Real Dedication
For those of us who are tournament bass fisherman, dedication is a word we are all familiar with. However, there are some bass fisherman who are more dedicated than others, take for example the tournament anglers who live on Long Island, the arm pit of New York state.

There is not one single body of water on Long Island where you can launch, no less run your $30,000.00 bass boat. Gas motors are prohibited on almost all fresh water lakes and ponds with the exception of Forge Pond in Riverhead, at least I believe that to be the case. We are surrounded by salt water yet the alure of freshwater tournament bass fishing puts most of us in a state of euphoria. We definitley march to the beat of a different drum.

Lake Mahopac, located some 72 miles from the Nassau, Suffolk County border is the closest lake where we can launch our bass boats and fish a tournament. The lake is small, only 532 acres in size but for those of us on Long Island starved for the excitment of the hunt, it might as well be Santee/Cooper Reservoir. If you are going to fish a Long Island club trail, you better be prepared for the hardships that exact a stiff toll and the demands it places on you of total undivided dedication.

Follow with me over the course of a typical tournament morning on my way to fish Candlewood Lake in Connecticut. The tournament starts at 7am. Candlewood is located some 91 miles form my house so its up at 3am, do the bath room thing than out the door. I hook the boat up to the trailer after mooving two cars and "finess" my way into a narrow driveway. Thank the lord I asked my neighbor to move his car last night or I wouldnt have had the room to maneuver. As I am about to get back into my van I step in a pile of "dog shit", slip and bang my knee into the edge of the door.....boy does that hurt. With no time to wipe the crap off, I limp back to the house and grab an old pair of sneakers. The wife is now up and extreemley "pissed off". Dont bring those smelly sneakers in my house she screams....are you an idiot!!! I move as quickly as I can given the throbbing in my knee and get my but out of there before theres hell to pay. Its now 3:20am.

I am supposed to pick my partner up at 3:30. He lives a half hour away. I realize thats not going to happen so I reach for my cell phone. Oh boy....left it back at the house and there is no way I am heading back there unless someone points a bazooka in my direction and forces me to. I stop for coffee and call his number, its busy.
It doesnt take long to figure out he is undoubtedly calling me and probably has re-awaken the "wicked witch of the west". Man am I going to pay for this. Its now 3:40.

I never realized there were 26 traffic lights between my house and my partners. How do I know that you ask? Simple, I caught 22 in a row before I was pulled over for a DWI check. I guess the officer figured any one up this early in the morning towing a boat had to be drunk. The officer asks me where I was coming from, I answered "hell officer and I will be returning there later this evening". After explaining my dilema to him, he decides Im really not drunk, just crazy. He lets me go, i'ts now 4 am.

Finally I reach my partners house, load up his gear and head for the expressway....about a half hour away. "Boy are you in for it when you get home", he laughs. I was right, he was calling me. Lets talk fishing I suggest, whats your game plan. I dont have one he replys, I was hoping you had one. I can see this is going to be an extreemley difficult day. Its now 4:25 am...I made up five minutes.

Its a one hour and forty five minute ride from here if all goes right.
I shrug realizing I am on the Long Island Expressway. Nothing goes right on this road. They have been repairing it since the year they built it and there is construction of some type or other going on every day. Sure enough right before I get on the Clearview Expressway, they are working on the Cross Island Parkway overpass and traffic narrows down from four lanes to one lane. By the time I get through this mess its almost 4:50 am. Gotta make up some time on I 95 or I 287 or we're going to be late. Maybe I can make it up on I 684?

We are in luck, no traffic at all on the Throgs Neck bridge. I am right at the "Easy Pass" lane before I realize I left my EZ pass in the Volvo. After a few choice words from the irate trucker behind me, I manage to back up the van and trailer and move over to the exact change lane. When I get out of the van to pick up the quater I've dropped, I realize instantly that my knee is now the size of a grapefruit and has no intention of functioning properly for perhaps the next month. Its now 5:05 ...who the hell cares.

The rest of the ride is surpisingly uneventful and quiet except for my partners snoring. We get to the launch at 6:45, just fifteen minutes form the start of the tournament. All the other boats are in the water and you can here the buzz as the tournamet is about to begin. Moving as quickly as possible for an invalid I get the boat ready while my partner looks for a place to take his "daily constitution". I normally dont take such abuse from any partner, but this partner happens to be my brother. Its 6:58 am...we just made it.

The above account was fictitional, partly, but not totaly out of the realm of possibility. That was just the ride up to the lake. Now factor in 8 hours of intense tournament fishing, the usual madhouse when you pull your boat at the end of the day (sometimes as long as an hour or more)and at least a 3 hour ride home in city traffic. In all seriousness, your day can last almost 16 hours and on some occassions more. With this in mind, I feel safe in stating....Long Island fisherman are the most dedicated anglers in the state....or the dumbest. lol

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