Okeechobee Remembered (Tourny Day 2)

The pressure was on. Out of 19 anglers, I was on the only one that had not
weighed in a fish the previous day. Breakfast, gas, drive, unload the
boat... you know the routine. What was different today was the wind. It was
blowing hard from the east (bite the least?) and causing alot of wake on the
lake.

I gave up on trying to keep up with anyone else and let the GPS lead us to
our destination. The waves were rough for the Nitro, causing us to run
across the lake in a stair-stepping path, either running head-on into the
waves, or running parellel with them. My fingers on the left hand were numb
from holding onto the steering wheel, while my right hand adjusted the
throttle to conpensated for the waves. I hate to think of the punishment
that Drew was enduring sitting between the cushioned seats in my boat, but
when all was said and done... he was still able to stand. After I had had
enough of the abuse, I just hammered the throttle and suffered whatever
abuse was ahead of us until we reached the east side of the lake. Once
again, I gritted my teeth and drove through the weeds that so thick between
the boating lanes.

My first cast of the morning, with my lucky, and repaired, spinning rod
(Thanks Steve!) resulted in my first fish of the morning. It wasn't a
keeper, but it did boost my confidence the today would be a much better day
than the previous. I released the little guy back into the water and
reposition the boat so that all three of us would have good water to fish
from. I think it was Drew who put the first keeper in the livewell, but I
wasn't far behind.

By 11:30am, I had four fish, including a nice 4lb'er that we had to dig out
of some really nasty stuff. My partner Rob Storm was right there to help me
land this beauty, that would have probably been lost with his help. At one
point, I even heard him offer to jump into the lake to retrieve it... what a
true gentleman! I eventually returned the favor, netting another beautiful
fish for him.

We had no idea how well we had done this day, but at 2:00pm, with the winds
still howling in the weedbeds, we headed back to the marina. We arrived
there before anyone else, and with the offer of a nice cold beer, we beached
the boat and waited for the others. That was fine by me, since my right hand
was swollen and hurting like hell from fishing a spinning rod all weekend.

There were alot of other nice fish brought in, and to hear tales, there were
alot of really nice fish lost due to bad hooksets, or broken line. Rob and I
were just happy to have fished once again in this beautiful lake and that
the sun was shining. As everyone arrived, Moe began the weigh-in and was
recording the results. Finally, beginning with the lowest total weights, he
began calling names. I kept thinking to myself that Rob and my name would be
called next, but when he finally called out for the second place team, I
almost fainted! Then he called us out. I was thinking that there was some
kind of mistake... how could we have taken second place over all of these
other fine anglers? As it turns out... one more fish probably would have put
us out in first! Still, we glad accepted the cash, and split it between us.

We finally broke us our little group, loaded the boats, and headed back to
the motel for drinks and showers. Dinner was to be at a restraunt called the
Brahma Bull, and were expecting us at 7:00. Rob and I decided on something
earlier in the day, and that was that we could probably debate alot of stuff
with Moe, but when it came to fishing we had better listen up. The man knows
this lake, and he knows fishing all too well. Well, that kind led me to
thinking about dinner. I was seated across from Rob, and when he suggested
the New York Strip over the Ribeye, I listened. That was one huge, and
delicious steak! It kinda took me awhile to eat all of it, while Steve, who
was seated next to me had eated his in about two bites! WOW...

Looking back on the whole week, it was extremely hard to return home. But
like all things, they must end. I put off going to bed that night for as lon
g as I could, known well that Joe would be waking me up at 4:00am for the
long ride back home. I have a terrific time with everyone there and can't
wait until the next time that we all get together. Everyone that ever
attended one of these events, knows that friendships are formed here. You
may hear plenty of negative stories about people meeting on the Internet,
but you rarely hear of the positives. This is one of the positives which I
think needs to be posted here in hopes that people can still learn to
"trust" others.

Ok... that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!

Thanks to everyone that was there, for making this short week a great one!
Thank you Moe and Doc for working hard to get everything so organized, and
for giving some of us that chance to catch that fish of a lifetime. Thanks
too, to Doc's wife Sue for putting up with all of us, and I know you had
more to do with this event than you let on. Thanks again to the people at
Pier II, for all your help, and to the nameless maintenance guy who offered
and shared a spare electrical cord so that I could charge my batteries for
Saturday. Thanks to all the guys who made donations and brought gifts, and
to everyone that offered to share their boats, equipment, and baits.

See y'all in Wisconsin!


--
Charles Summers
Secret Weapon Lures
http://www.secretweaponlures.com