Tonight will be my son's first bass tournament!

[Mike S.]

I am a novice tournament fisherman. Just really getting in to it. I really do enjoy the competition, and the talks afterwards.

My little guy, not so little anymore, is almost 13. He has been after me to take him to fish a tournament around here. Lucky for me, Johnson's in Montague does a Tuesday nighter on White Lake, and it's only $5 a person. Perfect.

Right now, the wind is ripping. Right out of the west, somewhere around 15 mph. White will be an absolute disaster. I have been trying to talk him out of it, but he is dead set on going. I think he's going to change his mind real quick once we poke the nose of the boat out of the narrows. We will be totally committed for the next 3 hours at that point.

I don't have very high expectations for the night. I know there will be lots of fixing line loops, and re rigging baits, and retying baits, and tons of hanging the bait a foot above the water and talking for what seems like an eternity. The most important thing is that he and I will make a memory that will last for the rest of our lives. Looking forward to that.  Who knows, maybe he will become one of the greats some day?

[Mike S.]

Oh man!  He's in his glory. 3rd place, and he got paid. He is on top of the world right now. We definitely made a good memory. I'm a proud dad......again. 

[djkimmel]

If he asked for 50% you have a keeper! Just kidding. Sounds like you actually 'won' tonight!

[Mike S.]

50% would have been great. The guy handed my son the envelope, and that was all she wrote. I didn't even get to see the money.

I don't know what it was, but last night was one of his best nights of fishing ever. He stayed focused, and just kept at it. He put more keepers in the box than I did. He even caught our big bass.

[Waterfoul]

Nice!!  Can I borrow him every Monday night?   

Or better yet... can Marc and I borrow him Thursday night?  Fishing White and could probably use a ringer.

[Mike S.]

Sure. Take him away. Just watch out, he's got a wild hook set. Hard to dodge him.

[Eric]

Good to know you had someone to teach you how to keep your rod in the boat and not at the bottom of the lake.  That should make one in a row now.  Nice job Mike's boy.

[LAPORTE]

Ok where is the pic..... Come off them Mike and share lol

[Mike S.]

One in a row that I didnt lose a rod, or fall out of the boat. Our fish even had water to go to the scales in this time.

You know, we didn't even take any pictures. We should have. He was so proud. Didn't even think about it. We were so busy fishing that we didn't even take pics on the boat. Bummer. He's still carrying that money around in his pocket. My wife said he hung out in his pajamas all day with that money in his pocket.

[Waterfoul]

the bite has improved on White... 1st tonight with 14.85 lbs.  All senko fish.  He would definitely have contributed to our bag tonight, we caught a lot of fish.

[Mike S.]

I wish we would have been on White last night. Muskegon was not generous to us at all. I just don't understand it. Go out to practice/fun fish, and catch plenty. Tournament comes up, couldn't get fish at Meijer.

[fasttrack]

that's why practicing can be over-rated - at least on your home lake that you already know. My son's first tournament was like 7 yrs ago and we got 2nd. His eyes lit up when that envelope was handed out too, just like you said - Priceless!!

We almost lost two of Waterfoul's rods last night while leaving a line out when going to net a fish. Both times we saved the rod AND landed the 2nd fish as well.  Even had a double netting of 3lb'ers. Netted my own then turned and netted his. Tons of fun! Gotta love fish flopping around the boat cause ya cant keep up with culling!!

[Mike S.]

Sounds like a good time. I'm going to totally change the way I fish Muskegon. I am going to attack it in a whole different manner, starting at about 6 A.M. tomorrow. I have to get out of my same old same old rut.

Congrats on the White win guys!!  There have been some real nice bags out of there recently.

[Firefighter Jeff]

   It's fun to see how excited you and your son were about the tourney you fished. Happy for you two.  It's the start of many great memories to come  !!!