Weekend Warrior

Here is a small tid bit on the day in the life of the weekend warrior tournament fisherman. I am sure most of us that live for fishing tournaments can relate to this in one way or another. Enjoy.

I have got a big tournament on Saturday so I better get ready. I take a vacation day on Friday but it won’t be a vacation. My normal eight hour day will turn into a twelve hour day. Instead of going to work at 7:00 a.m., I will be on the water at day break. The alarm rings early. No snooze button today. The coffee pot is brewing while the truck warms up. I‘ve got fifteen minutes before day break. The sun starts to peak over the horizon as I back the boat in. The smoke rolls out of the engine as I start it up. First turn of the key. Just like always. I race to my best spot hoping that there is a top water bite. Caught one and it’s a keeper. The morning wears on as I make a milk run to all of my honey holes. I dance on the deck of my boat trying not to step on one of my dozen rods. I have got to find something better. I take five to guzzle down a soda and eat a candy bar. It’s almost noon and no pattern yet. I take out the map and look at it. What am I missing?

Underneath the deck is a thousand different lures. This is the one. How I came to that conclusion I will never know. I finally start catching fish. They are holding on lay downs in about six feet of water. I have to bounce the bait off the wood to get a bite. When I do, it’s a good one. The sun starts to set but there is still work to do. I rush home to get my tackle lined out. My kids help me take the line off my dozen reels that I just put on a week ago. My wife shakes her head. She thinks I have too many rods. I don’t think I have enough.

I put the girls to bed and go back out into the boat. Time to rig them all up. I put twelve different baits on. I will probably only use two. Just in case though. I place everything in its proper order, like it won’t get messed up tomorrow. I look at my watch and it’s almost eleven. Got to get some rest. I have to pick my partner up by four.

The alarm goes off and I am wide awake. Not only will I need my coffee this morning but I better bring my thermos. I leave a note for my wife and grab a few snacks. I never eat them. We won’t have time to eat. There is work to do. The tournament director calls our number and we are off. By a freak of nature the weather did not change. Can’t use that excuse this time. It has only been an hour into the event and we have two in the capture cage. Both came off logs. The pattern is working. I knew it. Today might be the day but no time to celebrate yet. 3000 casts later we finally catch another keeper. It came off a log. Just like yesterday. It is about time! Just two more and we will have our limit.

Then I loose a five pounder of course. It always happens to me! I try to blow it off but the image haunts me. With time running out I luck into a nice keeper. We only have four but knowing our luck, we’ll get one place out of the money. At the weigh in I am pacing around like a chicken. We are in third place with five more boats to weigh in. We end up not getting bumped out of third and win $1200.00. I call my wife on the way home to tell her the good news. She is happy and so am I. But for me it is not about the money. It is about the competition. It is about knowing that I figured it out and never gave up. I am a bass tournament fisherman!

I may not be a pro yet but one of these days I will prove everyone wrong and make it. Most of us tournament anglers have all had experiences like this in our lives. It builds character and makes us better fishermen. It’s in our blood. We are the group known as the weekend warriors and are proud of it.