"go-bassn" wrote in message
news
"SimRacer" wrote in message
. ..
I have been asked to
actually fish in some team-tourneys around here next year myself.

I know you're not a tournament gey (yet) Sim, but this simply will not
due.
You can't fish a team tourney yourself, you simply have to find a partner!

Warren ;-)



LOL! Yes, I know. I should've said I was invited by a current tourney man,
that needs a new partner. We met at the local cheese and cracker/soda/bait
shop and have talked at a couple of local boat ramps before too. Nice fella,
has a glitter rocket (newish Triton Tr 21x), and has invited me to fish with
him starting next month, to see how it goes. He was the one that ultimately
ended up getting the mount done on my big fish from last year so I guess you
could say he is "my taxidermist" now too. He thinks we'll mesh well because
he descirbes me as a "quality/trophy fish hunter" and calls himself the
crank and catch tournament guy, looking for the 5-7* heaviest fish he can
boat any particular day (*some one-day, 2-man tourneys around here weigh in
7 fish since 2 people can retain up 5 fish each in our state, per day). I
can't usually put a full livewell together, but I always seem to find 1 or 2
fish each trip that are over 4-5 lbs (on average, of course I zero at times
too). So he figures it's worth a try, and we've become decent friends over
the past year and I think he trusts me to behave and act right on his boat
in a tourney situation. I have committed to their first tourney, which is on
one of my "home" lakes, so we shall see I guess.

It is by far the best situation I've found to get to try tourney fishing. I
wanted to hook up with someone I at least knew, and also want to be a
non-boater as I don't really have a rig suitable for tournaments. It could
work, it meets the local standards (16+ feet, large livewell, et all) but it
's not really designed for anything more than a casual angler such a myself,
for weekend fun and the occasional mid-week "sick" days when the water hits
the right temp and I am so sick that I "need" to be on the water for the
cure... ;-)

I'd love to hook up with the ROFB group sometime too, but my schedule
doesn't really allow me to block off the travel time to the various distant
places you all go/have been of late. You all ever get within an area bounded
by Kerr Res/Buggs Isl. VA to the North, Santee Cooper to the South and East
of the TN mountains, I could prolly make it. Otherwise, I can't. I own my
own business and days off mean no pay...no pay means no gas money, you get
the gist. LOL! That area includes a lot of nice bassin lakes: Harris, Jordan
and Falls near Raleigh. Wiley, Norman, and High Rock near Charlotte, Kerr
Res/Buggs Island and Gaston lakes on the NC/VA line, and so on. Just FYI
though, none of them hawglike Florida-strain critters live up here that I am
aware of, so fisher beware. They don't get "that" big down/over/up here in
NC.