August 15th: After taking about a 7 hour nap in the back of my Yukon I got to the Motel at about 1 PM. Unloaded the boat and settled into the room and got on the water at about 4PM. Man the boat ran bad with no power for takeoff, hard idling and very smoky. I was a little worried. I fished for a time in the upper Little Bay de Noc but didn't get anything going. Valerie and Paul Rogers were there and they picked up a few near Black Bottom. Changed plugs and fueled up and got some much needed sleep after eating supper with Paul & Val. 36 trips
August 16th: I decided to put a lot of miles on my boat and get the breakin period started. I estimate I put about 80-90 miles on the boat and it ran fairly good as long as I was in the 3-4000 RPM range. Take off was much better but it still wanted to bog once in a while and still didn't idle well. I put 50 gallons of gas in it when I was done and changed plugs again. Paul and Val fished Big bay and never got anything going but while I was running around I noticed and caught a couple real decent fish in the Fox Park area in Green Bay. Lead Core and Deep lil rippers worked for me. 37 trips
August 17th: We (my boat and Val and "What's his names" boat) launched out of Cedar Bay and fished the near shore areas. The boat was running pretty good with just a couple instances of low power at takeoff. The fresh gas and plugs were starting to work! I had one fish on that was at least 10 pounds and quite possibly the longest walleye I've ever seen. I couldn't get it in the boat cause my net wasn't ready and the line finally broke but what a hawg she was! We ran around for awhile looking for more structure to fish and more bait and marks to enter into the GPS but found nothing better than what we had already gotten. On the way in I ran into a rock with my lower unit and left everything behind the nose cone laying in the bottom of Green Bay. "What's his name" was nearby with Val and we had a kicker race in and I really got my but whooped by What's his names 9.9 Evinrude. They finally hooked up to me and towed me the rest of the way in. 38 Trips
August 18th and 19th: Val, What's his name and I spent a lot of quality time together these 2 days. Breakfast each morning while they took me around trying to find a way to get my boat back in the water and then fishing on their boat in Little Bay. I had a great time and we caught fish so other than a broke down motor life was good! 40 trips
August 20th: Val and "What's his name" left early in the morning and I went down to wait on the Merc factory guy to show up. They put a new lower unit on and 21" prop (change from a 23") and after giving them my credit card number life was back to normal. I ran the boat back down to Cedar River and fished the same area as Sunday but didn't get anything to go but the boat ran great, idled great and only smoked like a normal EFI. Things were still going wrong though because this is when it dawned on me that I hadn't registered yet. I would be last out each day of the tourney because of this oversight and figure I lost about an hour of fishing over the 2 days. 41 trips
August 22 LBDN PWT: Go for the slot's first is what I decided on and it bit me in the ass bigtime. We only got 1 fish in the boat and weighed in at 2.5 pounds or so for 105th place. The 180 degree shift in the wind shut down the Black Bottom fish plus we lost at least 3 others. Jeff Kloett from Illinois was my partner for the day and was great company. 42 trips
August 23 LBDN PWT: Go for the slots first was my plan again and after only 1 fish by 10:30 I decided to make the 20 mile run to bigger offerings. We hooked into a nice 5-6 pounder immediately but lost it when the snap straightened out and then never had another bite all day. Wound up in 110th place and out of the championship because of wrong decisions. The big fish bite died as we pulled in the area. The winner and several check cashers were right there with me but they got there fish early in the day. I still think I had a good plan but in hindsite it looks like I should have went after size instead of numbers. My partner on day 2 was Ron Huffman but it seems that I called him by Jake. He is also welcome on my boat at anytime but as it turns out both of my amatuers this week may just skip it cause I sure didn't impress anybody. 43 trips