More Rally pic's

[Marke Cicero]

I think I have burned out the bulb in my scanner but here they are... This is the rally as viewed through the lens of Mac's camera.



Thursday afternoon....It wasn't difficult locating Ken and Mac's room.

 

[Marke Cicero]

Or figuring out which truck and boat was theirs.

 

[Marke Cicero]

Friday morning we all launched and got ready to pre-fish.



Here is Buzz and Rob warming up Buzz's 896.

 

[Marke Cicero]

Here's Eric and his absolutely gorgeous white 901 with Bob G. and Bill Cooi on board.

 

[Marke Cicero]

Here's Mike and I warming the 90 ponies.

 

[Marke Cicero]

3....2....1.....BLASTOFF!!!!



Notice who is out in FRONT )

It wasn't for very long but it was fun while it lasted.

That's Buzz and Rob next to me and you can kind of see Eric's 901 in the back ground.

 

[Marke Cicero]

After drag racing and getting out of state licenses squared away it was finally time for some pre-fishing. It obviously didn't take long for Rob and Buzz to be into some fish...

 

[Marke Cicero]

Shortly after that, Mac finds a honey hole....The Michigan boy is truly a contender...

 

[Marke Cicero]

His Michigan partner on the other hand.....



Well, we'll just thank Mr. Neeley for all the cool prizes he brought from Bass Pro...LOL

 

[Marke Cicero]

And of course, Friday ended with the whole crew partying out on the front deck at the Stonehelm.

 

[Marke Cicero]

One of the coolest things about the party on the deck was the view... In both directions as far as the eye could see were Nitros.

 

[Marke Cicero]

Then Saturday came along with a nasty wind and tough conditions. I don't anyone had a camera out until weigh in where here Pierre is working diligently trying to write down everyone's names and weights. Looking on is Jordan and Pierre's brother Dan.

 

[Marke Cicero]

Here's Mac with a couple of his best fish for the day. I think he had one that was better, but it accidentally got culled or something...LOL

 

[Marke Cicero]

Here's the winning bag... It is true that Rob had a limit in the boat faster than I could tie a Palamar knot. However, by 1:00 I have culled out all of Robs fish except for the large mouth that actually won big bass. I had big bass at 3.79lbs. (in Robs right hand) until 10 minutes before weigh in when he caught the large mouth at 3.99 lbs. (in Robs left hand). I think Rob was favored to win because of his home lake advantage, but I feel pretty darn good to have contributated rather than have to feel like some schlep riding on Robs coat tails. It was definately a team effort.



This one will be blown up, framed and hung on the living room wall.

 

[Marke Cicero]

After all that excitement it was time for 26 fisherman to do our 2nd most favorite thing....Eat more food and drink more beer so It's off to the Naked Turtle.



Oh? What's that you say? Along with food and beer we get FREE STUFF courtesy of Mr. Neeley and BPS??



Here's Ken giving it all away

 

[Marke Cicero]

And here's Bob G. more than happy to win a Pro Qualifier combo.

 

[Marke Cicero]

You'd think after 15 pics I'd know what I was doing..LOL

Let me try again...huh-um..



And here's Bob G. more than happy to win a Pro Qualifier combo.

 

[Marke Cicero]

Jon won himself a brand new tackle bag.



There's a good story here. I haven't had much of chance to talk to Jon by this point. So I walk up and offer him full retail value for the tackle bag...after all I figure all of my prize money will go to BPS anyway, so why pay shipping..Anyway, it turns out that Jon takes his NX882 to Winni all the time. So I hope to see him up there some day soon. Ok, so it wasn't that good of a story but the point is I met a lot great guys at the rally and I feel like I'm just an e-mail away from fishing with most of them again...



Jon, I'll give $40 and that's my final offer.

 

[Marke Cicero]

OK, it's 2:00am, I've been at this for 3 hours and I'm exhausted.....There are more pic's in my library and I'll put up more when I replace the bulb in my scanner. There were a lot of camera's there and I hope to see more pics from everyone else.



I'd like to end with this last photo that is also on my blow up and frame list. This is a shot of Rob, Mac, Jordan and myself. Rob and I are being presented with the Custom framed and matted Scales n' Tales personally signed and autographed by Bill McElroy...



Good night kids



Marke

 

[Bruce Yeaton]

Very cool! I'm sorry I missed it, looks like a good time was had by all.

I'll try like heck to make the next one

 

[Barry Loos]

Great post Marke, Thanks.



Bear

 

[Bill McElroy]

Excellent job Marke!!! Thank you!! To all of you who made it,.."Thanks again for a GREAT time!!"

To all of you who missed it,..."Send a Thank you note to Marke and Kodak,......and DON'T miss it next year!!"..HA...man that was fun!!

Mac

 

[Andrew Zuber]

Great job Mac and Marke...

"Almost" as good as being there!!!



az

 

[Texas Transplant]

I'm hooking up tonight. Want to be ready for the next one. Really great pic's, and certainly looked to be a great time. Specially liked seeing that big ol' Deep V out there leading the charge.

 

[Bill McElroy]

I still think the TV-18 is the best all around aluminum rig that Tracker makes for fishing.....rides great,..tons of storage,...wide,....stable,......and VERY affordable. But,..Eric, Tom Mac and I were just "toying" with Marke,.....letting him feel like a BigDog, .....running with the 9 serie's and actually leading the pack (Neeley was taking pix's so I had to slow down y'know!!) ahahaha....then when we had just about enough,.....I told Ken,.."Let's smokem while we can!!!"...ahahhaa...and we took off like a bat out of @#$!......and past everyone!!....geez that 901 runs good!!! Love that boat!!

Mac

 

[Rob LaMoy]

I must admit (again), for his first tourney, Marke did GREAT! But I don't know about the culling ALL my fish. I had the biggest and smallest fish of our limit. The middle 3, ALL nice fish were from Marke. Now, the funny stuff. As we're making our initial run to the $$$ hole, we were bouncing along pretty good. Now I'm used to it, but being in Buzz's boat, I was not about to take it over 50 mph in that chop for fear I might BREAK something.....duh, didn't work as planned. Anyway, half way there I look over at Marke who at this point is pasty white, his knuckles are bloodless gripping the passenger handles as he's bouncing. I asked, "Are your cohones bouncing hard enough yet?"...."YES!!!!" he shot back. So I yelled, "Welcome to tournament bass fishing. Who said it isn't a contact sport?" LOL Marke learned FAST. It is hard to teach somebody the feel of a subtle smallie bite, but he got it quick good thing too, cause I couldn't have won without him!

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Part 2:

After I had a limit in the boat and Marke had yet to catch a fish, he was clearly getting a little agitated with himself. I told him "Don't get rattled. A tourney is 90% mental. If you get rattled this early, you're done for, stick with it!" He did, but after hitting the demon 5' rogue wave that nearly ripped Buzz's TM off, I almost threw up, and wasn't much good for over an hour, Marke finally looks at me and asks, "Are you rattled?" LOL, "YESSSS!!!!!" I said, then got my head back in it for the last 2 hours! LOL Gotta be careful what you say! LOL

 

[Staci Matheis]

Thanks, Marke!



They say a picture is worth a thousand words..... Now..... How many pictures was that?



me!