worst tournament partner you ever drew out with...

Thank God we don't have "boat on boat" draw tournaments anymore where each partner got equal time in front of the boat....always dreaded the drawing because you never knew what you were gonna get.....I had some great ones,some not so great but this one "took the cake"....



Worst tournament partner

Back in late 80's FLW put on their first Golden Blend tourny on Eufaula...this was predecessor to their FLW series and was designed to compete with BASS...several of the big time BASS pros were there(Clunn,Brauer,Roland Martin) and it was biggest tourny I'd ever fished and with the highest entry fee I had ever paid too....also there was a Bass N Gals tourny the next week and couple of the women were in it and bunch of them on lake practicing.......
It was two day tourny and after first day,I was in about 15th place(maybe a little higher)...fishing was a little tough and I think I was within about 4 lbs of the lead....I believe I had 12-15lbs and caught them south right above Pataula Creek where the fish were spawning on a long stretch of sandy bank....

my second day draw was a guy from Alabama who didn't own a boat and when I introduced myself,he immediately told me we needed to go to his fish tomorrow......I asked him how he did today and he said he had 4-5lbs but he had missed some fish and the place was loaded with fish.....there was something I immediately didn't like or trust about this guy from the get go so I told him I had 15 lbs and had left the fish biting so that's where we needed to go...even told him my partner had done pretty well and we both should have a good limit..tried to get him to tell me where he wanted to fish and how he was fishing and he wouldn't tell me so that made me even more suspicious......then this guy wants to flip a coin to see where we go first and I really didn't have a choice since the rules said you had to give him half day on his fish(am glad we don't have to deal with this b.s. anymore)...we flip a coin and he loses...he immediately walks away over to where a few of his buddies are and he's kicking the ground,cussing and almost screaming that he lost the flip and his boater won't go to his fish first.....I'm thinking this is gonna be a disaster tomorrow so decide to walk over and tell him that we would go to his fish first but if it doesn't pan out,we were heading to my fish......this mollifies him somewhat but I'm dreading the next day knowing I had a chance to do well but now I've got to put up with this jerk and no telling what kind of place he wants to fish or even if there's any fish to be caught...


.next morning he gets in boat and still won't tell me where we are going so I tell him,I'm limited on gas(my Hydrasport only held 24 gal.) and I'm not about to run all my gas out running up the river someplace and not be able to get to my fish which are 15 miles south....he tells me then that we are only going 2-3 miles......as you can imagine,we are barely speaking by this time but we head out when they call our number and head north...he tells me to turn into the witches ditch(one of bigger community holes on lake) and we run to the back.....

I had decided against fishing here in the tournament because it was getting beat to death in practice and I figured you'd get covered up with boats...stop the boat in the back part and I'm surprized to see there's no other boats back here...before i can say anything, he jumps up front, lowers trolling motor and starts down this grassline and he's got boat up against the grass line where I have limited area to fish so I tell him to get the boat out so I can fish and he does a little better but guy in front has real advantage.....he catches a small fish pretty quick and just as we get to end of grassline,he catches one 3-4lbs...he gets down to put it in livewell and I start running trolling motor.....front deck on my Hydrasport was pretty small and he wants the trolling motor back and I told him no.....we were gonna take turns in the front going up and down this grassline throwing spinnerbaits..he's mad as hell but he gets in the back..we start working back up the grassline and several boats by now have come back in there so it's starting to get crowded....we get almost to end of grassline and I catch one between 6-7 lbs so he takes the front...we fish about another hour without a bite.......,boats are cutting us off every direction we tried to go...it's probaly 9:30 a.m.,way before his half day was up and I decided I'd had enough of this so I just jumped up there and jerked the trolling motor up and told him to get his jacket on,we were going south...He threw his rod down in boat so hard it damn near bounced over the side....I told him to keep in mind that he had lost the coin flip and I'd given in to him and if I wasn't a nice guy(that's a stretch),he'd be 20 miles south already....I had way more weight than he did yesterday and this place was too crowded to fish and we were wasting time up here...we were heading south and we could go to my fish or I could stop at Lakepoint and put boat on trailer....his choice....when we passed lakepoint he didn't point to the ramp so I kept going...


we get to my area and I'm fishing a C-rig lizard dragging it across beds you couldn't see and right away I lose a monster bass...this guy is still sitting down pouting and he damn sure didn't grab the net not that it would have helped because fish came off before it got near boat....10-15 minutes go by and I asked him why he wasn't fishing and he said because he didn't have any C-Rig weights or hooks....I give him what he needed and we both start catching keeper fish right away.....


My Hydrasport had large rear livewell and small one in front that wasn't good for anything except killing fish so we were both using the rear livewell and I was punching hole in tails of my fish(with hole punch)....both of us spent rest of day catching fish and culling up and I think I had one big fish and four three pound fish which gave me 18-19lbs and i thought my partner had five 3lb fish...he's got a little more friendly as day wore on.....but that would change..


we get back to weigh-in,start pulling our fish out and he's only got 4 fish.(despite catching at least 2 limits of fish)..first thing he wants to see is my fish and I had to dump them out and let him see the hole in each ones tail..he even comments that I must have punched a hole in tail of one of his fish which was ridiculous and I told him so..he immediately goes back into his "lip stuck out a foot,kicking,cussing mode"..he was younger and bigger than me and he was glaring at me like he was going to start swinging and I reached down and picked up one of my shorter rods about midway up the rod and I was fully prepared to bust his head with a 5500C if he made a move toward me..he finally calmed down and headed toward weigh-in line .


I moved up to 5th place and won $2,900. which was big money back then( I finished ahead of all the big name pros and I was really proud of that)....He got a check but would have got a much larger one with one more fish.......and no....he did not offer to help pay for gas....


I saw this guy a few times at Redman tournys over the next few years before he disappeared and a guy I knew that fished with him a couple of times in buddy tournaments,came up to me one day and asked me what I thought of the guy I had drawn out with that day....I told him "not much" or words to that effect and he said I can certainly understand why.....He said he couldn't get along with him as a team fishing partner either....

also never realized what a chick magnet i was until i was standing in line with a big sack of fish and several of the "ladies" that were fishing in the Bass N Gal tourny came sidling up to me in a very friendly manner and asked for help in their tourny...I had already promised to help a lady in the tourny who was related to one of my buddies...and after the tourny I marked a map for her showing exactly where my fish were...and..I learned later she didn't go there because she was afraid she would get lost...it required going straight down middle of lake and back and how she thought she would get lost I don't know...

 

This post is hidden to guests.
To view this post, please log in.
If you are not a member, you will need to sign up.

 

This post is hidden to guests.
To view this post, please log in.
If you are not a member, you will need to sign up.

 

This post is hidden to guests.
To view this post, please log in.
If you are not a member, you will need to sign up.

 

This post is hidden to guests.
To view this post, please log in.
If you are not a member, you will need to sign up.