Off Road Angler

Florida fishing in May has traditionally been great for me. The bass have finished all their spawning activities and settled back into normal fishing patterns. I can usually go out with virtually any style weightless soft plastic lure and have success. I’m a very results oriented person (it’s one of my weaknesses) so I especially enjoy going fishing even more than usual during this time. It’s very gratifying to be successful on every outing and to do so without much extra effort is a bonus.

You know living life with a disability is usually anything but normal and results viewed as success can often be far and few between. It is definitely not easy by any means and just the basics of life can require a great deal of effort. However, this lifestyle provides a different kind of reward and one that can be much deeper and more satisfying. It requires a lot of patience, persistent and even perseverance. Most of all it requires a lot of prayer. Coming to our savior daily for strength, encouragement and comfort is the only way I can make it.

Now don’t get me wrong on hardships. It’s not something that we should see as a trophy or something that makes us better than others. Hardships are just part of life. Some people have few, some have many and other just fall in the middle. The point is that whatever burdens we have Jesus is there to carry them for us. He wants us focused on Him and resting in Him during both the good and bad times.
You know I often have a harder time trusting and staying centered in the Lord when things are going great (another weakness of mine). I can get very distracted and drift off base a bit. During these times I find it helpful to get a way by myself or with my wife to do a little fishing. Something about being out in God’s great outdoors and enjoying the simple gifts he gives helps me refocus.

Ultimately, as believers we will be resting in heaven with Jesus without hardships, burdens or distractions but until then we have to keep your eye on the prize as we walk (or in my case roll) through life………and sometimes a little fishing can be a great help in doing that.

I love it when Gomer Pyle says suprise, suprise, suprise on his old TV shows. It reminds e how good and fun life in Christ can be.

You know I’ve shared how I’ve struggled to figure out and catch bass in the lake behind our house recently. It’s been really hit and miss since December. Well one day while trying a variety of bait a crappie was cxaught on a crankbait. Huh, I said to myself I did not even know there was any crappie here. I mean the lake is pretty good sized and I figured there were other fish like catfish, crappie, bluegill, etc. but just never heard anyone talking about catching them here.

well to make a long story short, I called my buddy Leonard who loves to catch AND eat crappie and he and a friend came over the nextr Friday afternoon. We went out in our back yard where there was a small cut where water flows into the lake and caught about 100 crappie in two hours with little jigs!

WHAT A SUPRISE!

You know God is full of good suprises too. Sometimes we are too focused on other things to see or find them but they are there if we’ll just slow down and rest in Him and the blessings He sends.

Well I’ve been in Florida now three years (two in Fort lauderdale and one in Orlando) and I have yet to figure out when the dang bass here spawn.

This is when the males come up shallow make beds and “whoo” the female bass to join them. It is a very key marker for where the fish are located, what type of lures need to be used and what type of techniques are best to catch them. There are pre-spawn patterns, spawn patterns and post spawn patterns. There are spring, summer, fall and winter patterns based upon when the fish mate too. Knowing all this is extremely intregal to catch bass.

The problem I’m having is figuring out what stage the fish are in currently. Usually in Texas they mate in April and May like clockwork as the water tempreture warns to 70-75 degrees. Here I’m told they start spawning as early as December down south and February here in Central Florida but with the crazy weather the past few years things are fluctuating and who knows.

Personally we’ve been fluctuating too. Joni and Friends closed the Florida area ministry office on 2/22 leaving leanne and I without jobs and even worse without clear direction on God’s plan for us. It’s kind of like not having that marker in the sand helping you know where you are in life spring, summer, fall or winter due to changes in the weather.

Fortunately God is with us and promises to both be there and guide us through our transition. He has a GOOD plan for us and so many GOOD promises to keep us going as we seek Him and what He has next for us.

You know the weather and fishing patterns will stabilize and get back to normal just as our lives will as we stay centered in Christ. So like with fishing you gotta just keep casting and in life keep following the Lord until the sun shines again.

Hey even in unsure times God can rain down some gem of blessings……..like this picture of a recent catch when I was not sure what I was doing.

We’ll we’ve relocated the Joni and Friends Florida office and our home to Orlando…….got here the end of April. Before we left though we had the opportunity to go to a private horse farm with 5 small lakes on it.

After being treated to an awesome lunch that day, we fished with our friends…….from 3pm to 5pm we caught virtually nothing…….only a few small bass and a bluegill. Then a little after 5pm the fish turned on and we had the best fishing day we’ve ever had in Florida. I caught around 6-7 bass between 3 and 5 pounds and Leanne caught a whopper 8 pounder! I had been catching mine on a soft jefk bait and then top water frog and suggest Leanne change from her deadsticking fluke method to catch more fish……….boy was I wrong just a few minutes later Wham……the 8 pounder.

Moral of the story…….we’ll I’m not sure on the big fish but overall prayer, patience and persistence followed by perserverance really pay off!

Well, I’ve had my eye on this nice retention pond by the toll road here with a parking lot for the booth workers and Sunday I went out to try it.

It looked pretty flat and accessible as they had just mowed the grass. However, the mowers had left some ruts around the banks and after venturing within 4-5 feet of the waters edge I got stuck!

Now you should know that getting stuck is nothing new for me……it does not happen a lot but I’ve had my share of flat tires, mud puddles, sand dunes and even falling out of my chair…..one with a top watter popper and small bass hooked on my shoelace.

Usually, I start praying and thinking about how to get out of the situation and God sends some unsuspecting jogger or walker by to help me. This time though despite cars zooming around the exit ramp all around me no help was truely in sight……so I turned to my avenue of last resort…..calling Leanne.

Now it’s not that I don’t want to call Leanne, I just don’t want to worry her……plus she usually gives me a bit of a SAFETY talking to afterwards.

This time was no exception……after rescuing me, seeing that I was ok, she gave me a few stern words…….kinda like God does when we stray a bit or have a lapse in judgement……we can always call on Him though and He’ll always come rescue us……kinda like my blessing of a wife.

My name is Doug Goddard and I’m a c5-6 quadraplegic who loves my Faith in Jesus, wife Leanne and family, Tennessee football and fishing in God’s great outdoors!

Recently after I went bank fishing at a local park, got stuck in the mud in a remote area, could not be located by the park staff, got a bit over heated, was visited uneccessatily by local paramedics and then had a solid luch of three bottles of water, a pack of M&Ms and a McDonald’s double cheese burger at the park office, a friend of my wife’s suggested I start a blog for my many fishng adventures…….so here I am.

Before I get to far along though I’d like to tell you a bit of my story…….you see I had a diving accident in 1983 before I was 16 that resulted in my being paralized from the chest down with no movement in my hands either. This was a life changing event for me as I not only had lost the ability to play football, basketball, baseball, etc. that had been my life’s focus but God graciously used this situation to show me how much I needed Him as I trusted Jesus as my Savior while in the hospital. My life was still tough but with God’s promises as my strength I felt called to be and do the most I could with what I had.

Again by God’s grace I finished high school – was even elected president of the student body, went on the attend and graduate from Vanderbilt University with a BA in Economics before being bless by marrying my best friend and soulmate Leanne……we’ve been married for 16 years to date!

After we got married we moved to Dallas, TX for me to attend and eventually graduate from Southern Methodist school of law in 1995. While in school there I managed a sports card and memorabillia store and fell in love with the industry as it was a unique combonation of economics and the games I played and loved growing up. In turn I spent the next 10 years working for various manufactures like Topps, Donruss, Playoff and Pinacale doing product deveopment, marketing and working with players and the leagues……I even recieved an industry man of the year award while I was the VP of product developnent at Donruss/Playoff.

While in Texas I was able to renew my love for fishing as there were several ponds in a nature center a few block from our house. It was one of those things where I knew how to fish in my head from going with my uncle lots growing up but had not figured out how to do it given my current physical challenges. You know to this day my biggest memories and fishing milestones are not the biggest fish I’ve caught but the day I figured out how to tie my own hook/baits on with a clinch knott like my uncle showed me when I was 10 and when I first took the hook out of a fish and threw him back into the pond by my self. I tell you God I good and really will give you the desires of your hart as we follow and focus on Him and are persistant and patient.

In any case, to make a long story short I am now able to give back and help others affected by disabilities as the Florida area director for a Christian non-profit ministry called Joni and Friends (www.joniandfriends.org) and work with professional anglers and tackle manufacturers through my own sports marketing firm Synergy (www.synergybusiness.net).