In the nick of time!

[bluebasser86]

Like every Wednesday night during the warmer months I was fishing the Wyandotte County Lake Wednesday night tournament this last week. This is the first year we've done a points system and are going to have a fish off at the end of the year. It's been an terribly difficult season so far. So much so that if you've weighed a fish since they started on April 17th then you've qualified, which means only about 10 teams have qualified so far My boat sits solidly in second place, having weighed in the most fish so far while finishing second once and winning once, until last Wednesday.
I was fishing with my friend Drew and it was even tougher than it has been. Getting bites has not been a problem really, it's been getting anything largemouth to stretch 15" or smallmouth to go 18". Last week my buddy Jon and I put almost 40 in the boat in the 3 1/2 hours, not one was a keeper! Twice I thought I had a keeper fish hooked this past Wednesday, once it turned out to be a drum and the second time it was a walleye that jumped As it was winding down to the last half hour we made our way to one of my favorite twilight hour spots. I hadn't had even a boil on my buzzbait so I switched to one of my homemade chatterbaits that has caught so many keepers for me out there. We fished the sweet spot where I missed one and caught a dink and I'd about given up hope when I made a cast behind a line of water willows and got a light "tick" as I started my retrieve. I set the hook and the fish bulldozed through the weeds quickly. I thought it was a small fish because it wasn't pulling hard but it was coming straight towards me quickly. Once it got to the boat it dove under the boat and pulled my rod all the way to the reel seat in the water! I was afraid it might be another drum or a catfish until I saw a big white mouth flair open in an attempt to spit my bait, no doubt she was a keeper! Before Drew could even get the net open I was on my knees in the bottom of the boat and got a lip lock on her. I didn't take much time to admire her and quickly put her in the livewell and checked the time, 9:13, weigh in is 9:30. We made a few more casts and had to head in.
We were one of the last boats off the water (had my dog with us and she needed a bathroom break before I backed the truck down) and everyone was pretty much done with weigh in by the time we pulled up. I grabbed a bag and got our fish and got behind the 2 guys in line. When I heard the guy leading it had one fish for 2.12 pounds I knew we had a good shot. Next two guys each had squeakers that didn't break the 2 pound mark. Everyone was getting restless since weigh in was winding down and I was doing my best to hide my bag behind me. When I pulled my fish out of the bag the collective "oh's and ah's" told the story Now while this fish is just a solid keeper on most lakes she is a giant for this lake, enough for first place and big bass. I had guessed she was maybe 3 from the quick glance I took before tossing her in the livewell but the scales don't lie and she rang up 3.86 pounds, the second biggest fish weighed in so far this year!

So tournament victory number 2 was knocked out for Team Roughneck and we inched a little closer to that number one spot!