Oh boy it's getting thick in here.....lol
Well you are right about nice being relative. I have a good story....local guys read it close, you might learn something....lol
About 6 or 7 years ago I used to fish an area in the opening day tournament that you wouldnt believe. Smallmouth averaging 4 pounds on Zara Spooks, Pop-R's, spinner baits, soft and hard jerkbaits and tubes....it all depended on what the fish wanted and the current conditions. Almost every cast (if you had the fish nailed down)....if it was calm you were actually hunting them with the trolling motor on a channel break that topped out into a flat at the opening of a bay that the fish spawn in. Well as the fish move out of the spawning bay they stage on this flat and gorge themselves on spottail shiners that are scattered on the flat near the edge of the channel.
The birds are the key, you would see gulls and King Fishers (at least thats what I think they are, I call em divebombers) hovering over a school of spottails that the smallies had corralled into a huge ball. A fish would bust just as the bird was about to hit the water. Well sure as the sun was coming up you throw that Spook in there and wham.....as long as you land the fish, and no one runs over the flat you can catch em like that for an hour or two. One year my partner and I (team tourney) traded the net for an hour....I had to make him stop fishing because we could not keep up culling fish....
Well after I figured all this out (it took a few years) we proceed to milk this spot. Winning the opening day tournament on Clair 3 out of 4 years, and coming in second one year. People started finding out where we were.....if you fish St Clair or any body of water that has tournaments you know how that goes...guys start moving in....it stinks, but what can you do?
So in 99 this other team shows up and are hawking us....moving in on us from a half mile away....watching us just lambaste the smallies. One right after another as their trolling motor is on high and they are frantically retying. They ended up almost bumping rub rails with us that day. Needless to say I wasnt the happiest Italian on the lake that fine morning. Believe me I had a few choice words for my fellow competitors.
At the weigh in I was approached by the boat owner. Mind you I was standing with the GM of the newly opened BPS Detroit and had the winning bag of fish that day (just under 28 pounds for 8 fish). This guy comes up and shakes my hand, congratulates me for winning (I think they ended up in third or fourth off the same fish), looks me dead in the eye and says "You are alot nicer guy on land than you are on the water".....I quickly glanced at the GM of BPS and then looked directly in the boat owners eyes, squeezed his hand ever so "slightly" and said with my nicest smile and demeanor...."Thats because I should have never seen you on the water! Or should I ever again!".
That was a classic moment..... We have actually become friendly becasue I havent seen him there (or just about anywhere else I like to fish). but I have seen almost everybody else...especially since it was televised on the 2001 FLW tournament (you can spot me on the tape hamming it up for the camera man while Larry "Mr St Clair" Nixon is hammering fish).
That year there was over $450,000 dollars won in that area by about 10 different Pro's. Four or five of the top ten started there (or came there shortly after) in the morning on Friday. I had to watch it all unfold from my friends boat for four days as I was on the waiting list and didnt get in (way down, 74th or something).
On the final day (2 of the top 5 started in the area), Saturday, I was actually ribbing Larry Nixon while we were on the water about catching all my fish....I told him he had to stop when he had 18 pounds in the box because I had a tournament on Sunday! He got a chuckle about it, and even caught a few more that didnt<
