Originally Posted by
jbassman87
While there are some of you that think paying to have the marshal experience is dumb, you might want to stop reading. I had a good time and enjoyed myself, even if it was COLD and I didn’t get to fish.
For practice on Wednesday, I went out with Jacob Powroznik. For those that know the lake, he ran down to Duck creek and headed to the back close to the highway 85 bridge. His main focus there, was a point and the front of docks that were holding some spotted bass using FFS and a jighead minnow.
After confirming he could quickly catch a small limit, he then worked his way back up the lake stopping in little deeper cuts. He would go all the way to the back of them fishing shallow docks.
He was not having any luck with his jig, so he pulled out a shacky head and preceded to catch three fish that he would have wanted on Friday. All of them were in the 5# range and must have not been there when he got back. Noticed he only had 9-10 on Friday, so his starting limit must have worked, but couldn’t upgrade.
He didn’t talk much throughout the day and was focused for the most part. After catching the three bigger fish, he thought he had figured out how to get bit and had a starting pattern. He was a little chattier for the rest of the day. Got off the water a little early as his Lowrance trolling motor and Mercury outboard were giving him trouble. The Lowrance crew fixed the trolling motor quickly and he told me Thursday that they changed the spark plugs to fix the Mercury issue.
My day with Jacob was good, but he did smoke like a chimney and had a couple of burn holes, in the sweat pants he was wearing. Even going down the lake at 60+ if he got finished with one, he would fire up another one. Been with a lot of anglers who smoke, but that was a first.
On Thursday, I went to media day, received some swag and had lunch at the BassPro in Broken Arrow, Ok. There was a presentation by all the area city officials and some Bassmaster people. Then they had the people that fished Skiatook in the celebrity tournament. Chris Zaldain and 50 cent, I believe that was who it was, won that tournament.
Once that was all over, the anglers and the media went out to a temporary boat yard for interviews. I could have gone out, watched or talk to anglers if they were not busy, but I left.
Friday, I went out with Cole Sands. He was really confident that he would catch 18-20 pounds. Unfortunately for him, he was boat 48 and when he made it to the first spot (Horse creek close to the highway 85A bridge) of the day, there sat Adam Rasmussen. He stopped a little way away and waited to see how long Adam would stay.
After about an hour he gave up and headed to his next spot (deeper into Horse creek under the bridge and to the right), only to get there and see Cody Huff sitting on it. That started to spin him out a little. He fished around close to where I could watch Cody and him at the same time.
I watched Cody catch two fish for sure and maybe a third, but was not sure about the third at the time. Come to find out, he caught some good fish in there.
Cole finally caught a short keeper while fishing some points in little cuts heading back towards sailboat bridge. His last stop was in Honey creek where he finished out his limit and culled the first little keeper.
Cole was a little more talkative than Jacob and was very pleasant to ride around with. He caught all his keepers fishing a jerkbait, some he would see on FFS and some while he was just fishing. Cole ended the day with 11-15
Saturday, I went out with Bryant Smith. He had caught 14#’s on Friday and was just hoping to at least duplicate that to make the cut. He told me that he was going to just go fishing and hope for the best.
It was cold and the run up to the Elk River was not fun, but at least I could keep my head down and didn’t have to face the cold.
He was not lying about just going fishing. He fished bluffs, docks (shallow and deep), shallow points, deep points, bridge riprap and a few brush piles. He moved around a lot.
His main bait choices were, three different depth crankbaits, a jerkbait, a big swimbait and two different jigs.
He was the most talkative of the three. There were times after throwing at a spot he would turn and say, “Why was there not one there?” We all know that feeling.
He fished more spots, then Cole did on Friday, but in a smaller area all in the Elk river. He was the most accurate caster of the three. Taught himself to cast left-handed and could flip his crankbait anywhere he wanted for the most part.
He caught all his fish on one of the three crankbaits he was throwing. Speaking of his crankbaits, he must have changed the hooks 6-7 times during the day. Was by far the fastest person I have even seen changing hooks out. Ended the day with 14-11 and made the cut.
Overall, I enjoyed my time as a marshal. If they come back somewhere close again, I might do it again especially if it is a lake I fish and if it fits my schedule.
Jacob has a Falcon, which rode great. However, the day with Jacob Grand lake was as tame as I have ever saw. Not a fan of the rod locker doors opening from the front.
Cole and Bryant had Skeeter FXR’s, which are nice boats. Since they were both in the later flights the ride was much rougher with the boat wakes, but they handled them as good as any boat.
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