BASS Marshall Stories

[Jbasspro24]

Great Thread!

[daveprice]

I was a marshall at smith mt. lake in 2008. Had Terry Butcher my first day... Terry is a super guy but scared the s*@t out of me running his bass cat cougar (and i own one) 83 mph and not letting off for turns into coves!! NO FUN not being behind the steering wheel!! Second day i rode with Greg Vinson- one of the nicest elite guys I've met.. Also scared me half to death running wide open over rock shoals in a foot of water! Come to think of it- maybe i should take it easy on my co-anglers i seem to hear the same stuff from them...!
All in all i would definitely say it was well worth the time,energy, and money. Edwin Evers is another who is just extremely down to earth. He came up and started a conversation with me and sat there and talked for 45 min.. He certainly didn't have to do that. Class act for sure

[chefdlh1972]

Well at 300 pounds I tend to slow them down a bit. I was an observer at one of the Elites on Oneoda Lake a few years ago. First day I drew Aaron Martens and on the second day Terry Scoggins. On day 2 I was chatting with Terry, telling him a story from the previous season on Oneida, my partner and I were fishing an Anglers Choice tournament when I was introduced to lightning. I told him the story of me casting a tube jig at a boiling pot of smallies and my tube and line just went into the aire at about 45 degrees, never coming down. WHen I asked my partner what the "?<&*! he hears the graphite rods start to sing. Needless to say we dropped everything and raced away from that area just before lightning struck.

Just before lunch on day 2 I get a weather alert on my phone. Terry and I both look around at high, blue bird skies, not a cloud anywhere. About 10 minutes later this BLACK cloud appears out of nowhere, his rod starts vibrating and singing, Terry turns to me ans asks "Was it like this!?!?", WE TOOK SHELTER JUST IN TIME BEFORE GETTING STRUCK. No problems with speed, just almost got electrocuted!

I was a Marshall at this same event (2009, right?). Drew John Murray day 1 and Brent Chapman day 2. I was lucky--great weather, no scary rides. John Murray pulled up on an off-shore hump his first stop and got a limit in about 20 minutes, culled a few times within 30 minutes, then left to pitch grass for largemouth the rest of the day. Even though no one talks about him as a pitching type, he is a machine. Day two, Brent Chapman fished topwaters for about the first hour, didn't get much, then pitched a Zoom ultravibe craw the rest of the day. He was super nice, very talkative, and just didn't seem to run out of energy. The fishing ended up being pretty slow--and most of the guys we came across said that too. But it was a blast.

[DHatc]

I was a marshal at Lake Murray and had Cliff Pace on Day 1 and I enjoyed the day with him. He wasn't very talkative, but he managed to grind out a limit and culled a few times. Thought it was sorta ironic that he fished some of the same areas I usually fish and some of the same lures and techniques I like to fish. Day 2, I drew Russ Lane. More talkative and I watched him fish under the stress of trying to make the top 50 cut...every fish they miss could end up to be a $10,000 fish. I learned alot from him as well. He had several patterns and areas and caught a solid limit and made the cut. I thought it was well worth the $100 and I have got alot of nice compliments on the $50 Columbia fishing shirt they gave us to wear.

[Bassman Ia.]

Busting on him about his kids not having shoes. Hahaha funny chit right there. Great stories enjoyed them

[Longrodder]

I had KVD on the 3rd day of the St. John's tourney last year. So damn foggy you couldn't see CHIT!!!!!! Made it to Lake George fine but all it would have took was for a boat to be sitting in our path for about half the run from Palatka to Lake George and it COULD have been real ugly!!!!! Kelly Jordon dumped his partner out and threw himself around in the boat pretty good in that same tourney. He was making the sharp turn in the river and wouldn't let out of it and dropped off a wave and speared the bow into the water. Jordon could barely move at weigh-in time...took a while for him to get out of the boat.
One note on KVD...he was a absolute blast to be with. He had a terrible day and he told me I was an unlucky _ _ _!!!! I told him that after all I had read and from what people told me...I thought he could fish!!!! He just looked at me and said...well, apparently not!!!! We needled each other all day...I was a damn jinx and he wasn't nearly as good as everyone let on he was!! LOL We were running back up to weigh-in and he got into some weekend traffic...he was paying close attention to what was going on. We passed a private dock that had some people on it and swimming around it. They waved and I waved back. KVD saw me throw my hand upand he looked at them and then looked at me. I said...it was some of my fans. He just said...well thanks for letting me drive your boat by them!

[Longrodder]

To add some thoughts to the thread. The most amazing thing about the pros is: How close they push weigh-in time. The entire flight will come sliding in coming off plane at the same damn time!!!! They dont' have to have their chip in the net but they have to be off plane and in line. They all get there at the same time...even if they have a bunch of fish or none at all.

[blade1970]

Great stories and a great thread

[kingpin1]

I do too no matter good or bad. I did one in Clark hill a few years ago because that was the closest lake to me they would be going to. Not a whole lot if fish catching and was boring at times. First day I drew bill lowen and he was a super nice guy. He was culling and told me to stand behind the live wells in front if the motor. A fish he didn't want to cull jumped out of the live well and hit me in the leg and went back into the lake. He was pretty upset the rest of the day about that. I won't say who I drew the second day but on the first stop he was complaining about his stomach and finally told me to stay seated look forward and close my eyes because his food from the night before had to make an exit. So he went to the back and relived himself. I never knew someone could take a crap that fast. Third day I drew Gary Klein and that guy is a fishing machine but not very talkative.

Randy Howell? Fished with him before and he has some colon issues. When he has to go he has to go.

Not a Marshall story, but a buddy of mine co-fished with Bobby Lane at Gville.
Their first stop my friend was dragging out his rod and sort of had it pointed towards the front of the boat when Lane cast and hooked my friends rod, snatching it out of his hand.
Bobby probably had the worst backlash in the history of backlashes. He just looks down and says "Oh, well" and grabs another rod and starts fishing.
My friend was dying inside but they laughed about it later. This and the fact that Bobby had some serious gastro-intestinal issues kept them laughing all day.

[Keegles]

I'm busting my gut reading this at my office at a bank. Coworkers clearly know I'm not working now.

[BassTaurus]

Randy Howell has a little more than colon issues. He had his entire colon resected due to ulcerative colitis, if I'm not mistaken. He shared the story at a BassMaster University (on his web-page as well) a long time ago. Might not be a laughing matter, since he almost died from it. But we don't know if the story pertained to him or not, so no need to start guessing.

[RangerR81]

Keep them coming boys! I look forward being a marshall sometime in the future.

[Wild Heethen]

Not a chance in hell!

Keep it going Trooper. I wish the dog had jumped in the boat and bit him. Would have been GREAT footage.

[jbassman87]

I was one at Dardanelle in Ark a few years ago. First day was with Bernie Shultz. Not a bad guy, but wasn't real friendly. There was a local fishing from a dock with some minnows in the area he was fishing. He tells me "I hope she leaves soon and doesn't fish the other way." A little later we watch her real in her line and looks like she is going to leave. She gets up and starts to walk off then looks at her watch turns around and throws her line in again. It happens to be the way Bernie did not want her to throw. So he says "Watch this" her line was not in the water a minute when she got a bite and pulled in a 3# plus fish and put it on a stringer. Bernie just sighed and went back to fishing. The second day I was with Denny Braur. He was real quite till he caught a limit. He then got real lively and was talking nonstop. Had a couple of interesting thing while with him. The first was the 287 pitches he made at a bedding 4# fish. I counted them. He swung five times before hooking her on the sixth. When he set the hook that time he hit the thumb button and his reel immediately blew up in a rats nest. He then pulled the fish in by hand. The other one was a local that kept trying to tell him what he should be using and where to fish.Denny kept telling him that he could not listen to that kind of thing, but the guy wouldn't shut up. So we picked up and left. I might do it again someday.

[bonecollector1]

Awesome thread!. I'm on the waiting list for West Point.

[juice780]

No it wasn't randy Howell

[scarter1996]

Enjoying this thread. In tournament for West Point. Going to fish a tourney the weekend before. Going to be interesting to see how they fish it the next. Guess I'll be shown why I am just a weekend warrior.

[meeavey]

First thing in the morning on day 1 I drew James Niggemeyer and while we was waiting he explained to me how he wanted me to stay still and he would work his fish around me . But for me not to move (when he was landing his fish) He caught big bass of the tournament that day and he was a GREAT guy . Day 2 I get Pace so while we was doing nothing I said we'll I got this bass tracker to register your fish . He stops me and says he doesn't care about it and knows nothing about it so don't ask me anything about it . I thought to myself well this is a good start .LOL . So a few min later I ask where do you want me and where do you land your fish? His reply was if it was up to me you would sit in that seat all day and be quite(real hateful) . Of course by then I was thinking to myself if it was up to me we would go over to the bank and I would show you how us boys from VA handle people who are rude . The next day a super nice guy from the club drew him and had nothing good to say about him also . Doesn't take long to see in person his true colors .

[AdamG]

Seems like a lot of people on here who have had dealings with Cliff Pace don't have good things to say about him. I've never met the guy or anything, but just from what I have watched he seems very rude. Even when they showed him on Day 3 of the classic he was pretty rude about everything from the helicopter to motioning the spectators back. I understand that he was fishing a life changing event, but he should understand all of the factors that come with leading the classic and be a little bit more respectful.

[19XS_Chris]

I've done the marshal thing three time: first time in 2010 on Pickwick drew Jason Williamson the first day, 45 mile run WOT all the way. Barge wakes and boat wakes didn't get in the way. The man is a heck of jig fisherman and can skip a jig under and around things like you wouldn't believe. Next day was Greg Vinson, one of the nicest guys I've met, learned alot about tube fishing and catching smallmouth with Greg. Third day was Russ Lane, he was running a Basscat back then and we again made the 45 mile run. He fished a topwater almost all day. If i tried to throw a spook that long my arm would fall off. Learned a lot about fishing bluffs. The wind had really picked up that afternoon and it had rained off and on all day. Russ told me we going to head in a little early he didn't want to chance the long run with big waves. He already knew I wasn't looking forward the trip with the big waves. He told me he wasn't crazy and we wouldn't be doing anything to get us hurt. That big cat took the water well and he had time to stop at a couple of places and try to Upgrade. We get back to the weigh-in site with about 20 minutes to spare and he starts fishing a crankbait on some riprap and culls one up. While he's culling the tornado sirens go off and we're stuck on the water. He looks at me and says "Is that what I think it is?" I said yes let's get the hell out of here. He stays until one minute before check in and goes in.

The next year on Pickwick again I drew Keith Poche on day one and he fished the current below the Wilson dam. At the end of the day we are the only boat left up there and it's getting close to time to head in. I looked at his back Humminbird unit and it died. I asked him what happened, the front one died too. His cranking battery had died and it was time to go. He wanted me to call Tripp Weldon and see if someone would get us. Tripp was on stage weighing fish and not answering his phone. He got the cables switched to a trolling motor battery and got ir cranked. We didn't have any trim on the way but he ran it wide open back the ramp, made it with a minute and half left. He had about 19 lbs and was in second. Drew Gregg Shuff on day 2 thought I knew something about jigs until I spent a day with him. Day three was with Charlie Hartley, you'll never meet a nicer guy. We had fun, learned about fishing chatter baits and fishing docks. He pitched one across a dock and hooked a 3 pounder. He looked pretty funny laying across the trolling motor to reach across the dock to lip that fish, but he got it. He stood up, showed me the fish and said "I'm a baddddd man".

Went one day at the last Red River Classic and rode with the Federation champion Jamie Horton. Sight fishing was the name of the game.