Well, as usual, school has had me tied up pretty good the last few weeks. About a month ago, I became ill with a sinus infection and was pretty miserable for about a week. As a result, I missed a bunch of school (and exams!) and spent the next two weeks playing catch up. I finally got all caught up about a week ago, but there yet lay ahead on the horizon MORE schoolwork. Leaving me with very little time to fish. I was able to sneak away to fish the annual Fishing for Freedom tournament on Lake Belton during mid October. Unfortunately, that tournament was right towards the beginning of me being sick and a felt like POOP the whole time. Nonetheless, I had an AWESOME experience fishing with my partner, Nathan Wright, for the day.
Nathan is about my same age and serves as a tank mechanic (if I remember correctly!). He shared briefly with me about some of his experience in the military, but I wish I had been feeling better so I would’ve talked to him about it a bit more. I’m planning on hopefully getting him out again on the water sometime in order to spend some more time with him. It’s such an honor to be able to do something small for the men and women who heroically serve our country to fight for our freedoms. Nate has some fishing experience under his belt, and was a good partner for the day. He’s still kind of new to bass fishing, but seems to be doing just fine. Unfortunately, this year was not our year to win, and this was the first year that I wasn’t even close to having a good finish. It’s really difficult to focus on the fishing and finding fish when you feel so horrible! Whatever the case, we gave it a good effort and Nathan actually caught BOTH of the fish we weighed in! I couldn’t have been more elated to have my butt kicked by the back-seater! I was even able to get him on his new personal best, a 3.25lber!
That fish absolutely made our day. It had been pretty rough going all day with just one small keeper in the boat. With about 30 minutes left to spare, we pulled into a marina where we had a little protection from the wind. I started catching several undersize fish suspended up under the docks over about 40ft of water. Nathan decided to let his drop-shot go all the way to the bottom in 40ft at the end of a boat slip. Once it hit the bottom and he went to pick up the slack, it was ON! Definitely brought a big smile to both of our faces. A few days after the tournament, I sent Nathan a text message and he messaged me back saying, “I’ve already bought an Alabama Rig and some Roboworms for drop-shotting!!” Thanks again, Nathan, for a great day on the way, and for all that you do in serving our country!
In other news, many people know by now, but a couple of months ago, I did pick up a couple of additional sponsors. The first being Shredlife Fishing. Shredlife is an on-line organization on Facebook where anglers of all skill levels are able to socialize, share experiences, tips, techniques, photos, videos, and most of all, LEARN. They’re a great group of guys with some great content on their Facebook Fan Page, so ya’ll need to check out www.facebook.com/shredlifefishing and click “Like” on their page!
The other sponsor that I’m really excited about is Wells Fargo! It’s great to have a big name like Wells Fargo supporting me in my tournament and fishing endeavors. Wells Fargo is an awesome financial institution that provides a lot of service, humanitarian work, and funding in the communities that they are present in. One of their mottos is, “Together We’ll Go Far,” and they really mean it! Definitely keep them in mind for any of your financial needs and even insurance! They work with dozens of insurance companies in order to find you the most competitive rates. Thanks again to those individuals at Wells Fargo who were willing to give me that bit of extra help in my fishing career!
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