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Just got a PM tonight that said:

"a few months ago you looked like a big time n00b but now your like... WOW eek "

Uhhh...thanks rofl

The question is whether I'll ever unequip it heart

There's a lot of people who helped me with this goal, so I'd like to acknowledge them here since I didn't always get the opportunity to during this hectic month.

To Holy_Knight57 and LoOpEd, you both inspired me with your trophy runs last month. You both proved that you don't need 10 free hours a day to win a big trophy so long as you have determination and never give up.

To Gaidin, for offering info, advice, strategies, and always taking the time to answer a question, even when I was a noob back in August. I have learned a lot about fishing from you, but I have also learned a lot about being a good Gaian and TFer as well.

To Devil Winged Angil and Pearlystar, for believing in me when I didn't even believe in myself. Especially those first 3 days when I was still unsure if I should go for it or not, you both believed in me and kept me going.

To Cronos99, who offered to support me in my trophy run even when it looked like I was going against Makaeru. The offer of gold wasn't as significant as the fact that you believed in me from day 1, even when facing an incredibly talented fisher like Makaeru. That gave me so much confidence.

To Ariela Steadfast and Transcendent, you two were always there to offer encouragement and support, to bring a smile to my face when I was close to going crazy. You helped keep me sane at Bass'ken, no small accomplishment. And thank you Ariela for my flag as well, I wish I could express how wonderful a gesture that was, but it means a lot to me.

To Crystane and Makaeru, thank you for a great month of competition in the true spirit of competition. There were many times I cursed you both, I confess...as in "Oh ****, they're fishing again!" gonk But you're both amazing fishers, and amazing people as well, and I am glad to have met you both because of this month.

To Snuggle Bunni and Annie Laurie, the two Bass'ken gold winners who came before me, thank you for your well wishes and support. You all know how difficult it is to win this trophy, yet all I ever got was positive encouragement from all of you.

To Pararrayos22 and PrettyDragon, for your constant support and also for never giving up. You both could've quit, and almost did, but you both kept on going. That perseverence helped push me these last few days to reach my goals this month.

To Game-God, who found me cheap bait for the simple desire to help a friend. You didn't do it for profit, or because anyone asked you, just because you wanted to, and that says a lot about what a great person you are.

To all my friends and guilders, thank you for your constant support and well wishes. There are so many names here, so just insert my guilds and friends lists here xd I can't tell you how many times I was exhausted and would receive a PM or a comment in a guild showing support, and it gave me more energy to keep going, but it happened a lot and I thank you all for that.

This is really long and I still couldn't do justice to thanking everyone for all of their support. Thank you so much, I couldn't have done it without you all.

Okay, I think I can relax blaugh



I hit a couple of fishing goals this month. First, I won a gold trophy at Bass'ken, and reached the 200K goal I set out for myself. I also caught a rare fish, which was an unexpected bonus that just confirmed it was the right decision to go for it this month.

I wanted to talk about the competition a bit, but I also wanted to thank people for all that they did. Unfortunately, I think it's all too big for one entry, so I'm going to split them into two long entries razz

First, the competition. I wasn't sure I was going to go for it in October. I wanted a gold trophy, but I wasn't sure this was the month for it. When I woke up October 1 and saw the leader at only 3.5K, I decided I might as well see what happens.

By the end of the day, I had broken my personal Bass'ken scoring record of 7K. I did 8.3K...and I still trailed Makaeru by over an hour. The second day wasn't much better. At one point, I found myself trailing by 6 hours and ready to give up.

Trophy hunts aren't sprints; they're marathons. And it is rare people beat others so much as they outlast them. So with the encouragement and support of others, I was able to cut down the lead instead of throwing in the towel. And that's why my thank you list will be massive.

By the end of a grueling day 3, I took the lead for the first time. It wasn't a big lead, but as it turns out, I would hold first for the rest of the month.

Makaeru pushed me hard the entire first week. Whatever he scored, I would try to match and add 1K. I found myself averaging more than 8K a day, higher than my previous record, doing 10 to 12K days sometimes. The lead continued to grow until Makaeru left for Gambino as part of his overall run. I shed no tears at his departure rofl

But my life didn't get easier. Instead, Crystane really pushed me to keep fishing. She was doing 6 to 8K a day while junking! I continued to add onto the lead because I had a great deal of respect for her abilities. By the mid-way point of the month, her pace was good enough to beat 3 of the past 4 Bass'ken gold winners while junking. I wasn't going to relax until I had a 50K lead against such a great fisher.

Cronos showed up and pushed up the scores a bit. Crystane helped push me towards my 200K goal (I hit 191K before she relaxed). She would slow down and take the last half week off, and still score 140K while junking, 68K above third, proving herself to be an awesome fisher and competitor.

The month is very special for a lot of reasons. I won the gold trophy I wanted, I fished out my first rare, and I made lots of new friends. I also got to see some friends win trophies: Cronos will take home Overall, Ariela will get the Gambino silver she wanted, PrettyDragon and Para will each earn their first fishing trophies, while Pearly will get her junk bronze. So it was a month of personal accomplishment, but also a lot of accomplishment for my friends as well. And that's what makes it very special.

Oh, and in my neighbourhood, that's 2 golds, 1 silver, 3 bronzes this month...not a bad haul wink

Notice anything unusual?

I mean apart from the ridiculous number of times fished at Bass'ken sweatdrop

Yay! Bass'terd!

Weird circumstances...I actually went to bed relatively early, but had some weird dream that woke me up at 4 am so I went to go get a drink, and realized my bait had re-set. So I figure I'll fish my 5 cheapie buckets and go back to bed, Bass'ken will make me sleepy...

Nope. 4th bucket (D-bait), 1st fish starts whipping around like a tuna. I haven't fished at Gambino enough to tell you the difference between icy, spicy, and dicy tuna, but I can tell you when it's a tuna. That's how it felt, and I almost lost it a few times cuz I wasn't expecting it to pull so fast/hard. I thought it was a striper. Then I saw what it was...

I took a screenshot of the bucket but lost it in my scrambling around. 6 am is not the ideal time for thinking apparently gonk Still, it's there, stuck on my stats screen 4laugh

Just posting some images in here since my signature is apparently too long for Gaia rolleyes


Alakazam! Awesome Pokemon sprite done by Viv, thanks!


Kami made us awesome lil banners for Trans' contest.


Ariela Steadfast's flag


Cronos99's flag


Pearlystar's flag


Red guppy plushy (Thank you FairyzMonkeyz)


My flag heart (Thank you Ariela and Thyalla!)


Transcendent's flag

More to come in here soon I hope xd

I didn't know if I was really ready to go for a gold or silver trophy at Bass'ken, so I fished there for the first few days this month. Seems odd to do, especially with A-bait, and not commit.

But it felt a lot like a hand of poker, where you're unsure what you've got and what your opponent has got, so you throw in some money you're comfortable losing to test the waters, before deciding whether to really wager the big amounts.

So I fished some A-baits, content to spend 10 to 25K in bait. I filtered well so I'd be able to at least break even from selling fish if I decided not to go for it. I wasn't sure if I could handle Bass'ken again, especially for a lot longer than August. But this is the third day, I feel really good, and I'm committed to it.

So I'm all in for the gold trophy this month, bought a couple hundred packs of A-bait so there's no turning back. sweatdrop

So how'd I do in terms of my September goals?

As for me, I'm taking September off for gold! Gold as in the bling bling, not the trophy. Goals for this month include a perfect bucket at Bass'ken, catching up on my hats/helms, junking at Durem with F-baits for gold and cans, and learning to filter different fish at Gambino, where I'll probably make my next run sometime in the near future.

I achieved the perfect bucket xd

I finished off my striper helms. I fished enough stripers out in August, but ended up selling many to pay for my trophy hunt. Also got the seedkin/trout items, as well as pebbo caps. Must get more caps.

I junked at Durem, hence the pebbo caps and lots o junk.

I didn't learn to filter different fish that well at Gambino, as I forgot how quickly the fish move compared to junk there, so it doesn't really matter in a trophy run.

So now, October...trophy xd

I'll start at Bass'ken, but if I get sick of it after a few days, going to switch to Gambino for a bronze, or junk bronze. I've been kinda flip flopping since I don't even know if I'll be here for the whole month, but I miss the competition, so I want to get back into it.

As for my fishing goals for my time on Gaia, I'd like to win 1 gold trophy. And fish out every common fish item by myself without buying any fish from others. And one rare fish mask quest (crazy, I know sweatdrop ).

Oh well. October starts in a few hours xd