Everstart....the whole story

[Rob LaMoy]

To say there were some great sticks at this tourney is a massive understatement. Keith and Jerry Williams, Randy Savage, Mike Leblanc, Ricky Doyle...all local legends and great on this water. Guido and Dion Hibdon, Sam Newby, Mark Zona, Art Ferguson, the list goes on and on. I felt like a lil fish in a BIG pond at pre-tourney. There were 158 boats and as the draw hit 150 I figured I was in for dead last. Almost, I was 152 and Pete 155. The extra time I gained by being in the 5th flight helped. The morning of the 1st day, the paper said was calm.....BS! There was 3 footers already...AND the truth has now been revealed. Several MI natives, some that now Mac and Mini said and I quote, "I've seen the worst the MM, St Clair, and Erie have, and Champlain with a south wind is worse! If they did let us go today, I would NOT put my boat out there!" That was from Gary Bucarelli (spelling again?). I drew an older gentleman for a co but he was a great guy. We ran 10 miles south to my smallie spot but it took 45 minutes. We fished it for about 4 1/2 hours. My co had 2 small fish in the boat before I got bit. Then I boated 2 small fish. Then I was saying I was ready to go and the rod LOADED up. I told my co "GET THE NET.....THIS ONE IS BIG!" A 4.5 lber super toad rears her beautiful head and tail walked back to the boat. I did everything right and kept her on all the way in. My co slipped the net under her, but when she saw that net, she gave one last little head twitch, shook the hook, and swam out of the net and out of sight. I looked down and said right then, "THAT fish, is going to cost me big time, I can tell!" And she did. Another half hour and I lost one 2.5 lber and then I caught 1 fish that was 2.5. After that...nuthin! The day was progressing too fast and the wind was strong but not hitting my spot right so I told my co, "Time to go do what I do best...flip!" We ran all the way north (an hour run) to a largemouth spot where I had boated a 3 and Doug had boated a 5.1 in practice. We hit the spot hard and didn't get bit. I started throwing a spinnerbait and lost ANOTHER 3 lb smallie at the boat. At this point it was probably noon and I was very frustrated with only 3 fish in the livewell. I told my co-angler, "NEVER EVER give up!" On the way out there was 1 recently sunken duck blind I wanted to hit real fast. Tox had hit it for me on Sunday but didn't get bit. Well, they must have just moved on there. We joked that the spot would produce tons of big fish and blow away the field...we weren't far off. My first cast was a 4.4, next cast a 3.1, then 3 consecutive 2.5 lbers that culled all my small fish, and then I backed the boat in so my co could get in on the action and limit out. He did. Once we were sure we had exhausted the spot we moved on so I could prefish a little for day 2 and help my co cull a few fish. I knew I had around 15 lbs and had predicted that 15 a day would be needed to make the cut. I was right. I had 15.8 and was 3 way tied for 28th. I was 1 lb out of the top 20. That one 4+ lb smallie would have put me well over 17lbs and into the top 4 securing me. But as luck or the lack of it, would have it, the winds really blew on day 2 and they cancelled the day sending on the top 20 from day 1. Some side notes: on day 1, aside from the 929 that blew out his hull near the rod locker, a guy from VT in a 520 who had a loose engine mount bolt (bet he won't let that happen again) ripped his 225 opti off in 175' of water. Another guy ripped his motor off and it bounced up onto the back deck...STILL running! The prop chewed up the back deck and started towards the co and pro, when they jumped to the front deck, the pro's kill switch pulled, stopping the motor. Several others had rough days. It was not pretty. I have never pushed my boat so hard, but she did great, and for the first time ever (when I swamped my boat) I was genuinely scared on Lake Champlain. There was no one in sight and that day was over. Again, the fellowship o

 

[Kraig Clement]

sounds like a fun weekend!!!!! sorry you lost the 4lbr..... still did great!



Kraig

 

[Rich D]

Ya did good!

 

[Dan J.]

Good job, Rob! Keep it up!!

 

[Marke Cicero]

That's great Rob...but did you hire a plumber?

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Marke, I got the pipes fixed myself. I am hiring a boiler buy though to get the hot water and heat going. I know my limits and furnaces are beyond it. LOL The money is going towards that and appliances.

 

[Mark Gross]

I got your room ready Rob ! I'll try for a place as a co-angler. It would be great if you drew me as a co-. The Ramp is about a 1/2 hour drive from the house, a nice country drive. A lot of the pro's from the Pro-Am that I fish over here fish that Everstart as co-angler's I might know your draw .

Mark,

 

[David Munaretto]

Rob, do us a favor... break it into paragraphs dangit......... IT HURTS TO READ!



DAVER

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Sorry dude. I was exhausted typing it. Long week and weekend. Back to relaxing at work! LOL

 

[gone bye bye]

Tough go for a big tourney Rob. I just got off the phone with Zona and he said the water was pretty bad, he could not believe that they let em go on the final day.



Did Mark Modrak or Don McCulla ever call you?



Mini

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Yeah, Champlain saved her best for when I was there!! Besides LaMoy trying to KILL me!! Rob's a quality fisherman and has his lake under control. I can attest to the condition of the water!! Equipment needed for Champlain: Bounce buster for trolling motor (I've got the marks on my deck to prove it). Long shaft trolling motor (mine was out of the water more than it was in). Spare trolling motor prop (spent a day hunting one down). Good bumpers if you are going to tie to a dock (we had our boats jumping up on the docks on Friday, thank heavens I have the wrap around type). Good map of the lake (I won't forget where the "Cribs" are, they autographed my skeg)!



Saw in the local paper where Rob was 28th and then we called it a trip on Thursday. It was a 50/50 shot as to whether the lake was going to settle down (it did). There was no way anyone was going out with the 5 and 6 footers I saw. I even had to run down lake to a marina to pull my boat out. The wind was at my back and it felt like I was in the ocean!!



TOXIC

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Mini, no they didn't. I was really bummed Zona didn't win it. I had my money on him. He did help my buddy Dean win the co side though. That's 3 times he's finished in 2nd. If that ain't consistency, nothing is. And he is a stand up guy. That's one dude that will be a house hold name sooner than later. All the mitten guys I talked to said it was some of the worst if not the worst water they had seen. Imagine if you will, 112 miles of MM! We have the green mtns on the east in VT, the Adirondacks in the west in NY and they act as a wind tunnel. When that south wind blows, it gets nasty up here. I was surprised they went out on Saturday too, but it's much harder to cancel that last day...there is so much at stake. If they had, my buddy would have only been 9th, not 1st. Such is tourney fishing. I'm dissappointed, but can't complain. It could have easily happened last year, and I would have been stoked being in 3rd on day 1 would have automatically put me in the top 20. You can't make everyone happy all the time. They made the right call. Had they let us go, I'm sure somebody would have been seriously hurt or maybe even killed. The FLW staff really does care about their anglers.

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Oh and the REAL reason the lake was so rough, was Toxic was eating bean dip and drinking cheap Canadian beer. Then his roomie made him leave the cabin to release the back pressure. That blast would churn up the Atlantic! LOL Seriously, Tox is a great guy. Just needs to learn to run big water! LOL And he needs more shaft and more thrust! LOL 2 things you can never have too much of, or so I've heard!

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

LOL!! I got plenty of thrust but my shaft leaves a little to be desired!! Nuff said!! As for running the big water, I could have and would have run right with you but my partner had a bad back and I was scaring him to death!! He is not used to running big water (not 4-5 footers anyway). I never even got my mess outta the water because I was running the troughs to try to keep his back damage to a minimum. LOL. I would have loved to run the tops!! Gotta say this about the 929, if I was gonna get stress cracks, this trip woulda done it!! None, Nada, zero!! I'm impressed!! Did get some nicks where the trolling motor bounced off of the deck and broke the lock down pin.



TOXIC

 

[JAMES MOORE]

Sounds like you all had a great time. Dean's had a pretty good year. He's a top quality fisherman and somebody you'll see more of in the future. He's one tough competiter but also a guy who will give the shirt off his back to help someone out.

 

[Bob G.]

Toxic,



Sounds like you guys had a good time while you were here. I was pre-fishing on Friday for a club tourney and it was pretty calm. The winds were blowing pretty hard again on Saturday and that was a good day get some rifle range time in with my son.



Bob G.

 

[gone bye bye]

Well in any event, I gave Mark Modrak your number for some info, I guess he should have called. Don McCulla had a nice finish....I still think they should have adjusted the feild to 30 for the finals....



Great job Rob...



Mini

 

[Carlos Hathcock III]

Tox,

Worse then the day we were caught on the river this spring??



Carlos

 

[Rob LaMoy]

Yeah, but Mini, if they had done that the guys in 31-40 would have complained and so on. They should have tried what we all wanted and Koby Krieger really pushed hard for and that was to just skip the semi round and let the whole field fish again on Friday. THEN just go right to the top 10 from the 2 days weight. I can say I would have clawed my way up, but who knows, perhaps I might have had an off day and fell down the standings again and come home with less or nothing at all. But I would have liked the chance to try anyhow. Chris Jones, the tourney director was a great guy and I believe tried and wanted to skip the semi's but the FLW director was the one that made the call over the phone and Chris was just the messenger. Evidently that is their format. Just wondering what would happen in a BFL?

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Carlos,



Oh yeah they were worse. It was the spacing of the waves. Too long to jump and the troughs were a moving target!! Wind would blow you right off of the front deck if you weren't careful!! I swear you could surf some of them!!



TOXIC