Bass Caddy Blog

I’m back!!!!!! After a long blob break I felt it was time to enlighten you folks a little more. Last years’ fishing trail was extremely exciting and loaded with adventure. As we prepared for this season a big turd landed in the punch bowl. The WBT was cancelled. Feel free to come to your own conclusion as to why. Me? Ithink the BIG BOYS are very afraid of the female angler they have to fish against in the Classic. But anyway, there seems to be no trail for the ladies to fish.

HAW- TO BUDDY! Like the idjit I am and as P.O.’D as I got over the WBT thing, I popped off to my wife that I should start my own trail.   Now, we all know my wife, she’s usually not into surprises, but she shocked me by saying go for it.   Apparently, she had such a good time last year fishing with the ” BIG GIRLS”, that she wanted more, and was very disappointed about not getting to fish with the girls this year (see her blog for more on her thoughts about this subject).   Anyway,  I talked to my good old friend Lee at Lake Fork and this dumb A– not only thought it was a good idea, but said he would partner with me and pull the trailer all over hell’s half acre in order for the ladies to have a venue to fish.   It actually surprised me how many “good old boys” thought how unfair it was that the ladies had gotten the rug pulled out from under them, and wanted to give the ladies a chance to do what they love to do, and in an atmosphere that was fun.  In simpler terms, a lot of guys would just like to see the gals get a fair shake.  Anyway, finding all of this out just encourages me to dig myself deeper.  I keep thinking how unfair all this is, and, being the “Mr. Fix-It” that I am, I want to do anything and everything in my power to fix it, and make it better for the women.

Now I’m in this deep. We start having meetings and laying down plans searching for a tourney trailer.  Every trailer we found someone either beat us to it or it cost an arm and a ham roast.  Neither of which I have a spare of.  So I finally got mad and said I was going to buy a new trailer and be done with it. (Did I mention I’m on a budget?) (not controlled by me, it’s you-kn0w-who who usually hangs on to the money real tight around here, but here again I was surprised to hear “go for it”.  Now this is getting scary.  So I head out and buy a nice 20 ft. car- hauler and drag it home, still in shock over even being told it was okay to get it in the first place.   Now this is just the beginning of the money outflo. Digital scales and a back- up system. Go for it.  A really nice P.A. system to play music and do weigh- ins.  Go for it.  Tubs to keep the fish alive in. Go for it.  A custom stage and podium.  Go for it.  Material to build an office in the trailer. Go for it. I hope you can begin to catch my drift here.  If this girl of mine wants to fish this badly,  then so be it.

Ladies and gents I am proud to announce the first day of the AMERICAN LADY ANGLERS TOURNAMENT TRAIL!!!!!!! Please feel to visit our web site www.americanladyanglers.com . Yes now I have two web pages to fret over. Please watch both pages to see the happenings as we build the ALA tourney trailer and post the trail events. I’m excited.

For today

I quit.

As a bass caddy, I have learned much in my first tourney. One item is marking spots. You would think this would be simple, buy a map and a pen. Nope - that’s for wussies, not caddies. As a cadd, you have to take a much more literal, and physical view of marking spots for your angler.   I have found that as a caddy, you drink large amounts of coffee and tea and must use the facilities. However, when marking spots for your angler, you return to the basics of nature. As a dog would do, you literally “scent mark” all spots to be fished.  The reason that the bass caddy must perform this duty is they do not have to urinate in a plastic coffee can first.  Should you follow that strategy, it leaves a scent in the water of plastic baits being used by another angler.  As you go from spot to spot, you must insure that the scent you are dispensing can be well-recognized by the other pro bass caddys.  This will keep your angler from fishing in a “top secret” spot marked by another anglers’ caddy.  You must also be careful that you do not pick up an old scent from previous tournament practices.  The caddy’s responsibility is to insure that the scent that they pick up is fresh and meant for the particular tournament that your angler is fishing.  Should you become confused by the numerous scents that will be on each spot that you look at, always check around for fresh cigarette butts floating in the water.  This is also a good indicator that another caddy has marked that particular spot for their angler. 

As a final note on this particular subject, do not wake up in the middle of the night and use the restroom as this will cause a tremendous strain on your bladder during the next days’ practice.

On a serious note, I would like to thank all of the folks in Gadsden, Alabama who helped us out with all of the problems that I was unprepared for.  If you’ve read my wife’s blog (Terri Talks), you know all of the problems that happened.  These were all issues that I did not address prior to the tournament.  However, who woulda thunk that brand-new batteries would crap out in such a short period of time?  Also, it never occurred to me to try to stop the power company from lowering the river to its lowest level in ten years.  Even though my name is Rod, not God, I also feel responsible for the rainy weather we had during the tournament.  In this next tournament in West Monroe, LA, we have all new batteries, all new raingear, new charger, new JumpStarter, new Navionics chip for our electronics, and new maps.  The only thing left to chance is the weather.  Here again, the name is Rod, not God, but maybe he’ll give us a break this go around. 

For today I quit.