My buddy was launching my boat on our first tournament to find out the cranking battery was dead. The battery was fine 2 days before when we had it out. We fished the whole tournament with just the trolling motor . Luckily our fish stayed alive since the live wells stopped aerating halfway through. I always get bubble gut during the worst times possible. I always try to get rid of all of it before heading to the lake.

I alway's wondered what do the pro's do when they have to go to the bathroom and there's spectator boats all around? Oh and there was this friend of mine that fished a tournament on Belton, he was doing his business right next to his boat on the bank when he saw a shad swirl nearby, he still had his pants down and cast to the swirl and caught two three pounders on the pop-r at the same time, ended up winning the club tourney just on those two fish.

I hate it when this happens..

http://www.scout.com/outdoors/wired2fish/story/1674979-second-alleged-cheater-in-same-kayak-tourney

BG is the worst. Luckily i drive a center console and have a whale fin on the motor so its real easy to squat and hold onto the motor
i can't drink the night before fishing

My fishing partner Deadsticker has a good bubble gut story if he will tell it. It was almost caught on my gopro but he was out of the cameras view so it was just audio..

Matt and I always have a bubble gut pre tournament discussion and anxiety, always! Never fails I tell him what the weather forecast is going to be and he ignores my warnings and ends up with no rain gear or hoodie or whatever. I have started packing extra. I let him hear about it all day.
One day on OH Ivie my Lowrance quit working during a Bass Champs Championship. i took the lowrance cleaning rag that came with the unit and took ---- in the woods and used it for toilet paper I was so mad. The list goes on and on. Whacked them on day one in our club championship to be in second or third. Second day ran way way down Texoma and discovered the only bait we whacked them on the previous day we left in the truck bed under the cover. We always unload out gear overnight at hotels. Didn't place in the championship.

Oh and I too have done the power pole half down leaning back trick. Matt jumped in one day in the summer and said, I'll hold on, just keep trolling forward until I am done. LOL!

I'm ordering the power pole. How fast do you have to troll to keep the zebra mussel out of ya?

best post so far this year! thnx for the laughs!

I've got a buddy that does this all the time. Why on earth would you back off your drag when you're done fishing??? This serves no purpose whatsoever, and if you think that it does you are simply frustrating yourself for NO REASON. Leave your drag set! I've never backed off the drag on my reels and they work just fine.

we were at lake of the pines. lake was 6 ft high. got back in the flooded timber. luckily a 461vs has a little step on the rear of the back deck. I stepped on it squattin backwards and let er rip. then I hollered to my redneck I pilot on the trolling motor "troll me outta here.aint you watchin ?. he laffed and asked if he wanted me to fire up the big motor and use the pisser stream as one of those French bordays that the rich folk have on their toilets.

Its July and you are on your run to your starting spot and come across a ski boat needing a tow...........................

My favorite post of this thread.

Last summer my son had been asking to go fishing but I had been really busy with work and couldn't take him...when my kids want to fish I try real hard to make it a priority, as well as a special experience...so I finally made the time to take him one evening, we were trying to get to the lake before the Marina closed so we could order some hamburgers...I launched the boat then pulled over to the dock,we went in ordered hamburgers gotta some drinks and took off fishing,both, happy as larks to be on the water... we fish for about 2 hours or so when a big Thunderhead ran us off the lake, as I pulled into the marina there was my truck sitting in the boat ramp still running...talk about feeling like an idiot...fortunately there were two other ramps...I have to be very careful nowadays, if something gets me out of my routine I'll usually forget something.

Haha. I left my truck running outside of a college football game once. Good thing we filled up before getting there.