FLW Co-Angler - What Would You Do?

[Browning Guy]

Curious to hear what you guys/gals would do........as a co-angler.  For example - My son and I were fishing around Piney Saturday about 7:30 or so and Bohannan came through.  My son wanted to follow and watch him (and I did to).  He fished fairly steep banks with the A10 90% of the time and was 3'-4' off the bank and STANDING on the trolling motor. . The co-angler in the back had the choice of throwing out the back of the boat and waterskiing anything he threw or to the middle of the lake. Bohannan told us that he fished 5 miles of bank on Friday. 

The Co-angler fished a spinnerbait, buzzbait, tried a crankbait (lost two), and senko.  Never saw the Co catch a fish for the 3 hours we watched. What do you think would be an option in those conditions?

[slowbait]

Drag a jig behind him is about all you can do

[snagged in outlet 3]

Beer

[abkeenan]

Jig/wobblehead, buzzer/plopper or spinnerbait out the back. Or a deeper crank out the other side of the boater hitting the deeper zone he isn't.

[Sprint21fter]

Plenty of options, work a spook behind the boat/plopper/pop-R,  drag a Jig, throw a swimbait/grub, fish a floating worm/fluke behind the boat, or fish on the other side into the deeper zone like was discussed in previous post.  Its fishing the fish don't care if the person in the back of the boat is getting front ended.

[MOBass]

Been there, done that in the back of the boat.  Solution was fish the deeper side on one occasion, grub behind the boat on another.  Caught fish and did fine, pros didn't mind as I wasn't fishing their water.  I also had a pro that was running banks tell me to throw parallel and we would leap frog cast, worked good and we both caught a limit.  I'll figure out a way to fish.

[Flysmallie]

I had a Pro do that while fishing Central Pro Am back in the day. He told me up front how it was going to be and I just adjusted. Threw a grub and a spinnerbait behind the boat all day. I weighed a limit. He did not. 

[Champ188]

That's one reason I've pretty much given up fishing the pro-am format. For starters, my strength is fishing shallow, knowing my targets and fishing them carefully and thoroughly. I like to cover a lot of water and when fishing alone, I keep the boat pretty close to the bank. I've had to do that in pro-am tournaments in the past and never did extremely well because I felt like a heel for keeping my back-seater cut off all day.

I like for the person with me to catch fish, even in derbies, which was pretty evident a few years back when my partner won the co-angler division of that year's BFL stop on Table Rock. I probably could've caught a few more myself if I hadn't been generous enough to let him have more than his fair shot at the fish. But this guy was new to tournament fishing and I wanted him to have a good day. And did he ever.

Not patting myself on the back at all. Just saying, pro-am events can be a bad deal for both the boater and non-boater, provided the boater has enough of a conscience to feel bad about pigeon-holing his partner all day.

[Sore Thumbs]

I was co-angler at Ft.gibson a few years back. It was during spawn. My boater had nuzzled in between 2 docks. I was face to face with outside walls of docks on both sides. He did this for about 45 minutes. I waited til he moved boat a little closer to the bank. I had a tiny target area to throw to. I ended up catching the biggest fish in our boat that day. It was 3lb range. I didn't do great but I did weigh in more than my boater that day. Quite satisfying 

[Browning Guy]

I have been fortunate in who I've drawn over the years. Nearly all were great to fish with and I enjoyed the day/s. Central Pro-Am back in the Ernie days and Heartland both had good folks fishing with them. My first time as a co-angler........I was 3 feet from a bluff wall for 6.5 hours was back 25-26 years ago in a late February CPA on TR. The air temp that a.m. was 18°.  

We ran (77 mph no console for the passenger) from Kimberling to above the Shell Knob bridge.  When we finally stopped, I could have cared less about fishing.  My first concern was for frost bite and wondering how many toes and fingers I was going to lose.  The "pro" I fished with refused to give me any info of where or how the evening before because it was a big secret.  I thought I was well prepared. One of the longest days on the water EVER. Neither of us caught a fish that day.  I should have known when Ernie paired us up at the then Hill Billy Bowl..... the entire room erupted in laughter.  I was young and dumb, yet wondered why they laughed.  I found out the next day!  Overall, I have been fortunate and enjoyed fishing from the back even when the "pro" wasn't on anything.