Donna G

Mike, that is a very special offer and we thank you for it. I think we are ok on the Champ chores. What I really need is a maid. lol We head back to Tulsa tomorrow for post-op appointment. Again, thank you very much. Donna G

Champ says he does his walking from the parking lot to the boat ramp. He plans to start doing some more walking thought as soon as he recovers from this a bit.

Noticed you mentioned the Homer Sloan on Oct. 2. CPAA Pro-Am championship is that weekend at Grand. Champ doesn't always do well at coordinating his calendar. He normally leaves that to me.

I like your therapy plan! Maybe I can get the doctor to write orders for two. Thank you for your encouragement and prayers.

Thank you. We always appreciate prayers.

Surgery went well. They were able to spare 75-90% of his kidney. He is in quite a bit of pain and had a rough night and this morning is not much better. He has had several doses of morphine and anti-nausea medicine. Hopefully he'll feel better later and able to walk. He is supposed to walk four times a day. We definitely won't be going home today. Maybe tomorrow.

Thanks! 5/16 PB&J was just the jig I used at Table Rock this past weekend to catch SM. Good to know they like it at Norfork, too.

I love smallmouth and I definitely don't eat them. We stick to the 12" spots for the frying pan. I've only fished Norfork once, but we will be there in two weeks. Bite's been spotty at the Rock for us, but we caught some decent smallmouth this weekend. They really seem to like my little jig / trailer combo. What's the SM candy at Norfork? Any bite now or they all trying to stay deep and cool? Donna G

62 degrees. Rub it in, why don't you? Maybe I should phone ahead to Chief Brown Bear. If you're trying to outrun him or Lilley, maybe you won't be so cold. Yesterday on the Rock in the Central Pro-Am team tournament it was about 100 degrees more than 62. I'm sure it was. You'd think the fish would be leaping in the boat begging you to put them in a nice iced livewell.

Well, I'm gonna steal Champ's thunder, but he always says that boat is not a word, it's an acronymn B.O.A.T. - break out another thousand. He got the trolling motor cable replaced about 10 last night. Made it back to the Rock tonight at 10. Looking forward to the next five days, I don't care if it is hot.

That does sound easy. I'll have to give it a try. I looked at the YouTube posted on this topic on the double uni and seeing it actually tied instead of looking at a diagram or animation was very helpful to me. I think I can manage that one.

Yes, please let us know how it works out.

Besides being 14 kinds of unmentionable names and a rotten skunk, he obviously has no true love for the sport or the fish. Most classy anglers I know truly care about the fish. This makes me sick. Unfortunately, cheating happens in every sport and usually is only carried about by the low-life minority. I'm glad they caught him. I'm realistic enough to know it happens, honorable enough to hate it, but it isn't going to sour me from tournament fishing. There's rude, bad drivers, but I'm still getting behind the wheel every morning. There's people and things I don't like at work, but that's not keeping me away. The path to choking a weed out is to grow so much good stuff there's no room or tolerance for the bad seed. He's lucky he didn't get a beat down behind the weigh-in trailer.

A Palomar? I use that on all my fluorocarbon and mono connections to baits and terminal tackle, but braid to fluoro? Champ's a Champ at the Palomar and can even join every end of a Carolina Rig using it, but I think the folks answering the phone at Berkley maybe have been given the wrong 'script'.

Appreciate it guys. Think I'll give the Double Uni a try. Sounds like a lot of you use and like this knot for strength and relative ease of tying. Soon as this carpal tunnel eases up from 5 days at Stockton. Would have loved one of the nay-sayers that claim tournament fishing (and practice) is easy to have spent the last 5 days with me and Champ. I may never recover. lol I posted the Stockton CPAA results on the Stockton forum. Of course you can go to CPAA's Web site and get all of them. You'll have to look WAY down the list to find me.

Sorry for the bad alignment. I copied and pasted this from the CPAA Web site. My carpal tunnel is screaming after 5 days at Stockton, so I'm not going to worry with straightening up the columns. lol For complete results go to http://central-proam.com/ Team Results Sunday PL BOATER NON BOATER # FISH WEIGHT $ AMOUNT 1 BOBBY SULLIVAN MATT JONES 5 17.40 $ 2,100.00 2 LUPE GARCIA JOEY PENZO 5 15.68 $ 1,400.00 3 MARTY CONRAD ROBBIE DODSON 5 14.46 $ 1,100.00 BIG BASS Marty Conrad/Robbie Dodson 6.68 $ 430.00 2ND BIG BASS Roger Mhoon/Jim Lovan 5.41 $ 230.00 Pro Results Saturday PL FIRST LAST HOMETOWN ST # FISH WEIGHT PAY OUT 1 ROBBIE DODSON HARRISON AR 5 17.78 $ 2,150.00 2 MATT JONES SPOKANE MO 5 17.34 $ 1,500.00 3 PETE WENNERS GALENA MO 5 15.12 $ 1,200.00 BIG BASS Matt Jones 8.21 $ 480.00 2ND BIG BASS Robbie Dodson 7.16 $ 260.00 Co-Angler Results Saturday PL FIRST LAST HOMETOWN ST # FISH WEIGHT PAY OUT 1 RAY VAUGHN ROGERS AR 3 8.70 $ 1,075.00 2 TOM LLOYD JR SPRINGFIELD MO 2 8.19 $ 750.00 3 ROBERT DERR REEDS SPRING MO 2 7.71 $ 600.00 BIG BASS Jerry Dudley 6.72 $ 245.00 2ND BIG BASS Bill Hoffert 6.19 $ 135.00

Does interviewing fish, particularly bass, require an interpreter? Wonder if there is a Rosetta Stone for that language? Hubby and I are here this week (Champ188). Might come over and fish with you guys tomorrow night. I'm pumped about the interviews. Pretty hot and tough today. Few bites early, but it pretty much died around 11. Threw everything in the boat at them. Fished mid-lake to dam. Think we are headed up tomorrow. We'll be in a white and silver Champion 188 with red and black trim and a 200 Optimax with a OA sticker. We'll be easy to spot - crazy lady passenger with a giant white towel over her head. lol Come on fall and winter. PLEAAASSEE.

Wow! I didn't know there were so many choices. I told Champ188 the next time we see you I'm getting some one-on-one instruction. I really want to start using the braid, but I don't trust that I'm tying the double surgeon right.

Lot's of great suggestions. Thanks a bunch. I haven't heard of the double uni. I'll definitely check that one out. Still think I'm just not tying the double surgeon right. Need a personal demo from Babler.

I'm still on the hunt for a good knot that I can easily tie to attach braid to a mono or fluorocarbon leader. I want to try yellow braid on my spinning reel I use to shakey head fish with, mainly so I can see my line in the water better. Babler told me about a double surgeon knot which looks pretty good and I thought I had it figured out, but sometimes it holds and sometimes it slips right through so I think I'm not doing it right. I looked at a few diagrams on the Internet, but maybe there is a better demo that what I saw. Forget the blood knot. I can't conort like that. lol I did come across an Albright knot that a local angler gave me, but I haven't tried it yet. What's your favorite knot for attaching braid to a leader and maybe the link for a good diagram or video demo? Here's the Albright - http://www.netknots.com/html/albright_special.html

I realize I'm a 'girl' so my endorsement of the face shields doesn't count for much, but it is one of my top three pieces of non-tackle equipment, as far as I'm concerned. It's easier to stow than a helmet and I can put it on and take it off in seconds over my cap. It helps if your cap's brim is not too large or too stiff, though. We fish all winter and besides protection from the rain, it allows me to go fishing in brutal cold. I'll admit my face is pretty sensitive and I probably wear my mask when no one else would, but my eyes also water badly first thing in the morning. I can't help Champ188 watch for hazards without my mask. Red was the only thing available when I bought mine. I'm not wearing silly flames. I gave up worrying about looking goofy in my shield. In fact, I embrace the goofiness part now. Dad gum it, I OWN the goofiness. I AM the GOOFINESS. Where the heck did I put my Prozac? Wait, think I stashed it in my shield.

Thanks! I'll definitely have to throw some in the boat for the next trip. I really like T-rigging.

We fished Saturday and Sunday. I thought about throwing a worm Sunday, but didn't have any with me. Did you do better on the worm or the grub?

No kidding, there were some serious white caps! We were fishing in Little Sac on Saturday and on Sunday we tried to go toward OT to check out a couple of spots we fished last year and decided it wasn't worth. We didn't catch much off wood and were surprised at that, but the lake is up from last year and there is so much in the water. Threw everything in the boat at them on Saturday and scratched out a limit 5 different ways. lol Didn't catch anymore Sunday than Saturday, but got more of a pattern going. Guess they were chomping at night under that full moon and not interested in what we offered during the day.

Nice! It was lizard hot, as hubby says. We also fished Saturday and Sunday. Just targeting bass, though. Did ok. We tried fishing out, but seemed to do better closer in. How did you catch your LM?