March 13, 1993

My first trip to Fork. One of my buddies and I hired guide Gene Dennis out of Vals Landing several weeks in advance. We left Dallas at 4:00 am, wind blowing 40-50 mph. We had already put our deposit down so there was no stopping us, poor and stupid enough not to just give it up.

I will make a long story short. My buddy caught a 7.14 20 minutes after we started, that was it.

It was brutal. Snow and ice on the guides. Gene apologized 1000 times because he couldn't get to his good spots. There was no apology needed. We were amazed that he didn't cancel.

Curious if anybody else fished that day and if anybody remembers it.

Look up Blizzard of March 1993 (Atlanta), we were on the back end of the storm.

Today was a much better day.

JM

Any guide worth his salt would have called and cancelled right after Harold Taft issued the verdict! The night before. That said...

Ya'll were lucky to land what you did. I'm sure Mr. Dennis did his best to discourage/reschedule your trip?

I've been on your side of the equation many times. Harder (rather than calmer) heads always seem to prevail in this situation.

That fact doesn't make it right. However, it's the truth.

Can't imagine why Gene didn't try discourage you but nice story

I remember Gene, spent many days with him having breakfast. Great story

When I was fishing team tournaments with Val's son Kenny back in those days I got to sit around and talk with Gene and all of the guides back then. Gene was one of the really nice guys.
That sounds like about the time period I remember me and Kenny huddled up in the back of Pinson fishing. Back in those days we didn't seem to let the weather dictate when we went fishing if we had a day to go. Sometimes we didn't use a lot of common sense when chasing those big old bass.

Val's.
That brings back some memories..