LOZ Stren Series 2008 - Part 2
I don’t remember where my blast off position was on tournament day. It didn’t really matter either, I had an older slower boat so the plan was to just take my time getting there and fish what was open. Not a whole ton of boats had made the run to that area so it looked like I’d be able to move around as I please. I fished a couple places without any luck but my bite was only going to get better as the day moved on. Then it happened, everyone’s worst fear during a tournament. My motor went pop and I was dead in the water. There’s no way I was making it back on this day and I didn’t know what to do. Fortunately my co angler, who’s day was also ruined had a great attitude about it and suggested I just troll over to a nearby marina and ask for a ride.
I never believed it would work but it was the only option I had. Off I went and much to my surprise the marina manager came in on his day off and drove me back to the ramp. They wouldn’t accept any payment and I couldn’t believe how nice the people were down there. We found a ramp and got the boat back on the trailer and since we had nothing to do we went to lunch. Rick my co angler bought me lunch and I’ve got to give a big shout out to him for being awesome about the whole situation. While none of this was good, I dealt with great people all day that made a disaster like this manageable for a young me.
I had to figure out what to do next because I was still committed to fishing 2 days. In a draw tournament like this you don’t have the option to just go home. The tournament director suggested I head over to Marty’s Marine and see if they could help me. Those guys dropped everything to tear into my boat knowing I was in the tournament. I’m sure they are no stranger to tournament guys coming in with an emergency in that area. Well after a little bit of work they determined it was blown and when I asked them what I owed them. They said “you’ve had a bad enough day, don’t worry about it”. Next up I had to get my draw for the next day. News had traveled about someone blowing up a motor and after I met my co angler and said I’d had a rough day. His first question was you aren’t the guy who blew up their motor are you? Well I sure was!
To make things worse, this was the last tournament in the series and this guy was leading AOY. Fishing was super tough and he’d caught 1 fish on day 1. However, it was a good one but he really needed some fish for day 2. As if I needed anymore pressure on me? After what happened on day 1 I had no idea if my stuff was even any good. He was able to get his boat from a few hours away and off we went on day 2. My tournament was done so I was planning on just running the trolling motor for him. The rules dictate the “pro” must stay on the front deck and the co must stay on the back deck. It was cool knowing that he was really fishing for something exciting and every fish would be a big deal. Fishing was tough and weights were bad, it wasn’t going to take much. The interesting part is all day he wanted me to be fishing too, even though I had nothing to gain. After he got a few in the boat and felt confident he was in a good spot I made a few casts and caught 3 keepers. It would be exciting for me to get to cross the stage. We stopped at a place on the way back and I was running the motor for Joe, hoping to get him one more. He was throwing a fluke and got bites on back to back casts and had to re rig. All the while telling me to throw in there. After a lot of encouragement I made the most half assed cast ever and got my stuff back to the boat. He threw in there again and hooked up with his best fish of the day. We were both pumped because we knew he had sealed the deal on something that was really important to him. He weighed 4 for 8-14 to go with his 4 pounder from the day before. Despite not catching any on the next day he still got paid! It only took 10 pounds 13 ounces to get a check over 3 days as a co angler, that’s how tough it was.
On day 3 we were stuck trolling around for the day and while my co angler wasn’t in the hunt a good day could put him in check range. He’d caught 3 on day 1, none on day 2, and needed at least a couple today. Once again, I was planning on running the motor for him so he could get some bites. I did some fishing again with a lot of encouragement from Roger. I think it was awkward for those guys to just have to do all the fishing so once in awhile I’d fish again. Roger had his best day of the event and also got paid.
My day 1 guy Rick was the only guy who got hosed the entire event. All those guys were great to me down there and I’m very thankful to have drawn them. I could have just as easily gotten some dude with a terrible attitude and no issues being disrespectful to a punk kid with a blown up motor. I could at least feel good about my co anglers getting paid but it felt pretty crappy coming in 113th. I know at the time it really bothered me that you could look at the tournament results and it just looked like I didn’t know what I was doing. I’m really curious how it would have shaken out if I could have fished hard all 3 days. It took 27 pounds over 3 days to get a check and I feel like I could have pulled that off. What I do know was it was a major setback in the fishing “career” I was hoping to pursue. That’s my story on the one time I tried to fish a AAA event. Here are a couple links to the results and articles from the event.
https://majorleaguefishing.com/events/2008-10-08-lake-of-the-ozarks/
https://majorleaguefishing.com/events/2008-10-08-lake-of-the-ozarks/results/