Places become dear to us after we make memories there. The more memories you make, the dearer it becomes. Such a place existed until very recently for my family but me in particular. It still exists, but its dearness and my enamor for it have vanished. Another place and more accurately, a family, have taken its place. The following is the true life story of how I accidentally met the finest fishing couple in the world, Gary and Beverly Yamamoto.
The place I used to visit is a quaint fishing lodge. Nestled away in the piney woods of East Texas, I thought it had it all. And, for awhile, it did. The people there were nice, the fishing was good and it was quiet. The amenities were top notch and the price was pretty good too. The thing about goodness that foils the plot every time though is it can be ruined by the wrong people. The lodge, we’ll call it Lodge D, changed management this year. Was there an update on their website? No. Did they tell me when I placed a deposit? No. It wasn’t until all six of us arrived after a four hour drive that we discovered the amenities we had previously had access to, we no longer could get to without paying additional money. Turns out, we should have been charged the last EIGHT TIMES we had gone and used them but never were. It isn’t stated in the brochure. It was never told to us until after paying in full and on site. I won’t go into great detail here but my family was about six seconds from a nuclear meltdown. When I inquired about why things had changed, the answer, “You should have always been paying” kept coming up. Not good enough. “Can you call someone?” I asked. “No,” came the answer. Needless to say, my three day vacation and $600 just went poof. My wife is crying. The kids a screaming because they see a lake, want to play and are getting strapped back into the car with another long car ride in their near future.
In my professional life, I problem solve. Problems arise, fires usually caused by tempers and misinformation and I put them out. This was no different. I look at my cell phone with one bar of extended range service (think corn can telephone quality) and get on the internet searching for any fishing lodge places in the near vicinity. I am having no luck and then a memory pops into my head. I’ll try to find a number. 411 gets me the number and dials. One ring, two, three…….seven rings and no answer. I hang up, upset, irritable and lost as to what to do. “No.This will not go down like this,” I’m thinking. One more call to that number. One ring, two…. “Hello?” Sweet. A Voice. A Person. Things are getting better.
I ask the inn keeper if they have any available rooms. She asks if I mean for tonight. I say yes and she says, “No, not right now. Why do you ask? It seems kind of late in the day for a reservation.” I explain my horrid situation and she says to hang on for a minute. She comes back and says, “Why don’t you guys come on and stay with us.” I ask some rate questions and about the grounds and we cover the basics. I ask a couple of pointed questions about certain amenities and she tells me, “Honey, this is my house. Not just a place to come stay but my house. If you want to do something and I’m ok with it guess what, you get to do it. I’m the boss here.” I like that. Straight to the boss.
At this point I know her name is Beverly but that’s really all I know. She tells me about the fishing on their place and how her husband is a professional fisherman. I ask her who her husband is and she says “Why, Gary Yamamoto of course!” Fireworks are going off in my head. Gary Yamamoto is my fishing idol! I use almost exclusively his soft baits and topwaters. Unbelievable. She asks if I am familiar with Gary’s baits and I tell her everything about the baits I love. She tells me to wait a minute. “You need to tell this to Gary, hold on.” She hands the phone to the man himself and we talk for about two minutes about the big fish I caught on the Sugoi Splash. He very calmly agrees and says, “That’s a good bait.” We talk for another two minutes and then I go back to Beverly.
We finish rounding up the details with directions, I go get my refund from Lodge D and we head on the hour trip to Nowheresville, TX. The road to get back to this place is one lane. As we round the corner, this beautifully landscaped ranch appears. Lakes, cattle, everything a guy could want. We were here. The home of Gary and Beverly Yamamoto.
She shows us our rooms and she asks, “Do you think you might want to do some fishing this evening?” I thought about it for about .0001 second and said sure. Then she said something I’ll never forget, “Let me go tell Gary you’re here. He said he wanted to show you a new bait and hook he was working on.
More fireworks. Kid at Christmas. Nervous. And then he appeared. Just a normal guy.
He said, “Hi, I’m Gary. Good to meet you.”
Through the nerves I introduced myself and complimented his beautiful home. We chatted a few minutes and then he offered to take me fishing on one of his private lakes. A lake Roland Martin has filmed a few shows on. Gary Yamamoto and ME!
Again I take about .0001 seconds to think and say sure. I’d love to do that.
We fished for about four hours, swapping stories about fishing, life, kids, business, cows, you name it. He was so easy to talk to and wanted to know as much about what I did as I did of him. We probably caught 60 or 70 fish and of course had his fishing partner Precious with us in the boat. It started getting dark and we called it a day. A day to remember forever.
The next few days I ate several meals with Gary and Beverly, chatting just like old friends and enjoying some cooler than normal weather. He told me about and then treated me to some of his 100% Kobe beef that he raises. BEST.HAMBURGER.EVER. I bought 12 pounds when we left. It wasn’t so much buying as begging to buy.
On the day before we left, my wife and mother in law were having breakfast with Gary and Beverly (who made fresh muffins every morning!) and talking about my trip with Gary. He told her, “I had a really good time fishing with your husband. He’s a really good fisherman.”
She told me this later that day and I about hit the moon.
It’s only been a little over two weeks since my first visit (Gary invited me back in the spring to go chase some big fish with him before they spawn), but it seems like yesterday. I have a few pictures to post soon but the images in my mind can’t be done justice.
So after all that, it would be very hard to say Gary and Beverly are not the finest fishing couple in the world.
The place I used to visit is a quaint fishing lodge. Nestled away in the piney woods of East Texas, I thought it had it all. And, for awhile, it did. The people there were nice, the fishing was good and it was quiet. The amenities were top notch and the price was pretty good too. The thing about goodness that foils the plot every time though is it can be ruined by the wrong people. The lodge, we’ll call it Lodge D, changed management this year. Was there an update on their website? No. Did they tell me when I placed a deposit? No. It wasn’t until all six of us arrived after a four hour drive that we discovered the amenities we had previously had access to, we no longer could get to without paying additional money. Turns out, we should have been charged the last EIGHT TIMES we had gone and used them but never were. It isn’t stated in the brochure. It was never told to us until after paying in full and on site. I won’t go into great detail here but my family was about six seconds from a nuclear meltdown. When I inquired about why things had changed, the answer, “You should have always been paying” kept coming up. Not good enough. “Can you call someone?” I asked. “No,” came the answer. Needless to say, my three day vacation and $600 just went poof. My wife is crying. The kids a screaming because they see a lake, want to play and are getting strapped back into the car with another long car ride in their near future.
In my professional life, I problem solve. Problems arise, fires usually caused by tempers and misinformation and I put them out. This was no different. I look at my cell phone with one bar of extended range service (think corn can telephone quality) and get on the internet searching for any fishing lodge places in the near vicinity. I am having no luck and then a memory pops into my head. I’ll try to find a number. 411 gets me the number and dials. One ring, two, three…….seven rings and no answer. I hang up, upset, irritable and lost as to what to do. “No.This will not go down like this,” I’m thinking. One more call to that number. One ring, two…. “Hello?” Sweet. A Voice. A Person. Things are getting better.
I ask the inn keeper if they have any available rooms. She asks if I mean for tonight. I say yes and she says, “No, not right now. Why do you ask? It seems kind of late in the day for a reservation.” I explain my horrid situation and she says to hang on for a minute. She comes back and says, “Why don’t you guys come on and stay with us.” I ask some rate questions and about the grounds and we cover the basics. I ask a couple of pointed questions about certain amenities and she tells me, “Honey, this is my house. Not just a place to come stay but my house. If you want to do something and I’m ok with it guess what, you get to do it. I’m the boss here.” I like that. Straight to the boss.
At this point I know her name is Beverly but that’s really all I know. She tells me about the fishing on their place and how her husband is a professional fisherman. I ask her who her husband is and she says “Why, Gary Yamamoto of course!” Fireworks are going off in my head. Gary Yamamoto is my fishing idol! I use almost exclusively his soft baits and topwaters. Unbelievable. She asks if I am familiar with Gary’s baits and I tell her everything about the baits I love. She tells me to wait a minute. “You need to tell this to Gary, hold on.” She hands the phone to the man himself and we talk for about two minutes about the big fish I caught on the Sugoi Splash. He very calmly agrees and says, “That’s a good bait.” We talk for another two minutes and then I go back to Beverly.
We finish rounding up the details with directions, I go get my refund from Lodge D and we head on the hour trip to Nowheresville, TX. The road to get back to this place is one lane. As we round the corner, this beautifully landscaped ranch appears. Lakes, cattle, everything a guy could want. We were here. The home of Gary and Beverly Yamamoto.
She shows us our rooms and she asks, “Do you think you might want to do some fishing this evening?” I thought about it for about .0001 second and said sure. Then she said something I’ll never forget, “Let me go tell Gary you’re here. He said he wanted to show you a new bait and hook he was working on.
More fireworks. Kid at Christmas. Nervous. And then he appeared. Just a normal guy.
He said, “Hi, I’m Gary. Good to meet you.”
Through the nerves I introduced myself and complimented his beautiful home. We chatted a few minutes and then he offered to take me fishing on one of his private lakes. A lake Roland Martin has filmed a few shows on. Gary Yamamoto and ME!
Again I take about .0001 seconds to think and say sure. I’d love to do that.
We fished for about four hours, swapping stories about fishing, life, kids, business, cows, you name it. He was so easy to talk to and wanted to know as much about what I did as I did of him. We probably caught 60 or 70 fish and of course had his fishing partner Precious with us in the boat. It started getting dark and we called it a day. A day to remember forever.
The next few days I ate several meals with Gary and Beverly, chatting just like old friends and enjoying some cooler than normal weather. He told me about and then treated me to some of his 100% Kobe beef that he raises. BEST.HAMBURGER.EVER. I bought 12 pounds when we left. It wasn’t so much buying as begging to buy.
On the day before we left, my wife and mother in law were having breakfast with Gary and Beverly (who made fresh muffins every morning!) and talking about my trip with Gary. He told her, “I had a really good time fishing with your husband. He’s a really good fisherman.”
She told me this later that day and I about hit the moon.
It’s only been a little over two weeks since my first visit (Gary invited me back in the spring to go chase some big fish with him before they spawn), but it seems like yesterday. I have a few pictures to post soon but the images in my mind can’t be done justice.
So after all that, it would be very hard to say Gary and Beverly are not the finest fishing couple in the world.
