Monday, Nov 1
Dan Writes:
Dick and I have decided to work together throughout the year on a committed basis, sharing all information about baits, patterns, and fishing locations. We started today. He had gotten in some practice here before the cutoff, so he knew a few places to start this week. That was fine with me, since I know nothing about the place and we have only three days now to practice. I took John Hobbie in my boat, and Dick has a non-boater from Ohio with him. We are fishing the Winter Haven Chain of Lakes, which is a series of about 12 small lakes all connected by short canals. In the first lake, Dick’s number 1 spot, we got bit right away. We caught perhaps 8 fish between the 4 of us in 2 or 3 hours. That doesn’t sound spectacular, but from what we’ve been hearing about tough, slow fishing, that is probably pretty good. We left that lake and started fishing the others, and by the end of the day found that those rumors were true. We caught only 2 more fish between us by the time we pulled the boats out.
Annie Writes:
I slept in until 9:00. It was very much needed. I spent the day in the motel room working on the computer. I had not responded to any emails since dad’s death and I needed to catch up. We went out to dinner with Dick & Lena and had a good time, it was of course all fishing talk. I went to Subway and got Dan some grinders or lunch for the week. Seeing that we are in a hotel, I do not have the kitchen facilities I am used to. Dan was in bed early and I went to bed around 11:00.
Tuesday, Nov 2
Dan writes:
The fishing was downright terrible today. Dick’s boat got only 2 bites all day, and both of those fish got off, and in my boat we had about 4 bites, but they were all from one little spot at the corner of a canal, a spot that will be fished by 20 boats before the end of practice tomorrow. The biggest problem here, aside from the apparent small size of the fish population, is the sheer number of boats trying to fish. It seems that there is one boat for every 300 yards of shoreline. If you find a little area that seems to be holding fish, it is likely that a dozen other boats are going to find it also before the tournament starts on Thursday.
Annie writes:
Good news! Now that’s a change. I called for our motorhome and they told me it was all finished. It was the fuel filter this time, and they also found water in the fuel tank. Not happy, but at least it is fixed and it’s not going to cost us thousands of dollars. Now we just need to figure out how to get it down here.
I went shopping with Lena for the day and it was quite successful. I got some Christmas shopping done and Dan’s birthday is also coming up on Nov 9.
I am not use to having to go out to dinner every night. I am missing the quiet time Dan and I usually have at night when we cook dinner together and it is just us.
Wednesday, Nov 3
Dan writes:
Final day of practice for the Ranger M1 Millennium Tournament. The cold weather has arrived, along with the wind. It’s about 50 degrees, with a 15-20 mph north wind. In Florida, cold fronts like this spell disaster for bass fishing. We fished until about 9am in the south end of the lakes. It was difficult fishing, not just because the fish weren’t biting but because I had no butt seat to lean on, and the trolling motor batteries are too weak to move the boat around in the wind. We found nothing that would make us want to fish tomorrow anywhere other than where we started (and caught fish) on Monday, so we pulled the boats out and went out to breakfast instead.
Afterwards, we stopped by the Ranger service trailer to say hello. We ended up borrowing two new trolling motor batteries, as well as a butt seat for the front of the boat. At least that aspect of the fishing will be made easier for tomorrow.
The afternoon was spent restringing line and tying on baits. I’ve got 4 different worm rods and one spinnerbait rod rigged up. They’re calling for temps in the 40’s and more wind for tomorrow. It’s going to be a slow day.
Annie writes:
I woke up around 8:30 and at 9:00 heard our truck pull in the parking lot. I looked out and saw Dan, Dick and Frank arriving home. They were frustrated and said that they were learning nothing new so they decided to come back, get their wives and take us out to breakfast.
I spent the afternoon looking for another motel, we have to be out of here tomorrow. I eventually found a place, and since I am feeling inconvenienced and am tired of moving, I rented the suite they had available. It was only $10 more and I think we deserve it ( trust me it is not a luxury sweet, just has a little more room). Dan doesn’t know about the suite, I just told him I found a new room.
We left at 4:30 to register for the tournament. The line was so long when we got there that we decided to go eat first. They had great buffet of food for us, but while eating the power went out for about an hour. We got in line to register finally (you had to be in line before 6pm) and we waited, and waited, & waited. This is a big tournament, and they have to make sure everyone has all their paperwork. They also have to verify which of the sponsor bonuses everyone qualifies for - if you meet certain requirements for each sponsor then you can win extra cash in the end. The whole process took forever. The pairings meeting was suppose to start at 6:30, but ended up starting at 9:30! We got home at 11:00 and said "we have to get up in 5 hours." Thank goodness Dan had already set up his boat and tackle - a lot of guys did not do it before the meeting and are now going to be up well past midnight.
Thursday, Nov 4
Dan writes:
Low 40’s this morning, it was cold sitting out in the boat for an hour and a half waiting for take-off. There are 208 boats fishing, and we drew number 28. That’s a good draw - there’s a good chance we’ll be the first boat to my number one spot. We took off at 6:30, and it took about 25 minutes to travel up to Lake Mirror. It is 6 lakes up, meaning that you have to travel through 6 no-wake canals to get there. As cold as it is, I’d rather travel like that for 25 minutes than at a flat out 65 mph.
Well sure enough I was the first one there, and because of this I was able to put my first fish in the boat 10 minutes later. People are always asking me why you need a boat that goes 65mph to go fishing. This is why: you need to be able to get to your fish before others do, and a faster boat means less travel time between fishing spots as well.
On Monday we’d had 4 bites in one 200 yard stretch here. We fished it hard for a while today, but eventually expanded our search down the shoreline. The wind is hurting us today - it’s blowing right onto shore at about 15mph. The wind makes boat control difficult, blowing you onto the cover you want to fish, but also forces you to use a heavier weight with your worm, which the fish generally don’t like. My partner eventually caught one, then I caught another at about 9:00. Sometime after 11, we’d had no more bites and decided to move. We fished for spinnerbait fish over the hydrilla, and we flipped the reeds in the little spot were we had 4 bites on Tuesday. Nothing going on at either spot, so I let my partner, J. J. Dean, take me to his fish. It was about 12:30, and we were due in at 2:30. His first spot was covered with boats, so we fished it half-heartedly. His second spot was less crowded, so we sat on it for the last hour throwing a Carolina rig, and J. J. caught his second keeper.
We weighed-in at the water skiing pavilion at Cypress Gardens. As expected the weights are very low. 10th place, out of 208 boats, is only 7 ½ lbs. This is an elimination tournament, where everyone fishes for two days, then the top 50 advance to the 3rd day, and the top 10 to the fourth and final day. My two fish, weighing 3 lbs 7oz, put me in 47th place. We’re excited about this. The weather is improving, so we think the weights will go up tomorrow, but if I can catch only 3 more fish, or 4 ½ lbs, then we should make that top 50 cut.
Annie writes:
4:00 came extremely fast this morning. I went with Dan and lunched him in the water. I parked the trailer at the launch ramp and came home. I was awake so I packed up our room and at 6:00 I went back to bed for a little while. My mom called at 7:30 and just wanted to say good luck, we chatted for a bit until she had to go to work.
While I was checking into our new hotel Cooper was in the truck waiting for me and he found my lunch in the back seat. He ate a whole meatball grinder in less than five minutes, I was not happy.
I went to Cypress Gardens around 11:00 and went to see a few shows before the weigh in. I met up with Lena and we went out to eat. Dan was due in at 2:30, the first flight, well the 3rd flight was coming in and I still did not see Dan. I decided I better go look for him because a lot of guys were not going through the line because they did not have fish. I found him in the bag line, boy was I excited to see him there.
After the weigh in we ran a few errands and went to our hotel, Dan was to tired to go out to eat so I ordered take out and brought it home. We were in bed by 9:00.
November 5, Friday
Dan writes:
I had an early boat number yesterday, which means that I was one of the last boats out today. I wasn’t concerned - my little Lake Mirror didn’t receive a lot of pressure yesterday, so I didn’t think I’d have much company there today either. Also, a late start in the morning means a much later check-in time in the afternoon (3:50 vs. 2:30pm). My partner was Jack Bell, another full-time fisherman who I know from fishing the trail. We rode up to Lake Mirror and got busy fishing. We calculated that in order to make the top 50 cut at the end of today, Jack needed to catch 2 lbs. and I needed 4 ½. Unfortunately, fishing today was even slower today than yesterday. The wind was still a major hindrance, making worm fishing difficult, but I eventually got my first bite and battled a good fish, almost 3 lbs., into the boat. The day continued very slow, but we had faith in the area and expected the bite to pick up as the day wore on. It didn’t. Jack finally got bit and boated one small fish, about a pound, and I got one more bite and boated a one pound fish also. Neither one of us was confident about making the cut with what we had, but it might be close.
Back at the weigh-in there is good news - everyone is struggling today, and it looks like the weights may have gone down. Not only that but when I pull my two fish out to weigh them they seem to have gotten bigger during the day. They weigh in at 4 lbs 3 oz, and when the scales close I am in 32nd place! I have made the top 50 cut, and get to fish again tomorrow! Not only that, but all of the weights reset to zero in the morning, so I’ll actually be tied 1st going into the semi-final round!
On the non-boater side, Jack’s fish from today easily put him in the next round, and J. J., my partner from yesterday, also caught enough today to keep him fishing tomorrow. It’s a good feeling to know that you’ve helped both your partners advance to the semi-finals.
Annie writes:
What a day, I spent most of the day praying for Dan. I could not wait for him to get in. He was due in at 3:50 so I had a long day. I did laundry and a few groceries and then I went to Cypress Gardens because I was anxious. I met up with Phyllis Bacon, whose husband is also a pro, and we got snacks and hung out for a while.
When I finally spotted Dan, I asked if they needed weigh-in bags, and he said 2. That was a good sign. Then he told me he had only 2 fish, and that made me nervous. He seemed to be right on the bubble of being in the top 50. After all the fish had been weighed, I was a wreck waiting to hear the top 50 names called out. Once they started, every name called made me more and more nervous. I was holding on to Dan as they said "Boat # 32, Daniel Keyes". Well, I gave out a hoot and you would have thought we’d just won the tournament! I was so happy! I called both our moms right after we found out, and they were very excited.
Now the work begins, we had to go directly to a meeting for the top 50 contestants, and it was 6:30 and dark when we got out. Dan’s boat was still in the water so we had to get that out, and then empty the entire boat into the Bronco back at the hotel. We then had to drive over to the Cypress Gardens boat yard and load all the gear into our new boat - all of the contestants fish out of brand new, identically rigged Ranger 520’s on day three. While all this was going on we ordered a pizza so we would not have to slow down to eat. By the time we were done it was 9:50, and we then had to run over to WalMart, and then to Kmart, looking for a gold Rattletrap. Nobody had one, so we called John Hobbie and he let us borrow a couple of his. We got back to the hotel at 10:30 and began to restring line, tie on new baits, get Dan’s clothes ready for tomorrow. It was after 11:00 when we got to bed, exhausted, excited, and relieved. Dan deserves this, and it is GREAT!!!
November 6, Saturday
Dan writes:
Had to be at the boat yard by 5am., at which time they hooked up to the 50 boats and launched them in order. Out in the staging area, where we awaited the take-off, the shoreline and grandstands were loaded with people - staff members, family, spectators, and lots of press. All of the Christmas lights at Cypress Gardens were lit, and it was a pretty impressive sight. We stood for the national anthem, and then filed out one-by-one past the grandstands as our names were read over the loudspeakers.
We now have 8 hours of fishing in which we try to make one more cut - to the top 10 this time. In the past 2 days I have had only 4 bites. I have been fortunate in that I have caught every fish that bit, and all of those fish were fairly big, for this lake anyway and compared to what others were catching. I am changing strategy today. Two bites per day was enough to get me to the top 50, but I don’t feel it will get me to the top 10. I think I’m going to need around 7 lbs. today.
In a deal like this, as soon as you find out you’ve made the cut, people who did not make it all of a sudden open up with advice on how and where you can catch more fish the next day. Since I didn’t feel my area was good enough, I chose to listen to two of the people I trust and go fish their fish today instead of my own. Dwayne Horton said that if the wind was right and was pushing water through the canal into the lower lake, then we could load the boat in one little spot - his partner had lost 5 fish on 5 consecutive casts yesterday. We tried his spot first today, but the wind wasn’t right for us, and we left after and hour and a half without a bite. Next we went over to Dick Bowman’s area, and fished that gold Rattletrap that’s been rumored to be hot the last couple of days. We fished a grassbed for 300-400 yards before getting near David Fritts. David led the tournament after day 1, and since these weren’t any fish that I had found myself, I wasn’t going to move in on him any closer. We ran across the lake to another of Dick’s spots, and promptly caught two 10" fish on the Rattletrap, and then for the first time in this tournament, I lost a fish while flipping a worm into heavy Kissimmee grass.
We continued moving. My partner for the day was Brent Brady, an excellent and experienced fisherman from east Tennessee. He made the top 50 cut by throwing small worms on light line with light weights out over the eel grass and hydrilla beds. We started working our way up the chain of lakes, applying this tactic on 3 or 4 of his spots. It didn’t work, and out of desperation we eventually found ourselves back in Lake Mirror, where I had been the last two days. Every time I’ve come to this lake I’ve liked the look of it better. It’s the only lake I’ve found that has pepper grass, and each time I come I find more and more of it. I believe that if the winds had been calm, or had blown from another direction, then I could have done real well in here this week. The fish in this pepper grass are just bigger, on average, than anywhere else. As it was though, we’ve had 10-20 mph winds for the last 3 days, blowing in on shore, and the worm fishing has been very difficult. Between Brent and I today we had 3 bites in Lake Mirror, and we missed all of them.
We weighed-in at 2:30 amidst a great deal of fanfare. Even those fisherman without fish, like Brent and I, got to go up on stage and talk for a while. I explained that since I didn’t have confidence in my pattern from the first two days, I ended up scrambling around all day today, and that obviously didn’t work. I then got to thank Ranger Boats and Evinrude Outboards, first for hosting this tournament and then for having the faith and confidence in me that allowed me to get here in the first place. Finally, Charlie Evans, the emcee, put in a nice plug for Annie and me and CITGO by mentioning our TV commercials.
So that’s it for me. I’m done fishing the M1 tournament, having finished in 46th place out of 208. A lot of factors in the last two weeks had combined and seemed to be trying to keep us away, but an inner voice had told us to persevere and overcome those hurdles. Apparently it wasn’t meant for us to win, but rather just to be here. It was an excellent experience for us - that of making the top 50 cut and going through everything involved in preparing for the semi-finals day. There’s that, as well as just being there to see, be seen by, and talk to lots of influential people in the tournament fishing industry. We feel we made the right decision to come.
Annie writes:
It is 4:00 am and my eyes are burning so badly that I can’t see, but the excitement is coming back and it makes you forget how little sleep you had. We left the hotel at 4:45 and got to the boat. Dan’s partner was already there. I went to the take-off site and met John & Laraine, who had come to see them take off. It is wonderful having all these friends here, everyone knowing how hard Dan worked to get there.
Each of the 50 boats came with disposable cameras in the glove box for the fisherman, and Dan and his partner were taking pictures of each other already. They will not have time to think of it once they start fishing. After take-off John & Laraine took me out to breakfast. I am already nervous about the weigh in. It is awful being at home, because Dan already knows whether he has fish or not, and I have no clue. I am trying to think positively, and I can really see him finishing in the top 10 for tomorrow. On the other hand, you try not to set yourself up for disappointment.
Back home, I tried to organize our hotel and start packing the truck so we won’t have as much to do tomorrow. I ended up going back to Cypress Gardens at 11:30. I took our loaner boat back to the Ranger guys, then hung out on the lawn, sunning and watching time go slowly by.
Finally: weigh-in time. I could not wait with the rest of the crowd, so I sneaked around the corner to where Dan could see me. He signaled to me that he had no fish. I felt badly for him; it is too bad he’s not going to be fishing tomorrow, but I am extremely happy that he just made the cut to today. In the end I am really glad that we chose to come. I think we made the right decision.
Sunday, November 7
Today we slept in until 8:00. Dan’s mom, his brother Kevin and aunt Patti drove over from the coast and arrived about 10am. We all played tourist at Cypress Gardens for a few hours before the weigh-in. The weigh-in was televised live nationwide, but for some reason there was no sound broadcast over the loudspeakers to the audience at Cypress Gardens. This was extremely disappointing, since after all the hoopla thousands of us ended up sitting for 2 ½ hours without a clue as to what was going on. One saving grace though was that we could the big-screen TV, and we got to watch 2 of our own CITGO commercials during the show.
On the way out we said good-bye to a great number of people, then went back to the hotel for a rest before going out to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. We are staying one more night in our hotel here.
Monday, Nov. 8
We checked-out around 9am, and left to go to Dan’s mom’s house in Vero Beach. We decided to stop and look at some motorhome dealerships on the way. Understandably, we’re a bit frustrated with our own motorhome, which is sitting at a truck stop some 800 miles away right now. We went into a couple of motorhomes that actually cost $1.2 million each! It was fun, but not very practical. We finally got to mom’s house around 8pm, ate a big spaghetti dinner, then just hung around and conversed for the evening.
Tuesday, Nov. 9
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAN!!!
Yes, today is Dan’s birthday. I had finished shopping for him a long time ago but, guess what? All his gifts are in the motorhome, in North Carolina. Since I am one of those people who believe that your birthday should be on your birthday - not the day after, not the week after, I had no choice but to go shopping. I bought him a bathing suit, a watch, and some Birkenstock sandals. We had a good day. Aunt Patti came over to help us celebrate, and we had a big turkey dinner. The kids called to wish him a happy birthday, along with Roger, my brother, and my mom & dad too.
I was glad we were here in Vero for Dan’s birthday. Some of it was pretty difficult for Dan & his mom, seeing that Dad is not here. You get so used to life the way it is, and then when something this big happens it is hard to understand. I believe that Dad is in a better place now and watching over all of us, but it is such a strange feeling to be at his house and not have him here.
Wednesday, Nov. 10
Dan is back into his early morning mode - up at 4 or 5am and working on the computer. Actually, he has been complaining about his computer for a while now, so for his birthday Mom told him she’d buy him a new one. Well, not giving her a chance to rethink the offer, Dan spent about 8 hours this morning doing research through the internet, and ended up buying a new computer on-line, to be delivered to our door here tomorrow.
Later, we went out to do errands. We got Dan the right size sandals, then he dropped me at the mall and went someplace else, to research setting up a local area network to hook our two computers together.
Thursday, Nov. 11
Sure enough, Dan’s new computer arrived today. Don’t even try to have a conversation with him now for a few days. I went to the mall and did some more Christmas shopping. I’m not the kind of person who can wait ‘till the last minute for this sort of thing. Dan is, though he has promised me that this year will be different. He has yet to make his first purchase.
Afterwards, I put on my bathing suit and got into the hot tub. Mom surprised me by showing up in her suit and joining me. We had a nice long soak, and a nice long talk. This is good for her (and me!).
Friday, Nov. 12
Piddled around most of the day - walked the dog, went for a bike ride, swept out the garage. Still can’t talk to my husband. He’s having trouble getting this network-thing set up. Dan’s mom was going out with friends tonight, so at 4:00 we went and picked up Patti, and the three of us went to an early movie and dinner afterwards.
Saturday, Nov. 13
Same as yesterday, pretty much just hung-around, while Dan tried to get his network set up. At 5:00 we all went to church, then down to the beach area, where they close off the street once-a-month to have a big outdoor party with live music, dancing, and food.
Sunday, Nov. 14
Mom saw in the newspaper that there was a surfing contest today, so I went to look for it. There were about 20 surfers out, but no contest. The waves were not that good and I do not have my surfboard with me anyway. Of course even if I did I would not have gone in the water because of all the jellyfish out today. I saw at least 10 on the beach while just walking. I left the beach and went to hang out at the pool for a while - the water was 84 and there were about 10 people there. Dan worked on the computer all day and mom went for a much needed massage. I came back to mom’s house and cleaned all of her screens on the porch, swept out the garage, and packed the truck for our journey tomorrow. I don’t know how it will all fit -we seem to have accumulated a lot in the past 2 weeks. Patti brought over her homemade meatballs for dinner, and she brought extras for us to take tomorrow when we leave. They were delicous and really hit the spot.
Monday, Nov. 15
We finished packing and left moms house at 9:30am. It was hard to say goodbye, but we’ll be back very soon. Dan’s brother Ted is coming in a couple of days to keep Mom company, and he’s bringing his son Nathaniel, who is sure to bring everyone smiles and laughter. Dan and I drove all day, stopping only for gas, restrooms and food, and made it to North Carolina and the motorhome at 10pm. The camper was locked up in security, so that made us feel a little relieved. We paid for it, they unlocked the gate, and it was good to be back in our house again. EXCEPT... Wait a minute, this day would not be complete without a little spin. The motorhome would not start. The batteries were dead. Good thing we have that switch on the dashboard that automatically jumps the engine battery over to the interior coach batteries. But guess what - that system was dead too. Dead batteries means no lights, no water, no refrigerator. Oh No, the refrigerator, that must be what that smell is. We jump-started both battery systems off of the Bronco, drove out of the security area, and parked in the parking lot. After getting the generator started, we turned the lights on and, OH MY GOSH!!!!!!!!! It looked like someone had gotten killed in here. I had done groceries just before we left and our freezer was so full you couldn’t fit another thing in it. Well, the freezer had thawed when we were gone, and $200 worth of meat was ruined. Not only that, but it had leaked all it’s juices from the freezer, down through the refrigerator, down the outside of the fridge and across the kitchen floor. The smell was awful, and it was 32 degrees out but we had to open all the windows to air the place out. We were up until 1:30am cleaning. It was nasty. This is the life of luxury we are living, that everyone wishes they had!! I really hope they are reading this month’s journal.
Tuesday, Nov. 16
We woke up glad it was a new day. We got a little organized and started driving. It actually went pretty well today. We drove from North Carolina into Tennessee, where we stayed at a Flying J for the night. We cooked spaghetti for supper - since we have nothing in the refrigerator we did not have a big choice. Dan worked on the new computer some more, and it looks like he finally got this network thing set up and running. What this means is that we can both be working at the same time, on two separate computers but sharing the same database.
Tonight I am unpacking and still trying to get organized. It is difficult with both of us driving, when we stop there is only so much you can do. On the way up from Florida yesterday we had a discussion about whether or not we should really be looking for a new motorhome, and with things going the way they are we decided that we should. Not only are we spending a lot of time and money fixing this one lately, but this new sponsor deal that we are getting ready to sign includes having them paint or cover the entire motorhome with their brightly colored graphics and logos. No one is going to want to see us broken down on the side of the road once we’re done up like that.
Wednesday, Nov. 17
I’d had an upset stomach during the night so did not sleep well. My husband is so wonderful that he did not wake me until 9am. I’m sure he heard me getting up during the night, and besides that he knows that I am not a good morning person. Since we’d spent the night at a Flying J, we spent the morning taking showers, dumping our holding tanks, filling the fresh water tank, and checking the air in one set of tires that appeared to be low. It was low alright - the inside tire (on a set of duals) was totally flat, forcing the outside tire to carry twice as much weight as it was meant for. We don’t know when this happened, but decided we needed it fixed NOW - we were lucky it didn’t blow on us while on the highway. We spent the morning at the truck stop getting this problem fixed. It was 2:00 before we could start driving. Camper for sale! Camper for sale!
Thursday, Nov 18
We stayed at a Flying J truck stop in West Memphis last night. We are headed to the Ranger factory in Flippin, Arkansas to pick up a loaner boat, and will be coming back this way after we get it, so we decided to leave the Bronco here. It is nice driving together in the camper for a change. We arrived in Flippin early in the evening and stayed at a Walmart parking lot overnight.
Friday, Nov 19
We woke up, showered and left Walmart at 8:30. We were at the Ranger factory nice and early and finally met all the people we speak to on the phone all the time. They were all very nice and helpful. We went on a great tour of the factory and it was incredible. We got to see the whole process of how they build Rangers, one at a time. They produce 24 boats per day. During our tour 2 of the guys in the factory recognized us from our Citgo commercials, and came over to talk to us about them. This is a really neat feeling - when you are just going about your business and people stop to say "Hey, I know you!" It seems like it may be starting to come together for us, all our hard work is beginning to pay off.
We left Ranger at 3:00 with the loaner boat, anxious to get to Alabama. We drove as far as West Memphis, where the Bronco is, and stayed there for the night again in a heavy rainstorm.
Saturday, Nov 20
We got up early, eager to get on the road again. We got the motorhome ready for travel, filled tanks that needed to be filled and dumped tanks that needed to be dumped. We drove long and hard and arrived at Wind Creek campground on Lake Martin at about 3pm. It is so nice to be parked now and know we do not have to move for a week or two. We still do not have any food in the fridge, so we ate macaroni & cheese for dinner. Tomorrow I will go out and do groceries and laundry.
Sunday, Nov 21
Dan cannot go fishing until he gets all his tackle moved into the new boat, and his Lowrance GPS unit installed. He spent the morning doing that, while I unpacked from Florida and sorted our laundry. At noon I launched Dan in the water, dropped the trailer at our campsite and went to do errands. I bought us some great steaks for dinner tonight, which we’ll cook out on the charcoal grill. We deserve it and I can’t wait. I went to do laundry (7 loads!) and got home around 5:00. Dan was in working on his GPS unit, downloading the Lake Martin map from the computer. I cooked us a nice big dinner and then we lounged on the couch and watched a movie, enjoying just being able to relax for a bit. We were in bed by 9:00. Oh, there is no fishing to write about, he just rode around some today and got the boat broke-in, and made sure everything was working properly.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Monday, Nov 22
Annie writes:
Today is cleaning day. I cleaned the house, and washed the kitchen floor 3 times to get all the meat juice off. I am feeling a lot better about our home now that it is getting organized. That doesn’t mean I do not still want a new one. I found mail from last month that we had not even gotten to, since we had to leave in such a rush. I have a pile of paperwork to go through.
Dan writes:
It feels good to be back on the water again, but it’s a huge lake and I don’t have a plan yet as to how to start fishing it. I’ve been trying to get ahold of Greg Toth, who I fished with at 1000 Islands in September and who has offered to show me around some here. This is his home lake. I brought the phone with me in the boat and called him around 9am. We agreed to meet tomorrow morning and go in his boat for the day.
Today, I’m just fishing places where Craig and I had caught some last year. I caught a few in the morning. It was kind-of slow but picked up as the day wore on, and by afternoon, the fishing was pretty good, at least in the creek that I was in. You could go down the bank and catch ‘em on a Rattletrap. There were also fish schooling up on top, and when I would catch those there would be 2 or 3 others that would come up with it. Finally, there were fish biting down in the brush piles too, but I was having trouble with those fish. I had had 10 or 12 bites on a Carolina rig, but managed to hook only one fish. I finally decided to NOT set the hook on the next fish, but instead let him swim away with the bait and see what happened. When I got the next bite I just put the reel in freespool, and that fish took off out of the brush - he must have gone 20 or 30 feet before stopping to eat the lizard. I think what’s happening is that there are so many fish down there that they are just grabbing the tail of my bait and racing away with it to get it away from the competition. I’ll try to slow down on the hooksets from now on.
It was fun fishing today - I had a lot of bites, but no big fish. Most of the fish I caught were spotted bass - with a few largemouth mixed in. My 5 fish limit today would have weighed barely 5 pounds. It’s better than nothing, and as I say it was fun, but obviously this is not a big-fish creek.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, Nov 23
Annie writes:
I spent most of the day packing and getting things ready to go. Ron & Phyllis Poirier came in today and we visited with them for a while tonight. I am getting excited to go visit our families for the weekend. I went and got my nails done and did a few errands, there is not to much in this town, I can not even find the post office. We ate early and were in bed by 10:00.
Dan writes:
Met Greg Toth at the launch ramp at 5:30. It was very foggy this morning, so instead of racing down to the far end of the lake we slowly wandered down, with Greg pointing out a number of spots for me to come back to and try on my own. When we did get to fishing, it was very slow - we had only 2 or 3 bites before noon-time. The fog stayed with us until late morning, and while we thought this should make fishing better, apparently the fish thought otherwise. Things picked up some in the afternoon, with bright sunshine and 72 degree weather, but some wind would have helped - it was dead flat calm all day. By the time we quit at 3:00 I had lots of places marked on my map. I talked to Greg about my relationship with Craig Sahms - we have agreed to work together in these B.A.S.S. tournaments and share ALL information, and Greg is fine with that. Since Greg has never been to Okeechobee, Craig and I can guide him around when we go there in January.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Wednesday, Nov 24
Annie writes:
I woke up at 6:30 and could not go back to sleep. I called my nephew Brandon and we are going out together Friday for our special time together. I made Dan lunch, picked up the campsite somewhat and made a list of things to do today.
I gave Phyllis a ride to the next town over, which is 30 miles away, so she could get a rent a car. I made some phone calls while I was out because we have very bad phone service at our campsite. I finished packing and got Cooper a baby-sitter finally - Phyllis & Ron are going to watch him for a day and then Craig should show up Friday to help out. We were in bed by 8:00.
Dan writes:
Fishing still pretty slow today. I stayed up in the north end of the lake, hoping to find another creek that was loaded with fish the way that one was two days ago. I caught 3 or 4 little fish, and only one keeper fish, all day.
My pre-practice is now over - we are flying back to New Hampshire tomorrow for the holiday and won’t be back until Monday. That leaves me Tuesday and Wednesday of next week to finish practice, and the tournament starts on Thursday. Tonight I wrote to Craig (via email) and told him everything I know. I’m also leaving him my map, so that he can go and look at some of the places Greg told us to go. Craig will fish through the weekend, and by Monday perhaps he will have figured something else out.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Thursday, Nov 25
Thanksgiving Day:
We left the camper at 6:30 because I thought the traffic would be horendous. I was wrong. There was no one on the road and the airport was empty. Our flight was a little late. We were supposed to leave at 9:40 and the plane arrived at 9:40. I am using our flight to catch up on sleep, I had bad dreams last night and could not get back to sleep. We were late getting to our connection and Dan and I had to run to catch our next flight. They were just closing the doors when we got there. There were problems with the airplane which causes us to sit for another hour. We finally arrived in NH, got a rental car and got to my parents house for 4:00. At 5:00 all my relatives came over for a Christmas party my mom has every year. We had a great time and got to visit with my family, whom we have not seen for a while.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Friday, Nov 26
BIGGEST SHOPPING DAY OF THE YEAR.
Of, course I was shopping. I spent the day with my nephew Brandon who has wanted to have a special day with Auntie all summer. We had a great time, going to the movies, out to eat, and shopping. We were on our way home when Dan called; he had been out with his kids for the day and they were currently at Kate’s boyfriend Alfred’s hockey game, and wanted us to stop by. We did, but had to leave before too long to get Brandon home for a nap. Busy day!
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Saturday, Nov 27
We picked up the kids at 9am and drove down to Massachussetts. Dan’s uncle is a priest and has just had a new church built. Today he held a dedication mass just for family members. The church was absolutly breathtaking. We got to see a lot of Dan’s family, and there was a reception after church.
We went to my parents house for the afternoon and evening. Dan & Kate went to another hockey game, while the boys and myself stayed home. I wrapped presents all night because tomorrow morning we are having Christmas with my family, since we will not be here for the holiday.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Sunday, Nov 28
Christmas morning! My brother and his family came over for 9:00 and we opened up all our gifts to each other. Mom cooked us all a big breakfast and it was just like the real Christmas morning, with her tree up and the whole house decorated.
We dressed and went to Dan’s brother’s house before church. At 3:00 there was a memorial service for Dan’s dad. It was very difficult. There were about 200 people in attendance. I did pretty good holding back my tears this time, until I saw Dan’s old bass club friends come down the aisle. This is when you really realize how lucky you are to have the friends you do. They were a big part of helping Dan and I get through this day. There was a reception after the mass that lasted until almost 9pm, and we got to socialize and visit with so many friends and family members.
After the reception we took the kids back to thier home in Concord, and it was once again very hard to say goodbye. It is never easy, and it makes us very melancholy after we leave. The good thing is they will be in Florida with us for the Christmas holiday, so we at least have that to look forward to.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Monday, Nov 29
Alarm clock went off at 3:30am!!!!!!! We showered, finished packing, loaded the car and were out of the house by 4:30. At the airport we returned the rental car, checked our baggage, got breakfast and were at the gate for 5:30, just in time to load the plane. WRONG. They announced that there is a crew break or something like that and that the plane will leave a half hour late. My first thought of course was I could have slept for another half hour. Oh well. We finally got on the plane, and I slept almost the entire way back to Alabama.
Back at the campground, Cooper was of course thrilled to see us. The babysitters gave him a good report, and there’s nothing torn up in the camper. We got back too late for Dan to go fishing, but he talked with both Greg and Craig, who have both had some good days on the water since we last saw them. The guys made a plan to go out tomorrow morning, and we all went to bed.
____________________________________________________________________________________________
Tuesday, Nov 30
Dan writes:
At 7am it was 28 degrees outside. We feel bad for the guys who are sleeping in tents. Craig and I went in 2 boats down to the south end of the lake. He had been fishing points with a Carolina rigged finesse worm, and while not getting a lot of bites, his fish were all 2-3 lbs.
On Saturday he thinks he had a 12-14 lb. limit, with smaller limits the following days, but this is GREAT compared to what we are hearing from other people. Today we attempted to duplicate what he had been doing, but apparently the cold weather has shut things down. Between the two of us we had about 5 bites all day, which is not encouraging. This is not my style of fishing either - slowly dragging a Carolina rig across barren points in 20-25’ of water. If it’s working, that’s one thing; but when it’s not I can’t keep it up. Small fish are better than no fish at all, so I ran back up the lake to see if the fish that I found last week, in Madwind Creek, are still biting. They are - I had 4 bites in about and hour and a half. Tomorrow, the last day of practice, I’m going to stay up around here and look for more fish up in this area.
Annie writes:
I did not fish today, it was freezing and I unpacked and did the laundry. I am trying to get organized because we leave again on Saturday. I cooked steaks on the grill for dinner. We had to go register for the tournament tonight so while we were out we went to Walmart, Dan can always find some tackle he might need and I did some groceries.
Link to:
December 1999
November 1999