weigh-in story

[dashaver63]

From Bassmaster.com  I've never heard of this and never thought it could happen.

The Best Weigh-In Ever!
July 1, 2008


Jaison Annarino
My bass club had a tournament last Saturday, and I wish everyone could have seen what I saw.

Everyone came in safe and caught fish. The bags at weigh-in were kind of small, though ... except for one, and it was exceptional in many ways.

After I'd weighed my fish, one of the club members, Gerald, pulled me aside and said under his breath, "Jaison, you see Kelly over there on my boat?"

"Yah," I said, turning toward Kelly who was shoulder deep in the livewell.

"Does he need some help?" I asked. For some reason, I was whispering, too.

"Nah," Gerald smiled, "We fished together today. Go over there and look in the weigh-in bag he's got hanging off the side of the boat."

I started to mosey toward Kelly, who was still struggling with something in the livewell.

Now, Kelly's one of those "good men" that women are always wondering about meeting and men just feel comfortable around because of his character. He asks how you're doing as soon as he sees you, wears a cowboy hat and often has a cigarette dancing around under his mustache while he's talking to you. He's fished for years and has always — always — been happy to share his experience. And, by the way, Kelly's nearly 80 years old, a non-boater and still works every day as an electrician.

I reached Gerald's boat and said, "Hey, Kelly! How'd you do today?"

"hello, young man," he replied, cigarette dancing, his arm still struggling in the livewell.

"Open that bag up, would you?" he asked ... and proceeded to pull out a monster largemouth that barely fit in the livewell.

"Let me be the first to congratulate you on your win," I said to the big grin wearing a cowboy hat. "Well done, sir!"

As Kelly crawled down off the boat, I pulled the bag off the cleat and handed it to him. He had a pretty proud swagger walking toward the scales.

When he reached the weigh-in line, he stood around talking with the other guys for a few minutes waiting his turn.

Suddenly, we all heard Kelly shout, "Oh, no!"

Everyone turned toward him and asked what's wrong.

"Oh, no!" he shouted again holding his bag wide open with both hands.

It looked like Kelly's bag had two cats fighting in it as water splashed and sprayed over the top from the turmoil within.

"He's eatin' him!" Kelly shouted.

"What?" about 10 of us asked in unison.

"He's eatin' him! He's eatin him! ... He's ate him!" Kelly said in disbelief as the bag suddenly became calm again.

He reached down in the bag and pulled out that huge bass ... with a two-pound bass' tail sticking out of its mouth.

"He ate my other bass," Kelly said. "Dang!"

Most of us just stood there looking dumbfounded, but one fellow quickly grabbed Kelly's bass and put it on the weigh-in table. A few extra hands helped to pull the smaller bass out of the other's giant maw, scared but breathing, and return them both to Kelly's bag.

When it was over, Kelly fixed his hat on his head and said he felt sorry for "any critter that was that hungry."

All of this took probably took less than 30 seconds but it seemed like several minutes. No one had ever seen that happen before in a weigh-in bag and, unfortunately, except for one fellow with a cell phone, no one had a camera to record the sight.

My friend Kelly ended up winning that tournament with three fish — one almost 6 pounds and the other two just glad to be out of that bag!

Watch those weigh-in bags guy's! a limit could turn into 1 huge fish just like that!