MY WORST DAY OF BASS FISHING
Mike Wurm
Editor's Note: You're supposed to have fun when you
fish for bass because most of us think of bass fishing
as recreation. You don't expect to find yourself chained
to a wall in a medieval dungeon to learn how much torture
you can endure when you bass fish. However, many anglers
who earn their livings professionally fishing for bass
must go to work when they don't want to, fish in bad,
nasty weather and endure sickness, disaster and disappointment
as a part of their jobs. You may think you've had a
bad day of fishing before or fished in a really bad
bass tournament. But once you read the experiences of
some of America's best bass fishermen and learn what's
happened to them on their worst days of fishing, your
bad day of bass fishing may not seem so horrible.
Mike Wurm, a 51-year-old professional bass fisherman
from Hot Springs, Arkansas, first fished competitively
in 1978 and began fishing professionally on the Bassmaster
circuit in 1992. He has had eight top-10 tournament
finishes and has competed in five Bassmasters Classics.
"I was fishing a state bass tournament on Greer's
Ferry during the Arkansas State Governor's Tournament,"
Mike Wurm recalls. "I had an old boat. Back then,
there were no regulations governing how big a motor
you could use on any size boat. My boat shouldn't have
been powered by a motor much bigger than 115 horsepower,
but I had a 150 horsepower engine sitting on its back.
I was really proud of that big engine, which made my
little boat fly and run like a scalded dog. I could
beat most of the other fishermen to any spot on the
lake that I wanted to fish from the take-off point.
The only problem that I saw with that big engine was
that it was heavy, and the front of the end of the boat
did ride somewhat high, even when the engine was turned-off.
The night before the tournament, I parked my boat in
a covered stall, and a storm blew up. But I wasn't too
concerned about my boat, because it was covered. However,
at 3:00 a.m., I got a call from the marina operator
who said, 'You may want to come on down to the marina
and look at your boat.
“When I arrived at the marina, all I could see
was about a foot of the boat's nose out of the water.
The rest of the boat and the motor were under the water.
As I surveyed the situation, I worried about how I was
 going
to get that 18-foot-long boat out of the 38-foot-deep
water. My boat was suspended just under the water with
nothing but the nose out. Luckily, the boat was still
tied to the dock, so at least I had a rope to start
pulling on the boat. The marina operator came over and
helped me get a rope down and around the back end of
the boat. Then we started winching the boat up, nose
first, to let the water drain out of it. Once we got
the boat up on the surface we pumped it out. The boat
floated. However, all my tackle had floated out of it.
All that was left inside the boat was two batteries.
Too, the engine wouldn't start because it'd been underwater.
But luckily there was a mechanic at the marina who said,
'Don't worry about your engine. I'll get it running.
You go ahead and fish with someone else today in the
tournament, and by the time you get back, I'll have
the engine running.’ When I got in from the tournament
that afternoon, sure enough, true to his word, the mechanic
had the engine running. I had to pay a pretty penny
for this mechanic to stop everything he was doing and
get my motor up and running. However, I felt really
fortunate that I was back in the fishing business and
could use my boat in the tournament. Up until now, we'd
only been fishing practice days. n the first day of
the actual tournament, my boat and motor ran like a
well-oiled sewing machine. I caught 16 pounds of bass,
and the six-man team I was fishing on was in the lead
to win the tournament. I was really feeling good. I'd
survived a disastrous night with a sunken boat and gotten
my boat up and running the first day of the tournament.
Now my team and I were in the lead. Life was good, and
I was thankful.
"Then on the second day of the tournament, I fished
on the lower end of the lake, caught a good limit of
bass and was feeling really good about the way this
tournament was going. I thought to myself, 'Finally
I've beaten the Greer's Ferry jinx,' because I always
seemed to have trouble when I fished that lake. Then
in the last hour or two of the tournament, the wind
picked-up. So, to prevent having a problem, and to make
sure I got back to the weigh-in on time, I left my fishing
spot a little early. As we were heading back to weigh-in,
we got into some rough water. My boat started handling
sluggishly as though I were  dragging
an elephant. When I looked toward the back of the boat,
I saw that the casting deck on the back of the boat
had come loose and blown off the top of the boat. Water
was splashing over the side of the gunwale, and the
bottom of the boat was filling up with water. I told
my buddy to hang-on, that I thought we might be sinking.
I got my partner to run to the front of the boat to
try to get the boat level so that we could continue
to move forward and hopefully at least get to land before
the boat sunk. For the first 50 yards, we were doing
pretty well as we got closer to a little island. I thought
for sure we'd be able to beach the boat. However, the
closer we got to the island, the lower the boat sank
in the water. We leaned forward to try and be as light
as possible. However, when we were about 15 yards from
the island, the motor sank and pulled the boat under.
With the motor still running, I told my partner, 'Hang
on. I'm going to goose the motor and give it some gas.
We should get enough power to get the boat to the bank.'
"I opened the throttle wide open. The motor roared,
and the boat jumped out of the water like a porpoise.
The nose of the boat came to rest on the bank. As soon
as the boat hit the bank, my partner jumped out of the
boat and tied the boat to a tree just as the motor died.
Then the back of the boat sank. When I got out on the
bank, I said, 'Well, here we are on the second day of
the tournament in the middle of the lake on an island,
and nobody knows where we are. The back half of the
boat is under the water, but at least the front half
of the boat is out of the water. What are we going to
do now?'
"You have to remember that my boat's sinking happened
before the days of cell phones. We tried to flag down
several boats, and finally a pontoon boat stopped. That
fisherman told us he would go to his house, call the
tournament director, tell him where we were and what
had happened and ask him to send someone to get us.
Hours went by, and no help came. We knew we weren't
going to arrive at the weigh-in in time to weigh our
bass. We pulled the boat up so that we could at least
open the livewell and release our bass. But when we
got to the live well, we discovered that the top had
already come open, and the bass had already swam away.
Finally, just about dusk, we saw a truck with a boat
and a trailer on a launch pad on the other side of the
lake. My friends came and got my partner and me and
took us back to the motel. I left my boat and motor
still partially sunk in the water, tied to a tree on
the island. My team lost the tournament because I didn't
weigh in any fish. “When I arrived home, I called
a friend who repairs boats. He went with me back to
Greer's Ferry Lake, helped me pull my boat out of the
water and said he would try to rehabilitate it. I sold
him the boat before we left Greer's Ferry, and he took
the boat and motor home and cleaned it all up. As far
as I know, the boat and motor are still running today.
But I've never known anyone who's sunk his boat two
times in one tournament. This tournament was, without
question, one of the worst I can remember."
TOMORROW: WORST DAYS OF FISHING FOR JAY YELAS
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