07-11-2010, 09:00 AM
<br /> Fished Friday Night Tournament out of Dam with Joe. Started out on flat close to channel and caught first keeper on swimbait. Shortly after, moved a little deeper and Joe stuck a 19 inch Smallmouth on a zara spook. Took forever to land and in the end broke the tip of Joe&#39;s Quantum rod. At dark, moved to familiar ground and started catching quality fish on LFT Ring Fry and Stanley plastic bait. Finished limit with time to spare, but was unable to cull. That is when the real fun began.<br /> After running back to ramp, I let Joe off to back down the truck and wanted to be sure my livewell was full of water. Upon opening the livewell door, the 17.5 inch largemouth saw its opportunity for escape and jumped out, hitting the side of the gumwale and avoiding my weak backhand as it freed itself. Our healthy five fish limit just became a four fish &amp;quot;D&#39;oh!!!&amp;quot;. Fell short of win, but captured big fish. Not sure if fifth fish would have given us the money, but still felt terrible for my partner, and my ego.<br />