I could type for hours if everything that I will remember on these 13 days had to be put down so only the top of the list highlights will be noted and even then pretty long so don't start reading unless you have the time and want to experience some excellent fellowship, great fishing, heartbreak hotel and LOG SALMON.

First of all the most important part of all, Fellowship and Friendship. This site has allowed me to meet many different people. I have been told that I give up too much information and am way too nice when it comes to taking guys out fishing and not asking for anything in return. Maybe so and I have been taken advantage of in the past where guys never even offered gas money or anything else, not that I would have taken it but the offer would have been nice, but I have met some of my best friends doing this as well. I am not going to list all of them because I might miss a couple but will focus on the 2 fellas that I spent time with the most during the trip and have become extremely close to both of these guys. Mike Willey, 3sons, and Roy Nave, Bonefish, are the best. Mike and I met about 4 years ago and the story is well noted on this site. Since we have become very good friends to the point where he will drive 3 hours to see me in the hospital or just to sit with me at home recovering. Being a business owner his time is crucial and him taking time away from this makes it even more special. When we fish together, his wife makes me COOKIES - Persimmon (sp) COOKIES at that and they are GREAT, plus he brings bags and bags of dried peaches (which I just finished off what he sent home with me). He won't let me carry anything at anytime to help keep me from busting something. Carry's my tacklebox to and from everywhere, unhooks and hooks up the boat, pretty much all I have to do is get in the boat and get out of the boat. We fish, laugh and talk about business, marriage, parenting and life in general. One heck of a nice guy that I am proud to call more than a good friend. I wished we lived closer because I know our friendship would do nothing but grow. Thank you very much Mike for not only fishing with me the past couple of years but all the thoughts, prayers and just being a good friend. Roy Nave, Bonefish, and I met thru this site and he works at my second home, UK Hospital. He would come and check on me every day sometimes during the day and others when he got off work would sit for hours and talk with me. The man is 127 years old, actually 64, and rides a bike to work everyday. He would spend a full day working, 2 hours sitting with me and fully knowing he had to ride a bike the couple of miles home. He, Mike and myself spent the last 5 days together and I knew these 2 would hit if off and how they did. These 2 fellas are way deeper and smarter than me and would use these words that had 46 letter and a couple of hyphens that made my brain hurt. I tried to get them to use words of 5 letters or less so I might understand what they were talking about but they did not know any of them. The 3 of us had a ball and I had them on more than one occasion doubled over in the boat laughing so hard that their sides were cramping. Mike fell off the top deck and over my driver seat at one point and was telling me to stop because of spasms in his side. Needless to say, we had a ball together and being the first time that Mike and Roy were together, I knew they would hit if off and they did. Another friendship was started between these 2 that will last a very long time. Thanks to both of you for sharing time with me and I really appreciate everything that you did. They would not let me pay a penny for gas in the boat or explorer and even paid for the cabin for the week. How many times can you say you left for a 6 day fishing trip and spent less than $100 for the week and the bulk of that is when I paid for their supper Saturday night. Thanks fellas.


The first 3 days were down for the Billy Westmoreland Tournament. I made a post on this portion of the trip already and won't go over the OUTSTANDING events that happened, well maybe a couple. Prefished Friday and hit probably 25 spots, caught 14 fish while leaving fish and could have had 25 or so if we sat on them. I had written down my top 20 spots at home before leaving and put them in a sheet protector based on the current water level and where I had caught them in the past. Man did that list ever hold up because Spot number 1 was the winning tourney spot that we sat on all day Sunday and the first 9 spots on the list all produced fish during the 3 days at some time. Caught fish all over the lake but pretty much knew where we would end up fishing. Fished about 10 spots on Saturday and then 1 spot on Sunday, except for 5 cast on two spots coming into the weigh in. Never forget the look on John's face when the big girl jumped, Scared - Amazed - Oh Crap - Are my knots going to hold - Is my line good enough - Excited, and probably another 15 adjectives that I can't spell. Great experience from start to finish that I will never forget and like John said in his post, been beating my chest like a Silver Backed Gorilla from time to time. The plaque is on my wall in the living room next ot my Smallmouth Bass print that my buddy Chunknwind got me and it looks GREAT. 27 years, 54 fishermen on this planet have one and Catchemall and myself are lucky enough to be 2 of them. Thanks John for a great 3 days and a lifetime of memories.

Mike joins me sunday night after the Billy and I meet him at the One Stop. He buys a new All Pro FNF rod and we head to the cabin to get out stuff unpacked. We hit the water on monday and Mike catches a 21 1/4 incher for his first fish on the new All Pro. We have several more fish but nothing like his big one. Tuesday was a different story, my first spot and the bobber goes under like a ton of bricks was attached and this fish comes at the boat so fast that even with my hookset and reeling as fast as I can gets under the boat and comes off. I am not a happy camper because this is about the 6th time this has happened in 5 days on the water. I make another cast and am telling Mike that I feel sorry for whatever takes my bobber under next and within a few seconds it did, the most violent hookset that Mike has ever seen and the line never moves. This fish decides to finally move and jump one time and she is a HOSS. I get her to the net and she is 6-2 and beautiful. Mike takes a couple of pictures and back in the water she goes. I spin the boat around and get back on the exact same spot and wham a 5-0 comes calling to the net. Not bad for 2 overs this size in 2 cast. We catch a few more, change spots a couple of times and then get on this spot that had a perfect eddy coming in on the best part of the point. Mike makes a cast into the honey hole on this spot and a big girl takes it. She jumps 2 times and is another HOSS. Into the net she goes and she weighs 5-4. Pretty good day when you are culling 5-0 over fish because she is not one of the biggest 2 of the day. Mike is about as happy as one guy can be and I am as well. Better to watch and net his fish than to land the 6-2 of my own. Very proud and honored to know his biggest to date that I had a part in. Nice job Mike. We fished Wed and Thur in gale force winds, caught fish but no overs but still a few good 4 + pounders and came home Thursday night.

Went back down Sunday. Monday until 11am was the best fishing conditions that I have seen in 5 years of fishing Dale. Complete cloud cover and no wind and the fish were hungry. I had 14 by 11am and 19 for the day including a 5-5 and 5-1 and lost a fish early in the day that cost me 20. I found 2 new spots by patterning my #1 honey hole and the 5-5 came off it plus a 4-8 as well. This new spot would become more and more relevant as the week went along. Tuesday and I catch a 4 pound Greenfish off the new spot and get broke off by a fish that I could not do anything with as she takes me under the boat. We ended up with 15 for the day but nothing bigger than the Greenfish. Wed and Bonefish joins us for the week. He had never fished the fly before and I started him off with an 11 foot leader. He was in the middle making his "throws", that is a cast for anyone less than 127 years old. After 2 "throws", I was putting on the glasses because of the fear of "throws" hooking me in the "cornearetinaeyeballouscious" (per Bone and 3sons vocabulary) EYES in my vocabulary. Mike and I had a couple and then Bone takes a break from fishing, the embombing fluid was oozing from his pores, and breaks out a snack - BANANA. I seen this and just about jumped overboard and swam back to the truck. You don't bring banana's in the boat. He knew nothing of this and thought I was pulling his leg. I told him that he would not get a bit or catch a fish all day long, and he did not. Even tied us on 13 foot leaders as the sun came out and we still caught a couple but nothing for Bone. That night several of us met in the kitchen as Boone cooked some Striper, thanks Boone for the fish, and I just mentioned Banana in the Boat and everyone said NO. That night was tough on Bonefish and he laid in the tub for an hour trying to get the embombing fluid to stay inside but he was feeling pretty rough. But being 127 and "throwing" a 13 foot leader most of the day will wear out even a 64 yr old man in good shape. Thursday Mike and I fished but we missed the first couple of hours because of ice froze in my water line and the motor would not "pee". But eventually thawed and worked but we missed the best bite. Still caught fish as soon as we pulled up on our spots and we had a couple bump the 20 inch mark but no overs. Thursday night and a few more came down and stayed in our cabin awaiting for the big cabin to open on Friday. I made a MONSTER pot of Jambalay for all that night and I think 6 of the 8 that were there ate becasue there was not much left. Nobody died that night so I guess it was edible. Friday morning and I cooked Sausage, eggs and Biscuits for 7 of us and again noboady died. I went out with easmallie and on3 3eyed willi3, Eric and Vaun, that morning to show them around and hopefully help them catch one on the fly and spot number 1 produced, bluegills 1 for each of them. then both were "throwing" the fly pretty good and working it thru the grass very well plus were getting used to the grass bite versus a fish bite. I stayed with them for a couple of hours and then got in my own boat, that Mike and bone had and were catching fish. Bonefish caught his first over that morning but Mike's scales were not working and he did not get mine out of my box. It went just around 5 in looking at the picture. He is busting my chops because he has 2 and I don't have any even though I only made 1 cast to show Eric and Vaun how to work the jig. We move to a spot and I hook one and it comes off, then catch one, then break one off and then set the hook on one as Mike is coming forward with a cast and I thought I had broke both of our rods when they met. It bent 4 of his eyes flat and jarred me to death. Then IT happens. I move to a spot that has produced big fish all week long and make a cast. The jig is hung up on something and I can feel it is a stick so I rear back and set the hook. the stick is a LOG and nothing but weight is on the end of the line, not like a stick that will move in the water. I am sticking my rod tip in the water yelling get the net, she is coming up, please don't jump and Mike grabs the net (he is in the middle). I whisper to him to give the net to Bone and MIke knows something is up but still does not know I have a log on my hook. I am pulling drag out by hand to make it more believable and working the rod like I have a monster. Bone has the net in the back of the boat and man is he ever ready. Knees bent, Bart Simpson Hat adjusted, and I am on the trolling motor to get this LOG to the back of the boat, Get it Get it, I yell and he stabs at the LOG and misses, then sees what it is and looks at me with this confused, what the heck is that, did I just fart or crap myself, look on his face. I am busting at the seams and Mike is just about to have a coronary as he is laughing so hard and Bonefish yells out "you Son of a Buck you, I thought you had a fish". mike and I am crying and laughing so hard. I have never laughed that hard in my life. Caught a few more Friday and Saturday, lost a reallly good fish on Saturday but really nothing to speak of fishing wise.

Friday night was the Winter Get Together meeting and we had 17 of us show up along with Steve Headrick. Too bad that Onemorecast56 could not make it because he would have had a good time. Did the door prizes and giveaways and I think it all went well. The bag with the lowest amount of stuff in it was worth about $80 and the bag worth the most was worth about $400, so still a pretty good investment for the $20 that everyone paid. Steve gave up so much knowledge about the lake, shad, fishing techniques and other stuff that I believe was helpful to everyone. It was very good to put some faces with names. I think it went well at least from the comments that I got it did. It lasted a couple of hours and then it was off to getting ready for Saturday.

Fished Saturday and caught fish but nothing of note, except for the 1 1/4 inch bluegill that pulled my bobber under and I set the hook and literally flew the fish into the boat on the hookset AT THE END OF A LONG CAST. I had line and bobber all around me and this little fish at the end of my jig. Mike was on the phone and watched the bobber go under and then the hookset. Never had that happen before but also never had a 1 ounce fish trying to eat something just smaller than itself. Most of us met at El Rays for some Mexican food and a few fishermen truths and laughs. Back to the cabin we went to get ready for Sunday. I call home and talk to the wife and son and my 6 yr old is having a cow wondering when is Daddy coming home. Gone 13 out of 15 days for the first time is too much time away and won't happen again, that is for sure. I felt horrible after hanging up the phone and decided it was time to go home. Packed up the stuff and all 3 of us left that night. I got home around 2am and got to spend all day Sunday with both of them before my wife went back to work today. My son is home with me until after the new year and we are making up for lost time this morning.

Great 2 weeks, great time with a bunch of Idiotic Winter Fishermen like myself and it was nice to meet everyone face to face. thanks to all for everything and a HUGE thanks to Mike, Roy and John for making the overall experience a lifetime memory.