Friday morning I packed all of my fishing and camping gear I would need for my third BFL of the year at Fort Gibson. It was getting hot already at 10:00 in the morning. The lake is about 5 hours away so I would need to leave by noon to get there with plenty of time to find the walmart where the pre-tournament meeting was to be held.
Other than hitting construction on every major road through Tulsa the trip down went well. I made it to walmart with plenty of time to shop for a few supplies before going to the meeting.
At registration I bought a 5.00 raffle ticket for a chance at some of the prizes the FLW had laying out. The meeting started and the tournament director pulled the raffle tickets out. His second call was my number. I went up and got a Lowrance handheld color GPS unit. The trip was definately starting out right.
After the pairing meeting I called Mizike to see where he was at. He was coming down to camp with me for the weekend. He was still quite a ways out so I went to an Asian Buffet and ate. Afterwards I drove around looking for a campsite. Every campsite I went to locked their gates at 9 or 10 and did not open them until 8 or 9 the next morning. I had to meet my partner at 6 the next morning so that was not an option.
I drove clear around the lake looking for a campsite or a gas station to ask if there was a campsite that didn't close. By the time I got around most of the lake Mizike had finally gotten in. I saw him and a gas station at the same time. He was already inside getting information on a campsite nearby that did not lock up.
We drove to Wahoo campground and set up camp. With a name like Wahoo we knew it was going to be interesting. Even more interesting is that it was free to camp.
That night we met a few other campers and had a good time. The next morning came quickly and I took off to meet my partner for the day. Right away he had us on fish. He caught several keepers, while I caught tons of short fish. Later in the morning I caught my first keeper. He continued to whack em. I was watching him throw back keepers that would help me out if I could just catch them.
A storm was building and getting closer to us all morning. The air was calm. The storm was booming with an echo through the cove we were fishing. Eventually the storm was over the top of us pouring down with lighting striking around us. The storm was the break I needed. The fish got close, very close to cover along the bank. I caught 2 more keepers. Then I lost the last of the color I was catching the larger fish on. The bigger fish wanted that color. My boater slowed down in the afternoon as well but still caught a few fish.
The wind came up and we headed out to a feeding flat that the waves were blowing across. My boater caught 2 more fish to upgrade within the last few minutes before check in. At weigh in I knew I didn't have enough to make a check. I needed 1 more fish. My boater finished 3rd and I finished 25th. I was 6 places and less than a pound out of the money. I'm in the running for a regional birth if I keep catching fish.
My boater kept the boat close to shore. On top of him catching everything he cast to, I think the fish may have been a little startled by the time I got to cast to them. I'm definately not complaining. It was an excellent day of fishing. If I would have had the right bait and presentation I may have had as many fish as my partner.
At the weigh in I met up with Mizike. We went to eat at the Asian Buffet afterwards and the food was great. It probably helped that I had not eaten all day.
Afterwards we drove back to camp. One of our chairs was broken the night before and Mizike had left another at another camp the night before. Since we had no chairs left we went back to town to buy some at walmart. We got back to camp and I took a nap. Mizike woke me up as the sun was starting to set.
There was horrible rap music echoing across the lake from the campsite beside us. It was hard to hear each other talk. As the evening came to a close and night started to set upon us the group beside us started to get more roudy. Then it started getting ugly as they were screaming at each other. At one point one girl yelled, "She's 18, your 35 she's not going to sleep with you." He yelled back, "Why did you bring a black man to a lake." She said, "I'm more black than you, ask anybody." Mizike was wanting to yell back, "Ask me, Ask me because your not, your white." It was like a live episode of Maury. The black guy from the group ended up walking out of the camp. It calmed down temporarily. Then the yelling started again.
We saw our neighbors to our other side throwing a cast net so we went to talk with them. We invited them up to have a drink. While we were talking a car pulled up and a girl got out and asked, "Where is Junior." I looked at our neighbors and they said he must be at the other camp. She went storming over to the other camp. Next thing I know the other campers are in our site and people are piling out of the car. Fighting is breaking out and we are right in the middle of it all.
In the middle of the fighting Junior pulled out a knife and went after the black guy that apparently was not too far from me. Another guy went at Junior and took the knife out of his hand saying that he would shoot him with the gun he has in the truck if he tries something like that again. While he was taking the knife the two of them stumbled right at me with the knife coming uncomfortably close to my face. I was trapped between the picnic table and them. I dodged the blade at the last second and stood off to the side. I realized I might have to throw down if one of them comes at me. They were definately on some type of drugs.
Finally, the car full of people got back in their car to take off after they had taken a Whoopin from the campers. They made it about 20 feet and ran out of gas. Here comes the campers back into our campsite yelling for them to not get out of the car. A girl finally said that one person can get out of the car to fill the gas tank. Luckily for them and us the driver had a 1 gallon gas can in the trunk.
They took off and we thought we were in the clear. Not so. The other group stayed in our campsite intimidating us and eating our food and drinking our beer. The guy that had taken the knife out of Junior's hand was yelling in our faces that he was the baddest man on earth and nobody should mess with him. He said that he had been in prison for 3 1/2 years. That brought something else out in him. He took Mizike in his arm and said that he liked raping people in prison. He was downright crude with what he was saying to Mizike mentioning that he was going to rape him later and if he tried to relax he was going to punch him in the back of the head. The girl that was with them was no better. She took a glow stick from our table and stuck it inside her and tried to get Mizike to lick it. At one point they were telling Mizike that his cheeks glistened in the moonlight.
I tried to slowly walk to the car a couple of times and they would cut me off and walk me back to the table. I stood at the table wondering how this was going to play out. I stayed close to a bottle of charcoal lighter fluid. If it was going to have to be done, I was going to squirt them with lighter fluid then grab a log out of the fire and burn them. While I continued to spray lighter fluid on them.
It was getting bad. Junior this whole time was pacing back and forth between camps saying that it is Cinco De Mayo and he needed to kick somebody's ass. While he was at their camp he would punch their vehicles then come back. Finally, they all seemed to calm down a little. Junior said he was going to go smoke some weed so they all left to go with him.
Mizike and I left the campsite to go over to the camp where the guys we had met the night before were staying. They were leaving shortly after and said they would be back later that night. After assessing the situation we had been in before, Mizike and I decided that we needed to get out of there. We were going to go back to our camp, get in our vehicles and leave, if we could do so quickly without alerting our neighbors.
We walked out and around their campground hoping not to be seen until the last minute. As we were out there we heard yelling from the guys on the other side of our campground. They were screaming, "Help, Help!"
We looked over and saw the other campers running back to their campsite. One of them grabbed something out of his truck and ran back to their campground. Mizike and I looked at each other both figuring that it was the gun that he had said he had earlier. We waited thinking we would here a pop, pop. There was no gunshots and he ran back to his campsite saying we've got to go now. They jumped in their vehicles and sped off ramping the ditch onto the road.
We went running over to the other campsite. It was earily quiet and nobody was there. We thought we were walking upon a murder scene. I called out to see if anybody was there. The girl walked out first with her face all busted up. Her eyes were swelling shut and her nose and mouth were bleeding. Then her husband walked out. He was bruised all over and had blood coming out of the side of his head and his left hand was all busted. I asked where the third person was and they said they didn't know.
We got them sat down and Mizike went searching for the third person. The park ranger showed up first, then the ambulance, then the police. We searched for nearly a half hour for the third person when he finally called the two and said he had gotten away after taking the initial beating.
We found out that the group from the other camp had came to their camp looking for us, before starting to beat this group. They came back several times to continue to beat them and smash the guys hand with rocks.
While we were writing our statements of what had happened Mizike noticed that he had been robbed. His tackle box and other fishing equipment was missing. He reported it stolen. The police officer said he knew where it was at. As soon as Mizike finished writing out his statement the police officer went over to their campsite where they had left a pickup truck. The same truck that had been blaring rap music earlier that night. It's battery had died.
The park ranger suggested that we find another place to stay for the night as they might be back around for their truck and do the same thing again. We were already starting to pack by this point. He also went to the other campsites to warn them.
As we were packing to leave a tow truck pulled in to haul the pickup to the police impound.
Every time a vehicle would pull into the campground I felt a chill run down my spine that it may be them. We already knew they had weapons and they may be even more messed up.
We didn't fold anything up. It was just wadded and thrown in. We took off while the police and park ranger were still there.
They had messed with the wiring in Mizike's car and his lights on the dash were not working. They had also stolen cash out of his car and possibly urinated in his car as Mizike said his car smelled really funny. They hadn't messed with my vehicle that was up on the hill.
We ended up driving through Muskogee, where the group of them said they were from. We continued on and found a hotel way out of the area. We finally got settled in at 4:30 in the morning.
The next day we got up and went home. That was the craziest camping trip I've ever had. Wahoo!
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| This boat was made to honor the men in the armed forces. It is a sweet boat. |
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