Prefishing
This was a tournament I won back in about June 7, 1992. I partnered up with a friend who I will call Ben. He was too busy working and didn’t have time to practice. On the first day of pre-fishing I wasn’t finding much, but then stumbled on a bunch of large bass in a stump field way back in the shallows. After catching a couple and getting hits without setting the hook, I pulled off and kept my eye on the area as I kept looking for more fish.
I saw a DNR radar boat go by heading toward that stump field, so I flagged him to stop and I asked where all the bass were, just to see if he would tell me. He was all too eager to tell me everything. I told him I already found those fish and asked why is he is telling tournament anglers where the bass were, that might be considered cheating. He had nothing to say and left. Ok now I will have to find other places to fish because this spot was blown by the DNR.
I did find more fish in some backwater lakes, lots of them as this was post spawn and the fish were grouping and moving out.
I went back a couple days later and the fish were gone. They were still in that shallow stumpy area, but it will be packed with boats on tournament day, so I kept looking. I found “one fish spots” on the main channel. This could be good for a limit, but I needed to find some bigger fish.
Fishing another shallow area with stumps, one with current. I found more big fish there! Everywhere I fished in the area I caught fish, it was fantastic! Then here comes a boat, it was shaky, the guy I bought a boat from and has stalking me ever since. I wish I had a nickel every time he has done this, follow me, move in and claim it was his spot, I would be rich. He comes in doing his usually mind games, yelling and claiming I am fishing his spot. Maybe it was, but I did not see anyone fish there before and he does not own the river. So we both hammered the fish (while arguing) in that area day before tournament.
I drove to Dubuque to the pre-tournament meeting and paid the entry fees. Shaky was there and laughing because they got early blast off so they would get to that spot I found first and I was 5 boats behind. I still had my one fish main river spots and more. I do not stop looking after finding fish and that pattern paid off. I had so many backup spots, we could never fish them all. But things were changing fast and I could lose all those fish.
The Tournament
Here we go, nice sunny day with light winds, river dropping, perfect. We blasted off behind shaky and he did go straight to where he saw me catching fish. So there they were fishing the stumps and I was fishing a point near the entrance. I saw him set the hook on a big fish, only to lose it. Then another and another, the stress and pressure was so high, they lost all their fish. I caught one keeper there and then ran down to start my main river route.
The first spot was a slough with large weeds growing up near the shore. My partner was complaining that this is the dumbest spot he ever fished. Just then I yelled “get the net” and he stumbled getting the net, but got the fish in the net and it was over 4 pounds! A few more casts and I was ready to leave. My partner didn’t want to leave, but this was our pattern for the day, run and jump one fish spots.
We worked our way up river pulling in 2 pounders here and there. I stopped at one fallen tree and my partner complained that he hates these fallen trees because you don’t know where the fish are sitting and before he could finish his sentence another 2 pounder came flying in the boat. He shut up about my stupid spots after that.
We went to the weigh-in and I looked around for shaky, but they were gone I was told, they skunked out and quit early in shame. We got fist place and big fish!