Bass Fishing Jun - Jul 2020 | Page 98

THE LAST CAST PRO ANGLERS ARE HUMAN, TOO THEY MAY BE GREAT AT WHAT THEY DO, BUT EVERYONE MAKES MISTAKES By Justin Onslow S o many weekend warriors and amateur bass tournament anglers dream about one day fishing at the highest level. Those who do are perhaps blocked only by their own expectations and preconceived notions – chief among them, how do you get to the point where the big mistakes just don’t happen? You know the ones I’m talking about. But if you don’t … Imagine a scenario in which you’re nervous fishing a new body of water in your first-ever big weekend derby, and you catch a fish that wouldn’t keep if you were fishing your home lake because of a slot limit. Only you’re not on your home lake, and, without thinking, you unhook that 3-pounder and toss it back over the gunwale as if you were. That happened to Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit pro Nick LeBrun in his first big draw derby on Toledo Bend. “I’d been used to fishing Caddo all the time, and Caddo had a 14- to 18-inch slot,” the second-year FLW pro says. “I caught probably a 3-pounder, got him all the way to the boat, and took the Rat- L-Trap out of his mouth and just threw him back in the water.” Perhaps you worry about mechanical issues and the major malfunctions you just don’t see on FLW Live. What pro would fail to tighten a couple bolts on a trolling motor mount and watch rough water rip his trolling motor right off the bow? LeBrun can tell you all about that, too. “I was running the boat as hard as I could and it popped up in the air a little bit too high, and when it came down the trolling motor launched going probably 55 mph,” LeBrun says. “It locked in and tore right off the front of the boat. It did $1,000 in fiberglass damage to the bottom.” Sure, those kinds of blunders don’t happen that often for any given pro, but consider mistakes like the one Pro Circuit veteran Tom Redington made at Lake Martin back in March, when he unhooked his best fish on the second day of the event, paused for a quick photo and, as if the tournament hadn’t started, tossed it back over the side of his boat instead of dropping it in the livewell. Redington returned to that spot later in the day and caught what he believes to be the same fish, and he’ll tell you all about it in his YouTube video entitled “Lake Martin FLW recap: Overcoming DUMBEST mistake ever.” Surely that kind of thing can’t happen to everyone, though. Unless you want to ask James Biggs, who returned to the Pro Circuit this season after having fished the FLW Tour in 2013 and 2015 and who won the TBF National Championship in 2014. In the 2011 TBF National Championship, Biggs got on a fired-up school of fish and didn’t have time to spare between casts. He culled and culled again, replacing his smallest fish – a 1-7 – with a larger specimen. He proceeded to throw back a 1-14 that he thought little of. It turned out Biggs actually had another 1-7 in his livewell, and he threw back 7 ounces that would have helped in a big, big way. “Day three, I wreck ’em, and the leader struggles, and I lose $100,000 and the Living the Dream package by 4 ounces. I threw back 7 ounces.” There isn’t a pro out there who doesn’t have a similar story of opportunity lost, though they’re not all of that magnitude. Take Pro Circuit rookie Erik Luzak, who hails from Canada and once tried his hand at a pike tournament with his friend and tournament partner Tom Hardy. Opting not to include a 50-inch aerated cooler in his boat (which is sometimes necessary as a livewell to house massive pike for a full tournament day), Luzak found himself with a broken livewell and a 42-inch pike that wouldn’t fit in it. To make matters worse, he and Hardy misinterpreted the tournament rules that stated each angler – not each team – was allowed just one pike over 34 inches and threw back several of their own would-be winning fish. “We ended up getting third or fourth – we did win big fish – but if we’d kept one of the other 34-plussers, we would have won the event,” Luzak says. “It cost us a couple grand, and I would have won my only pike tournament.” Even James Watson, an established pro who spent nine years at FLW’s highest level and now fishes MLF’s premier circuit, has a story to tell. In 2018, his FLW Tour season started with a whimper instead of a bang when, during his very first practice day on Okeechobee, Watson took a wrong turn and ended up running through a hayfield, staring down the barrel of a boat lane about as wide as his lower unit. “There’s only one thing you can do: Hammer it,” he says. “I hammer it, hit bottom right there as soon as the big reeds ended, and my big motor kicks up and shoots me to the left into this grass.” “I’m in no way, shape or form able to get this boat off. I get out and assess the situation, scared to death I’m going to get eaten by a big python or alligator. Thank God I had cell service and BoatUS.” Each of these very true stories is rare, sure, but everyone who’s fished at any level has a similar tale to tell – and sometimes several. Being a pro doesn’t mean you don’t slip up from time to time. After all, we’re all human, tournament professionals included. EXCEPT MAYBE BRYAN THRIFT. WE’RE PRETTY SURE HE’S A MACHINE. n 96 FLWFISHING.COM | MAJORLEAGUEFISHING.COM | JUNE-JULY 2020