a small singles tournament a few years ago on a powerplant lake, snowed all night, about 15 degrees and the wind was howling. The wind was about 40 so the lake was rough anyway, I pulled up on the 1st point and dropped the trolling motor, all was good till i stepped on the pedal, motor was froze left so all it would do is go around in circles, the wind blew me into the bank so fast i couldnt use the big motor to back out, It took about an hour before it finally broke loose and worked ok.

This year during the Bass Champs april tournament on sam rayburn me and my partner catch 5 good fish right at the end of the tournament just enough to get us in the money. When we come out of veach basin its blowing 30+ and were in an 18.5ft skeeter we freking haul our way back to the way in and right when we get to the dam our motor just shuts off turns out when i hit a stump on sandlin 4 months before it broke a seal and my outboard had been running with no lower unit fluid for at least 2 months. Hd to replace the whole lower unit Missed our way in time by 10min

Many years ago my cousin and I were fishing the Grapevine Police Association Tourny on Grapevine. It was raining so hard and we had been catching fish way up the lake in the creek days before. Well we got all the way there and the wind was howling so we took a beating. As we pulled out our gear it was still dark and I noticed water flooding the floor board of the boat. We both thought it was the plug but realized it was in, then turned on the only bilge we had. After waiting 30 minutes for the pump to kind of catch up and we could actually see the cranking battery fell out of it's tray landing on a livewell pump breaking it clean off. I told him we needed to plug it and he told me to take my sock off and shove up in the hole. Well I told him it was his boat so he winded up loosing the sock and we tied it in with our plastic weigh in bag. We fished with the boat like that all day and got 3rd place at 16yrs old.

Fished TABC tournament in Sept of this year. Left on a Thursday.Get to the ramp by 8am. Show my partner how to operate my new Lowrance HDS10. Idle about mile from ramp go to get on plane. Boats engine coughs and sputters than runs about 100 feet and lose power. Check everything out, nothing. Get back to ramp to try locate dealer, nearest is San Antonio. Load up get to SA only to say the mechanic calls it an Eturd and listed all kinds of possibilities. Head to Austin to my mechanic. Spent two hours trying to locate problem. He was having fits. Unloaded all gear from boat to go and pick up partner small 16ft alum. with 90 horse so we could at least fish. About time to leave he comes running out says, got it figured out. Replaced the capacitor. Starts up and runs fine. Head back to Choke and get there just in time to have supper. No prefishing that day. Head out Friday am, head down lake to three fingers. Fished about two hours and started to head up lake towards Mason pt. About two miles from launch area, motor starts loosing power. Had hot foot all way to floor and not going. Able to idle back to ramp. Call my mechanic and is is in disarray. Go to motel unload all gear from boat and head back to Austin. Drop boat off at my partners house, pick up his boat and back to Choke. No prefishing Friday. Come Saturday, i think we were the smallest boat on the lake. Went to Opossum creek and saw nothing but gators, bigger than our boat. No luck and the gators were staring at us. Went up river and fished an island for next two days. For two days, we fished up there, our boat had biggest stringer for our club and big bass for out club. We came in 2nd place in the TABC tournament fishing out of that Team Aluminum as we call it. The kicker here is that on the last day, Sunday, we had our five and decided to head toward the launch area for some unknown reason. Fishied for few hours no luck. Started up his engine to go and weigh in. Got to the ramp and his motor quit. Starter problems. At least we were able to weigh in our fish. On my boat, problem was the computer, the capacitor messed it up when it blew up. Spent two days traveling over 900 miles back and forth to Austin and choke and just missed first placed by under 4 pounds. Had a great time otherwise.

Fished a local club tournamnet a few years ago and hung into a 5lber. My buddie fishing out of the back of the boat went to grab the net and tried to net the fish with the net sideways. Needless to say the fish jumped out of the net and threw the bait. Oh did I mention that he was fishing against me in the tournament? That fish would have won me the tournament and a few hundred bucks. You know who you are....... Striker!!!!! I will never forget! I still give him a hard time to this day. Speaking of wich, I need to remind him of that... lol

I was fish'n a team tournament back east with my brother and we were up in a cove with a high bluff bank and lots of trees and scrub along the edge, it was real quiet and the sun was just getting up, but the quiet soon changed as a 6 point buck bust through the brush jumping off the bluff into the water and starts swimming towards the boat !!! as soon as he saw us he turned and headed back to the bank and just stood there watching us...we suddenly figured out what was going on...blood started pouring out from behind his shoulder, he snorted a few times and then wobbled a bit and then just laid down, died and rolled into the water...we figured the hunter would not be far behind so we yelled out that his deer was down in the hollow by the water, but no answer...we stayed in there for about an hour occasionally calling out, still nothing...so at the end of the tournament we weighed our fish and there was a game warden there so we told him about it and described it's where a bouts and how we doubted the animal could be seen from the bluff let alone be retrieved and he said "it would sure be a shame to let that animal go to waste"...man that deer tasted good !!!

Only bad thing that has happened to me so far is the first tourney me and my partner fished in his new boat. On the way to the lake he blew a tire on his trailer. We had left in plenty of time to account for any problems, so it wasn't a big deal (we thought). We stopped on the side of the road and discovered his lug wrench wouldn't fit inside the rim. Luckily it was a dual axle trailer, so we slowly made our way to the next town and stopped at an auto parts store and borrowed some tools. Then we couldn't break the nuts! Broke some of the loaner tools trying to get them off. A kind soul passed by and pulled out a 1/2" breaker bar and that finally did the trick. We ran up to the lake calling everybody we could think of to get them to tell the TD that we would be there a few minutes after launch time (club tourney, the TD would prob let us in a few minutes late). Never got ahold of anybody. Got to the boat ramp 2 minutes after launch time and there wasn't even a wake in the water... they were GONE! So, we went fishing anyhow, where we had a horrible night (buddy fell overboard in 30 FOW at 10pm, waves coming over the back deck... scary), and wound up calling it quits and just going to a local motel to sleep.

So far wife and I have only fished 3 tournaments (Berkley Big Bass and 2 "Ray Roberts Bass Club" tournaments. (Only been boating since August). In that time we've already done some of the "must-do-overs"...
History: Boat starter died early (purchased used boat),had ordered a new OEM replacement and swapped them out, then rebuilt the original for grins and actually had it working again.

Week before Berkley, we go to Fork for the first time to pre-fish. Motor won't start at the ramp (with the new starter). Kill battery trying to get it to start (we have a bad plug at the house that sometimes comes loose, I'd hoped it was a low-charge). Pull back to the resort and buy a new battery... still no luck (jumpered 3 batteries in parallel, still no luck). Drive all the way back home wasting that whole day. Swap to the starter I'd rebuilt (pretty much just cleaned out and scrubbed and redid the connections)... and put the original starter on and it fires right up, new starter had died on 5th trip out.
Purchase new Lowrance HDS-5 for the trolling motor, and install it during the week before Berkley.
Next week at Berkley (Sat), get launched, VERY shallow water at the launch ramp we were staying at drags the skeg in the lowest "trailer" trim position, so plan to use trolling motor and troll away from the ramp . Lower TM (had to lift trolling motor and hold "up" to get trolled away from the launch area).... get out into deeper water, go to trim down the engine from the bow switch, and no "sound" comes from the back. Ask wife to use the steering trim, still nothing... look at the motor, and it's completely trimmed up over the back deck. No response at all from the trim controls (apparently past some limiting switch)... no idea why it is up so high... then I notice that the trolling pedal cable is "pushed" out of it's original alignment by the new lowrance... and wants to sit "on" the trim "UP" switch... when I deployed the TM, it raised the main engine too far to lower back.
Get toolkit out, due to previous trailer bracket issues I'd already learned where the manual release bolt was... get the manual trim release loose, motor sinks back into operating position, tighten down, and it starts and trims just fine, rest of the day goes without incident.
Sunday, smooth launch and avoided repeat of above issues... cruise across the lake to start fishing the east side, deploy trolling motor, cast jig to shore and retrieve back and "fish on" within seconds (only fish I got to weigh in for the tourney). I'm excited and then hear my wife also fighting one (first cast for both, hers was a striper)... as we are retrieving I hear her say "why is it doing that????) and turn around to see bilges pumping water out... and realize I finally made that rookie mistake and left the plug out... quickly retrieve fish, drop in livewell, dive to back of the boat and head-under-water find the plug and put it in... so Sunday before Sunrise we've both caught our first fish on first cast and I've dunked myself to the shoulders...

Nothing exciting happened the last 2 tourneys with the RRBC, however Sunday I was packing up, doing final check... pulled keys out of boat, and noticed both sonars still on the boat (exposed, so I don't leave them on when driving)... stopped to pull them both out, put their covers on and stowed, got in and drove off....
So now I have a boat, with everything... except the keys... which I put down to take off the sonars... if anyone finds a bright yellow floating keychain with 3 keys on it, near the road into/out of Hickory Creek/Point Vista to I35E southbound, please let me know. They were our only set, I've previously been to 2 locksmiths to get keys made, neither could do it, so it's not totally my fault that we don't have a spare set(s), but those were the only keys... ugh! Not expecting to get them back, but one never knows.

Ditto Ken I am right there with ya! Had Media on Grapevine all wrapped up one day except for 6 fish in the bag. Costly mistake! In fact I remember you were the first to reply to my orginal message back then.

First tournament I fished in south texas, Choke, was with a buddy from down there. I had just bought a NEW TO ME 21 foot Cajun, I was top dog on the water! lol So everything starts out great. We land a few good tournament size fish at 3 fingers and head to another spot. If I remember right it was around 11:00 or so. Anyhoo we get back way up in some brush and BAM Jim hookes up on one. The actions of Jim and the curve of his rod is telling my "GET THE NET" So I am running up to the front of the boat with the net and my foot finds the lunch box that Jim had forgot to STOW away. Which in retrun caused the net to attach itself to the handle of the stink bait he was wanting to use after the tourny. It did not turn over until Jim went to step backwards off the deck and his big clown size feet landed on the edge og the bucket. And it was a small muffled crack for a split second just before you could hear the stink bait smishimg through his toes. Now just for referance this is not stink bait. This is I found this stinking sh!t at the animal by products in town stink bait. So now you know how my NEW TO ME boat is smelling right about now. So we scoop up the STINK bait the best we could and give the catfish a free meal. But the oils that were in it had already soaked into the carpet. By the time we get it all somewhat cleaned up with the oily stinky spot right dead center of the boat we headed to another spot, we would run away from the stink, ok lookin for my sign! lol So now I refuse to fish from the frount deck because of the stinck. So jim is up there and hookes another one. He is bringing it to the back of the boat and when he steps off the frount deck, you quessed it, right it the greasy spot which not even his clown size foot can find grip in the carpet. On his trip south, he turns loose the pole to catch his fall but it was no good the last part I saw was some size 13 dark grease feet going overbord. The water wasent too bad at about 58 or so. But let me tell you one thing Jim was fishing when the had wooden reals and a shovel handle, so being that old he did not get around that well at work, but that old man was back in the boat so fast his shirt did not even get completely wet. So with jim lookin wet and cold I took one for the team and headed to the ramp. By now the wind had picked up and it was the chance to try out my NEW TO ME boat in rough water.Jim took a beating and with all that stink bait turnning loose from the carpet and hitting Jim and I in the face we were so lookin forward to getting cleaned up and heading home. We get about 1/2 mile from the ramp and the engine just stops. I know I changed the gas tanks because I swiched the swich. But we were getting no fuel to the engine. So put troling motor down but the wind was so high we were loosing ground. So we do our best and get the boat beached about 1/4 mile from the ramp. Jim stay with the boat I will be back with some gas. About an hour later I get there with milk jug full of gas. pour it into the other tank and she fires up. Made it to ramp. Loated up and started putting things away for our trip home when Jim says what is this swich for, I don't know I just bought the boat. Come to find when you switch the swich on the console that just swiched the fuel gage. To actually swich fuel tanks you must swich the mettal swich in the bat compartment. So everthing is put away we are ready to go, but Jim we can not get in my new truck with these stinky clothes on. Well Jason we do not have any extra clothes.. Man I am so thankfull that we did not get pulled over on the way home because I do not think I could have ever explained why me and an old man were driving down the road pulling a boat that smelt like sh!t while we were wearing nothing but socks and our scoobies. I think I would have just kept driving! What a laugh lookin back!

09Skeeter, that's a pretty awesome story!