MY DRILL INSTRUCTOR TOLD ME................................

[ray koziatek]

One day the training we learned in boot camp will someday save our lives.

This last weekend I had the pleasure of fishing the Pro /Am with team" Hanna Christian".

Friday I tried to get some sun but the "Shade" was overwhelming . So it was back to fishing. 3 of us were new to the boat ,Tims Dad ,Tim ,and myself so when we (they) lost a 25 lb class salmon at the net we (they) were shure it was due to the center downrigger cable ,not a item on tims 2 rigger boat. We had a good day ,found some fish and worked on our "Team Efforts". Saturday the Teamwork payed off with some over and under work with dypsys wire never cutting off a fish and netting everyone to the boat. After day 1 we were in 12th but with approx 30 points seperating the top 12 teams we all were in the running..Sunday we pretty much stayed in the same waters after some color changes due to different water conditions (gettin clearer) we got the Ice breaker and picked away till noonish when our limit was reached. The line was much shorter and only 2 Am teams were weighed in so our hopes were high others gambled on big fish with out their 9 fish limit. well we were getting shoved down the list pretty fast but held on for a #7th finish (lowest payout position for the Am devision.)....

When the awards started after a long pause due to a rule infraction ,we all discovered one of the boats that outfished us shoved off a tad early (2 min) and got a penalty which put us in 6 th place in overall awards.

Lesson learned the hard way for a team that put togeather a good program ,But kinda Broke One of the rules..My heart goes to you guys ya done good on the water.

Oh and why the boot camp stuff? Well Saturday morning on my first trip to the van at 4 am good oll Mr.Turtle decides to stick his head out.. I wasted no time up the steps to the room and found the bathroom "occupied " by Tim. Little did i know that the smoke rolling out from under the door was not from him smokin.

Hearing the flush confirmed my fears ,but Mr. Turtle was relentless ,So I took a deep breath and rushed into the fog. The first 45 seconds went well but a little hesatation ,Brought back my Bootcamp training IN THE GAS ROOM ,with eyes watering,nose burning and putred taste in my moulth I finished quick and rushed to FRESH air....Thank You SGT. MILLER for training me so well!

Needless to say we had a great time during the derby with good results at the END

Thank You Howie Jr. ,Tim, Tims dad , And Howie Sr. opps and a great Driver too.(The most important part of a sucessful fishing trip) A true team effort was used to place in the Pro/AM derby..

So as I have said in the past Get a team togeather and give one of these derbys a try. The folks ya meet and the Pro/Am atmosphere will get ya hooked into a new experiance you wont soon forget..

Ray K.

[carpedium]

Better than leaning against a tree and being down one sock that day!

I aspire to one day get more involved in the tourneys- may need a bigger boat though! The offer is still out there to anyone that needs an observer.

[Tim Bromund]

Ray,

you are a funny man. When you die, your headstone will read: "Here lies Ray, he was a funny man"!!!

Seriously, it was a pleasure fishing with you this weekend. Nice report.

Tim