Friends and I decided to have our own amatuer bass fishing tournament for bragging rights. We launched from the north end at 5 am.(This is a safer launch to park your truck than the south end. My truck was broken into 2 weeks earlier along with a few others at that end.) Stained water, clear skies. There were 6 of us; 2 husband/wife teams and 2 singles. Tournament was to run from 5 to 10 am, with a 7 inch min. size requirement. We used cameras and scales along with the honor system to document our catches. It was a slow morning with one boat catching a few dinks and then finally a 1lb fish. A short time later I received an update that another angler had the lead with an 18 oz. fish. At this point I had only caught one dink and a fat 12" crappie. Time running short, with about 15 mins left, I continued to fish the docks along the NE side, nearing the launch. The others had pretty much quit fishing and were beginning to congregate near the launch. "It ain't over till the fat bass sings," I thought to myself as I pitched my jig & craw between a dock and a boat lift. I felt the jig get picked up as soon as it hit bottom(8-10ft.) and she tried to swim under the dock with it. I set the hook & could feel her tail thumping the pilons as I coaxed her through the 1 foot gap between the dock and the boat lift. I knew then that I had a quality fish on. After weighing her, I made a phone call to let everyone know that this tournament is officially over and that we have a new winner. After a brief photo shoot, the 5 1/2 lb. fish was safely released and I had my bragging rights.

---