“Have
faith man”
By Jerry Fournier
Its
Friday your at work. You’re thinking to your self I should
clean the garage but I don’t really have to. You really
don’t have any plans when your telephone rings. On the other
end is a buddy telling you about the awesome day he had on the
water today. Here you are working and he is out fishing. What’s
up with that? He’s telling you he has been tearing them
up. “You got to go with me tomorrow man” he blurts
out. This is one of the best bites I have been on in years. “You
got to trust me” comes the next thing out of his mouth.
Man your thinking to yourself “this sure would be great
if it were true” Should I believe in him? Should I go and
find out for myself. I really don’t care for fishing that
water. It is not something I am use to. What do I do? Do I go?
Do I trust him? My buddy yells in the telephone “Have faith
man. Just trust me you got to change your thinking”. Meet
me in the morning”.
Next morning.
You and your buddy are loading up the boat getting ready to get
out on the water. It’s first light. The excitement is in
the air. Other bass boats are leaving the dock. You look back
and see the launch ramp is getting crowded. On the drive up your
buddy says man I just tore them up yesterday. They are in this
area so thick. You got to beat them off with a stick. “It’s
too good to be true”. Your friend is starting to go faster“We
got to hurry before someone gets to my spot.” “Come
on” he says“hurry up we got to get going”.
Your thinking to yourself man this is too good to be true. Or,
are you thinking, “I wonder if he is telling the truth”.
Maybe you have fished with him before and he does get you on fish.
Maybe you have fished with him before and it never turns out just
as he says. Is this the time to doubt him?
If he is a
friend of yours? I mean a good friend, you trust him. Right??
Now your there at the area he has been talking about. You start
fishing the area with great expectations. You think to yourself,
“Well it looks good”. It’s the right time of
year for those fish to be set up on this structure. I don’t
think there this deep, but he says they are. About an hour has
passed and you’re thinking “I don’t think so”.
Just as you start to think that your fishing buddy turns to you
and says“Have faith and Trust me there here.”
I remember
fishing the B.A.S.S. tournament at Clear Lake last year. I just
finished up fishing a week at the B.A.S.S. tournament on the Delta
the week before. Now, I just took two weeks off of work. Two weeks
away from my family. I just spent a fortune in pre fishing. I
spent a fortune in entry fees, hotels, meals and tackle, and now
I am on my way to Clear Lake after bombing out on the Delta. I
have been fishing in the rain for days and the forecast states
rain the whole time I am at Clear Lake.
I
fished both these events as a back seater. I remember how Matt
Reed from Texas and Joe Thomas from Ohio would shut me off on
boat position. I remember how I would catch one and they would
make sure I didn’t catch other. It was a battle to get any
type of position. I remember driving and thinking how unfair this
is. I was very down. Well here I am at Clear Lake and I draw Gary
Yamamoto on my first day out. I was nervous but the night before
I asked God to bless this next few days on the water for me. I
remember clearly telling God that if it is meant to be it is meant
to be. If it is his will, then it is his will... He is in control.
I have to have faith. I have to trust in him. I have to trust
that if I don’t do well he has a reason.
Gary was great to fish with; he gave me plenty of water. He was
a gentleman. I asked him how he got started. Man I got to tell
you that he has a great story behind the start of his company.
I was throwing a Senko
most of the morning, when the rain stopped and we changed locations
I picked up a Rodstrainer
spinner bait and caught the balance of my limit. Gary had
only caught three for the day. It was great when he asked me if
I would give him one. I remember clearly when we were traveling
across the water to the weigh in. That the bag of fish I had wasn’t
going to cut it. I remember praying. “God Thank you for
the five fish I have. Thank you for allowing me to be here and
a part of this tournament. Thank you for my love for the great
outdoors. I appreciate your help today God. I know this is your
will. I know this is better than no fish at all. But still I was
down. I only wish I could have had a bag closer to twenty pounds.
It
wasn’t that much longer and I was up on the stand with Fish
Fishburne and they weighed my fish. We were towards the last to
weigh in. Fish said something like “great job Jerry”.
I had just weighed in something like ten pounds. I don’t
remember exactly. Here I am at Clear Lake where a great bag is
over twenty pounds. I was walking off the stage heading for my
friends and they are giving my high fives. I am thinking why are
these guys are so happy for me. I just weighed in a small bag.
Scotty McVea my good friend who also is fishing the tournament
looks at me and says “what’s wrong with you man your
in eighth place”. “Show a little excitement here Man”.
I said, “What are you talking about”. He states back
to me “look at the leader board.” I look up and there
is my name and I am in eighth place. I start thinking about my
faith in God. I start thinking about my praying and my stating
to God that I will accept what ever out come he gives me. Did
I doubt God?
The next day
my draw was Brett Hite from Arizona. We start off with a conversation
that went just like this. “Brett I am in eighth place I
just need five around the same weight and I make the top twelve
for the next day”. He says to me “I don’t need
that kind of pressure”. We were quite then. If you make
the top twelve they clean the slate and they have a six hole shoot
out. There will be ESPN cameras and a chance to win a boat. So
when he told me he didn’t need that kind of pressure I thought
to myself “God I will believe in you. I will trust in you.
I will keep my faith in you. I mean this Lord if it is your will
I will be grateful. If things don’t work out I am still
grateful to have had this opportunity. You have blessed me with
this time on the water. You have watched over my family while
I was away. You have given me so much that to not make the top
twelve will be alright with me. I will fish hard and give it my
all.
Brett
takes me to west side of the lake and starts throwing a Swim
Bait. I am behind him throwing a ¾
oz Rodstrainer spinner Bait. I am making long cast and slow
rolling the spinner bait back to the boat. Brett hasn’t
said a thing to me since we left the launch ramp. All of a sudden
I hear him say “Dude you should be throwing a rip bait”.
I keep casting and wham I get one on and put it in the boat. He
looks back and doesn’t say a thing. I keep chuckin and winding
and wham I get another. He looks back this time and says “Dude
don’t listen to me”. Well I have two in the boat and
he decides to go to the east side of the lake. Brett had grass
areas that he has seen some bed fish in. He gets on the trolling
motor and just starts cruising not stopping just looking for fish.
I pick up a Senko.
I make pitch after pitch and I get another keeper. Now, the fish
I have aren’t great but I am thinking to myself that’s
three more than he has. Not bad, but I need two more. Brett moves
to another area and I decided that I would stay with the Senko
in the grass. Well, I pick up another. Now I have four. I just
needed one more. Brett picks up and goes into a marina and starts
working a bed fish. He didn’t move for over an hour on this
one fish. I just kept casting in the same area over and over again
with no results. I couldn’t cast anywhere around him. He
worked that fish right up to where I had to ask him to go or we
will be late to the weigh in. I was worried that he spent too
much time trying to get one bed fish. It seemed that he didn’t
care if we were late or not. I really was concerned that we were
not going to make it. We did. So I stress out going back to the
weigh in and I only had four fish. I new I was out of it. I was
truly disappointed in the day. I worked so hard and fished every
thing I could to get five. It just didn’t happen. I remember
my prayer. “Alright” I said to myself. No matter the
out come. I have been blessed to be here. I kept my faith and
I my trust in God. If it was his will it will be his way. I was
still down. I was standing across from Denny Breurer. At the tanks
moving from tank to tank towards the stage. He started telling
all of us in line that he bought one of those swim baits and decided
he was so far out of it he might as well try the thing and see
what happens. He told us his first fish on swim bait was twelve
inches. He only caught five fish all day throwing that thing.
But his weight was around twenty pounds which helped him quite
a bit from the day before.
It was my turn now to go up and see Fish on stage. They weighed
my fish. I think but don’t really remember but it was around
nine pounds. Again, I hear Fish say something like” good
job Jerry”. “Thanks Fish”, but I knew that making
the top twelve with that weight is not going to make it. I had
my head down walking down off the stage thinking I could get home
tonight and spend the last two days with my family before I go
back to work.
As I merge down into the crowd of people I started looking around
and didn’t see anyone there that I knew. I thought “great”,
even my friends are gone. I kept walking and in that back of the
crowd was Scotty McVea taking pictures of me as I walked up to
him. I said “Scotty what do you think? Think we can make
it home tonight or do you want to wait until morning to take off?
He is looking at me with the puzzled look. “What are you
talking about? Jerry you are in tenth place and only a few more
to weigh in. You might make the top twelve. You could be fishing
for a boat tomorrow.” Again, I look up at the leader board
and sure enough, I am in Tenth place. A few minutes later I am
in the top twelve and make it to the third day.
I ended up fishing with Tim Horton on the third day with a camera
boat. He was a Great guy who didn’t mind starting off our
morning with a prayer. I ended up taking third place and winning
a boat. It was a great experience for me. It taught me a lot about
my faith. It taught me about having faith and trusting God. I
started the third day thinking, “I doubted God”. I
wasn’t sure that I doubted God. But the feeling I felt was
a feeling deep inside me that I had. I know at times everyone
doubts their faith. I know when you have to trust God, you don’t.
It is human to do so. God does not always answer your prayers.
Funny though, how many different prayers you have prayed asking
God for something and He didn’t come through. Then you turn
around and something like this happens. God has a plan for each
of us. What is important is to remember you don’t know God.
You have never met him, but you trust him. If you don’t
you should. That is what he asked you to do. Have faith that is
what God is asking you to do. Follow him and believe in him. That
is what God is asking from you...
On April 9, 2005 there will be a Bass Tournament Held at Lake
Oroville. The tournament is Called Honor Bound Men of Promise.
Trust me, God will be there. You will see him in all who are there.
It will be a great time. Don’t come if winning a Bass Tournament
is really important to you. Do come if you want more that that.
If you would like to know more please see my web site www.jerryfournier.com
look up Honor Bound. E mail me if you want a CD we made up from
last years tournament. I will send you one free.
God Bless
and Merry Christmas
See you on
the water
Jerry
www.jerryfournier.com
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