The seminar was almost too good.
I met all the people I wanted to meet, met some other really good ones, and not a single one disappointed me.
After the seminar I needed a place to crash because my flight out wasn't until Monday morning.
Lusk, of course, offered to take care of me.
After breakfast with the Willis', the legendary Norm Kopecky, Bob Lusk and his beautiful bride Debbie, we took off on a ride that would end at the nearly completed Lusk Lodge "2".
It was incredible. Every single detail just dripped of the outdoors. It was sort of like taking the most beautiful outdoor scene you've ever witnessed, and then turning it inside-out so that you could cover yourself in it at night.
All the cedar, the beautiful cabinetry...it went on and on and never got old. It's still a month away, but it was easy to visualize the final product.
Lusk had some stuff to do, so he gave me a tour of the aquaculture part of the facility, then he set me loose with my pack rod to fish five different ponds.
The first pond yielded my first two feed-trained bass in short order.
The second pond my offering was chased down by thousands of bluegills.
The third pond I caught more feed-trained LMB, and some that weren't feed trained. They averaged over two pounds and were in fabulous condition.
The fourth pond gave me a special treat--my first cooppernose bluegill. This was followed up by a couple of dozen 9+ inch standard and coppernose bluegill that, believe it or not were hitting a mini buzzbait.
The fifth pond I caught big bluegill, lots of smaller largemouth and I got to watch a bunch of channel cats maw the surface for pellets, but I couldn't catch the cats.
Eventually I went back to the fourth pond and caught fish until I was almost ready to fall over.
Then Lusk made sure my belly was full of grilled pork and chicken.
Finally the ending was just a giant slab of frosting on the cake. Bob told me there was some activity near a feeder that was about to go off.
MAN, he wasn't kidding!!!
I proceeded to catch LMB to 17 inches and big, fat bluegill up to ten inches for 50 out of the next 60 casts!!!!
You know how some people preach, but can't follow their own guidelines? Well, Bob isn't one of those people. He's got those ponds fired up. It was so hot that smoke shoulda been rising off the water.
All told I caught over 100
quality fish in just a little over four hours. What a treat.
I don't think a trip could get much better. I hope Bob has a picture or two because I decided to kick my wife's camera into the pond, so I'm not sure if the photos are savable.
Thanks Bob. You sure know how to manage a pond.