Tournament morning for Day 1 came early but we were rigged up and ready to go. We made the short run to the deeper cuts with grass growing in the backs of them. We started at the point of the cuts and worked all the way back in looking for the shad as we covered water. Within a few minutes we had our first keeper on a crankbait and a few casts later had our second. The morning was looking good and we just kept up the same pattern. In the back of the next cove, I connected with a quality buzz frog fish that came unbuttoned just before it got to the side of the boat. That one hurt but had to keep on moving as it was still early. We covered some bank with only a few short fish to show. We found a cover littered with shad but could only manage a strike out if the time spent there, and we threw just about everything we owned! At that point we decided to go with the more finesse bite that I had found with dropshots and Carolina rigs on the steeper breaks. This is where things happened to go severely wrong for us. As we took off to get on plain we heard an odd sound and then the motor got really loud and lost power. Immediately we knew something was wrong and popped off the cowling. The spark plug had literally shot out of the cylinder head and was laying inside the cowling. Without the proper tools to put it back in and make sure was secured to not do excessive damage to the motor, we turned the trolling motor on high and headed towards the bank to fish our way in to the ramp. Heading across channel something internal on the computer for the trolling motor short circuited and we lost almost all the power to the trolling motor. It was a slow pace back to the dock which produced a few short fish, one nice keeper, and a fish that broke us off on light line. We finally made it back to the dock between 9am and 10am and got the boat back on the trailer to assess the damage. Thankfully is looked worse than it was, we placed the spark plug back in and it held without issues, but we were done for the day as the power to the battery and trolling motor was fried. We weighed 3 fish for 4.70lbs which surprisingly got us 2 gift certificates for Day 1.
Unfortunately, we were unable to get the motor tested and the battery and system for trolling motor fixed so we were out of Day 2. It was a frustrating way to end a Championship as we had never had a breakdown force us out before. It was a learning lesson to always check the plugs, fuses, charging system etc. as the roads can cause something very minor that could turn into something major. Also, learned to always put the tools back in the boat, they do no good sitting at home!
I want to thank all of my sponsors as they allow me to do what I love. I am looking forward to next season already!
