FINALLY!

It has been the longest and most stressful 4.5 months of my life, but it’s finally time to make the announcement!  I’ve got a new boat!!!  Such an enormous sense of relief.  There’s been a pretty solid plan in place for about 3 months now, but I have waited to make the announcement until I actually had the boat in my possession and ready to roll.  I’ve learned in my life that nothing is a done deal until it is actually a done deal, and it really wasn’t a done deal until this past week.  Before I go into details about that though, here’s the official announcement: I have teamed up with Bass Pro Shops / Nitro boats / Tracker and have joined their Pro Staff.

I couldn’t be more excited to be working with such an amazing company with such an amazing legacy, and to be working side-by-side with the crew that has done such an amazing job of taking care of all of my boating and fishing needs here in Austin, TX.

As with all of my sponsors, I want to make sure that the companies I team up with are actually companies whose products and services I truly support, love, and believe in.  These guys absolutely fit that description.  Even long before joining up with them this summer, I have been telling anglers and boaters in the Austin area to take their boats to Tracker to be serviced for the past few years since I first started going to them.  They have never let me down, and they won’t ever let you down!

So about the boat… It’s a 2016 Nitro Z18 and this thing is sweet.  I’ve been able to fish out of it a few times now, and I gotta say, I absolutely love it.  Nitro has gone out of their way to really cater to the needs of anglers with their boats and they have obviously received a ton of help from professional anglers on making their boats the most comfortable boats to fish out of.  A lot of guys seem surprised that I went for the Z18 as opposed to the Z20 or Z21.  Bottom line is, when everything was said and done, the Z18 is what most closely fit my current needs.  In a few years, there’s a good chance I may go back up to the bigger boat, but we’ll see.  Until then, I’m lovin’ this Z18.

Ok, enough of that stuff, let’s get down to some of the things that have happened the past few months.  As I mentioned, it has been an unbelievably stressful 4.5 months.  For most people, a boat is just a thing… a material possession… and that is mostly true.  However, at the beginning of this year, I made the switch to becoming a full-time fishing guide.  My wife and I made that decision because it was what was going to work best with our schedules and would allow both of us to spend more time with our little girl and not have to put her in daycare.  With that in mind, a boat is really my primary source of income.  I don’t have a boat… I don’t have a job, I don’t have money, I can’t get bills paid, I can’t put food on the table for my small family.  That’s stressful folks.  A lot of people have been assuming that my biggest obstacle in obtaining a new boat was my insurance company not paying up.  That really wasn’t too big of a deal.  I had my money in about 3 weeks.  However, I still owed a little money on my old boat.  Once that was paid off, I still needed to take out a new loan for a new boat.  Having been self-employed for less than a year now, financial institutions aren’t very willing to give self-employed people loans.  They see you being self-employed as being financially unstable.  It doesn’t matter how much money you make or how good your credit score is… If you can’t provide two years worth of tax return documents in order to prove how much money you make with your business, they won’t give you a loan… period.  No matter what kind of business you are running.  That was the giant hurdle I have been overcoming the past few months, and it was horrible.  I will spare you the details on how we were finally able to make it happen, but I will say we did it through persistence and LOTS of prayer.  There is absolutely no way this would have happened if it weren’t for a few GIANT miracles that the Lord made happen for us.  It’s truly unbelievable.  God is there folks, and He is aware of your situation.

I also want to take just a second to send a huge THANK YOU to everyone who has been so supportive during all of this.  I’ve received such a huge outpouring of support from everyone and it means a lot to me.  The funny thing is… I’ve learned a thing or two the past few months about what it means to truly support someone.  There are many people, friends and family alike, who will “support” you while things are going well or smoothly.  Then all of the sudden, when things are not going so smoothly, they back out, disappear, or they suddenly begin to doubt you and your abilities.  True “support” happens when the going is tough, and those who truly support you will encourage or step up and help even when things may look bleak.

Anyway, I know there have been a lot of folks who have been waiting for me to get my new boat before booking a guide trip… It’s here!  Give me a call and let’s go fishing.  Thanks again, everyone.