The first major purchase I made after I got married almost 30 years ago was a used 1988 VIP Fish & Ski. I hauled that boat all over the country as we moved over the years and it has had lots and lots of fish caught in it both fresh and salt water. Lots of good memories of the kids water skiing and tubing as well. Her nickname is "Comin' in Hot" because reverse didn't work about half the time, so no brakes! She finally gave out about 2 1/2 years ago when the motor blew … no telling how many hours it had on it, but I definitely got my money's worth. I went and bought a Tracker that I have been using since, but last month I decided to bring her back to life and put a newer used motor on it and get it ready to hand down to Lincoln. I took her out for a test drive yesterday on Cedar Creek and brought a fishing pole to make sure she could still catch fish. I was on the water from about 3-5pm and she ran better than ever … reverse even works! Currently I only have a really old Hummingbird 100SX on the bow and I was using Navionics on my cell phone to get around. I checked multiple spots and couldn't find any fish until I got to Pole Dance spot and it was on! I caught fish in about 25 FOW on 35 straight casts with a Mepps #4 and then headed back in. I caught mostly white bass including a few 14 inchers, 4 good yellow bass, one legal hybrid, and 2 fat catfish. It was a great day!

That’s awesome! And now many more fish and good memories will be made

That's awesome. Thanks for sharing.

Good story, Rick! I like it! You are such a good dad and a badass angler

I just moved my boat to Texoma to chase the 1P striper and was planning to take some vets fishing organized by DC wed to Friday this week. Then had to travel over the weekend and caught covid so now waiting to get better. You just don't know what life will throw at ya but you can only do the best you can with what ever it is.

Thanks Todd. Hope you feel better. As an Air Force veteran myself, thanks for getting involved. That’s awesome! Let me know next time and maybe I can help out as well.

Huh we fished together before and I didn't know that. Thank you for your service, Rick!

Fyi don't be surprised if you and Lincoln get an invite from me in the coming weeks, months at Texoma. I think y'all are much closer to bigT. DC just told me his boat (3 boys) caught 6+ limits today... Lookin forward to read his full 3 day vet trip Texoma reports soon.

Wow! Can’t wait! Would love to learn how to deadstick from the master!!

Nice post and fish. Good job.