There were well over 30 teams in the competition, and many nice catches of fish were weighed in. We did all right I suppose, coming in 16th with a couple of decent fish. Can't win 'em all, and boy do Max and I know that!

What makes this one stand out in my mind more than anything else that happened has to do with Max's boat. Actually, not exactly with the boat, but with a part of the boat. Now I suppose that I have thoroughly confused you, again. Let me explain it to you.

Max and I were trolling out in "The Mud", we were pulling spinner rigs tipped with crawlers over 27 to 30 feet of water. We had caught a few fish, but nothing spectacular. We were marking fish and trying different things to get them to bite. We got no response and were discussing what our next move would be.

I want to take a minute to explain something to you. Max and I always discuss our next moves and we both have to totally agree on an idea or we don't do it. Keeps the tension level down and that way, not that one of us would ever do this to the other, there are no accusations of finger pointing if an idea doesn't pan out. I have seen and heard of this too many times before. Partners sitting at opposite ends of the boat mad as all get out with each other, or arguing about where each thinks they should go. For us, that would kind of take the fun out of fishing in the tournament in the first place.

Add to the mix, although we did not know it at the time, Max had a bait well pump that was dripping from the housing. Probably a bad seal. No big deal. Every once in a while we would have to turn on the bilge pump to let the water out. Approximately once an hour, we would have to pump out water for around 15 seconds. We had discovered the leak only the day before and had not found the time to search it out completely and repair it.

We had reached the mid morning point of time where we were discussing what our next move would be (the fish here were obviously not willing to play, Max hit the switch for the bilge. It ran, and ran and ran. For over 1 minute. We looked at each other, kind of like how a dog looks at an answering machine. Max wondered out loud what was up with the extra water. I hit the switch again, more water. About 10 seconds worth. Too much, too soon.

I opened the access hatch across the transom and looked inside. Even with all the batteries and the oil tank and such, I could see that the water was up to the bottom of the floor board. But, I could not see where it was coming from. So, here we are, out in the middle of the lake, with water coming in from somewhere.

As if this wasn't bad enough, suddenly, the bilge pump made a couple of funny noises and then quit! That's right, it locked up! "Oh, oh. That can't be good." Was my reply to the new wrench in the works. Now there is water coming in, we don't know from where, and there is now no bilge pump.

So, out comes the remote kicker tank, the oil reservoir, and in I climb. I immediately saw the source for our water problem. The through hull fitting of the bait well pump had water spraying in from the base. I didn't want to touch it until I could figure out the problem with the bilge pump. Well, I could not free the pump from it's mount. In struggling with the pump, on my stomach, head in the hatch, I bumped the bait well pump.

Off it fell. Now we had a hole a little larger than a drain plug hole, gushing water like it was out of a hose. Max and I thought of heading in, briefly. I asked for a rag and stuffed it in the hole. With the leak temporarily stopped, sort of, we decided to keep fishing and let me try to figure this out. Did I mention, the whole time I was fiddling with the problem, Max was trolling along and tending lines.

Here now is a testimonial for the type of drain plug that you can screw tighter to make it snug in a hole. Upon putting our spare drain plug into the hole, it was way too loose. So I kept tightening it until it was almost snug enough to leave. A couple of twists with a pliers and hook remover and it was done.

I then took the bait well pump and hooked it to the bilge pump line. We had a temporary bilge pump that worked, but just had to lay in the bottom of the hull. I opened up the bilge pump and removed some monofilament and some debris that had jammed the impeller. Still no pump. But things were okay because we had stemmed the leak and created a way to pump out any water.

To make this long story short, if we didn't carry a few basic essentials, we would have had to run in. Instead, we stayed out the balance of the day and were able to fish. Unfortunately, we weren't able to do a whole lot with all the time we saved, but we were able to stay calm and take care of the problem and continue on fishing, safely. Were we not able to stop the leak sufficiently, we sure would have gone in. The pump hole, being no bigger than a drain plug hole, would have drained the boat once we got under way. The same as if your drain plug comes out or is forgotten, just get her up and moving and all the water goes away. That is, until you stop again.

So, when you hear me talking about the built in pool, or the super sized live well in Max's boat, you know what I mean.