home today. We got up at 8:30 and I made us a big breakfast. I cleaned the campsite up and got everything organized while Dan worked on fixing the motorhome. We went to Walmart for the weigh in. Dan is driving a camera boat tomorrow, so we had to stay for the meeting after the weigh in. After that we went out to eat and had a very nice, quiet night. We are sleeping in the Walmart parking lot to make it easier tomorrow morning.
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Saturday, Sept 11
Dan writes:
Up at 4:30 again today, this time to drive a camera boat. Yesterday’s day off really helped to revive me, though. I followed David Cooke today, a 28 year old up-and-coming fisherman from North Carolina. He had one little rip-rap area that had produced virtually all of his fish over the past 3 days, and one particular rock in that area that had produced an amazing 18 fish between he and his partners! We stayed all day right in that area, hoping to make it pay off one more time, but only managed 4 fish for just around 10 lbs. Had our roles been reversed today, I would have done exactly the same thing. Unfortunately, he just ran out of fish. The winner today, Robert Walser, pulled out all the stops and weighed in almost 23lbs. with 5 fish. It was quite impressive.
Looking back, and seeing how most of the top 10 finishers here fished, I see that I was wrong in assuming that most of the big bags were being caught deep, of the points. In fact, most of the top 10 guys were fishing shallow, just like me - only doing it in different areas. Most of them were upriver, while I stayed in Nutbush, and many were fishing a shallow crankbait, while I stayed mainly with topwater.
Annie writes:
I stayed in bed until almost 9:00 because I figured we would be driving tonight. I cleaned the house, got out our maps and got everything ready for traveling. I did a little shopping because there is a mall here. I was good and did not buy anything. Pernell from the Ranger service crew came over to visit for a little while. I worked on a few business projects I needed to do. Things such as getting Dan new sponsor clothes. We are beginning a new season and I need to make sure he keeps up his professional appearance. There is also a BIG sponsor that I want to approach in the next month, and I am starting to get together some material for that. Can’t tell you who it is yet… I don’t want to spoil the fun.
After the weigh in we went out to eat at a great steak house with Sammy Lee, John Ladd, and Mark Rose. We did not get on the road until 8:30. We drove for a couple of hours and stopped in Virginia at a Flying J truck stop for the night.
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Sunday, Sept. 12
Dan writes:
We are on the road to our next tournament: the B.A.S.S. Eastern Invitational at 1000 Islands, NY. It starts in 11 days (Thursday Sept. 23), so we have plenty of time to practice.
Annie writes:
We were going to do a few things at the Flying J before we left, but it was a madhouse. There was a NASCAR race going on someplace and the place was full of motorhomes, so we got on the road and figured we’d stop someplace else. We took turns driving throughout the day and we got all the way to New York by 8:00pm. We slept at a Cracker Barrel Restaurant. ___________________________________________________________________________________________
Monday, Sept. 13
Dan writes:
I’m back in my "up at 4am to work on the computer" mode. I work for about 4 hours - responding to email and enhancing the web page (I am adding lots of new photos, and writing "pro tips" right now).
The weather forecast is calling for a nice day today, then rain for a few days. I wasn’t planning to fish today, but I decide to make the most of the good weather while I have it. Instead of driving up to Clayton, where the tournament is going out of, we decide to fish our way up the lake first. We start at the Salmon River, about 60 miles from Clayton. It looks fishy - shallow, and very weedy, but I fished from noon until 5pm and had only 3 bites. They were all good ones - 2½ to 3½ lbs. apiece, but there weren’t enough of them to justify a 60 mile run across Lake Ontario. The salmon are running up this river right now, and I think this might be affecting the bass fishing here. I watched perhaps 10 salmon being caught by fisherman, and saw at least twice that many dead fish lying on the bottom. Every fish I saw was between 20 and 30 lbs. I’m thinking about going salmon fishing tomorrow.
Annie writes:
I slept awful, was awake until almost 4am, and got up around 8:30. Dan had already prepared the camper for travel and I just got dressed and fell into the passenger’s seat. We went to check out a few launch ramps, then got a campsite. Dan was in the water by 12:00. I did not go out. I rested for a while and then did work on the computer.
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Tuesday, Sept. 14
Dan writes:
I didn’t mention yesterday that, because of the very clear water here, I have decided to tie a monofilament leader to my Spiderwire main line for pitching and flipping. I have tried this in the past and not been satisfied, because I could never find the right knot to use to tie the two lines together. I am happy to report that I used an Albright knot yesterday, and caught all three fish without retying. This knot slides through the rod guides effortlessly, and it looks like it’s going to hold up without slipping. I need to do some more testing before I use it in a tournament, but if it holds up then I’ll describe it to you later.
Fishing: Today I spent 8 hours in Sandy Pond, and caught only 3 little fish. It’s too bad, because this is a very fishy looking area. I’m sure there’s more to be caught in here, but this cold front must have really shut things down, at least for the shallow water, largemouth bite. It’s probably just as well though, since I’m still 60 miles away from the tournament site, and I’d have to cross the big water to get here. Fishing would have to be real good here to justify the long, rough boat ride, and since it’s not, then I won’t be back.
Annie writes:
We packed up the campsite and headed to find another launch ramp. I launched Dan parked at a campground right across the street from the ramp. I worked all day on our new sponsor deal we are in the process of putting together to present. Dan was due in by 7:00pm, so I was at the launch ramp waiting for him, pulled him out and drove right to our campsite. I cooked us some stuffed chicken for dinner and Dan went from the dinner table to the bedroom. He is exhausted. ____________________________________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, Sept. 15
Dan writes:
Fished around Henderson harbor this morning until 1pm. Had only 1 bite. Frustrated, I finally decided to give up on the largemouth bite and go catch some smallmouth. Ran up to Chaumont Bay, and within an hour caught a limit of aggressive fish (including one largemouth) burning a spinnerbait over the grass in 12’ of water. I’m throwing a ¾ oz. Terminator spinnerbait, with double willow blades and a bright green skirt. I decide that Chaumont Bay is where I need to spend the next couple of days, looking for spots with bigger fish now.
Annie writes:
We packed up the campsite at about 8:00am and headed down the road to another launch. I put Dan in the water and he was out about 1 hour, then he came back to the ramp, we loaded the boat and were off to another part of the lake. He had seen enough and knew that wasn’t where he was going to fish on tournament day. I put him back in the water further up the lake and I stayed in the parking lot, working on our calendar. Dan came in around 5:00 and we drove to a campground further up there river and camped there for the night. ____________________________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, Sept. 16
Dan writes:
Cloudy and very windy today, I’m glad we’re camped right at Chaumont Bay so I don’t have to drive the boat around to get here. Fished three areas without a bite, then gradually moved out deeper and started catching them. Depth finder has to read between 12 and 14 feet in order to get bit. Fished three more areas after I figured this out and caught multiple fish at each one. Here’s the frustrating thing though: for every fish you put in the boat, you will miss 1 or 2 other strikes. I am convinced that these fish are hitting the bait with their mouths closed; after rocketing up from the depths towards the spinnerbait, they change their minds at the last second and just slap at it or bump it. I have tried various tactics to counter this - remove the plastic trailer, downsize the blades, change colors, turn the trailer hook upside down, even run a big treble hook for a trailer. Nothing is working. And if that’s not bad enough, these fish are so wild after you hook them that you loose almost half of them when they jump! I’m not really complaining though - it is nice just to be getting bit again. I had 20-30 bites today, and put 8 or 9 keepers in the boat. Probably an 11lb. limit. Still looking for the bigger fish. Hurricane Floyd is upon us by the time I pull out at 5:00. It’s very windy and very wet, and doesn’t look good for tomorrow.
Annie writes:
Dan woke me up at 7:00, however he said I do not have to go fishing. I feel guilty not going fishing, but Dan keeps saying I am doing him just as much good staying home and working on our business projects. I say I feel guilty, and I do, BUT it is freezing out today and very windy. I spent the day trying to learn Paint Shop Pro, which is a graphics and image editing software program. Oh my gosh it’s like being back in school.
Dan came in around 5:00. I don’t know how he could stand it out there. I cooked us chicken cordon bleu because it was the last thing left in our freezer. We are in desperate need of a grocery store, and a laundromat. Dan went to bed by 7:00, he is exhausted. I made a few phone calls and sent some pictures to my family on email.
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Friday, Sept. 17
Dan writes:
BASSMASTER Invitational - 1000 Islands, NY - Practice days remaining: 6. Cloudy early, cleared up by late morning, but very windy still. Fished Chaumont Bay again all day - and may have found two areas that seem to have bigger fish on them. I’m hoping it’s not a "here today, gone tomorrow" type thing. I have noticed though that the grass is a little different in these areas - not consistent bottom coverage but instead interspersed with holes and edges. At least if the fish do move I can concentrate on other areas with similar features trying to find some again. If the wind would stop blowing then I could throw a tube or something into the holes and get the less aggressive bite also - I did catch one doing this today. Aside from that 1, I had exactly 20 bites today on the spinnerbait, and out of those 20 ten got hooked up and made it into the boat. The other 10 were slapping at it again with their mouths closed. 11 keepers today, including a 4lb. largemouth, for probably a 12lb. limit.
Annie writes:
I put Dan in the water around 8:00. I picked up the campsite because we will be driving out of here tonight. I filled the water tank, dumped our holding tanks, paid for the campsite, and did lots of little things. I spent a good part of the day studying, and working on the computer. I am finally at the stage where I seem to be understanding and applying the skills I have learned so far.
I called Chris, he stayed home from school today because he had 5 teeth pulled yesterday.
We had a very good conversation and talked for about ½ hour.
I pulled Dan out of the water around 3:30. We were driving so he came in early so we could find another campground while it was still light out. We will now be camping where the tournament will take place - French Creek Marina in Clayton. We checked in, went to do groceries and then went out to eat with Mark Rose, a new young fisherman who has just committed to this career full time. When we got back we went to visit Ron & Phyllis Poirier, a couple from NH, who have a motorhome and are also fishing this tournament. We stayed until 10:00pm.
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Saturday, Sept. 18
Dan writes:
BASSMASTER Invitational - 1000 Islands, NY - Practice days remaining: 5. I’m pretty sure that on tournament day I can run down to Chaumont Bay and catch 12lbs. per day. Now I need a backup plan, in case the weather is bad, or I draw a partner who doesn’t want to go. I decide today to just run around to all of the spots I know in the river, to see how the fishing is there. It’s kind-of slow, and I catch one fish off of each spot, but nothing over 2 lbs.
I caught two fish flipping very shallow water, so by afternoon I am fishing all new water, running around looking for flipping cover. I can’t get bit off of docks, but if I can find a tree or a branch in the water, with ell grass stuck in it forming a mat, then it’s almost a guaranteed bite. Still no big fish though, but when you’re flipping like this, you never know. Water temp in the river is 66 degrees, just like it is in the lake.
Oh, here’s an update: I had decided this morning to give a favorable review of the Albright knot as a means of tying a monofilament leader to my Spiderwire main line. No sooner had I decided that though, than my knot slipped and I lost a fish. Over the course of the next hour, I proceeded to lose 2 more when the knot slipped as I was battling a fish in heavy cover. Frustrated, I cut off the leader altogether and tied my worm directly to the 50lb. Spiderwire. Fortunately, the fish don’t seem to mind, as I got numerous bites afterward. So I guess I’m back to searching for the right knot to attach a mono leader to my Spiderwire . Anyone have any suggestions?
PS: Don’t forget to check out our website, www.DanielKeyes.com, for our latest updates. We’ve added lots of new pictures, as well as some new "Pro Tips".
Annie writes:
I knew it would not be an early morning since it was after 10:30pm when we went to bed. Dan launched the boat at about 8:30am and I parked back on our site. It was decided that laundry was more important than me going fishing today. I did laundry from 9:00 until 2:00. There are only 2 washers, it took forever, but is all done!! YIPEE.
Dan came in at 6:00 and I had to wait in line to pull him out of the water, the ramp was pretty busy, but the guys usually get nervous seeing a woman driving the motorhome and backing a trailer, and they make room. I started cooking dinner as soon as we got back to our site and we had company. Dan’s friend Craig Sahms came over with his wife and daughter. They had just gotten into town today and he is going to work with Dan on this lake. We ate at 8:00 and the Miss America pageant was starting, I love to watch the styles, and I stayed up much later than I should have. I am planning on going fishing in the morning and I know Dan will have wished I went to bed earlier.
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Sunday, Sept. 19
Dan writes:
BASSMASTER Invitational - 1000 Islands, NY - Practice days remaining: 4. Met Craig at 6am and we launched the two boats. Annie and Cooper are coming with us today also. Ran 15-20 miles north to Chippewa Bay. Nothing going on there, so around noon we moved down to Lake of the Isles. Started flipping some trees on the bank, and caught 3 fish in about 300 yards. I’m pretty happy about that, since it’s consistent with what I found yesterday. Also, there were 4 boats fishing a few hundred yards offshore, and I don’t think they were getting bit at all. I left the trees and ran to the far end of the lake to tell Craig. He was flipping floating mats of eelgrass and not doing very well, until I gave him some of my Gambler Paddle Tail worms. Then we both started getting bit, and often. In the next two hours we caught about a dozen fish. As an experiment, I even moved over to a nearby mat that another fisherman had just left, to see if the paddle tail worm would catch fish behind other boats. It did. I really think I’ve got the right bait tied on, at least for these conditions (a shallow flipping bite). I caught probably 10 fish today, for about a 10lb. limit. That makes 5 days in a row in which I’ve caught a limit of fish, but now I need to find some big ones.
Annie writes:
What a day! Dan woke me up at 5:00am because we are launching someplace else today, and meeting Craig at a gas station for 6:00. I begged him to let me stay in bed until we got to the gas station; I had slept awful and could not open my eyes. When we got to the gas station I got up, made lunch, which consisted of leftover pizza from the other night, and we were off to some state park to launch the boats. I went fishing with them all day. I caught 1 lousy pike. I did not mind though because Dan really seems to have something going, and what matters most is for him to catch some fish.
We got back to the campground around 7:00, and some guy was parked on our site with his humungous motorhome, his VW bug and his trailer. He asked us if we would move over to his smaller site at the end of the road. No thanks. We are on our original site, and the unhappy man is gone. I cooked a quick dinner while Dan hooked up the house.
My poor husband is getting a cold, and he does not get rid of a cold quickly, they seem to last for about 10 days. I pampered him a little and sent him to bed at a time that I thought was early, but it was actually 10:30. I went to bed around 11:30; I apparently got my second wind and I know I am not fishing tomorrow.
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Monday, Sept. 20
Dan writes:
BASSMASTER Invitational - 1000 Islands, NY - Practice days remaining: 3. Met Craig at 6:30am, and the two of us ran back up to Lake of the Isles, where we had such a good afternoon yesterday, to see what the morning bite was like. There isn’t one. There hasn’t been one for the entire week I’ve been here, either. These fish just seem to start eating about mid-afternoon every day, which is not good. We left Lake of the Isles and split up. I went in search of more trees to flip, but it was so windy by now that it was very difficult to fish, especially slowly. Ended up going back into some of the marinas and flipping docks, and caught one good fish, almost 4 lbs., doing this. Might be that this is what I should do after I have a 10 lb. limit. Overall though it was a disappointing day. I had very few bites and learned practically nothing.
Annie writes:
We were meeting Craig at the launch ramp this morning. Dan let me stay in bed until we got there. It was so bumpy and noisy that I got up when we were half way there. After I launched Dan in the water, I returned to our campsite. Dan is going to drive the boat here and I will pick him up at this launch ramp this afternoon.
I spent the day studying my Paint Shop Pro, and cleaned the house a bit. Craigs wife Mary Ann and their daughter, Jessie came to visit me.
Dan came in extremely tired around 5:30. Mark Rose came to visit and they talked fishing while I went to visit Ron & Phyllis. I cooked us steaks on the grill and Dan was in bed by 8:00. My mom called and we chatted for about ½ an hour. I responded to some emails and was in bed by 10:00.
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Tuesday, Sept. 21
Dan writes:
BASSMASTER Invitational - 1000 Islands, NY - Practice days remaining: 2 Craig and I went in one boat today down to Chaumont Bay. At this point it would be my number one place, so I’d like to find a few more key areas there, and Craig has not seen it at all yet. Fishing was much slower today, at least for me, and the spinnerbait on which I’d been getting 20+ bites per day produced not even one keeper fish today. Craig’s spinnerbait, on the other hand, got him 6 nice fish. We kept modifying mine to make it as similar as possible, but we did not have any other white painted blades, so we’re assuming that that was the key today.
Annie writes:
I did not have to get up this morning because Craig and Dan were going out together in Craigs boat. I stayed in bed until 9:00 because it was to cold to get up. I hope they come in early from fishing, it is freezing out. I worked on the computer.
Dan and Craig came in around 1:30, I was very glad to see them come in early and made them nice hot coffee. We went to eat at the house Craig and his family are renting for the week. We all went to registration together and then we came home.
Just before Craig picked us up Dan noticed his boat batteries were burning up and did not take a full charge. After we ate, Craig drove Dan to Walmart to get some new batteries. They did not get back until after 10:00pm. While they were gone I restrung new line on all of Dan’s rods to save him from having to do it.
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Wednesday, Sept. 22
Dan writes:
BASSMASTER Invitational - 1000 Islands, NY - Final practice day. Installed new batteries in the boat, and worked on getting my tackle ready this morning before going out for a few hours. Fished from 11 to 5pm. Checked a few new areas - nothing good. Looked for more good docks to flip - didn’t find any (at least I didn’t get bit on any). Filled the boat with gas and oil, and tied up to the boat slip. After dinner we walked over to the partner pairings meeting. I drew Ray Sedgewick, a full-time pro who came in 6th here two years ago. He says he’s on good fish again this year, down in the lake on the way to Chaumont, so I’m riding in his boat to his fish in the morning. He’s doing the same thing as I, spinnerbaiting, so if his stuff doesn’t work we’ll just continue on around the corner to Chaumont and fish my fish.
Annie writes:
Dan slept in this morning. He has not had 8 hours of sleep in a long time. The tournament starts tomorrow so it did him good to get a good nights sleep. I launched him at about 11am, and since we have a boat slip for tonight I don’t have to go pick him up later. I did laundry and made chocolate chip cookies this morning; I also got plane tickets for the kids to come visit us in Florida for Christmas vacation.
I met Dan at the boat slip at 5:00, and we worked on getting his tackle ready. Back at the camper he jumped in the shower as I made dinner. We sat down to eat at 6:00, walked out the door at 6:15 and RAN to the meeting down the road in time for 6:30. If you are late to the meeting, it costs you money.
Afterwards we came back, we laid around, watched TV and just spent some time cuddling. It was wonderful. Of course if anything else happened I would not really tell you, as you probably already know from a year of reading the journal.
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Thursday, Sept. 23
Dan writes:
BASSMASTER Invitational - 1000 Islands, NY - Day 1 of tournament: Last night at the meeting I had told my partner that for as long as I have been fishing tournaments, not once has anyone who has SAID they were catching lots of fish in practice actually gone out and DONE it the next day. Not once. Well the streak continues - we fished Ray’s fish in the morning until 11:00, and both caught only one fish. So we went on down to Chaumont and fished my fish for about an hour, and Ray caught one more. It was so windy and rough that you simply could not fish on either his or my spots any longer. We left at 1:00 and made the run back towards Clayton, where we planned to fish the last two hours on a spot Ray claimed we could catch a limit of small largemouth. We had 6 to 8 foot waves on the ride, and it was so wet that it was like someone throwing a bucket of water at you every 60 seconds. Also, we took probably 5 waves over the bow, each one filling the cockpit above the level of the seats with water and floating everything in the boat. After almost 2 hours of travel like this, we finally hit a wave that broke the trolling motor right off of the boat, and somehow knocked the bilge pumps out also. Fortunately we were within 5 files of home, but with all the water in the boat we had to pump out the livewells and I had to climb way up onto the bow in order to get the boat back up on plane. We checked-in an hour and a half early, looking like a couple of drowned rats.
I weighed-in 3 lbs. of fish today. It took 22 lbs. over three days to get a check here two years ago. If that remains consistent, I need to catch 19 lbs. in the next two days to get a check. Judging from my practice, I should be able to do that.
Annie writes:
Mary Ann, Jessie, Phyllis and I went to Boldt Castle today. It is a famous tourist attraction here. Dan and I have seen it by water, but we have never gone. It is a Castle that George Boldt built for the love of his life, his wife Louise, in 1900. His wife died before the castle was finished and the day after she died George ordered all work on the castle to stop and he never again returned.
We went out to lunch after the tour and got to the weigh in right when the men were starting to come in. Dan was not do in until 4:20 so I went to the motorhome to let Cooper out before I walked down to the docks. While I was there Dan pulled up in his partner’s truck. He was drenched and I was scared, I thought he had been thrown out of the boat. Water was actually coming out of the bottom of his rainsuit. He informed me he was OK but that the lake was rough, and they had had problems.
Dan stripped his wet stuff off, took a hot shower and made some hot coffee. He looked and felt pretty good by the time we walked down to the weigh-in to talk to everybody and to meet tomorrow’s partner. He seems lie a happy-go-lucky guy, and tomorrow they’re going in Dan’s boat, and they’re not going out into the lake.
I did laundry until 8:00 so Dan would have dry clothes, a dry rainsuit, and dry boots for the morning.
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Friday, Sept. 24
Dan writes:
BASSMASTER Invitational - 1000 Islands, NY - Day 2 of tournament: Fished with Greg Toth of Alabama today, and stayed in the river instead of going out into the lake. We worked well as a team - catching fish off his spots first, then doing my stuff for a while, flipping that Gambler paddle tail worm into the grass mats, then finishing up on his spots again. We both weighed in a limit of fish for about 8 ½ lbs each.
Unfortunately, everybody is catching fish. Normally in these tournaments, the total catch goes down each day, but today the total went up. The cut for making a check is now at 19 lbs, and I have 11½. I estimate that I need to catch 17 lbs. tomorrow. My partner for tomorrow is in the same position - we both need a big bag of fish. We both have spots to go to in Chaumont Bay, and we’re in agreement that that is the only place we know where we could possibly pull it off, so we’re going down to the lake. The wind is supposed to lay down a bit, thankfully, so we might even get back in the afternoon.
Annie writes:
I got up around 8:30 and tried to work on the computer. I am getting very frustrated, about this proposal I am trying to put together, about fishing, life, and just about everything! I know it is because we are going home tomorrow. We are always stressed out from fishing, but going home brings on a whole different kind of stress. When we fish, whether it is for practice or a tournament, we are devoted to fishing, we do not go do the tourist thing and hardly ever go out unless it is to do groceries or laundry. Then, we go home to New Hampshire and it is a whole different life. We try to spend as much time as possible with the kids. That will include going to soccer and football games. Then we have to visit with our relatives who don’t understand why we are home and still are not able to spend enough time with them. Aside from that, home time is when we try and get the business side of this fishing career caught up. We are so busy trying to make everyone else happy that the time just flies by and we are just as stressed as when we leave. That is about how my day has been. I was very glad Dan came in with 5 fish. I made us spaghetti with Italian sausage for dinner. Dan got his equipment ready, and his back was very sore from today, so he went to bed early.
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Saturday, Sept. 25
Dan writes:
BASSMASTER Invitational - 1000 Islands, NY - Final day of tournament: When we started out this morning, I figured I needed a 17 lb. bag of fish today to catch up. That’s a pretty tall order, and I had really resigned myself to just another mediocre finish. But the sun was shining, the weather was warm, and the lake was dead-flat calm all day today - it was simply a beautiful day to go fishing. And to top it off, the fish were really biting, too. We ran down to Chaumont Bay, and I had a five fish limit in 59 minutes. My partner, Bill Capwell, was catching them too, and we were having a great time. When the fish are on like this, the pressure of tournament fishing fades away and you end up just having loads of fun and catching lots of fish. That’s what happened today - we laughed and joked and jerked on fish all morning long. Between the two of us we boated between 25 and 30 keepers in 3 hours.
By 11:00 or so though, it was time to go hunt some big ones. We were both culling fish and improving our limits, but we needed the 4 and 5 lb. bites now in order to really help us out. We moved over to my big fish spot, and decided to camp on that grass line for the rest of the day. I ended up catching one good one before it was time to leave, probably my biggest fish of the day, but I knew it wasn’t enough. We made the hour’s ride back to Clayton and weighed-in - I had 13 lbs. and Bill had around 12. And guess what - the total weight caught went up again today - in the end it took a total of 30 lbs. to get the last check in this tournament. I told Annie later that in a way I was glad I didn’t catch the 17 lbs. today I thought I needed. When I got back to the weigh-in I would have been very disappointed to have accomplished that goal for the day, and yet still have fallen short in the end.
I am not overly disappointed with the results of this tournament. I feel that I practiced well, covered lots of water, and found enough fish to at least place in-the-money. I had a good game-plan for the 3 day event also, and had the weather not drowned us out and disabled our boat on day one, I think I could have caught a small limit of fish that day, and achieved a top-50 finish here for the week.
Annie writes:
I did not get up until 9:00 this morning. We will be driving tonight so I thought the later I stay in bed, the later I can drive. I spent the day organizing the motorhome, cleaning the site and getting ready to hit the road.
Dan came in with 5 fish and they had a very good day. It did not put us in the money, but at least he was pleased with his performance.
We got the boat out of the water and went home so Dan could shower before we left. We ended up talking to a very nice couple that we met and by the time we went in the house it was 9:00pm. We decided to sleep there and leave early in the morning.
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Sunday, Sept. 26
We started the motorhome and got on the road at 6:30am. After 250 miles, and about 50 miles from the New Hampshire state line, the engine stalled. We got it to the side of the road, and eventually got it running just long enough to get us to a rest area ½ mile away. Once there, we shut it off and never got it running again. We called the wrecker service (the same one who towed us the last time) to see if they’d come this far - about 150 miles. We called the insurance company, to get an authorization # and make sure they’d pay for the tow. Then we called the wrecker service again, and told them to come and get us. That was at 2pm. The truck showed up at 9.
Initially, we were frustrated and upset, but then we figured we’d just make the best of it. Dan figured that maybe this happened for a reason. Maybe God was the one who had us break down, and then got us running just long enough to reach a safe rest area. Maybe God knows that when we do get back to New Hampshire, we are going to be so busy that we won’t have quiet time to spend with just each other, and so he forced it on us now. In the end, it wasn’t bad at all - we took a nap, we cuddled, we showered and dressed, we read and watched TV, and I even made chocolate chip cookies.
At 9pm the wrecker came, and he brought a pickup truck with him to tow the boat home with. That was especially nice, first because we didn’t have to leave the boat on the side of the road, and second because we didn’t have to all crowd into the tow truck for the long ride home. We finally made it back to NH just before midnight. Charge for towing: $652.00.
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Monday, Sept. 27
The folks at Gary’s RV Center are getting to feel like family. They all know us now, and ask about the fishing, and life on tour, and even have fishing stories of their own to tell us. We left the camper off there, borrowed a car and drove up to the lake to get our own Bronco, then settled in to Bob & Flo’s house for a few days. In the afternoon, we went over to the school sports fields to search for the kids. What a madhouse. There were 3 separate football practices going on, and something like 8 different soccer games, all happening at once. We did eventually find everyone, and saw at least some of everyone’s game or practice. Afterwards we drove the kids back to their house, and threw the football around with them for a while.
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Tuesday, Sept. 28
We spent the entire day today emptying the boat, and cleaning it up for sale. Dan is meeting with a guy tomorrow who seemed very interested in buying it, when we talked to him on the phone last week. By the time we were done, it looked beautiful again.
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Wednesday, Sept. 29
Dan left this morning and drove up to the lake with the boat, where he is meeting with the guy who was interested in buying it. They rode around on the lake, talked about it, and made a deal. Dan came home with a deposit of $500, and they’ll do the actual transfer next week. Alleluia, the boat is sold! That’s a big load off.
That evening, we went over to the high school for parent’s night. We visited 7 or 8 of the kid’s classrooms, met the teachers, and listened to their policies. We also learned that the high school has it’s own web site, where teachers can post their course expectations and homework assignments. Between that, and an email address for many of the teachers, we should be able to stay much more informed about the kids schooling and progress in the coming year.
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Link to:
October 1999
September 1999