Watchin the Bassmasters

[kunes]

Living on Lake Wylie I had the opportunity to watch last weekend's Bassmaster Classic first hand. I live at the back end of a small cove. The house is high up on the bank and I can look down into the water. There are several bream beds there now and a few avg sized bass hang around every day and go after small bream and minnows. They watch the bream going around in their neverending circles above their nests. I think they're just waiting for the hatch. Anyway, I thought it would be interesting to see what happened to the bass when the Masters showed up. In 3 days only 1 guy showed up to fish in the back of the cove and he had his back to the fish as he cast towards my dock. I was impressed with his casting ability. Time and again he put his jig right next to the dock in the shadow, threading the lure under the bow of my boat in its hoist and next to a piling from about 60'. Living on the lake ya get used to having bassers bounce spinnerbaits off your boat or , as happened a coupla weeks ago, drive their trolling motors into the side of your boat, or hit your outdive. My neighbor has a chartreuse spinner bait caught in the shingles of his boat hoist roof. That one musta really gottn away! A few of the Masters fished the mouth of the cove but didn't catch anything. On opening morning the "blast off" was at 6:30. About 6:45 I heard em coming. I looked out the window and counted 60 bassboats go by in 4 minutes. The water was real riled up to say the least. Most of the traffic was from spectators following the local boy, Jason Quinn. After observing all this for 3 days I must say I came away with a great deal of respect for the Bassmasters. I just can't understand the appeal in doing what they do, but they work extremely hard and have reached a level of proficiency that is enviable. If the event had not been on my home lake I would have paid no attention but I found myself watching the weigh in every day. It was, if nothing else, interesting. Today the bream are gouing around in circles and the bass are watchin them. Life goes on.

[Slab]

Cool story. Fishing is fishing, it's all fun, or at least it supposed to be fun. When it turns to work then I got to wonder! But even when there's major effort involved, just anticipating the suprise that might be at the end of your line makes it all worth while. Glad everything is back to normal. Thanks for sharing.

[crappieseeker]

Must have been fun to watch the bassmasters. My opinion on the deal is this. I had rather work catching fish than I had doing any other thing. If I could afford to get a nice boat and had the time to get as good as they are, I'd love that kind of work. A day of work on the water is better than a day of work anywhere else, its bound to be. Maybe you might think about fishing the cove you were talking about pretty good and maybe hooking up with one of the pros when they come back into town. They usually look for the help of locals a day or two before a tournament to put them on key places to catch fish. A friend of mine does this sometimes and has caught a couple 10 pound bass while showing some pros where some hot spots are. I dont know how you could go about doing that, but it would make you feel good if one of those guys won the tournament up in your cove. Anyway, you had a good story, and I'm glad you enjoyed watching it. Good Luck, and I hope nobody damages your property trying to fish around it.