Fishing - 26 Pounds for Fish Fish

Not mine unfortunately, but my partner and I did ok... all things
considered.

Well, the big news is Craig Johnson and his dad brought a five fish bag of
26 pounds to the scale for Yuma Bassmasters on Saturday.

For us it was a good day to.

Since the Antique Kitten isn't fixed yet we were using the tin can on
Saturday.

The timer was out on my livewell pump so I had to switch the livewell on and
off manually all day.

The big motor on my little boat died a couple miles out of Fisher's while we
were running to our first spot. Nothing I did could get it going. It was
like somebody just pulled the kill cord. (The kill cord was properly in
place.)

I just said heck with it and went fishing. Bassfan whacked a couple good
fish pretty quick including one about 5, and a little later I bagged a 6+.
We just kept pulling up the current with the trolling motor. I figured we
wouldn't have much issue making it back to Fisher's with the 82 lb motor I
run on the Whacko, but it started to fade. Before it did I managed to cull a
couple of our smaller fish with a 2+ and a 3+.

Uh-oh. The power started to fade on the little motor. I found a loose
connection on one of the batteries, but it was too late. I don't think that
battery had gotten a good charge because of it. We inched over to the big
sandbar island below Fisher's and decided to walk the sandbar
pushing/dragging the boat. Lots of folks passed us, but it was a wakeboard
boat that pulled us in after BassFan had pushed us atleast 400 yards up
river against the current. My legs gave out.

I bought a new battery to throw in in place of the dead one, but it didn't
have much charge. We fished an hour or so in Fisher's and I we caught 10+
small keepers that all looked like clones. None of them helped our bag. Not
knowing our new battery was about to go dead we decided to try the bank
outside Fisher's. That 82 lb motor does really pull that little boat along.
Bassfan picked up another clone headed out, and we gave it our best shot,
but less than a 100 yards up I couldn't help but notice we were making very
little progress against the current. Maybe 1 inch every six weeks or so.

We called it a day with almost an hour to weigh in and turned back down
current to Fisher's. Both being go done swinging types bassfan and I fished
our way back to the weigh beach and picked up couple more no help fish.

Time to weigh in.

When I saw how many people asked for two weigh bags to bring in their fish I
was a bit concerned. We took two bags ourselves, but...

Our final weight was 19.47 pounds. That put us in second behind Craig and
his dad's 26 pound sack, but it was just enough to beat Jimmy Waits who
finished third with 19.44, and Manuel Garcia and Rocketship who had 19.37.

Yes you read that right.

2nd 19.47
3rd 19.44
4th 19.37

One tenth of a pound total difference between 2nd and 4th place.

Manuel and Rocketship had the big fish of the day, but missed taking
Bassmasters 8lb pot by .18. Their big was a 7.82 pound toad. The six plus I
took early turned out to be 2nd place big fish.

I have to say Bassfan deserves the credit for putting some fish in the boat
quick, and helping me to get motivated in spite of multiple problems with my
boat. I think its time to get off my duff and put my newer motor back on the
tin can.

*** I originally wrote this up Saturday evening, but since then I played
with the motor on the little boat and found it had a faulty choke that was
going all the way closed and staying there. In the shop it took me less
than five minutes to find and fix the problem. A clear head and a couple
more minutes on the water, and I could have fixed it with the tools I keep
in the boat, and had our big motor back. Oh, well. I guess that just shows
if you can keep your line in the water you can catch fish.

Bob La Londe
www.YumaBassMan.com