Dumb things done while fishing a tourney

[appleye]

Whats the dumbest thing you've done fishing a tourney.

My top two are;
Around 1990 I was fishing a small one day tourney in an old rear tiller boat with no live well. This tournement was a kill tournement so you could put fish on a stringer. I had a chain stringer hangin on a cleat. I was running the electric from the back and kicked the stringer loose and watched it sink to the bottom. We had about 3 nice fish on a the time. Just at the end of the day we caught two nice fish about 4lbs each. We missed the money by one pound and the win by 4 lbs.

last year fishing the WWC on Glendo I was getting the boat ready the night before. Everyone wanted to play card and where telling me to hurry up. In getting ready I forgot to check the oil. At the take off the next morning the boat shut down about 6 miles down the lake. No spare oil in the boat and we where at the end of the pack for the day. Took about an hour running the kicker wide open to get oil. It was a very tense couple of hours in the boat. Thank god for a good partner who just laughs at me.

appleye
Scott Appley

[EYEFISH2]

I was fishing with my dad during a two day tourney and we went to run from one of our spots to another on the second day. I had just opened up the throttle and was looking at the gps to mark the next spot and took the boat over a small shallow island about 1 foot under the water. Shredded the prop in a big hurry. We were thankful that neither of us got hurt, but we were 9 miles from the boat ramp. Thank God for the 9.9 merc!!!! The sad part was the fish had turned on at the spot we were heading to and the top five teams caught all of there fish there that afternoon.

Thank god for an understanding wife and for another day to try again!!

[Stiches]

The worst has to be putting a smaller fish in my back live well cause there was not room in the front. We filled the live well up put him in. Arrived at weigh in to find that we had forgot to put the plug in, needless to say he was stiffer than a board. Lost by the weight of that fish. Live and learn.

[GR8WTHUNTER]

Well, this happened at a bass tourney, please don't throw rocks. This was the first time I ever fished a tourney. A buddy asked me to fish this mid week after work lunker tourney. Boy was I excited even though it was one of those mid 90 degree days with no wind. I pulled a 2 poundish smallie off a deep rock ledge. As I unhooked it my buddy said, "I don't know, usually takes 4 and a half or more to be in the running". As I tossed the smallie back in, he continued, "but you never know. Uh.... only one fish was weighed, a skinny 12 incher that didn't even break a pound. Cost of this lesson in stupidity $475

[stevefellegy]

18 years of tournaments can be a mind boggling list of "dumb" moves, to say the least. I'll start by admitting I knocked off the winning fish at an MWC event in '88 at the Saginaw River event. We ended in third place, about a pound behind Parsons and a local team, after I point blank, knocked off a six pounder. Former Viking linebacker,my teammate, Wally Hilgenberg, still reminds me of that several thousand dollar blunder every time we meet.
My sons, who pre-fished the '94 PWT Championship with me, still always remind of the how I stayed on a big fish spot, with already a 31 1/2" er in the well (slot deal), and came in one slot fish short for the event, which would have won it, when while with me in practice, we had found a spot where you needed a baseball bat to defend yourself from the biting "perfect slots". Costly, dumb move?lol
One more is a move I ended up getting away with in the end...
Bill Hall, dad of 3 time PWT winner Chad Hall, and I were fishing the biggest event in Canada, The Vanity Cup. The slot limit was 4 under 22" and two over/day/team. So we have a perfect limit of 21 3/4" slots in the boat and two eights, early, the last day. (5th place coming into the day with a good chance to win.) So I catch a 26"er and immediately take out the skinniest "slot" and throw it back. As it made a splash, my heart came to a screeching halt. I realized that I had forgotten we were in a slot ordeal. So, now we have less than a limit of slots, and have to throw back the 26"er since we have two bigger ones in the well already. It took three hours to catch the next slot...luckily a 21"er. Without replacing that slot, we lose thousands and the 1000 mile trip home is a lot longer. Whew!
The list goes on and on....I forgot about the Michigan minimum 15" size limit the last day of a MWC on the Cisco Chain. Brought one in 14 & 15/16ths, gambling it would make it. (No problem in most tournies that have a minimum but no state law.) Well, that one put us from 2nd place to 11th for final results. (one day total weight eliminated)
'Nuff....I'm getting sick!! tears.....lol

[W'eyes Guy]

While fishing Merc. Nationals on Winnebago two years ago, We were running up the lake wide open during take-off. About half-way up the lake, my partner's seat pedestal came out sending him to the back of the boat with the "kill switch" tether attached to his arm. Needless to say, we came to an abrupt halt in mid air and slammed head on into the next wave. We hit pretty hard but thought nothing of it and continued on. When we got to our fishing area, I noticed the transom mount trolling motor was no longer "transom mounted". The bad part was this motor was his Fathers' Day gift, and had never seen water yet! If that wasn't bad enough, we later found out that we had cracked the hull, as well, and were unable to finish the tournament.

#610

[WAZ]

At a PWT tourney at Fort Peck 4 or five years ago the pro and the co-angler had a little mishap getting the fish to the weigh-in. They filled the basket with a heavy limit of fish. Had a problem transfering it from the boat to the dock. Basket slipped bye-bye thousands of dollars.

[Joe]

A team fishing the World Walleye at Redwing on April 7th forgot to set their watches ahead. Needless to say they were a little late to the weigh-in.