Kirtley Howe

As always, you show a lot of class, and a big heart.

So I have found out. I was surprised by the diagnoses and even more surprised that it was so difficult to diagnose. I guess since it is "intermittent" it is tough to find. And in my case, since I have a history of breathing problems they were concentrating on that at first...it took a while to isolate what was happening. How are you doing? Are you more or less controlled by meds, or are you into the next types of treatment?

Kirtley, you did an excellent job of explaining a complex situation. I'm so glad that your docs have a fix. They don't always.

not so much a badass. just stubborn. it is my plan to be extremely late to my own funeral....<G>

Not the most fun I have had, but not the worst either. I will be fine.

I want thank everyone who was involved in getting the site back up. I can appreciate how much effort goes into keeping this running. The amount of time and effort everyone put in to make it work is above and beyond. Thank you all again. That said, don't EVER let this happen again...I suffered serious withdrawal symptoms!!!!! (G)

Most of you know that I have some breathing problems that somewhat limit what I can do. They don't stop me from fishing or being active in most ways, or at least they did not. That changed about 2 weeks ago. I was doing a rear brake job on my Tahoe when all of a sudden I could not breath...at all. I went down on the ground, and could not catch my breath. I was sweating profusely, shaking and could not even yell for help. I though maybe I was having a heart attack. After about 15 minutes I managed to get myself together enough to crawl around to the back porch of the house, drag myself up to the door and kick it until my wife heard me. She got her son (my step son) to come over (he lives on the same property in a separate apartment, so he is about 100 feet away) and between the two of them they got me into the house and sitting in a chair. My wife has an oxygen concentrator that she uses at night, so they wheeled that out and I got on oxygen. After 20 minutes or so of that, I was pretty much normal again. We decided that I should go to the hospital. Due to our remote location it was actually quicker for my wife to drive me rather than taking an ambulance. The ride there was uneventful until we pulled into the emergency parking lot, when it happened again. The security guard at the door took one look at me and came running out with a wheel chair,, and took me directly into the cardiac emergency unit. The ran a bunch of tests, but everything looked normal. Blood pressure was 130/70, pulse was a bit high at 90, and blood oxygen showed 89 on room air and improved to 93 as soon as they hooked me up to oxygen. An EKG showed normal, and in fact very good for someone my age. But, I still could not breath. They brought me over to pulmonary and though I had obvious signs of COPD and missing a third of a lung from having it removed due to lung cancer, they could not account for why I was doing so poorly. Things finally settled down (again), and I was pretty much back to my normal situation of being a fairly high functioning COPD sufferer. They checked me into the hospital and started monitoring me around the clock. For two days, things seemed pretty normal...to the point they were thinking of sending me home. Then it happened, this time while I was hooked up to a bunch of different equipment. My heart beat shot up to 260 beats a minute, my blood pressure dropped to 60 over 40, and my blood oxygen went to 51.Then my heart beat dropped to 30. Surprisingly, I felt no pain of any kind, and as long as I remained absolutely still I could breath (well, after a few minutes anyway). Needless to say they got a bit excited by all this and could not understand why I had not completely passed out.....anyway, they continued to keep me hooked up to,as near as I could tell, about every machine know to man. They administered very strong IV antibiotics, some massive steroid doses with an IV push, some pills of various types, and some other shots that I am not even sure what they were. They also gave me breathing treatments with several different compounds, as well as Abuterol and Simbacort inhalers. Long story short(er) after several more days and a few more of these attacks they got the medications balanced and everything leveled off. I was keep for a total of 14 days (boy was I frustrated by the Bass Resourses site being down..I had very little I could do and TV is not my thing). It turns out that I was not, directly having pulmonary problems...I was having AFib attacks which was not allowing my body to process the oxygen that was in my blood, which then caused the breathing problems when my body tried to get more oxygen, which it turn aggravated the Afib...and around and around we go. So the out come of all this is that AFib is very treatable. In my case it can be managed with some meds and blood thinners (so I don't toss a clot and get a stroke), and I will be seeing a cardiologist regularly to keep things under control and they will work hand in hand with my pulmonologist as they breathing and the heart situation are very much interrelated. If things do not stay stabilized, there are other things they can do..like put in a pacemaker and an implanted defribulator, and or go in and kill small parts of my heart muscle to create sort of a short cut of the electronic signals in the heart to manage the beat. The doctors described the situation like this,,,think of your heart like a house. In my case I have a great foundation, great walls, a great roof and nice furnishings on the inside that look great and work well together.....but I have a problem with the electrical system. So, my heart is great, we just need to fix the wiring. I cannot tell you how big a relief it is to know what is going on, and to know it is treatable. With any luck, with careful monitoring, it should have no long term effect on my life other than taking some more medications. I came home yesterday, and other than being very tired and getting exhausted very quickly, I feel pretty good. The doctors say that my stamina should be back to my normal level in a week or so...my body just needs to adapt to all the new meds and find the correct "base level" and this is completely normal. I saw the doctor again today, and they adjusted the meds a bit to balance things out, but everything looks good, I now have my own oxygen machine, and portable oxygen tanks just in case, but it is doubtful I will have to use them much. So, life is good, and things will get better. I am very lucky that I have a wonderful support system both at home in with my doctors. I am really looking forward to getting back out there and doing some fishing.

I think it is going to be a great event. It should be a great watch. It is going to be televised in its' entirety on MLF, Bassmaster, and the WBE site on YouTube, as well as select parts shown on FS1 and maybe ESPN. It will be held on a "river system" lake, but I can't remember the name of the lake right now. The money IS already set in an escrow account from what I have read. To me it is a dream contest...the best against the best from both major organizations. I was doing some dreaming about what I would like to see for the final showdown....and I came up with this: I would love to see a final where Ott DeFoe (excellent river rat type fisherman who excels with a crankbait/jerkbait, a Texas Rig, a Carolina Rig, and other "old school" presentations) in a shoot out against Keith Pocuche doing his "off the grid" style fishing. It would be a lot of fun watching the contrasting styles fighting it out for the win. I have read that the WBE is setting the rules up with extra safe guards to prevent Keith from doing anything sketchy, with extra carefully defined out of bounds and off limit rules...and a "call the tournament director" specified for any possible question. Failing to do so would lead to an immediate disqualification, and possible banning from any future event like this. They are also setting each boat up with multiple GPS trackers (yes, TRACKERS plural) that would signal the director if any boat ventures into or very close to an out of bounds area (note that just entering an out of bounds area would not necessarily get an angler disqualified as long as he did not FISH the area...reasons for entering the area that would be allowed would be to take shelter, or to park while getting a repair done, and a few other things), and they will be flying between 50 and 100 drones to aid with enforcement and filming. With 1.5 million on the line for the winner, the strict rules and enforcement, I doubt that even Keith would take a chance on getting disqualified from this tournament. But no matter what happens, it should be a great show. I believe the complete list of rules, qualifications, and prizes are listed on YouTube on the WBE site. It is an invitational tournament, but to be invited you have to be in the top 25 of the angle of the year race (in each organization) or must have won a Tournament in the Elites or the MLF Bass Pro series....but a win in something like an somewhat lowered level tournament or similar level tournament in MLF would also be heavily considered by the WBE if the angler also had good results in their organization even if they didn't make the top 25. So far at least 125 anglers have signed letters of intent to fish the tournament if invited. I am really looking forward to this tournament.

Hands down the Ragetail Swimmer in the 3.75 length. I fish them on a ball type jighead, weight depends on the current. Most of the time I use a 3/16th oz head. If the fish are nipping at the bait but not getting hooked I will cut the length of the paddle tail down.

Looks fantastic to me. I look forward to seeing the steps of the project. Congrats! Back in the late 70s, my family built 2 log homes....as in we bought log home kits and put them together ourselves. It was me, my mother, father and 2 brothers who did everything but build and pour the foundation and drill the well. The walls are solid logs, 6' thick. The roof was R36 rated fiberglass insulation. We have since added another 2 feet of blown in insulation on top of that. We have a standing joke that you can heat the houses with just a candle at each end. Solid 6 inch walls are amazing.

Every thing you just wrote is exactly what my experience shows. River Smallies are just mean, aggressive fish that tend to be leaner than their "lazier" brothers from lakes. And they are not nearly as shy as the lake versions. However, I love fishing for both river and lake Smallies. Just a difference in technique for the most part.

Well, not exactly. He got in trouble for jumping (sliding, actually) over an earthen dam to reach an area that was deemed out of bounds. It was not going over the dam that was the problem, it was the fishing out of bounds. His defense was that since the area he went to was connected by a drainage ditch or two to the main area, he should have been allowed to fish it. The tournament director pointed out that all he had to do was call for a clarification and he would have known that he was not allowed to fish the area. Case closed. I admire his tenacity and creativity for getting to areas others don't or can't fish, but he could have saved himself a lot of problems on that one if he had called the director. He even later admitted that he used poor judgement on that one, but at the time he thought it would be easier to get "forgiven" than to try to get permission. Live and learn I guess.

I listen to the music of nature. The singing of birds, the rhythm of the waves and current, the rustle of leaves and branches in the wind. What more could I need?

Maybe as a birthday present if I hint strongly enough....But I really don't ever plan on spending more than about $15 for a scale that I would lose or otherwise kill.

I have a plastic container (think Tupperware, but cheaper) that holds my admittedly cheap electronic scale. I keep a couple of those silicone packets in with the scale, and have never had a problem. After a trip I open the container and let it air out to make sure the scale drys out completely. My last scale died because I used it one too many times in a total downpour. Not much I could do about that as I am a bank fisherman and don't usually have a sheltered area to weigh my fish. I suppose that the more expensive scales hold up better in really wet conditions, but I just can't bring myself to spend the money on one of those when I would most likely lose it or drop it. The cheap ones work well enough for me as I only really want a "close enough" weight anyway.