I was cleaning up around the house the other day and stumbled across some old notebooks. The first one I opened was from April of 2000.
In April 2000 I attended a Bass Fishing school called The Pro Tech School of Bassin in Manning South Carolina. (You read it right…a fishing school) It is no longer in existence but it was pretty helpful at the time. The school was located on the shores of Santee Cooper Lakes in South Carolina and had a weeklong schedule with the first two days being classroom and the final three on the water. The instructors for my stay were Hal and Mark Cercoply and Randy Dorman.
The following was my day’s events as I wrote them in 2000.
Sunday April 23rd
14 hour ride.
Arrived at Black’s Camp at 2:30 pm
Drove around a bit (definitely red neck town), ate dinner and went to bed around 10:00pm
April 24
Woke up around 6:30am
Went to the restaurant and ate breakfast, met Randy Dorman and the rest of the students, 2 from Colorado and 2 from Michigan
Randy Dorman taught today’s class
Class from 7 am to 12 pm
Ate lunch at the camp restaurant…great food
Class from 1 pm to 3 pm
Topics covered; The Bass, weather patterns, seasonal patterns, maps, electronics, sight fishing and the spinnerbait from the line tie to the skirt
Went to bed around 10 pm
April 25
Woke up at 6:15 am
Toast OJ and Milk
Hal Cercoply teaching today
Class from 7 am to 11:30 am
Ate lunch at the camp restaurant
Class from 1 pm to 3 pm
Topics covered; Aquatic vegetation, top water baits, crank baits, jerkbaits, Carolina rig, jigs
Hal was very insightful into the tournament trail and touring pros
Drove around looking for tackle
Ate some good fried chicken
Fished from the docks, caught my first Santee fish…..crappie
Went to bed around 11 pm
April 26
7:oo am 1st day on the water
Fishing with Hal
Started with a Carolina rig
On to the jerkbait, throwing to Cypress trees
Hooked the biggest bass I have ever seen, after about 5 minutes she straightened the hooks out on the Smithwick Rogue and disappeared. (Story later)
Switched to the Texas rig worm
Went in for lunch at 11:30 am
Back on the boat (Triton TR-21)
Fished from 12 pm to 3 pm
Ate at Black’s camp restaurant (good food)
Fished from the docks again only crappie
Went to bed at 11:30
April 27
Ate with the students and instructors
On the water with Mark at 7 am
Started with slow rolling a spinnerbait
Switched to split shot rig
Then to the Texas rig worm, throwing to submerged stumps (this lake is huge!!)
Went in for lunch at 11:30 am
Worked on flippin for the afternoon
Threw the floating worm some and the Carolina rig
Ate dinner with the other students at the Cracker Barrel (only big restaurant) in Santee
Went to bed around 11:30 pm
April 28
On the water at 7 am with Randy
Started with jerkbait around grass fields
Carolina rigs in the canal cutouts
Went over pitchin
Threw the Carolina rig some more, boated my first Santee bass
Lunch at 11:30 am
Fished cypress tree field after lunch with the texas rigged worm
Fished with the texas rig and jerkbait the rest of the day
Went in around 3 pm
Mark handed out our certificates
Ate dinner at Black's
Packed, fished from docks…more crappie
Went to bed at 10 pm
April 29
Woke up at 7 am
Ate a good breakfast
Left for the Charlotte Bass Pro Shops around 8 am then to Richmond to stay the night.
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