A nice dose of humility (MFC Tourny, Guntersville)

So, I noticed my wife hasn't blogged in 6 months. Therefore, most of you probably don't know that our 3rd child was born. It wasn't a huge event. In fact, it was quick and stress free. One day he wasn't here, the next he was. Baby Gavin is a perfectly healthy baby boy.

With the low stress, my wife insisted that I fish our club tournament only 3 days after he was born. I didn't argue. I decided to go ahead and use my buddy pass since I didn't think I would be fishing any more. Only 3 other boats signed up. Josh and I discussed our plans Friday night over burgers while the ladies attended to the babies. I like to think that I am a humble guy, but I had already said in my mind that we would be getting a check. I even voiced this to a few people. That wasn't a slam against my competitors, just that I couldn't see the two of us struggling. We usually don't.

So, Saturday morning, we roll into Seibold campground and launch the boat. Low and behold, the for was thick and we were constrained to the surrounding area, which was NOT our plan. We putted around, top water fished without a bite, then moved onto humps. Josh caught a nice little spot. He measured it. Then threw it back as he was telling me: "Too bad it's only 14 inches." Then he realized our mistake. Guntersville has a 12 inch limit. We just threw back a measuring fish. I told him not to worry as we would catch plenty of fish. The morning drug on and I hadn't caught a fish. Josh had caught about 5 short fish. I set down the power baits and went to plastics, hoping to at least get a quantity bite. The fog lifted and we finally ran to the spts we had agreed to. Yet, no fish.

Before we made the long run to BB Comer, we stopped in one of my old community holes. First cast with one of my swimbaits and I hooked into a good one. It tail walked a few times and I knew this would be a contended for big fish. It was a solid 4. It got to the boat and Josh couldn't quite get it in the net. Absent minded, all I could think about was how awesome this would be...to catch another good chunk on my swimbait. I couldn't wait to get the pictures! To counterpoint, the fish turned and loosened the tension, spit the swimbait out, and kept trucking.

 The only good news...sorta...was that we found some active fish who would at least swirl on a frog. We had probably 15 smacks without a hook up. At least that's something to look into. So, 26 miles of running. 8 hours. And we didn't weigh a fish. Not one. I was as bummed as I have ever been. Granted, the day was rough on everyone in our club, but I couldn't accept that I didn't catch a fish, although that is a growing trend on that lake. So, I am giving up on the G for awhile. There are too many good lakes out there.

Fishing is one of those things that offers life lessons. Today's life lessons were about arrogance and assumptions. It was about focusing at the task at hand. Lessons I won't be forgetting soon.