For a while now I've been trying to write a recap of my experience as a marshal for the Elite Series during the Angler of the Year Championship on Mille Lacs. A lot of you received text messages and pictures from me pretty much hourly during my time on the water but for everyone else hopefully this will do it justice because honestly for a fisherman and someone who wants to become a better tournament fisherman the experience was incredible. My trip started out with noticing my wheel didn't look straight on my trailer so after pulling the wheel off and realizing that when they replaced the spindle they didn't weld it on correctly I drove it to Glenn's welding and they told me they'd have it done within an hour, needless to say seven hours later they hadn't even started it yet and told me they would get to it the next day. That wasn't going to work so I took it home hammered the shit out of it and straightened up somewhat and took off towards Mille Lacs early the next morning. Registration for marshals began at4 PM with our meeting at 5pm and driving up to the casino I saw a bunch of recognizable boats at the ramp including Jason Christie, Edwin Evers and Ike. Walking up to the registration table was like a kid walking into a candy store for the first-time KVD, Skeet Reese, Shaw Grigsby we're all standing around bullshitting and I introduced myself to each of them just to say hello. One thing I will say about the elites that I immediately noticed is they all talk the same, " biggun, did you catch em and the juice" are their favorite words. And they all are super approachable and genuinely appreciative of the fans. I'm guessing with their careers based on sponsorship more than actual tournament winnings they know the importance of taking time out to interact with us. After some basic rules meeting everyone received a text message on our day one pairings with our pros and I was lucky enough to draw Matt Herren the reigning Toyota Texas bass classic champion. I found Matt in the crowd and we discuss when and where to meet the next day as he had to go down to Minneapolis to do a quick promotion for one of his sponsors and wasn't able to sit down and talk during the dinner and social hour after the rules meeting.
The next morning I arrived at the ramp pretty much the same time as everyone else bright and early and even though it was very windy and rainy I was super excited for the day that I had ahead of me. While waiting to launch and during the singing of the national anthem I noticed water coming up through the floor and both Herren and I realized he forgot to put the plug-in. Instead of going back and trying to put it in he just told me he would run the bilge pump all day and to put my boots on because it was going to be wet. Twice on the way to our first spot which was about an 8-mile run we speared a wave, the first time breaking off a front graph and the second time snapping 2 rods. Obviously, you can't let small things like drain plugs and broken graphs effect the way your day is going to go because after one small keeper and a quick move we came to "The Juice". We pulled up to a huge reef with Brandon Palanuik, Randall Tharp and Boyd Duckett all in the same area and Matt decided he wanted to fish the deepest point on it roughly 22-26 ft. of water. With 3ft rollers he tried out the new Ultrex trolling motor for the first time and it was beyond amazing. We spot locked over a huge boulder roughly the size of a car and with BMP fishing right beside us they both caught four pounder after four pounder for the next 6 hours without moving or touching the trolling motor. Matt was fishing a zman jerk Shadz which is similar to a fluke but he informed me it's made of a different material which floats differently and gives it more of a dying baitfish action. Palanuik was fishing his signature money maker wacky worm and we were catching 3-1 against him all day and the fish were all higher quality. When we decided to leave early for weigh in just in case anything happens he had caught 32 small mouths on the day all over 4.5lbs and had 26lbs to put him on 5th place. It was amazing.
After a super rainy weigh in I got back in my truck and checked the phone to see I was paired with Jordan Lee, one of the best young anglers on tour who also had over 24lbs day one, I was super excited to get in his boat and see how he approaches tournaments. With zero wind and bluebird skies we started on the reef surrounded by Ike, Alton Jones, Jason Williamson and Tak O. who actually led after day one with 27 pounds. He threw a drop shot for the first three hours with a strike king dream shot but couldn't find a big bite and after throwing away his eighth walleye of the morning we decided to head to the north end of the lake closer to where Matt Herren was. Even though Jordan is a very accomplished young angler he was telling me since he is so new on tour he still doesn't have the persona of some of the other veterans and that allows some of the other anglers to hole jump him or crowd his spots. His first day he had battery problems and broke down back in a small pocket and when Dean Rojas came in and saw that it was him he turned around and took off without helping him. Luckily Chris Lane came by a little bit later and gave him a ride to weigh in. So, Dean Rojas can go **** himself in my opinion. Well since Jordan didn't want to hole jump anyone on day two and he wasn't really fishing for much since he already had a top 10 angler of the year finish locked in he decided he wanted to go throw a frog for a while. His first cast into a patch of reeds resulted in an immediate blowup followed by the hardest Hookset I've ever witnessed in my life which in turn exploded every guide except for the top tip off his quantum rod. The sound it made was like a rifle going off right next to your head. With the fish still hooked in the line running straight from the reel to the tip while the rod was doubled over Jordan battled that bass for about 15 seconds until it came off. He then cut his line took off the reel and threw that rod about 50 yards into the water. He still had about 17 pounds at that time and that would've moved him up to over 20 to put him into top-five category again so he seemed pretty demoralized. He continued to throw a swim jig and a frog for the last two hours but we didn't say much to each other since I knew he was pretty pissed about losing that giant. I used this time to really watch Jordan's technique when casting and it was nothing short of amazing. Every single cast was pinpoint accurate but with distance and speed. Another blowup and a miss and Jordan was done messing around with the green fish and headed back out to a reef to try to finish his bag with a giant brown. He ended up catching like 6 walleye in a row and after a decent but frustrating day we headed back to weigh-in. 17lbs is a great bag for any lake in the country, except Mille Lacs and Jordan plummeted down the leaderboard. After thanking Jordan for a great day on the water I drove back to Baxter and went fishing for a few hours before calling it a day.
The next day was Saturday and the elites had the day off for seminars, autographs and the expo. I decided to wake up early and try a local lake that Chris Harvey told me about. It was a great time despite the wind and the rain. Minnesota lakes are so diverse and offer some incredible fishing opportunities. After I got tired of the cold and rain I stopped by the expo to get a few autographs of pros I hadn't met yet and to check with my day 3 pro, Bassmaster Classic Champion Randy Howell. A few side stories to the Angler of the Year Championship is not only is it an end of year Championship it also decides the Angler of the Year and the top 40 in points make the Classic. Gerald Swindle was leading the AOY race coming into the tournament and as long as he didn't take dead last, he would have it locked up. Well after day 1 he was in second to last place and after day 2 he was in 47th out of 50 anglers. Not the tournament he wanted but since Keith Combs was only top 15 it was almost a certainty Swindle would win AOY. Mille Lacs is Seth Feiders home lake and everyone knew he would win it was just a matter of by how much. The last little story was the guys fighting for the final spots to the classic. Randy Howell was 4 points out of last in and after "struggling" with only 40lbs after the first two days he was in 19th place and needed a monster bag to move into the top 10 and secure a classic spot. Randy is very spiritual and from the moment we met at the dock he informed me that he had a "vision" about today and that it was in the lords hands. He truly believed he would catch a big bag and did everything he could to make it come true. We started on an isolated point throwing cranks just like I thought he would but after 2 hours and just one tiny 2lber he noticed that his Daiwa teammate Seth Feider had moved from his starting spot and we headed over there to try to make a miracle happen. The first thing I noticed about Randy compared to Matt and Jordan is how meticulous he was with his gear and tackle and how organized his boat was. Everything was prepped for the day, he checked his line after every cast, he retied every 10-15 casts or every other fish caught. There was no wasted time or movements. He was focused on making the classic and nothing would stop him. After pulling up to our second spot the wind picked up and we hovered over the same huge boulder for the next 5 hours and caught 5lber after 5lber. It was amazing. A wacky rigged pearl senko on a drop shot, the exact bait Seth was also using and had borrowed Randy, was absolutely crushing the fish. Adrian Avena was right next to us and while we caught 5-6 lb. smallies he caught 2-4 pounders on roboworms. The key for Howell was using a very large round drop shot weight to allow him to drop the senko up and down to achieve the fluttering action while maintaining contact with the bottom. He also used 7'6" rods and 40 size daiwa reels to better handle the monster smallies of Mille Lacs. At one point, we had 5 over 5.5 in the livewell and it took 20 minutes for Randy to cull his fish because he couldn't believe he was throwing a 5lb smallmouth back. What an incredible day. We left an hour early to get back without having to put any stress on the fish and after checking in I told him according to Bass Trak he was in 7th place and made the Classic. It was his biggest bag ever for a tournament with almost 28lbs. An amazing experience with an incredible Angler that never lost faith in what he could accomplish that day. I was truly blessed to get to experience it with him.
The rain came pouring in and I decided to hit the road instead of going to the final weigh in. Watching on Bass Live I saw Feider and Swindle win their respective trophies and not only resurrect Seth’s career but also solidify Swindle as one of the best to ever be on the water.
After being on the water and seeing the amount of time and hard work it takes to make it at this level I had a new understanding and respect for these athletes. This is a dream job but it is far from easy and full of joy and disappointment. If you ever have a chance to be a Marshal I would highly recommend taking part in the opportunity. I was extremely lucky in having three of the best anglers and people I have ever met let me spend time in their boat and it's something I will never forget.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by mike464
