"StriperBowl 2000" -- A TSBA History Lesson
by: David Osbourne
04/06/2001
Last year at 6:30am on a warm April morning
on beautiful Cherokee Lake, only about a dozen boats had arrived at the
launch. Not a great turn out, but the competition couldn't have been any
tougher. At 6:50 a.m. we had the rules meeting & it was the last chance
for everyone to speak their bragging rights about taking home the 1st annual
"STRIPERBOWL" trophy. I had my Mercury warming up for a long run where
the big fish were hanging out. At last the 7 a.m. blastoff, the "STRIPERBOWL"
was on! Everyone was trying to lead the pack upstream. A good friend of
mine, Gary, with his 200 + horses streaked ahead & was soon out of
sight. In second was Pat in her very fast Crestliner, I managed to keep
third with my Starcraft, but had lots of pressure from a couple more Crestliners
powered by their Hondas. The farther we went, the more the competition
seemed to thin out, boy was I relived. Almost to my secret spot &
everyone else had either fallen behind or had stopped to search for fish.
All I had to do was make one more bend & I could start fishing at my
little honey hole. Almost there now & guess what, there's a boat sitting
in my secret spot! Talk about being heart broken, I was. I thought my chances
were ruined. My wife & I had located a small school of larger fish
on an underwater hump & that was right where my good friend, Gary,
was. I shut down my motor not wanting to disturb him or the fish &
began trolling toward the bank in hopes of finding another school of fish.
We were about 200 yards away when I noticed that Gary was moving away from
the area that I wanted to fish. I let him get another 150 yards on down
the bank then I turned my Minn Kota up on high & headed for my little
honey hole. As I closed in, my hopes were sinking fast because I didn't
see Gary get the first bite as he slowly eased across the hump, maybe the
fish had moved out? Suddenly, someone on the radio said, David, is
that you? I'm right behind you. I turned to look & it was Glen, in
his trusty Crestliner. Now, I had more pressure! What was I going to do?
As I neared the underwater hump, I turned the trolling motor down on 2.
I opened up the bait tank & got out a nice frisky shad, I ever so gently
eased it into the water, then attached a planer board to the line &
watched as the rig drifted back behind the boat. Before I could even engage
the reel to start my pull, a striper exploded on my bait. I was trying
to turn loose of the line, engage the reel & get the rod out of the
rod holder all at once. The fish managed to put enough pressure on my line
to cut my finger. What else could go wrong in just a split second?
I had blood on my reel, my shirt, my pants & the boat, but I kept reeling
& managed to get my first fish along side the boat. My wife offered
to net the fish for me. It was a pretty decent fish & I was anxious
to weigh it. As I brought the fish up close enough to net, my wife Lisa,
tried to scoop up the fish, instead, she proceeded to hit it in the nose
with the net, very close to a barely hanging on hook! After a brief exchange
of words, she gave me the net & went back to her side of the boat fishing.
Finally, I put the fish in the boat, got it weighed, 12.4 lbs., good enough
for a start. During the next hour, Lisa caught & released 5 more fish
in the 10 to 12 pound range; all the bites were coming on her side of the
boat. You'd just have to know the confidence she has. Everyone was on the
radio talking about how many fish they were catching & I was sweating
it bad. Ezell was bragging about turning a striper loose in his bait tank
to let it gain some weight! Radio reports were coming in that a 20 lb.
fish had been caught & had already gained up to 27 lbs. Everyone was
having a blast! I had one more trick up my sleeve. I put a 1-ounce sinker
on one of my rods, along with a nice lively shad & I slipped it into
the water. I let out line, engaged the reel & put it in a rod holder
to let it drag behind the boat. There is just something about the
squeak a rod makes when it is fighting not to be jerked out of a rod holder.
It will send adrenaline pumping through your body! I nearly fell out of
the boat trying to get that rod! It was taking drag & headed for Knoxville!
The fight probably lasted 5 minutes, but felt like 2 hours. Then she was
mine at last! Sagging the scale at 15 pounds even, good enough for my 2nd
& final fish. 3 more hours until weigh-in & I was ready to leave
right then. I put my rods up & watched Lisa continue to fish, she still
thought she could beat me & I was happy to let her try. She settled
on 2 fish & we spent our time listening to the fish reports that were
getting bigger & bigger with each passing hour. The ride back to the
weigh-in seemed to take forever, remember we were all after the first ever
TSBA trophy. At the weigh-in, everyone had fish. As I sat & watched
some of the veterans bring their fish up to be weighed, I really started
sweating it. When Allan made the last call for fish to be weighed, I went
into the livewell. Up to this point, my wife Lisa was leading with 24 lbs.
My total weight was 27.4 lbs. & I knew then I had won! It's hard to
explain the feeling that went through me, I guess I never could! All I
can say is that it was great! Now I'm worrying about STRIPERBOWL 2001,
because everyone is out to take my trophy. I know several of those good
ole Tennessee boys that have sworn to do just that. I'm not going down
without a fight! I hope everyone has as much fun fishing as we do.
That's what our club is all about. Friends, laughter, good fishing, preserving
& protecting these magnificent fish.
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