Good or bad.

 

Years ago I drew a partner for a small one day tournament who had his neck fused together . He could not move it at all. He had one "Fishin pole" a spincaster with about twenty foot of line that he could  not cast and maybe two lures.It was early in the year and cold . I caught a keeper on a jig and pig and loaned him one. He could not cast it so he imitated me the best he could , lifting and dropping the lure straight up and down  directly under the boat. We were in shallow water and he  caught four keepers and won the tourney. I tried copying him but could not catch a fish. I have put others on fish before that have won tourneys but I could not take any credit for this one .

The good partners I've drawn far outweigh the bad, but it's the bad ones that really stick out in memory. One cheated me out of 2 points that cost me a second place finish instead of 3rd place that would have put me in 2nd place for the year (one spot ahead of him). The other all but refused to get the net for a giant smallmouth at Table Rock. Once he finally did grab the net, after much grumbling and cussing, he refused to extend it and instead tried to net the fish with the handle blocking the middle of the net. I did the best I could to guide the 5-6 pound fish into the net with a ML/F DS rod and 6lb fluoro but she turned last minute and laid flat across the top of the net when he lifted. The pressure left my line, hook fell out, fish flopped back in the water, he says "Awww, that's too bad," and chuckled to himself. I was looking for an out of the way spot to hide a body for the rest of the day. 

The good partners I've drawn far outweigh the bad, but it's the bad ones that really stick out in memory. One cheated me out of 2 points that cost me a second place finish instead of 3rd place that would have put me in 2nd place for the year (one spot ahead of him). The other all but refused to get the net for a giant smallmouth at Table Rock. Once he finally did grab the net, after much grumbling and cussing, he refused to extend it and instead tried to net the fish with the handle blocking the middle of the net. I did the best I could to guide the 5-6 pound fish into the net with a ML/F DS rod and 6lb fluoro but she turned last minute and laid flat across the top of the net when he lifted. The pressure left my line, hook fell out, fish flopped back in the water, he says "Awww, that's too bad," and chuckled to himself. I was looking for an out of the way spot to hide a body for the rest of the day. 

 

You are a very patient man, I would have went back to the dock and told him to get off the boat or be removed forcefully (provided it was your boat). 

You are a very patient man, I would have went back to the dock and told him to get off the boat or be removed forcefully (provided it was your boat). 

I was the non-boater on both occasions. 

I drew Matt Lee at the Bassmaster Northern Open on Champlain last summer. He was the best boater I was ever paired with. Super nice guy, even tried to help me out when he could by letting me throw my drop shot up toward the front sometimes when he saw something on the sonar.

I've drawn pretty decent guys so far but one left a sour taste in my mouth. First ever time fishing in the Bass Nation State Tourney I get drawn with a guy on the second day who didn't even catch a bass the first day. (It was a tough tourney out of 126 guys there were only 2 or 3 limits the first day) I was sitting in 18th place with 4 fish. I had a smallie spot that turned on the last 45 minutes of day one where I caught 3 nice smallies. Day 2 starts and we race out to that spot and in the first hour I brought in a small fish and my partner lost one close to 18" close to the boat. We left and came back with about 2 and a half hours left in the tourney to find out they got worked up again and I boated 3 nice smallies including the one in my profile pic that was over 4 lbs and my partner caught one over 17" and one just under 17". After he caught the second one, he starts telling me how it's stupid that he's even fishing at the moment since he had no shot at making it in the top 12 and I actually did. That was the first blow. It wasn't that bad, but sitting there 2 fish short of my limit I'm thinking to myself, "Why couldn't he have stopped  about 10 minutes ago before he caught those two?" I tried not to let it get to me too much just tried to focus on catching 2 more. The second blow came about 5 minutes before we were going to head back. He's sitting in the back of the boat telling me how he's got a long drive to get home and he didn't really want to sit around at the weigh in. He then asks me if I'd take a picture of him holding the fish before he let them go. It definitely sucks having to take a picture of the fish you found that would finish out your limit, and then watch them swim off. At the time, none of the previous blows seemed as bad until weigh in when I found out that had I caught either of the two he threw back, I would have made the state team and got to advance to regional event! Oh well, just motivates me that much more to make it in the future.