Future Pro Tour - The Delta Event

Contributed by: Marce

Last weekend Kevin Campbell and I participated in our very first “official” boat tournament. I don’t know what was more interesting, the fact that we both had never fished in an official fishing tournament or that Kevin had never fished the delta. And now, a week after our epic adventure, I am still on cloud nine. It was by far, hands down, one of the most memorable moments of my entire life. From launching the boat to walking up to accept our award, the entire time was something I will never forget.

To help paint a clearer picture, I felt it would be best if I walked you through the day as I viewed it. This will help show you exactly what happened - almost hour by hour. Grab yourself one of your favorite beverages, this article could be a little long.

Thursday (Two Days Until Tournament Time)

Our 55lb thrust trolling motor had finally given up so I had to install a 80lb thrust 24V Minn Kota that was handed down to us by my brother’s close friend. I spent Thursday evening installing the new batteries and relocating the battery charger. I had never wired up a 24V motor so I had to do some research. Lucky for us, everything turned out to be easy to install and since we didn’t have any time to test it out I just crossed my fingers and hoped that everything would work according to plan come tournament time.

Friday (One Day Until Tournament Time)

I think at this point Kev and I talked on the phone about 15 times. We both were excited and as soon as I was done with my real day job to-do list I headed over to Mel Cotton’s to stock up on some items. Kev had stopped in the day before, but I needed some TNT Wadda jigs and some other small items. I was only there for about 30 minutes, but it felt like an eternity. Should I get this, or that, no wait this, what about those…. I finally calmed myself down and told myself to stick with what I know. I had been to the delta a couple of weeks before and landed a nice fish on a jig and so I went with my gut.

My wife and kids were out of town with the Denali so we weren’t sure how we were going to pull the boat. Fortunately for us, Kev’s father-in-law was kind enough to loan us his Tundra.

7:00 p.m. - Kev drops by to make sure the Tundra hitch can pull the boat.

8:00 p.m. - I head out to buy a standard batter charger for the main battery on the boat.

9:00 p.m. - Set the charger on and start prepping my gear. I went with:

Jig Setup

Basstrix/Spintrix Combo

Shaky Head

Jig Setup #2 (Different Color)

10:00 p.m. - Start making lunch for tomorrow.

10:30 p.m. - Hit the sack.

Saturday (Tournament Day)

After all the planning and stressing the day had finally come. Like I said in the introduction, I had never participated in a fishing tournament, so the nerves were definitely firing on all cylinders.

It was sort of funny, when I went to launch the boat the lady told me I had my straps on. And when we did launch the boat I lowered my engine a little too soon and bumped the bottom.

Hey, cut me some slack, I’m the new guy.

1:45 a.m. - Rise and shine. I got about 3 hours of sleep and I need to take care of a few things before Kev arrives.

2:30 a.m. - Kev is in the house.

3:15 a.m. - We leave San Jose and start heading towards Russo’s.

4:15 a.m. - Arrive at Russo’s and check in. We’re boat #85.

4:45 a.m. - We launch and wait.

5:00 a.m. - Bullhorn guy starts telling us how the launch order will work.

5:45 a.m. - Tournament started. We are in the 3rd flight and scheduled to weigh in at 3:30 p.m.

Once we launched, we both agreed to stay near Franks Tract. I had read that there was plenty of fish in that area and since I am most familiar with Franks, it was also the safest play for us. We immediately began to throw everything we had. I was working the jig and Kev was throwing senkos, jigs, drop shots, hudds, and everything else he had tied onto his eight rods.

7:00 a.m. - First fish in the boat. A small two pounder caught on a jig outside the weed line.

7:15 a.m. - Second fish in the boat. Caught on a drop shot.

7:30 a.m. - A monster, and I MEAN monster, of a bass hammers something in the weeds. The weeds/plants are too thick for us to fish.

8:30 a.m. - We move. My internal GPS was having issues. I had no idea where we were and I couldn’t find our location on the map. We agree to keep going.

9:00 a.m. - We turn some random corner and I noticed that there is a HUGE drop off. Water in front of the boat is about 3 feet. Water in back of the boat is about 25 feet.

9:30 a.m. - I lose a 5 pounder near the boat. I got a good look at it and it was a great size. The tournament pressure is getting to me. I was angry I had lost this one and I kept telling myself, outloud mind you, to let it go.

9:45 a.m. - Kev loses a 10+ on a drop shot. It cuts into the weeds and his line snaps. It was like getting hit in the stomach. We both need a fish, badly.

10:00 a.m. - Kev has one on, it shakes his drop shot at the surface. But WAIT! As his drop shot is falling back to the bottom it hits it again. Small 2 pounder, but at least it’s a fish.

11:00 a.m. - We work the shoreline like mad men. Kev is on the drop shot and I am on the jig.

11:15 a.m. - We catch fire. We’re catching bass left and right. Our biggest at this point is probably 4 pounds.

11:45 a.m. - We are culling.

12:15 p.m. - I land my 8.93 pound largemouth on a jig. I knew right when it hit that it was the biggest fish I have ever wrestled with. The hook plops out when we get her in the net, close call.

1:00 p.m. - We’re still hauling in fish and culling like crazy. We don’t have a culling scale so were guess-timating on what fish we need to move.

1:30 p.m. - The Bassturdz join us.

2:00 p.m. - Kev lands a couple of 6 pounders almost back to back on drop shots. One of them planted herself in the weeds. We are thinking about diving in to get her, since now we both agree that we are in the money. We work this fish for about 10 minutes using the boats trolling motor to pull her every which way. finally, she comes out. We net her and celebrate like there’s no tomorrow. I wish we had this on video, it would have made us both money.

3:00 p.m. - The bote has slowed down a bit and we start to make our way back to the weigh in. I lose another fish inside of Frank’s. This could have been the few ounces we needed to take second place.

3:30 p.m. - Weigh in time. Five fish 28.71 pounds.

5:00 p.m. - Results are in - we take 4th place out of 175 boats and collect $1300 bucks. We miss second place by less than a pound. First place has a 32 pound bag, they caught a 12 and a 10 in five minutes. Two kickers are hard to contend with.

So there you have it ladies and gentlemen. The story of a lifetime, at least for me. The overall experience will stick with me for the rest of my life. I also have to hand it to the Future Pro Tour folks who hosted this event. They had a great setup and were very involved from start to finish.

For the record, Kev and I both used about 1/100th of the stuff we bought the day before the tournament. We used the techniques and skills we learned while fishing in our backyard waters. It was an awesome team effort and I look forward to the next one. I’m definitely addicted, now it’s time to win one of these things.

Tight lines.

Complete leaderboard can be viewed here.