[November] December 2001 [January]

Yesterday I went through the ordeal of trying decide what fishing tackle to bring. Whatever I chose would have to fit into two suitcases, along with all my clothes and personal items, for the airplane ride. I chose a selection of shallow-running crankbaits, jerkbaits, Terminator spinnerbaits and buzzbaits, and plenty of soft plastic - Gambler worms and craws in two of Florida’s favorite colors, junebug and red shad.

That was yesterday. Today I flew to South Carolina and Craig met me at the airport. We went back to his house for the night, and tomorrow we make the seven or eight hour drive to Palatka, Florida, and the St. John’s River.

I started the day with a solid two-pound fish on a half-ounce Terminator spinnerbait, and caught another twelve-inch fish shortly afterwards. After the sun got up though we fished for five more hours and caught only one more fish. Later in the afternoon we stumbled onto a point with a steep drop from two feet down to about ten, and Craig was dragging a Carolina rig across the top when he got a big bite. He pulled out a six-and-a-half pounder. That was exciting, but we fished that point for an hour without another bite, so we had to move on. As it turns out that was the last bite we had all day, so the final results were: eight hours in Crescent Lake; four fish between the two of us.

That night we had to make a decision on how and where to practice on our final practice day. There is still all of Lake George which we haven’t even looked at, as well as fifty miles of river to fish. We decided that while we didn’t catch a pile of fish today, Rodman had a lot of potential, and we will spend tomorrow, our last day, looking for more in there.

We went to the pairings meeting that evening, where I met up with my partner for tomorrow and we made a plan. He is fishing in Rodman also, close to where Craig and I were, so there was no arguing over where to go in the morning. We’re just going to go up there to Rodman and see what happens.

My partner of course felt awful about the situation, and was very apologetic. It wasn’t his fault though, and in fact the situation could have been much worse. We weren't out in the middle of a lake somewhere with no help in sight, instead we were right where we had intended to start fishing, and within easy trolling distance of a launch ramp. If we caught some fish, we could leave the boat this afternoon at the ramp, return to the weigh-in in somebody else’s boat, and then return with the truck to retrieve the disabled boat.

So that is exactly what we did. We called the tournament director to let him know the situation, and then started fishing. As it was in practice though the fishing today was tough, and with a blown motor we couldn’t move to another spot when the fish here wouldn’t bite. We spent all day on this one stretch, trying every bait in the box, but caught only one fish all day. At 1:00 we bummed a ride with another competitor (Mike Iaconelli) back to the weigh-in, picked up the truck and returned to the launch ramp for the boat. Fishing was tough for everyone today, and the cut for a check (55th place) is only five and a half pounds.

Craig had a big day today. Yesterday he caught only one fish and at 2pm today he had nothing in the livewell, but in the last hour this afternoon they got on to some fish schooling on a point and he put twelve and a half pounds into the boat, enough to vault him into fifteenth place!

Overall it was tough fishing this week, and it took only thirteen pounds over three days to be in the money. Craig zeroed today, but thanks to his big day yesterday he still finished 43rd and took home a check.

Our next tournament will be the FLW on Lake Okeechobee in mid-January, so tune in again around that time to read more of our adventures!

Link to: January 2002