Lumberleo's late FLW story...

[LUMBERLEO]

    First of all I fished this event last year and had a great tournament and finished in 4th, which was one of the coolest experience of my life.  I went into the Stren last year with total confidence and proceeded to have the worst tournament of my life.  Long story but didn't fish past noon either of the first two days.  The series of events proceeded to destroy the rest of my season and I never cashed another check.
 
    I went into the tournament this year very modest and assumed I could not have the luck I had last year. I was just going to try and enjoy the tournament.   

    After the meeting I went to the prayer meeting were Clay Dyer (spelled wrong I think) did a motivational speech that was extremely touching giving me Goosebumps and making me aware of how much of a privilege it was to be fishing this tournament.

    Day 1, I drew Brandon Coulter a great guy from Tenn.  he was in the running to make the Championship so he was going to St Clair to get a limit for sure.  We ran to the Canadian side of St. Clair, not sure exactly where but in the area of Bell Hump.  We were fishing weed beds in 15' f water.  I was using a Gulp Minnow that I used the year before and was catching fish very steady but all were between 2 and 2.5 lbs.  Had a limit by 830 about 10lbs.  He did catch one 4lber on a drop shot creature. He also caught a couple of 3 lbs.  Then we made the mistake of moving at about 10am and proceeded to run around and catch short fish for the rest of day.  I was able to cull up in the morning to 12 lbs even.

    Day 2, I draw Terry Baksay.  I fished with Terry before and he is an awesome guy.  He is hilarious and a great stick.  Just a super quality guy.  I was excited with the prospect of getting a check but had put making the cut out of my mind.

    We ran to his spot in St Clair can't say were but no real secret.  I was confident I could catch the fish there on the Gulp minnow because I have in the past. Terry throwing a jerk bait as always gets bit on the first cast 2.5 lber.  For the next half an hour proceeds to load the boat with fish almost every cast.  I sat there in shock and awe at the sight of this jerk bait genius loading the boat.  About 45min into the show I realized I had not had a bite and start really concentrating on fishing. 

    We were in 18ft of water and I did not have a DD jerk with me so I was stuck with tube or Drop shot.  At about 8am I did not have a fish and was getting very frustrated.  I switch lures and found a bag of green Gulp Gobies in my bag I had forgot I had.  Terry told me that the fish were spitting up crawfish so I thought maybe that would look better then a white minnow.  I finally get a bite and put a nice 3lber in the boat.  I get a couple more 2 lb fish and then things start to slow down.

    I switch lure a bump to no luck and I am starting to panic about getting a check.  I jumped down in the boat and at the exact same time Terry halls back his jerk bait and catches the tip of my rod.  A large explosion takes place scaring the poo out of Terry and myself.  I felt terrible as his 25 dollar plus jerk bait must have flew 30 miles after it broke off.  Probably the most embarrassing thing that ever did while being a co angler.  Terry being the guy he is said he just said he was glad it wasn't me he snagged.

    I finally get bite again and let this fish eat.  I rear back and my rod never moves.  This fish glued to the bottom and will not come up.  I tell Terry it is either a drum or a Musky.  After about 2 minutes it start coming up slow and I get a look at a giant smallmouth.  We scramble to get it in the net and finally I land it.  Awhile later I catch and another fish so I have my limit.

    Happy with my limit and now sure I am going to get a check I start to relax and have a good time.  We weigh in king of early and Terry says I should weigh my big fish because he thinks it is 5 lbs.  I get to the scale and I see 18 pop up.  I can't believe I have that much weight so I weigh my big fish it turns out to be 4lb 14oz.  I put him back and look in the bag and see the other fish I have looks even bigger so I out him on the scale and it ways 4lb 15oz.

    I walked off the stage with 30lbs total and sick to my stomach that I was 1 big bite away from making the cut and spent the last 2 hours of the tournament messing around.  I always say that I fish smart and take advantage of every opportunity but I learned a valuable lesson this week.  I will never be so pessimistic again and go into every tournament knowing that it could come down to 1 bite.

That's why they call it fishing and that why I love playing this game.

Scott

I hope this didn't bore anyone to death.... Really slow at work today.
=) =)

[djkimmel]

Very well done and way better late than never.