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Over this summer of fishing tournaments, anger has not been an emotion I have very often felt. But during the MWC Gladstone Tournament, this mostly shelved emotion took over the brain and it translated through the mouth with an angry retort to my MWC partner, Pete Huibregste (pronounced hu-brex).
But of course, this is a bit ahead of the story. So it behooves me to describe the events in leading up to this, Rush of Emotion!
To begin, the prefishing for this event was very productive. Since we had worked Big Bay the week before fishing the TFM Tournament, our efforts were concentrated on the west coast of Green Bay proper, seriously south of our contest starting point near the City of Gladstone.
Here we found that shallow water points were the key to fat slot-sized (those less than 23 inches) feeding walleyes, with purple colored cranks the bait of choice. Slow trolling (1.5 mph) Producers, HotNTots, and Thundersticks working the best during our practice time.
So we formulated a tournament plan to early morning fish these west coast walleyes, then come mid morning, race my speedy boat acrossed the front of Little Bay, past Pennisula Point, and on to Big Bay for a chance at those fat 30 inch walleyes we knew inhabited it's waters.
But of course, we forgot to share our plans with the directors of the MWC. As in response to the high winds, they declared all contestants must stay within the foul weather boundary, and shut off the waters outside of Little Bay.
So basically, we were as a team, a lost cause.
But, both Pete and I have a shared instinct aquired while fishing 'Bago during such conditions. When the wind whips the water to a frothy, algae/weed strewn mess, find some rocks and throw out the anchor. We just went back to the basics of pitching jigs and watching slip bobbers!
In this fashion we caught 4 nice walleyes. This helped to keep us in the game with a claim on 40th place.
Waking to dimished winds and an open calm weather boundary on day 2, we were the first boat to set up a trolling pass on this couple hundred foot point near Round Island out front of the Ford River along the west coast of Green Bay. And we immediately connected on a fat 21.5 incher. As boats powered into the area, we did a 180 and our next pass landed us an even better 22.75 inch extra fat 4 lb slot fish.
What A Start!
Since both these fish bit Pete's choice of a purple/pink Thunderstick back 30 feet from the inline planer board, I concentrated on keeping his baits in the 10 to 12 foot deep zone in hopes of more fast action. But other anglers had the same thoughts as the flash of our netted walleye alerted them of hot fish. They quickly moved in to share the bounty and we were suddenly confronted with the trolling movements of 14 other boats!
We did manage to pull one more 23.5 inch fish on that spot, which bit a Producer that had worked well during practice. This bait became a one-of-a-kind when I took a couple of different colored marking pens to it - in an effort to cut down the shine of its brite chrome flash. If you want to see it, I left the bait with Naomi at Bayshore Bait $ Tackle in Kipling.
Then came the lull, other than a nice eye that shook the hook at the side of the boat, we went fishless until 11am. This was the beginning of a small discusion about our next course of action, which led to a rare burst of emotion from this writer.
Pete wanted to run to Big Bay, I did not. Trying to reason with him proved fruitless, and the fact of not fishing all of our spots nearby fell on deaf ears. Even my point that the time we would spend traveling would lesson our fishing time was met with his curt answer - if we want to cash a check, we must go to Big Bay and catch an 8 pounder.
He was right in that, but with no guarantees it was tough for me to agree. So my decision to go along with him was simply a deferment to his more than 10 years of experience fishing the MWC.
As we began the trip, it was apparent my desire of full throttle would not be realized as the wind had switched to the north and my trusty boat was met with choppy 3 foot waves. This boat of mine is very good in this type of water, but the angle of the waves made it tough at full throttle and I had to trim to half speed.
This frustrated me greatly and half-way acrossed to Penninsula Point my emotions boiled over, and in words of anger told Pete this was incredibly stupid. As my glare told him this meant business, he sneared and smucked back "if you have to just go back".
Being at the half-way point also made turning back a stupid move, so I told Pete in no uncertian terms that he was on the Hot Seat, and we had better catch an 8 pounder. My anger was immediately put to use in handling my tough boat at a higher speed than would normally push her - of over 3/4 throttle.
And she made the trip in decent time, but giving an hour for the return trip, it left the impossible task of boating a big walleye with less than an hour to fish!
In haste, we went to the task of setting our 4 crawler harnesses to zone into the 22 - 32' deep part of the water column, and had the issue of threading through those anglers already set up in the spot. Took a bit, but did manage to plot a course to cover 2 of the 3 marks we had logged in the Lowrance X-15 GPS the week before.
Then it happened!
With a cat-like quickness, Pete grabbed the rod with fishing line leading to the inside board that was making a surge towards Big Bay's Round Island. Not once did I remember my anger as I busied myself with moving the other rods out of the way, removing the board, then making ready the net. Since the fish was swimming deep near the boat, I also took the precaution of shutting down the trolling motor lest the fish make a move towards the rotating prop.
When the fish flashed its golden sides at me 10 feet below the surface, my heart picked up a beat as it was a good one. In slow motion the walleye was pulled to the surface and in even slower motion the net was circled around her. Then she was laying on the floor of the boat.
Pete's decision to make the move was vindicated, and in an excitedly stern voice shouted "There, I told you so!"
Right off my emotion changed to happy excitement, and with great laughter announced to Pete that he was a very lucky guy!
This fish won us 4th Place in the MWC Gladstone Tournament and paid us $5200. A great, great way to end the tournament season!
Edited by Rick Larson 9/16/2003 3:10 PM
(4th Place Finishers.jpg)
Attachments
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 4th Place Finishers.jpg (152KB - 303 downloads)
HappyPete.jpg (155KB - 295 downloads)
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Member
Posts: 2393
Location: Waukesha Wisconsin | Awesome story. You have a real gift at putting your thoughts to words. I always enjoy your satire and quip. Keep it coming and congrats on the great come back. | |
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Member
Posts: 538
| Its becomes a very interesting situation when two warriors have too compromise on a time critical situation. I'll bet that you two will laugh about this event well into your twilight years.
Good job in the tourney and thanks for sharing.
Take care,
Jim O | |
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Member
Posts: 61
Location: Niagara Falls New York | Rick, Another fine display of writing. I would have to say as a tournament fisherman myself we have all had our different ideas on where and how at a particular moment. Sometimes it ends in going to an area that you might not have confidence in but your teamates do and it works out. As in your case. I am glad to hear you did so well in this tournament. Sincere congrats from the entire Dolly family. | |
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| Rick,
Again Congrats to you and Pete, wonderful game time decision, but I have one question.
WHY DID YOU WEIGH IN 1/2 HOUR EARLY?!!!!
YOU GUYS COULD HAVE WON!
We were picking fish right in front of Gladstone for two days, one of those two pounders would have vaulted you right to the top. You cannot afford to waste any time when tourney fishing. (just a friendly scolding)
Rob | |
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*Alas*, that is true.
Robby, you shine the light on the worst part of an otherwise perfect day. Again (as in every tournament), I'll have to wipe my brow in considering what could have been, and count this another lesson for this "rookie" to have learned.
Edited by Rick Larson 9/18/2003 3:33 PM
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Member
Posts: 376
Location: Menominee MI, In Da UP Eh? | Rob has valid points to offer, but then like I told ya, it was better to be 1/2 hour early than 1/2 hour late!
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Valid points are a big plus Ralph.
I would much more like to focus on the place we were awarded as to wish what could have been. There are alot of guys that would like to have had our 4th place position.
Besides, its more fun (and would rather), highlight my own mistakes!
So here it is; we had a good basket of walleyes. And in the haste of getting to the scale in a timely fashion, I failed to take a quick look at my time card which read check-in was 2:30 pm. Instead, we arrived at what I thought was the deadline of 2 pm. So we did loose 30 minutes of fishing.
Its just so amazing how the thrill and pressure of a tournament does funny things to the mind...
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| Rick,
Please don't think I was taking anything away from your and Pete's success, I'm very proud of your accomplishment. We just couldn't beleive it when you drove right past us on the way to the launch. We honestly thought you must have zeroed and were trying to beat the rush at the launch.
Rob | |
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Brought this story up just for you Dan. It was our best finish ever! | |
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Member
Posts: 2680
Location: Essexville, MI./Saginaw Bay. | Originally written by Rick Larson on 2004-03-11 10:29 PM
Brought this story up just for you Dan. It was our best finish ever!
I liked your version when you had a face full of ribs better.  | |
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Member
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Location: Webster,NY | Rick, great story and very well written. It's times like those that can either make or break a good relationship. I'm glad your results were so positive. Thanks for sharing. | |
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Member
Posts: 794
Location: Elgin, Illinois | Great story...
And, a great finish! Did your partner make you give him "all" of that check?...LOL | |
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