That’s pretty awesome right there!

1996 was the second year of the Skeeter Boat Owner's Tournament at Lake Fork. Back then it was a team tournament and held out of the Minnow Bucket. On day one I caught a 9.67# fish which was the biggest fish of the day. On the second day we are listening on the radio for the hourly results and a team brings in a fish which weighs 9.67#. At the end of the day we are still tied for first and they decide to have a fish off. First boat back with a fish wins. There was no minimum size for bass so any little fish would do. Some friends tell us that right out on the point from weigh-in is a bunch of schoolies and they always seem to catch one in front of the launch ramp where the moss bed following the bank breaks. So they put an observer in each boat and send us out. We go about 300 yards and I stop and turn the boat toward the boat ramp. I'm getting out of my life vest and my partner jumps on the front deck and casts towards the ramp. A fish immediately grabs his bait and I net it. The weigh-in crowd was easily able to see us catch that little10" fish and we could hear them cheering when we got it in the boat. I bet we caught that fish in less than a minute. I still fish out of the boat and Mercury150 that we won.

I have several "clutch" tourney stories. None is better than the other except that two of them were with my daughters.

Back when The Bass House sponsored a yearly tourney on Lake Lewisville. It drew 200 boats and a couple guys at work were entered. I entered and my oldest, Chessie, was my partner. At work these guys were good at our local lake Joe Pool but didn't fish many other lakes but they were putting a hurt on me for fishing with my daughter.
Tourney day and fishing was very slow. At noon we had one just keeper fish and while driving to the old lake we came across one of the guys from work. They had 5 and had culled several times but no size to their fish.
With an hour and a half to fish, Chessie, then 8 years old, kept throwing a spinnerbait. When we first pulled up to this timbered area in the old lake the wind was blowing right into it and it was full of bait. Chessie got a hit and said it was big! The fish went under the boat but we did get a net under a solid 3 pounder.
I threw a black blue jig and the bass were nailing it in the heaviest stuff. Most of my hits came when I had soaked the bait in tight cover but had started swimming it away from it. I lost a nice one when I had cast over a floating log jam. The fish bit good but it came off when it came over the log.
Anyway, we ended up with 17 something pounds and in third place. I was so proud of Chessie and the hard work she put into it. I could tell then by looking at my second daughter Tiffany, that she wanted to play too.


Next up, Tiffany at Bass Champs Tawakoni. Tiffany had been fishing with me for several years in Bass Champs and Trophy Bass Club. She loves fishing and competing. She beat me from the back of the boat as often as I would beat her.
We had struggled pre fishing and never had more than a couple bites and one or two keepers so I decided we would just run some brush piles on the main lake and then run to the far side of the lake and fish a big pocket that had timber in it. It was a community hole but always had some fish. The tourneys there recently were being won with 15-17 pounds.
Day started and we hit a couple piles with no luck. Pulling up to another one there was a boat sitting right on top of the brush casting to the point. We sat back and waited till they went down the bank and then hit the brush pile, over an over for 10 minutes without success. I had turned the boat out and was about to move when Tiffany said she had one on. It was a good 2 1/2 pounder. Good start. We hit a couple other piles and caught one more 2 pounder. You had to throw over and over again to get a hit. That second fish was caught after about 15 casts to the same spot.
We moved over to the timber and there were several other boats inside the pocket. We knew to keep throwing at good targets and found we could get strikes when we found an isolated tree in the timber we were in. We kept slowly catching and hoped nobody saw what we were doing. We had caught 9 keepers and had a good limit. I knew we would be in the running. As time got short with a 10 mile run to weigh in and it was blowing 15 mph, I kept looking at one big tree sitting just off the bank. I decided to pitch a bait to it a couple times just in case and yikes, it was a 5 pounder.
We ended up in third place, 3/4 of a pound out of first. I remembered back to a three pounder we had lost at 1PM which would have won us the tournament. It didn't bother us though since we had come from nowhere to do this well.

Third, Bass Champs again, a couple years earlier. This was the last year they gave away Champions.
It was Cedar Creek and the last tournament of the year. My partner Joe Smith and I had been fishing BC for a couple years. Joe had been ill and not able to fish much this year. He was getting shots every other week and it took a lot out of him for a week. We had both practiced at CC but neither had done anything. We had nothing. Fact is the tournaments out there were only taking 15-17 pounds to win.
After the last day of practice I called Joe and we talked. I said that if he was ok with it we could skip this tournament. He said he wanted to go just to go fishing.
We started the morning half way up the lake throwing Crigs on brush piles Joe knew. I was familiar with the area but had no idea these piles were there. Short story. First 30 minutes of the tournament and we had about 14 pounds with 3 fish. We spent the rest of the day trying in earnest to catch two more. The 5th keeper came off our last hope and the final minutes of fishing before we had to get back to weigh in.
Ended up winning. We won by 2 pounds. Another amazing day at the lake.

Back in 2014 I was on squaw creek fish (back when it took 25 plus to win LOL).
My lovely wife who loves to bass fish just as much as I do wasn't interested in tournaments because she thought they would be boring.
I talked her into jack potting the CAST opener which we took second to our now good friends . She was hooked after that.
now to my clutch moment.

My motor had blown in April of 2014 and I picked it back up May 1st. our next tournament was May 2nd on Benbrook, a lake I had only been on once before and had my butt handed to me.
I launch and head to an area I thought looked good. My first cast I stick a 6 then the next cast I stick a 5. So I leave that spot alone and run the boat a little bit then head home.

The next day we are running a little late and we are the last team to launch. we cruise over to the spot I wanted to fish and start fishing. On the way I see about 5-6 boats stacked up on top of each other on this stretch of bank next to where I'm starting.
Jess catches a few small fish on a spinner bait, the other boats see this and start migrating my way. Before you know it I'm getting crowded in so I say fine y'all can have it I'll go fish where y'all were at LOL.

That situation was the best thing that could have happened. it was the start of the spawn so the fish had not moved up to the banks all the way. I made a cast away from the bank in 6-8 ft of water next to a line of trees and stick a 5 then it clicks !
for the next several hours we go to catching so many 5-6 pound fish it is unreal.

I make a cast with my jig over this big fat tree and my line jumps, I set the hook into a 9.55, the next cast I stick a 6.5 that comes off mid jump at the boat, but Jess scoops fast enough that I did not see her get the fish! so in the middle of my tantrum she says " are you not going the weigh this fish? LOL"

at that point I knew we were over 25 pounds easy! so we have about 20 minutes left and I see a lone tree I have been wanting to fish, but two boats had beat it up all day. finally the last boat leaves it and says "I doubt I left anything there for you LOL". I make a cast and stick an 8! we load up and head to weigh in.

There were two guys at the ramp one was cocky and told me if I didn't have 20 pounds, I didn't have a chance because he had over 20 and thought he had it wrapped up. He ask what I have and I tell him "you will see at weigh in that I might have 20"

I start bagging my fish and the other guy starts tossing his back and said "I don't have a chance against that".
I make it a point to weigh in last after the cocky guy is strutting around bragging. we weigh in 30.69!! we went back the next day caught 31 pounds by noon LOL
my wife was very HOOKED after that tournament and is probably more competitive about bass tournaments than i am now!

Great post and great stories by all... Love it!

My partner and I were having a pretty good day, sitting on a solid 21 - 22 lb limit and felt like we were easily in the money. Had been grinding for the last couple of hours trying to cull a 3 lbr, knew that had to happen to for there to be any chance of winning. We decided on one little area to hit before running to weigh in, had boats on it all day but now was completely empty. We had time to make a quick pass, ran all the water and only caught a couple that wouldn't help, as I am on the trolling motor to head out I see something out of the corner of my eye right on the bank... an odd swirl. As we continue moving forward I'm watching that area and I see it again. So I turn around and crank up the trolling motor up to go back and see what it is, partner tells me we have 5 minutes left.As I ease up on it its two bass on a bed actually in the act of spawning. First time I had ever seen this go down with my own eyes. Make a couple of pitches, they just move off every time. Initial gut feeling was they weren't catchable with the amount of time left and really wasn't sure the female would be big enough to help... but we still had a few minutes. Made a few more pitches to the bed, the female doesnt leave. A few more pitches and she swims off again, so as she is swimming I toss my bait ahead of her and swim it right past her nose... she sucked it in, I set the hook. Fish came to the surface and was WAY bigger than she looked... we put her in the box, tossed the 3 lbr back in the lake and flew back to weigh in. That fish ended up being a little over 6 lbs and was enough to give us the win by a pound.

Fishers of Men tournament on Lake Tyler in 2013, my partner and I had a solid sack about an hour before weigh-in on a really windy day. We were on the west lake and hadn't put anything that would cull in the boat in at least a couple of hours. I said to my partner, "What are we doing here? Where do we think we might be able to catch a fish that would not only cull, but make a difference?" We cranked up and ran to the east lake to a brushpile we knew about. I dropped not one but two anchors upwind and we both got on the back deck. Twenty minutes before weigh-in my line got mushy and I was either hung in the brush or had a fish on so I set the hook. She got wrapped, then came loose and ran for open water. I don't remember exact weight but it was somewhere between 7.5 and 8. We culled, pulled up the anchor, and raced to the weigh-in. That fish won the tournament for us.

We didn't win and I didn't even catch the fish, but to this day the most excited I have ever been over a fish was one that my current partner caught on Martin Creek in about 1997. It was the first tournament we ever fished there and my second tournament ever. Another of our friends sort of laughed at us for entering an event on a lake we barely knew, telling us, "You're fishing against the best of the best." I laughed and asked if this was a fishing tournament or Top Gun Academy. We had one area of grass that was holding some fish and I caught three 3 to 4 pounders right off the bat, then a 6 something. Things slowed down so we moved under the first bridge to a patch of pads. My partner threw into the pads with a Texas rig and set the hook. When I saw the fish's mouth come to the surface I knew if he got it out of there we were going to at least be in the money. He did and I think we finished 4th in a 46 boat tournament. I've been lucky enough to win quite a few tournaments since then but that 4th meant a lot at the time, sort of validated to me that I could compete, and I have never forgotten the feeling I got when I saw that fish.

One more, a third partner and I found some fish on Palestine late in the day on the official practice day for another Fishers of Men and ran there first thing in the morning. We had three fish in the box when he caught a 6-4. I netted it and was in the bottom of the boat weighing it when he asked, "You got your net handy?" I said, "You know I do, I just netted the fish." He said, "I got another one, and it's Godzilla." I netted that fish with the 6-4 still in my hand. I weighed it and said to him, "We've been fishing 30 minutes and we have 24 pounds." We ended up with 25.66 and won, beating another team that I think had 25.41.