Re: NWC day 2 (long)
- From: "Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers" <stevehuber@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 08:55:22 -0500
"gwilber" <gary.wilber@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1125490958.596554.188060@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Day 2 started with another surprise when I got to the boat landing.
> The parking lot was completely full as another tournament that Steve
> didn't know about had left at 7:00. Our tournament would be leaving
> at 8:00. There were also multiple boats going out to prefish for a big
> open tournament there in 2 weeks. Chris informed me that most of the
> boats had gone under the railroad trestle and headed south, just where
> I was going. I told Brandon to be mentally prepared as would likely be
> fishing used water with boats around us. It had been fairly quite on
> Friday.
>
> I stuck to my plan and headed south to a weed bed below the highway 86
> bridge. When we stopped Brandon had counted 12 to15 boats that he
> could see in the general area although no one was exactly where I went.
> After the tough fishing with crankbaits on Friday I had been thinking
> of other ideas on how to get those fish to bite and was going to try
> and finesse then with slider worms. Brandon had a crankbait on after I
> had talked to him about the pattern and within 3 casts he had a
> smallmouth hooked. It was short but it convinced me to go back to what
> I had been doing the day before so I picked up my crankbait rod and
> started casting. For the next 2 hours we had almost nonstop action.
> We never went more than 10 to 15 minutes without one of us hooking a
> bass. Most of the fish were short but I was getting a good keeper
> about every half hour. Brandon was also getting some good hits but he
> was having a hard time feeling the fish. Running crankbaits through
> cabbage is hard work and you really have to concentrate and cast
> accurately to try and hit little holes and openings or your biat will
> be continually fouled. Every once in awhile I would hear him say
> "shoot, that was a bass". He was still happy to have the activity
> after the slow start on Friday. By 9:30 I had 3 solid keepers in the
> boat and we were still catching short fish. I tried to teach Brandon
> one of my tricks but he was having nothing to do with it. When I would
> catch a short fish I would hold it up in front of my face and tell it,
> " where is your mama". Brandon would give me that look like I have
> seen from my wife many times before and then laugh. I'm guessing
> that he was trying to figure out how to get out of the boat if I got
> any crazier. By 10:00 we had a boat in front of us and a boat behind
> us and no where to go unless we wanted to keep working the same water
> so I made the decision to head up river to some other weed beds.
>
> At this point the action slowed and we were going roughly 45 minutes
> between catching short fish. Finally I got another keeper out of a
> weed bed around noon. After pinching it's tail it just went over the
> 14 inch mark so in the livewell it went and that was number 4.
> Sometime during the morning I caught my first pike and when I picked it
> up to remove the crankbait with my hand Brandon said "are you going
> to do that again, didn't you learn anything from yesterday." After
> that I started to use a needle nose to remove the hooks. Besides the
> weed beds I had also caught some fish in practice off of stumps but
> most of the stump fields had boats in them so we stuck to the cabbage.
> Around 1:00 we worked a small cabbage hump that had a single stump on
> one end. We went around it several times working the cabbage and
> banging our crankbaits off the stump. Right before we were going to
> leave I told Brandon that I was going to pitch a tube jig to the stump
> as it just looked to good sitting there by itself. I pitched to it 3
> times with no takers but on the 4th pitch I felt a hit. I set the hook
> and was snagged. As I moved over the top of it to retrieve my jig,
> when I lowered my rod I felt my line move. I had a fish on pinned in
> the roots. We moved around that stump for 5 minutes trying to get that
> fish out but either it was wrapped around the roots or it just wasn't
> moving. I called Brandon to the front deck and handed him my rod. I
> then started to take off my shirt. He gave me that look again that I
> had seen earlier in the morning and asked what I was doing. I told him
> I was going in after it. He asked me if I really wanted to be reaching
> around down there when we had no idea what was down there but nothing
> was going to stop me at this point. I laid down on the front deck and
> held the stump with my right hand, put the line in my left hand and
> slid my hand down into the stump as far as I could reach. Apparently
> the fish had enough at that point and came shooting out. I pulled
> tight on the line and lifted up a nice 15 and one half inch smallmouth.
> I was so happy that I didn't notice that the power pro had cut my
> finger open at the joint but right now I wasn't feeling any pain. I
> had my 5th keeper in the boat.
>
> At this point I was done. Wisconsin has a no-cull rule and Steve said
> has was enforcing it for the tournament so once you put a fish in the
> livewell you couldn't remove it. I asked Brandon if he had any
> places he wanted to go as we still needed to get him some fish. He had
> a few spots that he and Steve had prefished so we went to those areas
> and I ran the trolling motor for him. He had one fish that was just
> short of 14 inches but couldn't get anything to measure. On our last
> spot as I was getting ready to head for the landing the release rope on
> the trolling motor broke and I couldn't unlock the motor. Since we
> were just a short distance from the landing I slowly idled as Brandon
> worked to retie the rope. He got it tied up and we got back in on
> time.
>
> At the landing my wife drove the boat on the trailer and then looked in
> the livewell. When she saw all the fish on the one side she asked me
> which one of us had the good day. I told here they were mine and she
> was happy for me. Now it was just time to wait and see what everyone
> else had done. I assumed if we were having a good day that someone
> else had found some too. My only scare came when Doc came up to us and
> said that Ronnie had 5 fish. When I told Doc that I did too he looked
> at me and said he was just kidding. I'm guessing by my look he knew
> that I wasn't. One by one people weighed in and it became clear that
> my fish were enough for 1st place.
>
> Everyone had a great time at the Huber's as always. Door prizes were
> handed out and awards given. I once again won a wonderful Steve Huber
> signature rod. The one I got last year was awesome and I'm sure this
> years is too. I can't wait to get a reel on it and try it out. I
> took a bunch of ribbing for winning again and Ronnie told me that I
> can't come back after he made the 2 wins and you are out rule. I was
> also told that I need to get to the Southern Classic so I won't be
> fishing home water. I hope to make it down there one of these years. I
> want to thank Steve and Janet for holding another great event. They
> work very hard to make this enjoyable for everyone. If some who is as
> introverted as me can have a good time then anyone can. I would like
> to thank everyone who donated gifts. Everyone leaves with plently of
> things. Ronnie, I gave that tackle box to my son in hopes that it will
> help encourage him to fish more. I want to thank God for answering my
> prayers and if Ronnie backs down on his rule, hopefully I will see all
> of you again next year.
Great Story Gary. I'm sure that after a while, Ronnie will back down on
that ruling... :-) You're certainly welcome to fish the NWC as far as I
and the others are concerned. The only problem is that you'll probably be
bombarded with requests to be your partner!
I talked to Cliff, the owner of Reflections Taxidermy and he would like your
address so that when he's finished with your Big Bass replica, he can send
it to you. I've already sent the photos and measurements to him so he can
get started. So, if'n you please, email me your snail mail address and I'll
forward that on to Cliff.
Thanks Gary and congratulations on a great finish.
On a side note, I was guiding yesterday and took the clients to one of the
spots I had fished during the tournament. In about an hour, they caught 8
nice smallmouth! That wasn't right!
--
Steve @ OutdoorFrontiers
http://www.outdoorfrontiers.com
G & S Guide Service and Custom Rods
http://www.herefishyfishy.com
.
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