Reply With QuoteA few years ago I was fishing a Red Man tourney in April at Cumberland. I had a set of docks located up in a creek arm and in the afternoon the water temp would warm up around these docks and some big sows would move up around them to bask in the warm water. I was a non-boater and drew a guy from Cincy. He was on a pattern of some good ky bass. I told him that I had only one area to fish that day that I had any confidence in so he agreed to take me there around noon. About noontime we had both blanked so we proceeded to the warm water around the docks. I skipped a smoke weightless tube under one of the docks and a real hawg grabbed it. After a lengthy battle (8lb. test on spinning gear) we slipped the net under her. I new the big girl was close to a 6pounder and felt confident that I had a shot at the $1000 big fish prize. There was already water in my right side livewell so I put her in it and shut the lid. When we were done fishing the docks we cranked up the big Merc and headed towards the weigh-in site. While running something told me to look in the well and check on my fish. To my astonishment the well was bone dry! I yelled to him to stop the boat. We quickly came to a hault and proceeded to turn on the livewell to give her some dire needed water and got her back to breathing better again. The boater had only had this new boat for a couple of weeks and wasnt familiar with all the switches on the livewell system. Did I scream or throw a temper-tantrum? No. It was my fault for not going over the correct livewell operation before we left the dock that morning. I was not his responsibility to take care of my fish in the first place. Ike at no time admitted to neglagence on his part. Have I cusssed outloud because of a missed fish or a broken line? Yes. Did I tear anything up? No. Fishing is between you and the fish. Just take a look in the mirror and see who is at fault. Learn from it and go on .Yes I still did win the big fish money and she was in good shape.
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