I had heard of several wildcats on Guntersville, but couldn't find the info. Someone suggested calling Daryl at Keller's Grocery.
http://www.kellerstackle.com/
He gave me a list of tournaments that we could fish. The one we were interested in is the Tuesday night wildcat out of Browns Creek. I had only fished there once, 3 years ago and Josh hadn't fished there in a year. Swaggering with bravado, we decided to give it a go.
After charging my motor battery all night, I found much to my chagrin, that I had left the console on and the battery hadn't charged. I charged it just enough to raise the motor so I could drive it. I got to work and brought a charger with me, however, I quickly found that if the battery is dead, it's fairly difficult to raise a motor.....Sigh. Fail. I had to take apart the wiring for the trim and use the battery charger to jumper the system just so I could get to the batteries.
After a few hours, I headed to meet Josh. We met up and made the run to Browns Creek. The entry fee was 30 dollars and it was from 5:30-8pm. Not a very long time to catch some fish. We had seen that the average it took to win was around 14 pounds. We felt like we could do that.
I had been told that a lot of people fish this tournament, and that wasn't a stretch. There were about 20-25 nice boats out, including 2 early 90s Stratos in the SAME color as mine! Small world!
After putting the boat in the water, I quickly found that the battery hadn't charged enough. No biggie. I brought an extra. While standing on the WAY back of the boat, some dude in a ski boat hammered it right next to me. The wake (and this was a No-Wake zone) almost swept me off the boat. Real nice of him, eh?
So, after swapping the batteries, we blasted off, but the boat struggled to get on plane. I feared the worst, especially since I have been looking at new boats...that would be PERFECT karma! It finally got on plane, but wouldn't do more than about 30mph....although the motor sounded like it was giving us all it had!
We fished for about 30 minutes in 6 feet of water over good grass when this guy in a newer red Skeeter came blazing by. Now look: We were in 6 feet facing the bank, with the bank no more than 30 yards away..with lines in the water. There was 300 yards and deeper water behind us. But this guy BLAZES between us and the bank! What a jerk!
Guess Karma was KINDA with us, because I quickly caught a good fish on my swimbait:
A few casts later, I was in the middle of a conversation with Josh while reeling...and as I watched my bait swimming, which I do in order to gauge it's performance, I saw a NICE fish behind it....like a sleek green submarine.
Yet, my brain didn't comprehend it...although my mouth did. Anyone that knows me knows that my mouth is quicker than my brain! So...I start talking about the fish being behind that bait, although I didn't COMPREHEND what I was saying. By the time I did, the fish saw the boat. I quit reeling, pulling a "Crazy Ivan" on the fish. He collided with the bait since he was looking at me. What a loss.
Later, I spotted something in the water which looked like a bait. Turned out to be a Zell-Pop X3...BRAND NEW! We picked it up and Josh tied it on.
Later he caught 3 fish on it. Guess we got some of the entry fee back!
The later the day went on, the more we knew we were in trouble. We only had 3 good fish but hoped maybe it was tough for everyone, so we kept them in the livewell.
As we pulled into the harbor, we noticed that there was a lot of photography...Sigh. I knew what that meant. It took 21 pounds to win! WOW! 21 pounds in 2.5 hours. Incredible!
We were quite outmatched, but it was .....fun? We decided that we will do our homework and prefish next time!
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