Travis Lake Judge/Marshal Experience

[OCdockskipper]

I got back in from Texas last night and thought I'd post my judge/marshal experience while watching the final day weigh-in.

 

Travis Lake is different than many famed Texas reservoirs, it actually reminded me of the desert lakes like Lake Havasu or Lake Mead out here in the west.  In addition to the narrow shape and deep, clear water this is a recreational lake, full of houseboats, party boats, jet skiers, basically a large human presence.  It differs from Havasu & Mead in that the land surrounding it is not national parks land, but privately owned complete with some extraordinary docks & boat house setups.

 

One of the things I am overly careful about when being in a pro's boat is to not be a distraction.  I follow each anglers lead when it comes to carrying on a conversation as well as asking questions.  While each angler is different, typically they become more relaxed and social as they began to catch fish and figure out what is going on that day.  This tournament was unique in that in addition to being an observer, we had judge responsibilities of weighing & recording all legal fish catches.

 

Day One I was paired with David Fritts, an older veteran who had won the 1993 classic on Lake Logan Martin.  He is an old school angler to be sure, complete with a flasher on his front deck in addition to the huge screen for his depthfinder (the flasher gives him more immediate info on his depth so that he can position his boat as he moves along a river channel or other feature).  David threw a Carolina rig 90% of the day, occasionally mixing it up with a lipless crankbait.  He spent all of his time fishing in 15-30 feet of water at spots he had found during practice, areas from the dam area to 30 miles up the lake.  While he caught about 30 fish over 12" long on the day, only 8 of them topped the 14" keeper mark.  I have never measured so many 13" fish in my life ?.  David ended up with 8lbs for the day and after a similiar weight on day 2, ended up missing the cut.

 

Day Two I was paired with the larger-than-life Gerald Swindle.  Having marshaled for Ish Monroe in the past, I realized that some anglers also have the self imposed responsibility of being an entertainer as well as a professional fisherman.  To expect these pro's to be "on" from the moment you meet them is wrong, they need to focus early on to get into a rhythm, allowing them to relax and have their charismatic personalities shine through.  Gerald was no different, a little guarded early on but as the morning wore on, the quips and interaction with other anglers and spectator boats began to flow.  Interestingly enough, the more engaging conversations between us were not about fishing but about life, our country and changes in culture.  It may be the old case of when you do something for a living, you get tired of talking about it all day long and other topics instead peak your interest.  Nonetheless, a few of his more memorable lines were:
 

• "Nobody panic, it is just a stick" - after catching a keeper in front of spectators and then apparently hooking up again.
• "Down goes Frazier" - after breaking off a swimbait on a dock cable and watching it sink away.
• "Everyone seems so angry" - after honking his horn at a competitor as he flew by him at top speed.
• "Its one of those Guacamole bass" - after catching a small Guadalupe bass.
• "I just told the jerkbait king what color bait to throw" - After waving Hank Cherry onto a spot to share.  I asked if the next move was to go find Aaron Martens and tell him how to organize his tackle.

 

Unfortunately, Gerald also went through not being able to find the bigger bites.  Despite catching nearly 40 fish mainly on a jerkbait & dropshot, his five biggest went just over 7 lbs.  Interestingly, he did have 3 doubles on the jerkbait.  The first two were back to back, a pair of 13" largemouth on the first and a 13" largemouth and 10" Guadalupe on the second.  The final double came on his last cast, a last ditched effort to increase his daily weight.  Unfortunately, both fish were again 13" and no help, so his round house to end the fight apparently hit the referee.  Gerald did make the cut, but looked like he had a similar struggle on day 3 to finish in the high 40's.

 

All in all, it was a memorable experience, from the interaction with the other judges during the training to dealing with the B.A.S.S. staff behind the scenes.  It makes for a couple of long days and gives you a peek behind the scenes of what the anglers go through in order to fish for a living.

[Angry John]

It would be a dream come true to spend the day in the boat with swindle.  What a great story.

[J.Vincent]

That sounds like a pretty awesome experience....and I really like this format of weighing, recording, releasing. I watched the live coverage and this just seems like a classier style of tournament competition. I hope it catches on and more tournaments are conducted in this manner. But I'm wondering if you Were you able to get the Pros opinions for this format ?

 

[12poundbass]

I was hoping you were going to get paired with Ike..... I know what a fan you are and a dream come true it would be.

?

[OCdockskipper]

7 hours ago, Active_Outdoors said:

...But I'm wondering if you Were you able to get the Pros opinions for this format ?

Fritts was ambivalent on the catch & release format, although he did say he & most pro's have a rhythm of catching & putting in the livewell that they can do pretty fast.  He did mention some rule changes that had been implemented since his previous run on the tour that he didn't like, such as not being able to prefish with his son (since his son isn't an Elite angler).  

 

Swindle prefers the livewell system.  He believes that when you find a school of larger bass, releasing caught fish tends to spook the school (not so much with smaller bass).  Further, Gerald is very systematic in the way he does thing, so adding in a variable of a judge has the potential to put a hitch in his get-a-long.  He never said that or anything negative about the judges, but an organized angler would probably find a sloppy, slow judge to be like fingernails on a chalkboard.

 

I don't have any data to back it up, but I would guess that a majority of anglers prefer the livewell system, just based on the number of years they have been doing it.  Like anything, change to one's system of doing things could be unsettling as is unlearning one thing in order to learn a new thing.  I wouldn't be surprised to see a future tour with judges that travel with the tour to events (like officials in other sports) or a judging device that can be attached to the boat that weighs, documents & releases the fish (to avoid a single fish being weighed multiple times).  In both of those cases, the livewell is the backup system if the initial scoring system fails.

 

One thing that came up in the judge training was the scenario of finding a large bass on a bed that would continually bite and return to the bed after being caught.  In theory, a single 5lb bass could end up adding 20 or 25lbs to ones bag by being caught 4 or 5 times.  Very unlikely, but something they may need to address for any events taking place during the spawn.  Ironically, the catch & immediate release probably benefits the fish most during the spawn, yet it creates this odd scenario.

[BassNJake]

Thanks for the write up!!

 

I was a marshal for Swindle when they fished Douglas Lake.

He was very focused and had his game face on.

There were times when he would throw out some one liners but he was concentrating on making the cut.

 

We sat in the ramps parking lot for about an hour waiting to see if he was going to make the cut and during this time I dont think I stopped laughing.

 

Hoping to get to be a marshal for the classic next year!!