The Zebra Jet

  I was set to fish a two day club tournament on the Alabama River.  My partner was Scott Holmes and I had never even talked to him before the tournament practices but I knew him by the boat he drove.  It was a zebra striped jet boat, it was hard for him to hide in a very conservative sport.  He fished the " Bassmaster Weekend Series" which is a step up from the Bassmaster Federation and right off the bat we got along by not getting along.  We would both make fun of the other person and he could not handle the fact that I brought 6 rods and a huge tackle bag, and he really didn't understand why I had two spinning setups.  When I would use a spinning rod, Scott could not concentrate on what he was doing.  He knew it was not the right tool for the job and he wouldn't shut up and fish until I used what I was supposed to.  The problem with the spinning outfits was the action was to light and I would not get a good hook set, he also thought they were very sissyfied.


     During practice Scott would jump from spot to spot until he found fish.  I had to learn that sitting around and fishing one area wasn't going to cut it if the fish weren't biting or the fish were small.  The first spot we got to was a little hump next to a island in the back of a creek.  We hadn't caught much in the first 15 minutes or so and Scott told me to put my life jacket on and we were moving.  When he was ready to go you should probably have your life life jacket on and be sitting down in 30 second or he would not be happy.  I had my life jacket on and then I saw some fish boiling behind the boat.  I told him, and he told me they were stripers  and he was getting pissed that I was casting when he was ready to go.  About that time I had a good spot blow up on a spook.  We stayed for an hour and caught spots that were chasing shad on top of that hump.  He had five in the first hour and I had 3.  I missed a bunch of fish and put on sure set trebles for the next day (only had two blow ups the second day but caught both with the sure sets on).  I was close to my goal of catching a limit but it took most of the day before I got my second two keepers.
   Scott acted like a jerk but really actually wanted to help, he just had a funny way of showing it.  He was culling fish on a Horny Toad and I was learning to fish it and he was supplying me with the baits.  I was getting pretty frustrated, I had a forth fish on a toad but I went for what seemed like hours without my 5th fish.  I threw a hissy fit and Scott gave me the rod he was using that had a lizard on it, gave me the front of the boat and said "here baby, catch your fish".  Two minutes later I did.  I was happy and I had found someone I really liked to fish with.

     I had a limit the second day and finished in the middle of the pack.  Scott won the tournament.  My first two club tournaments, my boaters won.  I felt more like a good luck charm than a good fisherman.   John and Scott both used braid a lot during those tournaments and both were power fisherman.  Of course I over compensated my next two tournaments and used all braid, heavy action rods and power fished when I should have slowed down and scaled my line back a little.

I was sick of this BS and had been making changes and contradicting myself.  I was making bad decisions and spent about 25 days on the water over the next two months to try and figure out what I was good at and had confidence in.

Lessons.

*Braid is good in heavy cover and dirty water, don't over power it with a heavy action rod.  You will rip holes in the fishes mouth. 

*The only thing I liked monofiliment for was topwater.  I was using it on presentations that required strong hook sets and with any length of line out, it would not do the job.  Fluorocarbon was what I really needed but I would not learn that until later.

*Tungsten weights were head and shoulders better than lead.  They are more expensive but worth the price, I found them online at half the price (Alley's Tungsten).  They are more sensitive and are half the size.  Larger lead weights can blow the fishes mouth open wider and make a good hook set more difficult.

*  I liked toads and learned they are really strong for fish guarding fry.  Creature baits like "sweet beavers" and "super hogs" were a great alternative to jigs (which I had no confidence in at the time).