[May] June 2000 [July]

We picked Chris up at school and took him to the Drs. because he needs some shots for his trip to Africa this summer, the shots ended up costing over $600 and we decided to do more research before we committed to them. Kate called us when she got out of school and wanted to hang out with us for a while. We picked her up and went to a cozy little restaurant and just snacked on appetizers and chatted about life in general. We feel like we have such an open relationship with the kids and enjoy being able to talk to them about anything, you do not always hear what you want, but at least we know they feel comfortable discussing things with us.

I got the house ready for Chris to arrive tomorrow. I cleaned the house, ran some errands, did the laundry and did some computer work. I called Mom Keyes as she is now in Florida by herself and is ready to get to NH. She leaves on Friday. I also called Jeff and Kate as their last day of school was yesterday. They are officially on summer break now.

John & Laraine came in today. There was one campsite that opened up and it was only 2 sites down from us. I went to pick Dan and Cooper up at the launch around 6:00, and Cooper was so glad to see Willy gone. My brother called to chat, and my niece had to inform me of her great report card. John & Laraine invited us to go out to eat with them and Dick, but Dan was too tired. I called my Mom so she could pick up our mail for us. Usually it can wait until we get home, but we need to send in Chris’s passport, which is now in our P.O. box, for his plane tickets to Kenya.

Chris came with me today, and we got a real early start, trailering the boats about 40 minutes up the road to put in above Wheeler dam. We fished the first two creeks, and then some of the Elk River, catching only 12"-14" fish. I then decided to run all the way up to Decatur, 30 miles beyond the dam, to fish the stump and grass flats, while Dick proceeded further up the Elk. By the end of the day neither of us had found anything worth returning for, as we had caught no keeper (15") fish. Had I been alone, I would have trailered the boat back down to Wilson lake and fished there for another few hours, as I’m feeling somewhat desperate at this point in time. As it was though I had Chris with me, and we’d already put in an 11 hour day from the time we left this morning at 5am until we returned to the campground, and I knew he’d really had enough.

Annie writes:
Chris and Dan went fishing early in the morning. I did not go as 3 in the boat gets a bit crowded, and I think it will be good for Dan & Chris to have quality time together. I had plenty to do anyway. I painted my nails, planned dinner, and put in a Ranger clothing order. I emptied the trash, made Cooper his yearly vet appointment, cleaned the grill, vacuumed the house, did my email, and was very happy with everything I accomplished. Dan called me at 3:30 and said they were on their way home and wanted me to meet them at the water park out at the entrance to McFarland Park. I rode the mile and a half down there on the bicycle and we spent about an hour there. It was a lot of fun racing down the water slides. It was good for Dan, as he is really getting stressed about not being able to locate fish. We came home, I cooked dinner out on the grill, and Dick came over to eat with us. It was another early night.

Chris writes:
We awoke at 4:20 today to have an early day of practice fishing to find fish for the upcoming tournament. I was tired but knew that time meant money so I woke up anyway. I caught only one hybrid bass after nine hours of fishing. The fishing sucked and we haven’t found a single keeper the whole time. Hopefully they will be biting during tournament day. When we got home we ate great steak made by Annie, and then watched the movie The Matrix. I was even more tired than the night before and fell asleep at 7:58! I haven’t done that in an extremely long time.

Keep in mind now that when I say "nothing", I don’t mean that we’re not catching fish. The fishing all this week is not all that bad - we’re catching 10-15 fish per day, but they’re just not the 15" keeper size. Today marks one full week now - 7 days straight - that I have fished these lakes and not caught a keeper fish. Annie has caught one, and I’ve caught many that were close, but I haven’t caught one that measured. We have 2 1/2 practice days left, and we’re committing now to Wilson Lake, where we’ve caught the most fish, for these final practice days.

Annie writes:
Chris & I stayed home today as he was exhausted from yesterday. We planned lunch and got cleaned up. We had no vehicle so were limited as to what we could do. I sent out some trading cards and worked on our calendar. Laraine, Elaine, Bobby & Susie came over to visit us for a while. Chris and I each made Dan a father’s day card. Dan came home around 4:30 and did not have a good day. Chris and I had decided on Spaghetti with Italian sausages for dinner, which we ate right when Dan got home. We suddenly got a big thunderstorm with lots of rain and Dan decided we should have some family fun. We went outside in our shorts and sandals and went running through the huge puddles that were all over the campground. Afterwards we came in, dried off, had a bowl of ice cream and watched a movie together.

Chris writes:
Annie and I stayed home today while my dad went fishing again. I went on two, one mile long bike rides with Cooper and he was exhausted after both of them and immediately drank his water and panted all day when we got back. I then planned dinner with Annie and we decided on spaghetti. Right before my dad got home we went to go see John and Laraine and their dog Kasie. John was still out fishing. Right when my dad cam home we ate dinner. After that, a sudden thunder storm caught us by surprise. Cooper hates thunder so he barks whenever he hears it. We don’t like this so my dad gave him a treat, a biscuit, whenever thunder was about to come. In my opinion it was spoiling him because he got about 15 treats. When the storm calmed down, we went outside and splashed in the puddles and went to see John and Laraine again. This time John was there. We then went home and ate ice cream and Dick came over to have some tea. I then watched the movie The Blair Witch Project, and turned it off with about 20 minutes left and went to bed.

I needed to show Dick a little spot Annie and I had found back on Tuesday, where we had got 6 bites in 8 casts, off the end of a sunken island out in the middle of the lake. We ran up there, marked edges of the island with buoys and found the upper end of it, and started fishing. I caught a 14 1/2 fish on my first cast, then my second keeper of the day on the next cast, and then another fish just short of 15" on about my fifth cast. We left it alone after that, but this is great, the first bit of optimism I’ve had in a week. This place must be loaded with fish, and they are in exactly the same spot that they were 5 days ago. This is where I’m going to run to first thing on tournament day.

Before the day was through I had had at least 4 phone calls out on the water - my mom, Jeff, and Kate twice, wishing me a happy Father’s Day. That made me feel good.

Annie writes:
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY DAD. It had been pouring all night and today was supposed to be rain on and off, so Chris and I stayed home. We hung out in the house and watched a movie. When the rain let up we went to play catch for a while and let Cooper go swim in the lake. Dan came home around 4:00 and needed to go to Walmart so we all went and also rented some videos. It was after 7:00 so we decided to eat on the road and got home around 8:30.

Chris writes:
This morning my dad received the Father’s Day card I made him last night, and he enjoyed it. I woke up, ate some pop tarts, and hung out with Annie and watched the movie "You’ve Got Mail" with her. I then went out side and played catch with Annie. Later, I went on another bike ride with Cooper and he ran off so I put his collar on, tied him to the bike, and he walked me home. Shortly my dad got home from fishing and then we went to Wal-Mart to get some gear oil for his boat, and then went to Blockbuster to get some movies which were Big Daddy and The Sixth Sense which were the ones I picked out and Double Jeopardy and The Other Sister which were the ones Annie picked out. After that, we went to eat dinner at O’Charlie’s and I got ribs and they were delicious. We then got home, watched Big Daddy ‘til 11:00, and right when I got in bed my sister Katelyn called all the way from Concord, NH, to wish Dad a happy Father’s Day. It was midnight in their time zone. I then went to bed.

Things are looking a little better than they were a few days ago. I’ve now got 3 places that I know have keeper fish in them, 2 ditches and the sunken island point, and at least a couple of other ditches right nearby that are so similar that they should have fish in them. I’m done practicing on Wilson now. I quit around 3:00 and returned to the campsite, where I spent the rest of the afternoon organizing the boat and re-spooling line. Tomorrow I’ll try to get out for a few hours of fishing right around the tournament take-off area.

Annie writes:
Chris and Dan went fishing very early and I cleaned the house, put away the grill, and just did home things. John & Jack came over to check out our step that was not working and took the whole thing apart. They figured out it was the motor so I got on the phone to try and get one in ASAP. I found one not 5 miles from here and they should have it for me tomorrow at 10:30am. The guys came home around 3:00 and we spent the rest of the afternoon working on tackle. I organized some of the boat, and put away all the loose tackle. We had made plans to go out to eat with a bunch of people, although they were not going until. 8:00, it was to late for us after a full day on the water. Dan and I worked in the boat some more and Chris was getting our movie ready for tonight. As we were working in the boat we had company and then more company and we ended up with a bunch of people hanging around the boat talking. We got in around 9:30 and Chris was sleeping, he woke up and we watched a movie.

Chris writes:
Woke up at 5:00 and left the camper at 5:30 this morning to go fishing with my dad on Wilson Lake. When we got there Dad just unhooked their boat and launched it into the water, letting it float free while we went to park the truck & trailer. When we got back from parking, Tommy Biffle gave us a ride over to our boat, and we set out. Our strategy for the day was to fish the ditches that were formed by the points off shore. About half way through the day I thought I had a bite and set the hook as hard as I could. I had been getting caught on the bottom all day though and I couldn’t pull it in, so I thought that’s what might have happened. It turned out it really was a fish. It was a real fighter, and took a while to reel it in. It was a 17 inch Smallmouth which is a really big fish. I fished for a while after, but it was getting hot so I took a swim with Cooper dog while my dad was fishing. I got back in the boat, pulled Cooper in, and shortly after did the same thing again. Later I ate lunch, fished for awhile and we went back home. I hung out ‘til night time, and we ate dinner, and then we watched " Double Jeopardy."

Went up just below the Wilson dam to try that one final time before practice ended, but still couldn’t catch any there. While I was up there though I saw a single bolt of lightning streak down from the clouds, and it looked like it hit about 15 miles away. Shortly afterwards I was caught in the storm myself and had to wait it out in the shelter of the island below the dam. I talked to Dick on the cell phone, and he had finally caught some good fish this morning in a little creek off Pickwick only 3 miles from takeoff. He’d had 3 bites, from fish up to 5 pounds range, flipping a tube bait. After the storm I ran down to look at the creek he was talking about, and was actually glad that I didn’t catch a fish or get bit in there - it’s 3:00 in the afternoon on the last day of practice, and I’ve already made up my mind to fish the other lake tomorrow. I don’t need this confusing me now.

One more thing - back at the campground later that evening, Jim Tutt came by and told the most amazing story: He had been fishing up on Wilson Lake this afternoon, about 15 miles from the dam, when with no warning at all a bolt of lightning, and it had to have been the same one I had seen, streaked down from the sky and STRUCK HIM IN THE BACK OF THE NECK! He said it felt like someone had hit him in the back of the head with an ax. Anyway, it knocked the pole out of his hand, and dropped him to the floor of the boat. One arm and both legs went numb, but within a short time these symptoms passed and he was able to get up. He’d decided that he’d had enough fishing though, and headed back to the launch ramp. When I saw him at the campground a couple of hours later, he was feeling fine, but very, very lucky.

Annie writes:
John did not go fishing today and as soon as my step motor arrived at the store he gave me a ride to pick it up. He also installed it as soon as we got back, works great! Thanks John!! Dan could not deal with the step problem, as he has been concentrating on fishing and to throw this into the loop would not be good. I felt better knowing it was all fixed and Dan could keep on fishing and not have to worry about it. Dan went fishing for a while and came in by 4:00. We all went to registration and the partner pairings meeting. We got our schedule for next year also which looks pretty interesting. They fed us dinner which was very good. Dan met his partner and got his boat #. Chris got to meet some more friends of ours and we got home by 8:00. I made Dan lunch and we watched a movie. It was 11:30 and Dan was still awake, he will be straight out now until the tournament is over.

Chris writes:
Today I didn’t do much in the morning or afternoon besides stayed inside and played Game Boy because of the rain storms we had all day. At about 5:00 the weather had cleared up and we went to register my dad for the tournament. We went through the registration line and people were giving away free things and I thanked them. Immediately after we got out of the line, we ate dinner which was a barbecue and I also got a slice of delicious cake which was for dessert. After that we sat down and watched video clips from tournaments and then the partners were announced and the position they would be starting in. When that was done we went home and watched " The Sixth Sense" and the ending surprised me a lot. When I got tired I went to bed.

The lock was scheduled to close this afternoon at 1:30, so regardless of what flight you were in (what boat number you got in the draw,) everyone needed to lock back down to Pickwick Lake at the same time. This we did, and I had to signal to Annie and Chris, who had come to the lock to watch, that I had no fish. (This lock is very impressive - it is the largest single-lift lock east of the Rocky mountains. It is 600 feet long, will accommodate well over 100 boats at one time, and lifts 93 feet vertically, the difference in height between the two lakes.)

We got out of the lock on the lower end with an hour and a half left to fish. I stopped off at the sand plant there, and caught a number of short fish on the Carolina rig before finally getting bit by a good one. I weighed in one keeper fish for 2lbs 4oz, was in 89th place at the end of the day, and was less than 1 pound out of the money. Certainly I was disappointed, and would like to have done better today, but I know that with fishing as tough as it is all I need is 2 keeper fish tomorrow to at least get a check here. When you look at it that way it doesn’t sound so difficult.

Annie writes:
Awoke at 5:30, got showered & dressed. Laraine & Bonnie came to pick us up at 6:00 (yes that’s AM) and we all went to the locks to watch the boats lock through. It was enormous and very interesting to see. After that we went to pick up Miss Elaine and a few of us wives went to breakfast along with Chris, who was quite the gentleman opening doors for the women, they loved it. We went home briefly after that and Laraine let me use her jeep to run a few errands. Chris stayed home and took a quick nap. I returned in time to let Cooper out and get ready for lunch. We went to a tower for lunch, their was 10 of us in all, it was a great view of the lake and we could see the guys getting ready to lock back through.

After lunch we went to the lock and saw the guys. Dan said he had no fish. Not a good sign, but he still has a few hours left to fish. When he came in he had 1 fish and I was very glad of that. After the weigh in we stayed for the Christian Anglers meeting and then went home. There was a card on our door with a gift certificate in it for dinner at an Italian restaurant in town. It turns out Jeffrey Jones, an avid journal reader, works at the restaurant and gave us the certificate to thank us for giving him a glimpse of our life through the journal. That was a very nice surprise for us. It was 6:00 and Dick brought us pizza for dinner. He made my evening much easier by not having to cook. We were all exhausted, however Chris and I agreed we were not going to the locks tomorrow morning so we put in a movie. Chris was sleeping before the movie even started, but Dan stayed awake to watch it with me.

Chris writes:
Today Annie and I woke up at 5:30 to go see my dad lock through at the Wilson Dam. He was in the third row out of four and we talked to him while the lock was filling up with 93 feet of water so he and the other boats would be at the same water level as Wilson. After he was done he raced to his fishing spots, and we went to IHOP for breakfast with Laraine, Elaine, Stella, and Bonnie. After that, we went home for awhile and I stayed home while Annie ran a few errands. When she got back, we went to lunch at the tower with the same people we had breakfast with, as well as Michelle and two girls that Stella brought with her. After we finished lunch we went to the lock again to see if my dad had caught any keepers. He didn’t. Shortly after we got home from the lock, we went to the weigh in. With the time my dad had left of fishing he had caught one keeper and we were happy for him. I carried his bag with the fish in it up to the tent and held it for him while we waited for our turn. We weighed in his fish and I went up on stage with him in front of the cameras and everyone else. After the weigh in we stayed for the Christian Anglers Meeting and went home. Dick brought pizza over and we ate that and decided to watch a movie, but I fell asleep before it started.

I figured I needed only two decent bites today to get a check, and my partner, Steve Bowman from Little Rock, needed only one to qualify for the year-end championship. Neither of us got them. We caught about 15 fish apiece, but none that would measure the required 15", and we finished the day with empty livewells. Fortunately for Steve though, in the end it turned out he didn’t need a fish after all, and he finished the year with just enough to qualify. As for Dick, who blanked yesterday down on Pickwick, he got two good bites today and weighed 6 1/2 pounds, but it took 7 pounds even to get a check.

When it was all over and we’d returned to the campground, I had a sincere conversation with one of the other pro’s on the circuit, who has begun making a name for himself in the last couple of years. I told him I just didn’t get it - I could cast, I could flip, I could do all of these mechanical things as well as anybody else. I’ve been patient, I’ve put in my time, and I work really hard at what I’m doing. He said no, that wasn’t true. I work harder than most of the guys out here, he said, and one of these days, as happened to him, I’ll make just one cast that will change my life, and from that moment forward everything will be different. He said it’s not mechanical, but rather mental, and it’s not something easily described, but just something that goes click in your head one day, and after that you’ve just got it.

Annie writes:
I did not wake up until 9:00. I could have stayed in bed even longer, but had to much to do. I got up, showered, dressed, did some laundry, opened up the camper, cleaned up outside. While I was doing laundry a girl stopped me, her Dad is fishing this tournament and they are also camping here. She was asking me all about Chris and wanted to meet him.

Laraine picked us up for lunch and we went to a restaurant right here in the park, at the marina. We had a great lunch and went back to the camper’s briefly to let the dog’s out. Weigh in time! Chris and I sat on the rocks waiting for Dan, saw him coming in, and he waved to us, but also motioned that he had no fish. BUMMER. We made it through the weigh in and I am not in the best of moods. I am just filled with all different emotions. I really wanted a good finish, I am not mad at Dan, I just don’t get it. He works so hard and it is bound to pay off, but it just seems to be taking lots of time and lots of effort.

We had a CITGO sponsor dinner to go to at 7:30 so we went home and got organized and dropped Chris off at the waterslide while we went to our sponsor dinner. He had made plans with Kiera (the girl at the campground) and was going to hang out with her. They are the same age and I am glad they are hanging out so he will know someone when he comes to another tournament. We had a good time at the sponsor dinner and the food was excellent.

Chris writes:
I woke up at about the same time as Annie this morning. Since it was so late I didn’t do much before Laraine came to pick us up for lunch. We went to a restaurant in the middle of the water at the marina and we had to get there by docks. The food there was great. After that we made a quick stop at the camper and then made it to the weigh in with plenty of time. My dad had no fish and I felt bad for him since he put so much time into fishing this trip. Later that night at about 7:30 my dad and Annie went to their CITGO dinner and I went to the water park with Kiera, a girl I met at the campground, and her dad. We all had races on the go-carts and it was really fun. My car couldn’t steer very well and I almost crashed two or three times. We all had to duck our heads under the water slide because it was directly over us. After that we went on the water slides and had races on those too. Each of us went on the tube slide once, because it was about 9:00 and we couldn’t see much. More reasons were because we hit our heads on the top, our feet hit the sides, water splashed in our faces and where the connecting pieces of the tubes were hit your back. The slides we raced on were the two open slides with no top and we went on those about fifteen times. We all had a great time and after we were done , Kiera’s dad drove me back to the camper, and my dad and Annie got home within ten minutes. Some time later I went to sleep.