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5TH ANNUAL GLORY HOLE
FISHING SEMINAR A HUGE SUCCESS
By: Ron Wilson
May 1, 2003.... Last weekend I helped Dan
& Melanie Lewis, owners of Glory Hole Sports, with their 5th Annual
Free Fishing Seminars and Customer Appreciation Days.
Saturday started at 7 a.m. with a
continental breakfast in the Mark Twain Hall at the Calaveras County
Fairgrounds. I helped with the signups, where participants received
tickets for drawings and a free meal.
Here was the schedule of what you missed
if you weren't there!
8:00-8:15 Orientation
8:15-8:30 Early bird drawings
8:30-10:00 Bass Fishing with Dan Lewis, Bob Monsen and Tom Taylor, all
local bass fishing anglers
10:00-10:15 Prize Drawing at end of talk
10:15-11:45 Trolling for Trout and Kokanee with Wayne Douma,
Fish On Guide Service and Vance Staplin, Vance's Tackle
11:45-12:15 Electronic Charge and its
Effect on Fish with Dick Pool, father of downrigger fishing and inventor
of the Black Box
12:15-12:30 Prize Drawing at end of talk
12:30-2:00 Free Barbeque Lunch, plus time to look around at booths and
speak with the experts
2:00-3:00 Ask the Pros: all-species
question/answer forum where Various professional anglers discuss any
type of fishing for any species found in Northern California lakes.
 3:00-3:15 Prize Drawing at end of talk
3:15-4:30 Dessert- Free time to look
around at booths and speak with the experts.
4:30 Grand Prize Drawing-must be present
to win
Sunday, April 27th, 2003
On the Water Fishing Lessons 2 hours long, $5.00 sign-up charge (To
cut down on people who sign up for the lessons and don't show up). Money
was used to pay for guides gasoline, and any left over was donated to a
non-profit fish-planting program.
Downrigger
lessons
Spend time on the water with professional guides, learning how to use a
downrigger for optimum success.
Expert guides and tournament anglers all donated their time, boats and
gear to teach you how to become better anglers.
Bass Fishing Lessons
Basic bass-fishing instruction was be given, including choosing the
right lure/line/rod/reel, how to rig up, and how to find the best spots
to fish. Members of Calaveras Bass Anglers donated their time (and their
fast boats!) to take you fishing.
The show was another great success put on by Glory Hole Sports with well
over 400 people attending. I hope the surrounding communities appreciate
all the out of town money that Glory Hole Sports brings to this area.
The day went by way to fast, during breaks I got to chat with several
people that attended and also some of the vendors that were there. Mark
Vejar, Bill Reynolds, Bud Fuller, Larry Barns (Uncle Larry) to
name a few, plus
lots of fishing guides.
That evening I got better acquainted with event organizers Melanie and
Dan Lewis at their home over a cold one and pizza. Speakers Vance
Staplin, of Vance's tackle, along with guides Wayne Douma and Bruce
Hamby were also present. Melanie's front yard looked like the grapes of wrath
with all the vehicles that were parked there, but they were somewhat
newer!
The next day started before daylight, and while it wasn't all that cold
to start with, by the time the sun came up it was darn right chilly as
the temperature must had dropped another 10 degrees.
I went looking for Norval Pimentel and Tim Paes at 6 a.m. but couldn't
find them anywhere. By 6:30 a.m. I gave up and headed back to Angels
Cove boat ramp to help the guides get their boats in the water.
Talk about a long walk up and down the
hill, once is enough for anyone but I lost count on how many times I
went up and down that hill unnecessarily! I think I worked off a little
fat.
Bruce Hamby was the last guide boat that I launched. He must of been in
a hurry, because after parking his rig I went back down the hill to join
him only to see him head out with a boat load.
By now it was after 7:30 a.m. and just when I had given up on them,
Norval and Tim finally arrived in a pair of matching new Stratos Bass
Boats.
I couldn't help but holler "hey you guys are disqualified, your
late". (Hee Hee!) I continued, "how in the heck do you guys
ever make it to tournaments on time, your over an hour late and I think
everyone who wanted to go black bass fishing is gone"!
Oh well, I figured I better knock it off because I needed a ride out on
the water since there wasn't anyone left to go bass fishing with.
I went with Tim to do some prefishing for
an upcoming tournament that Norval and his son Anthony have on Melones
this coming weekend.
Tim had to leave at noon which was fine as I had a fish catching pattern
that I think should hold up. We headed over to the Glory Hole boat ramp
to wait for Norval to get done with his bass fishing lessons for the
day. My plan was to get into Norval's boat for the rest of the day.
When I changed boats from Tim's to Norval's,
I had the pleasure of talking with some of the anglers that the guides
had taken out that morning. They said the guides were on fish big time
and everyone was catching 'em.
They were mostly catching kokanee
but one of the anglers had caught a 4 pound brown trout while out with
Guide Bruce Hamby.
Several of the anglers that went with
guides in the morning had their boats waiting for them at Glory Hole.
They used the knowledge gained to go back out on the lake and
fish the techniques and areas that the guides had showed them.
 At 5 p.m., Norval and I were coming off
the water and I again talked with some of these same anglers. They had a
ball all day long! They got a $5 two hour on the water guide outing to
show them how it was done and used what they learned to catch their
limits.
One group of 3 were still excited as they
told me about the double and triple hookups they had on. But they also
told me about losing lots and lots of fish!
Seems that they need more lessons on
kokanee fishing, then maybe they could use that information to get them
in the boat the next time!
I am not sure the guides are doing
themselves a favor at this event or not.
It seems that guides are coming out of
the woodwork, and I personally don't think there is enough paying
customers out there to keep them alive, especially with the way the
economy is at the present time!
The weekend was a fun filled one for me,
I talked fishing, met fishermen and even got to do some catching. It
just don't get to much better than that!
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