| Author | Message | ||
| Keith
Minnow Username: Keith Post Number: 80 Registered: 8-2004 Rating: |
There was a Striper tournament scheduled for Saturday, April 4, 2006 on Lake Tawakoni. I got invited to fish it with team Stripaholic out of Tyler. I took off work on Friday April 7th to prefish. It was fairly rough that day, but not as bad as it would be the next day during the actual tournament. After prefishing Friday, we went to the ramp at the end of the day to find a boat sunk and sitting on the rocks by the ramp, with each wave beating it against the rocks. The boat owner had beached his boat to go get the trailer, only to have the waves sink it where it was beached. We helped him the best we could, but there was no way to bail water out as about 50 gallons were coming in the boat, then running back out, with each wave. That was the first sunk boat of the weekend. I woke up to about 30 mph winds at 2:15 AM on Saturday. At sunrise, we were still trying to catch some shad, with very limited success. The ones we were able to catch were all pretty small. About an hour and a half after the tournament officially started, we finally gave up on trying catching shad and headed out into the swells that were rolling across the lake toward the dam where we were going to fish. I sure was glad we were in the biggest boat of the Tournament; a 24’ Falcon owned my friend Trent Miller.  Even though we were in a pretty large boat, we stayed wet all day long from the spray. Numerous boats gave up fishing in the rollers, and found more protected areas of the lake to fish.     We struggled to catch the 2 legal fish we were allowed to weigh in, and by noon we finally caught our 2nd legal fish. As Chad measured it, he announced “It’s legal!” but then the hybrid flopped off the top of the ice chest and went right back in the water! We all took a deep breath, knowing that may have very well cost us some cash. It wasn’t until we made our last drift of the day that we finally caught a fish as big as the one that flopped out of the boat. We drifted until we were almost on the dam, and started pulling up poles to call it a day. After we reeled in 3 poles, one of the remaining poles was hit, and it wound up being our 2nd largest fish on the day. | ||
| Keith
Minnow Username: Keith Post Number: 81 Registered: 8-2004 Rating: N/A |
As we got to Holiday Marina, a bass boat was also coming in. They ran over a submerged sand bar. As soon as they stopped on the sand bar, the waves started swamping their boat and it sank within 10-15 seconds. Even though we had just less than 1 hour to load the boat and drive around the lake to Anchor Inn, we asked if they needed help. We wound up pulling their boat as close as we could to the launch ramp which was about 200 yards away.  Notice the waves breaking on the submerged island they hit in the back ground of this picture. Here is a picture of the sand bar back in January when the lake was about 4-5 feet lower than it is now.  Even though we might have been disqualified from the tournament for being late, we felt it wouldn’t be right to leave them stranded waiting on someone else to help. As it turned out, we made it to the weigh-in with 5 minutes to spare. The change in the wind shut down the stripers, and only one fish weighed in was a pure striper. All the others were hybrid stripers. When the weights were totaled, we finished in 2nd place.  (Message edited by Keith on April 15, 2006) | ||
| Keith
Minnow Username: Keith Post Number: 82 Registered: 8-2004 Rating: N/A |
Here's a picture of my boat. If you see me on the water, say Hello. I'm usually on Tawakoni, but you might find me on other lakes, too.  | ||
| Bigun
Hybrid Username: Bigun Post Number: 893 Registered: 8-2004  Rating: N/A |
Wow, now that is some rollers. Congrats on catching fish in the nasty weather and for being a good sportsman helping those guys. Quit being a mad, little bald man! | ||
| Picou
Lunker Username: Picou Post Number: 1785 Registered: 8-2004  Rating: N/A |
Excellent job on the salvage guys. Being willing to help out when on a schedule is the mark of true sportsmen -- great job... Those definately are some rollers there and I am glad I chose to stay off the lake that day... Wow!!! Congrats on the 2nd place finish... that was a well earned award.  Thank you Lord for my family and the waters I get to fish
| ||
| Atthewall
Crappie Username: Atthewall Post Number: 524 Registered: 11-2004  Rating: N/A |
Way to help out some very needy anglers! Man that has to really hurt  Congrats on the 2nd place showing. Y'all certainly had the boat to deal with the conditions. | ||
| Clark
Minnow Username: Clark Post Number: 44 Registered: 8-2004  Rating: N/A |
Congrats on your success! And Its good to see sportsmen help other sportsmen. Five stars, bro. |
