kilog Posted November 2, 2015 Report Share Posted November 2, 2015 Congrats Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPEEDBEAD Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 I'm still whooped. Lol My buddy Will and I started out to Oklahoma on Thursday at 2am. After realizing I44 through Missouri is the longest drive EVER, we finally pulled in around 8 pm. We checked in and figured we'd just eat at the restaurant attached to the hotel. I will tell you, if you're ever in the Tulsa area you NEED to check out Shiloah's next to the econolodge. Seriously best food I've had in a long time. Anyway, woke up the next day and decided to research some areas to fish that weren't off limits for the tournament. Found some info online and headed to Bass Pro to get a one day license. As we were walking around the store, we noticed a pond out front. We jokingly asked if we could fish and they said "sure!" We head out to get our gear and it starts POURING! Fish are already wet so of course we stood out there and fished a while. We ended up hitting a couple other ponds with nothing to show for it but a dead turtle and a zip lock bag. LOL, needless to say I wasn't feeling confident after that performance. We went back to the hotel, dried off and went to the tournament meeting. We checked in, got an awesome bag of sponsor gifts and ate pizza while mingling with the other participants. I didn't meet a single person who wasn't as nice as could be. It was great. Bassin' magazine ran this show and I gotta say Brad and Terri Uhl did some serious coordinating to put this show together. During the meeting, they pulled raffle tickets for all kinds of great donated prizes. At the end of the raffle, they pulled two more tickets and mine happened to be first. I was told that I would get to fish out of Fred Roumbanis' boat the next day! Sweet! I met up with my pairing, Ed from Maine, and we looked over the map to discuss where to go. We were on the same page! Next morning rolls around and my guts are rolling! When we got to the lake, I met up with Fred and seemed to click instantly. I have a buddy in Cali who used to work with Fred waaaay back in the day so of course we busted on him a while lol. I knew Fred was into big baits so I knew there would be some great conversation during the day. I asked if he wanted me to launch him and he agreed. If you've never seen his tournament rig, let me tell you it's impressive to say the least. I parked the truck and hopped back on the boat. The horn blew for first takeoff a few minutes later and we went to our first spot. We pulled up on it and shad were EVERYWHERE. It was nuts. I started throwing a Hinkle shad and within five minutes got railed but came up empty. We fished around some likely looking spots but no takers. I pulled out my map and said "I want to go here" and off we went. I threw both big baits and conventional working this next area. The wind was perfect and pushed us right along with little trolling motor input. I was on the front for the whole day as Ed was comfortable fishing from the back. I tried to keep the boat as fair as possible because Ed was entitled to run the motor for half the day as well. He was also straight wearing me out on conventional stuff from the back. Haha, he knew what he was doing for sure. About 11 or so, he hooked what ended up being the 5th place fish. At that point, I got in the bag and found an old confidence bait that was close to his....a white spinnerbait. We crept down the spot and I started hitting my spots. I tossed my bait, and tossed....and tossed. Finally, I got my bite. I could tell it was good but when I got it to the boat I started to get that feeling, "Hey, I've got a shot at this thing!" If you check out Fred's Instagram page, he was actually recording me land the fish. That conveys the experience better than words, go check it out. I figured it was 5 or so and from seeing last year's results, thought it might be enough. We really started getting into fish at that point but none bigger. I caught one more right at the end that we decided to take in for pics as well. Back to the launch we go. I got a weigh bag and put both fish in. I gotta say, hopping off a pro boat with a sack of fish with cameras popping off is a pretty darn badass experience. I dunked the bag in the trough and waited. One by one, guys weighed in and sat in the hot seat. There was one fish I saw the I was concerned about. I let him weigh first and it was 5.27 which is a great Fort Gibson fish. I got a little nervous and pulled out the smaller fish first. She went on the scales at 5.25. At that point, I knew it was on! I reached in and grabbed the second fish. Oohs and aahs, haha pretty sweet feeling. Brad put her on the scale and it settled at 6.16, almost a full pound over second place!!!! Such an amazing feeling hearing your name called as the winner, something I'll never forget. I got the big check and the pictures and congratulations were really overwhelming. The really cool part was when I got to call my family; they didn't believe me! Once they realized I was serious, you could hear it sink in....again, awesome feeling. I'm sure I missed details but that's cool, you get the idea. Hopefully you got to feel some of the excitement through reading this. I want to thank everyone involved in this tournament, especially the Uhls and Bassin', Fred Roumbanis for being an awesome marshal, my buddy Will that kept me awake for the 2500 total miles of driving and, last but not least, my awesome family for understanding my fishing addiction and allowing me to pursue it. Wdh, Drewski73, Shaunfishon and 20 others 23 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPEEDBEAD Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 Thanks guys, pretty awesome feeling. Already looking forward to next year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SPEEDBEAD Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 basskickinrednick, NorCalBass, YELOSUB and 9 others 12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjh1986 Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 So rad!!!! Congrats man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
basskickinrednick Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 Top notch the real deal right here thats what its all about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigSlant Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 Gonna need a big bank to cash that big check!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drewski73 Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 Right on Wayne! Congrats Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaunfishon Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 Awesome story! Congrats dude Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wallyc Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 Nice goin Wayne, kickin ass. Congrats... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slideaction Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 (edited) Great experience indeed. Wish I knew you were in town would have hit some ponds with you. Bass pro pond got some nice fish in there. Caught some (4 and 5lber) from there before and seen bigger. Congrats on the win. Will have to try the tourney next year. Edited November 3, 2015 by slideaction Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
godzilla Posted November 3, 2015 Report Share Posted November 3, 2015 thats awesome! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevin08261985 Posted November 4, 2015 Report Share Posted November 4, 2015 Great story! Congratulations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Serg49 Posted November 4, 2015 Report Share Posted November 4, 2015 Congrats Wayne! That's awesome!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wtrwsel Posted November 4, 2015 Report Share Posted November 4, 2015 Hell Yeah! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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