State Bass fishing tournament

Thanks to my extended vacation from any sort of gainful employment, I got roped into volunteering for the state bass fishing "tournament of champions." Basically, there are about 30 bass fishing clubs in the state, and they each get to invite their top fishermen (a ratio of the total number in the club) to the state tournament. And Mike was one of the team members to represent the Sportsmen Bassmasters club! The event was held down on Lake Pepin, which is actually just a wide part of the Mississippi down by Wabasha, MN. Mike went down to "pre-fish" during Labor Day weekend, and I joined him on Sept 3. It turned out to be quite fun! Although I have to admit that I felt a bit out of place - it sounded like Greek to me as they discussed the finer points of fishing, and I think my little sedan with the "Kerry-Edwards 2004" sticker on it stuck out like a sore thumb among the massive numbers of huge trucks and boats.

But, I had a great time helping to run the show from behind the scenes, so I'm really glad I was able to go. Now I know what Mike is talking about when he goes off to his tournaments! Hopefully it will work out that I can go next year as well! :)


Here's Mike, waiting for his "flight" to launch on the second day of the tournament (after a terribly long fog delay):


After about eight hours of fishing, it was time for them to weigh their catches. They could keep five fish, and their "score" for the day was the total weight of their four biggest fish. You can see the boats lined up in the background, waiting to weigh in. My job was to lead the boaters, in turn, (a) from the water to (b) the "bump tank" (where they could "bump" the smallest fish they caught) to (c) the waiting tanks (where they kept their fish until they could get weighed):


Next the fish would get weighed, and the announcer would inevitably crack some weird fish jokes in the mean time:


Mike (9th from the bottom in the left-hand column of "individuals") ended up coming in 45th out of ~150. I thought he did *great* for his first state tournament, only two years after starting fishing!