My New Fishing Partner
By Jim Gildea
Northeastern Staff Writer
August 10, 2009
I’ve been fishing tournaments for ten years now and I’ve had some success on the local level. I’ve made the TBF Nationals twice, won Angler of the Year on a bunch of trails, and finish in the money more often than not.
I also have two boys, ten and twelve, so everyone naturally says, “Your boys must really like to fish.” In reality, they haven’t got the bug. They’ll fish for an hour or two and then they’re ready to do something else. They tend to like action sports; one is a freestyle skier and the other is a snowboarder. They usually get 40+ days a year on the snow, no matter how cold it is. In the summer, they skateboard, play on the beach for hours, swim, and are very physically active. Fishing is just too slow for them, even when the fish are biting.
I often tell my boys you don’t pick a sport, the sport picks you. So I don’t worry about what they do as long as they are outside, active, and pursuing their interests. My wife is a serious skier, so having two boys who are hardcore on skies and the snowboard is heaven. Some folks have to drag their kids out of bed. Ours are up at 6 AM waxing their gear.
Recently I’d committed to fish a team tournament on Lake Winnipesaukee that our State Team was running. My partner couldn’t make it so I needed to scramble to find someone to fill in at the last minute. Off-handedly I asked Eddie, my 12-year old, if he wanted to fill 
in, and he said, “Yes, I think I would.”
Now Eddie has never fished for eight hours straight, and Winni is a big lake. You usually wind up doing a 30 to 40 mile round trip across waves and cruiser wakes, especially on the July 4th weekend. I was a little nervous about whether or not he was ready for this. We went out and practiced for a few hours and he was very focused. He got a couple of nice smallmouth and was getting enthusiastic.
The day of the tournament, we got up at 4 AM and drove to the ramp. I was helping run the tournament and we put Eddie to work. We idled out as they called the numbers and I asked, “Are you nervous?”
“A little,” came his reply.
“I am too,” I assured him – I always get a little nervous when I fish a big Open.
We had a 15 mile run to our first spot. I had determined I was going to fish hard. I told Eddie up front that this would be a real tournament – I wasn’t just going to sit in a cove and throw Senkos and catch eight keepers. I had practiced with Eddie like I would with any partner, and he was ready for it. Besides, if you can nail a 360 on a ten foot jump landing on ice, how hard can it be run over three footers in a 21 foot Ranger?
I looked over at him on the way to our first spot and asked him if he was okay – he gave me an ear to ear grin – “This is awesome!” We fished the first spot but it was too windy. Eddie got the first fish, a keeper smallie, but it wasn’t going to do much for us.
We bounced to a few more spots with no success. The smallmouth hadn’t settled into their summer pattern and were pretty scarce. Eddie got a few more fish and I got one, but they were all small. I figured we would grind out a limit and finish in the middle of the pack – at best.
At our fifth spot, Eddie got a real nice fish. Then I got one, and then Eddie got another one. These fish were money fish; solid 2+ fish that cash checks. We started feeling it. At one point he got two good fish on back to back casts and started whooping it up.
With two hours to go we began to work our way back to the ramp. I’d planned to fish for largemouth in the afternoon so we pulled into a couple of coves and got a couple. The last spot was loaded. Eddie skipped under a tree and got a two (culling nightmare!). Then we both doubled up on fish, neither of which helped, but were close.
I got a solid 2+ largie on my last cast, culled, and we raced back to the weigh-in. As we talked to the rest of the teams I knew we had a shot at a check. Eddie was pretty pumped, but as the weigh-in progressed some good bags came in. Our post-spawn smallies wound up being lighter than we thought and our 16.14 lb, eight fish limit put us in 7th – about 1.2 lbs out of the money.
Eddie was a little disappointed, but he didn’t hesitate when I asked him if wanted to do it again – “Yes!”
When my wife arrived she looked in the cooler and saw Eddie’s sandwich uneaten. “You didn’t eat your sandwich,” she told him. Eddie looked up and said, “We were too busy fishing.” I think I have a new tournament partner.