One Lousy Ounce….

January 26, 2011 - Posted by Steve Dall 5 United States quarters weighs 1 ounce…. I just returned from Okeechobee, Florida where I fished in the 2011 FLW EverStart Series Tournament on Lake Okeechobee. As clouds and misty rain broke over an Okeechobee dawn the last two mornings, a full field of 164 bass boats roared down the Kissimmee River out to the famed Lake Okeechobee, leaving a trail of renewed optimism for me and my fellow competitors about the new season hanging in the air. 28 paper clips weigh 1 ounce…. For starters, that optimism surrounded the “Big O’s” fishing conditions with talks of seeing huge fish on the spawning flats during the practice days. The last two days had been picture perfect for ushering big females up onto spawning beds out on the Big O. Warm, calm conditions have pushed the water temperatures up some 10 to 15 degrees in a matter of days. Toss in a new moon and you have a recipe for giant bags of bass being weighed. A slice of bread weighs 1 ounce… While I talked with several pros at the registration meeting Wednesday evening, several told me that at a few points during the day, they saw numerous bass over 10 pounds. If the weather held up, we were going to destroy the record books. This was encouraging as we all surely had thought in our own way how good the ride to the bank on Monday morning would feel as we deposited the $35,000 check that awaited the winner at the tournament’s final weigh in. A sip of beer weighs 1 ounce…. Day one was solid, but the weather took a nasty turn as a fierce cold front from the north rolled in late morning, bringing with it ominous clouds, pelting rain and a relentless 20 mph wind. I walked to the scales that first day with 10 lbs and 10 ounces and finished day 1 in 41st place, comfortably inside the “money cut” line. This particular tournament pays out through 64th place, so I felt that if I could catch another decent bag on Friday, I could walk away comfortably with a decent check, which is always atop my tournament goal list. A decent sized walnut weighs 1 ounce… Late Thursday night, the skies cleared, a steady 10 mph northeast wind kicked up and we were greeted in the morning to a misty, foggy Lake Okeechobee. The water temperature dropped a mind boggling 10 degrees overnight and fishing was certain to be tough. I knew the weights would drop and if I could catch the same weight as the day before, I would jump considerably in the standings, so that was my goal. I planned on slowing down to a snail’s pace as the fish would certainly be sluggish on this post frontal condition day. A small bag of chips from the vending machine weighs 1 ounce… One day 2 I stepped to the scales encouraged as I had a bigger bag than Day 1. Tournament director and emcee Ron Lappin greeted me on stage as it was my turn to weigh and he announced that I had the first bag of fish that weighed more than day 1. He then announced that my weight was 12 pounds 13 ounces, giving me 23 pounds and 7 ounces for the two days and that I was the new tournament leader. I hoisted my two biggest bass in my bag for the crowd, smiled ear to ear to the applause and now I simply had to wait until another 130 anglers weighed in their bags. I knew staying atop the leaderboard would prove to be impossible, but knew I had an outside chance at finishing inside the top 10. That was now the goal, finish 10th or higher so I could fish Saturday for the top billing, the prestige, the money, the respect. If I finished in the top 10, I, along with 9 others, would fish on Day 3 for the top prizes and the payouts for first through tenth are considerably larger, so either way, I’d be heavily in the money. All I could do now was wait for the others to weigh in their fish. A business envelope, with a stamp and 2 pieces of paper inside, weighs 1 ounce… I sat with friends and fellow anglers in the stands to watch the rest of the field weigh in. I dropped to 3rd some 20 minutes later. An hour and a half of waiting. Watching. Calculating in my head. Fellow competitors telling me not to worry, that’d I’d make the top 10. The weights were down across the board. I dropped to 5th some 30 minutes later. Watching my name on the top ten leaderboard doesn’t get more stressful than that for a tournament angler. I dropped to 9th some 25 minutes later. Texting my wife Emily giving her updates. She watched nervously online for me at work. 30 more anglers to weigh in. I can’t have more than 2 anglers have a collective weight of more than 23 lbs, 7 oz and push me out of the top ten. 6 pieces of notebook paper weigh 1 ounce… The 2 hour weigh in ceremony concluded and the top ten leaderboard was now missing my name. Kevin Thomas of Miramar, Florida was now pushed to 10th place with 23 pounds, 8 ounces over the 2 days of competition. I had 23 pounds, 7 ounces. I know Kevin. He is a great fisherman and an even better person. He knew the pain. Last year he finished in 2nd place in this tournament by a mere 5 ounces. Not that he was responsible for me finishing in 11th place, a mere 1 ounce out of the top ten, but he certainly could relate and was consoling. I’m certainly rooting for him. If you follow my blog, you may recall an entry last February titled “The one that got away”. If you read that, you will know that last year at this same tournament, I was in contention as well, finishing 23rd out of nearly 200 boats. I failed to land a 3 pound bass with just under an hour to go on Day 2 and walked to the scales with only 4 fish and it ultimately cost me a shot at the top 10. If I boated that fish, I would have made it, but that was entirely on me….I didn’t execute last year. I did this year, but it simply wasn’t in the cards for me. I got beat. By a lousy ounce. All is not bad though, trust me. Coming in 11th out of 164 boats is great in my mind, certainly an accomplishment for this tournament angler, but an ounce stings. This sport is unlike no other. You are all alone. All your decisions are done by you. You have no coach, no caddie, no teammates. Your decisions and actions dictate your fate, along with a little luck from time to time. We are allowed to weigh in 5 bass, 12 inches or bigger. If you catch more than 5, you then have to “cull”, meaning replace a bass in your livewell (essentially an on-board oxygenated fish tank) with one that is bigger. That fish may be considerably bigger or it can be a mere ounce bigger. Trust me, it matters as you now see. Benjamin Franklin famously stated that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. The meaning, in brief, is that if we prevent a problem occurring in the first place, it will save a great deal more in time, effort and cost than it would in trying to repair the damage done later because we hadn't paid attention to possible problems earlier. Well, in this case, I believe I did it right, culling the right fish and the cards simply didn’t fall and the stars didn’t align. Hey, that’s fishing. They say that at 211 degrees, water is hot. At 212 degrees it boils. When water boils, it creates steam. Steam can power a locomotive. Unfortunately, this train was a mere degree off this week. Or at least an ounce.