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Post by JCOOPER on Oct 7, 2004 16:56:30 GMT -5
Not to distract all of you from the other contest, but I have a new one. I have a new Yamaha Outboards hat for the first person who can tell me---- who was the first Yamaha Pro-team member to win the classic?
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Post by JCOOPER on Oct 7, 2004 16:57:52 GMT -5
Dan,
with you new affiliation you should be all over this. And I should tell you, this is a very nice hat!
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Post by djkimmel on Oct 8, 2004 0:08:48 GMT -5
I don't think it's fair for me to play this one. David introduced me to him two summers ago. Real nice guy.
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Post by Eric on Oct 8, 2004 4:50:50 GMT -5
Yelas?
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Post by Eric on Oct 8, 2004 4:54:10 GMT -5
Make that Kerchal in 94. My new boat has a VMax on the back of it, and I really need a new Yammy hat to go with it.
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Post by JCOOPER on Oct 8, 2004 6:48:33 GMT -5
I was really beginning to wonder how Dan would have met him. If anyone is unfamiliar to the name, you need to read up. He is a legend who did the unthinkable but his life was cut short before he really made an impact.
BTW Eric I will get ahold of you for a way to get your hat to you.
Good job.
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Post by Eric on Oct 8, 2004 10:17:59 GMT -5
Yelas was a knee jerk reaction, but then a few clicks revealed the truth.
If you remember selling a Champion to a big, bald guy from Lakeview this summer, that was my fault. I'm the one responsible for him getting into bass fishing and buying a boat. He lives across the road from me.
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Post by JCOOPER on Oct 8, 2004 11:46:19 GMT -5
Big Dan?
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Post by JCOOPER on Oct 8, 2004 11:47:58 GMT -5
Do you know anyone that will be at the skeeter deal this weekend? If so I can deliver the goods there.
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Post by djkimmel on Oct 8, 2004 11:50:34 GMT -5
I didn't even remember that Bryan was a Yamaha pro at the time until you reminded. Too long ago I guess, which is why I was thinking Yelas also. Great contest!
I did know Bryan. I had dinner with him at one of the national championships. I attended both nationals he fished as Conservation Director for the Michigan BASS federation. I was able to talk with him several times (and I think my wife had a crush on him - she's the one who had us sit at his table and got me talking to him - "What a nice young man," my wife told me later that night).
He was extremely nice, quiet and humble. Definitely a regular guy. I was at the Classic too when he won. We all screamed so loud my ears thumped. Many of us lost our voices that last day. I've never seen anything quite like that day. If you watch the Classic show carefully, you will see me in a shot where the cameraman snuck up on me standing up in the stands and filmed from below. I was in the shot for about a second.
The lights were bright and made my eyes water - honest - that's my story and I'm sticking to it - and the cameraman caught the glint in my eyes at that moment of victory. I never even saw the camera.
I was at a federation tournament quite a while later up at Mullett Lake when a woman I'd never met before walked up to me from the small crowd watching our weigh in and said she had seen me on TV at the Bassmasters Classic. I told her I had never fished one before so she must be mistaken.
She was adamant though that it had been me, but did not explain further. Shortly after, another non-tournament person said they had recently seen me on fishing show also. I rarely get to watch any of the shows so I had to find someone who had a copy of the show on tape and borrow it. I'm watching along and trying to figure out who they thought I was (Fish Fishburne???) and I saw a quick flash of a familiar face. Rewind and there I am. How the heck that lady remembered me, a stranger in the stands, from that real brief, not up close shot is beyond me. I just added it to my list of strange moments in fishing...
It was a very emotional time for me when the first person called me and told me about the plane wreck that sad day even though I never became friends with Bryan beyond our few brief conversations. We all knew he was one of us.
I'll never forget it. Going before my club an announcing the incident. I don't know how anyone else felt, but it was very upsetting for me.
I met Bryan's Mom and Dad this year at the Jr. BASS Divisional. VERY nice people who are exactly what you'd expect to have raised such a decent young man as Bryan. They've remained so active in youth causes to provide a legacy for Bryan and set an example for all of us. It's people like this that make me feel so blessed to be an angler.
Thanks Josh!
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Post by Eric on Oct 8, 2004 13:53:18 GMT -5
Yep, big Dan.
Couldn't catch a cold standing naked in a November rainstorm. Actually, not a very good net man, either. But boy can he ever sit in the back of my boat and bark orders all day like Hitler!
Good neighbor though.
I don't know about the skeeter deal, and I think there are about 11 people who bass fish within 3 counties of here (and it's bow season), so I guess my answer is no.
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Post by JCOOPER on Oct 8, 2004 14:48:17 GMT -5
Eric,
I like big dan. I actually took him to the lake for an evening in the boat he bought before he bought it. It was fun. I put them on tons of 12 inchers.
Dan,
I was at the Yamaha Dealer Management Training and they had that same question on a movie screen at dinner one night.
I remembered how excited I was when all of that happened. I was still a teen at that point and it really made me feel that I could do it also. I thought it was a very fitting question to remind us all who he was and what he accomplished.
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Post by JCOOPER on Oct 9, 2004 19:58:15 GMT -5
Eric,
I will be gone all next week in KY at the regional. I will get your adress from you when I get back. Good job on the correct answer. I hope you actually remeber brian and how big of a deal he was at the time.
PM me you adress if you get a second. This is a very nice hat- I have only wore it about 8 times ;D just kidding.
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Post by Eric on Oct 10, 2004 20:47:24 GMT -5
Me address is 3rd drive past the big rock across the fenceline that the rows used to follow going from the old Johnson farm to the milking parlor.
For you out of towners, that's
5890 2 Mile Rd
Lakeview, Mi 48850
I do remember when Bryan won the classic. I was a rather ripe old age of 19, but I do remeber him and his whistle very well. As far as being surprised Dan would know him, come on. The guy knows everyone who has ever caught a bass. Someday, I will catch one (wearing my new hat) and I will get to meet him, too.
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Post by djkimmel on Oct 11, 2004 12:02:03 GMT -5
I don't know Dalton Bobo...
I did meet Dub LaShot oncet but he wouldn't remember me...
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