For Anglers that go anyway!!!

At 3:30 Am. I awoke to a clap of thunder. My EYES opened!! I tossed and turned enough that I figured I’d just as well get up and start the coffee. From 4 am until 6:30 am I thought of today’s gameplan. How, Where, When, What…… At 6:45 my wife…..who knew I’d been up early looked outside at the rain. Her first words were “I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU SCHEDULED YOURSELF 48 out of the next 49 DAYS!!” I responded “CHECK THAT…49 of 49 as of last night”. She milled aroung getting ready for work and then said…”YUCKY HUN……..SORRY YOU HAVE TO FISH IN THIS CRAP HUN”.

BTW…..I was up at 3:30 because it’s weather like this that juice shallow water monsters up!! I LIVE for bites in these conditions. I said to the Queen….”LOL…..Actually I’m so pumped to fish with some clouds, rain and wind……I couldn’t sleep!!”. She replies…….”YOUR TRULY CRAZY……DO YOU KNOW THAT”.

For the guys that GO ANYWAY!! MIGHT BE CONSIDERED CRAZY!? You probably own own a Stormsuit from Frabill!! When weather is simply something you consider changing the moods of the fish, and your wife probably doesn’t understand the PASSION!!

I told my wife when I married her 42 years ago, don’t try to compete with this. You may be my love, but this is my passion. You try to take this away from me and you might as well gut me like a fish! She didn’t understand then, but she truely understands now.

Ah, thanks for the memories of sitting in that 14 ft open lund, waiting for the next “strike”. Water drops as big as a seagull’s(you know) finding every opening in the rain gear but laughing it off as we brought the next ‘eye’ on-board. But, hey, wait! Graphite, water, and lightning don’t make a good mix if my basic electrical training is accurate. Be careful out there. Hate to have you fried instead of the shore lunch.

It truly is a disease!

I remember fishing with my buddies in rain so miserable, that you couldn’t tell if you had wiped your hands off or not! We went to shore when it started lightning……it would have looked bad for three science teachers to be struck by lightning! But the pound crappies were biting……….

Had a great tournament on Otter a few years back. Just one of those days you have to laugh at. The monsoons poured so heavy that I could barely see 50 feet from the boat. I was within casting distance of the shore, but couldn’t see it.
Two bilage pumps running and the water was well over the floor and continue to rise. After a hour of on/off down pours like that, every planno box was filled with water, rod locker filled, close were soaked…..and we hammered out a nice batch of bass.
After weigh in and all the stuff following, we hit the road. What a joke that became. Continued to drive in anbd out of that storm again. Inrterstate was backed up so we hit back roads….. Kept getting re-routed because of flooded roads. In Columbus, I slammed on my breaks because of a flooded dip in the road that was about 5 feet deep with a car sitting in it. When I hit my brakes, I saw water pour out of my boat over the bow. Didn’t think about it at the time as being anything serious. Ended up re-routed again and drove another 290+ miles out of my way in the rain.
When I got home, realized my boat was FILLED with water. A 4″ tube washed beneath the floor of my boat and plugged the drain hole. God only knows how many gallons of water I trailed all over the state. Took about 45 minutes for it to drain out before going in the garage.

Passion and a few screws loose is what my wife says.