See Chris Fish
04-15-2012, 02:55 PM
Got in the line around 6pm friday night and was about 20 cars back. Only a few brave souls braved the weather. Steve and daughter, Dan (the MAN), John (sick as a dog), Big Daddy and sons, Guide and friends, Diego (car crash survivor!!) were all there early and had a low key night just BBQ'in and BS'in. John, Dan and I were going to go out on the boat since the weather was supposed to be too bad for Dan to launch his kayak. The rain caused Irvine to move ALL the campers onto the inside parking area so parking after the launch was a little tough. We'd have to return to the parking lot to drop off truck after launching. Woke up at 3:30am to register and get prepped to cold, but perfect weather ie, no rain.
John was sick all night, but man'd it out till morning. He was just too sick to fish and was heading home. He turned hard left at the booth, if ya know what I mean.
With the crowd, Dan helped me launch the boat and I went to park the truck. He had a rod with a lure by the bow of the boat that caught my guide line while lauching, but I cleared it on the launch. He rehooked it while tying up to the dock. It damaged the hook, so he wanted to switch out. It took long enough for me to get back to the boat for him re-tie on a pink mirra shad lure. Not his first choice of lures on this day. Bad omen.
We get lines wet at 6:00!!! and I get the first on the first run up the West Shore. Small, but fish on. Another before the dam.
Head over the dam bouy line and get by Red Cliffs. It's a WON event, so it's a little more crowded than usual. I wasn't planning on going to the flats on this pass, but got forced that way by boat traffic. I get hit again, small. We can see to the trees and we see Guide and friends sitting, baiting and waiting. He has a distinctive boat so we know it's him. We're shocked! Dan and I were both, What does he know that we don't? and discuss doing a tight loop and coming back to anchor up. Last event, Dan and I had failed on the troll, but did great on bait and wait.
We get close enough to Guide and say hey and what's up with him sitting, he's a troller?, laugh, wave, good luck and go maybe 50 feet. Dan's new, never caught a single fish, little pole just goes BENDO and stays BENDO!!!!!! He jumps and grabs the rod and as he's reeling in we're both thinking he caught a suspended branch. Just didn't seem to put up a fight at all. Sun was in my eyes, might not have seen it. It did just CRAZY rain the day before, ya know.
As soon as the word "branch" comes out of his mouth, the line just runs. Nope, not a branch!!
It surfaces and it BIG!!!
He battles it, pulls it close to the boat and I go to net it.
Damn, I don't think this net is big enough! Not lying! Thought that.
Same time, Dan says, "Dude, is that net big enough?" LOL
I get the net under him and at that second, he moves so I get just the back 3/4 of him in the net with his head OUTSIDE the net and heading out!! I tried to get him back in but no luck. I'm not breaking this thing off, so I immediately retreat the net.
Dan is freaking out, DUDE DON'T F**K UP THE NET JOB! (I hadn't blown a net job in years, but hey, this is a big fish, big tourney and it ain't mine, right?)
It runs to the other side of the boat and Dan pulls it close again. I get the net positioned and just get the front 3/4 of it in the net.
At that moment, the main line SNAPS and the fish is IN THE NET!
IT'S HUGE AND IN THE BOAT!!
It's 7:20 in the morning! Dan is on a HUGE fish already. Took him a good 3 minutes to get the hook out of the fish's mouth. That hook a in there. Dan lifts it up to show Guide with congrats coming back. (He started to troll again after that. LOL) We're so stoked, we race (all of 5mph) to the tackle shop. Irvine lets us use there big cooler to throw it on ice cause scales don't open till noon and head back out. It weighed 13.10 on my scale on the boat, but 12.95 at weigh in time. Still would've been the 2nd place slot, so it's not like he lost anything by the early catch.
Amazingly, Dan was quite nice to fish with that day, if you can believe it. He was friendly to all the boaters we passed and gladly allowed me to have both MY rods out in a vain attempt to land an even larger fish. Thanks man, you're a giver!! LOL
Around noon, we watched the winning fish get hooked and landed. Dan was worried from that moment on!! LOL
"I don't know man, 4pm is a long time to fish till" LMAO
I limited out with nothing big enough to weigh in to win and Dan was happy with a single fish!
He placed second and got tons of really nice prizes. I know, I had to help get it to his truck.
IMHO, WON puts on a great event. This one was no exception.
Weather was perfect! Partly cloudy, cool with a variable cold wind, slightly dirty water, cold water temp (61 degrees)
Saw two does out in the tree area of the flat. We were about 50 yards off and they're just cruising the shoreline, checking us out and eating. LOVE IT!!
I always take seeing deer while fishing as a great sign. I was right.
Special shoutout to the Irvine Lake Staff.
At the end of the event, the launch ramp was running smooth all by itself till some jackhole parked his truck w/boat, blocking the exit to the ramp, leaving it, not to be found.
It caused the ramp to be unusable. I made a call to the shop and within 3 minutes they hunted him down, got the traffic moving and got the ramp back into a flowing order.
It was a big event and had lots of people with the flats road closed all day due to mud. Challenging is an understaement.
The help that you provide down at the ramp is greatly appreciated.
Directing the traffic, giving advice, generally making it run smooth and putting up with the likes of us I can only say one thing
Thanks.
On a side note:
To me, the best thing about this day was the fact that we went around that lake, all day long and saw numerous people (boating, tubing, kayaking, shorefishing) that we had met on Team 57.
Every single one of them says "Hi" and they're as stoked that Dan had caught the huge fish as Dan himself. At the end of the day everyone comes up to talk/congrat. It's like the team 57 motto.
Awesome.
May your work week go as quickly as your paycheck!
Till next time.
Chris
John was sick all night, but man'd it out till morning. He was just too sick to fish and was heading home. He turned hard left at the booth, if ya know what I mean.
With the crowd, Dan helped me launch the boat and I went to park the truck. He had a rod with a lure by the bow of the boat that caught my guide line while lauching, but I cleared it on the launch. He rehooked it while tying up to the dock. It damaged the hook, so he wanted to switch out. It took long enough for me to get back to the boat for him re-tie on a pink mirra shad lure. Not his first choice of lures on this day. Bad omen.
We get lines wet at 6:00!!! and I get the first on the first run up the West Shore. Small, but fish on. Another before the dam.
Head over the dam bouy line and get by Red Cliffs. It's a WON event, so it's a little more crowded than usual. I wasn't planning on going to the flats on this pass, but got forced that way by boat traffic. I get hit again, small. We can see to the trees and we see Guide and friends sitting, baiting and waiting. He has a distinctive boat so we know it's him. We're shocked! Dan and I were both, What does he know that we don't? and discuss doing a tight loop and coming back to anchor up. Last event, Dan and I had failed on the troll, but did great on bait and wait.
We get close enough to Guide and say hey and what's up with him sitting, he's a troller?, laugh, wave, good luck and go maybe 50 feet. Dan's new, never caught a single fish, little pole just goes BENDO and stays BENDO!!!!!! He jumps and grabs the rod and as he's reeling in we're both thinking he caught a suspended branch. Just didn't seem to put up a fight at all. Sun was in my eyes, might not have seen it. It did just CRAZY rain the day before, ya know.
As soon as the word "branch" comes out of his mouth, the line just runs. Nope, not a branch!!
It surfaces and it BIG!!!
He battles it, pulls it close to the boat and I go to net it.
Damn, I don't think this net is big enough! Not lying! Thought that.
Same time, Dan says, "Dude, is that net big enough?" LOL
I get the net under him and at that second, he moves so I get just the back 3/4 of him in the net with his head OUTSIDE the net and heading out!! I tried to get him back in but no luck. I'm not breaking this thing off, so I immediately retreat the net.
Dan is freaking out, DUDE DON'T F**K UP THE NET JOB! (I hadn't blown a net job in years, but hey, this is a big fish, big tourney and it ain't mine, right?)
It runs to the other side of the boat and Dan pulls it close again. I get the net positioned and just get the front 3/4 of it in the net.
At that moment, the main line SNAPS and the fish is IN THE NET!
IT'S HUGE AND IN THE BOAT!!
It's 7:20 in the morning! Dan is on a HUGE fish already. Took him a good 3 minutes to get the hook out of the fish's mouth. That hook a in there. Dan lifts it up to show Guide with congrats coming back. (He started to troll again after that. LOL) We're so stoked, we race (all of 5mph) to the tackle shop. Irvine lets us use there big cooler to throw it on ice cause scales don't open till noon and head back out. It weighed 13.10 on my scale on the boat, but 12.95 at weigh in time. Still would've been the 2nd place slot, so it's not like he lost anything by the early catch.
Amazingly, Dan was quite nice to fish with that day, if you can believe it. He was friendly to all the boaters we passed and gladly allowed me to have both MY rods out in a vain attempt to land an even larger fish. Thanks man, you're a giver!! LOL
Around noon, we watched the winning fish get hooked and landed. Dan was worried from that moment on!! LOL
"I don't know man, 4pm is a long time to fish till" LMAO
I limited out with nothing big enough to weigh in to win and Dan was happy with a single fish!
He placed second and got tons of really nice prizes. I know, I had to help get it to his truck.
IMHO, WON puts on a great event. This one was no exception.
Weather was perfect! Partly cloudy, cool with a variable cold wind, slightly dirty water, cold water temp (61 degrees)
Saw two does out in the tree area of the flat. We were about 50 yards off and they're just cruising the shoreline, checking us out and eating. LOVE IT!!
I always take seeing deer while fishing as a great sign. I was right.
Special shoutout to the Irvine Lake Staff.
At the end of the event, the launch ramp was running smooth all by itself till some jackhole parked his truck w/boat, blocking the exit to the ramp, leaving it, not to be found.
It caused the ramp to be unusable. I made a call to the shop and within 3 minutes they hunted him down, got the traffic moving and got the ramp back into a flowing order.
It was a big event and had lots of people with the flats road closed all day due to mud. Challenging is an understaement.
The help that you provide down at the ramp is greatly appreciated.
Directing the traffic, giving advice, generally making it run smooth and putting up with the likes of us I can only say one thing
Thanks.
On a side note:
To me, the best thing about this day was the fact that we went around that lake, all day long and saw numerous people (boating, tubing, kayaking, shorefishing) that we had met on Team 57.
Every single one of them says "Hi" and they're as stoked that Dan had caught the huge fish as Dan himself. At the end of the day everyone comes up to talk/congrat. It's like the team 57 motto.
Awesome.
May your work week go as quickly as your paycheck!
Till next time.
Chris