What a weekend at Merrisach!!!

[Arkie55]

As everyone knows, we had a Central Arkanss Gathering at Merrisach Campground this weekend. I loaded up and headed out around 10:00 am Thursday morning. Weekend weather looked great. Nice crowd going to show up. Catfish spawn should be over. Firshing and fellowship should be great. Off I go. Everything goes great until I get to DeWitt. I decide to pull in to the first Exxon and top off my little Bronco II with gas. Task accomplished I go inside and pay. Back in the Bronco, turn the key, engine turns over but doesn't start. Acts like it's not getting fuel. I check several things and nothing I do will get the truck to start. Pull out cell phone and call Coach. Tell him my problem. He tells me he'll call me back in a minute. He does and says Tinboat just went through DeWitt and is coming back. Tin pulls up and I load some of my stuff in his rig and then Coach shows up and we hook my boat to his truck. We get my truck pushed out of the way by two locals. Big Help there. Then we're told of a good Ford Mechanic right down the street. I take him my keys, tell him my problem, and Coach and I head for Merrisach. Friday, Little Mac runs me back up to check on my truck. The guy has my truck ready. Seems the wires to the fuel pump had either come off or broken and I'm not sure which. Only charged me a little over 60.00 to fix my rig and that included cleaning the injectors. Great guy.

The gathering on the other hand was just great. I met a ton of folks I didn't know and enjoyed meeting each one. The Trew Crew was there, Shep and friend, Canebreak, BadKarma and crew, Charles Phillips, MetalFisher and son, Coach and sons, Little Mac, Tinboat, me and probably a few I missed. We had a great time even though the fishing was bad. Just wanted to thank everyone for their help and encouragement. This is indeed a brotherhood and a place where long lasting friednships are forged.

[I_try]

Sounds like you had a blast, wish i couldve made it, but i didnt have enough time in advance. Hopefully we'll have another one before the years over.

[Tinboat]

Hey Terry... I caught a FISH!!! :big_smile: Actually I caught 2. One was a little bait stealing blue cat and the other was a 40"+ longnosed gar.

I started out Fri. Morning with Mac, boat would not start. Dead Battery! Oh well, I had 2 more batteries and I had charged them both before I left home. Yeah well so much for being prepared. They were both dead. We tried charging them with no luck. So Mac and I head to the nearest farm store and buy 2 new batteries. We Installed one of them Fri night and started out Sat. morning for my first fishing trip in the White River. Yeah you guessed it, my new battery was dead. We switched to the other new one and started fishing. To be safe, everytime we set up on a hole we disconnected the battery. Guess I need to check some electrical wiring.

The fun , food, and fellowship was well worth the inconvenience of some dead batteries.

Seems the local raccoons have been holding classes on raiding campsites. They can open ice chests that we have trouble opening. They should be wired tonight, they stole Jim Faulkner's coffe singles, and my lunch meat.

Paul fished Thur. nite and attracted a nice crowd...alligators. I'll let him tell that story. I got home a little after noon today to 2 very irate pups who did not get to go. I've gotta do a little sucking up now:lol: .