Saturday, April 1
(Beaver Lake, Arkansas)
Dan writes:
Jerry and I sat down last night and he told me everything he had learned about the fishing this week. I was excited to get out fishing today, to pick up practicing where he left off. I was on the water at 6am to see the top 10 EverStart finalists blast off, and I chased them for a little while to see what direction they were headed (every one of them headed for the dam). I eventually peeled off and started fishing according to the information Jerry gave me. My first fish of the day weighed 4lbs, 5oz. Thanks, Jerry.
I fished until about 2:00, caught 6 or 7 keepers, and my best 5 weighed 11lbs, 9oz. I quit early because I wanted to go see the EverStart weigh-in at WalMart, to see how good the top 10 guys were catching them. As they weighed-in, one at a time, I couldn’t believe it as every one of the first 9 guys weighed 10 pounds or less. Finally the number one guy from yesterday, Curt Lytle, weighed-in 12-something and won the tournament.
Annie writes:
I stayed home today and worked on cleaning the entire house from top to bottom. We are going home after this tournament and I did not want to keep it to the last minute. I got most of it done. My Mom called and we talked for a while. Dan came home and we went to the weigh in and then we went out to eat with Jerry and Carol. Things are starting to get better and I have a very good feeling about this tournament, it is our turn!!
Sunday, April 2
(Beaver Lake, Arkansas)
Annie writes:
Dan did not go fishing today, we slept in and it was wonderful. We finally got up and Dan went out to run some errands while I did some computer work. I got a lot accomplished, I made a living will, did some laundry, made a compilation of our fan mail for my dad, and printed out a copy of our journal. My parents do not have a computer and I know my dad would really enjoy the journal. I also got to talk to Jeff on the phone for a while.
Monday, April 3
(Beaver Lake, Arkansas)
Dan writes:
Trailered up and launched near the dam today. Attempted to duplicate in new areas the little deal I had going on two days ago. Temp was around 50 all day, no sun, and the wind blew 15 to 20mph out of the north, which made for difficult Carolina-rigging. The fish were much more finicky today, and I had to scale down to 8 lb. line to get any bites, and then downsize my Carolina rig weight because the fish were dropping the bait as soon as they felt the weight. I had 6 or 7 bites all day, but either missed or broke off most of them, and put only one keeper in the boat. Water temp 52 degrees all day, and no sign of any fish moving shallow.
Annie writes:
It was not suppose to be so nice today so I stayed home and worked on projects we have going on. Did some laundry and got to talk to Jeff & Kate and my sister in law on the computer. I have been talking to them just about every day now, sometimes its a lot easier than trying to get in touch by phone.
Tuesday, April 4
(Beaver Lake, Arkansas)
Annie writes:
Dan did not go fishing today because it is cold and windy and not suppose to be a nice day. He decided to stay home and work on the website all day. He could use the room and time alone in the camper so I went out to run some errands. I mailed my Dad his package, did some groceries, went to the mall and ran a few other errands.
Wednesday, April 5
(Beaver Lake, Arkansas)
Dan writes:
Annie and I fished up around the dam again today. The weather was sunny and much warmer, but the wind blew even harder than it did yesterday. Blew us right off the lake, really, with gusts up to 44mph. Couldn’t fish anywhere out in the open water, and by 2:00 we’d had enough, after catching only one fish. Water temp still 52 degrees.
Annie writes:
I went fishing with Dan today because it is suppose to be in the 80’s today and thought I could work on my tan while helping Dan practice. I came home with nothing but raccoon eyes and not one fish! It was so windy, the gusts were over 40mph and it made it seem a lot colder than it was. We seemed to spend more time just trying to stay in the boat from the wind instead of fishing. We came home and Dan was exhausted, he took a nap. A friend we have met from fishing, John Cantalana, came over to visit for a while. Dick arrived today and came over to go over the map with Dan and we ordered pizza as an easy dinner for us.
Thursday, April 6
(Beaver Lake, Arkansas)
Dan writes:
We had to drive out to Tulsa this afternoon to meet with CITGO, so I had only a half day to fish today. I decided to fish upriver, fish fast, and fish like it was a tournament day, trying to at least look at if not fish every area where I had caught fish last year. In three hours of this I caught two 16" largemouth, and had 2 or 3 other bites, all on a jig. That’s not bad - and it makes this upriver area worth looking at again when I get back from Tulsa. Water temp made it up to the mid-50’s today.
Annie writes:
I got up at 7:30 with a lot to do. I cleaned the house, showered, got our home ready for travel and got organized. Dan came home at 12:30 and got cleaned up. We unhooked and were on the road by 1:30. It was a great ride to Tulsa, it was the first time we got to ride in the motorhome together, I really miss it. I also got to drive which went very well, Dan got a little nervous when I had to go through the toll booth, but it was a piece of cake. When we got to Tulsa we were not sure which road we were suppose to park on, after driving around the CITGO building our phone rang and it Ron Harness, one of the men we work with at CITGO and he could see us out his window, it is a 20 story building, he gave us directions as we were driving leading us all the way to our parking spot. It was pretty funny. We met up with the rest of the pro staff and went to our photo shoot location. It went well and we had sandwiches there and then we got back to our motorhome around 8:30 and slept parked right next to the CITGO building.
Friday, April 7
(Beaver Lake, Arkansas)
Dan writes:
Got back from Tulsa around 2:00, and managed to get in 3 or 4 hours on the water. Met up with Dick out there, who had managed to catch 8 or 9 keeper spots (spotted bass) so far today. Trouble is, a limit of spots upriver like this is only going to weigh 5-8 pounds, so we need to find some largemouth too if we’re going to fish upriver. This is what we focused on this afternoon. I managed to catch one, on a jig, but it was short. Dick caught 3 flipping, with one keeper. The size limit for largemouth is 15", whereas for spots it’s only 12. Water temp now 57-58 degrees upriver, and the water has some color to it once you get up a little ways.
Annie writes:
No sleeping in this morning. I was up and dressed and at work by 7:00. We were in the CITGO home office building with Brian Coleman greeting employees. The rest of the CITGO pro staff was greeting employees outside by the 2 CITGO bass boats they parked right out front. It went really well and we met lots of people. At least 30 employees recognized us from our CITGO commercials. We had a brief meeting with Ron after the meet & greet session and then Coopers biggest fan, Nancy Werhane, who we also work with at CITGO, came out to meet him and give him a toy, then we were on the road. I got to drive the last half of the trip and we pulled over to switch drivers right after the toll booth. As we were switching 2 trucks towing CITGO boats pulled over behind us. It was Frank & William who were also on their way back to AR, they wanted to make sure everything was OK and came in for a quick visit. We got home and Dan got in the truck and went right out fishing. I got the house set up again and the wind was really picking up and Dan came in around 6:00. The wind kept picking up throughout the night and the temperature started dropping.
Katelyn got her picture in the paper for tennis and she called us to let us know and say she would save it for us, we were at work when she called, but we got to talk to her on the computer tonight. . My brother also called from my parents house and they saw the picture. We go the article of her off the internet, but could not get a picture. My Dad got my package I sent him of the fan mail we have gotten and he was already done reading it, he loved it.
Saturday, April 8
(Beaver Lake, Arkansas)
Dan writes:
Was going to meet Dick at 7am this morning, but when I got up it was 28 degrees with a wind chill of 15. I met him around 9:30 instead. We fished upriver all day today, and I tried all morning and much of the afternoon to force that jig to work, but just couldn’t do it. Finally late in the day I switched back over to the Carolina rig, and managed to catch a few spots that way, maybe 3 keepers, but they’re still just 12-13" fish. Need bigger ones.
Annie writes:
When I got up this morning I had a very nice surprise. Dan was still home and working on the computer to update our web site. He told me it was freezing out, I had no idea. He finally decided to get out on the water and I told him to invite Dick to dinner. I cooked a big stew just in case Dick will be here and worked on some emails, our journal, and did some laundry. John & Laraine came in today and it was wonderful to see them again. Dan came home and Dick quickly followed. We ate dinner and then John & Laraine came over to visit for a bit. My Mom called and we talked for a while and we also talked to Chris on the computer.
Sunday, April 9
(Beaver Lake, Arkansas)
Dan writes:
Again a thick, thick frost on the boat this morning, but it warmed up nicely by this afternoon. Took John Hobbie out with me today, and we met Dick and trailered down to the dam. Pretty slow in the morning, but it picked up some later in the day. Once again I was trying to force something to work - the Carolina rig that worked for me last week, but John out of the back of the boat just waxed me fishing a little 4" Texas-rigged ring worm on 8lb test line. I caught maybe 3 keepers, but he had 5 or 6 that would have weighed right around 10 lbs. Fish like this out of the back of the boat will definitely put him in the top 10 come tournament day. I finally switched over in the last hour and caught a couple myself, so this is what I’m going to do tomorrow, the last full day of practice.
Annie writes:
John went out fishing with Dan today. I did some laundry and went to lunch with Laraine, Elaine & Judy. I also took care of some business and our mail. We had it shipped to John & Laraine’s house and they brought it down for us. Dan came in around 7:00 and we had dinner just the two of us. We got to talk to Kate and Chris for a while on the computer and it is so great because now we can say that we will be home next week.
Monday, April 10
(Beaver Lake, Arkansas)
Dan writes:
Warmer this morning, finally. About 45 degrees when Annie and I launched the boat at 8:00. We ran with helmets and gloves though, about 20 minutes down towards the dam, to the area where I had caught a big fish last Sunday. I’ve been saving this area for a day when we had good weather; I wanted to spend a whole day in there and go over it real good, because it had big fish in there last year too. It was too windy almost every day last week, and I didn’t want to eliminate the area unnecessarily by practicing there on a bad weather day, but finally today things calmed down a bit..
Things were a little slower than I had hoped for. Annie caught the first two keepers, on a Carolina-rig, then I caught two, but none of them were of any size. We caught short fish, and broke off a number of fish because we had to downsize to 8lb. line in order to get bit in this clear water. Also, we’re fishing in a lot of standing timber, which is very damaging to this light line. When the wind did start blowing again later in the day, we tied on our spinnerbaits and started catching fish right away, but again a lot of short fish and only one keeper each. I eventually went back to the rig and finished out a limit that might have weighed 6 pounds.
What we accomplished today was to eliminate this area. I have other areas with bigger fish. It would have been nice though to have this place to come in to to catch a big fish, after catching an 8 or 9 lb. limit on these other spots.
Annie writes:
Got up early and went fishing with my husband for the day to try and help. I was off to a good start when I caught the first 2 keepers of the day. That came to a quick end and things slowed down drastically for me. It started getting windy and I caught a few trees, but there were no fish in them. Dan did pretty good, I ended up with 3 keepers for the day. William Fletcher, another pro staff member came to visit us for a while on the water, he had Chuck Young with him for the day who brings the CITGO race car to these events. We came in, cleaned up and Dick came over for a quick visit. Then we went out to dinner with John & Laraine, Elaine & Bobby, and Judy and Rodney, we had a great time and went to bed as soon as we got home.
Tuesday, April 11
(Beaver Lake, Arkansas)
Dan writes:
Bad, bad day today. Over the past three weeks I have put a great deal of effort into reworking and updating our website - writing code, editing pictures, answering Ask Dan questions, and testing all the new pages on different browsers and with different screen sizes. Testing finally complete, today was the day I was to upload the new release to the World Wide Web, and I was up at 4am to get the project started. To make a long story short, here’s what happened. Prior to beginning the upload, I wanted to delete all of the pages and pictures off of the web server that were already there. I selected my files, clicked on "Delete", and told it "Yes, I was sure". Then I watched all of my files disappear. Trouble is, I had selected the files on my own system, and not the ones from the remote system, to be deleted. The whole process took about 10 seconds, and about 8 seconds into it I realized what I had done - I had just deleted 3 weeks-worth of development work off of my computer.
I spent the next 6 hours trying to recover from my screw-up. I didn’t have a backup, the files didn’t go to the Recycle Bin, they’re not cached anywhere by the various browsers I’ve been using, and I’ve downloaded two different DOS unerase programs off the internet, both of which have been unable to recover anything for me. The stuff is gone, and I’m really sick over it. And it’s just what I need today, the day before the tournament starts.
Thankfully Annie did most of my tournament prep work today - she washed the boat, restrung line on all my rods, and got everything organized for me to go tomorrow.
Annie writes:
It was pretty cold out and we had storms all last night. Dan is working on the computer and all the work he did for the past 3 weeks on our website has been deleted. He is trying to get it back but not having much luck. I went outside and worked in the boat, I got all the baits put away, cleaned it all up and restrung all the line for him because I knew he was very upset about all the work he lost and this will help him out a great deal. We went to registration around 5:30 and we were so busy socializing that I did not even get to eat. It seemed like everyone was coming up to talk to us. There were also some new sponsor people we wanted to meet. We work with Carol Ramsdell with our OMC sponsor however we had never gotten to meet her so we got acquainted, and we have Lowrance Electronics as a sponsor and we had a new contact person there so we met him. We got home around 8:00 and socialized with John and Laraine briefly before going to bed.
Wednesday, April 12
Beaver Lake, Arkansas - FLW Tournament Day One
Dan writes:
Ran 25 minutes down towards the dam. Made one quick stop on the way and my partner caught a 2lb. largemouth. Moved to my best area and spent two to three hours working it real slowly, but nothing. Very frustrating. Moved to another area and each of us caught 2 good keepers, and broke off a couple of others, but it was all out in 25 feet of water. Maybe some fish have moved out deeper? That’s odd, because most of the other tournament boats are running in to fish shallow - in the backs of the pockets. We moved throughout the day, and re-fished areas we’d been to already, fishing them out deeper this time, and both of us caught 1 more fish. By the end of the day I had 3, my partner had 4, and we had missed or broken off a few also. Not great, but all of them were right around 2lbs. apiece.
Seeing virtually all of my competition fishing in shallow by the end of the day today has me worried. Maybe these fish are making a last-minute move in to the banks. I figure I’ll need 9lbs. tomorrow to get a check here, and probably 13lbs. to make the Top 10. I had enough bites today out deep, from fish that are averaging 2lbs. apiece, to put me right there, so I’m sticking with this plan for tomorrow. I just need to put 5 of them in the boat, and then one big bite to go with ‘em would be real nice.
Annie writes:
I went to do some groceries with Laraine and then we went to have lunch with about 12 other wives. We went to hang out at Elaines hotel for a bit before the weigh in and then we went to wait for our husbands to come in. Dan was due in late today so I had a long wait. He came in with 6 pounds from only 3 fish, so that is a good start for tomorrow. We had a OMC sponsor meeting to go to tonight. Darrell & Carol Robertson and Brian Coleman who are also a part of the CITGO pro staff were there and we all sat together. The meeting went very well and dinner was delicious. They gave the wives sun visors which were very cute. We got home at 9:30 and went to bed.
Thursday, April 13
Beaver Lake, Arkansas - FLW Tournament Day Two
Dan writes:
Day 2 of the FLW tournament: An extremely frustrating and disappointing day. I fished all the same areas where yesterday we had about 10 bites, and couldn’t catch even one fish today. I am so upset and embarrassed and angry over this that I can’t even think about writing this journal and recording the events of the day, so what follows are my thoughts from a week or more after the event, after I’ve had time to calm down and reflect on the experience.
Here it is: When I first started fishing big tournaments like this, I was not in the practice of creating a game plan ahead of time, and then following it through on tournament days. A number of people suggested that it would be beneficial for me to develop this habit, so for the last couple of years I have been working it. Now when I arrive at a lake to start practice fishing, the first few days are spent trying to find some areas with fish, and trying to figure out what the fish are doing, and in the last couple of days I make up the game plan that I then follow on tournament days.
During practice here I found a number of areas where fish were holding, and I thought I knew what they were doing. It was springtime, the water temperature was 52 degrees, and the fish were in a pre-spawn staging pattern, holding out on the points just outside of the spawning areas. All along though I’d been saying that these fish were going to move up to the bank and onto the beds before tournament time. I kept watching and waiting for it, but it never happened. The cold weather kept the fish in their staging pattern the entire time, the water temperature stayed in the lower 50’s, and I never saw the first fish on a bed. The game plan I created, therefore, centered on fishing for these staging fish.
Now in all the time I’ve spent on the water, I’ve never seen anything like this. In the last two days, these fish just raced from the deep water up to the banks. By the end of the day today you could pull into virtually any quiet pocket, and within a minute or two find beds with fish on them. It was that simple. Looking back at it now, I could have caught more fish here had I just showed up on tournament day and had no practice at all. I would have just gone fishing, with no game plan, and quickly figured out where they were. Instead, I practiced here for over a week, found the staging fish out deep, saw that they were making no move to come up shallow, and made up a game plan targeting them.
My game plan worked with limited success the first tournament day, but just totally fell apart today, and I knew it fairly early on. So if I knew what was happening, when it was happening, why didn’t I change? My reasoning, at the time, was this: If I follow my game plan to the letter, and it doesn’t work, then I can blame my failure on having come up with a poor game plan. On the other hand, I could abandon my game plan in the middle of the game, and move in to fish for shallow fish. If that doesn’t work though, I will forever after be telling myself that I should have stuck with my game plan.
What I learned from this experience is this: Regardless of what you may have learned in practice the week before or even the day before, there will be times when you must be able to read the immediate conditions, or the changes in the immediate conditions, and make immediate adjustments to your game plan and fishing tactics. One of the qualities of the top pro’s is their ability to sense when it’s time for them to make a change. They intuitively know things like when to stay on a spot and when to move, and when to make the necessary adjustments to their mindset, to their game plan, and to their tactics that spell the difference between success and failure. I just hope that eventually I will have learned enough of these lessons that all of this training and frustration will pay off for me.
Annie writes:
I went to lunch with Laraine, Elaine, Michelle and another wife and then we went to the weigh in. I had no idea what to expect when Dan came in, but he had no fish. I did good keeping it together for Dan, but he was so upset. Shawn Strader came and gave to talk to us for a while and he had great advice, but it does not make this tournament any better to deal with. Laraine invited us to dinner at her house and it was wonderful. We went over and forgot about how upset we were, we really had a great dinner with the two of them. We went home after that and Dan has to work in the morning so he went to bed, I am just so frustrated that I can not sleep. We are working so hard and everyone says it will pay off, but it does not seem to be at the moment. To make things worse we have to deal with everyone back home who really do not understand our career and think it is all just fun. I wish I could take each person out here and let them do what we are doing and then let them say it is all just fun and games.
Friday, April 14
Beaver Lake, Arkansas - FLW Tournament Day Three
Annie writes:
Dan drove a camera boat today and I let him take the truck as I had a lot to do at home. John & Laraine left today, I worked on the motorhome all day, filling the water tank, dumping our other tanks, getting laundry caught up and stuff like that. Dan came home around 2:30 and we went to the weigh in. We came home and cooked dinner and he was exhausted so he went right to bed.
Saturday, April 15
Beaver Lake, Arkansas - FLW Tournament Day Four
Annie writes:
I drove Dan to Walmart this morning, he had to be there for 5:00am. I dropped him off and went home to try and get some more sleep. I was up by 8:00 and got the house ready for travel, put all our stuff outside away and then I ran some errands before going to the fun zone for 11:00. I worked at the fun zone all day and it was a lot of fun. I met some people from Michigan who drove all the way here to see the weigh in. They knew me from our commercials and they wanted pictures of us together and autographs, it was a lot of fun. The CITGO people brought Darrell Robertson and myself up on stage to do the raffle drawing. They introduced Darrell saying that he had won the Millennium tournament, and then introduced me saying that Dan & I do the TV commercials for CITGO. Next they said "Roll it," the lights dimmed and they showed one of our TV commercials. It was pretty cool.
Dan came back around 3:30 from driving the camera boat and we watched the weigh in, said our good byes and were on the road by 6:30. It was fun because we saw tons of people that we knew while driving, and they were all heading home from the tournament. We saw a CITGO boat pulled over on the side of the highway with a few other trucks, so we stopped to make sure everything was OK. It was Frank, and he had a flat tire on his trailer. I think he must have had 10 trucks stop to see if he needed any help -that is why I call these people our extended family, they will go out of their way to give you a hand and help you out. We stopped for the night at a Flying J in Russellville, AR, as it was raining pretty hard and they were calling for thunderstorms.
Sunday, April 16
(Driving)
Annie writes:
We started driving at 8:00 and went to Tom Sawyers campground in West Memphis. They let us keep our truck and boat there until we come back in a few weeks. Now we are on the road together with just the motorcoach. It is so nice driving together again. We stopped for the night in Nashville, TN at Camping World where we hope to have them install a steering stabilizer first thing in the morning. We were here at 7pm, made a great dinner (nachos) and watched a little TV.
Monday, April 17
(Driving)
Annie writes:
There was a pretty good thunderstorm at around 2:30am and Cooper can not stand that. He barked and barked, which did not make for a very peaceful nights sleep. We got up fairly early and I was not looking forward to dealing with the service crew in Camping World. I did not think they would be able to fit us in. We were at the door for 8:00 when they opened and we had to wait a little while. By about 8:30 they checked with the service dept. and they could take us in about an hour. Perfect! Dan did some shopping and I went back in the house to do some work. Dan came in and said they can take us now, we were in and out by 10:00 and back on the road. We drove until we got to Wytheville, Virginia, we ran into a thunderstorm there and so we stopped for the night at a flying J truck stop. We feel comfortable at these and should get a good nights sleep. My Mom called because she can not wait for us to get home and Katelyn called us just to say goodnight. We can not wait to see them, not long now. John Hobbie also called us today because Laraine was going in for surgury today and he let us know that she was done and everything was ok. She should be home around Thursday.
Tuesday, April 18
(Driving)
Annie writes:
We left the Flying J at 8:30, we took showers there and stuff this morning because they have a dump station where we can dump our tanks and it is free! It is my Nephew Brandons 6th Birthday today so we called him to wish him a good birthday and the party is tomorrow night so we will hopefully be home. Dan called the kids to try and figure out all the schedules and it will sure be a busy week. We slept at the PA/NY boarder tonight and cooked whatever we have left in the house to eat for dinner (which was not much).
Wednesday, April 19
(Arrive NH)
Annie writes:
We were up at 7:30 and Dan was ready to drive so we just threw on some clothes and got on the road. We drove until we got to the last rest area in MA then we pulled over and got cleaned up and somewhat organized. We called our friend Roger Fournier who will be doing work at the lake house this week so we could meet with him and get some stuff planned out. We met Roger at a camper store in New Hampshire and got some supplies we will be needing for him to do work at the lake house while we are home. He visited with us for about 2 hours and then we had to get going to set up camp. We got to our campsite around 4:30 and called my parents. It is my nephew Brandon’s birthday party tonight and they are giving us a ride. They brought us some pizza and came over at 5:00. We went to Brandon’s party and had a great time and got to see my family.
April 20 through May 2
Annie writes:
We rented a campsite for 2 nights and then set up camp at our family lake house. The kids were on vacation this week and got to spend 10 days with us. It was a fabulous trip home. Kate is now driving which really helps us out a lot. We put over 1000 miles on our vehicles while we were home between kids sports and visits with family & friends, but it was well worth it. We all worked very hard to get the lake house up and running for the summer. The kids had friends in and out all week and it was fun to have them. By the time our 10 days was up it was difficult to say goodbye. Kate even asked what would be involved in her coming to live with us on the road next year, and Chris wants to come with us on our next trip. We are sure looking forward to summer now and glad that it’s almost here.
Here is recap of some of the things we did in our 13 days home:
-- Annie & Kate shopping day;
-- Kate tennis match;
-- Open house weekend for Annie’s family;
-- Annie & Mom day out;
-- Jeff applied for summer job;
-- Annie & sister Debbie night out;
-- Lots of family movie nights;
-- Open up lake house;
-- Worked on new barn;
-- Annie doctor’s appt. and the Dr. thought I might be pregnant (false alarm) but it made things interesting;
-- Sumo wrestling (don’t ask);
-- Great talks with Jeff, Kate & Chris about important stuff;
-- Annie day out with niece & nephew;
-- Chris passport (his grandmother is taking him to Kenya this summer);
-- Work with Chris on Africa trip;
-- Roger & friend came to work at lake house;
-- Tree fell on power lines of neighbor who was not home, so we took care of it;
-- Oh yeah, it rained for 8 days and snowed 2 days!
I can not say enough how wonderful our visit was, especially all of the quality time we spent with the kids. We had so much great and serious conversation, and Kate even brought me home a plant one night for no reason. It made me feel so wonderful, and made me VERY, VERY thankful of having them in my life. We are so looking forward to our summer now.
Link to:
May 2000
April 2000