February 23, 2008First day of Classic proves to be epic
I earned another badge yesterday. I spent the day with Jeff Freeman (above) of Max Meadows, who is competing for the first time in the Bassmaster Classic at Lake Hartwell in South Carolina. Just getting on the boat required a 3:30 a.m., wake-up, not exactly pleasant for a non-morning person such as myself, but not all that unusual for me, either. At launch time the temperatures were in the mid-30s and it was raining. And it kept raining. All morning. My Gore-Tex gear, which isn't really intended for fishing, did only an OK job keeping me dry. My camo hunting parka eventually became saturated. My 10-year-old ski pants did better, but they ride down on my butt, so water got in at my waist while I was sitting in the wet boat seat. My old ski gloves sucked, frankly. I would have to pull out the fleece liners every 30 minutes and ring them out. That said, it could have been much, much worse. My head was warm thanks to my trusty windproof fleece hat. (Props to Mountain Hardwear.) My other most important pieces of gear were a cheap neoprene face mask I bought during a frigid ski trip last year and a new set of cheap ski goggles I got before this trip. Without those two things, running at 65 m.p.h. would have been murder. But it was OK. Really, I didn't start shivering too bad until after we got back to the dock at 3:15. In his Helly Hansen rain suit, Jeff stayed dry. But he doesn't like to fish with gloves so his hands froze. He kept blowing on his hands to warm them up. It got better eventually, he said, because his hands got too numb to be in pain. He was also coughing bad because of a lingering cold. But even though he may have been miserable, he never let on. Sitting on a bass boat watching a guy fish for 8 hours can test anyone's patience,even when the weather is nice. Really, yesterday went pretty fast. Jeff moved around quite a bit, which kept it interesting. And he managed to catch fish reasonably regularly. (He had seven keepers and is 17th place after Day One. Full story here.) Plus, he talked and let me talk. Not a lot -- which is understandable given how hard they have to concentrate -- but enough. Some of these guys will stand up there casting and not say a word all day. Sometimes it takes some recovery time to look back on and appreciate an epic day. I don't need time, this time. It wasn't an easy day to be out there, but I'm glad I was. I'm not on the boat today. I've got some writing to do this morning, then hope to hit the outdoors expo for a couple of hours before the weigh-in. |
About this blog
While growing up in rural Southern Oregon, Mark Taylor developed a passion for the outdoors while he and his younger brother tagged along with their father on fishing, hunting and camping adventures. Graduating from Northwestern University in 1988, Taylor spent four years as an officer in the U.S. Navy based in Norfolk before moving into journalism. After five years writing about the military for a Norfolk-based publishing company, he became the outdoors editor at The Roanoke Times in 1998. He lives in Roanoke with his wife and twin daughters. .....Advertisement.....
|
...Advertisement...
...Advertisement...
Comments
[February 24, 2008 9:38 PM]
BacklashEven though you got water logged it still must have been great to share the boat with a tournament player.
Hour after hour watching him hook up or nothing at all. It had to be nail biting, boring nail biting, disappointing to nail biting then happy to be there.
I hope you have some video to share with us if not you got some explaining to do.
[February 29, 2008 11:56 AM]
BacklashMark
I will be at the boat show will you be in attendance.
If So I will see you there Saturday.