Table Rock Lake and the Fishing TournamentFirst off let me start by saying Table Rock Lake is beautiful and HUGE! Ewest had arranged to have a pontoon boat available to those who wanted to go on a brief tour of the lake. I mentioned to him that I had grown up around boats (physically not mentally) and he asked if I would pilot the boat. Of course I jumped at the opportunity and off we went.
Women are always drawn to men of authority and being the pilot of a lake going pontoon boat is no exception. On the first cruise I was surrounded by JWHAP (not in this photo), in this photo from right is Sue Cruz (who not only is lovely, but is such a warm and kind individual), her beautiful daughter (who is very a intelligent and well mannered young lady and who in a few years will have a line of gentlemen suitors lined up around the block just to spend time with her), Ruth West (who is the epitome of a true southern belle, in fact when you google search Southern Belle, her photo should appear) and the motley but happy Captain. Yep it’s good to be the captain.
So off we went across table rock lake, here’s a few private docks and one of the unbelievable homes that is on the lake.
The lake has a bunch of islands, here is one of the small ones..
This bridge crosses on portion of the lake, I piloted the boat beneath it, just for fun…
And the tournament begins, off the boats go, once they passed the 5 MPH buoy it was pedal to the medal…
One of the tournament boats in action. I believe that the gentleman in the black shirt is Nate’s dad…
Another boat in action…
FISH ON and net ready…
The boats were required to be inside the buoy line by 5:00. At 4:59 they were coming in…
Natester returning to the dock with Otto’s son-in-law Phil (married to Otto’s daughter Jennifer). It was a tough day on the water, rain, wind, and difficult fishing. Still they had fun. Let me take this opportunity to say, that Nate and his family are fantastic folks. His mother and father are friendly and quick to laugh, his brothers are they type of young men that you would love to be able to have as your own sons (in fact I offered to adopt the Herman brothers but Nate’s mom and dad we unwilling to give them up).
TomG walking up the dock. JWHAP and I got to spend quite a bit of time with Tom and his wife Sherry. Both are wonderful people, I only wished we lived closer to them, I can only imagine the trouble Tom and I would get into that Sherri and Ricki would have to bail us out of. I pointed out to Sherry that she should be commended for keeping TomG in line, to which Sunil instantly responded, "I don’t think there is much of a difference between managing TomG and managing you JHAP, both wives should received commendations!" It’s fairly difficult to argue with that logic. Note how Tom deftly manages to carry the tournament bag filled with fish in his right hand and both an open beer and a cooler full of beer in his left hand. I’m telling you the guy is a pro…
2cat poses with a fish and one of the lodge employees. Sue Cruz in the background recording tournament catch information…
Some of the fish that were caught…
Wouldn’t you know it, the smallest fish of the day was a GSF. This is Greg Grimes's son Wyatt holding the magnificent specimen...
