First I am going to start out by saying that this might be long winded so bear with me. I probably will totally contradict what I said earlier and make enemies out of some for what I am going to say but hear goes. How many of you personally know ***** in any way other than what has been said on these boards??? How many of you have actually fished with her? I would venture to say that I am one of the only people on this board who has had any communication with her other than by email. The only other person I know of on here that has in Bob and that is because he guided her. I just got off the phone with her husband Erik and I feel I need to make an apology. I said a couple of things that I shouldn't have and feel bad for it. For all the bashing and crap that goes on on the internet, it becomes very easy to become impersonal with the people that we are interacting with. Take for example all the guys on here and other bulliten boards that claim to know it all and when it really comes down to it they really don't know as much as they say they do. The internet has become a way for people to hide behind a computer screen and talk [Bleeeeep!] to anyone they can and really thats not who they really are. I know you all have seen this and if you haven't your living in a hole. For anyone to come on here and say that she deserves it is the one that really deserves it. I don't care who you are or what you did (barring killing someone that is), noone deserves to have to be in a situation like what happened to her. Ya she said things that many people have taken the wrong way, but if you knew the inside scoop about most of what was going on behind the scenes that you didn't know about you might feel different than you do today. I know part of what went on behind the scenes and believe when I say there is a lot more than what meets the eye. I am not saying what she says or does is always right in my opinion, but you know this is america and we all have the right to say what we want. I have a question for all of you out there that are making fun of her. How many of you have actually rowed this and know what you are talking about? I bet you most of you haven't. Even the guides that row the rivers out there don't think it's funny because they know really how tough a simple piece of water might be if you miss one oar stroke. Anybody thats actually rowed that and knew what happened to her would agree that it could happen to anybody. He told me what happened and yes it could have happened to anybody. You might not agree with everything that she says, but you have to admit that a lot of what she says is true. You might not like how she says it but most of her stuff when you look closely at the whole message behind it isn't that far off. I am not saying that what she says sometimes couldn't have been said differently but you have to remember this is the internet and what is said is sometimes taking the wrong way. Basically what I am saying is that unless you don't know the hole scoop don't pipe in unless you do. Like the whole "steve and bob" cartoon thing. People just jumped to conclusions about the meaning of the names when in actuallity her 2 daughters picked out the names. Before you guys make fun of her, maybe you should fish with her and see what she's really like. Ya she may be outspoken but you might feel differently. I don't mean to alianate anybody for what I just said, but in all honesty when I bluff was called for saying stuff about her I realized I was in the wrong and I think that you would too. I don't mean that I am not going to talk to anybody that doesn't like *****, that your choice wether you choose to talk to her or not. But I would also appreciate it if you don't slander me also for the same reason. I have never met 99.99% of the guys on this board so I am not making any personal slams on anybody. Once again I want to send my apologies and best wishes to her and erik for what I said because she has never said anything about me and it was uncalled for.