Like all have said, the bat boat RED button works but you didn't have to prove it to make us believers.  Sorry to hear about the boat, but extremely glad to hear you are ok especially after what happened at the FLW Qualifier Larry Sullivan and I attended.  You are truly blessed and glad to hear you made the TEAM...Great job....

See ya later,  Oh, on the tackle, take everything and sort it out there....I've learned the hard way this year...

Chuck P

Scary story.  Glad you are ok.

Tern's IS the best in the state.  I was wondering where he move to when he left Auburn.

Smitty

I am having the glass work done by Tern Boats in Des Moines.  He is supposed to be the best.  I will take it there tomorrow for the estimate.  The lower unit will be looked at by the guys at Gonnanson's Marine.

Mark

Good to hear your OK big dude....keep up the good work
Does the boat have to go to Tri-State? or where are you having to take it....

Mark,

Sorry to here about the self ejecting seat your back seater said he thought you were joking about the red button when you said not to push it. LOL Hope the boat repair doesn't cost a arm and a leg. See you on the water sooner than later I hope!!!!!!!

Hey Stump Jumper,

Glad you are okay. Will miss you guys at Roosevelt.

Russ

wow... first of all glad you're ok mark.  secondly nice job on making the state team.  maybe i'll try my hand at the qualifiers next year, they sound like fun.

troy

Hi Mark-

I'm really sorry to hear about your boat damage Mark, but sure glad to hear you're OK. That must have been one hell of an extremely scary experience!  It seems to be the worst nightmare for all of us bass fisherman...hitting something and being thrown from the boat.    It's reassuring to know your tournament safety procedures kicked in:  wearing your lifejacket and having a kill switch attached certainly helped minimize the damage to you.

We'll certainly miss you guys over at Roosevelt-

Mark, get that boat fixed ASAP so you can be ready for the Lower Columbia....

best wishes,

Bob

Nice Smitty,
Very nice.  Here's the story of me leaving the boat.  I'm ok and the boat is not so ok.  I was running near the sunken forest.  Its a line I have ran many times.  Going about 55mph I hit a submerged log that either broken free of the sunken forest or it was a tree that may have shifted and moved higher in the water column.  We hit the submerged tree and I was thrown from my boat.  I was ok, a little bruised up, the boat took some damage in the last two feet of the pad.  Motor and lower unit ok.  There is some wood in the water intake that caused my water pressure to be lower now.  I will have to take the boat in to get repair, so no Jack and Jill tourney for me and the wife.  Saturday, I scratched a limit together for 9.5 lbs.  Sunday I could only get 3 fish for 5.5 lbs.  It was enough to finish 10th overall and make the state team.    The weather totally shut down the smallie bite around the docks and the smallies moved deep.  Very few limits were caught.  You had to fish deep and hope that you picked one off here and there.  It was a good feeling to know that I was fishing the right water both days and I kept running into Dave Kromm both days.  He seemed to be fishing all the area's I was.  I didn't make quite the right adjustments on day one to upgrade to a better bag and day two was difficult.  Many of the places I fished produced fish for others and guys rotated around from spot to spot.  It was a matter of being in a spot when the smallies would turn on for a short burst of time.  Most guys reported catching fish in bunches, 3 or 4 at a burst and then long periods of no bites. 
  So as it stands, we will be fishing Lake Cour de Lane next May.  I qualified as a non boater, so I will be fishing from the back seat of qaulifiers from other states.  One can hope that I draw well and will be put on fish.  Now comes the hard part of figuring what to take with me to Cour de lane.

Mark

I took out two friends of mine from the Tri-Cities on Friday to Sammamish for the purpose of prefishing for a B.A.S.S. state qualifier on the weekend.  The day started OK with several small SMB's caught on a spinnerbait real shallow on flats.  Moving on to some docks that bordered deeper water, Senkos and dropshots failed to produce anything.  Finally we went to the Northend of the lake and fished dropshots on the edge of the weedline at the break into twenty feet.  Cowabunga!!   Although we were bothered by a ton of the darn Perch, we all managed to catch at least 2 limits in about 2 hours.  Anything that was white, silver, clear, purple, or watermelon worked.  Other colors were useless.  We left the lake about 1 P.M. as my friends were "soaked" from the rain and cursing the weather here on the "wet" side of the mountains.
It must have worked out ok for them though as they both managed to qualify for the regional tournament in Cour Da Lane later this year.  Mark Maderos also made the cut though he was protested for leaving his boat during the tournament.

Smitty