I met FishingDaddy this past weekend during the Paralyzed Veterans Bass tournament on Toho. It was FishingDaddy who posted about the PVA being short of boaters for the anglers. That made up my mind to go ahead and sign up to take one out. So thanks to FishingDaddy for his part in my having a great experience. Just as nice and helpful in person as he is on the forums!
If you've never taken part in the PVA, I highly reccomend it. It ran like a well oiled machine with lots of volunteers who helped getting us lined up, transferring the anglers to the boats, backing us into the water parking trucks/trailers, then loading us up when it was time to weighin. I'm not as experienced as most of the boat captains there, but I promised my Angler (Jack), I would do my best to get him on fish. The wind gusts were pretty fierce out there and if it wasn't for the tournament, I wouldn't have gone out on the lake. There were times I had the trolling motor as high as I could get it (Ramming speed LOL) just to make any kind of headway.
The other boat captains were great to talk with and share stories of how the fishing was. I'm already looking forward to next year's tournament. I wasn't sure of what my assigned anglers abilities would be, so I purchased two spinning rods, and rigged them up. He ended up not needing them, so I donated them to the PVA after the tournament.
My angler had difficulty with his balance, so he fished entirely from the seat and from that position he often couldn't see where he'd cast,( if we were in the thick grass). So I made sure to position the boat to his advantage and tell where to cast. He did land two solid keepers, lost about 4 that he just couldn't get a good hookset on.
We threw a crank a few times and a large pickerel chomped it and the line. As I was retying another rattletrap ,I told the fish "I hope you choke on it". That's when we could hear a distinct "rattling" as the fish was leaping and trying to shake it loose. I said "well that's him choking on it". He was pleased with how he did in points and that he'd caught more fish this time than the last times he was in Florida. He told me that he'd told his wife he might be fishing with KVD and after he drew me, he told her it was KVSHE instead. LOL.
All in all, I enjoyed taking part in this event, it's a great cause for these people who have done so much for us. Thanks to FishingDaddy for posting about it and letting us know of the need for more boats.
I was really good to meet you in person.
