[February] March 2001 [April]

On Monday we spent the day unpacking from our vacation, visiting with Mom, and preparing the camper and boat for travel to our next tournament. We hit the road around 7pm and managed to get a little over a hundred miles under our belts before stopping for the night at a Florida Turnpike rest area. The next morning we got an early start, and by driving hard made it the remaining 500 miles to central Alabama a little after dark. We’re now at Wind Creek State Park on Lake Martin, practicing for the FLW event which is the week after next. We’ll fish here for two or three days, run up to Pickwick Lake in northern Alabama on Sunday for the B.A.S.S. Invitational next week, and then hurry back here for the FLW right after that.

We launched the boat and went fishing. We started by fishing windy points with spinnerbaits and crankbaits, but the cold-front that had blown through the other day apparently has kept the fish from coming up with the rising water, and it wasn’t until we slowed down and fished out deeper that we started catching some. Between us we caught about eight keeper spots (spotted bass) this afternoon on a Carolina-rig.

Annie Writes:
After a weeks vacation it is pretty difficult getting back to reality. I have been talking to Kate every day and we are both having tanning withdrawals from last week.

Today was such a busy day. After launching Dan I went out to do groceries since our refrigerator had only two things in it. I came home and registered for our campsite since the office was closed last night when we drove in. After putting away our groceries I went to the laundry room they have here, six loads of vacation clothes. I met Dan back at the launch ramp at 5:30 and we loaded the boat, said goodbye to Greg, and came home. Dan cooked us a great dinner and we went to bed soon after.

At five o’clock we drove up to Birmingham to have dinner with Sammy Lee, the Ranger promotions manager, and at 2:30 am finally rolled back into the campground and fell into bed.

Annie writes:
Dan did not go fishing today, he had to get some boat projects done. I spent the entire day in the house, I did some housework, got a resume printed, printed business cards, tried to do some work on selling the motorhome. This afternoon we got a phone call from a friend in NH, he was watching the news and heard that a lake house on the same road as ours has burned to the ground. It ended up being our next-door neighbor, and we are shocked and can not imagine what they are going through. It seems the past few years someone upstairs has been testing them, they are wonderful people and have had a few tough last few years, our thoughts and prayers are with them and only hope that somehow, not seen now, something good will come of this.

At 5:00 we left to go out to dinner with Sammy Lee and his wife, Penelope. We had a very nice time with them and ended up back home at 2:30am!!

Water temp today was low to mid-fifties, and it’s pretty clear. It also seemed to be rising fast, as the current in Shoal Creek this morning was flowing upstream. We caught fish all day, perhaps ten apiece, mostly on a Carolina rig but also on a crankbait and a jig. We caught plenty of thirteen and fourteen inch fish, but by the end of the day each of us had caught only one fifteen inch keeper. Tomorrow we have to get out into the main lake and find the bigger fish.

Annie writes:
It was pouring out when I woke up, and we had a good storm. The dog hates thunderstorms, so we had no choice but to get up. I had put together more resumes last night and Dan printed labels out for them this morning. I assembled them all, put them in envelopes and they are ready to go in the mail. I worked on all my emails that needed responding. Dan & Craig did not come in until 6:00, Dan came in with a beautiful bunch of flowers for me that he had picked, he is so sweet!. Dan needed to go out to get some cold medicine, so we all went and Craig took us out to dinner. Dan went to bed immediately after we got home.

By mid-day the wind was blowing so hard that it was impossible to fish the main lake, and we were forced back into the creeks. Craig continued to throw the Carolina rig, and I was focusing on the jig. I threw the rig in both of the two tournaments I fished here last year, and the results both times were just what we had found yesterday - plenty of short fish, few keepers. Keeper fish must be fifteen inches, and I just can’t catch the big ones on the rig.

Fishing along a bluff wall today I caught my first keeper of the day on a TERMINATOR jig, a nice three-pounder. Fifty yards further along I caught a fourteen-incher, and shortly thereafter another fourteen-incher along the same bluff wall, but both of these fourteen-inchers were fat, healthy fish. I decided to go look for another bluff. We moved to a couple of different creeks and fished bluffs for hours without another bite, and eventually Craig decided to head back out to the creek mouth and Carolina-rig some more while I chose to run further up the creek and try one more bluff area. I’m glad I did, for along this one bluff I had seven bites, including two fish over three pounds apiece.

TERMINATOR Top Secret Jig

Click here for more info.

I spent the rest of the day looking for more bluffs, but never caught any more keeper fish. In total I had fourteen bites on the TERMINATOR jig today, some of which I shook off as opposed to setting the hook on, and I boated three fish over three pounds each. I am very excited about that. They’re not on every bluff, but they are definitely on some and they’re eating a bait with big-fish potential, the TERMINATOR jig. We have one more practice day to find some more productive bluffs.

Annie writes:
We awoke to another storm this morning, but it ended early and the sun came out for the rest of the day. I went rollerblading for my exercise of the day. Then I cleaned the house, did emails, and did some computer work. Dan called me on his way home and asked if I minded if he stopped by the tournament registration on the way home. I thought that was a great idea because I did not feel like going out. My dad had called to tell me that my Uncle Gene (actually he’s my Great Uncle) passed away this morning. He was the sweetest man you would ever meet and always in a good mood. I am sad that I am not home to be with family and friends at this time, although I am very thankful to be with Dan and he gives me comfort.

My plan for tomorrow then, since after locking-though we will have only six hours to fish and I have to split that time with my partner, is to fish only those two walls where I caught the bigger fish, and fish these two walls from today only if the first two run out of fish.

Annie writes:
I made a few phone calls today, and I was going to send flowers to the funeral home for Uncle Gene, but his obituary asked that donations be made in lieu of flowers, so I made two donations instead.

I rollerbladed 2 miles again today, and it felt good. Running is just not my thing. Dan is feeling much better. He called me from the water just to say he was thinking of me. He came in around 5:00, and I had dinner waiting for him. We ate, he changed clothes and then it was off to the meeting. He was pleased with the partner he drew for tomorrow. We came home and got his tackle ready for tomorrow, and Ben Parker (Hank’s son) came over to visit for a little while. We finally finished with the tackle around 11:00 and went to bed.

We bobbed around out there for no more than three minutes before a boat turned around and came to check on us. It was an ESPN camera crew, and they were initially concerned that we may had hit a floating log and been hurt, but when they learned that we had a blown engine they immediately offered to tow us to a launch ramp. We accepted, and while being towed made phone calls back to the B.A.S.S. staff and to Annie to let them know what was going on. The B.A.S.S. staff immediately offered to go to my partner’s motel, pick up his boat and trailer it over to the launch ramp that we were being towed to. They could then restart us here in Wilson Lake and we would not have to deal with the lock a second time. What incredible luck. We had blown our engine out in the middle of the lake and could easily have lost the rest of the fishing day just getting back to a launch ramp on the trolling motor. But instead, less than 60 minutes after becoming disabled, we were in a new boat and running up the lake again to begin our fishing day. To top it off, the B.A.S.S. staff even took my boat with the blown engine back on my partner’s trailer and delivered it right to the service crew, and chances are it will be fixed and ready to go again before the end of the day today. Thanks to all the people involved in getting this bad situation turned around for me.

It’s too bad our good fortune with the boat did not carry over into good fortune fishing. None of the big fish I had found the other day wanted to bite today. We went to all of my spots, caught just a few small fish, and no keepers at all. We fished some of Jimmy’s stuff later in the day, and that didn’t work either. We finished the day with empty livewells, along with 170 (out of 300) other guys. The cut for a check (55th place) right now is only four-and-a-half pounds.

Annie writes:
I woke up early this morning from a ringing phone. It was Dan calling, he had a problem, he blew up his motor. He needed me to bring him a new boat. He was mainly calling to wake me up, so I will be ready after he calls the BASS staff. A few minutes later he called back saying that he did not need me, that instead Trip Weldon was going to bring him a new boat and restart him. He would just tie the boat up to the dock and we will get it this afternoon. Five minutes later the phone rang again. He decided it would be better if I could go over and get the boat and bring it to the service trailer so that they could begin working on it today. I got dressed in grubby clothes, as it will probably not be pretty seeing that I have to get the boat on the trailer by myself and without the big motor. As I was about to walk out the door the phone rang again, and guess who, yup, Dan. Trip was going to load our boat onto Dan’s partners trailer and bring it directly to the service crew. I told Dan to thank Trip for me, and I am right where I was before Dan called, except now I am awake!

Jimmy (Dan’s partner) had left me his truck today and told me I could use it for whatever I want. I went to do a few groceries and to the post office. On my way out I saw Dan’s boat at the service truck and they were working on it. I checked with them later in the day and they had finished, so before Dan came in I managed to get our boat back onto our trailer.

Dan did not catch any fish today, but I am OK with that. He is safe. One of our friends, who is camping right next to us, got hurt today in a boat accident. The boat he was in hit a cement wall during the boat race back from the lock this afternoon, and he broke three ribs and got bruised up pretty good. I spoke to him before he went in the ambulance to the hospital, and later we visited him at the campground when he returned. He said that everything just happened so fast, and it’s a miracle that he’s still alive right now. We are glad he is back and will be okay.

I think overall fewer fish were caught today than yesterday, and the partner I drew for day three had nothing to go to either, so both of us decided to leave and not even fish the final day. I hate to leave before the end of the tournament, but the truth is that there is no reason for me to believe that my fish would all of a sudden start biting tomorrow, when they haven’t bit for me for the last two days, so if I fish here tomorrow I’d basically be starting all over looking for new fish. My thinking at this point is that an extra day of practice for the FLW on Lake Martin, which starts on Wednesday, would be more valuable to me now than another day of fishing here.

Annie writes:
Dan’s cold has miraculously disappeared, but I caught it instead and now I’m pretty miserable. I am trying to drink a lot of water and get some medicine in me. If Dan happens to catch no fish again today he might want to leave to get an earlier start for the FLW next week. Just in case, I am preparing the coach and the site for travel. I am exhausted so I rested for a bit on the coach before the weigh in. Dan came in with one fish, but he still wants to head out tonight. This is the last B.A.S.S. for the year and his chances of getting a check here are pretty slim, also he can get in an extra practice day for the upcoming FLW. We got on the road around 6:30 and drove about 60 miles. We stopped at a Walmart for the night.

I had fished perhaps thirty docks today and been bit off of only two. I started to analyze the characteristics of those two and decided that they were both out on the ends of points, and next to deep, twenty-foot-plus, water. I started running around fishing only similar docks, and eventually found one dock with a couple of Christmas trees under it, and in the clear water I could see two three-to-four pound fish. I left these alone but went looking for others nearby, and when I wandered all the way up into the back of the nearby pocket there was a pile of fish up there in the shallow water. I caught one on a wacky-worm and left the rest of them alone.

I wished I had had more time to look around in other nearby pockets, but there was a big tournament weigh-in back at the campground at 3:00 and I wanted to get back to see what everybody else was catching. As it turned out, my five-fish weighing around nine pounds would have been pretty respectable against most of the other teams with a seven-fish limit. I should be happy about that because I think I figured out how to catch some, but the trouble is we’re in for a nasty weather change, and these shallow water fish will be sure to leave.

Annie writes:
I am finally getting rid of this cold, but I still do not want to overdue it. I hung around the house today and did things inside. It was freezing this morning, the temperature was 47 when I woke up. The people on the site next to us left today and that is a much bigger site, so I moved us over there for the week. Laraine came over to visit for a little bit, I got to talk to Chris on the Internet and I prepared some dinners for us this week.

Dan came in around 3:00; there was a local tournament that was coming in then also. He parked the boat at the campsite and we walked over to the weigh-in. It was a tournament to benefit St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, and we had been to visit there last year. While at the weigh-in, a local angler came over and asked if he had seen me in some TV commercials. It was pretty nice to be recognized even with no sponsor clothing on.

Now here’s a funny story: Noriaki was fishing a spinning rod, with light line, so whenever he would set the hook his rod would bend way over, and it would take him a good long time to get the fish finally up to the net. Each of these two-pound fish as he’s fighting them with light equipment would appear to be a monster, and as I don’t know how to say "monster fish" in Japanese, what I came up with instead and what you could hear me hollering as I stood ready with the net each time was "Godzilla! Godzilla!"

After about five hours of this I finally decided that while shaking the worm in front of these fish had worked great yesterday, it just was not going to work at all today. I couldn’t do what Noriaki was doing either - we were fishing open water in a strong wind (and in fact had waves approaching three feet on the ride back) and there was just no way that I could have felt that deep water bite. In desperation I strapped everything down and headed back toward the launch ramp. I was going to spend the rest of the day sitting on a little rip-rap point near the weigh-in. I hadn’t been there this week, but every time I had visited it in the past I had been bit. It’s a "community hole," which I tend to shy away from, but I thought that if I just sat there and waited ‘em out this afternoon maybe I could catch at least one today.

This turned out to be a good decision, for both me and for Noriaki. In the last hour of the day I caught one weighing 3.4 pounds, and my partner finished out his limit with two small keepers. Not only did this save me the embarrassment of going up to the scales with no fish while my partner had a limit, it did a few other things as well. With a weight of eight pounds, five ounces my partner Noriaki ended the day in eighth place overall, which the camera crews and the reporters were thrilled with. As for myself I ended up only two pounds out of the money after day-one, and I now had the idea that maybe, no definitely, I should start out tomorrow morning right back there on that same rip-rap point.

As it turned out the fishing had been surprisingly tough for most everyone. Out there in the boat all day, without realizing that everyone else was struggling too, I began struggling with my own mind. My practice days had been up and down, but I ended up yesterday believing that I could catch a limit here regardless of weather conditions. Instead, by mid-day today what was happening was that I was sitting on an empty livewell, while my Japanese partner, first time ever to America, was making a fool out of me. I was really, really letting this bother me out there, and by the time I eventually made the decision to change tactics this afternoon, I was closer to throwing in the towel and calling it quits, to admitting that I really don’t belong out here trying to make a living at this, than I ever have been before. Sure, making the right decision this afternoon, which allowed me to catch one good fish, helped buoy my spirits and gave me some reason to be optimistic about tomorrow, but overall both Annie and I were very low this evening. We began talking seriously for the first time about calling an end to the fishing career, and we feel now that with all that’s happened to us in the past few months, if something good doesn’t happen for a change, then this will be our last season.

Annie writes:
It was pretty chilly again today. I did lots of laundry and am trying to get things organized to go home. Dan was due in at 3:40, I am anxious, I think it will be a good day. When he finally came in though, he had only had one fish. Our spirits are very low right now and we are questioning everything. We are thinking this might have to be our last year of fishing. Not because we want to quit, but because our break just doesn’t seem to be coming. I have sent out more than 24 resumes recently and the only thing we keep hearing back is "No!" We just can not afford to keep sponsoring ourselves. I think we have been very patient, and have worked very hard to try and find some new sponsors, but our break does not seem to be coming.

I had made some tackle changes last night, based on what was working for Noriaki yesterday, and today I was mimicking as best I could both his technique and his bait. It worked. Within a half hour of settling down to fish, I felt the tap, I set the hook, and I hear out of the back of the boat "Godzilla! Godzilla!" I had told my partner the Godzilla story from yesterday, and now he was using it on me. It didn’t bother me a bit though as I put a two pound fish in the livewell.

Eventually all of the other boats drifted off to their secondary areas, but I stayed and within the next hour put a second fish in the boat, again on my Noriaki grub imitation. After another hour though on this one thirty-yard stretch, I eventually ran out of patience. My last fish, and both of Noriaki’s from yesterday, were so skinny that none weighed even fifteen ounces, and I thought okay, now that I’ve got a bait that’s working, and that the wind is flat calm, maybe I should run down to where the bigger fish are, to where I brought Noriaki to catch them yesterday.

We packed up and made the twenty-minute run down the lake. We fished all three points where fish bit yesterday (and the day before,) but nothing was happening today. The sun was finally out and shining bright though for the first time in days, so we ran back up to the docks where I had caught good fish on Sunday, but there were no takers there either. Next we ran back to the pockets where so many fish had come up shallow the last time we had had a sunny day, but apparently it was still too soon after the cold for the fish to be up sunning again.

It was obvious that I had made a bad decision to leave my fish from this morning. After having wasted three or four hours, I returned to where I should have stayed all day. Fortunately there was no one there when I arrived. The weather had warmed considerably, and there was baitfish activity right up on the bank, so I started throwing a crankbait up towards the rip-rap. Ten minutes later I was hearing "Godzilla!" from the back of the boat again, and I put my third keeper in the livewell, and half and hour later I caught my fourth, again on the crankbait.

Now about this time who should come walking right out onto the point we’re fishing, but Annie. I had told her where we were going to be, and she was coming over to check on us. It was interesting, being able to talk to her while I was actually fishing on tournament day. I told her what I had, and she got to watch my partner catch his first fish of the day off our point, too, so she had reason to be optimistic before the weigh-in.

My partner ended up catching two, and I finished off my limit before it was time to make the 60 second run back to the check-in boat. What a huge difference it makes catching a limit the second day of the tournament, after the day and night of disappointment we had had yesterday. Even better, the limit I had today combined with the big fish from yesterday totaled just enough to earn me a paycheck here. That’s two checks now in the two FLW tournaments we’ve fished this year. While it’s not enough even to pay the expenses, it is certainly a step in the right direction and we feel much better about things now than we did 24 hours ago.

Annie writes:
I spent the entire morning cleaning out the truck. It is completely emptied, vacuumed, cleaned and ready to be packed for our trip home to NH. I met some of the other wives for lunch. It was my first time out with them this week. We had a really good time and afterwards went to Laraine’s camper for desert.

I knew the area Dan was going to be fishing this afternoon. I could see him from the campground, so I walked over to talk to him before the weigh in. He had four fish when I saw him and that was very good. I was not sure what to expect and did not want to get my hopes high. I went to do a couple of loads of laundry to finish everything up before weigh in. Dan came in with five fish, and his total weight for two days was 11.1 lbs. I had thought going into today that it would take 11 pounds to get a check. I hope I was right. They announced that 10.15lbs. would receive a check. YEAH!!!! We were very happy. This is our 2nd FLW of the year and our 2nd check. This does a lot to boost our morale and help us to have a more enjoyable trip home, but I in the back of my mind I still have lots of mixed feelings.

At 4:00 I met Dan at the ramp. We loaded his stuff into the truck and drove to Walmart to watch the weigh-in. Dan had followed Guido Hibdon today, so we are hoping Guido makes it to the final day. As the weigh-in progressed, Guido was the man "on the bubble" when it came down to just one more pro to weigh in. He made it! Guido gets to fish again tomorrow.

The co-angler division of the tournament ended today, and one of our friends Willie White won 1st place. We were hoping Willie would win, for he is always such a positive guy, and friendly to everyone. He reads our journal faithfully and is always pulling for us, and full of words of encouragement when we get to see him. Willie, we are happy for you and it was wonderful to see you and your sweet wife up on stage collecting the first-place check and trophy.

Isn’t it strange how your outlook on things can change in just a short time? As you know, Dan and I are still not sure what our future will bring, and just two days ago we were feeling pretty discouraged. But when Dan was out with Guido today, the two of them were talking and Guido told Dan, among other things, that "he is a better fisherman than he gives himself credit for". Now, this is Guido Hibdon, one of the most famous fisherman in the world and someone who’s been around this sport for a long time. He is fishing for $100,000, and he is taking the time to give Dan these words of encouragement. That meant a lot to us.

Later at the weigh-in we saw Noriaki, the Japanese angler that Dan fished with on day one. His interpreter informed us that Noriaki has enjoyed himself so much here that he wants to return to the states later in the year, and to fish with Dan again when he does. We told them we lived in NH, and Noriaki’s response to this was "Big Smallmouth!".

After today our spirits are up again and our confidence has returned somewhat. Hopefully soon we can just find a new sponsor to believe in us also.

At the ramp, amidst the music and the cameras and the whump of the helicopter blades, my boat arrived and I jumped in. I just had time to zip my life jacket before they slid the boat off the trailer, and the truck disappeared to make room for the next one. Amidst all the smiles and fanfare this morning, there are five faces carrying more subdued expressions than most. Five guys are fishing for the win here today, and eight hours from now one of them will be crowned champion and become $100,000 richer. There is Guido Hibdon, Rick Clunn, Ricky Schumpert, Aaron Martins, and Takahiro Omori.

If there is any favorite it’s got to be Clunn. He is famous for his final-day heroics, and a master at doing what it takes to take home the prize. Both Rick and Takahiro are fishing the same tiny pocket right around the corner from the take-off, so they will not waste any time running their boats today. Give Clunn eight full hours of fishing time, in a pocket you know is loaded with fish, and I for one would never bet against him.

At this point I want to describe the rather unique characteristics of the fishing right now. We’re at Lake Martin, a deep, clear impoundment in central Alabama. There are countless creeks, coves, and pockets to fish, but Wind Creek, where the tournament is going out of, is somewhat unique. It is one of the last big creeks "up" the lake, before the lake turns into river, and has perhaps three characteristics that make it especially important today. First, because it is both up the river and close to the main river channel, and because we have had huge rains recently which have brought lots of mud downstream, the water right now in Wind Creek has excellent color, with visibility of about two feet. This gives shallow-water fish a feeling of security, allowing them to roam about more than they do under clear-water conditions, yet still allows them to track down a fisherman’s bait with little difficulty.

Second, this creek has an abundant, year-round bait-fish population. Every time I have been to this lake, it seems that for whatever reason there are more baitfish in this particular creek than anywhere else on the lake.

Third, and perhaps most important, is the fact that this is a very popular tournament lake, and the vast majority of these tournaments go out of here, Wind Creek State Park. That means that virtually year-round, fish are being harvested by tournament fishermen from areas all over the lake and being released here in Wind Creek. In fact just three days before the start of this tournament, another tournament with 170 boats released all of their fish right there at the boat launch. The release of thousands of new fish on a regular basis, combined with the abundance of baitfish in this creek, make this one of the most consistent fishing areas on the lake.

There is so much potential here in fact that when the Top Five finally blasted off this morning for their last day of fishing, four of the guys were down off of plane and fishing within sixty seconds, and three of them didn’t even go three hundred yards from the take-off.

Guido on the other hand, though he could not have failed to recognize the potential of this area, had committed himself to fishing his way - which for this tournament was clear water, and docks. So long after the other four had begun casting for released fish, Guido was still racing down the lake at 65 mph. There were three people in Guido’s boat for this ride. Guido of course was one, but also Tommy Sanders, there to interview Guido as the boat raced down the lake, and the cameraman to capture it all on videotape. I in the camera boat followed closely along, and couldn’t help being caught up in the excitement. There is a certain rush you get racing these boats across a flat lake as the sun is just appearing over the hills, and today we had the added excitement of a helicopter chasing us, suspending right over our heads as we raced side-by-side, zig-zagging left and right in front of us, and one time even moving ahead a mile or so, then dropping down to perhaps thirty feet over the water’s surface and just sitting there as our two boats approached at break-neck speed and then zoomed directly underneath.

As for Guido’s fishing, he did exactly what he did yesterday. For much of the day I felt he was making a huge mistake - I would have stayed back in Wind Creek, with everyone else, and perhaps caught a limit before Guido’s fish even started biting late in the morning. But what do I know? I’m not the one who’s won the Bassmaster’s Classic, and I came in 72nd place here while Guido is fishing the Top 5. So shut-up, Dan, pay attention and learn something.

A couple of things I found amazing while watching Guido fish were that he fished new water every day - he never returned to the same docks or the same coves that he had already fished, either that day or on previous days. Even docks where he had gotten bit and missed the fish - he never returned later to try and catch that same fish. And the fact that he knew his fish didn’t turn on until late in the morning - this didn’t seem to faze him. He said the mistake he had made on day one, when he did not bring in a limit of fish, was that he did not wait these fish out - he knew they were there and yet he ran off on them before they were ready to bite.

As for bait selection, Guido had six rods laid out on the deck. Five out of six had the same bait tied on, a GAMBLER finesse worm, and on the sixth he had a GAMBLER tube bait which he used to flip at a few trees in between docks. I asked at one point whether he had even brought any hard-baits with him, and his grumbled response had something to do with not wanting to pollute the water with such things.

Guido fished for three hours this morning without the first bite. All I could think was that probably every other boat in the tournament already had a limit. At ten o’clock though Guido’s patience began to pay off, and I got to see why he was fishing today and I wasn’t. In the next three hours, again doing exactly what he’d been doing all morning and all week, he had ten or twelve bites and caught seven or eight keeper fish.

When we quit and headed back to the weigh-in, I estimated that he had around ten pounds. He spend the last fifteen minutes or so flipping trees in Wind Creek, and had one huge fish come up and roll right over his tube-bait, but it didn’t bite. His ten pounds would have to do it for today.

The rumor back in the parking lot was that Clunn had only four small fish. As amazing as that sounded, it raised the possibility that maybe fishing was tougher for everyone else today too, and maybe Guido’s ten pounds was going to look a lot better up on stage than we had envisioned. As it turned out that was exactly the case, and Guido ended up in second place, missing first place by only ten ounces. Takahiro Omori took home first, fishing a crankbait in that little pocket three hundred yards from the take-off.

Annie writes:
By 7:30 this morning I was busy preparing the coach for travel. I cleaned and put away the grill, and got everything else outside put away. I secured all the doors and drawers in the house and then got myself cleaned up. Dan & I plan to meet at the weigh-in today, instead of a the launch ramp, so I can go mingle for a while ahead of time. I went over at 12:00 and got to talk with quite a few people. Dan came in around 3:00 with the fishermen and the weigh-in got started. Guido came in 2nd place. I would have liked for him to win, but I am very happy for him and his family. After the weigh-in we said all our good-byes, but John & Laraine talked us into going to dinner and then staying at the campground another night. It was nice to have dinner with just the four of us, and no pressures of having to get up early and fish tomorrow or work. We got home to the camper around 8:00, were in bed by 8:30, and are in no rush to get out of here in the morning.

We will be home in NH until right around Easter, at which time we head back out for the next FLW tournament at Beaver Lake, Arkansas. This will be another deep, clear lake with a lot of bedding fish, and we’re looking forward to trying out some of the things we learned from Guido there ourselves.