Fish Lately?

That is a common question I get asked so I thought why not ask it back in a slightly different way, it just took a little longer than I expected. Let me explain, it goes back a little.

My birthday is in mid June so sometime around March my wife said she wanted to purchase me a personalized license plate, also known as a vanity plate that would reflect the fact that I am a fisherman. Thus began a quest on what exactly I would like it to say.

Out here in California the plates can only have a maximum of 7 characters, at least as of the writing if this. Of course my first choice was BASSNMN so I logged onto the CA DMV site to see if it was available, of course not. I then tried every variation of it to no avail.

I then posted the question, Help me choose my vanity plate, on one of my favorite online forums, SilveradoSS.com. Everyone on the site knows that I am a bass fisherman as well as the fact that I drive a Silverado VHO, which is a Silverado SS without the body accents. The suggestions poured in but nothing really caught my eye.

I then thought of that popular saying Got Fish and thought of GOTBASS, so onto the CA DMV I went, yep you guessed it, already taken. Then I figured I’d try A different variation of it, GQT BASS, thinking it looked close and as long as the little tail in the Q was hidden by a license plate frame it would look close enough so I started looking for plates with a Q in them to see how they looked. I tried convincing myself that it looked close enough but I just was not happy with the way it would look.

Then I thought about GET BASS, I checked it online and it was available. At this point I figured I had found it. Before I actually placed my order a guy at work asked me it I had fished lately. Fished Lately? Of course I had fished lately, that was a silly question, then a bell went off in my head. FISH LATELY! Now how to narrow it down to the 7 characters maximum. After some thinking I came up with what turned out to be my final choice, FSH L8LY.

After almost a month I finally placed the order sometime around mid April thinking I would get my plate right around my birthday, boy howdy was I wrong. I also went with Lake Tahoe theme plates because they had a lake, mountains and cattails in the background and I figured it looked like a bassy spot. Anyhow, due to budget issues in our wonderful state there were delays in the processing of my plate, which I personally found as strange seeing how it is the prison system that makes our plates. I contacted the DMV and was told it would take at least 5 months, WOW! A little over 5 months passed and I once again contacted the DMV via their 800 number because I had to go into our local office the next day for other reasons and figured I’d take care of it all the same time but I was told that they had no update on the status of my plate.

The following day I arrive at our local DMV office, did I mention in the past that I live in a smaller town? Anyhow, I’m standing in line, which was not that long and its my turn. As I approach the counter, Angie an old friend who works there says that she was just about to call me because my plates had arrived and everyone thought it was great. I immediately took the plates outside, swapped them with my then current ones and surrendered my stock ones back to Angie.

I know this post really does not have anything at all to do with fishing but I just wanted to share it with you. I hope you enjoyed reading it because I enjoyed sharing it. If your ever out in California and see an all black Silverado Extended Cab, black camper shell and the license plate FSH L8LY, oh yeah, it also says Bassnman.com on the rear window, be sure to say “HI.”

Thanks for visiting my site. Be sure to tell all of your fishing buddies and come back soon!

Until Next Time, Good Luck and Tight Lines To Ya!