Saw the other thread about the Marshal experience at the Classic and it reminded me of the one and only time I was a Marshal. It was the first year of the Marshal program (2009) and since they were fishing within a few hours of me at Fort Madison, Iowa, I figured it would be my best chance to do it. At the time I didn't own a boat and was very star struck by the guys I had only seen fishing on TV. Seeing guys like KVD, Clunn, Iaconelli, and others was just really cool to me back then. Seeing boats I could only dream of was also very cool. I remember thinking that Rick Clunn's center console Nitro was the biggest bass boat I had ever seen. The deck on that thing was massive.
Anyway, the first day I got paired with Kevin Wirth. I felt like an idiot right off the bat because I wasn't comfortable with backing the trailer down since up to that point I had very limited experience backing boats into the water. I think he was a little annoyed that he had to back it in and then go park his truck, but he didn't say anything. Instead, he had me run the trolling motor once the boat was off the trailer. Even doing that made me nervous since it was so crowded at the ramp. I nearly ran into Tommy Biffle's boat and he gave me a death stare I'll never forget. To this day my fishing partner still gives me crap about it. Once Kevin got down to the ramp and into the boat I could finally breath easy. He was running a 21' Triton and I'd never been in a 70mph boat before. It was pretty cool except that the light rain stung my face since we were running about 72-73. The fishing that day (and really the whole tournament) was pathetically bad. The river had been flooded a week or two earlier, so the water was muddy and most of the vegetation was wiped out. I had done the Marshal program hoping to really learn a lot, but it's a lot more difficult when very little is being caught. One thing I did learn is just how good the pros are at casting. Still amazes me when I think about it. Kevin didn't catch a lot that day, but he smoked plenty. I've only been around two chain smokers my entire life, and Kevin was one of them. Dude would finish a smoke and 10 seconds later he was lighting up another one. Since you don't see those things on TV, I didn't even realize he smoked at all. Anyway, I think he wound up with 3 fish if I remember right. And there wasn't much conversation either. I was not sure whether I should talk much or not, so I kept my mouth shut most of the time. The big event that day was the major crash that Derek Rimitz had. He hit a submerged log and his Marshal got ejected from the boat and was in critical condition. I remember we were in the lock along with a bunch of other boats and Kevin was talking to Gary Klein. Gary was talking about catching massive bowfin down south. At that time no one knew about the accident. Gerald Swindle idled into the lock and yelled to get everyone's attention. He was pretty shook up and told everyone to be really careful and explained what had happened to Derek and his Marshal. The rest of that day was not very memorable as we tried several areas with very little success. Once we got back to the boat ramp, Kevin didn't say much and pretty much just left and went and started talking to a couple other anglers. I was pretty disappointed that he didn't at least talk a few minutes with me before going, but I suppose he was just done with that day.
The second day I got paired with Greg Vinson, who was a rookie at that time. He was driving a Skeeter, which I always loved the looks of the Skeeters. I was shocked that his Skeeter was a little slower than Kevin's Triton (unless he wasn't running WOT). We fished most of the day in an area that had probably 15 or more other boats. Everyone was basically fishing in a circle, constantly fishing behind each other. I think Greg did wind up getting 5 that day, but they weren't big. He more or less said that he was ready for the tournament to be over because the fishing was so bad and it was pretty hot out as well.
I had the opportunity to fish the third day but I declined. I wasn't really learning much of anything and to be honest, sitting in the boat watching a pro not catch fish was pretty boring. Kevin Short wound up winning the tournament fishing a Zoom WEC E1 crankbait and varying his line size to keep the bait shallow enough to not be dredging into the mud and leaves on the bottom. I'm also pretty sure that KVD zeroed on the final day, which was a pretty big deal back then since you'd think KVD could catch at least one out of a mud puddle.
So was it worth the $100 (I think that's what it was)...yes, I think it was simply to say I had the experience.
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Originally Posted by wareagle24
