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Tuesday, January 1
On the Road Again…
Dan writes:
We’re on the road again after what, for us, constitutes a long break. It’s been three and a half months and with the holidays now over and the cold weather settled in over our New Hampshire home, we’re ready and excited to be getting out again.

This year we’re signed up to fish the FLW, the B.A.S.S. Eastern Opens, and the EverStart Northern division. These are the same events we did last year, but what’s different now is that we are no longer traveling in the motorhome - economic reality is such that if we cannot make more money fishing, we cannot afford to live in the motorhome any longer either. This year we’re sleeping in the truck on the side of the road, and pitching the tent when we get where we’re going.

We left New Hampshire at noontime today, headed to Florida for the FLW tournament on Lake Okeechobee. Having sold the boat back in November, instead of heading straight down to Florida we are forced to side-trip out to the Ranger factory in Arkansas to pick up a loaner. This will stretch our drive out to about 3,000 miles. One way. Non-stop. And to make it worse, the Suburban is packed FULL! We’re not planning to drive home again until May, so that’s four months-worth of clothing, camping gear, cookware, bedding, and supplies that had to be packed. And, since we don’t have a boat with us right now, everything that would normally be kept IN the boat, such as rods and reels, tackle boxes, electronics, raingear, helmets, anchors, and battery chargers, all had to go into the Suburban as well. This is going to be a loooong ride!

Annie writes:
Today’s travels were great. We are both ready for the new fishing season to start, so we were both in good spirits all day, chatting, telling stories, and going over our plans. The biggest thing we discussed was our future in this sport. We have agreed that this will be our "make or break" year. We love the sport, the business, the fishing, and our "on the road" family, but we’ve been at it for some time now and it is not inexpensive. We have tried very hard to find sponsors, and to promote ourselves and the sport, and we feel we practice hard for every tournament. The outcome of these tournaments however have not gone our way. This is not easy to write. It would not be easy for us to leave the trail, but we need to start seeing a better return on our investment. Whether that return takes the form of a sponsorship deal, or a tournament win, we need some kind of sign to tell us that this is what we should be doing. We have invested a lot of time, energy and money into this sport that we love, but sadly, this may be our final year.

With that said, I do not want anyone to think that we are giving up. NOT A CHANCE! We will continue to work just as hard if not harder than we have in the past. In the back of my head I keep thinking that maybe this step, this "make or break" acknowledgment, is what we need in order to advance toward our goal. I am really looking forward to a great season.


Wednesday, January 2
On the Road Again…
Dan writes:
Last night we made a little bet - what was the lowest temperature each of us thought we’d see overnight. I said 27; Annie said 23. It was 12 degrees. I guess you could say we both lost, because it was too cold to stop the truck and sleep. We tried a couple of times but without leaving the engine running and the heat blowing, which I don’t like to do for fear of carbon monoxide poisoning, we’d be shivering in our seats within an hour. We drove 1,000 miles in the first twenty-four hours.

Annie writes:
Here is something I never thought I would be writing about. I have to tell everyone how excited I am about the Lowrance X16 that Dan installed in the truck. I must have commented six times in the past 24 hours how much I love this unit. I think Dan is in shock, because I am generally more interested in fashion than technology, but this unit is incredible.

I am not real good at directions. If I was driving while Dan was sleeping, I would stop, review the maps, write down each road to take, then drive. If I didn’t take the time to write out my route, then I would practically run us off the road trying to read those darn paper maps. So many time I have exclaimed "I wish we had a map that just said ‘You are here!’" Well, my prayers have been answered, and that is exactly what I now have. This fall Dan installed the Lowrance X16 in our Suburban. He was so proud of it. He showed it off to me and I nodded and said "That’s nice honey," but secretly I just considered it another one of those "guy" toys. Boy was I wrong!

We have driven 1,500 miles in the past two days, and I don’t even know where the paper maps are packed in the car. I have relied completely on the Lowrance X16 to tell me where I am, which route to take, and how far it is to my destination. This is the coolest thing. It is so nice to know always exactly where you are. My days of wondering whether or not I am on the right road are over. My days of waking up Dan to ask for directions are over. It is making this trip so much easier. I would advise any husband (or wife) out there whose spouse may not be so good with directions, to install one in their car. I guarantee that I will ask for one in my next car, also.


Thursday, January 3
On the Road Again…
Dan writes:

At midnight on our second night we arrived at the Ranger factory in Flippin, Arkansas. The temperature here, 1,600 miles from home: 12 degrees for the second night in a row!

At 9:00am we were in the Ranger office with Kim Ott, signing out our loaner boat. Afterwards, while hooking up the boat down at the loading docks, no fewer than four guys we know came over to say hello, and set to work checking out the boat and fixing little things that needed fixing. They all wanted to make sure we had a boat that wasn’t going to give us any problems when we got to Okeechobee. This Ranger team is great - it’s like a family and everyone here goes out of their way to be helpful. If we didn’t have such great support like this behind us, we would not be able to fish right now. Thanks, guys.

Annie writes:

In the office at Ranger today, we found out some terrible news. The regional rep for Ranger, Mike James, had passed away unexpectedly over the holidays. This was a shock, for Mike was only in his 40’s. He was a great guy and we will all miss him.

We left Flippin around noontime and drove all day. It is a little slower now that we are towing the boat. There is a big snowstorm going on in the South right now, in Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas, so we are driving a different route than we normally would so that we can avoid the bad weather.


Friday, January 4
On the Road Again…
Dan writes:
I woke up at a highway rest area somewhere near New Orleans. Annie had done a good job getting us this far last night. We still have 800 miles to go, and even though we are as far south as we can get it is still so cold that the roadside puddles are frozen and there is even ice in the brackish swamps and bayous of south Louisiana and Mississippi.

Annie writes:
Here is a recap of our attitude progression...


Saturday, January 5
On the Road Again…
Annie writes:
After four days of driving 2,980 miles, at midnight last night we finally made our destination. It was too late to check into a campground so we spent one final night in the truck. And in case anyone is wondering, yes, we made it the whole way relying solely on our Lowrance X16, and never even pulled the paper maps out.

Today we were at the campground by 8:30am and spent the whole day setting up our camp, loading the boat, doing groceries, and taking extra long showers. The past few days our bodies have been so off schedule that tonight we were in bed by 8:00, and have no plans for tomorrow except to catch up on some sleep.


Sunday, January 6
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Annie writes:
A nice day at camp. Word around the campground was that there is a big storm coming in, with a cold front following. We spent the morning preparing for the storm, and then the wind picked up and it began to rain. We were ready though, and still exhausted from our trip down, so we snugged-up the tent and huddled inside. We napped for about an hour or so and awoke to sunny skies. I don’t know what kind of storm this is, but I can handle this.

Dan went into town to run some errands and I stayed at camp to do the laundry and catch up on phone calls. I made plans to meet with two of my cousins who live in Florida, whom I have not seen in a years. Tomorrow we begin to fish, so it was an early night again for us.


Monday, January 7
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
I’ve been itching to get out on the water. A big front blew through yesterday, but when I awoke this morning the stars were shining and the winds were calm. Today’s the day.

I spent most of the day just riding around looking at the lake. The water level is back up to where it should be, but because of the extremely low conditions last year, lower than it had been in almost fifty years, the lake has changed a great deal. Some of the grasses, like hydrilla, didn’t like the low water and seem to have died off. Others, like Kissimmee grass and some other that I don’t know, have flourished. South Bay, where in the past you could drift for a mile or more across broad expanses of hydrilla, now is almost totally choked with Kissimmee grass, bulrushes and reeds. It’s was the same over in Pelican Bay, where you’d need a lawnmower now to get into some of the places we used to fish.

Annie writes:
Got up early and went fishing for the day with Dan. I was looking forward to going out. This is my first time in the boat since summer. Seeing that we are in a tent, my options are limited if I stay home, so I will be spending more time helping Dan practice, which I like.

I must say it is not the Florida weather I was hoping for. I went out wearing two shirts, a sweater, my Ranger jacket, a winter hat and gloves, and I kept them on the whole day. We did not expect to catch a lot of fish with this weather, but it was nice to be out in the boat together.

We are definitely back in our fishing mode now. By the time we get home, we eat, we shower and then go right to bed. The rest of the campground was going to the rec. hall for bingo at 7:00, and we were putting our pajamas on.


Tuesday, January 8
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
Another cold morning, and since my tournament is not for another two weeks, I am in no hurry to jump out of the warm tent and into the frosty outside air. By noontime though the wind had laid down, the sun was strong, and the thermometer read 53 degrees, so I headed out for a few hours.

This time I went over to the west side, and into Moonshine Bay. Huge disappointment. So different that I did not recognize it at all. All of the grass (needle-grass I call it) was dead, and other vegetation types have taken over. No clear water to be found at all. In past years you could always count on clear water in here.

I exited Moonshine at the far end and headed across Fisheating Bay to the "North Shore". Here I experienced my second disappointment of the day. All of the GPS waypoints I had saved from previous years, which marked specific spots in the huge expanses of eelgrass, are going to be useless now that the lake has changed.

Also, all of the water out here today was dirty, a result of the wind. This is something the fish on Lake Okeechobee really don’t like, so I wandered around back behind the reed lines for the rest of the day looking for something different.

Annie writes:
It was freezing this morning and the wind was howling, thank goodness Dan was not planning on going out early. We did things around the campsite, worked on email, and then the weather started getting nicer. At 12:30 Dan decided to go out for a few hours. I went into town to run errands. We met at the launch ramp at 5:30, drove back to the campsite, ate dinner and got ready for tomorrow’s big fishing day. After one more cold night tonight the weather should begin to get nicer.


Wednesday, January 9
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
Annie and I waited for the weather to warm up some, then put the boat in over at Harney Pond Canal on the west side. I wanted to spend some time on the North Shore again, to see if I could find some clear water out there on the eel grass flats.

There is an EverStart tournament here this week, and it started today. Boats were congregating in specific areas on the flats, so I joined a couple of groups, fished a crankbait to be different from everyone else, but really just wanted to see if anyone was catching fish. I counted over fifty boats, and in the hour or so that I spent among them, not one guy set the hook on a bite. The water is still dirty everywhere, which I’m sure is not helping.

I left and started looking around again on my own. I ran through Moonshine Bay for the second time, this time from a different angle, but it looks worse than it did yesterday. Dead, dry, and dirty.

As I have for the past two days, I spent a great deal of time today just running the boat around, looking at the water. I have eliminated a lot of areas during this time, but have identified two so far that have what I’m looking for: clear water, hard bottom, and the right kind of vegetation. We quit at 2pm, and drove up to watch the EverStart weigh-in at the north end of the lake.

I haven’t spent a lot of time fishing in the past three days, but in the time I have spent, I have not caught a single fish. The results of the weigh-in today ran along those same lines. Out of 330 anglers in the tournament, only 123 caught any fish at all, and only 207 fish were caught total! This is terrible! Most guys are blaming it on the cold weather. We’ve had frost in the boat every single morning since we arrived. They say fishing was great three weeks ago, when the water temperature was 80 degrees, but this morning it was down to 50.

Annie writes:
Spent the day in the boat with Dan, mainly just checking things out. The EverStart tournament started today and we did not want to interfere with their fishing. We stopped by the weigh-in to see the weights, and it was nice to see lots of our friends again. We socialized, stayed for the Christian Anglers meeting, then began to head home. Our ride was about an hour and it was already dark, so we figured it would be easier to stop and get a bite to eat while we were out than cook in the dark when we got home.


Thursday, January 10
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
The best water I’ve seen so far is in South Bay. It was clear, with a mix of eel grass, hydrilla, and cattails. I went back there today to see if we couldn’t finally coax a fish into biting. We went out around 10:00, when the frost had melted off the boat seats, and stayed out until 2, and for four hours we wandered the myriad of trails through the cattails but never had one bite. By mid-day the weather had warmed to 70 degrees and the water got up to 55. The weather reporter says this is the end of the cold snap, but the fish haven’t figured that out yet. We’ve now been here at Lake Okeechobee for four days, and I have yet to catch my first fish.

We checked the EverStart results on the internet tonight. They did worse today than they did yesterday. It took only 10 1/2 pounds over two days to make the Top 20 cut on the pro side, and less than four pounds on the amateur side.

So far this week, we’ve been going out late and coming in early. In case it sounds like I’m not working hard, that’s true. The FLW tournament is still two weeks away, and I’ve decided that my efforts at this point would best be spent learning the lake, since it’s changed so much from what we used to know, rather than figuring out exactly how to catch these fish. The fish are always bedding when we come here in late January, and I’ve already located two areas with beds, even in this fifty degree water. That’s what I need to concentrate on - finding out where they’re going to be in two weeks when the water warms up, the full moon arrives, and the fish move in to spawn.

Annie writes:
I went out fishing with Danny again, and we have not caught a fish yet. I did manage to get some of his tackle organized though. It was pretty chilly all day and I am ready for it to warm up. Inland it is nice, but when you are on the lake and it is breezy you do not feel the sun much.

We returned home about 3:00, and went for a swim in the pool. The water was 86 degrees. This is the way a pool ought to be. Dan went to the shower house while I cooked dinner. Seeing it was still early we got some laundry done. The final episode of Survivor is tonight and yes, I was hooked on it this season. As we have no TV in the tent, I hunkered down in the Suburban, which does have a little TV, and I watched the two hour finale. That was my first TV watching since we left NH.


Friday, January 11
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
I finally caught my first fish today. I returned to one of the areas I had found with beds on it, to see if the fish had responded yet to the warmer weather by moving back up. They hadn’t, but I did catch a nice three-pounder flipping a nearby mat of hyacinths. I found another new spawning area nearby, and I also spent some time cranking the rip-rap inside the rim canal, but that one fish was all I caught. The water temp was up to 57 degrees by mid-afternoon.

In the semi-final round of the EverStart tournament, it took only three pounds to make the cut to tomorrow’s Top Ten. Wow. Still tough for everybody.

Annie writes:
I did not go fishing with Dan today. He was due back by 3:00, and we went out this evening to meet a cousin of mine, Billy, who I have not seen in about 13 years. We had a wonderful time. I think since the events on September 11th, I have realized that life is too short to not see people you care about, or do the things you want. Since I have relatives here in Florida, I called them up and said "Hey, lets get together." After dinner we were so thankful that we went. It was well worth it, and we are actually going to see another cousin of mine on Sunday.


Saturday, January 12
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
We fished a lot of main lake, open water stuff this morning, but the water was still very dirty. We rode up to the North Shore again, hoping that the water had cleared some in the eel grass. Eel grass usually tends to filter the sediment out, but for some reason this eel grass is staying dirtier than I, and the fish, like. We spent some time drifting across the flats, pitching worms and looking for holes in the thick grass, but the fish weren’t biting.

A few days ago Annie and I were wandering through an area back behind a wall of cattails, and I had noticed hydrilla mixed in with the reeds. I went back over there this afternoon, and caught my second fish in six days. Annie thinks she missed one on a worm, too. The area looked promising, with a lot more hydrilla than I had realized earlier, but it was late in the day and we had run out of time. Tomorrow I want to return and fish it first thing in the morning with a soft jerkbait.

Annie writes:
It is still chilly in the mornings, which allows me more sleeping time. We got on the water around 9:00, and fished very hard all day. I did not catch a fish. I may have had one bite, but I am not even sure of that. At least the weather was nice and the lake was calm, but that didn’t help our fishing any. We came off the water at 5:00, and after the wind and sun all day we were exhausted. Dan cooked us dinner so I could go take a shower, and by 6:30 we were fed, cleaned, and in the tent for the night.


Sunday, January 13
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
The weather is finally warming up, with an overnight low last night in the 50’s, so I was on the water at daybreak this morning. I returned to the area where we had finished yesterday, tied on a Gambler Flappin’ Shad soft jerkbait, and caught a fish on my second cast. Alleluia. I caught two more in the next hour, both on the Flappin’ Shad. It’s about time; I had caught two fish total in the past six days.

I left this little spot and began searching for another like it - hydrilla, clear water, five feet deep, back behind the reed line. I found one other, caught no fish there, but saved it as a waypoint on my Lowrance X15 anyway.

Annie writes:
Dan is due in by 3:00 as we are going to meet my cousin Brenda and her husband Chris, for dinner tonight. I did things around the campground and had everything ready to go when he got home. The ride over to the coast was spent discussing Dan’s fishing day, and how pleased he was to finally have caught a few fish. We had a great time with my cousin and returned home around 10:00. By the time we settled down and fell asleep it was around 11:00, and I knew morning would come way to fast.


Monday, January 14
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
The fish finally bit for us today, at least in one little area up in Fisheating Bay. I caught at least a dozen fish in just two or three hours pitching a little Gambler Crawdaddy around in the reeds. They were all twin, fourteen inch fish, except for one oddball that went about seven pounds!!!

Annie writes: I spent the day out in the boat with Dan. He found a nice area that had lots of fish and he had a ball catching them. I love it when we start catching fish, because then I can relax a little and I don’t feel I have to fish as hard. We were exhausted by the time we came in and after cooking up some soup, went to be very early.


Tuesday, January 15
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
Went around looking for another area in Fisheating Bay similar to the little hot spot I found yesterday. I must have fished ten different areas that look, to me, identical - same water depth, water clarity, bottom hardness, vegetation mix… but no fish. Not even one. Eventually I wandered back to where I caught ‘em yesterday, and just expanded upon that area, trying to define the boundaries of where they are in there. I established a distinct line, outside of which I could not get one bite, and inside of which they were just tearing it up. I had at least ten more bites inside the line, and the ones I jerked on included both a five-pounder and yet another seven pounder!

I sure wish this tournament started tomorrow. As it is, with the tournament fully a week away I’m afraid that 1) these fish will move out before next week, or 2) a bunch of other guys are going to find these same fish. So while I’m thrilled to be catching fish like this, for these could win the tournament if I can catch them next week, I would much prefer to have discovered a pattern or a technique that will catch fish in multiple locations, as opposed to having found just a specific spot that is holding fish at this point in time.

Annie writes:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHRIS! Today is Dan’s son Chris’s 15th birthday, I can not believe how fast time flies. When I met Dan Chris was only eight years old. I called him immediately when he got out of school wish him a happy birthday.

I put Dan in the water this morning early, then did groceries, cleaned the truck and worked on the computer. I met him back at the ramp at 5pm, and we had a quiet evening at home.


Wednesday, January 16
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
Today I went back down to South Bay, trying to figure them out down there. I’d rather fish on tournament day up in Fisheating Bay and the North Shore, but in case the wind blows in on that area and dirties up the water again, I want to have backup. South Bay, on the opposite side of the lake, will not be affected by the same wind that would hurt my other areas.

Annie and I spent a hot (yes, it is hot out now) day buried back in the reeds. The cover is so thick that bait choice is very limited. You can throw a soft jerkbait or pitch a worm around, and that’s about it. We chose the Gambler Flappin’ Shad as our search bait, and had ten bites on it today. No big fish; in fact they were all just twelve to thirteen inches, except for the last one which went three and a half pounds.

Annie writes:
It was extremely hot in the boat today, and these tiny bugs came out, about a zillion of them. They are very annoying. We fished hard all day. I think I caught two fish, and that was disappointing. I gave up around three pm and at four Dan said "if we don’t catch a fish in the next half hour we’ll call it a day." I decided that I would fish the last half hour with him. Wouldn’t you know it, I catch a fish! I told him it was a fluke, we could fish for another two hours and not catch another one. He agreed and we called it a day.


Thursday, January 17
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
Today we went back up to Fisheating Bay, and fished the hydrilla flats. Annie caught two on a spinnerbait, and I didn’t have a bite. Next we went over to the eel grass flats. Sooner or later the fish have to turn on in the eel grass, but it wasn’t today. Eventually we wandered back behind the reed line and I caught my only fish of the day, on the Gambler Flappin’ Shad.

Annie writes:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATELYN! Dan’s daughter turned 18 today. She is flying to Florida this afternoon with a friend, to be spoiled by her grandmother for a few days, and we will try to find time in the next few days to take a trip over to the coast to see them all.


Friday, January 18
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
I spent all day today right around Clewiston, in what is referred to as the West Wall. Picture a hay field a mile wide and four or five miles long, where the hay is about five feet tall. Now flood that field with three to four feet of water, and you’ll have an idea of what we’re fishing. Just like a hay field, it all looks the same from afar. When you get down in though you find that there are areas where the grass may be taller or shorter, where there is a mix of different vegetation types, where it is thicker or thinner than average, where the bottom is harder or softer, or where there is rock, sand or shell under the water. The key here is wandering over these areas and noticing which ones the fish seem to like.

There are individual fish scattered throughout, but every once in a while you will come across an area with two or three beds in close proximity, so you circle around this area looking for more. I found one or two areas where the fish are congregating, and marked them on my Lowrance GPS. The big fish are not up spawning yet, but by next week they may be, and if I need a place to run to late in the day that’s close to home, I can zoom right in to these bedding fish without having to search them out again.

Annie writes:
I stayed in today and caught up on email, made phone calls, and worked on the computer. It was not the nicest day, so I figured it would be a good day to spend in the tent. The tent is actually working out quite well. It is quite spacious, and we have a little computer table set up, a wardrobe area, and it is really not bad at all.


Saturday, January 19
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
I have been out to the eel grass flats on the North Shore four times since we got here. Between the cold weather and the dirty water, the fish just have not started biting out there yet, but I was going to give them one more try. Today I caught ‘em. It was odd, for it’s a weekend and there are lots of local anglers out, and local tournaments going on, but I saw no one else catching fish. I was drifting through the same areas, and jerking them out. I caught ten fish today, including one about four pounds and another almost five.

Annie writes:
I went fishing with Dan, it was a great day, sun was out, nice weather, Dan found some more fish, I could relax a little. We had to come in around 3:00 as we were meeting Kate at a mall for dinner. We got cleaned up and met them out by the coast. We had a wonderful time, eating, shopping and chatting.


Sunday, January 20
Clewiston, FL, Lake Okeechobee
Dan writes:
Today I returned early to the eel grass flats on the North Shore, but I could not find an early morning bite. In fact the bite gets better the later it gets. By noontime I had had only five bites, but by 2pm I had had five more. I didn’t jerk on all of them, but I do want to know where the bigger fish are so I pulled on some. I had three fish over three pounds, so probably had a fourteen pound limit, the same as yesterday.

Between yesterday and today I have had twenty bites in the eel grass. Of the ones I set the hook on, five of those have been in the three to five pound range, and all five of those have come from just two areas, so if I decide to fish this eel grass on tournament day, I now know where to concentrate.

Annie writes:
Dan had such a good practice day yesterday that he was eager to go back out early today. Even though we were out late last night, he was up and ready to go by six am. Since I am not the early riser, he said I could stay in.

In the tent today, I worked on finding a places to keep the dog and the boat when we fly home next week. When Dan came in he had to run a few errands, so we grabbed a bite to eat out. Later we went over to visit the Hobbie’s, who have moved in with their motorhome to the other side of the campground.


Monday, January 21
Clewiston, Lake Okeechobee, FL
Dan writes:
I’m almost done practicing. I’m taking tomorrow off, and today I have reserved for going back and checking on two areas that I found earlier. I have purposely avoided going anywhere near my hot spot from last week, where I caught two seven-pounder’s and a five, for fear that I would see a bunch of other tournament boats beating it up. I finally returned today, with my hook point buried deep in the bait so I couldn’t "accidentally" stick any fish.

It was too much to hope for, those fish from last week still being there and doing the same thing now. In three hours today I had just one bite flipping, and one on a buzzbait, and neither seemed very big. I went and checked my other area, which is some hydrilla back behind the reeds, and had just one bite there in an hour and a half. Neither of these areas now seems as promising as the eel grass where I have been catching them the last two days.

I was done by one o’clock and back at camp by two. We spent the afternoon restringing line on my reels, then went out for a bite to eat. Tomorrow we’re going to sleep late, and just laze-around all day.

Annie writes:
I let Danny go out by himself again today. I spent the morning doing emails and paying some bills, and then I began to pack. It has just occurred to us that we need to pack in different stages. We are going to Dan’s mom’s house from here, so we need to set aside whatever we will need there. After that we will be driving to Alabama, from where we fly home to NH. Between leaving our campsite here and flying home four days later we will not be unpacking the truck, so we must pack for our trip home now.


Tuesday, January 22
Clewiston, Lake Okeechobee, FL
Dan writes:
This morning I just cleaned up and organized the boat, getting it ready for tomorrow. I have four baits tied on - a Gambler 10" Ribbon Tail Worm, a seven inch ribbon tail worm, a seven inch strait tail worm, and a five inch chunky ring worm. These last three I will throw only if I am working a particular hole really hard, for all but one of the twenty bites I had out there in the eel grass this week have come on the Gambler 10" Ribbon Tail Worm.

It was nice today, relaxing and taking it easy. This is something I never do, but we have been here for a while, had adequate practice time, and I know exactly where and how I want to fish tomorrow.

Annie writes:
It was nice to have Dan home for the day. When we go fishing, that is work, and it’s not always fun as there is lots of pressure. Today was a day to prepare for tomorrow, and we were a lot more laid back.

At four o’clock we went over to registration. It was fun to see all of our friends again, whom we have not seen since last season. I can not believe the amount of people who commented on our journal, and have been following us since we last saw them. I am excited, and would really like us to have a good first tournament. Dan feels he can do well, and I hope his fish hold out.


Wednesday, January 23
FLW Tournament, Lake Okeechobee, Day One
Dan writes:
Take-off was at seven am., and I raced straight up to the eel grass flats on the North Shore as soon as they called my boat number. I wasn’t expecting to catch ‘em right away, but every second that you have your bait in the water can be important. The fishing was slower today than on previous days, but it was consistent. By noon I had four fish in the boat and my partner had three. No big ones yet, but the fish turn on in the afternoon, right? RIGHT! Drifting over the same spots and pitching the Gambler 10" Ribbon Tail Worm into the same holes over and over again, my next fish turned out to be a five pounder, and my partner’s next fish was four pounds. Way to go, Dan. You know where these big ones are… wait ‘em out and they WILL turn on for you.

I caught one more fish, but those were the only big bites we had today. At three o’clock we headed back to the weigh-in. My limit weighed ten pounds, four ounces - less than three pounds away from the Top Twenty cut. I think a fourteen pound bag tomorrow will do it for me. That’s what I’ve been catching every day in practice out there, so I feel good about it, and since I didn’t have to spend the evening and all night trying to revise my strategy, we had a pretty good night.

Annie writes:
The past couple days it has been extremely foggy in the morning, and that was my fear for this morning - that they would have to delay the take off. When we peeked out of the tent at 5am, no fog. This is a great sign. I went to put Dan in the water, then came back home. I paid some bills and by 9:00 realized it was windy outside. If it is windy where I am it must be worse on the water. I knew it would not be good for Dan’s fishing.

Dan was due in at 3:40. Anxiously I sat on the bank, watching other anglers bring in some good stringers, and some not so good stringers. I knew it could go either way. Dan came in and signaled that he had five fish. That was a relief. It felt very good when he weighed them in and the total was 10.4 lbs. He was sitting in 51st place at the end of today, well in the money and not far out of the Top Twenty. It is a good place to start at tomorrow.


Thursday, January 24
FLW Tournament, Lake Okeechobee, Day Two
Dan writes:
The big difference between yesterday’s fishing and the previous days’ was the wind. When the winds are calm, you can move the boat slower through the grass, and you can see the holes that you need to pitch your worm into from further away. When it’s windy it is difficult to get a bait in front of a fish before the boat drifts over the top of it. The other effect the wind has is to muddy-up the water. I have mentioned before how important clear water is to catching fish on Lake Okeechobee. Yesterday’s wind had begun to dirty the water up in my spots, and that probably contributed to the slower bite.

When I reached the flats this morning, the wind was still blowing and the water in my prime area was considerably dirtier. The fishing was correspondingly slower as well, but by noon time I did have five little fish. Five fish that weighed about six pounds.

A major factor in determining success on the tournament trail is knowing when to sit tight, and when to make a change. I had sat on these spots all day yesterday. I waited the fish out, and ended up doing pretty well. By one o’clock this afternoon though we had not had one bite in my prime area, and the water was getting dirtier. I made the decision to abandon these fish and start scrambling.

We ran over to the hydrilla patch back behind the reed line, where I had caught some on the Flappin’ Shad. We fished it for half an hour without a bite, and I told my partner "Pack it up, we’re leaving. I don’t know where we’re going yet, but it’s time to move." I had two choices. Run back to Clewiston and fish those bedding fish on the West Wall, or gamble on the "hot spot" I had found ten whole days ago. Remember that I had returned to check that spot Monday, and the fish were all gone. Something told me now though that I needed to go back in that direction, and by the time we were clear of the reeds I had made up my mind.

We arrived at the "hot spot" with one hour of fishing time remaining. Before I even had my Gambler Crawdaddy rigged and ready to fish, my partner was reeling in a fish. I thought, wow, but that may be just a fluke. I started pitching to the reeds though and within five minutes I was culling out one of this morning’s smaller fish. It was too much to ask, but had my fish returned? Yes! In the next half hour I culled out my entire limit from this morning. I was so excited! The fish were back, and doing exactly what they were doing last week, when I had caught two seven-pounder’s!

As it happens in every tournament, you’re fishing against the clock, and I ran out of time. Without a doubt I had made the right decision to return to this spot, but I had made it too late in the day. In the hour I had there I caught just enough fish to guarantee me a check, but not enough to make the Top Twenty cut. I was just one bite away though, and who knows, another five minutes might have been all it took.

My total weight for two days was nineteen pounds even. Surprisingly, the weights went up a little today (they usually go down) and I needed every fish I caught this afternoon to put me in the money. A Top Twenty finish would have been just what we needed to jump-start the season for us, but it’s always good to at least start out with a check.

Annie writes:
I put Dan in the water at six am., then came back and went back to bed for a couple of hours. When I finally got up, I began disassembling our campsite to make things easier for tomorrow. I was excited and nervous all day waiting for Danny to come weigh in. On our way to the launch ramp this morning I asked him if he was nervous and he said "I can only do what is already planned for me". It made perfect sense and helped us both to ease some jitters about how we will finish up.

I was waiting on the dock when he came in, and he motioned that he had five fish again. He thought he had about the same weight as yesterday, which would not get him into the Top Twenty but which would at least get us a check. He ended up with a total of 19lbs, which put him in 65 place.

It makes such a big difference in our year when we start the season off with a check. It will boost our confidence for the start of the next tournament, and relieve some of the tension.


January 25-31
Driving to Alabama
We almost always stay until the end of these FLW tournaments, but this weekend it was planned that all the family would fly in to celebrate Dan’s mom’s birthday, so we finished up in Clewiston and headed over to Vero Beach on Friday. We had a wonderful time in Vero and left around noontime on Sunday. After that it was a long drive, 800 miles, to Joe Wheeler State Park in north Alabama. They are letting us store the boat in the secured storage area until we come back next week. We feel much better about leaving it there than at the airport. Next came the unpleasant task of finding a kennel for Cooper dog. It would cost over $200 to fly him home, he would have to ride in the baggage area and they don’t tend to him during layovers, so we decided to leave him in a kennel close to the airport. I cried, but he’ll be fine.

After sleeping in the truck (for the second night in a row) in a Walmart parking lot near the airport, we awoke, finished packing, and were at the airport by 8am for our 12:00 flight. We are very much looking forward to being home with the kids for a week.

Link to: February 2002