Easter Sunday me and my good friend Wilburn Newsome headed to lake Okeechobee for the Fire Fighters annual bass tournament. The tournament was based in Clewiston, Flordia which is on the southern portion of the lake. It is a little town known for raising sugar cane and the home of Rowland Martin's Marina. I have fished this tournament for over 20 years, but have not been the last two years. Wilburn and I have fished it together for at least ten years. We have never won it "duh"... but we always have a great time. This year the tournament had 67 boats in it, with the gas prices it is down in attendance.
We arrived at about 5 pm on Sunday and by 6:30 we were in the lake. As usual for us we did very good fishing pre-tournament. By noon on Thursday we had most likely caught 45 bass for the all time record for Wilburn and I. But as usual the first day of the tournament (Wed) we stunk. we weighed in only six + pounds of fish. Sunday and Monday we tore them up, but Wednesday we really struggled. All our hot spots that we fished either had people there or there were no fish. We made a command decision on Thursday morning, we said since we were not in the running we would not keep any fish that day unless it was for the Big Bass competition. Now since Wilburn is a retired Battalion Chief and I am a retired Chief the decision was supposed to be right. Well, wouldn't you know that we just killed the bass that day. We caught 14 bass and as you can see some had real size to them, we were throwing them back in as fast as we caught them. We have been re-classified as "Retarded Chiefs"!
I want you to noticed real close to the picture of Wil with his pole bent in a C shape. What you don't see is that he caught a nice bass and at the same time a gator caught his bass. Wil being ever so determined to bring in the Gator so he could get his prize, a 12 lb bass that he broke his favorite rod. You ask, 12 lb bass, yep if you don't believe us that's your problem. Go ask the Gator cause fisherman never lie.....much!
The gator you see on the bank was about ten foot long and it looked like he had a Goiter hanging under his big mouth. Either that or he just ate a big bass and still had it in his mouth. There were so many gators that is was scary at times. On one point that we fished we counted 13 gators within casting distance from us all in the water.
The two guys you see in the boat that was passing us is Joe Rogers and Roger Dorics. They both are retired firefighters who worked for me when I was chief. There were a total of eight men from Bradenton there, all but two were retired. I did not realize how much I missed it until I got there, maybe Pat will buy me a new bass boat, or a trolling motor for our pontoon boat or maybe not.
Have a Blessed day and be a Blessing to someone today.
“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.” (Job 19:25 )
We arrived at about 5 pm on Sunday and by 6:30 we were in the lake. As usual for us we did very good fishing pre-tournament. By noon on Thursday we had most likely caught 45 bass for the all time record for Wilburn and I. But as usual the first day of the tournament (Wed) we stunk. we weighed in only six + pounds of fish. Sunday and Monday we tore them up, but Wednesday we really struggled. All our hot spots that we fished either had people there or there were no fish. We made a command decision on Thursday morning, we said since we were not in the running we would not keep any fish that day unless it was for the Big Bass competition. Now since Wilburn is a retired Battalion Chief and I am a retired Chief the decision was supposed to be right. Well, wouldn't you know that we just killed the bass that day. We caught 14 bass and as you can see some had real size to them, we were throwing them back in as fast as we caught them. We have been re-classified as "Retarded Chiefs"!
I want you to noticed real close to the picture of Wil with his pole bent in a C shape. What you don't see is that he caught a nice bass and at the same time a gator caught his bass. Wil being ever so determined to bring in the Gator so he could get his prize, a 12 lb bass that he broke his favorite rod. You ask, 12 lb bass, yep if you don't believe us that's your problem. Go ask the Gator cause fisherman never lie.....much!
The gator you see on the bank was about ten foot long and it looked like he had a Goiter hanging under his big mouth. Either that or he just ate a big bass and still had it in his mouth. There were so many gators that is was scary at times. On one point that we fished we counted 13 gators within casting distance from us all in the water.
The two guys you see in the boat that was passing us is Joe Rogers and Roger Dorics. They both are retired firefighters who worked for me when I was chief. There were a total of eight men from Bradenton there, all but two were retired. I did not realize how much I missed it until I got there, maybe Pat will buy me a new bass boat, or a trolling motor for our pontoon boat or maybe not.
Have a Blessed day and be a Blessing to someone today.
“I know that my redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand on the earth.” (Job 19:25 )
