Tough Final Day

Never again will I be throwing a 3/8oz naked jig with a 3-inchwatermelon Senko, on 8-pound test during a tournament. It might seem as if I am harping on this point, but after today I need to reiterate that bass fishing is one of the most mentally taxing sports there is, right up there with golf. And mentally, I've got to start getting past this tournament.

I started off my morning in the worst way possible. When Chris Lane and I rolled up to our first spot, I dropped my Senko to the bottom and bam, just like that, a nice fish. Once again I found myself reeling in my line faster than I am accustomed to, because these fish get a hook in them and come straight to the top. I recall the last tournament I fished, when the pro told me to bury my rod in the water to try to limit the amount of slack in the line when they jump, so I buried my rod tip down about three feet. She made a jump and swam back to the bottom. I would love to write about the next two slobs that I hooked into that did the same exact thing but I think I will just leave it at that.

I then switched to a drop shot set up and struggled to fish. The thoughts going through my head had just totally shaken me up. I finally hooked into a nice one on a 4-inch Finesse power worm, watermelon with red glitter. I have to thank Owner for making a really nice SHARP drop shot hook that helped ensure a hook set that was not coming out.

I went on to catch another fish and weight in two fish for a whopping 6 pounds. I fell from being into the money to 60th place. However, my buddy Jeff I was telling you about really went out and caught them (although he should have, since he was fishing with the Bassmaster Classic champion Boyd Duckett) to finish in 28 th place.

I would just like to thank BASS for giving me this opportunity. I mean, writing my own blog about fishing has been great, and meeting the pros I idolize and being able to talk to them made a miserable day on the water worth it, because now I have a week of memories that no one will ever take away. I have never been so lucky in my life. If there is one thing that I wish I would have done differently and one bit of advice I can offer, it is that, once I lost that first fish I wish I would have slowed down. Taking even a minute to recollect myself and to decide that they wouldn't get the best of me would have helped. Oh, and maybe next time I will fish a tournament far, far away from my hometown Buffalo, so the overwhelming pressure of impressing friends and family will not affect me so much.

Thanks everyone and I hope you enjoyed my story of the best week of my fishing life. I'll see you at the final weigh-in Sunday afternoon.

Charles Waldorf