The BASS CAST

With the small glitch in the upstairs AC unit the ceilings in the guest room and bath room were water stained.  I picked up a couple of cans of upshot.  It worked great.  It kills and growth and covers the stain almost perfectly.  I was really impressed, I figured I was going to have to scrape off the popcorn, remove old drywall, replace, spackle, paint and re-texture.  This saved me a lot of work and time.

Since we are renting the house to Brad we needed to swap out bedrooms and pretty much put everything we want in the camper.  We actually enjoy this minimalism  lifestyle.  No extras nothing extraneous just the essentials.  the wife also went through all the clothes in the closets and dressers and we donated a bunch of items to His House.

Our 5th wheel is only 28 feet but it is just the right size for the 3 of us (Me, the Wife, and Yankee).  We have all the comforts and like being close.

We also swapped out the kitchen items good silver for the cheaper stuff we had in the camper.  Good plates ,glasses sharp knives and the good pots and pans.

All of our extra stuff suits and things we only use occasionally was placed in the guest bedroom. We are full time campers now and like it.

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I tackled a few items on the list today.  I clean my old boat and got it back into shape.  The next items tackled were the lawn and yard work.  The grass does not get watered after the $300 water bill last year so it looks a little rough in the summer.

I also ordered most of the parts for the diesel fuel plant I am making, more on that later. 

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On of the first items on the list was to turn in my new boat.  There was a little confusion about the deal and things just did not work out right so I emptied it out, washed and waxed her.  I took her back to the dealer and got my old boat back.

I was not upset about this because so far this year I have missed out on about $44,000 dollars in Ranger contingency money.

I have decided to run the full FLW circuit and not play BASS any longer so I might as well be in the right boat and get that extra money. 

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It has been almost 2 months since we have been back home and we packed up the camper and headed back.  Since we are out of town so much we are renting the house to our son Brad and his girlfriend.  We set up the RV in the driveway and made home here for a while.

After we were settled in we started the dreaded list… "the honey do list"

Being out of town since January has it's toll on the good ole' list.  Of course we have had our fridge go on the blink and the AC did a number on the ceiling with a leak.

The wife and I put our heads together and made up the list and it was a long one. 

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We slept in and took it easy until Travis woke us up at 5:30.  So we had pancakes and played around a little and got ready to head to Rock Hill.  

We are going to see Kung Fu Panda.  I have been waiting to see this movie and it was fun. 

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• A. Circuit: BFL
• B. Location: Lake Wateree
• C. Conditions: Hot Sunny AT 90's WT 80's
• D. Patterns: Good question
• E. Results: 2 fish 2-13 pounds
• F. Hindsight:
• G. Extra:

I packed up the RV and drove last night to Wateree for the BFL.  We got in and set up and I rigged up my equipment for today.

I was in third flight and headed out to a favorite spot on the lake for a morning bite.  I through a bunch of things and did not have much luck.

This day I was to be a guide every where I went my co-angler put fish in the boat.  He had a good day and weighed in 11 pounds I only put 2 fish in the boat working a shakey head on a few docks.

It was a poor tourney and it dropped me down to 37th in the standings. 

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• A. Circuit: Other
• B. Location: Lake Norman
• C. Conditions: Cloudy morning hot and sunny afternoon AT 90's WT 80's
• D. Patterns: Skipping brush docks with a shakey head a intercepting wolfpacks
• E. Results: 3 fish 4-05 pounds 12th place overall 2nd place in state
• F. Hindsight: The 150 marina was key I think I was too close and did not see how good it was and the quality of fish there.
• G. Extra: Even though I managed to qualify for the Nationals this was a huge disappointment. I really felt good and was fishing clean I had the right areas and just let the win slip through my fingers. On days like these you can't miss three fish if you do you do not win period.

Today I have my destiny in my own hands.  I did not head over to my marina to check if it is open but headed right to a main lake point that I have picked up a few fish on so far.  I worked a long section of the bank and docks but nothing so I headed to Rawhide and while working a wolfpack came by with around 20 fish in it all good ones. I through my CCL trigger Shad in front of them and the co-angler tossed over me and he picked up a nice 3 pounder.

I then moved to some docks and picked up my first keeper and then missed a fish under a dock.  I had him on and coming to the boat and he just came unbuttoned.

I picked up another one on the shakey head and then lost another fish from a wolfpack that was almost to the boat.

Today the tourny was short and we had to be in at 1:45.  I made it to the marina at 150 and quickly broke off a good fish in the junk pile.  I finally put my last fish in the boat and went to the weigh in.

I knew I had let it slip through my fingers and this was the most disappointing event I have ever fished.  My three fish only weighed 4-02 after the dead fish penalty and I let Robert take over the SC Lead and secure the boaters spot at the Championship.

I could tell the wife was disappointed along with me and that we had really figured that I was going to win it for SC and be the boater for the National Championship.  We kind of planned on it a little too much and as David Simmons said to me "This one really stings".

I am still qualified to go to the TBF National Championship in Branson MO. next year so I am happy about that, I guess I will have to do a back to back title defense. 

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• A. Circuit: Other
• B. Location: Lake Norman
• C. Conditions: Cloudy morning, Sunny Hot AT 90 WT 80
• D. Patterns: Skipping brush under docks with a green pumpkin purple trick worm on a 1/8 oz screw lock shakey head
• E. Results: 7 fish 9-05
• F. Hindsight: The 150 marina has good fish and I am not working it long enough this is 2 days of hindsight the last day I should have been here earlier and fished it longer
• G. Extra:

Right off the bat I noticed that the water seemed better.  It was kind of a feeling that the lake changed back toward the way it was during practice and I was correct.

I started off that morning the same way and headed toward the the Explosion Marina but it was still not accessible.  So I skipped the sailboat marina and headed to some of the docks.

I picked up a quick fish on the shakey head and just kept on working my areas.  I re-worked a few docks from yesterday and pulled afew more keepers off them.  I also hit some of the docks that I did not hit yesterday.  Just about every dock that I had on my GPS gave up some kind of fish not all of them were keepers but at least there was action.

By 12:30 I had my limit and started on the kicker fishing.  And as soon as I stopped throwing the finesse stuff  my co angler picks up a pair that I could have culled with.  SoI pick up the skipping rig and cull a couple pretty quick.  I don't want to catch fish that I may need for tomorrow that is my theory on throwing the big swim bait.

My co angler was happy to fish my waters and I made certain that I put him on fish.

I knew the weights were going to be pretty good today and I ended up slipping to 2nd place overall.

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• A. Circuit: Other
• B. Location: Lake Norman
• C. Conditions: Hot Sunny
• D. Patterns:
• E. Results:
• F. Hindsight:
• G. Extra: Giving back to our youth is the only way to truly grow our sport.

Let me set the stage. It is day one of the Southern Divisional I just put my fish on the scales and weighed in 10-14 to lead the tournament.  After picking up my weigh in slip and getting some water on the fish I am heading down to the fish release area.  I pass a young angler on the way down to the tank.  He has his arm in a cast and is tying on a Pop-R.

I dump my fish in the tank and head over to ask how he is doing.  He says not to well and asks me if I can show him how to tie his lure on.  I was supposed to go back up and do my interview for the website, but instead I run back to the boat and grab a handful of Cache Custom Lures Trigger Worms and a package of Shakey heads.  

I head back down and I show him how to rig the worm up and then show him hoe to tie on the rig with a Palomar knot.  He is really appreciative and both he and his grandmother thank me for my time.

I watched 10 other guys walk right by this kid and not even give him a nod.  I am a true proponent of getting our kids out fishing and will always make an effort to help out when I can.  The look on their faces is well worth the time spent and who knows he may be the next FLW Champion sometime down the road… 

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• A. Circuit: Other
• B. Location: Lake Norman
• C. Conditions: Hot Sunny AT 90's WT 88
• D. Patterns: Good docks with brush
• E. Results: 5 fish 10-14 1 place overall
• F. Hindsight:
• G. Extra:

I pulled boat number 14 last boat in the first flight. My first stop was going to be the marina, but as I approached I saw a white fence going accross the whole cove the marina was in.  I slowed down to look and a pair of Jet Ski's came zipping out to meet me.  They told me I could not enter because of a fuel spill.  This changed my game plan a little.

So I hit the sailboat marina but nothing wanted to play.  I then started on my dock pattern and hit my first keeper on a Zoom trick worm on a screw head shaky head.  Then I hit the dock I called Rawhide (the boats name) and lost a fish after the hook up.  I zipped over to the cove that I had some fish spawning in and pulled out a 4 pounder on a Cache Custom Lures Trigger Shad.  I continued to work docks and most of them gave up a fish or 2 the next one came on the shaky head and then I had a little good luck after my bad luck morning.   I skipped the Trigger Shad way under the dock and had a backlash as I was picking it out I noticed the line moving so I quickly composed and set the hook on a nice spot.  The last fish came on the shaky head.

I then put away those lures and picked up the big swim bait looking for another kicker.  I did not want to catch a keeper that did not really help and one I may need later this week.

I think the big player for me was the Berkley Gulp Spray I was using on my shaky head.

I did well enough to hold first place overall on day one and get another picture added to my angler's profile on FLW Outdoors 

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