Reading the thread about how someone was concerned about failing a polygraph due to having more than 5 fish in the livewell reminded me of this Classic Blunder......

In 2011 & 2012 I fished a lot of events on Fork with my Godson Dustin. Here is the (now) funny story of how I learned how many fish were legal in a team event on Fork.

I had TEN in my livewell in a JCO event on Fork before I stated culling!!

I didn't read the rules and simply thought since the state law was five fish per person we could have ten in the box before I needed to cull. When #10 hit the box I told my partner to keep fishing and I sat down with the balance beam and stated culling.

Got down to the best five then went back to fishing. Before weigh in we upgraded a couple more times.

Got to the check in dock and checked in. Tied up the boat and started pulling fish from the well. Get em all out and Ooops! there is another one in the box still. (Btw, black livewells should be banned) Grab my balance beam and cull again at the dock.

Took our sack to weigh in. Got a weight slip for 11.97 for five Unders (largest bag of unders ever weighed in a JCO event) and my partner went to the polygraph trailer. He comes out of the polygraph room and gives me the thumbs up. We are about to be pronounced the winners.

Mark Howard comes over to me looking like someone just died. He pulls me aside and tells me someone had filed a complaint that we were culling at the dock. I tell him the whole story about having 10 in the box earlier then he enlightens me about the rule that says, "No team shall have more than five fish in the livewell at any time" DOH!!

So I withdraw my "winning" catch and we take a Big Fat Zero for the event.

I've shared this on here before, but we had a good topwater bite going in to the tournament. So I bought a brand new yellow magic to take to the tourney. Sun's coming up, tourney starts, they are EATING my yellow magic, and I'm missing every one of them. After about 30 minutes I realize I left the red covers on the hooks. Thought my partner, (my dad), was going to murder me. Top water bite died quick and never caught a fish on a yellow magic that day.

Tried to boat flip a 7lber. She hit the gunnel when the line popped. Would have won, 1st out of the money instead. No exaggeration on her size, I caught her the next morning and got my hook back.

My dumbest mistake happened in the 2011 TBF Federation National Championship for $100,000 & a trip to the Forrest Wood Cup. It was day 2 on Nickajack in TN. I was in 2nd after day 1. I pulled up on my offshore rock bar & was catching fish every cast with a football jig(once you get them fired up it�s crucial to get a bait back in them quick). I was using the a new culling system by ardent where the fish weight dials on the cull ball. I weighed my first 5 and dialed in the weight. After that if I caught a 4lber it was obviously bigger than a 2-1 so I told myself catch them while they are biting and re dial the cull balls in a bit. I culled 2-1, 2-4, 2-11 Ect.. I just culled the 2-11 and pulled all the fish out of the livewell. I culled correctly expect I had 2 balls at 2-4!!! I threw back a 2-11( 7 oz ). Day 2 at weigh in I was 6lbs out of 1st. I told them the story on the weigh in stage . I said surly it won�t matter since I�m 6lbs out. Day 3 I crush 18lbs in the first hour. The leader caught 2 bass. The 2nd place guy won the $100,000 by 4oz. I had the winning bass in my livewell & a jump start to my professional career & threw it back.

In 2014 I qualified for the National Championship on Grand. This time around I WON it!! God works in mysterious ways!

For those who get bored here is the video of 2014 National Championship

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=u1-oyYdGay8

Once at a Honey Hole tournament we were fishing out of my partners boat( normally we fished out of my boat ), while he was getting the graph hooked up I got the transom saver and put the plug in. Plug is different on his boat and I put it in the live well drain. We launch and head to our first spot. After fishing about 20 minutes I notice water in the boat and quickly realized what happened. Backed the boat up next to dock, he laid on the dock and put the plug in the right hole, bilged out the water and we finished 2nd. Anybody else do something that stupid.

I recall you telling me that story James. Oh man...
But the Man upstairs had other plans for you.

This happened quite a few years ago on Rayburn. Elizabeth and I were headed to Big Lake in Louisiana to chase reds and trout. On the way down we stopped to visit with the Bass Champs guys during their Dodge Mega Bass Tournament. Long story short, we decided to fish it the next day.

We got up the next morning and launched the bay boat about an hour after the tournament started. I think we made about a 5 minute run to the first cove and started fishing. We caught a few small ones, then I hooked a decent fish. I got her to the boat and she was a contender. It was a short run to the weigh-in, so I put it on plane and headed to make the second hour (it was either the second or third hour - can't remember for sure). Right as we hit the mouth of the cove, I shut her down and sat there a second laughing at myself. We were in a bay boat and I had my mind on saltwater fishing. Since we launched, neither Elizabeth or I had our life jackets on.

I knew I couldn't weigh in the fish, but I took it in just to see how we would have done. Sure enough, we would have had big bass for the hour. If you don't believe me, ask Big Sexy about it. I think Fish was MCing the event and he wanted to bring me up on stage for a dose of good humored harassment, but Chad didn't think that was a good idea.

Not winning the truck sucked, but the story provided a lot of laughs over the years.

Ken, I remember that 11.97, heck of a sack.. Maxwell and Grier had a 12.07 one fish was in the slot the next event after yours...

My moment was in the bass'N for babies, there's been more I'm sure but, I set the hook hard, rod flies out of my hands I panic, $600+ setup, I jump in after it breaking my big toe in the process. Now the stupid stuff starts, the rod and reel were so light, they floated, no need to jump in. I land the fish move to the back of the boat "in pain" to weigh it, it culls one, the wrong one, I'm not thinking straight and cull the wrong fish. We get to weigh in pull the fish out and low and behold 4 nice ones and one little grn pickle.. That cost us $1500.00
Duhhhh.

My boat broke down day before the tourney, had to go get my sons boat to fish the tourney, was not familiar with the live well system ( even though I owned the boat 5 years prior ) anyway I ran several miles with the livewells turned off in place of recirculate, lost 3 fish, cost me the tourney, also was very embarrassed weighing in dead fish.

Our club championship tournament started at 6:00 a.m. in pitch black darkness. I caught a four pounder before daylight and thought I put it on cull ring #1 of my X-Tools system.

A couple of hours later, in the daylight, I caught keeper #3. When I started looking for cull ring #3 it wasn't there, but #1 was still in the box. I decided I needed to switch the ring numbers so I got my four pounder out of the livewell, took the ring out of it, and put it between my knees on the seat for the switch.

The fish flopped, got away from me, bounced off the seat and flew three feet through the air and over the side of the boat. I wanted to punch myself. Why didn't I put the fish in the other livewell for just a few seconds?

Wife and I in a team event, caught a few 1.5 lbers, then we got into some 3+ lbers.
I was culling 3+ lbers, at weigh-in pulling them out, I got the sickest feeling way down in the pit
of my stomach, when I saw
I had kept a 1.5 by mistake, we got 2nd instead of FIRST($1000),a $500 error.
I was so upset with myself I gave her my 1/2.

My buddy is older and gets real stupid from the excitement of fishing tournaments, he has done the drain plug in the wrong hole twice. One time it was cold, real cold and he had to beach the boat & jump into the water to get the plug in. He was quite miserable the rest of the day.

He left the trailer straps on another time.

I feel so much better now.

Was fishing a tourney on Bastrop a few years ago. Partner and I were catching them pretty good and caught a real small one that was an under I told him to throw back, I said will catch one better than that. Ended up only catching 4 keepers and missed first by 4 ounces. That fish we threw back was at least 6-8 ounces....