The Thief May Be Caught!

If all goes right tonight there will be a warrant and an arrest of the man that broke out the window on the van and stole my wife's purse.

The detective working the case called the day after and said they think they know who did it. They were gathering the evidence and this evening when the store clerk returns to work they are going to do a line up and have him point out the thief.

We have gotten all the cards cancelled and have opened a new bank account since he had gotten our checks with routing and account numbers. We searched the area to see if we could find the purse. We looked in bushes and trash cans but could not find it. Christina is without a drivers license or any ID right now. She thinks with the police report and some other documentation she will be able to get her Driver's license tomorrow. With that she should be able to get everything else again.

It is a huge hassel. Don't leave anything in your cars. We should get the 106.00 back that the guy used but will still be out 200.00 for a new window, 25.00 for a driver's license, and whatever a cell phone, new purse and all the contents cost.

The guy also used a screwdriver to crack the glass so he damaged the door of the van itself. I'm not paying to fix that. The van has lost so much value already anyway from being keyed top to bottom, hitting a coyote, and hitting a deer. It's had 3 new paint jobs and it's only a 2005. I don't think the groundhog chewing up 700.00 worth of wiring on it will lower the value any more than that since we replaced all that wiring and sensors.

It will be nice to get out on the water tomorrow and not have to worry about any of this for a few hours.

WHAT?

They got us tonight. Christina took Leo to swimming lessons and somebody broke the drivers side window out of the van and stole her purse with debit and credit cards, ID, checks, and social security cards.

It is a scary feeling knowing somebody has all that information. They spent 106.00 at Marathon gas station before we could get the cards turned off. Who knows what else they spent before we got the cards turned off in the first 30 minutes. Chase would not let me turn off the card when I called. They said she would have to call even though it was a joint account set up by myself.

I was very angered but my Mom and Dad calmed me down and made me realize that it could have been way worse. I love my parents.

I was ready to open season on thieves. The guy signed his own name at a store he goes to regularly and was in front of many security cameras on his bicycle when he used her card. He spent 106.00 on phone cards at Marathon. I hope the police make an effort to catch this guy. I am entrusting this to them. Justin is his first name even though Christina did not see his last name on the receipt.

This is becoming too common. Somebody tries breaking in my car a week and a half ago and now somebody succeeds. Is it time to take matter in my own hands? If I didn't have a wife and kids I think I would make a good vigilante.

Weekend Update - Not Fishing!

I held up on my end of the deal by not fishing this last weekend. It was tough! It was a nice break to spend some time with the family.

Friday night we went shopping at Kohl's. I got some swimming shorts and a nice summer shirt. I don't buy cloths too often but my swimming shorts from a few years ago were unwearable. It was embarrasing when I figured that one out. Mom pointed out that there was a noticable hole between the 2 legs of the shorts.

We had chinese buffett at a new restraunt they opened near home called Go Go Buffett. It was good and had all the regular offerings.

Saturday Leo had a birthday party to attend at The Big Splash in Grove City. We had a blast swimming and playing in the water. Gavin was not scared of the water at all and Leo worked on his swimming as he had just finished his first week of swimming lessons. We are staying really busy keeping him busy this summer.

Christina had a movie party at a co-workers house on Saturday night. I watched the kids as they set up train tracks and played with trains and toy cars all night.

Sunday when we got up Leo said, "Do you have fire on your back? My back is on fire!" Gavin and him had gotten burned despite putting sun screen on them at the pool. I have a base tan so I didn't get burned.

Since I wasn't fishing I ordered some goodies from bass pro and got them in the mail yesterday. I got some zoom speed worms and speed craws to try out this weekend. I also got some Monsoor swim jigs and re-stocked some hooks and bullet weights as I have been going through them this year.

Saturday I have a club tournament at Delaware lake. I know where to find the crappie there but the bass is a different story. I have been studying lake maps to decide where to go. I have several spots picked out to try at the start. If that doesn't produce, I will work some main lake banks and work fallen trees the rest of the day. The good thing about our club is that we will not overfish the lake. Each boat will be able to get to good locations as there are usually only 8 or 9 boats.

A No Fishing Weekend :>(

No fishing this weekend. I don't know if I can handle it! Especially after the dismal performance at the BFL event last weekend. I want to get back out and whack em!

There is a father's day tournament at Alum Creek this Sunday. I love fishing Alum Creek. A lot of people around here think it's a horrible lake but there is so many different ways to fish it. It's one of the only lakes around that you don't have to beat the shoreline all day. You can find 'em deeper once in a while.

I have been fortunate to have gotten time on the water to try to figure them out there.

It's Christina's weekend though so I will not even bring up fishing this weekend. I traded Mother's day for Father's day with her. Plus, I have taken every weekend of the summer for tournament fishing. It's not real fair to her. I'm glad I have such a loving supporting wife that wants me to follow my dream.

Leo has his first birthday party invitation from a kid on the soccer team so we will be going to the water park in Grove City for a birthday party on Saturday. Other than that I will do whatever my wife wants me to do (Within Reason).

Indian Lake FLW BFL event

I made it to the lake as the rain started to pour down. The last 2 nights I had not slept well due to dreams of not catching bass. After catching so may fish at Lake Erie the weekend before I should have been having dreams of whacking them. I felt that I could get them on Indian.

Once at the registration I sat in the car for about an hour while the wind and rain pushed through. The rain slowed so I got registered.

I had plans to stay at my friend Chad's house while fishing the tournament but he had to leave town last minute so I decided to sleep in my car in his driveway.

Around 12:30 AM I awoke to a pickup driving by slowly. They came around again this time stopping behind my car. I had my driver's seat leaned all the way back. My fishing rods were in the back window. I was dazed, half awake, half asleep when I heard 2 guys walking up beside my car getting really close, then trying to open the doors that were locked. I banged on the window really hard. They ran back to the truck, jumped in and took off. I'm sure if I would have been sleeping in the house I would have came back out with busted windows and my fishing rods gone.

Needless to say, I did not sleep the rest of the night. It was starting to look like Grand Lake in a lot of ways. Rain at the pretournament meeting, no sleep the night before. Dreams of bass fishing. The bad thing was these dreams were of not catching bass.

At the tournament we started out in a good area that was filled with bass. My boater boxed a limit within an hour. I had fish follow my bait but not hit. I was casting a blue and black monsoor swim jig with a pacu chunk trailer. I also used a senko weightless and caught a short bass right away with it.

After the first pass throught the channel I switched to the finesse worm whacky rigged on a 1/16th oz hook. Finally I cast next to a laydown and felt a bite. I pulled back on the rod but did not set the hook well. He came to the surface in slow motion and opened his mouth also in slow motion. I could see he was about 2 1/2 to 3 pounds. My hook came out of his mouth in slow motion, then the world sped up. A little ways down the bank I hooked into a large catfish, then a short bass. I also missed several fish.

I felt uncomfortable fishing behind my boater. Not that I didn't enjoy fishing with him, I did. I could tell he was judging what I was using and my confidence was going to crap. He made several comments throughout the day about my lure choices.

I usually take criticism as a learning experience but this guy was knocking everything I have had any luck on in Ohio last year and this year. He wasn't harsh about it at all but had me questioning every decision I have made in bass fishing to date. He was doing good and I wasn't. I was missing being in my own boat catching bass. He did re-inforce the original thought that I had going into the tournament. I knew I needed to throw a craw and I didn't try it long enough. Toward the end of the tournament he said, "There were only 2 baits that you threw all day that made any sense to me, that was the chigger craw and the swim jig, and you only threw them for 5 minutes." I just didn't think I had the right craws with me so I didn't throw them that much. Maybe I didn't have the right craws, but I should have gave the ones I had a good effort. I know they work there.

Somewhere in the middle to later part of the day I caught another short bass. Then I brought one to the boat that looked close. He measured a squeek over 12". If he didn't get any shorter in the livewell I would save my points. I really think the boater took me to that area so I could catch a quick keeper fish. As soon as I got him in we went back across the lake to try to get him some upgrade fish. If the boater did go there so I could get a quick keeper, that was awesome of him. That fish got me 110 points for 90th place and kept me in the top 40. I wouldn't have gotten any points without weighing a fish. I am 31st in standings now.

The boater I was with also gave me some advise after the tournament to try to help me get better hookups using the finesse worm whacky style since I love fishing it so much that I cannot put it down. I appreciate all of his advice now that I am off the water and had a chance to see how much I can learn from him from that 1 day on the water.

Lake Erie Club Tourney

I was able to take off Friday from work in order to make it to Lake Erie early to practice for the club tournament and hang out with the other members at the cabin.

Steve and I got out on the main lake at a decent time. We fished some rock breaks with no success then found some largemouth on the point of a marina break in about 10 feet of water. There seemed to be a lot of fish and it looked to be a good spot for the tournament. Then the trolling motor died about 1 1/2 hours into fishing.

We pulled back off the water and went to a marina to get some replacements. The next time out we started from Dempsey ramp and went back out to the main lake to find some more spots.

The lake was getting rougher than anything I had ever been on with my boat. It wasn't bad for Erie but I was worried. We fished for a few minutes then went back to the Bay to play it safe. We fished around the bay and only found 1 more bass.

It was time to meet up with the rest of the crew so we headed to the cabin. We had a few drinks then went out to eat. The place we ate seemed kinda fun so after a while back at the cabins Steve and I went back to spend the evening.

We got back late and early the next morning we were up for the first day of the tournament. We fished out of the Portage River ramp for the first day. It was a paper tournament since you cannot keep the bass this time of year.

I had my first keeper on pretty quickly using the whacky MiRketti in really shallow dirty water. I missed at least 4 other fish. It got to me pretty fast once that bite turned off. We moved to another area and I caught a short and a drum. We moved to several different places with no luck besides non species.

I liked the shallow spot we tried earlier so we went back. Steve got his first keeper and then I saw a fish a ways back surface after some bait. I cast to the spot and bounced the shaky MiRketti. I had a hit instantly and the fight was on. I got him close to the boat then he shot between the boat and the trolling motor. As he went by I saw a flash of green and got really excited. I got him back on the right side of the boat and Steve netted him. A couple seconds after we got him out of the water we realized it was not a bass. I thought it might be a Bowfin a.k.a. dogfish. I took a picture and it was confirmed later by a member of O.D.N.R.



We went back to a spot I liked earlier with clearer water. We ended up fishing 1 bank the rest of the day filling our limits. Steve had a good bag. I had all smaller fish. I had some good fish on but they kept throwing the hook. They would hit and head straight at the boat. It was an odd bite that everybody agreed made it harder to get a good hook set.

That night we got to bed a little earlier after spending some time with the other members at the cabin. Throughout the night a huge storm rolled in. I think it was the same storm that dropped the tornado near Toledo which was only 30 miles away.

This morning we awoke to high winds 15-25 mph. The skies looked angry and it took a while to convince myself to take my boat out. I am inexperienced on big water. I convinced myself that we should go.

We came out from behind the break wall and the waves felt huge. We all started out accross the bay and the waves got bigger and bigger. Still not as bad as they can get but uncomfortable for me to drive in.

We made it close to our destination and I remembered one of the members mentioned a sand bar that stuck out. I looked down at the depth at the wrong time and managed to make it over the wave we were riding. We speared the wave in front of us and wall of water came over the boat. I kicked the power up and got the nose lifted again to ride that wave the rest of the way to our safe area.

I found out later that every boat in the club ended up spearing waves. Andy ended up getting a bad one and it took his but seat, windshield and messed up the electrical in his boat. I haven't heard how he got back, but he ended up back at the ramp and went back home.

We fished in a safe area for all but an hour. I was able to fill my limit, and upgrade a couple times and Steve got 3 small fish. The wind had died down for a while but was picking back up. We decided to shoot back across the bay before it got worse. We made it back quicker than expected and with no problems. It was still rough but not as bad as the morning.

We fished a break wall and Steve caught a smallmouth. We fished for a while longer and were on the point of the wall when I felt a tick on my line. I set the hook and battled for 15 minutes with a 6 1/2 pound catfish. Every time I would pull him close to the surface he would dive down again. It was a blast fighting him in.



It was a great time fishing with Steve. We joked around a lot and had a lot of fun. We had some excellent fishing at the same time.

A majority of my fish came on a purple 10" powerworm and the shaky MiRketti. I tried a lot of different things but all I could catch on the other presentations was non-species fish. Some of the other guys had luck with a variety of lures from senko's and anything rubber to crankbaits and top water. It seemed that if you had a confidence bait you could catch fish. I had a little over 14 pounds for 2 days with 10 fish. The winner had about 22-24 pounds. I caught tons of bass and had a great time at a great fishery.

Wakonda Lake Vacation

After the Deer Creek on Sunday I got home and finished mowing, packed the van with camping and fishing gear and we were finally on the road late that evening.

The next day around 2:00 P.M we arrived at Waconda Lake. We spent some time in the campground as the wind was blowing around 30 m.p.h. In the evening Dad, Mom, Leo and I drove over to the marina to fish for some crappie.

It was excellent fishing and we got a half a bucket of 12-14 inchers for a meal. We threw a lot of fish back due to not having freezer room to freeze fish yet.




We were going to celebrate Gavin's 2nd birthday but he fell asleep so we had to wait until Tuesday to celebrate.



That night I did not put up my tent due to the storm that was blowing in. A little before dark it finally reached us. We had been watching the lightning and the wall cloud as it approached. It blew in with some fury and we were scrambling to finish getting everything tied down. The wind kicked up to about 60 mph. June bugs were getting blown out of the trees and they kept whacking me upside the face over and over again along with the blowing sand until I finally made it into Mom and Dad's 5th wheel.



The next morning the wind had died down and we eventually made it out to the lake. We caught a ton of crappie and a few short walleye trolling. We came back into camp when it got hot then that evening went out for another hour before dark.



Again at dark a storm was rolling in. This one had produced a tornado a ways away at a town named Gove. We decided that since the wind was not blowing as hard the storms wind would not be too strong. Wrong! We woke up with the tent slapping us in the face due to broken poles and lightning striking all around us. We grabbed the kids and scrambled to the camper. I grabbed some bedding and dropped the tent so the poles that were not broken would stay that way.

The next morning the camp was waterlogged. I put the tent back up and drained the massive amounts of water out of it. There was also a lot of bedding and air beds to dry out.

We went out fishing again and Mom caught a nice 21" walleye and her and Dad both caught a crappie that were almost 16". We kept several other crappie since we had the walleye to clean. Dad caught a 4 pound drum and I caught a 4 1/2 pound drum in the same spot a while later. I also got a 2 1/2 pound catfish casting a bomber with a spiderman pole for bass along a shoreline in the creek. I had a good cast between a couple bushes in the water. There was a wake as the fish took off toward the crank. That was quite a fight as he kept diving under the boat and stripping line off the little reel. There was a funny moment later when Dad had a hard time getting back in the boat after we stopped on bank for a break. Mom was laughing so hard she couldn't breath and Dad was stuck in quite an uncomfortable position. I had to get a picture instead of helping him in.





Christina drove to her Mother's house to do some laundry since her and the kids bag of cloths had been left in the tent the night before.

She brought back my nephew Peyton to do some fishing with us. I got into some white bass off the bank along with some crappie, walleye, and smallmouth before dark. I took Peyton back down there just after dark and did not have any luck.

The next morning we went back to the point and I hooked into a large gar that I fought for almost an hour with my microlight crappie pole with 6 lb test. I would get her close to shore then he would go on a run and strip most of my line off. Peyton had time to walk back to camp to get the net. I finally got him into the rocks and Peyton went to net him but the net was way to small and she would slide right out of it. The group of boats that had gathered to watch the fight were a little disappointed when my line finally broke on the last attempt to get the fish onto the rocks to get ahold of it. I have to say I was a little disappointed too. It was one of the larger gar I had seen all week and would have loved to have gotten my picture taken with her.

Peyton was able to net a few of the other gar that swimming around the area and I had a few more bite my tiny dancer but couldn't get a good hook into their toothy snout.



We didn't make it out in the boat since my Grandparents came out to stay with us. Peyton and I tried the Marina again, this time with less luck. The east wind was changing the fishing.



The next day we got out in the boat and caught a lot of fish again. Peyton caught a nice 18 1/2" walleye. We all caught a lot of shorts and tons or crappie and white bass.



The following day we did a lot of catching fish to keep as it was my last day. It was hot and windy but we still caught a lot of fish trolling and drifting.

The last morning we awoke to a strong North wind blowing in a storm. The tent was slapping us in the face again. This time was leaking water and the poles were not holding any more. We quickly packed up all of our stuff and got in the camper while the storm passed through. I rolled up the tent we have had forever and got it ready for the trash bin. It was leaking water and the poles were annihilated. It battled with the Kansas winds and the Kansas winds gave it a whoopin.

We left the lake around 10:00. There were a lot of stops made on the way home. The drive back is just so long. We visited Bass Pro and picked out another tent. We stopped in Terra Haute and got a motel for the night then continued our drive the rest of the way home on Monday.

Deer Creek Club Tournament 4/23/10

I got home from the Grand Lake tournament Saturday evening. There was a lot to do around the house in preperation for the weeks vacation so I got the camping gear ready and mowed the front yard. It was late by the time I got to bed.

I rolled out of bed early again for the second day to get the boat hooked up for the Deer Creek tournament. I had Dave Merriman from the club going out with me. Gene is also going to try to join the club so he fished as a guest with Ken and rode to the lake with us.

We got there and put in just in time for blast off. I was tired all day but thought I would have a good shot since it was my regular lake. We started out in one of my favorite spots but the water had risen quite a bit and was chocolate milk colored. I caught a couple shorts and a crappie or 2.

I made the decision to fish a different spot towards the dam to see if we could find some cleaner water. Dave hooked up with a good bass in the first cove fishing with a tube. I caught more shorts and crappie.

We worked the bank thouroughly and couldn't get another keeper by mid day. We decided to move around and try some other spots. The fish were not co-operating. It seems that if you miss the early bite on that lake it is hard to catch fish.

I wanted to try the river so we boated back there. The water was horribly colored and was way high. There was about a half hour left and I knew a good steep rock bank close to the ramp that we could work for the last half hour.

We got there and the trolling motor batteries were getting low. We were still able to work the bank and Dave ended up pulling in a 2.5 lber off a crankbait. It was flopping and jumping all the way in. With about 5 minutes left we headed back to check in.

From the talk on the water it was a tough day for most. There were a couple guys that said they had a good day.

At weigh in Andy had 3 fish and there were 2 other guys that said they did good. I thought back to the day before and knew that Dave's 2 fish could outweigh 3 smaller fish and he might have a shot at big fish. At the conclusion of weigh in he won with 4.7 pounds and had big fish. I didn't weigh in a fish for the second straight club tournament but was happy I could get Dave on winning fish.