[August] September 2000 [October]
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Thursday, September 7
(Driving to TN)
This is the start of our 2000/2001 fishing season. Headed for the B.A.S.S. Eastern Invitational tournament on Old Hickory Lake in Tennessee, we left the lake house at 10:00am. Dan is driving the motorcoach and I am driving the Suburban and towing the boat. We drove about 10 hours, 500 miles, and spent the night at a WalMart in Pennsylvania.

Friday, September 8
(Driving to TN)
Driving again and we switch back and forth following each other. At one point late in the day Dan passed me and I noticed smoke coming out the back of his camper. I notified him via radio, and we pulled off at the next exit. There was fluid all over the back of the coach, dripping off every part of the engine and covering the ground in puddles. We could not figure out what it was - engine oil, power steering fluid, or hydraulic fluid. It was a Friday, 4:45pm, so I immediately got on the phone looking for help. We found one local service place, who sent a couple of guys out, and they diagnosed the problem as a burst power steering hose. They were not equipped to work on it however, but they referred us to another shop just a mile down the road. We drove everything down to this other shop, who looked at it, agreed with the diagnosis, and worked on it for about 2 hours before the supervisor came over and basically said that this was messing up their schedule for things they had to work on, and they could spend no more time on our problem. WHAT THE HECK ARE WE TO DO NOW!! They put a Mickey Mouse patch on the hose and sent us on our way with some extra hydraulic fluid. It was now 11pm but we were able to contact by telephone another repair shop 100 miles away, who could work on it tomorrow. We stayed overnight in a parking lot somewhere, planning to attempt the 100 mile drive at first light.

Saturday, September 9
(Driving to TN)
After rising at 5am we dressed and resumed our misadventure. It took about 3 hours to limp the 100 miles down to Roanoke, VA to the new repair shop. On the way we stopped every 25 miles to dump more hydraulic fluid into the power steering reservoir. Pity the cars and trucks following us this morning, for we spewed a total of 6 gallons of fluid out the back during this ride. We showed up at the new garage at 8am, and they were willing to help us out but were not sure what time they could get started. It was a very discouraging day, our emotions were on a roller coaster all day. Things were starting to look good and then BAM, another problem would arise and put us back down. It was continuous throughout the day. They finally did get to working on it, and managed to get the part off that was broken. The next problem though was that they did not have a replacement part, and we and they searched all over the city for it. It was a Saturday at 5:00, all the shops in town were closed and we had called or driven to every shop in the phone book trying and get a part. I must give this guy credit though. His name was Norris and he really went out of his way to get us up and back on the road again. A number of times we thought of loading Dan up in the Suburban and he and the boat going on without me, so he could be there for practice on Monday morning. Finally though we had a little break and we were able to make the hose we needed by borrowing parts and fittings from other vehicles in the shop. We were all put together and back on the road again at 10:45 p.m.

Sunday, September 10
(Arrive in TN)
We had about 500 miles left to drive today and thought we would never get there. We finally arrived at our campsite around 5:30pm, and practice starts in 12 hours. We set up camp and got somewhat organized. Craig Sahms was already at the campground when we got there, and he came out with us to WalMart when we went to get a lake map and our fishing licenses. Since we were out and it was so late we also decided to grab a bite to eat before going back home.

Monday, September 11
(Old Hickory, Tennessee)

Dan writes:
We’re camped at Cages Bend, about mid-lake. We’ve never seen this lake before, but first impressions look good. Lots of wood in the water, very well defined river and creek channel edges, and lots and lots of milfoil from mid-lake on up. This morning in the low-light conditions we started out fishing topwater along a steep bluff right near the campground. We began catching small fish almost immediately, and within an hour Annie had caught a 4 lb. largemouth, and before we left this first bluff we had caught 3 keepers. We fished 11 hours today, from 6am to 5pm, and caught a total of 5 keeper fish between us. That first bank where we started this morning was far more productive than any other place we went.

Annie writes:
Up at 5:15 and on the water by 6:00. It was great, within the first 45 minutes of fishing I caught a huge 4 lb’er on a buzzbait. That is a great way to start the first day of practice. At the end of the day I only had a total of 2 keepers, but it was a pretty good day. I was so exhausted when we came in, thank goodness I already had dinner planned, we invited Craig to eat with us. I did the dishes, made lunch for tomorrow and went right to bed, 5:00 tomorrow is going to come way to soon.

Tuesday, September 12
(Old Hickory, Tennessee)

Dan writes:
Today we had rain off and on most of the day, with a bit of wind thrown in. We fished shallow most of the day, believing the cloud cover and wind would make the shallow fish aggresive. I caught one on a spinnerbait, one on a shallow crankbait, and Annie missed one buzzbait bite in the grass. We worked our way far upriver, but action slowed the farther up we went, and nothing approached the quick action we experienced on that first bluff yesterday morning. By afternoon we had returned to mid-lake and caught a couple more just-barely-keeper fish on a Carolina rig. Total time on the water today was 10 1/2 hours and we had boated only 4 keeper fish.

Annie writes:
Up again at 5:30 and out the door by 6:00 we worked very hard all day but did not seem to catch many fish, actually I did not catch 1 fish all day. That makes for a very long day. It was weird weather also, it was bright skies and hot, then it poured, and at times even got chilly. We got home around 4:30 and decided to eat before going to registration. Craig ate dinner with us, we all got cleaned up then rode of to the meeting together. We had to stop at Walmart on the way home and picked up a few things.

Wednesday, September 13
(Old Hickory, Tennessee)

Dan writes:
For this, the final day of practice, I decided I was going to stay in the mid-lake area around Cages Bend, since this is where I had caught most of my fish over the last two days. My goal for today was to find one or two other specific areas close by where I could catch a couple of fish. I started out again at 6am, alone this time as having the boat all to myself allows me to jump around quicker and to have more rods and baits out and ready to throw. The low-light conditions were once again perfect for a topwater bite, so I decided to just check those buzzbait fish we found on Monday morning - to see it this would be a good place to start the tournament tomorrow morning. One thing I forgot to mention was that in all the time Annie was getting bit the other day on a buzzbait, I was throwing a buzzbait also but never enjoyed the action she did. Today I decided to throw her buzzbait, a TERMINATOR TITANIUM buzzbait, but I first covered hook point so I would not actually catch any of the fish that bit. I made one pass down that bluff and had 5 or 6 bites on the TERMINATOR - none of them seemed very big but I still think this is where I’ll start tomorrow if I get the choice, and this is definitely the bait I want to throw.

The rest of my day was very disappointing. I found no new spots to fish, and in fact I don’t think I caught a keeper fish all day. I finally quit at 3:00 to prep my gear for tomorrow and to attend the partner pairings meeting at 6:30. At the meeting I drew a local fellow, fishing his first B.A.S.S. tournament, and he agreed to ride with me in my boat and fish my fish first.

Annie writes:
Dan told me to stay home today because he was just bouncing around quickly to find new spots. I sewed patches on Dan’s and Craig’s shirts most of the morning. We had the partner pairings meeting tonight and we gave Curt Lytle a ride so Brandy (his wife) would not have to drive into town and sit through the meeting. It was great to see all the people we have not seen in a while. Craig took us out to dinner after the meeting at Applebee’s and Scott, another fisherman who is camping by us, also came out to dinner with us. We were home by 8:30 and ready for the tournament.

Thursday, September 14

(Old Hickory Tennessee - B.A.S.S. Invitational - Day One)

Dan writes:
1st day of this 3 day Bassmaster Invitational tournament. Rode in my boat, and went to my fish first. Fished the buzzbait down that bluff and had only one blow up, and missed it. At the end we turned around and fished the bluff back again, and this time we caught 2 fish out deeper on the end of the laydown trees - my partner got one on a worm & I had one on a jig. We then fished the entire bluff out deep and slow, but got no more bites. We eventually gave up on this bluff and fished a few of my Carolina-rig spots, but again caught no keeper fish. At 11:00 we quit my fish altogether and went to my partner’s areas. He tried lots of things and lots of areas but neither one of us caught any more keepers.

Annie writes:
The campground here has laundry facilities (1 washer, 1 dryer) so I spent the better part of the day doing lots of laundry. I got plenty of exercise walking up and down the hill to the machines. Brandy Lytle gave me a ride to the weigh in so I would not have to get up and go in with Dan at 5am. Dan came in at 3:30 and had 1 fish. I was glad he at least had one because there was probably 75 people who did not have any fish at all. We got home, wiped down the boat and got the stuff ready for tomorrow. A few people came over to hang out for a while and talk fishing. Craig stayed for dinner and to talk more fishing. Dan was in bed by 7:30pm.

Friday, September 15

(Old Hickory, Tennessee - B.A.S.S. Invitational - Day Two)

Dan writes:
Day 2 of the 3 day Bassmaster Invitational tournament. Drew a fellow from Florida who weighed only two little fish yesterday, and who like me wanted to take his own boat. We flipped a coin and I won, so we rode in my boat and fished my buzzbait fish first again. This time though there was no topwater action at all, so we fished back again along the bluff, slower & deeper, and still got nothing. For whatever this promising bluff has dried up and I’m not wasting any more time on it. We began alternating spots. As we ran up the lake we’d stop to fish any spot where either one of us had caught any keeper fish, but it was no good. By 11:00 we’d fished almost all of our areas with no keepers and very few short fish even. For the rest of the day we camped out at the creek mouth at Cages Bend. There were two excellent points dropping off into the 60 foot river channel, and a huge grass flat adjacent, and both of us had caught fish here in practice. By the end of the day though my partner had boated only one keeper fish, and I had none.

Annie writes:
As I was working on the computer this morning I saw a CITGO boat come around the corner into our cove, I knew it was Dan so I went out to watch them fish for a few minutes. He told me that neither one of them had any fish. That’s not good. He stayed around the rest of the day, so I was able to keep track of his progress and before I even left for the weigh-in with Brandy I knew his results.

When we got home from the weigh-in we decided to pack up and move everything, camper, truck and boat, over to the tournament site tonight so that I don’t have to drive the bus over to the weigh-in tomorrow. We had a very nice dinner with just the two of us, and then moved to a church parking lot right next to the weigh-in site.

Saturday, September, 16

(Old Hickory, Tennessee - B.A.S.S. Invitational - Day Three)

Dan writes:
Final day of the 3 day Bassmaster Invitational tournament. Fished with Ray Brazier of Tennessee. Both of us had weighed-in only one fish over two days, so we were approaching today’s fishing as almost just a fun-fishing day, without a lot of pressure. I told him that I had fished my areas first thing for the last 2 days, and that wasn’t working so today I would do whatever he wanted. We ran up to his first area and started right out with the Carolina rig. He got bit on the very first cast, and caught a non-keeper, and I caught a non-keeper on my second or third cast, and both of us had put our first keeper fish in the boat within the first half hour of our fishing day. This was a great way to get started - we both agreed that putting that first fish in the livewell early in the day makes a huge difference in your attitude, which can then last through much of the rest of the day. It’s a good thing, too, since that was the only keeper I caught all day. Ray caught one more, and we caught plenty of small fish all day long to keep us busy, so we had an enjoyable day anyway.

I had heard that fishing in this lake could be tough, but when we first arrived and saw all the grass and wood and structure in the lake, I just didn’t believe that fishing would be this slow. In the end though, it took only 24 lbs. To win this 3-day event, and only 10 lbs. to get a check (55th place), so I’d have to say that those earlier predictions were correct.

Annie writes:
I woke up around 8:00 and worked around the house. I worked on the journal most of the day. I also cleaned the house and went out to get a few groceries. Later, I met Dan at the weigh-in, and he had only one fish. We are bummed, as it is the first tournament of the season and we are hoping for a better year, this does not make for a good start. On the other hand, we made a few more contacts here and now have some more people we may start working with at these tournaments, so we are already working on the next one.

We got organized and packed up, made some coffee and were on the road at 5pm. We drove about 80 miles, stopped for supper, and Dan is exhausted so we pulled in to a Walmart parking lot for the night. Our next tournament is on Lake Martin in Alabama, so any of you readers who would like to email tips or hot spots for us to check out, feel free to write to Dan@DanielKeyes.com or Annie@DanielKeyes.com. We are going to give you a chance to throw out your advice before each tournament and will let you know after each tournament where our next one is.

Sunday, September 17
(Driving to NH)
This morning we drove about 100 miles, to Bunch Marine in Midtown, Tennessee. We had arranged ahead of time to leave the boat and truck here for the next two weeks, so that Dan and I can drive home to NH with just the camper. Mark Bunch, the owner, met us there and helped us get everything parked. We are now on the road with just the coach, and it is great to be driving together again. We drove all day and stopped for the night at a Flying J in Winchester, Virginia. We cooked dinner, watched the Olympics on TV and went to bed.

Monday, September 18
(Driving to NH)
We woke up, made coffee and got on the road. We stopped about 100 miles later at the next Flying J and took showers, got water, and emptied our tanks and stuff. Then it was right back on the road. We will be home tomorrow so we are getting anxious now and want to get some miles under us. We switched drivers throughout the day. We usually do 100 miles and then switch, and we average 400 - 500 miles a day, no more than that. Today though we did 600 miles. We really pushed it and we stopped for the night at our P.O. box in Manchester NH. We are so glad to be home. We have a few things to do tomorrow before heading up to the lake house (like wash the power steering fluid off the back of the camper,) but at least we are here.

Tuesday, September 19
(Arrive Home)
Camped out overnight in a empty parking lot. Woke up to a phone call from Operation Bass - it was a reporter from Bass Fishing magazine, who is writing a story about us. He had talked to Dan a couple of weeks ago, and now it was my turn to be interviewed. This will be our first magazine article. WAHOO!!! Make sure you all get a subscription so you can see our first article.

Next, we opened up the curtains or the motorhome and there was this guy at the car dealership next door who saw us opening up and he came over to see who we were and to talk fishing. Soon afterwards another guy came, and then another. It was so funny. They had been waiting for us to make an appearance and I thanked them for not waking us up and for waiting patiently for us to come out. Seems they had seen us parked here overnight a couple of months ago, and were disappointed when they had not come over to meet us then, and this time they were not going let the opportunity pass.

We eventually finished our ride, just a couple of hours, after emptying out our post office box and stopping to wash the coach in Concord, and we finally arrived at the lake house around 2:30. It is great to be home again, but after hooking up we just kind of sat there looking at each other and not knowing what to do first. We both have over twenty items on our "to do" lists and we have that overwhelmed feeling already.

Week of Sept 20 - Sept 26
(New Hampshire)
Dan was surfing through his sponsor’s websites this week and found a real neat feature on the new LOWRANCE site - it’s a sonar tutorial - a set of pages first describing a brief history of sonar and then consisting of an excellent, easy to read guide to using and interpreting your sonar units. Dan was so impressed that he built a new link from our website (www.DanielKeyes.com) directly into the sonar tutorial on the Lowrance site. Be sure to check it out!

We had a very busy week, which included going to see one of Chris’s football games, and it was great as they won 48-0! We also went shopping with Katelyn for a dress for the homecoming dance, but didn’t find exactly the right one. Dan and Chris also got in a game of golf over the weekend. It is getting chilly these days, and we’re not sure how much longer we’ll be able to do these kind of things. Finally, Annie got to met with one of her girlfriends, Jodi, whom she has not seen since our wedding,. The two of them got in a day of catch-up and shopping, and it was great to see at least one friend in person this trip home. With our wandering lifestyle, we really appreciate our email these days, which allows us to keep in touch with all our other friends.

Week of Sept 27 - Oct 3
(New Hampshire)
This was our last weekend home for another month, but by Friday night, because of everybody’s busy schedules it was looking like we weren’t going to get to see the kids at all before we left again in a few days. Things changed on Saturday morning though when Jeff called and said that he and Chris wanted to come up to the lake. We picked the two of them up around noon, and on the way to the lake we stopped off for some fun. We all drove the go-carts for a while, and then we went to the batting cages.

Back at the lake, Jeff and Chris went around back off the house and quickly returned to report a dead deer in the back yard. Not only was it dead, but half-eaten as well, and evidence showed that it was most likely killed right there in the yard, sometime during the night or early morning. Dan’s original thought was a bear, since we’d seen one or two in the neighborhood earlier this spring, but we have to acknowledge that it could also be coyote’s, who we’ve also seen nearby this summer. Don’t ask though why nobody, including Cooper-dog, never heard anything during the night, though it was only perhaps 30 yards from where we slept.

After cleaning that mess up, Dan and Jeff went out to rent a video, and as Jeff is now 15 Dan let him drive the car some of the way. They rented a scary movie, which we watched until about 10:00, and as it’s now too cold to be sleeping in the new barn (we had a frost both Thursday and Friday nights,) when we had to go outside in the dark to carry our gear back to the heated house we all admitted being somewhat anxious, having just watched this scary movie and what with the very real possibility of there being a hungry bear prowling around looking for the remainder of his dinner.

Well nobody got eaten, and in the morning Dan & Jeff got in a workout with the bench-press and free-weights now installed downstairs in the barn. Afterwards the four of us headed off for a round of golf, and we had a beautiful round, with the glorious New England fall foliage just about two weeks from peak. At 4:00 we met Kate, and we all went out for a nice early dinner before saying our good-bye’s for another month. KeyesJrnlLogo

Monday and Tuesday we spent packing up for a long trip, and closing up the lake house for the season. We managed to finish up by late afternoon Tuesday, and got on the road, headed for Florida, at about 5pm.

Link to: October 2000