Pat

The day started out with me some how locking the keys in the motor home at the campsite. Fortunately eagle eye Steve noticed that a window was unlocked and we were able to slide it open reach in and get them off the table! Panic subsided and off we all went.

The two most exciting things about our day were the ride out in the morning and someone coming up to us and telling us we had won when we got back to the Hook from Lauritzens that afternoon! That morning run up the San Joaquin and and into False river was the wildest I have ever driven a boat through. The wind had been blowing all night and had that river rolling! Micster & Scott, Stickbait & Tony and Chuck & I were all running pretty much together(I know Phil & Angel were around there somewhere too, but I lost track of them) and between the adrenalin and seeing the the other guys I think each of was just trying to keep up with the other, well except maybe Micster who was just going like, well you know how Micster goes! At any rate the prop spent an awful lot of time out of the water.

We pulled into an area in a slough where I had caught a good Frog fish on Friday and there is also another bank I like. But no Frog fish today. Then we came to a particular bank that I like (Yep Lawrence, that bank that I showed you but we did not fish) and stuck a squeaker keeper, about 5 yards later I got a solid whack on the jig and set up, the whole weed bed started moving and the suddenly my line came flying back over my head. My line (20 lb big game) had broken right at the knot! This was not a good sign. I retied and Chuck and I went very carefully over how to tighten up a Palomar knot so it won't cut itself. We worked further up the bank and got another solid keeper on the jig. But after that it was nada, even went back through the good area but that was all there was.

We came out of there and saw Mark and Tony, and were glad to hear they already had a limit. We headed up into number two area but the bite there was not conducive, at least for us. After about 45 minutes without a nibble we headed to another slough and Chuck picked up our 3rd keeper from a weed bed. From there we headed for our 4th area where I had found some decent fish on Friday. We managed one good 2.5 at the first part of it but that was all. We decided to try a similar area close by and Chuck stuck a good fish out of some tulles at the back of a cut for our limit fish. This was a little after 11. We then proceeded to hook and lose a couple before finally getting another solid fish to cull out the little squeaker from the this morning. We definitely scraped for our limit of fish and felt like we had not done that well. From there we headed in and found some of the Nutcases at the buoys. No sign of Cooch & Dana and word that Phil & Angel were broke gave us a sense of lost hope. Finally we see Cooch & Dana come around the SS Minnow! Then we got up close to the Dock and there is Angel! And he was able to weigh their fish! We have new life! I think we all headed back to Lauritzens feeling like we did not do that well. But what a great surprise when we got back to the Hook!

I want to thank everyone on the team and also those that cheered us on and helped in so many ways. This truly is a great victory and one I will treasure for years to come. But honestly the victory was a bonus to an experience that still would have been great if we had finished dead last. The teamwork, sharing and support that went on is an embodiment of what this page has become. Damn! I am proud to be an NCBF Nutcase! Look out Clear Lake in 1999!

Pat