To summarize....it was fun. It started on monday when I called BASS and thankfully got the last open spot for marshaling. When they told me I should hurry cause there is only 1 spot left they transferred me over and unfortunately I got the new recruit cause she was so slow and I am trying to hurry her on the phone so that no one else can register. So like pulling a great dane backwards...i got through that and got the email a day or two later with all the rules and guidelines. Its now 3 days away and I am jonesing for it to be saturday.
Saturday comes and of course I get there early the marshal meeting isn't till 3:45pm so I take in the scene down at St. Clair Metro park. As I am walking around I notice this gentleman I had ran into at Gander outdoors going out of business sale. Funny story...he stepped out to leave, turned around came back in to buy a lews custom reel and sees me at the counter with it. He had already called LEWS and ordered the missing tension knob. So I see him at the main stage walk up to him and his friend and introduce myself as that guy from the gander store. We end up hanging out and attending the marshal meeting. Got through the meeting and met up with the anglers as they were finishing up their meeting at the main stage. I get a text and instantly my phone rings. Hello...Hey..."bassvoodoo" this is Matt Herren your my marshal. We talk about the next day specifics and arrange meeting him and helping launch the boat. He is definitely short and sweet with his words. This should be fun.
Day 1: Matt Herren
Get there early so I can soak up all the happenings. Anglers, spectators, family, friends, all milling around like a small circus. It is reminiscent of a transfer students 1st day at a new town/school where your the new guy entering their world. All the dock talk was the weather and the wind and how practice was just ok and how brutal the weather was. My phone rings and its Matt he's waiting on me at the launch. When I get there Matt asks...you got a boat? Good your gonna drive my boat...my anxiety goes through the roof. I own a multi-species tin boat with a 70hp on it....so a pro boat is SUPER EXCITING for me. With the speed and precision of the Pro's launching, boats floating aimlessly...there was a lot going on. As soon as Matt steps foot on the boat he is talking. He says practice was bad weather was bad and today, today 20 mph winds... I am beat up from the last 3 days. I have only a couple of spots and we are heading across to canada. As we idle around snaking through boats he chats up Mark Menendez and Jay Yelas. Being a fly on the wall and hearing/seeing into their world is awesome. The idle out was great right up to the part where we pass the "no wake" marker and the 5 and 6 foot rollers smack us in the face. I have NEVER been out in weather like that let alone in a bass boat in weather like that. Within 10 minutes I was soaked head to toe I was wearing SIMMS ProDry...with every wave that we smacked a bucket of water was thrown at us. At no point did I feel scared for my life BUT...Matt is a crazy good driver and I was so impressed at how well the skeeter/yamaha combo performed. I had not ridden in a skeeter before. So what would normally take 20+ minutes it took us 1.5 hours to get across to his first spot. Within his first cast he was verbally not happy...the waves were so big and coming so fast we were over the top of his casts and within 10 minutes he was ready to go. He started heading one way with the wind and water buckets I could hear him saying stuff but he was kinda mumbling his unhappiness about how dangerous this is and BASS should have called today off. At this point he has cast only a handful of times as we attempt to make our way back across the lake towards the river. We get to his 2nd spot and make the first drift, 2nd and 3rd on up to 6 drifts. He sees them but they are not interested in his drop shot. He runs around idling and finally says I am done with this shit drops the trolling motor and dives into his rod locker where there are maybe 5 rod combos and grabs a Texas rig rod and slaps a jig on it and goes to work. He didn't bring a jig rod so he improvised with using the Trig rod. We stayed in the back waters for the rest of the day. At 2 pm he finally bags his first greeny and a little bit later another. Matt is a direct no sugar coating kind of guy which makes for some good laughs and I was happy we made it back and he caught some fish. His bluntness is hilarious and you would never know when he has spun out he said he did and I was impressed with his ability to keep it together. He told me on the idle out that he was just fishing and he wasn't pressured having already made the classic. After meeting his wife through out the week her and i would bump into each other and talk about how things are going. Good people. Even though the day was Brutal being beat up by the wind and waves I had a good time.
I get the text on who my angler is for Monday so I call him and leave a message. The soreness from the days BRUTAL beating we took is already setting in when I get a call at like 11 pm and its Chris Johnston calling me to meet him at the dock in the morning.
Day 2: Chris Johnston
I get there early and Chris is already tied up at the dock next to him is Ex FLW guy and they are chatting with a few others. The guy I know from the marshal meeting just happens to be his marshal... so him and I start chatting and the conversation connects and we are all shooting the shit (so awesome). The conversation turns to BPT/FLW/BASS and how if flw gets bought by bpt and how it will shake out for some and not so much for a number of others. How some anglers won't have a tour to fish cause they would be cutting the number of anglers...you could tell it really was a sore spot by the way they were talking. How the FLW family is fighting over the remnants of their fathers estate. An angler whose name rhymes with SWIFT came up and says oh he may retire. we all react and laugh says no no no he may be doing whatever okeechobee marina guy is gonna do. And how okeechobee marina guy may retire cause unfortunately he may not have handled the BASS/BPT breakup invite deal well in their eyes. so he may not have a place to land. interesting stuff.
So we jump in the boat and start idling around and you can tell instantly Chris is super laid back and easy going tells me we are just going about 3 miles to our first spot not far from take off. So we get out there and he is casually casting a DS around fan casting the area. There are other pro's all around scattered across an area just drifting and milling around catching here and there. After awhile we pack up and head across the lake to the canadian side...where he referenced a spot that has a name similar to a famous LOUD Nascar track. So we have switched from sparse grass to hard brick bottom and the crankbait rod gets picked back up. I forget how many fish he has caught at this point I was fighting with having to delete and re-install Basstrakk. We make a few drifts he picks up a few and we notice a boat coming straight for us. As it comes closer Chris blurts out zona...hell yeah zona. So zona chats Chris up as if I was not even there it was funny...asks Chris where his brother is and then turns to me...Hey Mr. Marshal whats your name bud? where you from? I tell him and I get an Oh...I will be up there next week...I ask him if he is hitting a certain lake and he went on a rant over how HOT the lake is right now. (so cool). Sometime after zona left...Chris hooks a fish way out on a crankbait as he is bringing it in a big musky chomps down on the back half of the smallie and brings them both in and at the boat the smallie shakes free it was mangled but he stayed alive long enough to be weighed. I got the whole thing on video Chris said he put it on his social media... it was cool. A while later we head out North towards a HUGE flat....and man did it look GOOD. It looked like a few of the lakes I fish at home sand patches with sparse bottom grass and sparse clumps of grass and a LOT of it....real fishy. Off in the distance a boat comes on the horizon heading our way comes up on us at full tilt and drops off plane real fast and pulls up beside us its Cory...Chris's brother....I hear....Give me a 6xd!!!! Chris dives into his tackle....I only have a 5xd....DAMMIT. give me that then!!!.....and off he goes. Funny how brothers can be towards each other. We leave a few minutes later and head to the river. Now I get to do what I am there for...the spot is close to an off limits area and he wants me to make sure he is within bounds. He claims that his favorite way to fish is sight fishing and we are in like 4 foot of water and he is calling out big fish there and there and I cannot see ANY of them so I understand why its his favorite but he boats a nice fill of them moving up and down this line of sand and sparse grass clumps on the dropshot. Few minutes goes by and a Pro in a black boat (just out of range to tell who it was) with a camera guy pull up 200 yards back and goes right up close to shore (off limits area) and fishes so we figured we were good where we were at. The day is FLYING by unlike yesterday where I was counting the minutes. Having a little over 45 minutes left he makes a move up river to a point and scores a couple nice ones culling up. Yanks the trolling motor and we are headed back to the first stop of the day. We pull up and I don't remember him catching anything that culled. We make a quick run in and start the long idle in to weigh in. Good day and a great guy. I was hoping to ride with one of the canadians coming into marshaling this derby and he didn't disappoint. He was cool answering all my questions and filling me in on some of the behind the scenes stuff not the drama.
I get the infamous BASS text and I draw Ed. He calls and is super nice and upbeat I am looking forward to tomorrow.
As I am walking in in the morning I run into a "dangerous" guy and strike up a chat as we lumber to the docks. I ask if the cops caught the thieves...hell no its probably on ebay. Said that that pissed him off and then he said something as if he was just realizing it "I have been pissed all season and I fish better when I am pissed". Damn straight you do. Said he didn't get barely any sleep last night cause he was pissed over an on the water altercation a couple of other anglers had yesterday/Monday. Quite a few anglers think its BS that a guy can pull up on the leader and say what he said and pull in and attempt to fish a spot that he had not been to in practice all cause the leader is on'em. Then fishes it after the leader leaves and catches a good bag. How this isn't the first time this season its happened with him. After saying good luck and us parting ways the morning was a buzz with the MAIN grumbling conversation as I walked around about the previous days altercation and the disapproval from a lot of the anglers. drama.
Day 3: Ed Laughren III
Met him at the Dock where he is tied up next to Crews. My first time in a BassCat. I had quite a few firsts doing this marshaling thing. Ed and Crews were tying up so I would check back in a few just so I didn't throw him off his game. Jumped in the boat and Ed was asking me more questions than I of him so it was great he took interest in his marshals. Ed is super laid back and to me is odd for being an attorney. He mentioned that he was heading out about 3 miles not far from take off and we're gonna spend the day there we should catch like 19lbs. He was next to Chris and I at the first spot on day 2. As we idle out the conversation is flowing and he agrees with what the buzz amongst the other anglers over the altercation. I am so surprised how big of an issue it was...but AOY was a tight race and its big for these young guys careers...so I get it. We head out to the first spot and I am not as impressed as I thought I would be with the BassCat it was so narrow it bounced around and you really had to be on the wheel. Let alone there was no right hand "oh shit handle" and it was awkward how you had to hold the clear rail...not the way I would design it. Anyways ...we spend a few hours there he then idles over and starts talking with Crews and he is headed across to the canadian side to some hump so we follow him across. Yep...this long run solidified that I am not a BassCat guy. We get to this spot and crankbaits and dropshots are flying. Crews was about 100 yards west of us and he quickly hooked up. Ed started alternating crankbaits and dropshot all the while watching his 360 and down imaging dropping a rod and quickly tossing the dropshot under the boat. He started catching after a few and he started to liven up with his confidence. He gets a limit and started culling as we idle up to take another drift heading a little more east. It was cool being so close to Crews and watching him work and Ed finding the subtle tweaks to get them to bite "shake but don't move it" was the deal...not power shotting like I saw others doing (Brandon Card) who at the end of the day commented to Ed how he was watching that he wasn't moving it when he shook it and Brandon seemed disappointed he hadn't done that all day. So as Ed was tossing the crankbait he hooks up and gets a good bow in the rod and within 10 seconds he is saying musky...he horses this thing in all the while saying he needs to get this crankbait back its his only one. after a minute or two Ed brings him up and its perfect half in and out of its mouth and one good shake and it comes flinging out that musky was HUGE bigger than the one Crews caught in practice on his social media. I got a great video of it I think he is going to post it somewhere. After Ed out fishes Crews on his own spot we pack up and head back to the 1st spot which I had been told a couple times over the past few days that its a better afternoon bite. We get there after a overly bumpy ride. Drop down where there are a few pro's milling around the area. Brandon Card chats up Ed asking if he caught'em today and Ed had to let him down with yeah he caught'em. Brandon hadn't left that spot all day (I guess he is known for staying in an area and milking it) and was sitting on 2 fish total at that point. That's when Brandon noticed Ed barely moving his dropshot. I kinda felt bad for Brandon but he is a pro his game to win or lose. We stay there till its time to weigh in. Today was a blast...Ed an I had a great time. I was honored for him to say I was his favorite marshal all tournament (I was the only marshal he had all derby)...he actually said all season. so that was cool. We are gonna stay in touch he is a good guy and a hell of a stick...he really picks up on the "signs" the fish subliminally tell us.
Thats my marshal experience. A ton more stuff over the 4 days I was a marshal happened but it was a positive experience that I would be honored to do again.
It was really enlightening to hear and see all the comradery amongst the anglers aside from the drama of the weekend. How they really were having fun and genuinely rooting for there fellow anglers. If you watched the weigh in and listened to a lot of the anglers commenting on the great group of guys this year and how they all came together...it is true you could see it through out this marshal experience. It is going to be interesting to see how BASS will handle the handful of big names that want to come back to BASS. That was another thing i heard a few times over the last few days. The different names being thrown around that have already talked to BASS and how they said only those anglers with a classic win or an AOY will be considered and two of the few I know have that. I wonder with all what has been said about the BASS family now and how that would affect it if they brought some of the bigger names back. It was said a few times that if they brought them back all the prima donna bitching would come back to. Interesting to be brought into the behind the scenes and hear the Pro's candidly talk about their thoughts and not the typical rumor mills and cromudgeons on bbc.
I hope you enjoyed I had a great time.
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Originally Posted by grout-scout
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