The Front of the Boat is a Scary Place

If you have been following along, I am in my 2nd year running my own ride in the Gator Division of the Walmart BFL series. I spent 6 years as a co-angler in the Gator Division before making the jump to the front in 2014. I had what I consider to be an impressive first year running my own deal. I finished 78th out of over 300 boaters that fished in the Gator. I had a 13th place finish and cut a decent check in my first year. I intuitively knew that the front was going to be a much different deal. I had to find fish. I had to figure out a pattern. I alone was going to determine the what, when and how of my tournament day. The beauty of the co-angler deal is you basically have to show up and fish. Especially in Florida, you are never really put in a position where you can't fish. On most lakes in Florida no matter what the boater is doing, you have a million targets to hit off the back of the boat. For those of you who don't know, in B.A.S.S. and FLW competitions, there is a Boater and a Co-Angler that are randomly paired at the meetings the night before the competition. The Boater is up against all of the other Boaters in the field and the Co-Angler is trying to beat all of the other Co's in the field. This makes it nice because you are not directly competing with each other on tournament day. Many, if not all of my boaters during my co-angler years, wanted me to do well. It was a badge of honor of sorts that their co caught a limit and placed well. I truly appreciated that on many tough days and I knew that I would do the same for my partners once I was up front.

I may have taken that too much to heart, but we will get into that in a moment. As boaters go, I am one most co-anglers would love to have. I have now had two co-anglers finish in the top 5. In 2014 in the season opener my co-angler finished 2nd place overall and won Big-Bass. He won $1,750.00 and 2 trophies that day. This year in the 2nd event of the season, my partner won 1st place and Big Bass. He took home a check for $3,250.00 and two trophies. He did this while only catching 4 fish(tournament limit is 5). If there was a ranking for boaters based on co-angler finishes, I would be up there with the best of them.




Unfortunately for me, there is no such recognition. I have done pretty well by my co-anglers. I do make a point of making sure they have every chance to succeed on the back of my Ranger. What I did NOT anticipate is that this balance is also a difficult thing to learn. I find myself being a little too open to my co-anglers thoughts and needs on the back of the boat. This is not a horrible thing, but I have to move a little more toward the center in my thinking while running the front of the boat. I have found myself more and more this year being affected by my co-angler on the back. There is a faction of boaters out there (sadly) that very much isolate the co-anglers as a bit for protection of themselves. I am starting to understand some of the advice from that faction that I have been given. However, I am in no way ever going to be a guy that intentionally or un-intentionally causes my co-anglers a problem. I want every co that fishes with me to have a great time, catch fish, and hopefully win money.

The story on the 2nd BFL event is pretty simple. Friday practice was abysmal. I was lost. I used an entire tank of gas searching all over the south end of the lake. I could not find anything at all that was worthwhile. So I was rattled. When my co-angler said, "hey... I have a spot my Dad and I won on recently, if you want we could try it...", I almost leaped at the chance. Heck, I was confused and rattled and had no confidence in any of my spots for the next day. My co-anglers spot was on the way, so I told him at take off that we would hit his spot first and see what we see. I already told you above that my co-angler won, so there is no mystery to the fact that it worked out great for him. Here is how I failed myself.

My mindset seemed sound. All of my really good areas in the south were blown out completely. Muddy, windblown, and no fish to be found, so why not try this spot out. Made perfect sense. However what I found when I got there was the type of area I had avoided like the plague during most of my time on Okeechobee. It was super shallow, super thick, and not at all really protected by the wind. AJ (my co) lead me to the spot and explained what he was doing and what specific spot on the spot was the magic area. I quickly got him into the right part of the area and he went to work. I immediately went to work trying to cut through the toughest grass and brush (literal brush that had grown up when the lake was low, but was now back under water with the lake levels while simultaneously controlling the boat that was still being moved more by the wind then my trolling motor. The other problem I had with this area was that I was not geared for it at all. This kind of fishing, mostly topwater, is done with the heaviest tackle, super wide gap super-line hooks and massively thick swimbaits burned right under the surface a few inches of clear water at a time. You literally only get the bait in clear water for seconds at a time. The rest of the time you are fighting it back to the boat through a jungle of tangled grass and brush limbs.  I was completely set up for my more open water casting, flipping and pitching that had served me so well in practices so far this year and last. My heaviest tackle was devoted to mat fishing. I had nothing that easily converted into this type of fishing. This has since been rectified. Lesson learned. I recently spent time re-working and organizing all of my rods and reels. Including my newest Big Bear rods that arrived after the event.

Within about ten minutes AJ missed a giant. This fish had the head and mouth of an 8 or 9 lb fish. She came unbuttoned halfway back to the boat. But it did tell us that he was right about the big girls still being in this area. I put the first two fish in the boat however using a Mister Twister Comida (stick bait) with Rage Garlic Minnow attractant on it. They were small keepers, but at least I was on the board. What I wanted to do was pull out to the edges and flip the fantastic looking cane that was all around this shallow bay. But my mind was completely jacked up. This was AJ's spot, and I felt sort of obligated to him and his area. This is admirable but did undermine my own situation. AJ boated one decent fish in the next hour  or so as I painfully fought through the 'junk' to try and keep the boat from getting mired in the junk that was scratching the holy heck out of my boat. Then in the next two hours he boated two giants giving him a nice sized three fish bag at that point.  I needed a break from the constant boat fight, and I wanted to at least try my big school in the South that Derek and I had found before. Lake Okeechobee Report

I made the long run to Pelican Bay, and gave it my all for about an hour. Without a bite to be found, I ran to a rim ditch spot to beat the rocks for a bit and try to get a few more fish in the boat. But the whole time, I couldn't focus. I felt like I had left fish, to find fish, a classic mistake. While I know that mentally I needed the run to get my thoughts straight and I had to try my fish, I probably screwed up bad right there.  If that school was fired up even for half an hour, I could have 18-20 pounds in no time but I already knew they weren't eating the day before. I finally decided to finish the day in AJ's spot because it at least had a few fish in it. AJ was able to catch one more small keeper to get his total to 16lbs and change. Those four fish ended up being enough and he won the event. I never got another bite all day.

So in summary, I learned a lot that day. This is a constant learning deal for all of us. Especially us new to the front guys. I need to continue to work toward the balance between fairness to my co-anglers and fairness to myself. I am super glad that AJ got a huge win in his second ever BFL event. I am super glad that I helped him do that. I have adjusted my entire setup to be better ready to shift gears on the water and be prepared for every water situation. I will continue to improve, I will continue to work til it hurts, and I will continue to live this dream. Peace.

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