My US Open Story...Very Long... and Small Perris report..

[Pete Marino]

Okay so Im finally having time to sit down with my head on straight and write my WON BASS U.S. Open story that a lot of you have been asking and waiting patiently for..So here goes....

Over the past several years, the US Open at Lake Mead has been an event that is on my calendar as a “Must Do” .. The US OPEN gives me a chance to fish against some of the biggest names in Bass fishing in not only the the WEST Coast but the entire Nation..
This event is the most grueling Bass Tournament in the Nation not only because of the large field of BIG NAME Professional anglers but because it’s a 3 day event on one of the most unforgiving, brutally rough, lakes in the Nation... Lake Mead.
For those of you who know nothing about lake Mead... Let me enlighten you a little about the Beast that Is MEAD..... Lake Mead is a HUGE desert lake spanning about 90+ miles across parts of Nevada and Arizona.. The heat is relentless as temps during the event most years get into triple digits. The Bass are sometimes hard to find this time of year and its even harder to get Big Fish.. As if those things werent enough. Lake Mead throws the X-FACTOR right into eveyones face in the way of WIND...and lots of it.
When the wind is howling at Lake Mead and the waves begin to get bigger and bigger (sometimes as big as 6-7 feet tall) it can, and often does, get down right dangerous and is enough to make the most experienced professional tuck his tail between his legs and run home to mommy.
Lake Mead doesn’t care what your name is.... She will chew you up and spit you out on shore.. She will sink your boat... She will break your gear, she will break your boat.. AND.. she will break your heart... all while laughing in your face just before she smacks it one last time just for the fun of it. You have to respect her, Love her and make adjustments when she’s acting up... Plain and Simple..
Add in, having to deal with that for 3-4 practice days and 3 tournaments days competing against 186 of the most hard core Professional anglers competing for a Pro purse of over $90,000 and the prestigious US Open Cup .. What you get is the one and ONLY --- U.S. OPEN. Its not for the faint of heart.. Its not for the guys who struggle to catch fish on normal lakes.. And Its sure as hell isnt for guys with egos, Because Lake Mead will take your ego and shove it where the sun don’t shine and send you home with nothing but horror stories to tell your friends and family back home... BUT... If you respect her... If you do your home work... If you game plan... If you adjust to her temper and if you keep your wits about you... Lake Mead can be one of the most Beautifully majestic lakes with the breathtaking scenery with challenging yet fun bass fishing.

So my preparation for this event started the day I got home from the US Open last year.. I went home and made notes on the conditions, the fishing, what I caught my fish on, and where I caught them. I then put it on the schedule for this year and put it out of my mind for a few months... Then In about March I started reviewing said notes, sent in my entry, made my hotel reservations, started gathering my tackle slowly but surely and began to game plan... After all... one of my motto’s I fish tournaments by is “If you aren’t planning on winning then you are planning on losing” ... Makes sense to me... hahaha

So as we got into Summer, I was well on my way in my preparation.. Gear was bought, tackle was getting arranged, and the fine details were beginning get done... little things like tying my own feathers on my hooks for my topwater baits and jerk baits, changing all my hooks on my reaction baits, sharpening hooks on all my spinnerbaits, Stocking up on special custom baits I have made for me, and making sure every nut and bolt on my Nitro was tight because Lake Mead tends to loosen things up if she wants.
By Early August I was ready to go (1 month early)... All my tackle was ready, all my rods were in order. My game plan for practice was made... I knew where I was going to practice and what day.. I knew what I was going to look for and where I was going to look. Heck I even started looking at the weather a month out... I was ready...

Then the unthinkable happened... I went out to Perris for the day to fish and do a photo shoot and when I came home, I was in pain.. Dull ongoing pain on my right side which began to increase then would get dull again.. I knew what it was because I crossed that bridge before about 11-12 years ago but I didn’t want to believe it was truly happening again... A KIDNEY STONE.... When I got home that day I told my wife about the pain and we both got quiet because we both knew what it could be. But I shrugged it off and went to bed. The next morning I woke up and had NO PAIN... I opened my eyes and felt nothing... I got up took a shower and that slow dull pain began again... NOOOOOOOO!
By noon the pain increased and I went to my wifes work to see her... On the way the pain continued to increase... by the time I got there the pain was a 7-8 on a scale from 1-10 with 10 being worst.. Reality was beginning to set in.. But I still didn’t want to admit it... maybe it’s the hardheaded Italian in me... By the time I got to her work the pain elevated to a solid 8. She told me to go to the hospital which at first I argued... Then it got a bit worse so I got out of there and went to Urgent care... When I got there my pain was a 8 1/2ish... I couldn’t stand still... And the nurse could see it plain as day.. I was hurting.. So they quickly took me to the back.. And I sat down... within 3-4 minutes the pain was back down to a 3-4...So weird... But that confirmed what it was to me.. The Dr told me I needed a CT Scan so he sent me over to the other building... and along the way the pain quickly got worse... by the time I got there the pain was a 9 when I made my co payment.. as I walked into the waiting room the pain began to peak.. I know it was peaking because Ive been there before, long ago... As I walked in the room I went straight to the trash can and began dry heaving into it because the pain was so bad... THIS CANT BE HAPPENING!!! But just as sudden as it peaked, the pain dropped to a 2 within 5 minutes... They took my in gave me my xray and I asked the lady who took it... “Is it a kidney stone” and her response was ... “It’s the biggest one Ive ever seen, Its huge”..... WONDERFUL!!!! So I went back to the Dr and he confirmed blood in my urine and said that I have A LOT of stones... 3 on the right and 3 on the left including a giant!!! So he made me an appt with a Urologist for a few days later and off I went... oddly enough.. I didn’t have much pain after that...at least nothing over about a 4-5 Id say...at worst..
So I went to the Dr a few days later and he told me Id need at least 2 surgeries to remove the stones on the right side and 2-3 surgeries to remove the giant and others from my left kidney... I said..”Doc, I have the US Open in 3 1/2 to 4 weeks.... His response “ you cant go”.... And my quick response was “BULLS#$*@ Im going”!!! So as you can imagine, we went round and round about it for a few minutes and he did the math... He told me that If I went to the Open he wanted me to take it easy when I could, Stay hydrated, and go straight to the hospital if I needed to.. He also scheduled my surgery for 10 am the day I was planning on getting home from the Open. He told me that he was compromising so I had to..and that meant that Id need to leave Vegas at 330 am to make it home, put the boat away and get to the hospital. DEAL!!!!!
So just like that I was back in business... So over the next couple weeks I took it easy... stayed hydrated and hoped for the best... coincidently over that time I had little to no pain.... Heck I wasn’t even having to take any pain meds.. I was good to go...

So finally it was time to leave for the Open.... I left on Wednesday night the week before.. My plan was to prefish on Thursday, Friday and Saturday... then Sunday was the offlimits day so Id be able to rest.. So I get up early Thursday morning and head over to the Lake... My plan for the days was to fish hard and see how many bites I could get... One key thing though... I took off all my hooks.. I didn’t want to hook any bass... I just wanted to get the bite... I wanted to save the catching for the tourney.. So I go out all day doing a lot of looking and a decent amount of fishing....mainly looking though... Running bank checking things out... Along the way I had 3 huge smallmouth come up and try to eat my topwater bait (With no hooks)... Each fish was over 3 lbs... I also had fish out in deep water 40-55 ft that I had bite my dropshot with no hook.... By the end of the day my opinion was that it was JUST OKAY... There was ZERO wind though and I was able to get those bites... I knew the fishing would get better when the wind was blowing which it was supposed to do during the actual tourney days so I was hopeful.. The worst part was at the end of the day...My side was killing me... probably a 6-7 pain wise... So we went back to the hotel and relaxed.
The next day was supposed to be similar weather wise... VERY HOT..triple digits.. and no wind...
So we head out the next morning...totally new area.. 40 miles from where I fished the day prior.. Same thing... we did a lot of looking, and fished hard when we fished but didn’t stick any fish.. This day was tougher then the day before... I found deep fish (35-60ft) but couldn’t get them to bite.. I only had about 2 bites on my topwater and there were some baits I didn’t throw because it was so calm and hot... There was one inspiring thing that happened.. I found a grass patch that was holding some good fish as we had one 4 lb largemouth come up and try to eat our reaction bait.. then another 2 1/2 lber...then we had 5 other bites from the area as we continued down the bank... Didn’t catch any of them because we had our hooks cut.
By the end of the day I wasn’t too impressed with what I had found except for that one stretch of grassy bank... the rest was not too good in my opinion...BUT again... things were going to change because the wind was coming... All weather sites and stations said the wind would begin on the morning of day one and blow 20-30 mph on day one and increase to 30-40 on day 2 with gusts over 50 mph... It was as if Lake Mead knew that the US Open was about to start...
The worst part about the day as if below average fishing wasn’t bad enough was that for the 2nd straight day my kidney was hurting pretty bad..
I had some serious thinking to do and some serious decisions to make about what was right to do... So we went back to the hotel.. and I started to relax and contemplate and figure out if I needed to pull the plug and back out of the event or whatever.. I knew that I was about to face 3 straight days in brutal conditions that would not help my kidney. I knew that I would need to be able to make the bell each day and produce... But Could I do it.??
So I made the call to the tournament Director and put him on alert.. I may need to back out.. He told me that he understood what was going on and told me to let him know when I made up my mind.. So I got off the phone and made a call to my Dr.. He basically told me, “I told you so”...hahaha but he did tell me that the surgery was scheduled for Thursday so as long as I could take the pain I should be good... It sounded like the guy was calling me out...hahaha almost like he told me... “You made that choice now man up”... hahaha... I literally hung up the phone called my wife and told her I wasn’t quitting... I told her that Id NOT go prefish that final day instead Id regroup, refocus and rest up... So I made the call to the director and told him forget it, I WASN’T GOING ANYWHERE!!! he just laughed and said okay good to hear.
Quitting just isnt in my blood... I didn’t prepare as much as I did for nothing... I didn’t do my home work as much as I did for nothing... So my new plan was to rest up the next 2 days and come out swinging on day 1 of the 2016 US Open..
One thing I did was during practice I didn’t take any Tylenol or pain meds at all.. So I knew that if I started each day with a couple Tylenol Id be better off then I was in practice.. So in the mean time I rested up, carbed up each day, and stayed hydrated.. I never didn’t have a water in my hand..
FINALLY... day one of the US Open was upon us... I game planned on Sunday night... I knew exactly where I wanted to go and what I wanted to throw. I was going back to my spot about 40 miles away and I was going to throw what ever baits I needed to throw given the conditions... which included my deep dropshot, my topwater bait, my spinner bait, and a few other baits. I figured that If I was able to get big bites during practice there then I should be able to uncork it in the wind..
So the morning of day one I pounded an orange juice and a water, took a couple Tylenols and headed to the lake... I was feeling great... But I had a long day ahead of me as I wasn’t due in until 4:15.. When the director called my number #157 I was off and heading to my first spot with bad intentions for the bass and running on sheer adrenalin.....
The wind was already blowing hard as I was heading to my spot...4 ft waves were pounding the middle basin of lake mead.. But I wasn’t turning around... I had places to go and a big limit to catch. My Nitro took it like a beast and we got there safely and started fishing...
And guess what.... my bass were biting.... Success in Tournament fishing is all about making the right decisions and executing.. I spent the morning of day one making the right decisions, executing perfectly and knocking their lights out... By 9am I had my limit and started culling... and by about noon I was ready to leave my spot and save it for day 2 and day 3.. So we made the run back closer to the launch area and started prefishing again for the other days and trying to catch another kicker...
When all was said and done and weighins were over on day 1, I weighed 9 lbs even which had me in 9th place out of 186 Pros.. I was sitting pretty... and what was even better was that I didn’t beat up my areas and I knew I could go back and catch another big limit from that area...ohh...and my kidney didn’t hurt at all... adrenaline is a funny thing..
So that night I was sitting looking at the weather and by all accounts... all hell was about to break loose wind wise.. the weather called for 30-40 mph wind with 50+ mph gusts....simply put Lake Mead was about to get ugly..and BIG.

When game planning for the next day I had to factor in the wind and huge waves.. If the wind was going to blow that bad, my area would be blown out and the waves would make it unfishable. I know this because last year on day one and two of the Open, the wind blew from the same direction and it made my areas unfishable and it bit me in the butt because I didn’t adjust.. I didn’t want to make the same mistake this year... So I made the decision to not head to my best water.. I instead decided to stay closer to the luanch ramp and use the time I would save from not traveling 40 miles in big waves and just stay close and fish productively. Seeing how the wind affected that area last year and knowing what giant waves could do you a person, their equipment and the boat it was an easy decision.. I figured if I could still manage to catch 5-6 lbs (Doesn’t sound like much..but on Mead in the wind its very respectable) that Id still be in the hunt and Id have a shot at the WIN because day 3 was supposed to not be too windy.
So I stuck with my game plan and fished my hardest on day 2... the wind was horrible...gusts over 50 easy!! So hard that it blew two of my Dobyns rods off my deck and to the bottom of lake mead... uggg.. Anyways, I fished hard and never quit.... but I was only able to catch 2 keepers on day 2 which dropped me from 9th place to 33rd place... Still inside of check range..as they were going to pay 37 spots.. Lake Mead was putting the clamps on the fishing and only a few guys got them on day 2... Most guys struggled horribly and a lot did worse than I did.
So that night I checked the weather again and the wind for day 3 was going to be perfect 10 mph.... I was like a kid on Christmas eve... I could barely sleep... In fact I woke up at 2:22 am and my alarm wasn’t gonna go off until 2:50 but I got up and got ready... I knew I was going to uncork it... I knew I needed to uncork it... I was ready..
So they call number 33 and off I go, bright eyed and ready to knock them out again..
I pull up to my spot and within minutes...I had keeper number 1 in the boat... then 2, then 3... things are going as planned.... then I pull up to one of the points I had a big smallie try to eat my topwater bait with no hooks during practice.. I make a perfect 60-70 yard cast on the sweet spot of the point... I move my topwater two feet and BOOM!!!! A Giant smallie absolutely destroys my bait and I set the hook.... I fight it to the boat and my co angler nets it....BOOM 3 lb small mouth!!!! HECK YEAH!!!! High fives were in order and we keep fishing... I want another.... Then I pull into this area of deep grass in 14-15 ft.. and I look and my co angler and tell him that this is where we were going to catch a big large mouth... I make two casts with my spinnerbait.... on the third cast, My spinnerbait is ticking the grass in about 15 ft of water when it got smashsed.... IM ON AND ITS ANOTHER GIANT!!! I play the big bass to the boat and my co angler nets it....BOOOM.... BIG LARGEMOUTH!!! It was slightly bigger than my small mouth. I called my shot!!! Decisions are so important as I mentioned earlier...
So I decided that I wanted to spend the next 3 hours fishing for another big bite since we already had a big limit... So we fished every deep grass area I knew of for the next 3 hours...for no more bites... it was well worth the gamble... The I decided to make the switch to fishing different things again and try to make small culls and boom we made a couple small culls...a few ounces.. Before I knew it, it was time to head back.. I wanted to not risk something going wrong on the way back so I left a couple hours early to head back which ultimaltely gave us about an hour more to fish once we got closer to the launch... We fished hard but never caught any more...
So while I was sitting in the boat waiting for my co angler to get the truck, I got a call from my wife and she told me that over 3/4 of the field had already weighed in and that I needed 7 1/2 lbs to take the lead... I couldn’t believe my ears and I told her I had close to 10 lbs... By the time I got to the scales the number to take the lead grew to 9.01.. so I need higher than that to take the lead...
I weighed my big largemouth and it weighed just over 3 lbs (May not sound big but at Mead it’s a big bass)... that bass at that point was 3rd on the big bass of the day board.. The weigh master told me that I needed more than 9.01 to take the lead and we waited for my fish to settle down and the weigh master yelled out my weight... 9.76 lbs NEW LEADER BOOOM!!! Im leading the US Open late on day 3...UNREAL!! So they put me in the Hot Seat as the leader... Big name after big name came up to the scales and didn’t knock me off for almost 15 minutes.... Finally I got knocked off the hotseat but it was a blast and an honor while it lasted....
When the scales came to a close at the end of day 3 it became official ... I finished in 13th place out of 186 Pros and I had the 5th biggest bass of day 3. I jumped from 33rd in the standings all the way up to 13th place and that was after a horrible day 2...
Im getting close... I know I can win now more than ever.... Had the wind not blown so bad on day 2 I may have had a chance... Even with my decision to stay local, had I caught 3 small fish to fill my limit I would have finished in the top 3... But shoulda coulda woulda..... Im proud of my achievement and I know I can do even better...

The next morning I got up ultra early and headed back to So Cal. I put the boat away and went into surgery later that morning.. things went well... They got the stone that was blocking flow from my right kidney.. Now I go in again THIS COMING thursday and I have to have another surgery to get the other 2 stones out of that same kidney... then they will work on the left in November... It needs to be done... its painful and it sucks but I will make it through it just fine...
A quick thank you to my sponsors..
Bass Pro Shops, Nitro Boats, Fairview Ford, Costa Sunglasses, Dobyns Rods, and Gee Gee baits.. I also want to thank my wife Carissa and daughter Skyler for standing by me and believing in me and supporting my every move... and to the rest of my friends some as far away as Austrailia and family who watched intensly at the live broadcast of the weighins each day and rooted for me...

As far as the bite at Perris..... reaction reactions reactions... topwater, tailspins and Alabama rigs...ITS WIDE OPEN PEOPLE... I cant go for a couple weeks....GO GET THEM FOR ME!!!!! Ill be doing trips again in mid Oct... so call then if you want a trip...

Sorry this was so long...

Pete

[Viejo]

We had a saying in Viet Nam....."No Guts-No Air Medal". Having lived through two sets of Kidney Stones in my lifetime, you win another Air Medal for sheer guts and determination. Pretty remarkable story. Good luck with the upcoming medical stuff.

[HuskerRod]

Wow...that was an awesome read and great job out there. After reading this my side hurts...I think I'll go down a few glasses of h20

[Ambassadorhawg]

That was a great read Pete. Thanks for sharing.

[Pete Marino]

Thanks fellas.. Glad you liked the read..

[titos334]

Followed the standings, was cool seeing a name I recognized(from here) on the board. Glad you had a good event! I really love the report, it's really awesome to get the perspective of one of the competitors and a peak into the preparation. Can't believe you battled it out with kidney stones, what a heck of a job! Thanks for the post and best of luck in your future events.

[Pete Marino]

Thank you!!!