Russ Bailey discussed deep water summer time crank bait trolling with the class for the first hour. The second hour he talked about shooting docks. He brought some B&N rods with him to show and sell as well as a few boxed of crappie jigs and baits. I saw few guys in the class who bought both items and had them in hand after the class started or after the first break. Class went from 7:30 PM to 9:30 PM. I learned a few new tricks from Russ. He's a fun guy and has a good lecture style. Russ has fished and filmed some of the best crappie fishermen in the nation. I fished with him cameraman at a tournament on KY Lake year ago and took his camera man out in my boat. We went to the wrong area to fish that day as I could not figure out how to find the roads leading to the other area that one of the local guide told me about. So I ended up going to the area that I new I could figure out how to get there. This was before I had my GPS unit and the road map. But in this area all the roads are called the same name. They don't distinguish between this different roads. All of them had streets signs that said "Antioch Rd". But each road would lead to a different area. I had been shown how to get to the launch ramp at Sulfur Creek and was able to find that area. But the roads going to the area out of the wind that day were unknown to me and I didn't have a good map of the area. Like I said many of the different roads were named the same name. This makes it hard for a outsider to find there way around. We fished out of Mansard Island Resort near Paris, TN. After fishing Sulfur creek a few hours I decided that the Winds out of the NE were not worth fighting anymore. I spent most of the time looking for a Kentucky DNR fish attractor ( brush pile) that was shown on my Garmin eTrex Visa GPS map. But the map was off by several yards and the water in the back of sulfur creek near this brush pile was shallower than the area where the other brush pile was located at the mouth of the creek entering this bay. But the wind was too strong that day for my little 16 ft long Fisher marine Bass Boat with the Square Front end. Waves on KY lake beat the heck out of my boat as it a john boat style and has no v shaped front end to cut though the waves. A boat that I should have never purchased for a bit water lake like KY lake. The only time I take my boat out on KY lake is in the hot summer time when the lake is dead calm. Only then will my boat do well on this big lake. We spend at least a hour searching for the **** brush pile in the back of the bay without any successes. I position the boat so that the boat icon on the GPS display was positioned over the marked brush pile on the GPS map and still didn't locate the brush pile with my depth finder. With a 20 deg cone angle the area beneath my boat was only about 2 or 3 feet in diameter and unless I was right over the brush pile or it was a brush pile covering a wide area it would not show up on the depth finder's screen. But finally I spotted a small turtle surface and dive back down again about 25 yards away. I trolled over there and finally located the brush pile. The Map marking was off by 25 yards. There your accuracy of 10 meters Plus or Minus comes into play. We spend the entire time looking for that brush pile in the back of the bay and not fishing. We finally started to fish but the wind made boat control nearly impossible with two fisherman. One in the back and one in the front on the trolling motor (Me). We finally fished minnows in the brush pile for about 15 minutes without a bite. So it was at this time that I decided to move to the other area out of the wind. The one that the local guide told me to fish. But he failed to show me where it was located and how to get there from the resort where he meet with me the day of the tournament. He didn't have the time that day to show me the area and how to get to the launch ramp for the spring house ramp. So we got lost on the way there. I ended up down in the bottoms and with my partner trying to read the map while I drove. We missed our turn and got on the wrong road. By this time It was about 1 pm and the fishing stopped at 3 or 4. And when we missed our turn the minnow bucket in the boat tipped over. Normally I secure that minnow bucket with a bungee cord. But in our hast to move to the new spot I forgot the attach the bungee cord around the top of the minnow bucket and secure it to the bulkhead in the front of my boat. So then we had no water in the minnow bucket and all the minnows were flopping around on the carpet in the bottom of my bass boat. The cameraman decided to call it quits when that happened. I took him back to the motel on the highway. One of my worst fishing trips.

I was planning on fishing by myself on this trip and was staying at a friends cabin on the lake. The guy at holding the tournament asked me to take Russ's camera man out fishing the next day but I already had plans to get up leisurely with my friend and cook breakfast and then go fishing. This was a friendly tournament and no money involved. So the next morning I was taking my time and enjoying eating breakfast with my friend and his fishing partner. I didn't know exactly how to get to the place where I was suppose to pick up the Russ's cameraman for that days fishing. I had to drive to the Mansard Island Resort and get the guy and then try to go from there to the Sulfur creek launch site. So I was already running late. I got there and could tell the guy was anxious and upset that it took me so long to get there. I should have just told the guy running the tournament that I was going to fish by myself but I could not turn his request down. All I did was delay it a bit. So the trip turned out a bad one as far as the fishing goes. But then after the deadline to turn in the fish we had a party and fish fry and that turned out pretty good. Only thing it that I got a new guy and another friend mad at me. Now looking back it's funny but at the time is was not funny to me. We didn't catch a single fish that day and I don't think we even got a bite either. But we went though about 3 or 4 dozen minnows that I purchased at the Mansard Island Resort Boat Dock the morning I picked up the Camera Guy. I need to figure out his name as I can't remember it. I think it's Darryl but I'm not sure. I'll ask him or make a note to remember his name next time I see him in the class. I owe him a fishing trip. It Bluegrass was not shut down and I had my boat ready to go and he was staying over I'd take him out there to fish for some winter and very early spring crappie. But I have a **** cold and was barely able to make it though the class Monday night. I was sucking on cough drop the entire night to keep from coughing my head off in the class. And I didn't want to give anyone else my cold. My sinus were swollen and my nose was stopped up so bad that I could not talk. I had a sore throat and could hardly speak last Monday night. I stopped at a deli on my way home and got some cold sorbet to eat and make my throat feel better. I've been using saline solution in a natty pot up my nose to clean out my sinuses. And finally my throat is not sore anymore. I got the flu shot this year and it screwed up my left arm as I had a bad reaction to the shot position and the fluid that the pharmacist injected into my arm or should I say my shoulder and she injected me way too high up in the shoulder. Next time I going to have a registered nurse give me the **** flu shot and not some untrained pharmacist. When you get over 65 years old they give you a different vaccine that has four different components in it and it's been known to cause a very sore arm. Some older people who got this shot have been injured for life by the virus shot. Look up Sore Shoulder Syndrome from Flu Shot on google. Then you will see what I'm talking about. My left shoulder was so sore for a month that I could not lift my arm up without extreme pain. I had to go to the orthopedist to get a shot of cortisone to clean up the pain and infection in my arm. It's much better now. I figure that I caught the bug from one of the kids that work in the deli who made my chicken salad sandwich for me. Or I got it from working out in the yard three days ago in shorts and a T shirt when it got up to 60 Degrees F outside. I was sweating and out of breath from climbing up and down the ladder and going around and picking up limbs in the yard. Then I burned the twigs with some old tomato steaks that had a termite infection. The smoke got in my eyes and some of it was in my nose and lungs. So maybe that's why I got sick. All I know is that my head is stuffy and I feel like crap right now. I hope that more sleep tonight will help. I have to get up at 4 am tomorrow and got get an MRI to find out how back my cancer is and where it's located and if it's growing bigger and needs treatment right away or later.

I lost the eTrex Visa from Garmin some where between Otter Pit's parking lot and my home. I also lost a camo bag with a Fox Pro FX3 caller and a Johnny Stewart Caller in the bag. I guy found the bag with my callers and called me to come get it from him. He said he found it in the middle of the road and got out, picked it up and took it back home with him. I had my name and phone number written on the outside of the bag in magic marker INK and he saw it and called me. I offered him a reward for finding it for me and calling me but he would not accept the reward. So I just thanked him and sat down and talked with him and his wife for a hour. We still have some good people in the world. He was one of them. Most others might have taken it and kept it for themselves. But I never did find the eTraex Vista GPS device. It was much smaller than the bag and not in the bag so it was lost. If someone find it they will have all my KY lake and Bluegrass and Patoka Lake GPS fishing spots as they are all marked and saved on the GPS unit. It had a Garmin Cover on it and it was black in color. I figure that it feel off and someone found it or it landed in one of the many ditches on the roads between my house and the Blue Grass Fish and Wildlife area. It cost about $400 brand new back in 2003. I replaced it with another Garmin Monarch 650T which is much better and has a larger screen. But since I got the Humminbird 898C SI sonar unit with GPS I don't use the Garmin GPS much unless I'm out hunting in the field. One the boat all my Waypoints are on the Humminbird unit.