Sometime around the time you were getting that call from Buck I and my wife were up in the Thousand Islands on a vacation fishing trip. We stayed at a motel on the water with dockage.
I noticed a fisherman from the previous year had dumped his old boat, a 16 ft Sea Nymph--like mine--and gotten himself a brand spanking new Ranger bass boat. I was admiring it when he found me on the dock and we renewed our acquaintance.
He told me that he was up there for the "big tournament". Maybe you remember the hullaballoo afterward. The bass pros made the biggest total catch in tournament history! Oddly enough, no one ever went to this fishing hole to catch largemouth and here they pull off the great catch. What a PR bonanza.
Back to my fishing friend on the dock. He couldn't stop telling me that he was in a crisis. He had left home without his 4" plastic worms and he called his wife and she was sending them overnight express. I asked the stupid question: "Why don't you just buy plastic worms at the local tackle shops?"
He told me I didn't understand. The word among the pros was that the bass were only hitting the 4 inchers, smoke color, during the practise days! Not 5 inch or 3 inch, only 4 inch in a certain color. I said no more.....
He then asked me to take a short ride with him downriver about a half mile to Alexandria Bay to a hotel on the water. It seems that his new bass boat had developed a crack the length of the transom. He knew the owner of the company, Forrest Wood" was staying there and he wanted him to address the cracked transom. Okay, I went.
We pull up to the hotel dock and as fate would have it this guy, Forrest Wood, is standing there. I followed my friend as he approached Forrest. I'll never forget this guys get-up. For a moment I wondered if the rodeo was in town as he looked like a modern day cowboy.
My friend explained and showed Forrest the cracked transom. Forrest said not a word till my friend was finished then said--are you ready for this?--that he should call the customer service or maintenance depts, I forget which, and order a transom repair kit which was a steel reinforcing plate and necessary hardware. I couldn't believe what I was hearing! A defective product and he was told to buy the repair kit
Forrest then quietly walked away.It was a quiet ride back to our motel.
At the end of the first tournament day I went to the village of Alex Bay to see the weigh-in. I was shocked out of my socks. The large holding tanks had the largest bunch of really big bass I will ever see in my lifetime. Many 6 to 10 bs.
I talked to a few pros and played like you, Doug, in trying to get information. I really did swell their heads so they couldn't refuse me the info.
Apparently some of the boys has scouted the locals and found that the LM bass fishery was undiscovered and the bass were to be found on the inside edge of the many weedlines next to current and deep water. My own guess is that with the pike in abundance the LM bass had their own niche in the river.
Incidentally, the walleye fishery is much like the LM bass in that not many fish for them although its a bit harder as you usually have to go to wire and fish deep in current which most can't do. My largest was a 12 lb.
I'll never forget that Forest Wood guy!
