The one that got away…..

March 19, 2010 - Posted by Steve Dall There comes a time in every fisherman’s life that he or she will be on the losing end of a battle with a memorable fish….it’s just a part of fishing. Guiding for years back in Illinois and Wisconsin, I can remember a great client of mine who lost a 48”, 30 pound class Musky at the side of the boat on the Fox Chain of Lakes one fall morning that still haunts me and I am sure him as well….it’s been almost 15 years, but it feels like yesterday. This past year while in Key West fishing with my good friend Joe’s fishing charter company, Almost There Charters, my wife and friends Liz and Perry spent an evening fishing tarpon in hopes of having the girls hook up with their first tarpon. My wife Emily had on an easy 100 pound class fish that she fought for over an hour that eventually wore through the fluorocarbon leader and broke off near the end of the battle….she still talks about. It hits us all and I have had my fair share, trust me, but when you lose a fish in a tournament, it can literally haunt you. This past Thursday and Friday, I was fishing in the FLW American Fishing Series event on Lake Okeechobee, which brings in a mix of pros from around the country and fantastic local anglers alike. Over 300 of the best bass fishermen in the world settled down on one of the most storied bass fishing lakes in the country to compete for tens of thousands of dollars in prize money and prestige. My tournament strategy was simple: Finish in the top 50 to cash a check, be ready for the ever changing weather elements, adjust with them, find clear water, find a specific type of vegetation and as a longshot, catch 10 pounds a day the first 2 days to qualify for day 3. (The top 10 combined weights from Day’s 1 and 2 advance to fish day 3) On day 1 we launched out of the famous Roland Martin’s Marina to the chill of a 30 MPH wind howling that dipped the wind chill into the 30’s. Our fish down here simply don’t like cold fronts, more so than most areas I have been to in the country, so we were in for a tough day. Day 1 went great…I had my limit by 10:30 in the morning and culled 6 times. When tournament fishing, you are fishing for bass over 12 inches long and you can weigh in your best 5 fish. Once you catch your 5, any fish over 12 inches that you catch going forward you can replace, or “cull” for a smaller one in your livewell, thus upgrading your catch. A 12 inch fish generally weighs 1 pound, so catching bigger fish obviously gives you more weight. Bottom line, I weighed in 10 pounds, 5 ounces which put me in 23rd place after Day 1….I was very happy, right on pace for where I wanted to be, a mere 3 pounds out of the top 10 and excited to call home to tell Emily. Phone calls of that nature don’t happen often in tournament fishing, as only 1 person can ultimately win and such a small percentage of the anglers can actually place high enough to cash a check…very similar to golf, but in fishing, you don’t have a caddy to tell what to do. Unlike other sports, you have coaches, a pit crew, a manager….in fishing it is all YOU and there simply is no other sport like fishing, think about it! You live and die with every decision. Day 2 brought the cold front that the heavy winds on day 1 blew in and I was in the first flight of boats to take off at 7:00 am to the chill of near freezing temperatures and a steady 15 mph wind. I was certainly dressed for the weather, but I haven’t been that cold since my ice fishing days back up north. We ended up fishing the same area that I fished on Day 1, but due to the cold front, the fishing was definitely slow. We had to slow down to a snail’s pace to get the fish to bite and I figured that we would need the water temperature to go up for the fish to be active, so I anticipated the fish would be more active later in the day as the sun rose to warm the shallow waters of the famed “Big O”. I had my first keeper in the boat within in an hour and then struggled for next four hours. At 12:00, with 3 hours to go, I only had 1 fish in the livewell. As predicted, the waters started to warm and the fish became more active. I then caught a solid 2 ½ pound keeper off a spawning bed around 12:30 and then picked off 2 more within the hour, for a total of 4 keepers that weighed roughly 6 pounds, but I needed 10 pounds like the day before in my mind to qualify for the top 10 and fish for the $15,000 first prize. At this point, I know I have met my goal of being in the top 50 and cashing a check, so that relaxed me, but I still wanted that 5th fish. At 1:45, with just over an hour before we had to weigh in for the day, I saw her. All 3 plus pounds of her. My 5th keeper. My top 10. My phone call to Emily to tell her I qualified for Saturday. She was on a spawning bed mixed in with the submergent vegetation and while most anglers would see a beautiful fish with a greenish tint and stunning dark markings on her side, I definitely saw green as well, but they were dollar signs. I flipped my Gitem Baits Warlock into the bed and she flared her gills, agitated that I was disturbing her. On my third flip, she turned toward the bait, nose down, inhaled it and then ran off the bed toward the boat….simply text book. Not anticipating that she would come toward the boat, I quickly reeled up my slack line with fury, felt the fish as the line went taunt and slammed the hook home. What happens next is now a Stephen King moment for me personally. As if in slow motion, the fish came to the surface, shook her head 3-4 times and then the line went slack…..she was gone as fast as she was there. Silence was in the boat and a nearby competing boat let out a hearfelt “Oh!” as they saw the fish come off. Simply put, I obviously didn’t get a good hook set and long story short, while I truly put that fish out of my mind for the next hour while trying to get my 5th fish, I simply blew my shot. At 2:45 we finished up and headed to weigh in….4 fish in the livewell on Friday for 5 pounds, 11 ounces for a 2 day total of 9 fish, for 16 pounds even. I knew I was going to cash a check, but figured that I would drop to somewhere in 35th to 45th place, by not having that 5th fish. As the next several hours had fishermen weigh in their fish on stage, I noticed a trend….people struggled on Day 2, which was interesting. The weights were a fraction of what they were on Day 1. As the weigh in concluded, they then announced the standings and they started by calling up the top 10 anglers that made the cut to fish on Day 3…they started with the first qualifier and worked their way down to final 10th spot. Then the angst came. Ron Lappin, with microphone in hand, stood on the stage and announced that the 10th place qualifier finished with 18 pounds, 8 ounces. Then the math calculated in my head. I finished with 16 pounds even and finished in 26th place. Several hours ago I had my 5th fish 3 feet from the boat and she weighed an easy 3 pounds, which would have given me 19 pounds total. I couldn’t believe it and still don’t. I missed my shot at the top 10 and I should be sitting on that stage. A few deep breaths, a few Bud Light Limes and some consoling from some of the fellow tournament guys, I decided it was time to head home. The ride home was tough, as I thought of everything….what went wrong, how much I wanted to be in that position and actually was, the money lost, how that would accelerate my career, on and on. I took quite a few calls on that ride home and everyone I talked to was fantastic….all understanding , consoling and making me look at the bright side…I finished in 26th place, cashed a nice check and hung with the best. As I write this, 10 guys are fishing on Lake Okeechobee right now for that $15,000 top prize and I am watching my dog stare back at me as if she knows it still stings….gotta love the love of a dog. They will come to the scales in roughly 3 hours and the final results can be seen here: http://stren.flwoutdoors.com/tournament.cfm?cid=3&t=results&tid=6491&mc=0&coAngler=1o S0, you move on, focus on the positive and try not to think of the one…..the one that got away. Until next time, tight lines (and I mean that more than I EVER have!) and good fishing…..