Well, Saturday July the 11th - I along with the First Cast/Junky John gang rolled into Goose Island around 9am to be the first to start off the early arrivals of the Meet. Camps were set up and Mudshark and Snaggin Annie even showed up to help (thanks guys). Not much else was done except to enjoy the first meal of ribs and kraut made by Junky John and sit by the camp fire talking about the plans for the week.

 

Sunday morning Lou and I hauled the boat down to the Winnieshank Landing so Lou could show me some of the areas he fishes down there - proved to be a S-L-O-W day with only a couple northerns boated. That evening went fishing along some of the rip rap along the camp ground and caught a couple bass and a walleye.

 

 

Monday through Wed did alot of fishing with catfish54 (John Gleason) at all my old honey holes and some new ones but the fishing was pretty off for this time of the year. Weather was pretty off too....high winds, rain on and off, cool temps, several mayfly hatches. Was marking plenty of fish, and had many short strikes - but they just weren't committing to go all out. The ones that did were small fish.

 

Wed Lip and Getdanet pulled in and took there much needed Fishy Godmother treatment of a few wacks of the wand.

 

 

Wed was also the pie eating contest.....

7 Teams competeing for the title of the pie eating champs of the NAFC meet

And the race is on.........

Hannah and Cami

Heidi and Dani

Jerry and Bill

John and Big James

 

Tom and Cheri

 

Ray and Laura

 

Little James and Cody

 

 

And.....Your Second Annual 2009 NAFC LaCrosse Meet Pie Eating Team Winner was..........

 

Bill (First Cast) and Jerry (Rod Tender) They won a goodie bag of tackle and fishing supplies donated by the Fishy Godmother. A very close 2nd went to Big James and John Gleason, and third went to Little James and Cody

 

And the Kids winner was Hannah and Cami for the second year in a row - They won a complete fishing package donated by the Fishy Godmother

 

Thursday proved for some more slow fishing.....went with Catfish54 to look for some pannies in hopes of having some bait for catfishing later that night....

Again, went into all my old honey holes and found some good looking new ones only to find nothing...

Here is one we found that looked so good....we had to beach the boat and wade to get into it but it was fun doing that.

 

 

 

Later that night, Flathead WI (Larry Potter) took Lip Ripper, Getdanet, and out cattin.....and guess what?

 

 

Pete was right to put his money on the Fishy Godmother.........

 

Not only did I get the big fish of the meet....but I hold on to my title of biggest cat for the fourth year in a row. She was a beast to haul in....took a while, they are yelling at me to pull up on the rod and all I can say is "I am!!! I am !!!!!"

She came in at 41 inches and 35 pounds

 

Thanks again Larry for sharing your boat again with me.

 

 

Friday Lou and Morgan grabbed Lip Ripper and I and we all headed to the Dresbach Dam to launch the boats and fish in that area.

 

Again, only a couple northerns boated and alot of short strikes.....nothing working. Gave up after a few hours and headed back to the camp ground to fish the areas around there. Showed Morgan some of the areas I like to fish and while trolling some deep holes, Morgan landed his first ever gar

 

 

 

Saturday, I invited Lou to fish in my boat for some bass....still some pretty slow fishing, lots of short strikes, but we still kept the skunk out of the boat and we each landed a couple fish a piece...here is a smallie that nailed my jig with a kalin summer craw

 

 

In one of the back bays....we spotted a family of sandhill cranes

 

All in all, it was another great meet. I got to share my boat with a lot of great people, share meals with family and friends, and had a ton of good laughs...it was also great to finally meet some of the newer memers as well like Nam, Domter25 and his wife Amy, Randy and his dog Ben, Storytellers family, and rod tossers grandson and daughter. It was so awesome to sit around the nighty campfires along the shores of my beloved Mississippi River and tell stories, shoot the xxxx, and have a bunch of laughs with all my NACF friends.

 

 

Already counting down the days til next year's meet.

 

Here are a couple other photos I'd like to share, I also have some on my phone, once I get them down loaded, I'll add them as well.

 

Heidi and sweet face Addie

 

Little James nappie in the shade after doing a hard days work of NOTHING (lolololol)

 

Goddaughter Hannah being silly

 

Catfish Cindy while doing some night fishing for flatheads Saturday night

 

 

 

 

 

 

Milwaukee, Wisconsin