Any time you win a state level event, it’s a satisfying and memorable day, but this win would only be 2nd on my list of good things that happened to me in the 2000 season. The year 2000 was my own personal ‘year of living dangerously’ – well not really dangerous, but definitely expensive and busy as I put more miles on my old pickup and RangerTrail trailer than I ever had before.
Along the way I had adventure I’ll never forget including many firsts…
My wife, in her infinite patience and kindness, agreed to let me play gypsy tournament angler and head out on the road to see what I could do. In retrospect, I should have had enough money saved for two years of full time tournament angling, but I wouldn’t trade a minute of it I believe looking back.
I was between jobs thanks to corporate America’s penchant for scrambling their ‘most valuable assets’ (the employees in case you forgot) every so often giving them opportunity to seek fame and fortune elsewhere (and a severance package if lucky)…
National
I jumped right in with both feet starting New Years Day on a lake I’d never been to before in a state I’d never been to either competing for the first time in the Southeast EverStart Series…
A picture of my New Years Day 2000 below – a beautiful sight to greet me on a morning much greener and warmer than the morning family and friends are waking up to back home in Lansing Michigan.
I made the 2-day drive to Southern Florida’s huge Lake Okeechobee for the first time in my life. It looks like a giant version of many inland Michigan lakes… only with alligators. At least that’s what I’m told, but I haven’t seen any yet at this point. I was on my way up to the famous Monkey Box area despite a good ole boy from Georgia telling me I “probably wasn’t ust ta such big water and might probably be lost ferever…” maybe eaten by gators?!
It didn’t take too long to find my first alligator though. I was fishing a deep dynamite hole/pond off the rim canal, flicking a spinnerbait to the heavy weed edge when a large patch of weeds exploded with – well if I had to guess, I’d say – 2 megatons of force right back at me.
Turns out my heart still is pretty strong (and I didn’t wet myself either), but the ticker was thumping pretty hard. Cameraguy, who happened to have tagged along with me, was laughing like this happens to him all the time. My first gator was a REALLY FAT 10-footer. After I realized it wasn’t trying to charge and eat me, I chased it all over that pond trying to get a picture – for the kids, you know.
I have to say I enjoyed the look on cameraguy’s face when the gator – fatter than either of us – got tired of being the chasee and decided to swim right to the boat. I remember something coming out of cameraguy’s mouth like, “You know, the sides of this boat aren’t really that high are they?” as he backed to the other side. It was a little unnerving having something that big swim right under my feet. Pretty cool though too for someone not used to it.
Okeechobee was really high in winter 2000 and very muddy in many traditional places. I checked the northwest, northeast and southwest parts of the lake looking for bass. I’ve never been fond of fishing in large crowds so I wasn’t keen on South Bay or the North shore areas. A lot of weeds were gone too due to high water.
The Big O reminds me of St. Clair in the respect that everything looks good, but a lot of it doesn’t hold bass. I had every map I could find and a lot of general knowledge gleaned from pre-tournament research. I have always like to explore around the next corner too – a trait that can be positive or negative at times.
I found an alternative that really appealed to me while running around inside one of the southern islands, which is cool in itself. In high water canals going into islands like Ritta, actually flood over into field plots bring new weeds and brush. I found one field way back in the middle of one island that had quite a few flooded bushes. Everyone was fishing the shallow weeds, but no one seemed to be fishing the brush.
I quickly found this wood cover were acting as bass magnets simply by flipping lizards into them. The main drawback was the complicated route into this field and that I found very little brush anywhere else. It felt more comfortable to me though and the fishing was slow overall, so I went with it.
I’d tell you the name of the island, but I don’t remember it now. I just know it was south of Ritta because Ritta didn’t produce much for us, but I clearly recall the massive gator the cameraguy kept reeling a 10-inch plastic worm over. We could only see the head and 2/3s of the body, but what a monster!!! This beast’s head was as big as my torso. I did not want to pass it, but if finally slowly sank into the bottom and I quickly shot past. I can’t even imagine hitting something like that on plane (well, actually…).
Tournament day 1 opened the same as duck season so of course I ended up running right through raft of decoys taking the narrow shallow channel that was the only way I knew into the island at the time. Those guys in camo didn’t look fondly after me. The next little trick was finding the wind had blown rafts of hyacinth around inside the island. Everything looked different to me and you did not want to run too much into the wrong opening or channel.
There were too many old fences, dead ends and shallow flats. After making only a couple wrong turns that I caught on to before permanent damage or getting stuck, I finally made it to the interior to my selected field. I almost missed that entrance because it was now blocked by water hyacinth, but the canal dead ends a short ways past so I figured it had to be the place.
There was a bush just inside this field and I quickly caught and lost a keeper there. I believe my co-angler got one there also. I was surprised to see 6 boats in there already, but they were fishing the weeds, not brush. I still felt fairly confident.
We caught a few more, but they weren’t running big. Floating weeds had blown around some brush and the water seemed lower – probably due to wind movement. I got 1 more keeper pitching down shallow weed lines, but it became apparent that something had changed and the field had slowed way down.
I ran to another large field that had almost no weeds, but a couple laydowns and a couple flooded trees. I’d been getting a few bass to hit a green shad War Eagle spinnerbait. I started flinging the to the sparse wood and with 20 feet of them or so. I got slammed by a nice 3+ that hit very hard and fought like a demon. I noticed some Florida bass did that, but not all.
There’s a picture to the right of my 3+ Florida bass as I’m getting it into the bags at weigh in while my co-angler helps. These bass seemed quiet all day overall, but once we got back to the dock and put them in bags, they went nuts and started jumping right out.
Unfortunately, we were on floating docks, so we were entertained by anglers diving on their bass before the bass leaped off the docks back into the canal. I thought it was pretty funny until this bass did it to me. I had to tackle it twice, once laying on it on the dock.
We had to roll the tops of these stiff bags down and pinch them tight to keep these wild bass in the bag. These were the only 3 bass I weighed so I made a decision that I wasn’t out of the cut, but I needed better bass and more of them to have a shot.
Day 2, I pointed my Ranger 492VS north and shot up the rim canal out into the North shore eelgrass flats. I drifted across a large area with about 80 other boats flipping 10-inch Power worms into clumps of eelgrass. The water was a little clearer around the eelgrass, but the fishing was slow as reported. I had a few hard bites, but only landed a dogfish early. These Florida bass have some strange behavioral traits.
I tried variations in fishing speed and hookset, but something wasn’t right. I thought I had it figured out when I got this bass here of almost 4 pounds.
Right about the time I caught this bass, everyone started setting the hook. Like a switch was thrown, the bass just started biting all over a large area of the flat. I had 5 hards bites and somehow missed every one of them after this bass. Very frustrating and I even felt a couple them; they felt like they had serious shoulders!
Just as quickly, the fast bite vanished and the fishing turned about as exciting as watching the proverbial paint dry. One boat came through a caught 3 bass while the occupants laughed at the rest of our struggles. I couldn’t duplicate whatever they were doing, and I had lots of company in that respect.
After about 6 hours of fishing this flat, I couldn’t take it anymore. I needed a change and 4 more keepers. I was rattled by not getting any of the other bites I had even after having a couple on for a few seconds. I remembered seeing some sporadic schooling action in an opening in the dike for the Harney Pond Canal.
The bass were on the small side in practice, but it was a change nonetheless, and not far away. I pulled up and started fishing a 10-inch plastic worm down the inside edge of the canal. Neither of us were as enthused as we could have been with about ½ an hour of fishing time left.
Suddenly, straight into the canal from a wide opening, large shiners started skipping. Water was about 8 feet deep. There were several large boils. I pitched my worm to a boil and let it sink. It hit bottom and was thumped. I set the hook hard and my rod doubled over. I pressured the bass right to the surface and just as I got a look at a nice 5 to 6 pound bass, the hook popped loose and flew back to me. I fished for a few more minutes and then began the long ride back to Michigan.
Next up was another new lake – Lake Martin in Alabama. Another challenging experience with very cold, breezy weather including freezing rain at time. We had water in the mid 40s all the way down to the high 30s. There were areas of cold, muddy runoff too that is always challenging.
The worst part was the ramps in the morning with temps falling into the low 20s at night, after 2 or 3 boats launched on the really long steep ramp, it iced over! I had my pickup camper on my truck so I decided after sliding almost out of control down the ramp one morning that I needed to be one of the first boats to launch before it iced over.
What a freaky feeling – wondering if you would stop sliding before you became a houseboat?!? The first tournament morning, my co-angler started my boat and put it into gear the moment the boat hit the water to help stop a slide where I started to go cockeyed. Whoa is not the word I used.
It was interesting when a supposed snowstorm was forecast, the locals almost cleared out the Winn Dixie. I’m glad I shopped when I did. The lines went to the back of the store. They closed school preemptively for a day and a half. All we got was that really cold rain, but they do have very curvy and hilly roads so I can’t blame them (and they don’t have the plow/salt truck fleets we have either).
I did catch some really nice stripers in practice, but struggled getting on bass. I caught a big spot off a brush pile. Then I looked for deep spots with only more stripers. Then I looked for places largemouths might move into if the expected warming trend happened later in the week.
I couldn’t find any bass near them to speak of, but way down the lake I found a point that had small groups of spotted bass moving into it with many of them going over 15 inches. I could catch them good too.
The first tournament day, I made the long run down the lake to this point despite freezing cold wind and not liking to run a long ways to one spot when I have nothing else near it. Of course there was one boat running out ahead of me the whole way and he stopped right on that point (he did well in the tournament too). I’d say what are the odds on a large complex lake like this, but some of you already know the answer to that.
I stayed close to the launch ramp on day 2. I caught 1 keeper largemouth and lost a maybe keeper spot by slowly fishing a suspending jerkbait. As a consolation, my 2nd day co-angler (Tom Burks from IN/FL – a very nice guy) caught big bass on a crankbait tossed at a stump I missed, and made the cut. For me, another long drive back to Michigan.
Much warmer in March on Santee Cooper in South Carolina. Another EverStart Series event on another new lake for me. I enjoyed Santee Cooper and had the most success in the lower lake – Moultrie. I had a pretty good practice hammering nice largemouths on a War Eagle 3/8 oz chartreuse buzz bait until the late practice cold front. The bass really slowed down after that. Another challenge was they had killed much of the vast weedbeds in the lake. If you found weeds, you found bass; Either in the tiny amount of hydrilla left, or tough viny water primrose.
I had many interesting adventures with local ‘characters’ and the unbelievable amount of backwaters and bays of these two lakes. One evening, we were sitting at the mouth of a corner pocket that had nice weeds in it. All of sudden, a zillion torpedoes started shooting past us around and under the boat heading into this bay. It went on for about ½ an hour. We ‘hooked’ a few on jerkbaits by throwing into these huge exploding schools of fish. They turned out to be freshwater mullet like this one. They apparently come into certain pockets to feed at night. (You can see my nice southern sun ‘tan’ in this photo too – I should buy stock in sunscreen.)
My best spots for decent males on a few beds ended up being Black’s Camp and several small pockets off the canal between the two lakes. I never got on much at all in huge Lake Marion. Cameraguy was with me again and we caught a couple around Cypress trees and in a couple small ponds on the south end of the lake.
Even though one of the high finishers told me I was in the right area on Marion, I never figured them out, so I decided to stick with visible bedding bass in the pockets off the canal and northern Moultrie. I found that if I tossed floating worms out from the beds over any cover, I occasionally picked up a quality female bass too so it seemed like a good plan with everyone saying the fishing was slow overall. Probably due to the loss of weeds and the spawn just starting.
I started in the pocket I’d seen the most beds in. I had surprisingly little pressure other than 5 alligators that showed up every morning around 10 AM. I actually saw way more alligators, but averaging smaller, on Santee than I did in Florida.
Despite only landing 4 keepers, I was 3 ounces out of the cut the first day and feeling good. I should have had a limit but I let me co-angler toss first at two beds and because he was anxious and highly ranked, I let him throw to one until he caught it to make sure he had some bass. He ended up with 3 despite spending a lot of the day worrying rather than concentrating on fishing.
I fully expected to pick up a female or two anyway by throwing the floating worm out from beds, but it didn’t work for some reason. I did pick up 1 over 4 pounds because I caught both the male and female from one bed.
I was pitching a full-sized black and blue Bacon Rind on a 5/16 oz head with 20 lbs test line. Those bass did not like that big hunk of plastic on the bed at all. My co-angler was tossing a light tube on 10 lbs test line and we were taking turns tossing at beds. These bass definitely preferred the bigger bait – I caught all the bass from any bed we both threw at. I think my co-angler was surprised that the opposite of finesse worked so well.
The floating worm got one nice male off a bed in Black’s Camp bay floating it into holes in the primrose. Five other boats had gone down the path ahead of me, and all 10 anglers snapped their heads around when I pulled that nice bass out of the snarls. That stuff was tough!
I was checking my favorite bay late in the day and actually saw two pairs of bass starting new beds. It was as late as I could stay so I figured no one else would come in a stick the bass. I expected to be able to get enough bass for the cut the next day.
I don’t have a clue about the 2nd day when I skunked. That was my closest finish unfortunately. I went into my favorite bay and found lots of slimy algae had been blown into the best bank leaving a 30-foot wide slime patch from shore. I couldn’t get anything clean through it and definitely couldn’t see any beds.
But even in the back where I’d seen the new bass bedding late the day before, there was no sign of bass. After determining bass seemed to have vanished from several bays in the north, I ran down to the refuge island in the southwest corner of the lake. I had caught some nice bass in undercut marsh banks and near openings into the rim canal.
A stiff breeze seemed to be messing up my best shallow pockets. A bunch of bass were moving in late in practice, but seemed gone now. I tried stump fields, current from side channels and slight dropoffs out from these areas. My co-angler hooked and fought something big for a while, but it pulled off before we ever saw it. It was real big!
No matter what I tried, I couldn’t find any keepers. That day probably threw me as much as any day. Another long drive back to Michigan, but at least I had caught a bunch of bass in practice and I had cameraguy to keep me company down the highways.
My last EverStart of 2000 and last chance to make something of the series was on Kentucky’s huge Lake Cumberland. This April tournament saw heavy rains and fast rising waters – sometimes several feet a day. Each morning, gully runoff would wash tons of new wood into the lake, and whole trees were floating everywhere.
I tried many things and actually got on some bigger bass by fishing specific creek ends with logs near creek channels. I was thinking I might pull something off since things seemed really tough even compared to Martin and Santee Cooper.
Unfortunately, I failed to dodge one floating tree in practice and knocked my old outboard off the back of the boat. It was totaled and I had small metal parts scattered all over the boat. The motor cover actually sailed a long way through the air before sinking into the depths.
By the time I got a tow and talked to insurance and water patrol, my entire day was shot. I ended up switching to co-angler after finding out I wasn’t going to be able to get another outboard on the boat in time.
Luckily, I met a really nice angler in the campground – David Williams from North Carolina – who took me fishing the rest of the week and taught me several things about fishing these types of reservoirs. He finished 9th in the end I believe.
I went on a long run all the way down the lake almost to the dam (~60 miles) the first day. I was with a very experienced boater, but we never really got on anything. He caught 1 nice smallie and that was pretty much it. We fished hard.
The 2nd day, I drew a boater who ran back up the river and spent much of the day flipping tight to the riverbank, often in decent current. I didn’t have a whole lot to fish, but I eventually found out he didn’t like pitching into trash. I caught a couple bass by blasting heavy baits through matted leaves. I think I caught 2 keepers and 1 dink all day.
One interesting occurrence, we were fishing down a very high, steep rocky bluff bank and looked up to see 3 young boys about 25 feet up sitting on a log. At first, it was a surprise because it didn’t look like they could get to that log without being mountain climbers.
After further review, a narrow steep mountain goat path became apparent. Still I couldn’t help wonder if their parents knew what the young boys were doing in their spare time! The strange part was one other boat was up the river hop scotching spots with us.
It turned out to be Ricky Shumpert and I found out why he reacted so weird when he first glimpsed the boys on the ‘cliff edge.’
During the practice week, Ricky had become a hero by rescuing a severely wounded boy off a boulder at the base of a long steep and very tall rocky bluff bank. The teenager had ‘escaped’ from a home for wayward teenage boys by trying to scale the bluff.
He ended up falling about 80 feet to a large boulder below breaking several major bones. With the strong current along that long upriver bluff bank and the near vertical height, the seriously wounded young man just lay on the boulder waiting for help.
After a couple days, he started feeling hot so he slid off the boulder into the water – half on, half off. The water was still pretty cold so it didn’t take long for him to become hypothermic. They think he was there for about 4 days before Ricky Shumpert finally came practicing along and noticed something wasn’t right.
The boy said he had weakly tried to wave at a few other boats during the week, but no one came over to help. Ricky got him back to the boat ramp where a life flight copter took him in serious condition to the hospital. Ricky ended up getting an accommodation from the mayor for saving the boy’s life. What we had seen on our practice day was Ricky spotting the boys on the log and saying, “Oh no! Not again!” before he realized these boys weren’t in trouble – just of questionable judgment.
As far as my first national tournament circuit effort, nothing earth shattering in the end, but I learned many very valuable lessons and met a number of new friends and great bass anglers. I also enjoyed or at least endured quite a few adventures and new experiences that I don’t expect to ever forget including having my homemade lucky spring spinnerbait bit in half by a 5-foot alligator in Lake Marion.
State
Things went better for me back home in Michigan BASS federation and BFL competition. Derek Baetz and I won the first federation team tournament and $2,000 on Mullett lake with 8 smallies weighing 31.42 pounds. These beauties filled the weigh basket to the top. I had 10 lbs. in the Sunday draw to finish 11th, but lost the big one, a smallie I found in practice that was between 5 and 6 pounds. We had such a good day on Saturday that I completely forgot about this big bass on an isolated bed.
I had my most consistent year for sure with many limits including over 43 pounds in the 3-day Canadian Open. I really thought I had the win sewed up in the Saginaw BFL. I found some ‘virgin’ smallies that would literally follow my boat around. Of course, a strong North wind tried to ruin my plans. I broke 5 things in my boat (and my co-angler’s kidneys, he claims) on a brutal 33-mile run into its teeth. I wanted a BFL win bad and knew a lot of boaters would not make the run.
There was a chance of a clear up in the wind later in the day, so I took about an hour and 45 minutes to get to my little rock pile. I told my co-angler Phil Conley that we both had really good shots at placing high if the wind hadn’t scattered the bass. We got there to find the wind howling perpendicular to my small rock pile. I had to throw out both windsocks and my large anchor with all my rope just to slow us down enough to make about 3 casts before we shot past.
I did land a 3-pounder right off the shallow rocks quickly, but only some sheepshead in the next few passes. Pulling in all those lines and devices, and then motoring back up for a fast drift, then doing it all again over and over was wearing me out. The big rollers were actually breaking over the rock pile to as much as double their size. One big monster wave actually washed over the entire back deck. I heard it coming and hollered at Phil to hang on. He sat in the chair, lifted his legs and hugged the seat. I was starting to think I’d made a terrible and possibly dangerous mistake when we saw a break in the clouds and wave speed began to slow.
Within a half hour, I could actually start to hold just using the trolling motor, but we weren’t catching any bass. I couldn’t believe they ran completely off, although this was a new area to me. Instead of panicking completely and starting back, I worked my way out around the rock pile. I was tossing tubes and spinnerbaits. Phil started casting a light glider-rig tube on 14 lbs test line. I was wondering how he could feel the tube at all in the rolling swells when he set the hook. He said, “Man! I just got hit, but I missed him.”
A moment later I said, “Isn’t that your tube hanging from the corner of that big jumping smallie’s mouth?” Like I say, it was hard to feel in those swells. He reeled up and the fight was on with a 4-pound smallie. After his 2nd bass, I started tossing a tube behind his bass as I netted them. When I lifted up, I had a 2+ smallie on. This happened 2 times with Phil getting 3 and 4-pound class bass, and me pulling smaller keepers from behind them.
On his limit bass, I had a 3+ smallie on my tube 4 times and just couldn’t hook the darn thing. Once he had his limit, Phil sat down. I think the rough ride and wild fishing just wore him out. We just couldn’t get another bite after that. I stopped at several places on the way in pushing our time hard, but never got my final two keepers.
I kept trying to get Phil to bet me a dollar that he had big bass and a dollar that he had 1st place wrapped up all the way in, but he wouldn’t bite either! I think he was in shock. He kept asking me if he should bump his bass. He kept asking me if I thought he had more than 13 pounds. I just kept laughing and wondering how I was living so wrong to get my butt kicked like this. Of course, this wouldn’t be the last time.
Phil ended up with 17-1 easily winning the co-angler side taking big bass too (4-9 smallie). In fact, he had the big bass and limit of the entire tournament. He forgot about his kidney after that… and I took some serious ribbing from a whole bunch of boaters let me tell you. I ended up with 3 keepers weighing less than 9 pounds. Phil forgave me for the kidney and is actually still my friend… and I got a free entry into the next BFL for having my co-angler win the tournament. I loved that old rule! (Here’s one of my ‘whoppers’ above.)
I continued to catch limits more often than not over the summer. I lost a spot in the Federation Classic when I turned the corner in the Detroit River coming in only to feel an unforecasted strong South wind at their last tournament. As hard as I tried in the rough conditions, I was late and dq’d…a huge disappointment after starting off ranked so high early in the season.
Things went much better at the first BFL Super Tournament in September. After running over 30 very rough wet miles, I was faced with 3-footers at my spot. I let out my driftsock and cast out my white Fat Free Fingerling crankbait. I already had a 4+ in the boat I’d whacked on a quick rest stop at Windmill Point on the way up. My partner said one driftsock was slipping free. The boat turned, I saw the sock heading down-lake, started to reel in quick – I was going to snag the sock with my crankbait – only to see my line now under the trolling motor and apparently snagged, or so I thought. A big smallie jumped on the other side of the boat, my crankbait deep in its mouth. After much excitement, I lost the sock permanently, but gained a 4-13 smallie.
We didn’t catch many, but they were all good ones. My co-angler had 4 after losing his 5th when it went around the trolling motor. I felt I’d made the top 30 and regional for sure. Due to the rough conditions, I never really looked at my fish. When the scales read 19-15 I was very surprised. I had told Ben Felton I thought I had around 16 pounds. My co-angler had 16 with his four! My big smallie died due the deeply hooked lure. The 8 oz. penalty put me at 19-7, good for 5th place and a spot fishing the second guaranteed money day.
I ended up 6th with 1 tiny keeper smallie on Sunday. I made the long run to my fish with Jeff Bishop, my practice partner, as my co-angler (funny because Jeff told me the day before he had dream we would fish together on the money day.) I went for the win in my run even though the wind looked to be much worse than Saturday. It was. I saw the biggest waves around the St. Clair River channel mouths I’ve ever seen. I decided it was unsafe to fish my spot. I was fishing current and the waves from the strong wind blowing into the current were tall steep choppers that made it hard to even stay seated on the deck.
We never put anything else together up in the channels. I did come away with $956 to pay for my trips to Iowa and the Big Muddy. I think Jeff forgave me for the poor showing on Super Tournament day 2 since he agreed to room with me during the Regional in Iowa.
Regional
I will never forget the 2000 BFL Regional. Ben Felton, Jon Bondy and I went to the mighty Mississippi River for a week of pre-practice. I learned quickly I was too chicken to run the long, shallow stretches of mud into backwater lakes. Knocking off 2 motors in one year was an unattractive thought. Bass boats were getting stuck everywhere, often for hours (right Ben) and major motor parts were being left on unseen stumps and rocks. Some of these backwaters just couldn’t be entered idling or on the trolling motor.
Still, Ben and I came up with a rough pattern. In pool 18, I’d found a unique, small slough with tons of wood, good depth and very little current to start in. Some decent largemouths appeared to be wintering in it. Later in the day I would start hitting wood on islands tips close to channels, but with protection from strong current. This way, I could get in and out of my spots quickly with less risk of getting stuck or hitting obstructions. I was throwing my 6A Bomber dark green crayfish, a white Fat Free Guppy, and a customized chartreuse/white 1/2 War Eagle spinnerbait with one #5 turtleback blade. Water clarity was about 3 inches, so sound and vibration seemed to make a big difference in solid strikes.
I made the run North the first day of the Regional to Pool 18 and locked through. When I got to my small slough, a boat was already in there working along the good bank. I had caught nothing on the other side, so I started a ways behind them and followed along. I caught a bunch of small largemouths on the Bomber 6A along the slough drop, but no keepers. I switched to the white Fat Free Guppy when I got back near the beginning of thicker laydowns and brush. In practice, I’d been slammed hard and missed while throwing over a large tree off the bank a ways. I made a cast and started a moderate retrieve over part of this same patch of wood when I got slammed HARD again!
The fish fought a short, tough bulldog battle ending under the boat. I had only gotten it close enough to the surface twice to even make a boil. My co-angler Richard Dale scooped under the boat and came up with a bulge in the net. Based on one boil and flash, I thought the fish was a 2-pound class bass that had ate it Wheaties. Richard had a huge grin on his face and said, “Man, what a hog!” He pulled it out of the net and my 2-pound bass inflated into a BIG-headed TOAD! I couldn’t believe it.
I couldn’t have started day 1 better than with big bass of the tournament, a 5 pound 6 ounce trophy. Though we caught a bunch of bass in there, no other keepers. About 1pm, we locked down and pulled up to my first two island spots. My spinnerbait got slammed and I fought a strong fish for several minutes before losing it somehow. I did not want to come in with 1 big bass. The next spot changed that. Richard and I quickly boated 3 keepers off a short stretch of logs, 2 for me, then made the 25 mile run to the weigh in. I was thrilled to be sitting in 6th place with 10-3.
I changed my tactics to give more time to the island pattern below the locks on day 2. I would lock through and hit my little slough early, then spend the rest of the day back south fishing islands. Unfortunately, the lockmasters had other plans. I tried to come back early, but barge traffic was heavy. I wasted a lot time waiting to get through. I was very anxious too because when I was about 17 miles north of the launch ramp, my motor suddenly lost 700 rpms and would not go back up. I had heard they did that right before they blew. Here I was already in the morning wondering if I would get to fish, let alone make it back down. I could only run about 50 mph.
Luckily, the other guys from the Michigan division were being GREAT to me. Ted Angers, Phil Borsa, Dave Misaras, Todd Koehler, Ben, Jon, Kevin Vida and Scott Dobson just to name the ones I can still remember off the top of my head (I’m probably forgetting someone and I apologize). I told Ted and Scott what happened while locking through. They both offered cell phone numbers and help if I needed one of them to come get me and my fish later. Very cool!
I decided to continue on the few miles to my slough, but I was REAL nervous. I got some more small ones on the 6A going back into the slough. About 2/3s back, I pitched my custom spinnerbait back into a hole in a logjam. Three quick pitches to this tiny opening about the size of a laundry basket and I pulled 3 largemouth bass out. The last was a solid keeper. Like a switch was flipped though, things died in the slough. I guess I expected that.
There had been 3 or 4 boats through there, so I went to my original plan to lock back through early and fish the islands the rest of the day. That’s when we all found out the lock had a long delay. You definitely don’t want to offend those guys.
I told all my friends that I had 1 good one, but felt I needed 1 more. My motor was still running only about 50, so I was just getting more nervous. I couldn’t make up my mind what to do. We got a chance to talk to the Lockmaster and he said it would be another 45 minutes. I made a real anxious decision to run back to an island I’d been hitting by my slough. I had caught my 2 best bass in pre-practice there – 1 about 3 1/2, but had no bites there on day 1. I was leaving my safety net of friends, but Scott and Ted both said if I called them, they’d come back and get me. Really really cool!!!
This time, conditions looked better. The water had cleared a little and the current had slowed. This was the upstream end (that was my pattern) of the island with large laydowns on top laying over 11 to 14 feet of water. I slow-rolled the hot spinnerbait over a big log and a miracle 4-6 largemouth ate it. I literally flipped her in the boat, much to the shock of my co-angler partner who had the net in hand incredibly fast. I just wanted that bass in the boat bad! I think I yelled, “YEAH BABY!” loud enough to be heard in Illinois!
After finally locking through near last minute, we made the run back. Then, I had to wait ‘hours’ to find out I’d finished 5th qualifying for the All-American in my 2nd try. I can’t describe how really great I felt. Everyone was extremely nice to me. George Liddle from Ranger was great along with all the Michigan division anglers I mentioned above.
On the third day, I wanted to pull out all the stops to win the truck and boat, but the lock was so busy with barges I gave up making it through. My VHF radio was broken and I was yelled at when I called the lock number – told not to call the number because they couldn’t lock ships if they were answering the phone. At least my motor was running good again. I went to a different gas station after a service tech found nothing wrong and suggested different gas.
I fished my island pattern all day plus a spot Jon Bondy gave me way south, but couldn’t land any keepers. I was a little surprised things got that tough, but I was so excited to qualify for the All-American that nothing, even skunking on the final day, wiped the smile off my face.
Now off to another new lake – Lake Hamilton in Hot Springs Arkansas. I decided a winter trip with the lake at winter pool could be a real help for spring fishing. I started my Internet and phone research. I found out when the lake would be at it low spot – during December.
My boat was down at Ranger getting needed repairs from when my motor was knocked off in April, so Ben Felton was a great friend in letting me borrow his boat for my scouting trip. I feel the trip was very much worth it since I identified brush and rock piles on many key spots such as ditches and points where this kind of cover could really produce in the spring. I took pictures and recorded some GPS for things I wanted to pinpoint exactly.
I started out slow, but found despite cold water that I could catch some decent bass by burning a spinnerbait. This helped me get some confidence and locate some fishy areas… plus it’s always fun to catch some bass. I spent most of my time covering a lot of water though because I had seen how the lake held large numbers of keepers, but not a lot of quality bass. I needed to find something special.
I felt I identified some key spots. I had also been given some unsolicited help from several locals on the water that actually turned out to be good information. I cut my trip a day short after hearing about bad weather coming to Michigan. I’m glad I came back when I did. The day after I got home, I woke up to find I couldn’t open my front door. It had snowed so much on the ground and overhanging trees along our street made it look like we lived on a tunnel. I spent hours shoveling and snow blowing with drifts up to 3 feet deep. I wish I had those pictures. They’ve vanished. Those pictures had to be viewed to appreciate the extreme weather change I saw in a matter of only two days.
Snow hadn’t been my real challenge though. I was running out of money having spent much more than I won during the 2000 season. I was struggling with figuring out how to make it from December until the actual All-American in the spring. I knew I would need a job, but I had some large bills that needed some extra cash in December, on top of needing to pay for the scouting trip to Hot Springs.
I couldn’t really imagine how I’d start a job and immediately need a full week off. Then, in steps a fortuitous MSU hockey game. I don’t normally feel lucky with drawings and raffles having rarely won anything, but that night I had a funny feeling that I should buy a 50/50 raffle ticket at the beginning of the hockey game. With the thousands of fans, the raffle is fairly lucrative, but I don’t normally participate.
I bought my one ticket and immediately KNEW I had won the moment I looked at the number – 1094. Actually I think I knew the moment I touched the ticket! Kind of crazy I know, but you’d have to ask the people who were there that day and decide for yourself.
I think it was at the end of the first period; I went across the arena and sat with my other fishing partner Derek. Derek left me with his wife while he went over to see the fishing partner I normally sit with – Larry. My wife was back there too with Larry and his wife Sharon. I had just made a short comment that I was going to win to my wife before I left, but people say that all the time, right?
I told my friend’s wife – Lori – I had it won and she laughed. They announced the number and I read my number just ahead of the announcer, “1094, I win.” Lori laughed and said, “yeah right.” The guy sitting next to me said, “No! Really, he has the winning ticket.” It took a minute, but she finally looked and believed, despite the same lady (I’m pretty sure) jumping up and down in her section that always does nearby – I think she just likes to get on TV.
Meanwhile, over in the opposite corner of Munn Arena, my other fishing partner’s wife Sharon was telling my wife she better run around and find me. She said, “I think Dan has the winning ticket. No, really. That’s the number he told me he had and was going to win with.” My wife was having a hard time believing it too. (She knows my luck!) She only hesitated a moment before the woman in here thought SHOPPING!!! Okay, just kidding. My wife isn’t that bad.
She was excited though. As soon as she showed up I ran down to the office and picked up $1,199 of badly needed cash. That’s the kind of thing that makes you wonder about all sorts of possibilities. Things were still iffy, but better than they had been. I still had a ways to go to make it all the way to the actual All-American, but I was in much better shape to put all my effort into making the most of the All-American opportunity.
| My 2000 Shows & Seminars Schedule | ||||
| Date Mar 12Mar 13-14 |
Event Lansing Sportsfishing ShowSt. Mary’s School seminars |
Description Bassmaster CastingKids state championship scorer Multiple class room and gym seminars to entire grade school |
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| My 2000 Tournament Schedule | ||||
| Date Jan 5-6 Feb 2-3 Mar 1-2 Apr 4-5 Jun 10-11 Jun 24 Jun30-Jul2 Jul 8-9 Jul 15 Jul 29 Aug 12-13 Aug 19 Sep 8-9 Sep 16-17 Sep 26-29 Oct 12-14 |
Event EverStart Southeast EverStart Southeast EverStart Southeast EverStart Southeast MBCF Classic Series Wal-Mart BFL MI Div Windsor Canadian OpenMBCF Classic Series Wal-Mart BFL MI Div Wal-Mart BFL MI Div MBCF Classic SeriesWal-Mart BFL MI Div MBCF State Championship Wal-Mart BFL MI Super Tourn Northern EverStartWal-Mart BFL Regional |
Location Lake Okeechobee, Clewiston FL Lake Martin, Alexander City AL Lake Santee Cooper, Manning SC Lake Cumberland, Somerset KY Burt/Mullett Chain, Indian River MI Lake St. Clair, Mt. Clemens MI Lake St. Clair, Windsor ONTMuskegon Lake, Muskegon MI Saginaw Bay, Bay City MI Lake Erie, Brownstown Twp MI Lake Erie, Brownstown Twp MILake St. Clair, Mt. Clemens MI Lake Charlevoix, Charlevoix MI Lake Erie, Brownstown Twp MILake Erie, Detroit MILake Cooper, Fort Madison IA |
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| Money Finishes This Year | ||||
| Date Jun 10Sep 17Oct 12Oct 14 |
Event MBCF Classic Series teamWal-Mart BFL MIWal-Mart BFL RegionalWal-Mart BFL Regional |
Finish 1st6thBig Bass-5 lb 6 oz largemouth7th |
Description Mullett Lake, Indian River MI Lake Erie, Brownstown Twp MI Lake Cooper, Fort Madison IA Lake Cooper, Fort Madison IA |
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