A Small Tourny on Simcoe

[jaydub]

I'll try and keep this as short and sweet as I can as there are no pics to go with this story but it's defintely worth sharing. I think a lot of you will know Cudz the Simcoe bass master from this forum. Well I get out and fish with him quite often and yesterday was one of those days.

 

To set the scene I need to start about 5 weeks ago when Cudz and another buddy Jimmy get out for some late August early morning bass fishing on Simcoe. They had a pretty rough morning but did get a few nice ones leading up to the noon hour. Around 11am Jimmy manages to toss his rod in the water (about 15ft deep) and Cudz is yelling "go get it dude" so Jimmy dives off the back of the 16' tinner after his rod. It started as a cold morning so he was wearing a ton of clothes which now weigh about 100lbs and now had to swim quite a ways back to the boat with one hand (his rod in the other ) as it had pushed away when he dove off the back. I wasn't with them that day but, did get a good laugh about this when Cudz told me as you can imagine.

 

A few weekends ago, Cudz, myself and James (another fishing buddy) went up to a lake just north of Parry Sound fishing for a few days. Late into the second day we are fishing in a little bay with a road running just along the edge with some hydro lines that overhang the bay 20 - 30'. James begins to cast towards the shore and Cudz and I yell at the same time "watch out for the..." but it's too late the cast has been made and the lure is heading straight over the wires. James, in a split second (after remembering what happens to hot air balloons that hit hydro wires on TV) decides to let go of his rod which bounces off the side of the boat and you guessed it, into the water. James reaches for the rod but to no avail and sure enough goes for a dip while managing to hang onto the boat with one hand but still not able to reach his rod . Now soaked, he climbes back into the boat while Cudz and I are killing ourselves laughing. He quickly realizes this was not worth the swim and in fact not even worth letting go of his rod. Even if monofilament fishing line was conductive it wouldn't be when it's wrapped around a heavily insulated wire and besides the water was only about 5ft deep. Before James is even back in the boat I have snagged his line with the end of my rod as it hangs about 3ft in front of me and lift his rod out of the water and hand it to him. When we returns home, Cudz who has been fishing all his life and has yet to see anyone dive out of their fishing boat after a rod before this year, finds it quite amusing (as did I. ) and is quite eager to tell the story to Jimmy (and everyone else he meets).

 

Well yesterday, Jimmy, James, me and Cudz decide to have a small fishing tourney on Simcoe for the afternoon. Cudz and James in one boat, Jimmy and I in the other. The afternoon shapes up to be pretty nice weather despite some lousy forecasts as one big storm dodges us to the east and then another a bit later to the west. We are pulling perch out like crazy and also a few bass. At about 4pm the weather does get a bit nasty as the rain starts, the wind picks up and the temperature drops several degrees. By 5:30 we are a bit chilled and our hands are getting pretty cold, especially Cudz's apparently. We are just about to wrap things up for the day and Cudz decides just one more cast. He's pulling 6 to 9 inch perch out on every cast and this time thinks he's got a big one!! He feels the bite and sets the hook like its the biggest badest bass ever and... you guessed it, his rod slips out of his half numb hands, bounces off the boat and into the drink (30' deep drink that is). He's not using his dollarama gear in this, one of the years most serious tourneys so of course without a second thought (oh yes, he said later his first thought was "I can't believe this is actually happening") he dove into the water after is $300+ rod and reel and he got it!! but now has to buy a new camera and cell phone . Needless to say, we all had a good laugh and couldn't have asked for a better way to end the day...well at least 3 of us Well it's October 4th now so if I'm going to follow suit I'd better do it soon or it's gonna be a cold one for me...na, I think I'll pass!

 

Oh ya, in case you're wondering, despite outfishing us about 4:1, James and Cudz are buying me and Jimmy wings tomorrow night as we won the tourney for the 5 longest combined perch as well as heaviest bass!! Should be a good time to reminisce about a great year of fishing/diving...and to schedule the next outing of course!

[SlowPoke]

Great story!

A tip for you... if you're ice fishing rods goes for a swim, let it go.

[Joey]

Funny stories, thanks for sharing.

 

So what was the monster on the end of Cudz's line?

 

Joey

[jaydub]

Funny stories, thanks for sharing.

 

So what was the monster on the end of Cudz's line?

 

Joey

 

Oh ya, I forgot to finish that part of the story...another 9" perch! (I may have embellished the hook set a bit). LOL

[OhioFisherman]

Me thinks I could make some serious money selling safety straps for rods to some people? LOL great story!

[muskymike]

Great story!

A tip for you... if you're ice fishing rods goes for a swim, let it go.

 

 

I disagree. If your rod goes for a swim, you dive after it. I couldnt let $600-800 just swim away.

 

Great post either way.

[Guest Johnny Bass]

Great Story. I also got my friends Camera soaked on my last trip, but I took out the battery and dried it out and its fine. Thank GOD, it was a gift from her father and it was a $400 camera!!I sank quite a few cell phones also. Anyways, thanks for sharing and enjoy the wings. Food always taste better when you dont pay for it.

[Leecher]

That was a good story Jay

I think you mind as well tie an 80Lbs fluro leader to your rod next time your out with the gang LOL

Thanks for sharing

Jacques

 

Oh I forgot to add.... great job on winning the tourney

Edited October 5, 2009 by Leechman

[Cudz]

Oh man. Everything Jaydub said was true. Quite embarassing considering the amount of ribbing I have been giving the other guys.

Quantum PT tour edition baitcaster with a team daiwa rod. I had no choice. Gone is my sony camera and the cell is kaput as well. Did some quick math in my head before diving in and I knew I had a spare cell phone at home.

Lesson learned. I was jigging a strata spoon and i will no longer do it wit my baitcaster. I had the reel in the palm of my left hand and the smooth surface of the reel combined with the rain and numbish hands was a recipe for disaster. Spinning reels and rods for jigging from now on.

And the icing on the cake is that my team managed to lose the tourney somehow. I think we caught about 125 fish to their 25 fish but still lost out by a half pound of smallmouth weight. We owe them wings!!! (Going to go on half price night).

 

Oh yeah and for those who are interested; the perch are in at the beach/tiffen launch and at the marina in Barrie. Crazy, crazy numbers but very few over 10". Fun day right up until the end. Oh yeah, I got home and was locked out of my house as well.

[Cudz]

Great story!

A tip for you... if you're ice fishing rods goes for a swim, let it go.

I lost one ice fishing. By the time I got to the hole it was at least 4 ft down. Damn 8" hole. I could have got it too.

[GBW]

Oh yeah, I got home and was locked out of my house as well.

Great read and better ending... sorry Cudz...

[misfish]

Thought that was you Cudz on TV. The boat looked famalier.

Funny story.

TFS

[Fish4Eyes]

$300 is somewhere on the bottom of jack lake in 8' of water. I dove in and couldn't find it. Did cudz actually dive 30' down or did he grab it as it was sinking?

[Cudz]

Just got back from wing night. The winning team's wings tasted "better than usual" they said. Mine didn't taste quite so good. Guess it was that bitter taste in my mouth that lingers from losing that tournament to those clowns.