fishing with kids

took some of the kids fishing this morning. the kids all drove the boat, we caught a few bass but the fun really started after mason copped an attitude and i had to throw him in the lake. from there on out it was all about jumping off the poling platform. connor didnt make it in any of the pics because he fished out of vinces boat. best two fish of the day were caught by father and son (vince and henry), a nice pair of 5 pounders.

3rd at ron's

vince and i placed 3rd at the ron's tourney tonight. this 3.5 pounder was the largest of our fish.

kissimmee prefish

vince and i went to kissimmee this morning to do a bit of prefishing. we found fish and we found good fish. the problem is that we found them everywhere we went and caught them on everything we threw. just one of those days. so much for narrowing down a pattern.

fishing and poker

fishing and poker. can there be a better combination? went out with walt to the same brush piles as yesterday. the first two fish came on both of our second casts. walt a 7 lb 11 ounce and mine a 5 pounder. we went on to catch about 25 bass most in the 3 to 5 pound range. what an awesome lake! afterwards we got a call from scotty with an invite to play a little poker with he and the lane boys.

big bass on brush

went fishing this evening with vince and lyle. caught some really nice bass including an 8, a 6.5, a 5, and a 4.5. it was nice having a scale on board to keep vince honest. lyle was kind enough to catch bait for us as pictured. then dinner at vinces house where monica made some awesome pasta. Thanks monica for taking pity on a couple of guys whos wives are out of town.

night fish

vince and i went and did some night fishing on thursday. we caught several fish but this one was the best. all but one were caught on crankbait. one on a texas rigged worm.

big hig

vince took hig fishing while i was out of town. heres what happened

"the fish jerked the pole out of his hands on the hookset. hig hesitated for a moment, and took the plunge. he handed the pole up to me and i held it till we got him back in the boat, so he could get him in." -vince

nice fish hig! next time try and stay in the boat.

hiwassee on fly

i wanted to learn a bit about the tennessee fly fishing scene so a friend and local pro, bill stiles, was kind enough to take me over to the hiwassee river to show me a few honey holes. didnt catch anything huge but we had good numbers. mostly rainbows with a few small browns mixed in. the scenery was absolutely beautiful. very different from the nantahala which is beautiful in a whole different way. we drifted dry flies over thick submerged grass that grows when the generators are off and the river is low. something that ive never done before and adds a bright green to the water that is wonderful for pictures. i broke my fly rod (thankfully bill had a spare) and got stung by a yellow jacket but beside those mishaps i had an awesome time. big thanks to bill for letting me tag along and sharing his local knowledge. cant wait till december when we will be back up.

1st at rons

tonight we took 1st place and big bass honors at ron's night tournament. it was held at lake alfred. we weighed in five fish at 15.5 lbs. big bass was a 5 pounder. we are kinda on a rons roll.

2nd at rons

vince and i fished a "ron’s tackle box" tournament last night (6pm to 9:30pm) and finished in 2nd place. there is something i really love about the ron’s touneys. it is run by the owner (ron) of a small local bait a tackle store here in polk county. its where bass tournament fishing all started for me. its simple. no fancy digital scales here. just an old laundry basket, a 5 gallon bucket and a produce scale. no big entry fees. no big egos. no big pressure. but when you catch a big one it feels just as good as in any tournament.

sad in philly

well, on wednesday we got a phone call that my mother-in-law had been hospitalized and had been put on life support. she is only 55 and this came as a big shock. we booked a flight for the next day to philadelphia and made arrangements for our girls to stay with my folks. this morning i got a phone call from a friend who was checking in our dog that our house had been burglarized. they took 14 baitcasters, 2 spinning reels, 16 rods, 3 fly rods reels and cases, a few thousand dollars in hard and soft baits and terminal tackle, 4 shotguns, 4 rifles, 2 hand guns, hundreds of dollars in ammo, three professional cameras, 4 nikkor lenses and flash, all my wifes jewelry (including her wedding and engagement rings), and other stuff. not even close to as important as the situation here in philly but it does add to the stress. we are resting in the fact that God is good and that all things work for his eternal purpose. we could use everyones prayers. fishing and hunting could be put on hold for sometime now so dont expect many new post for awhile.

saturdays tourney

we caught some pretty good fish but not enough to cash a check