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Fishing For a Million Dollars!
August 25, 2008
I began dreaming of fishing professionally when I was about 12 years old and it was only a mere 8 years ago when I didn’t even have a bass boat or even a truck to pull one with. So when I look back into the not so distant past, it is truly hard for me to believe that I just had the opportunity to fish for 1 million dollars against 9 other fishermen. It’s amazing how far the sport of pro bass fishing has come in such a short period of time, thanks in large part to FLW Outdoors.
The Forrest Wood Cup is the biggest bass fishing tournament on the planet. This season a young “stick” by the name of Michael Bennett became an instant millionaire. I’ve had the opportunity to meet him and speak to him on several occasions and I can tell you first hand that he is a class act and a very deserving fisherman.
I wound up finishing in second place behind Michael and feel pretty good about it I guess. After the Cup, I traveled 14 hours from Lake Murray straight up to 1000 Islands, NY to fish a Stren event, so needless to say I haven’t had time to reflect on what happened in South Carolina until now. Here is an account of my week on Lake Murray in South Carolina fishing for 1 million dollars.
First of all, let me say that it is quite a feeling to get up in the morning knowing that you are starting the day at zero, fishing against 9 other anglers for $1 million dollars. This is only the second year that the prize has been $1 million, and the first time I was in position to fish in the finals for it. You would think that the pressure would be overwhelming, but I can honestly tell you I felt none at all. I was so comfortable in the way I was fishing and the area I found that I couldn’t wait to get out there each morning and see what was going to happen. The area I found in practice was so good that after the very first practice day, my co-angler and practice partner, Stetson Blaylock said that I was definitely going to win this tournament. He was almost right, but I just never had a day like we had in those 4 days of practice.
I spent 3 full days of my practice fishing an area I had never seen. I didn’t go down to the lake before the off-limits period like most of the other guys, and I never found any information on the internet either. I basically showed up clueless, with no info to go on. All I knew is that I was going to start my practice far away from the take off area, way up one of the rivers. I didn’t decide on where I was going to put my boat in until the morning of the first day of practice. I had Stetson meet me at 5:00 am each morning for our 1 hour drive to the ramp way up the Little Saluda River. We arrived before day light each morning and we basically fished all day long every day. I established a super shallow pattern on that first day and was able to expand on it every day, but I had to be on the trolling motor to find these subtle sweet spots, because you couldn’t detect them by looking at the bank. So we covered some serious water, setting the hook on roughly half the bites we got and some of them were big.
After learning more than I could fish during the tournament, I decided to launch in the mid-lake area on the final practice day. I had been talking with a few guys during practice and hearing other rumors that the fishing was extremely tough. Many guys were not catching more than two or three keepers in a day, so I was surprised at our results on that 4th day of practice in a totally different part of the lake. I caught a 5lber and lifted one over 7lbs to the surface and had a big limit before 9:00am. I started to doubt the reports I had been hearing all week, because it seemed so easy to Stetson and I everywhere we went. I was ready for the tournament to begin.
On the first morning of the tournament, I started right by the ramp I had launched at every day in practice. On the 3rd day of practice, late in the evening as we were getting ready to pull the boat out of the water, Stetson caught a 2lber and then we saw a couple of fish blow up on some shad 10 feet away, so I threw in there and caught a 2 1/2lber. Then we put the boat on the trailer and I said to Stetson, “I think I probably will be starting right there the first morning”. I did just that and I had my limit (about 9lbs) in five casts that first morning and then left with a ton of confidence and all day to cull up. I did lose a 5 plus pound fish at the end of the day, but that was the only big bite I had and as it turned out I didn’t need it any way.
One day two I knew I needed a better day than I had the first day. I started by the ramp again and caught a limit in about 10 casts (roughly 8lbs), which really took a lot of pressure off again. On this day I was in last flight and had 2 more hours to fish than the day before. I basically fished the same water as the first day, leaving a lot of water untouched for the finals. I was really excited going into the finals with an easy early limit spot and a bunch of places I didn’t even fish yet. I made the cut in 7th place and we all started at zero on day 3.
Day 3 was a totally different day. It was overcast all day and the sun never came out until 2:00 in the afternoon. I started by the ramp again and in front of the cameras, I never put a single fish in the live well. I caught three short fish, but no keepers, which kind of made me a tad nervous even though I was catching a lot of fish each day. I caught 13 keepers on day 1 and 20 on day 2. So I left the ramp and started fishing my best spots from days 1 and 2 with little success. I determined that the cloud cover and cooler temperatures were making the fish pull away from the cover so I started fishing different baits like a spinnerbait and frog, but I had no luck. So at around noon with just 2 fish, I got to an area that I knew had fish on it and started swimming the same worm I’d been fishing the first two days. It was like magic, I landed 2 fish over 2lbs on that spot and then ran to many of the other places I’d already fished and filled out my limit swimming the worm slowly out away from the cover. It was a crucial adjustment and so textbook, but trust me, it’s very hard to change from what’s been working so well all week, especially when there’s a million bucks on the line.
I went on to weigh my biggest sack of the tournament on day three, but still nowhere near what I had seen in practice. During that day I had a couple of truly amazing things happen that I’d never ever seen in all my years of fishing. One was on my first fish of the day, a 2 3/4lber that got hung up in a tree top and slid up my line to the surface while my hook was snagged three feet down. We had a heck of a time getting that fish in the net. The other was on my limit fish, a 5lber that took my snagged worm off of some barbed wire just before I went to break my line. It was totally incredible and both were gifts from God for sure. I’m sure both of those catches will be on the TV show.
After all the miracles on day three and being in 2nd place, just over 2 pounds back, I honestly believed it was meant to be for me to win this event and the $1 million. I got a perfect nights sleep as I did every night and felt great about the final day. It was to be hot and sunny, just like I needed it to be and I had the place I found in the mid lake area on the last day of practice to fish yet, which I had been saving for the last day.
On the morning of day 4 I made a huge mistake, possibly a million dollar blunder, but I learned from it at least. I was going to start in the mid-lake spot and try for a big one early instead of starting by the ramp again up the river which failed me the morning before. Well, I ran straight there from take off and when I stopped by the big willow tree where I’d lifted the 7-8lber in practice, I had about a dozen spectator boats, but no camera boat. We have the option to put him in the boat with us from blast off, but I just had so much going on in the morning I simply forgot and according to the rules in the finals, I could not make a cast without my camera man…..ouch! I quickly called Bill Taylor, the tournament director and informed him of my situation. He called my camera boat and instead of waiting for him to find me I decided to run to were I knew he was going to be setting…right by the ramp, 20 miles away up the river. The camera boat driver got confused by all the spectator boats and simply lost me when I made the left hand turn to my new area. It may or may not have changed the outcome of the day, but I sure did want a crack at that huge fish early in the morning. I was sick to my stomach to say the least. I lost the first 45 minutes of fishing on day 4.
I instead started at the ramp again since I was already there and just like the day before I caught no keepers. So I went to my next area and lost a 3 ½ to 4lber right off the bat. I pitched up under an over-hanging limb and the fish swam out, but when I set the hook it got wrapped around a little stick and shook off. From that point on, the day was a struggle. I caught plenty of fish but just couldn’t get any bigger ones. I fished lots of new water, but the same places I fished the previous days seemed to be better. My check in time on the last day was 3:00pm, and at 1:00 I decided to go to the mid-lake area where I tried to start that morning. I had been planning on hitting it on my way back all day and felt that it was time to go. I got there and the water had gotten really clear since practice. I fished the willow tree were I lifted the big one, but no bites. I quickly went to were I’d caught the 5lber but the water just didn’t look right there either. So I remembered seeing a fish blow up on shad on a point nearby on that 4th day of practice. Stetson and I got a pretty good look at that fish and figured it was over 2 pounds. I went over there and flipped the worm in the exact spot and it didn’t even get to the bottom. I set the hook and it came flying out of the water, a solid 2 ½ pound bass, but it threw the bait.
At that point I looked at the time, it was 1:50. I was about 20 minutes from my up-river areas but felt led to go back and try to hit the spot were I’d lost the big one in the morning. I had gone back there a couple times throughout the day, but there was a boat there each time fishing for bluegills. I knew it was a big gamble and I’d only have time for a couple casts, but I thought it was worth a shot. I ran all the way back up there and the local boat was gone. I pulled in and threw a smaller 4 inch worm from a distance all around where I lost the big one earlier, but no bites. So I moved in tight to flip the heavier cover. On my first flip, about 30 feet from where I lost the fish in the morning, my line started swimming off and I set the hook as hard as I could. It was the miracle bite I needed and it came easily out of the thick stuff and swam right under the boat. My cameraman just happened to be changing a battery at that exact moment, but if the hat cam saw what I saw it will make great TV. I saw the whole back of the fish as it swam under my feet and it was every bit of 5lbs, maybe bigger. That was the very first time I felt the pressure of the tournament and I literally broke down.
I didn’t know whether or not that particular fish was going to cost me the million, but I knew that if I caught everything that bit like I had the previous days, I would have had a good chance to win, and that fact hit me like a ton of bricks. I couldn’t understand why I had so many good things happen on day three and so much go wrong on the last day. But in the end I know that everything happened the way it was supposed to and I can totally accept that. God blessed me and my family with a second place finish and we couldn’t be happier. Besides, it would be rude to win two Cups in a row…I’d rather win in Pittsburgh next year in front of my hometown crowd and all my family, right? Man, I hope we go there!
As it turned out, that last fish didn’t cost me the win, I would have needed any combination of two of the three I lost to pull it out. I’ll forever remember those three bites, but I feel privileged to have had the opportunity to fish in the top ten of the Forrest Wood Cup for $1,000,000. The whole week was one I will never forget and one I hope to experience again sometime in the future.
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