First day in Florida

Getting to Florida was a hurdle in itself, towing a boat through the mountains and snow, during the night, with zero sleep, by your lonesome can make you start talking to yourself or at least have you singing along with the ipod. By the time I got to Florida, my voice was nearly gone from trying to sound like James Hetfield during a live version of "Creeping Death". When I rolled up to the first place I was going to be staying for the night, I assumed I would be too tired to do anything other then sleep, I was completely wrong, all I wanted to do was catch a bass. It was 9a.m. friday morning, I had been awake for 26 hours, so what did I do? I launched my boat from Richardsons fishcamp on lake Toho and went fishing. Two hours after I get on the water, I stick a nice 3lber out of a thick matt of Kissimmee grass. The sequential boat flip went awry and the 3lber snapped my 8' powell max rod. It was completely my fault as high sticking a 3lb fish will result in a broken rod about 90% of the time. After a few calls to a few friends (Mike White and Scott Mcgehee) it  seemed like I was going to be short a rod for the rest of the week. Not a huge problem, I had spares but it still sucks knowing your arsenal is depleted. I spent the rest of the day looking for matts similar to the one I caught the fish out of and not really fishing much.

When I finally concluded my first day of sleep deprived practice, I went back to the ramp to find one of the nicest Skeeters I've ever seen waiting to get pulled from the water. I struck up a conversation with the fellow that I thought I recognized. As soon as he opened his mouth I knew who he was. An absurdly thick cajun accent gave him away, Cliff Crochet, Elite series pro from Louisiana. We had a nice hour long conversation about fishing and experiences. This guy had some really great stories about co-anglers he has dealt with in the past, alot of great advice and he even let me borrow one of his Powell rods that was similar to the one I broke. I hesitated at first because I was affraid I would just break his rod like I did mine but he insisted.  What a great guy, I hope he blows up this season and kicks everyones ass except mine!

S.T.P.

oh yeah, by the time I got to sleep, I had been awake and either fishing or traveling for 38 hours which prob isnt so bad if your hopped up on some crystal meth but I didnt even have a drop of caffeine in me... kids, dont try this at home...