Now I know the meaning of "bittersweet"

[TheBossT127]

Now I know the meaning of "bittersweet"July 21, 2007 on Conesus Lake, NY and my best day fishing this year. My third cast of the morning yielded a 3.75 largemouth. Two casts after that I lost one nearly the same size. Both on a white-and-black Islander Lures twin willow spinnerbait. I am thinking that the spinnerbait bite is on! A welcome change from the slow presentations that it seems we all have to make week in and week out. As it went though, there was only one other moving-bait bite for me this day--another 3-4 lb.er that grabbed a Berkley Frenzy rattle bait in sunfish pattern that I lost at the boat.
I barely ran the outboard this tournament day as I returned to the area of my success last year, just across the lake from the launch. I sat right on the deep side of the weed edge over 6-8 feet of mildly stained water throwing the trusty Maniac 4" Salt Stick out off the weed edge. Early on I used purple/blue flake and as the sun got up I switched to pumpin/red flake, which I tinted the tail with Spike It chartreuse. With this combination I put 3 nice fish in the livewell before 7:30, and I went the rest of the day until the 1pm weigh-in trying to put another fish in the livewell. I felt one more bass would win me the tournament based on what I'd heard around the lake from other fishermen in a different club tournament. All were saying the bite was tough.
I mainly focused on docks, specifically getting my bait into the shadows as the sun was very bright and the wind picked up as the morning went on. Oh, did I mention I had no depth finders? The transducer cable that broke last week had not yet been replaced by the boat dealer, and the console unit depth keeps flashing the depth at 0.0. I don't know what's causing this but I suppose I will find out. A depthfinder might have allowed me to fish deeper in the late morning.
Now we move to the weigh-in, and this is where the "bitter" part mixes with my "sweet" catch. I get the boat trailered and fill my bag with fish and head to the scales. I weigh-in a bag of 9.8 lbs. along with the 3.75 lb. lunker, good for the lunker check and 2nd place--EXCEPT I am then informed by the tournament director that I didn't call him in time the night before to sign up for the tournament so my catch didn't count. At first I thought he was joking. I called him before 7pm and left a message. Apparently there is a club rule that you have to sign in before 6:30 the night before.
Needless to say, my drive home was not a happy one.

[leroy]

Wow... I'd have been livid.

[GotstaFish]

Bummer. Congrats on a good effort though.

[DaHorns]

Dang, I think I would have been a tad pi$$ed.........

[skeeter944]

Why dont yall have meetings? Thats what my club does. I would have been a little bit angry too.