"The Tournament"

To keep the teams even I decided to go along and pretend to fish. Since I was going, I was not going empty handed. As the men sat and told their stories and talked of their secret weapon, I was packing a secret weapon for Doug and I. (ham and egg biscuits, thermos of coffee, peanut butter sandwich made from homemade bread) Once we were all ready Doug and I sneaked the food to our boat while Jimmy and Mr. Moore took only their fishing rods and bait, feeling confident that they would not need any food. Other than the fish they would catch.

We finally hit the water at 11:00 am and decided the tournament would end at 2:00 pm. The rules were the boat with the 5 largest bass would win $10 from the other boat. Off we went in out separate directions. Jimmy confident to pick the right spot where all the fish would be biting and be the hero for the day and Doug and I in the opposite direction enjoying the day but really wanting to get ahead of them on their own territory. Doug and I found a good wall of rock and I filled the live well (isn't that what real fishermen do?) and Doug started casting. It was rather windy that day and it pushed us down the wall a little faster than we had wished for. We had no luck and decided to move on. We went further down the lake and saw a small cove with some trees by the bank. To get away from the wind we ducked in the cove and began making the round. After a few snags we were about to head back out when I felt my line snag again, no, wait, the snag was fighting back. Hey, I had a fish on the line. Doug is yelling to get him in the boat and I am trying to remember how to real. Finally I reeled him close enough to lift him out of the water and so I turned around and held him over the middle of the boat until Doug could take him off the hook. (See I really am not a fisher person) Why Jimmy and Mr. Moore did not hear my yelling and thanking the "Fish Gods" I will never know. I asked Doug to note the time and it was 11:10 pm Not only did I hook the fish but I got hooked at the idea of catching more. I was beyond excited and jumped back at casting and looking for the next "prize".

Unfortunately, Doug and I fished out the cove, down the next few rock walls. Changed lures to try something new and still did not have any luck. As we look up we see Jimmy and Mr. Moore heading in our direction. Pulling up beside us, "just to chat" we had to display my fine fish. (11 ½ inches) After all their jokes and laughs I decided to show them the coffee and biscuits. They eagerly asked for some and since I had the only fish at the time I felt pity and gave them some coffee and biscuits. (did not want to hear the excuse of "we got too weak to reel it in"). Again, we parted ways and began to fish. We were quickly running out of time so the pressure was on for Jimmy and Mr. Moore. They stayed close to see if we were going to catch anymore. Since they did not believe that I had caught the one they saw.

Before we knew it the time was 1:30 and we all agreed to continue fishing back toward the dock and see what happened. You could see the frustration on Jimmy and Mr. Moore's face knowing that they may have to hear me "BRAG" for a very long time if they did not catch anything before we reached the dock.

Anyway, to make a long story short. The non-fishing, handicap (me) caught the only fish (11 ½ inch) for the entire day. This declared Doug and I the winners of the tournament. Doug and I did have to remind them of the prize money and did receive it. We did feel bad about taking the money (NOT) but we did have to teach them a lesson. ha ha But not once have we bragged about the story.

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