EDIT - Well thanks to this community I have learned that I may have made even more mistakes than listed below! Now I am glad I made these mistakes did did not take anyone's money - as I would have felt terrible. Read on and learn from my follies!
Well Im opening myself up for some criticism here - but here it goes.
Im new to bass fishing, and live on lake Butler down here in Central Florida. After fishing off my dock for a few months I decided to make the move to the Vexus AVX1980 to take my fishing to the next level. After 65 trips out since taking delivery in December 2018 - I felt I was confident enough to fish in my first tournament on the lake. Its a monthly thing that I heard about from one of the local bass guides. I went out on Friday and grabbed bait, (I keep my boat in the water at my dock), turned on the timed flush, gassed the boat up to 3/4 tank, and waited for the weekend to roll up.
Headed out early (5:30am) and arranged my rods on the deck. This club doesn't have a FB page or web page to look over so I had no idea what time I had to be there outside of hearing I had to be there before sun up. It was the first time navigating at night for me - and I had all of my lights up, Talon lights on, and followed my GPS. Even still, alone at night without a light was an interesting experience. Even in night more the GPS almost seemed too bright. Will be adding a forward light soon to navigate the canals in the very near future. Once I got to the boat ramp at RD Keene, I Talon'ed up with my bow out and waited for the first fishermen to show up to ask what the deal was. I started going over in my head my top 3 spots that I would try.
The first guy in the water was the tournament director - who looked like he was in a huge rush.
"Waiting on someone?" he asked.
I replied - "Yea I want to fish this tournament and dont know what the deal is." At this point the guy looked a bit exasperated.
"Do you live on the lake or something?" To which I nodded. "Swish you hands around in your live wells so I can check you dont have fish in the boat." I did that, and idling away, he says "Pay me at weigh in at 3:00, good luck!" and off he went at full blast.
To this - and being new, I was confused, but saw the next boat in line pop in and hurriedly trying to get going. This was must have been a hint - Obviously there was no blast off or flights like I had read about - it was whoever was in the water first was first to fish. I Un-Talon'ed and looking at the guy that just launched and was idling out - and put my boat on full bast. He got the hint and it was on. Our chain of lakes has a few smaller lakes that are connected by idle speed channels. So it was a race to the next lake. I had always wondered why guys on this forum and on the FB group wanted more HP and more speed from the AVX boats - NOW I GET IT! My boat handled great, and quickly out ran the boat behind me, as I know these lakes very well and was driving like a banshee. My wife - or if I had a co angler in the boat would not have enjoyed the ride too much as I was hauling the mail at 55mph+. Zipped from Lake Islesworth to Lake Louise, and then to Lake Butler where I knew what spot I had been on fish all week, but had only practiced for it in the afternoons. I was hoping the fish would be there. Made the decision on a closed protected cove with deep (12 foot) water on either side of it. Got my trolling motor in the water and coasted in.
First cast and I was on fish. The boat handled beautifully to the chaos that then ensued as every cast had a fish on. My heart was thumping. Quickly I was swapping fish out of the live well as larger fish came in. Then it happened - my bobber / shiner (fishing in 8 feet of water) combo went down, and my first ever 4+ pound fish was on the line. My heart was pounding when I landed that fish! Plunked her in the live well, and pulled out a smaller 2 pound fish. 15 min later - BAMM, another big fish! Before 7:30 am! I watched as boat after boat roared by me about a half mile off. It was a sunny, windless day - and I knew as soon as it got hot, the fish would dry up. But this spot was producing and I stuck to it for a few hours, putting 20 fish in the boat, and a live well that had 14 pounds in it. This was good enough to win the last tournament on this lake - so I was pretty excited. My deck was a mess with hydrilla, mangled bait bits, destroyed Senko worms, blood from some gut hooked fish, and a few bottles of ice coffee I managed to chug down between fish. Things started to settle down around 9:30 - and the sun started getting hot (87 degrees with no wind, water temp 75 degrees). My hands were torn up from handling all of these fish! The gar started to eat a bunch of my bait, and the bass were not too interested in my artificial stuff so decided to make a move.
The fishing for the rest of the day was dead - the hot sun, and no wind probably drove a lot of the fish to cover. As the day wore on my fish were trashing around a lot and so I removed the divider to let them have a bit more room, with my poor remaining shiners. The wind kicked up around noon and got the water moving, along with a ton of weekend boat / jetski traffic. The boat handled it fantastic, fishing or at speed, this boat does not mind wakes, or choppy water. I ran all of my baits over 4 spots that I have fished and ended up in a spot about 600 yards from my house a little after 1:00. I Talon'ed down, and noticed my bow Humminbird was off, and would not come back on. I thought that was strange, but fished through it, chalking it up as a casualty to the earlier chaos. At 2:25 - I decided to make my way back the the weigh in, get there early and find a good spot as I knew the ramp would be really busy with lots of weekend traffic.
I popped in my seat and turned the key - and the motor would not turn over! My battery was dead. My phone had been plugged in all day, all of the electronics were on all day, lights, all pumps on... I did not even think about it. Huge rookie mistake, but I was not ready to give up. I popped down my trolling motor, set it for full speed, and made the attempt to get to my dock and figure out a way to jump my boat. That was the longest ride to my dock dock ever. The whole way back I was thinking I had just had the best fishing day of my life - and was going to have it ruined by me being an idiot and not remembering that the juice on the boat was a finite resource.
I managed to get to my dock, Talon'ed up and quickly plugged in my charger and let it sit for what felt like an eternity. A lot was running through my head - but decided to give the ignition a try - the the boat started up. It was 2:50. I had 10 minuets to get to weigh in! I had that Vexus wide open, trimmed up, and absolutely flying to try and make it in. The channels were excruciating. As soon as my nose would get past the normal operation sign, I was flying. This boat absolutely handles this sort of stuff like a dream. I could not let up over the boat wakes and just put my head down and adjusted trim only. I have no idea how fast I was going - I was concentrating on the shortest line to make it to weigh in.
On making it to the RD Keen ramp - it was an absolute zoo. Boats and skis everyplace. Some wacko putting what looked like a huge house boat down the ramp... (who does that on a chain of lakes?) I popped my trolling motor down and found a place to put my boat. Now - this was my first tournament ever. By this time I was completely panicked that they would not let me weigh in. I sprinted to what looked to be the weigh station and tracked down the gentleman I saw earlier in the day. Handed him my $55, and asked him how I weighed in my fish. He looked at me like I was crazy and told me I needed a fish bag, but if I would hurry up, I could use his. Before I ran away he said - "I could save you the trouble, do you have more than 11 pounds?" This guy knew I was a rookie, saw the sheer panic on my face, and probably though I had 7 pounds, as the fishing was really not too good that day. When I told him I thought I had 14 - he smiled and said, id better hurry up and get them.
I sprinted back to the boat, with the chaos of the boat ramp, jet skiers everyplace, weirdos in house boats trying to make way through all of this - I was in a daze. I filled the bag with water, put my fish in it from the right side live well and sprinted back.
The weigh in guy was awesome when I pulled the first 4 pounder out, he looked the director and and told him unless my bag got small, the order was going to be changed. I smiled - I know I had 14. The 1st place guy had 14 today as well. and when I pulled my 4th fish out, I was at 11.8. The 4th fish was the last fish I pulled out. I HAD LEFT THE 5th FISH IN THE LIVE WELL! I has in suck a hurry and a daze that my last fish... Could not be counted. My face dropped. High fives ensued around me as the other guys that were in the money breathed again. Heartbroken - I made my way back to the lake. I was battered and broken like my fish in the bag. Rookie mistakes, adding up through an epic day of fishing cost me a from placing.
I brought the directors bag back to him - and he smiled, and was much more relaxed when I saw him at blastoff. He gave me a few details on how I would get counted at the next event, and sent me on my way.
I was on my way how in my sturdy boat (I had left the motor running so I would not require a jump again) making my way through all the traffic, that I got to slow down and reflect on what a fantastic decision it was to buy this boat and get involved in that crazy sport. The boat had not let me down all day - I had let IT down by not conserving battery power. It had handled the chaos, my rookie mistakes, and took everything I could throw at it. Didnt take the sting out of my mistakes - but allowed me to own up to them. Next month - Ill be prepared with a jump pack, a co-angler, and armed with my awesome AVX1980. Lots of lessons learned - but one of the highlights was my terrific boat, and my skill as an improved fisherman. We never learn from success!
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Sounds like it was a great learning experience. Good luck next time.
Originally Posted by Macsimus
