My First B.A.S.S. Federation Tournament

“the only time I say “no” is when they ask if I’ve had enough”

     After my stellar performance on Lake Jordan I was voted in to the club. I guess they thought I wasn't to much of a liability because they could not have been impressed my skills. I got knocked out in the first round of my last fight and got right back in the ring. I signed up to be a non boater in the B.A.S.S. 2009 Mercury Qualifier on Neely Henry, April 18th. Never fished there before, but to be honest I had really never fished most lakes in Alabama.

     The way these things work is there are way more people who want to be boaters than non boaters. So after they pair the non boaters, they pair boaters with other boaters. This causes problems because all the boater want to go where they want to go and they argue over who's boat to use, etc... The only way around this is if you pair with a non boater before the tournament on your application. It's called a guaranteed boater. You don't get to fish with that person during the tournament but you generally practice with them and split expenses, like hotels and fuel. A lot of guys will pair up for the year so they don't have to worry about finding a non boater for every federation tournament.

     Enough about how it works, here's what happened. Lee Byrd, a member in my club contacted me about pairing up. I agreed and we practiced a couple days before the tournament. Lee had a Gator Jet boat, which is basically a souped up flat boat with a jet engine on it. A couple people told me to be careful because Lee would drive in water that was 6 inches deep, he loved shallow water and had the right boat for the job. I caught some fish in practice but didn't learn much. Lee was focused on his game and would give me little pointers here and there. I was trying to impress him with everything I thought I knew.
   
     I got paired out with Victor Harper who was from Tuscaloosa and he was the nicest guy I ever met. He threw a Hilderbandt Spinnerbait most of the day and the bite was very slow. I had one small fish in the well that I caught swimming a jig and Victor had two. We had both caught more fish but they didn't measure. We were fishing a big shallow flat in the back of a creek, basically blind casting looking for dark spots which could be stumps. With an Hour left I caught one that went 4.68 lbs on a Master Blaster Spinnerbait . At the end of the day I had 6.30 lbs and qualified for the State Championship by .02 of an ounce.

     There wasn't much I learned during the tournament or practice because I was to cocky to ask questions. I kept telling Lee what we should be doing because I thought Jordan was a fluke and I still knew all I needed to know. It wasn't until after the tournament that I found out that Lee was the most accomplished fisherman in our club. He had stints as a professional and had fished in the Bassmaster Classic (the Super Bowl of fishing) before. Lee would go on to win the State championship later in the year and I wished I would have taken more time to ask him what he thought instead of telling him how I thought we could wack'em.

Lessons learned and to-do's:


1) You can't learn anything if you don't shut up.
2) I liked the hidden weight spinnerbaits, Strike Zone lures made
3) I needed to gain confidence in a technique and quit trying to match what the boater was doing.





The bass that qualified me.

The Big Step

"Discipline is knowing what you want."

There was no doubt that I wanted to fish tournaments and wanted to become a better fisherman, so now what. About two years ago I thought that I had to have a boat to fish tournaments but after reaching out to several bass clubs I found out about the boater/non boater format. Basically, most clubs are draw format which means that there are usually a certain number of boaters and non-boaters. Before the tournaments, there is some kind of lotto and the two are paired. You share the spots you go to (if you have any) and you share the trolling motor time (if you ask for your time up front).

After meeting with two clubs, I found out one was more competitive and a guy in the other club told me when I asked about them "those guys are just out to compete and win money and are affiliated with the Bassmaster Federation." He said that his club was more about getting together and fishing with good guys." I instantly knew where I would fit in. I wanted to win, I wanted to play against and learn from the best. I didn't care about stepping on toes (more about that later). I am a pretty out going person but when I went to The Birmingham Bass Club meetings I was nervous because I really didn't know what to expect. I asked a lot of questions and the guys were actually really great. I had to fish with two of them and then they had to vote me into the club. My first trip was with a guy named Eugene. He was super nice and really told me a lot about how the tournaments and club worked. We went fishing on Logan Martin and didn't catch squat. It was January and I wanted to impress him but that wasn't happening. These reservoirs were totally different from the bayous I grew up fishing so school was in session. My next trip was interesting to say the least, a gentleman (tongue in cheek) named John Nolan was my next ambassador and we were going to practice for a tournament and then fish a club tournament on Lake Jordan, AL. John was amazingly funny and was the perfect person for me to fish with because he told it like it is and shared his knowledge with me since in his mind he could "beat you with his or beat you with yours". He didn't care what anybody thought and did what he thought was best, he also voiced his opinion loudly. He was abrasive, hilarious, cocky and a damn good fisherman- needless to say I really liked him. Everything was happening so fast and now I was about to be in a tournament. I had met several people that told me it was no big deal, but I wanted to set the world on fire. I found out quick I had a lot to learn. The big step was acting on what I wanted to do. I got out of my comfort zone, was joining a club so I could fish tournaments, and before I could blink I was actually going to be in a tournament.



I was a know it all, John Nolan was about to teach me a lesson.