One of the funniest stories of the summer happened about a month ago.
It was about 2 in the morning abd we were enjoying a nice night of landing
Mr. Big Mouth.   I was with Jim(of course), and Mark, who is our newest
fishing comrade.  We were cruising down the dark lake headed toward our next
honey hole. mark was driving, Jim was on the end, and I got to be the lucky
one sitting in the middle.  BAM!   All of a sudden I got hit right on the
crown of my head by a low flying bat!  I can hear PETA and all the animal
rights activists blaming me for this one.  Thank God I had my hat on because
it deflected the blow.  I was fine, but we'll never know what happened to the
bat.  I can bet his reaction was same as mine.  WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT, as it
skipped into the water.
 
 
 

     Well, here we are in August already and we haven't updated the Fishing
Stories Page in ages.  The summer has been eventful and fun, but not to many
stories to tell. First, a couple questions!
     1.  Why does Jim always lose his hat when we take off in the boat?  It
never fails.  He knows the wind is going to blow right into his face. Maybe
his head is too damn small,or bald, or something!
     2.  Why does my BASS TIMES always seem to get lost so I never get to
read it?  The wife perhaps?
     3.  How many times will my winch slip when I'm pulling the boat out of
the water, causing it to go on the trailer crooked?  Actaully never again. I
replaced it today.
     4.  How many dumbasses does it take to put a pleasure boat, or pontoon
on a trailer when I'm trying to load? In most cases, but not all, a small
army!
     5.  Is it me, or are jet skis the most annoying machine ever made?  I
hate the annoying buzz buzz buzz from their engines.  Why do they always come
to close to my boat or where I'm fishing?
     Always be prepared for anything when go out on the lake! Last week Jim
and I fished a buddy tournament at Raystown Lake.  It started at 7:00 PM and
ended at 3:00AM.  Forty-seven boats entered the tourny.  It started raining
hard as hell as soon as we launched.  Thank God we both had rain gear and
extra clothes to keep us reasonably dry in the downpours that lasted all
night! No hypothermia for us!
     We ran the lights, depth finder, bilge(which had the biggest fish in it
caught by me, Ha Ha), and trolling motor all night. We ran to our last spot
and fished about an hour and half before we decided to head back at about
2:40.   Went to leave, but the engine wouldn't start. Everything but the
trolling motor was hooked up to the cranking battery and it was dead.  We
tried to jump it,  but both the batteries must have been to far gone.
Luckily,  we were prepared, I always try to carry a spare battery.  We did
the quickest battery exchange ever in the dark and made it back to the weigh
in, in time.  Lesson learned...always expect the unexpected!  By the way, we
only finished around 20th out of 47 boats.   Keep your line wet.  Todd
 
 
 
 

     Well, here it is, the first TC Fishing story!  It all started on a cool,
rainy afternoon on May 27, 2000.  We had just got onto the water and to our
first spot. The rain started to come down hard and we weren't catching
anything. I was throwing a black Berkley Power Worm and Jim was sick of
throwing his bait because he hadn't had a strike.
     I looked over and saw Jim staring intently into his tackle box looking
for something that might provoke a hit.  Just then I had a strike and set the
hook on what would be my first bass of the day. He hadn't noticed me reeling
it in.  I kept saying to myself, "please dont jump, please dont jump."  It
didn't. I brought it in and looked over and saw Jim still studying his tackle
box.  I pulled the fish out of the water and let it hang right in front of
Jim's face.  It started to flop back and forth and it scared the hell out of
Jim. I thought he was going to jump out of the boat.  In fact, I thought I
was going to fall out because I was laughing so hard.  What a site to see.
You can imagine the language that came out of Jim's mouth which set me off
into another fit of laughter.  After the laughing died down we stayed long
enough to catch some nice bass and a couple of big pike. Hope you enjoyed
this as much as I did!  Hope you get your limit.

                                                                                                                Todd (T)