Originally Posted by scarter1996
Got one better I got the damn recipe!!!!!
Got one better I got the damn recipe!!!!!
2017 BCB Eyra
250 Pro XS
Contemplating a 300R
Serenity is falling asleep in the boat while getting a bite
Big Bear Fishing Rods
2004 Elite 50 in Paducah, KY, fishing the Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Pure Fishing paid my way to marshall this event.
Day 1- I drew Dustin Wilks he was running a 21 foot Triton with a 250 Hammer, he was fishing below KY Dam along with Swindle, Peter T., Alton Jones and several others (been a while). Before blast off Swindle is a riot, ribbing anyone that got within earshot, especially Dustin. Blast off, We are at the back of the pack and the river is upside-down from barges and boats. Ole Dustin never lets off just grins and keeps it pegged, I'm looking for a grab handle for my right hand and it must have gotten ripped off. We get to the spot and Dustin and Swindle are fishing the same dike, Swindle continues the ribbing but Dustin catches a few fish and Swindle just moves off. I don't remember the weight but it was nothing special.
Day 2- Skeet Reese running the Crown Royal Champion with a Merc 225, I put him in the water in the Crown Royal Excursion (helluva sound system). Before blast off he was on the phone with his wife, she was due any day and he was scared he would miss it, he got choked up and it was like fishing with a buddy. We were all in the Smithland lock and Ike was in there in a Ranger with tape over the decals, I asked Skeet how could the Classic champ not have a boat deal and he said he wasn't playing his cards right. Kevin Wirth was right beside us and that SOB is hilarious, he had the whole lock rolling. But we get to Golconda Marina and Skeet and Ish are sharing the same 150 yrd stretch of water except Skeet is catching. He fished a few different spots on the way down and caught a few. Skeet is a great guy and ended up with a big sack on the next day.
I've forgotten alot but that's all I can remember besides Peter T is a big man and his Ranger would scoot.
Awesome recount of the day. Couple things in there brought a smile to my face. Ike's actions and Kreit helping Remitz, as well as Derek still being a fan. As much as I love to compete, I also love being a fan of the sport!
All these stories are awesome, thanks guys.
At one elite event I spent the day as a marshall with Steve Kennedy. He was one of the most easy going friendly guys you'll ever meet. Immediately puts you at ease. Met his wife and kids the same day. Just a great family, can't say enough good things. I got to watch him throw his "secret" out of production swimbait all day long and learned a ton(I now own way to many big expensive swimbaits thanks to him). I asked him why he didn't sign with a company to produce the bait as his signature series. He said, at most they might pay him a few hundred bucks a month or so for a year or two to produce the bait and then everyone and their brother will be throwing it. He said it was worth more to him to keep it out of mass production so he could throw a bait he has mostly to himself. He told me he does almost all the maintenance and upkeep on his motor himself.
Spent the day with Ish. I was a little apprehensive because I had heard some people say he was a little moody at times. But he was cool as could be. We rocked out to techno music all day long while we were out on the water and he told me some really awesome stories about what some of the elite guys really are like once you put the cameras and reporters away. I learned a ton from him watching him fish his Ish's phat frog. I had several moments while watching him catch fish with it where it was like a lightbulb in my head came on and I was thinking "So that's what I'm doing wrong!"
I've only had one negative experience riding as a Marshall, I'll never get in the boat with that dude again. I'm not going to name any names but I have a really strong hunch just from some circumstantial stuff that happened before we took off the dude was toking up before the tournament. I thought about saying something to Trip about it but couldn't totally prove it. I will say though the guy isn't fishing the elites anymore and it sure didn't surprise me when I found out. That same day this same guy was fishing around a dock, he had all his rods thrown all over the deck, one of the rods hooked on to a dock as he was fishing past and it fell into the lake(which at that point I thought to be rather funny).
Overall I've had some great experiences as my time as a Marshall and plan to continue. Its alot of fun. Personally I think the best way to enjoy being a marshall is to get 3 or 4 of your buddies to sign up with you. Then you can relax and hang out and share stories at the end of the day.
Oh and BTW one thing I definitely learned, just because a pro walks on stage and says he caught them on one certain lure(usually a sponsor product) definitely doesn't mean that is the truth and the whole truth. They may throw they're sponsor product a little through out the day so they can claim they were fishing with it in the event. But when it comes down to it, they'll throw whatever they need to to catch fish.
Last edited by WIUbassin; 03-22-2013 at 10:15 AM.
2011 Basscat Puma FTD 250 Merc Pro XS
so would that be the Bass Pro shop swimbait no longer made that he likes to throw?
Was it Guy Eaker?
(JOKING!!!)
Aaron Martins?
John 17
In 2008 marshalled on KY Lake day one I drew Paul Elias had a good day pretty uneventful this was the year Paul won the Falcon event. On day two I drew Cliff Pace, one of the pros I know pretty well told me good luck with that... Cliff is a quite guy and all business, I would not call him rude just not much of a multi-tasker. He did not have a back seat for his boat so if I wanted to sit it was in the passenger seat. Cliff had a good ledge bite going I watched him catch 20 or so fish in as many cast. We did go for a couple hours without a word being said, the weather was not so good and I could not fish so I took a nap in the passenger seat, I woke up when he boat flipped a fish in my lap (not kidding). The last hour we moved to a point he had culled on the day before. Just before we had to leave he culls with a seven-ish pound fish. That put him around 18# and he brightened up and actually started talking. It was an OK day, I did have Cliff Pace on my Fantasy Team he is a grinder, cuts quite a few checks and when the tournament is going to be a grind he will be on my team.
"Sensitive is feeling a February jig bite in 35 degree weather, 25' deep and 30 mph winds. Not crying at some movie..."
Xcite Baits
I would have flipped the fish right back in the water for him.
so would that be the Bass Pro shop swimbait no longer made that he likes to throw?
Yeah, the big version, can't remember if it was 6 or 6.5 inch or something. He had a bunch of them still in the package in a tackle box.
2011 Basscat Puma FTD 250 Merc Pro XS
Thats funny.
Bump
I drew Chris Lane on day 1 at Lake Murray in 2011...We met at his hotel and rode to a small ramp and motored to Dreher Island for blast off. His legend boat was a smooth ride. He answered any question I asked and also showed me some different knots. Basically he broke everything down he did. I learned alot from him. We hit it off real well, after the weigh in we hung out while he retied and got his tackle ready for the next day. He was out of a certain color worm, and asked if I wanted to ride to Sportsmans Warehouse to pick up some more? I gladly accepted the offer, we even had dinner at a seafood restaurant. A truly great experience with a super nice guy. He ended up 12th I believe.
Day 2, I drew rookie James Stricklin, he was not really on any fish so he just went fishing. Kinda quiet. A 180 degree from day 1.
Last year at Douglas, I drew Jeff Kreit on day one. Met him at a house he and some others were renting. His first stop was my number 2 spot, never caught anything. His number 2 spot was my number 1 spot, and when he got lined up just right...That boy wrecked them! Ended up around 19 pounds that day. I learned alot from him about offshore fishing. back at his cabin I told him I have fished that spot for years and never caught them like that, his reply was "I was not holding my mouth right" LOL.
Day 2 I drew Kotaro Kiriyama, he was real nice and spoke very good english. He was not on any fish and I basically watch him dropshot all day.
I will definitely do it again
2004 Triton TR-20
2022 Mercury Pro XS 225 #3B211734
Question for you marshals, what do you guys do when a cameraman shows up?
1996 ProCraft 185 DC Pro, Mercury EFI 150
Alright fine then....
I marshaled first on Guntersville. It's been four years, I think.
Anyway, I rode with Bobby Lane the first day. We got to the first spot, positioned the boat and made a cast with a carolina rig.
He said, "yup that feels good". He then looked back at me and said, "watch this".
He proceeded to land a 7 pounder on his second cast. Jaw was hanging wide open.
Fun to ride with.
Day two was Marty Stone. This guy is /was a true representative for Basscat and the tour. He was very polite, answered questions, gave tips and provided insight to what he was trying to do. Very cool.
Third day: Gary Klein. I laughed at some of the prior responses. He might of said three words to me that day.
He was a fishing machine, I agree to previous posters. This cat is focused on the water.
It sucks not fishing, but you def learn a lot out there.
2009 I got in the Dardenelle tournament. Day 1 I drew Kevin Langill. We had a very long fog delay and we sat in the boat for several hours just killing time. He was calm and laid back. He showed me a couple swimbaits he was designing and a rattletrap prototype he was working on. Once we got underway he started sight fishing for bed fish. He didn't do to well bed fishing and about mid day he was scrambling to catch fish. This is when I first got a glimpse of what the future held for Kevins professional career. He started getting really spun out. He pulled up to a grass flat and wanted to throw a swim jig which he had earlier said would be his go to bait if the bed fish didn't work out. Problem was guys were on his stuff and he didn't handle it very well to say the least. His short fuse started to show, but this was my first day as a marshal and I accepted that this might be usual attitudes for the pros. He had words with another angler that he thought was a little close to him, but the angler was moving away and not much come of it other than it further spun him out. He finished the day with only 2 keepers I think and I remember thinking he seemed high strung and stressed.
A month or so later he got into a big spout with Boyd Ducket and eventually got himself kicked off the trail. The details of his run in with Boyd can be found here. BassFan.com
He treated me as though i was his friend and for that i was gratefull, but I felt bad for him cause I felt like he was in over his head at that level and didn't know how to handle his emotions, but his actions were unexcusable and thus he never fished as a pro with BASS or FLW again.
Day 2 I was paired with Gary Klein. He was a total professional and was total business once we took off after another short fog delay. He had a late draw number and was concerned he wouldn't be able to get back on his stuff which had him in the top 12 from the first day because of the late draw. I think we were boat 96. His fears were confirmed once we got to his first stop and he had 6 or so guys fishing a big flat that he was cranking a square bill over. He fished hard, but he did try to explain some of the how's and why's of what he was doing. He struggled but stayed with it and I learned alot by riding with him. With 20 minutes left he had 3 small keepers and made the comment that he needed one more keeper to get in the money. he made a quick move where he thought he could get a bite, it didn't happen and he had ran out of time. He pulled up trolling motor made the run in like a scalded dog and looked at me just as we got to the checkin station and said i got 4 minutes left. He dropped the trolling motor and made 3 casts and caught his 4th keeper with a minute to spare. He caught the small keeper fish and I was as happy for him as he was. He finished in the mid 30's if i remember correctly but that 4th keeper was a $10k fish cause had he not fished those last few minutes he wouldn't have made the top 50.
Day 3 I got paired with Kevin Short. We meet at the top 50 meeting and he was in contention to do well with a good day 3. The weather was supposed to be really bad (big cold front)and he spent time with me to make sure I understood how bad the conditions were gonna be and that i should be fully prepared for a miserable day conditions wise. I assured him i would be suited up and ready to go. We meet the next morning and I jumped in his truck with his wife driving. We got to the ramp and everything was on hold as BASS officials assesed the conditions. After a 30 minute delay he got out of his truck and walked up to see if we would go out. While he was gone his wife asked me to keep a close eye on him cause he was in very bad pain due to shingles all over his leg and was wore out due to not being able to sleep comfortably. She said he had pain pills, but that he refused to not go out. Turns out that day 3 got cancelled completely and he got the day off. I was truly excited to spend the day with Kevin Short not because i was dissapointed in the other guys but i felt Short had a good chance to do well and told me to expect a good time. I was disapointed I didn't get that 3rd day with him but happy he got a rest. I was very impressed with the team that he and his wife were and I understand that she travels to most tourney with him as his driver.
Here is a story posted on Bassmasters website referencing the teams that some of the husband and wifes make up and how good these Ladies are. The trailer-backing women of B.A.S.S. | Bassmaster
Overall I thought the marshall gig was well worth the money i spent on it and I am looking forard to my upcoming Bull Shoals tournament this April and the personalities I get to meet there. Also gotta say I met up with Joel Porter (jbassman87) from BBC and we roomed together and I had a great time with him. We had never meet before then and have only spoken a few times since, but I guarantee you he would come runnin if I called and needed his help. He was a blast to hang out with.
Last edited by dstacey; 03-25-2013 at 11:04 PM.
Love all the stories, hopefully one day I can be a marshall. Also waiting to hear a story about riding with G-Man!
I think that would be fun to do but I wont waste $100 bucks for a boat ride I get them free on my home lakes.
Must be nice to get everything for free! I would soak up every bit of information I could, without interfering, of course. Most folks are signed up for the fishing information and watching how the pros go about a tournament, not the thrill of riding in their boat. If you can't learn by observation and a few questions, it would amount to just a boat ride though.
Although I have never marshalled, I have thoroughly enjoyed this thread. Keep em comin!
08 BC Sabre / Merc 175 Pro XS
Humminbird 1198/998
DTC Custom Rods
They can run, but they can't hide!
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