2010 WMW Open mishaps

[McCarter]

Thought i would share a little of my day with you guys.

Myself, and Jon Jezierski teamed up to fish the Wonderland Open this past Sunday.  The tournament went out of Erie Metro Park.  Since i have not spent any time on Erie in the past couple years, and Jon was feeling confident about Clair, we opted to make the long run up the Detroit River, despite having a mediocre 3 days of practice.

We made it to the one spot we had that was holding good fish in practice in 1 hour exactly.  I shut down and jumped to the front deck.  I grabbed the trolling motor cable to drop it in, and it broke and about put me in the water.  Jon came up to the front to fix it and told me to get busy with the DS.  i bend down to grab my DS rod and notice the weight had come off the clip and the rig was wrapped tight around my other 3 rods.  After a 5 minute untangle and retie, i am making my first drop of the day. 

We are marking a lot of small arches and the occasional good size arch.  Despite my efforts, i am getting no love on the goby.  So after 20 minutes, i switch to the sniper worm.  It soaked, and soaked, and soaked some more, but no takers.  I decide its time to start cranking so i put down the DS and pick up the big stick.

Jon and I are both throwing the same crankbait, but in different colors.  After a few casts, Jon hooks into our first keeper, a 3 lber.  Not a bad way to start i guess, but we will need bigger to compete with the St Clair and Erie stud muffins.  We continue drifting and cranking.  Out of nowhere, Jon yells " Dude, the SOCK!!!"  i turn to see my drift sock floating 20 ft behind the boat and sinking fast.  Jon had time to get in a couple casts at it with a crank while i turned the boat with the trolling motor, but she sank before he could get a hook into her.

So here we are, 30 minutes into the day and one of our most important tools is making its way to the detroit river via the lake bottom.  My anger level is at a 5.  But not long after, i hook into a good fish on the crank.  After a short battle, Jon nets our biggest of the day.  We didnt weight it for big fish but i would say it went between 4.25 and 4.5 lbs.  Not a bad #2 fish.  My anger level dropped to a 3. 

We drifted well past our main stretch with no more bites and decided to run back down and do a drift in slightly shallower water.  Once we got to the next area, not far from our first, i jumped back up front and went to make my cast.  All of a sudden, i see my crankbait heading towards the Canadian shoreline at 300 mph and look down to see my brand new spool of Flouro exploded into a huge tangled mess.  Jon had tried to sneak a cast over my shoulder and i caught is line.  My anger level is now at a 6.

I switch spots with Jon since he seemed to like the water up front, and i needed to switch reels and get back to cranking.  By the time i was finished rigging, Jon was reeling in our 3rd keeper.  This one a little smaller than the last 2 at about 2.5 lbs.  We continued drifting at 3 mph and again got out of the fish.  So another run into the 3 footers and 30 mph winds was in order.  this time, we would drift deeper than our first drift.

We shut down, and again, i make my way to the front of the boat.  i fire my crank out and it doesnt hit the water when JJ breaks the news to me. " Dude, the nets gone!"  Wow, when it rains, it pours.  We forgot the grab the net off the back deck before we took off and now, it too is property of Lake St Clair.  How could things get any worse?  We are in the middle of the lake with 25 - 30 mph winds and no drift sock.  Our primary pattern is throwing big stinkin crankbaits with big stinkin hooks in 3 and 4 foot waves, and we have no way of netting the fish.  To top it off, my port side livewell is not holding water and we dont know how long our 3 fish have been sitting in 3 inches of water.  My anger level is at an 8, and to tell you the truth, im ready to head in and call it a day.  But Jon gets me calmed down and we back to fishing.  And it doesnt take long to start catching them.

Our 3rd drift fills our limit and culls our smalled fish.  And right towards the end of the drift, i have a big one follow my crankbait up the boat and then shoot underneath us.  I put the crankbait rod down and quickly grab the DS and drop it straight under the boat.  thats when it happened.  being in too much of a hurry, i left the crankbait dangling over the side and a wave caught it and ripped my $300 setup into the drink.  For a brief moment, i could see it as it float out the other side of the boat, but it sank out of sight pretty quick.  Jon took multiple casts in the area with the DD crank but never got the lucky cast that could have brought my rig back to me.  My anger level is now at an 83.

So at this time, im pretty much done.  I cant even fish, really.  We are drifting too fast to dropshot or drag a tube.  The crankbait was perfect for 2 reasons.  The first being that they were biting it, and the second being that we could cast them out 50 yards with the hard winds and cover a lot of water, despite how fast we were moving.  Im tryin to get Jon to loan me his phone long enough to call my wife and tell her to come pick me up at 9 mile.  But he wont give it to me.  Instead, he gives me his backup crankbait rod and tells me to get busy.  Well, i got busy alright.  I lost my next 2 bites.

Long story short, we tried a few more spots and caught a 24 lb limit of walleyes.  It was time to start heading back in.  It took us 2 hours to get from LSC to horse island in the detroit river.  We looked for a miracle 5 lb largie bite for 20 minutes and then headed to back to the launch.  The line to the docks was long, and that shallow water weed was clogging up my intakes.  Next thing i know, my alarm is screaming and my overheat light is on.  Everyone in the area is staring at us.  i shut the motor down for a couple second and fired it back up, but it was still over heating.  I gunned it in reverse a few times and the light and alarm went off.  thank god, we still had another 10 minute idle/wait to get to the dock.

Long story even shorter, we weighed in 16.5 lbs for the day, which was actually 2 lbs more than i thought we had but still a dissapointing finish.  After weigh in, we grabbed a couple hot dogs and a cold water and sat down to eat.  All of a sudden, my flip flop doesnt feel right.  I look down and the friggin little piece that goes between the big toe and whatever you call the 2nd toe is broken.  I cant even keep the thing on my foot.  Gimme a break.

The good news is, Wonderland offers $100 for the best fishing story award.  Well, there were some good stories told, but the crowd voted the story of 'McCarter and the day from Hell' as told By JJ sniper, to be the best of the 5 and we took home the check for our troubles.  I walked up to add the broken flip flop part after we had one and everyone had a good laugh.  everyone except me

So next time you break off a big one, or blow a fuse, or forget your soda in the car; think about your old buddy McCarter and how bad luck is, and maybe you will feel better about yours.

I would like to say thanks to Wonderland for again putting on one of the best tournaments in the state.  Thanks to everyone who helps out and makes it happen.  thanks to everyone who voted for our story, i needed the money.  And huge thank you to Jon for putting me on the deep crank pattern, which is something i literally dream about 3 times a week.  good lord have mercy that is the funnest way to catch them.

McCarter himself

[Firefighter Jeff]

Holy Cow.  I thought I was reading some creative writing at first  !!!  I thought, there's no way this is true  !!!!!  lololol  I'm glad to see you ended up with a good attitude even after all that happened to you guys  !!!!  Good Karma will be on your side  next time  !!!!

[djkimmel]

What defcon is anger level 83??

[Dan]

It makes a good story, as sad as it was, but like KVD says, fishing is kind of like Nascar. Some days you aren't driving the number one car. You may have a 10th place car that day. Your job is to take that 10th place car and finish seventh. Sounds like you guys put your heads down and did what it took and even with a broken sandal, no net, a missing pole, crankbaits gone, you still cashed a check. I bet there were a bunch more contestants that didn't cash than did.

[McCarter]

it was between defcon 3 and defcon 2.  had anything else severe happened, a 1 was a possibility.  there would have been complete annihilation of anything in my sight.  like a 3 year old with no nap, i was ready to unleash the fury

McCarter himself

[McCarter]

great point Dan.  It really makes you realize tho how important it is to have luck. i remember a quote Harold Allen made at a Bassmaster Open in 2006.  He said "  You hope for good luck, but when good luck doesnt happen, you just hope to not have bad luck"  Not that having the net back, or not breaking the tm cable, or not losing a rod and reel would have moved us up in the standings any, but it sure would have made for a more enjoyable day.  and less expensive, too.

McCarter himself

[dartag]

with capt. Charlies Side Scan and your tackle the bottom of the lake will be looking like Basspro.

sorry to hear about the flip flop.

[Puma]

Wow, kudos to you and your team for keeping at it.  My partner would have been at defcon 100 when the trolling motor cord broke and his DS line was tangled and he'd had been done. Good news is, usually once you persevere through such an ordeal as that, a bright sunny day is ready to shine on you soon.

[billy8878]

Well this story makes me feel better. I thought I was the only one this stuff happened too. This is my 2nd year of tournament fishing and I have had very similar days.

I have had rods go overboard, lures fly off the rod, good tangles, and cranking batteries die on me. Oh, and my boat motor blew up while practicing a couple weeks ago, so new boat after a trip to Ohio to get it that night. This is the most exspensive sport EVER. 

[Mini]

What defcon is anger level 83??

About 50 points or so behind my anger....

[Mini]

Great story. been there done that. At least you didnt break anything on the big motor. We did Saturday....transom bracket cracked in half on Darren's nitro.

[djkimmel]

You know... I'm rethinking my own life's luck. Who was with me after all when my OptiMax took a dive into the Detroit River...

[McCarter]

mishaps follow me like a black cloud and have a tendency to affect those in my immediate area

McCarter himself

[djkimmel]

Who knows? Maybe you caught it from me...?? If so, I apologize.

[Bender]

All I can say is I'm glad that I wasn't on the boat with you two! I thought we had a bad tournament a couple years ago on Saint Clair when we nearly broke my boat in half with our Dukes of Hazard move over that wake. With that and Dan's motor falling off I think maybe you should stick to inland lakes. Or take up float tube fishing.

[djkimmel]

Wading might be even better. In shallow water only. While wearing two life jackets!

[dashaver63]

With a story like that one, I wouldn't even go with waders, take up fishing on the Wii, but only at someone elses house!

[Mike S.]

Wow, that sucks.  I've never had a day that eventful, but last Thursday, I dropped a keeper back in the lake on a little local tournament.  It was so tough that night, that we let the 1 keeper we had go, and went home early.  I did throw a rod in the water once.  I was so mad I was going home.  My dad made me sit there with a spoon till we caught it.  After an hour, I called last cast, and caught my rig....saved 300 bucks.  Two days later, same rod and reel, in the lake.  Got it back.                                               

[MadWags]

Man o Man. Some tournaments just never seem to go right.
If you have the coordinates where your rod went down you can pm me and I can try and get your rod back for you. At least you discovered crankin for SC Smallies.

[Skulley]

If it wasn't for bad luck McCarter you wouldn't have any luck at all!!!   


BD