Moon Phase:Fishing Time: All day Friday and Saturday
Weather: mid 70's, slight breeze, clear skies
Water Temp: 51-58
Who Went: Wayne, Me
I got a phone call on Wednesday night from Wayne Crowder, a Professional Bass Fisherman, who I met through boat shows, Sportsman's expos, and the fact that he is sponsored by Tracker Boats, which I now own. He was in a bind with his team partner backing out on him at the last minute for a Bass Federation Tournament down in Lake Powell. He asked me on short notice if I could help him out and take his partners place. I thought about it for two seconds and told him I would be crazy to turn him down on an opportunity like this, but I would have to run it through the wife! It was a lot of money and I just had to make sure! Luckily, I have the greatest wife in the world and she was really excited for me to get this opportunity! I called Wayne back and told him it was a go! He told me to be ready to leave by late Thursday night or early Friday morning. I was sleepless all night waiting for my wake up call, and by five o'clock we were on the road. Wayne had been up all night getting his boat wrapped by one of his sponsors, Sportsman's Warehouse, so he tossed me the keys and said your driving and I'm sleeping! He didn't sleep a wink! We talked all the way down about bass fishing techniques and different lures and tactics! When we finally got there we went straight to the lake and launched to get in as much pre-fishing as possible. This is Wayne showing off his new wrap.
We ran way up north towards Farley's Canyon to see if we could find some water temperatures in the high 50's. The water is muddier up there and soaks up the sun a little better making it warmer. We fished Farley's Canyon and a few other spots only getting a few hits! We did find a boulder field that had 58 degree water and we figured this might be a good place to fish first thing in the morning! We ran to many different places all day long, checking water temps and fishing them for a short amount of time. We only landed two fish all day, and we had to head back for the pre-tournament orientation and sign up meeting at 5 o'clock! We were planning on fishing two tournaments on Saturday. One was through the Bass Federation and the other an Angler Choice tournament. You could use the same 5 fish total for each tournament. After only catching 2 fish during pre-fishing, Wayne decided we should only enter the Bass Federation tournament! We went out to the truck and for the next 3 hours rigged all our poles and gear and got the boat ready to go for morning! We woke up early the next morning and 
the launch ramp was already filled with tournament boats. The tournament director checked our live wells and other safety gear to make sure we were ready to launch. Everything checked out and we headed down and got on the water. When it was time to go the tournament director got on the mega phone and called out every boats number one by one. We were number 25. As he called them out the guys would floor it and head to there favorite spot! They called our number and we were off! Wayne's Z-9 Nitro with a 250 hp Pro XS Mercury Optimax had us going just under 70 miles an hour all the way to our spot we found the night before. When we got there, the water temps had dropped to 51 degrees! This was a little more than we were expecting but we fished through it anyway. I had one good hit but that was it. We ran around the corner back towards Good Hope Bay and found some good looking boulder fields but the temps were still around 51 degrees. We figured we better run through it just to see if anything was holding there. 5 minutes in, I had on our first fish, and my very first tournament fish with this Largemouth Bass weighing in at two pounds! It wasn't huge but we were on the board!
After starting us off we continued to catch one here and there through this long stretch of boulders and by the time we got to the end we had our 5 fish limit! Nothing over two pounds, but I was happy, thinking to myself, at least we didn't get skunked! Once we had our limit we tried a little cove by Good Hope Bay that has produced big fish for Wayne in the past. Not even a bite! We decided we better give it one more run through the boulder field that produced our limit! Good Choice! Half way down Wayne landed a 3 pound bass and we swapped it out for our smallest. Soon after, I landed a 4 pound bass and we traded him out with a small one!
the launch ramp was already filled with tournament boats. The tournament director checked our live wells and other safety gear to make sure we were ready to launch. Everything checked out and we headed down and got on the water. When it was time to go the tournament director got on the mega phone and called out every boats number one by one. We were number 25. As he called them out the guys would floor it and head to there favorite spot! They called our number and we were off! Wayne's Z-9 Nitro with a 250 hp Pro XS Mercury Optimax had us going just under 70 miles an hour all the way to our spot we found the night before. When we got there, the water temps had dropped to 51 degrees! This was a little more than we were expecting but we fished through it anyway. I had one good hit but that was it. We ran around the corner back towards Good Hope Bay and found some good looking boulder fields but the temps were still around 51 degrees. We figured we better run through it just to see if anything was holding there. 5 minutes in, I had on our first fish, and my very first tournament fish with this Largemouth Bass weighing in at two pounds! It wasn't huge but we were on the board!After starting us off we continued to catch one here and there through this long stretch of boulders and by the time we got to the end we had our 5 fish limit! Nothing over two pounds, but I was happy, thinking to myself, at least we didn't get skunked! Once we had our limit we tried a little cove by Good Hope Bay that has produced big fish for Wayne in the past. Not even a bite! We decided we better give it one more run through the boulder field that produced our limit! Good Choice! Half way down Wayne landed a 3 pound bass and we swapped it out for our smallest. Soon after, I landed a 4 pound bass and we traded him out with a small one! 
Not to long after that, Wayne caught a 4.2 pound bass! Now we were in business! Wayne ended up putting another 3 pounder in the boat and I added a 2.5 pounder! Now I was getting excited! We made the run back to Bullfrog and still had one hour to burn so we headed to the very back of Bullfrog Bay to see if we could improve on our 2.5 pound fish. I landed 1 small Largemouth, a dinky Smallmouth (only one of the trip), and a couple crappie, but that was all we caught! It was time to head to the weigh in! When we pulled in, you could see everyone putting fish into their weigh in bags. I saw a guy throw a monster into his bag and my confidence went down a little! That fish ended up being the big fish of both tournaments at 5.8 pounds! We were one of the last to weigh in, and when we started pulling out our fish there were lots of oos and ahs! This got me pretty excited! I watched the scale like a hawk and it finally settled at a weight of 14.86 pounds. I looked at the tournament director waiting for him to speak. He yelled out, we have a new leader with Crowder and Duncan. I was going nuts inside, but tried to stay cool on the outside. After a few more teams weighed in it was official. We took First Place! I got some pics of me and Wayne holding our two 4 pound fish and then we let them go to be caught again someday!
After letting our fish go we loaded up the boat and headed to the ceremony meeting at the Defiance Lodge. They gave us a nice plaque for winning, along with a 600 dollar check!
This is where the story goes from living a dream and back to reality! They called out the winner for the Anglers Choice tournament and handed him a 1700 dollar check with a total weight of 14.31 pounds! Ouch! We would have won that tournament too! Then we get out to our truck and decide that after winning we might as well just hit the road and surprise our wives by coming home early! Wayne's truck wouldn't start! We call the local mechanic and he spent the rest of the night trying to get it to start! We finally gave up and slept on it. We woke up at 7:30 and headed back down to the lake to meet the mechanic. He was already there and had his truck up and going. We jumped in and headed home! What an unbelievable trip that I will never forget! One thing I did learn is that you have to be very wealthy to support a habit like this! I had a blast, but I don't think it's something I could afford to pursue anytime soon! Hopefully someday! I was hoping to get a few more pics of such a memorable event, but Wayne was a little more into catching fish than worrying about snapping any photos!
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