Fishing with Shaky

Practice for Tournament

Shaky wanted to fish a tournament together. I met Shaky at tournament weigh-ins. He was sponsored by a marine dealer in Burlington and he got a Bass boat from them, and if he sold the boat he would get a new one, that’s how those boat sponsors work, buy one boat and sell it and get another.

So I bought his 1986 Champion bass boat, which was one of the fastest boats around at the time. We worked in the same plant at the steel mill. He was also a neighbor, living 2 blocks away. We were friends, but at a cost, he wanted to know every where I found fish and I am not the type that likes to talk about where I found fish. If I didn’t tell him, he would just stalk me to see where I am fishing or have friends stalk me.

We had fished together a few times and he wanted to do a tournament together at a city tournament at Savana IL. It was the craziest time I have ever spent on the fishing. To understand who shaky was, he loves to stir up trouble, which he still does to this day 40 years later and why I am telling this story.

It was time to practice on pool 13, which means find fish. Bass tournaments are not about spots, but about finding where the fish are at any given time, because they move depending on season, water levels and water clarity. We headed up to Savana IL in his little Bronco pulling his bass boat. On the way up we stopped by a bait shop. Not to get bait, but so shaky can shake down the shop owner for information. He didn’t have any to offer, so after shaky called him a few names, we were back on the road.

Driving out of Thomson shaky says “look, there’s a train, I’ll try to beat him!” he said as he laughed. The train was going about the same speed as us, about 60 mph and a couple miles up it crossed the road road and he didn’t want to wait. So he floored it and we were gaining on it as we neared the crossing and then he changed his mind and decided to stop, but there was no way we were stopping pulling that big bas boat so I screamed, “go go go” and pushed down on his knee.

He floored it with his little little 4 cylinder bronco and  got up up to about 70 just as the RR crossing arms were coming down. Now in a case like this I would ignore the arms, they are made of wood and will break, but he swerved to dodge them and we about flipped over and went rolling down the highway! We made it while flying through the crossing about 70 mph. Papers were flying all over inside the bronco. That was close! Shaky starting throwing out all the papers and his breakfast garbage out the window. He laughed and laughed, he thought that was so funny.

We got to Savana, launched the boat and headed up river. We ran into a thick fog and he kept running up the middle of the river. I was yelling for him to stop and finally he did stop and asked what’s the matter. I said “you can’t run in this fog and have to take a side channel where there are no barges”. Just then a huge wall of steel appeared right in front of us about 60′ away, it was a barge! If we hadn’t stopped we would have hit it for sure!

So we took side channels up river when we could. Running in the main river again shaky said, “oh shit we missed our turn”, then he turns anyway and hits a sand bar and we went airborne for about 30′.

He shut the motor off and started to look in his tackle box while I jumped up and dropped the trolling motor in. Right away I started pulling in bass. He kept asking, “do you think this one will work?” while I pulled in one after the other. I had 18 bass, all keepers and I don’t even think he knew it, he was so involved in looking for tackle that might work. Finally he was ready to fish, he picked a small crankbait as I was using a spinnerbait. He pushed me out of the way and got on the trolling motor and we did not catch another fish there.

We ran up river to one of his secret spots, (I have fished it before). He was using his crankbait to fish a log jam and we caught nothing. I told him I had a secret spot up river by Belview and he reluctantly went there. Right away he is complaining, “this is a dumb spot” he said over and over. I told him to just take a break and eat a sandwich and he did that. Just as he took a bite I pulled in a 3 pounder! I wanted to leave the fish alone so we left. I showed him a couple other spots where I had big fish located so he would know whats going on come tournament time.

The Tournament

We survived the practice day after the 3 close calls, and now was the tournament. We were catching fish here and there, but nothing big. I suggested we hit my big fish spot, three hidden stumps in a row along a bank with no structure, and so he agreed. He ran right up on top of the spot spooking all the fish. We caught nothing there.

Next we went to his secret spot up river, the logjam. He stopped below it so I couldn;t reach it from the back and he casted his little crankbait with small weak hooks up in front of it and hooked a 5 pound bass. It fought for a few seconds, jumped out of the water and spit his lure out. That is a rookie mistake to use small crankbaits to fish logjams. It is not covering the spot right and using small hooks has a great loss rate for big bass. He casted up there again and got snagged and spoiled the spot. He started yelling to find him another crankbait like that one. I was digging through his tackle box and when I stopped myself, why am I doing this, this is stupid and not how I fish anyway. We did not catch anything there.

After awhile of wasting time of his spot, I suggested we head to mine. What he didn’t know, and I wouldn’t tell him is – that spot was silted in with sand and there was a drop off. Previously I pulled a sunken tree to that drop off and I won tournaments on that log. He started complaining about my spot calling it stupid. I told him to take a break and eat a sandwich and he did. Just then I pulled in a 2.5# bass! Still not convinced he wanted to leave.

Working our way down river I wanted to stop by a point that no one fishes, a fly by spot. Shaky is crying about another “stupid spot”. I suggested he sort the fish and so he agreed to do that. Just as he was sorting, I was pulling in more keepers to sort. He ignored the fish and was getting angry. I held one keeper over his head, letting it rest on his head and he kept slapping it away saying “get that thing out of here.”

We stopped by one more spot where I had fish located, a small marina by Sabula. I was running the trolling motor and then a big cabin cruiser was leaving, so I had to get out of the way and moved close to the docks. He started yelling, “what are you doing you dumb SOB” and pushed me out of the way. He turned the boat and headed back out to where I was and then that boat blew their horn and it sounded like a train horn! Shaky says, “oh shit” and quick moved out of the way.

We placed about 10th, having no big fish. On the way home he wanted to stop by big slough lookout to check on boats. He pulled in and got his high powered scop out and was watching a bass boat. He kept laughing that he could see what lure the guy was using. I told him I don’t do this sort of thing and wanted to leave.

We drove down the street to a bar and he wanted to talk to the guys to see if he could get any information on where others fished. I did make it home safely.

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