Kudos For Phil And Lamar

[zander]

My father and I took part in the Masters tournament on Saturday. It was quite an experience. Neither of us had ever fished in a tournament of any kind before and thought it would be fun. We signed up and started making plans. I bought a bunch of new tackle and spent an hour or two organizing my tacklebox and getting the poles ready. I had everything we would need piled on the garage floor by my father's boat. My father was resposible for getting the boat ready. We met Sat. morning at 5:00 AM to leave Springfield and head down to Taney early. My dad had the van loaded up and the boat hookep up when I got there. We put in at the boat ramp right by Scotty's about 6:00 AM and as I floated away from the trailer I went to start the boat. This is when things started going bad. No juice in the battery. I had told my father no less than three times to charge the batteries. I tried to use the trolling motor to take the boat to the dock, but no juice in it either. By this time despite the 27 degree air, I was pretty steamed. I paddled over to the dock. I sent my father on a mission to Wal-Mart hoping we could get the battery jumped with enough time to spare before the tournament.

Luckily Lamar from Scotty's showed up and let me borrow a quick jump kit. and when that failed to do it, he let us swap out the battery and even put our old one on a charger for us all day. By 7:20AM we had a running boat and were ready to go up to Lilley's when I realized my tackle box was not with us. Everything else from my pile had been loaded up, just not the bright blue tackle box that would have seemed important. All we had to fish with were the lures we had tied onto our poles earlier and a couple of spoons in my father's tackle box. By this time I was pretty sure I was going to be one of those people who would not speak to their father for the next 5 years.

The brutal windchill I dealt with speeding up to Lilley's made me focus on other things though, namely not turning into a popsicle. As we puttered into Lilley's it was nice to see a well-organized event in the works. Everyone was really helpful and the launch was truly something to see. I had never been around that many boats in such a small area before. It was kind of like driving in Mexico only in boats.

We headed down to lower Taney and fished from about a mile below Rockaway to Empire Park all day. The only thing that we could get consistent action on were rainbow trout patterned spoons (didn't have much to work with remember). Also complicating things was that my father was working the fish finder and had set it on "simulator" for the first half of the day. I was wondering why there were so many humps in the middle of the channel and the water temp kept saying 64 degrees. We both caught our limits anyway and had the opportunity to cull up a couple of fish each. We were the first to weigh in and for about two minutes we were in first place in the tournament with a weight of 4.88 lbs. Now we knew before we even left for Taney that we had no hope of placing in the tournament, but we did not want to come in last either. Phil was reassuring that our weight shouldn't come in dead last. I guess his years of putting on the tournament paid off because when it was all over, we were not last, so it was a success.

After the tournament we headed back down to Scotty's where we exchanged batteries with Lamar, without whose help we would have been totally out of luck. And of course, without Phil's time, energy, and money the tournament would not have taken place. So here is a big "thank you" to you two guys. Now I can say that my father and I fished a tournament together, overcame adversity (with help), didn't place last, and remained friends at the end of the day (although if we ever do this again, I am checking everything myself). Thanks again guys.

[Phil Lilley]

I bet all of us have had trips like yours... leaving vital items behind on a trip. You get past the initial sinking feeling and grow a little bit (hopefully).

Was nice talking to you Phillip. Croatia sounds like a wonderful place. I hope it all works out for you guys.

[Jeremy Rasnick]

Nice work......atleast now you have a good story to tell. I wall fully equiped and prepared and bearly scratched the 5 lb mark, and I don't even have any good excuses. We had a great time at the tournament as well, its always good to see a couple nice browns being weighed in.

[perchjerker]

Sounds like bad to me , but I went on a 7 day trip to Canada and left my tackle box in the car trunk at home. Found this out after I got to the camp island 24 hours later. No marinas,stores or resorts close by. Borrowed 3 lures and had a great time catching many,many fish with a very loose drag and wet cloths after 3 dives to get lures unsnagged.We fishermen do what we got to do.Thank God it's to cold up there for Giant Taney Squids.

[jlpatton1]

Zander.... Phil is right we could have an entire thread on "Fishing trips gone wrong"... Glad we could help y'all and wish you and your father all the best.

Lamar <' >>>>>>>><