Chiller Thriller Report

[fishon1219]

What a wonderful day Saturday was for a tournament. The wind was blowing, It was raining and the temp was right around 40 and all of that before the tournament even started.
I met PoorBoy at the ramp on Saturday and we briefly discussed our game plan for the day. Because I did so well last sunday in the ABA with the same conditions we decided to work the same pattern in the same place for the day and see what would happen. As luck would have it we drew blast off number 3 and off we went.
We started on a point with a nice weedy pocket on either side of it were I caught the majority of my keepers last week and as I went to lift the trolling motor into the water the rope broke. This kind of thing never happens when it is sunny and 80degrees only when the weather sucks. I grabbed the pliers and pulled the pin and we were ready to fish. Just then another boat pulls right in front of us and my hopes were dashed because right were he stopped is were I really caught them the previous week. To my suprise and a true testament to his sportsman ship he seen I was heading that way and he pulled out of there and went around behind us. I don't know who he was but he was in his mid 50's with a big white beard and was in a green Triton. If you are reading this THANKYOU for being so courteous.
Poorboy started out with his jig and I started with the crankbait. After about 5 casts I look back at PoorBoy as he loads up on one and set the hook like he was swinging for an out of the park home run and breaks his line. At this point we thought "Another one of those days". While he is retying I set up on our first keeper of the day. A scrapping little 15". I get him in the livewell and PoorBoy is still retying. Than I hook into number 2. It was a solid 2lber and he is in the live well. PoorBoy is still retying. After a couple more casts number 3 is in the boat. PoorBoy has finally stopped retying and is back to fishing.
We move up close to shore and PoorBoy sets up on number 4 and nice smallie and gets him in the boat. While I am putting him in the livewell he gets number 5 and it is now 30 minuets into the tournament and we have a solid 8lb limit.
PoorBoy is on fire with the jig now and I just happen to look at his line as it shows the tell tale jump of a bite and once again he swings for the fences and breaks his line. While he is in the back of the boat retying I am up front and a smallie well over 5lbs jumps about 10 ft in front of the boat and I can see PoorBoys jig in his lip. The fish kinda rolled on his side and was just floating there Like he was dead for about 10 seconds before he took off. Talk about being heartbroke. At that point we didn't know how the rest of the day would have faired for us, but we both new that fish would cost us some money.
We continue to fish the same stretch of bank for the better half of the morning and could only upgrade our catch by ounces. Neither one of us has ever fished that lake and caught so many fish and not have one over 3lbs. To make it worse we knew that Tony Yancy was the guy to beat out here and he was fishing his magical spot about 50 yards from were we were and we watched him pull in 1 toad after another most of the morning. At about 12:00 we decided to go and look for a bigger fish some were else because we knew that what we had wasn't enough to beat what we had already seen tony catch so off we went.
Every were we went we caught keepers, but they were all the same size. With about 2 hours left we decided to head back to our starting point and try to find something bigger. At this point tony had left his honey hole, but we knew how unsportsman like it would be to pull in there and start fishing it so we didn't. It was like Karma going the other way because of the Guy earlier in the day with the Triton that went back behind us. Just as we get to our point again we watch Tony pull back on his spot and lift in another Hog. Just then PoorBoy screams out Good fish and his rod is doubled over real good. Finally it surfaces and it is a gator about 40" long. We get him untangled and released and keep fishing when my crankbait stops dead and I ease back and feel the surge of another monster. After about 10 seconds into the fight we decide it is not a bass and finally a 12lb carp surfaces with my crankbait buried in his tail.
After that we catch a few more keepers, but they were all the same as we already had. We get to the weigh in and here that tony has already weighed in his bag at 18 something and had high hopes of second place and than Eric bond weighs in his bag of 16 something and we were than crushed at how miserable a performance we put together.
Our limit weighed just over 10 lbs and was good enough for 4th place.  3rd place was just over 11lbs. I lost a pretty decent one on the crankbait that would of got us 3rd and the that fish combined with the smallie that broke off PoorBoy might have just been enough to get us 2nd but it would have been real close.
So the 2006 tournament season ends with a 4th place finish for us. I cannot even explain how depressed I am to know that our tournament season is now over. With out going out to practise for a tournament I don't even want to fish. I am sure glad that it is deer season.
So, Congratulations to Tony and Alex for another stellar performance in the Chiller Thriller and to Eric Bond and his partner for 2nd place. Good job to all of you and I cannot wait until next October to have a chance to be crowned Kings Of Kent Lake.

[McCarter]

I came to a realization on saturday.  I am good.  No, scratch that.....I AM GREAT!!!  Very few people could go out on Kent Lake, on a day like Saturday, under those conditions and completely blow it the way i did.  So to my competition, i have this to say.  It may be cocky of me to point out that you will have to practice long and hard to reach my caliber of suckiness.  But i dont care.  When you got it, you got it.  and McCarters got it, baby!  Try me, if you have the guts to be a horrible fisherman under pressure.  But i will warn you that if you fail to crumble when the money is on the line, i will be there.  waiting.  hiding in the shadows, ready to pounce and steal the spotlight once again.



That said, i finally figured out my problem. I just dont know how to fix it.  It seems in tournaments, when i get a bite i really lay into them.  when i am practicing, i dont set the hook near as hard and i dont really lose many fish that i feel were because of not setting hard enough.  I dont know why i feel the need to rip there faces off come tournament time.  Both the bites i broke off on Saturday were right next to the boat.  And i really hit them hard, really hard............really, really, really, really hard.  Stupid.  Other than that, i fished pretty good.  We caught them all day long.  Thats big girl would have helped a lot, but i still feel we did ok.  I definatly think we could have and should have done better.  I havent been out to find my jerkbait fish at all.  I messed around with it a little for about 5 minutes a few weeks back, but other than that i was relying on one spot and it has since been garbage.

The jerkbait pattern out there will produce some of the bigger fish this time of year.  I really wish i had spent more time in practice finding them.  Its always nice to have a back up plan, and i usually do.  But this time i did not.  Oh well, i am making a good habit of learning valuable lessons everytime i screw up, so maybe in the future i will remember these things.

Thanks to Benny Miller for once again putting on a great tournament.  I think had the weather been a little nicer, we would have seen more teams fishing.  But still a great turn out on a p.o.s. day.

PB himself

[Cheetam]

Awesome job to everyone that put fish in the boat.  Saturday was, as Poorboy so richly described it, a p.o.s. day.  My boots and jacket failed about 4 hours into the tournament, which means I fished with soaking wet feet and a soaking wet torso for 3 hours.  I was miserable to say the least.  I want to publicly apologize to my partner Steve for whining like a little sissy  for half the day, and for not putting any quality fish in the boat.  Congrats to Tony and Eric and their partners for two awesome bags of fish...

[dartag]

it was definately a chiller not sure about the thriller part.  at least the snow was pretty.  the worst thing about it is we drove through the park at lunch today and it was 60 degrees and almost no wind.  there were even a bunch of boats fishing.
we gave it our best shot, but could not get any keepers.  i did get 4 fish in 4 casts but i think it was the same 11 inch fish.  the weather was about as bad as it could get.  at one point we were doing 3.2 mph on my gps without the trolling motor.  Jeff was taking on water, but toughed it out all day.  as they say there is always next year. 
only about 180 days till fishing season is back

[bosshawg]

 tain't a big story teller, but my hats off also to you guys that were able to put fish in the well on a day that was quite miserable. we thought we had a good thing going as my partner caught 3 dinks right off the get go, but just couldn't find the "keeper fish". i did let the weather get to me and  didn't execute the way i had planned or wanted to. we called it abt an hour before quitten time w/only (1) smallie to weigh-in.
fishon1219 i did pass on your thanks to the man in the green triton you talked about. we call him "santa" and one of the nicest persons you could fish with. i did not fish w/him on saturday, but we do do the last chance together.
sorry i didn't get to meet some of you forum guys on saturday as i don't know the majority of you all. did have dan k. stop to say hi on sunday's tournament. i did get to meet fiker50, stackenem & fishstick this past season also w/the tuesday nite nbaa and a few others at dan's "dk open".
didn't have a banner year, the boat goes into hibernation this weekend but already lookin' forward to next year. i hate winters......

[djkimmel]

PoorBoy, try cutting out the tournament morning caffeine and/or the chew just one time and see what happens...

[McCarter]

Good idea.  I will try that.

PB himself