I was thinking the other day
about my very first Bass Club I joined...........a long time
ago.
I was working at Camp Lejeune in
Jacksonville, N.C. There was a Project Inspector that
I worked with on a daily basis. He learned that I was
an avid Bass fisherman. He told me that his younger
brother was a member of some sort of a club that had
tournaments catching bass. Probably this was one of
the first clubs started in that area. I am thinking this was
somewhere around 1975 or 76, so I was 25 or 26. I had
been a B.A.S.S. member for about 3 years at that time.
I had been reading about the "pro's" in the BASS
Master magazine and there was some info about clubs starting
up around the country so I figured I was good to go with
this kind of thing.
I called this guy and he jumped
at the chance to add some new meat to the bunch. I now
have a better view of what it was like in those days to
get some no-boaters to add to the pot, and not stand a
chance in some cases. I went to the first
"meeting" and got my chance to see a bunch of
guys, all with different ideas, trying to vote on the place
to fish and how the rules would be handled. I kept my
mouth shut as I was in with mostly older guys, retired
military, active military, civil servants and civilians, I
do remember it got loud at times. I later learned that
lots of clubs acted that way. This was really a mix of
people but they did have one thing in common, all wanted to
catch the most fish and win the prize.............go figure.
When it was all over we were headed to New River in
Jacksonville to have the tournament. My partner for
the Tournament was the guy that had brought me in as a new
member, not sure how that happened. He asked me if I
knew what a Ranger Boat was and I told him yes, he asked me
if I had ever been in one, I told him no, he said you will
now.
Tournament day arrives and I
meet my partner at a local cafe. We have breakfast and
he tells me where he plans to fish for the day. I also
learn at this point he is the proud owner of a Ford Ranger
pickup and a Ranger Boat. The truck was a full size
pickup and the boat was probably 16-17 feet long with a 115
Johnson, all brand new that year, and bought from the same
place. Yep that's right the local Ford dealer was also
the Ranger Boat dealer and that is what all of the Bass
fishing guys wanted, a Ranger pulled by a Ranger, all
matching colors of course. I don't think I have
ever seen that situation since.
When we arrived at the ramp it
was not what you would expect now days. There
were all kinds of boats there, maybe 15 or 20. I
am talking ski boats with makeshift seats and trolling
motors, aluminum Jon boats, old style narrow bass boats and
my boy with his Ranger Package and 2 more of those.
Lets say at best, drive on trailers had not come close
to being perfected at this time. There were guys
in the water trying to get some of those boats off of the
trailer, ropes tied to boats with no one in the boat trying
to get them pulled over to the dock. It was surely the
early days of tournament fishing. I must say the
3 guys with the Rangers had it going on compared to the
others.
There was some last minute
shouting out about the limit being 10 fish and I am not sure
about the length limit but I don't remember it being 12
inches. The club President got his boat positioned on
a point out from the ramp and all of the boats lined up for
the "blast off". Wow, my first blast of was
pretty wild, I remember looking around and the three 115 HP
boats seemed to be in a race, the Jon boats didn't even take
off, they sat near the bank and waited for the others to get
out of the way. The ski boats and non bass boats were
quickly behind. I then learned that my
"partner" was the one that was first in points and
needed to be the fastest also, I was with Mr. testosterone overload.
It took approximate 2 miles for us to be declared the winner
of the race, at which time we stopped and started fishing.
I am sure I was still shaking from that first ride that was
maybe 45-50 mph max. Those first boats chine walked
and landed pretty hard, I had never experienced such a ride.
I can now say though, since then there have been many.
Lots of them with me driving.
We fished this area for just a
little while and he said lets move. I got my self in
the seat and off we went right back from where we just came
from. We stopped just about 1/2 mile from the ramp, he
said this is my secret spot. I asked why we didn't go
there first and he said he had to get that first run with
the others over first. Let me see now.............did
I go to a boat race that eventually turned into a fishing
tournament???