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July/August 2006

It's a Humbling Sport
Story by Jim Gildea with Joel St. Germain, Northeast Staff Writer

I could hear it in Joel's voice. I didn't need to get the details to know he'd had a tough day. "It's hard, really hard. It was right there for me, and I screwed up." After a pause, he filled me in on what happened, and how he went from the favorite among the Federation anglers in the 2006 Bassmaster Classic to the back of the line after the first day.

It was his second time at the Classic and everything had come together as the big day approached including a solid performance at the Federation nationals. "I love the three day format;" Joel related, "to a great degree it takes luck out of the equation."

Back home in Rhode Island he set about preparing himself in the time available. To make up for lack of time on the water he relies on aerial maps from Google Earth and scours websites for tournament results and other info. "You can't believe the nuggets you find occasionally!" He found his '03 Classic sweet spot on a bass club website. He also fishes in all weather, particularly when the water is cold. "If you can catch them on a jig in 39-degree water, you can catch them during a cold front in Florida," he laughed.

Joel found three areas during practice and caught fish in varied conditions." Confident of a limit; he needed a good bite the first two days to get the 30 pounds he needed to make the cut. "It almost seemed too easy" lamented Joel. "I'd caught numerous keepers and a 5+ every day, even got a nine."

The first day dawned overcast, with a light breeze. His first spot looked so tempting he decided to start with a topwater, something he hadn't done much of in practice. On the second cast he had a big blowup, hooked a big fish, and got it almost to the boat before it came off. He shrugged it off, and less than an hour later he hooked an even bigger fish, over seven, but it came off at the boat also.

And that's how it went - by noon he'd dropped four big fish. He rebounded in the afternoon with a spinnerbait, two fish for five pounds, but the damage was done.

"I didn't sleep well that night" he laughed ruefully. The next day he went back to what had worked n practice and put 15 pounds in the boat, 10th best limit of the day. It took 26 pounds to make the cut - one of the four fish he dropped would have made the difference

"It was a mistake to pick up the topwater the first day, but watch out for next year."

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