By Billy Daniels

The morning of Mark’s Outdoors Lay Lake Open I’m laying in bed awake waiting for the alarm to go off at 2:30 am. The plan was to be at Paradise Point at 4:30 am however; I arrived slightly before 4 am. I spotted my partner Randy Howell at our pre determined meeting place and together we got our gear ready for the big day ahead

Our safe daylight take off was delayed because of all the fog so I got to visit with Randy and some of the other pro’s involved in the tournament. Conversation between the pro’s I thought was funny as they were talking about the nice size fingerlings Mark had gotten for us to release into Lay lake. Some were kidding about using them for their weigh in considering their large size. Randy told me the large size of bass we were going to release would have a very good chance of surviving.

We were boat number 220, which means 219 boats took off in front of us and Randy had to pass every last one of them. Let me tell you, if you do get chosen to fish with a pro, from experience, hang on. Twenty minutes later we arrived at Randy’s first fishing spot. He stopped the boat and asked if I was ready to fish. I told him “it would take at least five minutes for me to catch my breath.”

Randy then discussed several different fishing techniques with me. We then decided what to fish with and proceeded to go after the big one. At some point Randy spotted a bass on a “bed”. He explained to the best of my knowledge that there are different stages of spawning. He then showed me things I have never seen before. Randy tied on a pink crawdad and flipped it right to the bass we could both see. I could not believe the bass would suck the bait in and spit it out so fast that Randy could not set the hook. A few times he would hook the bass and it would come toward the boat a couple feet and then let go. The first time it did this I asked him if we should move as I was not sure it would bite again. Randy’s answered, “this is the only time a bass will keep biting and biting is when its on its bed.” After about twenty minutes and at least 100 casts the bass was in the boat.

During the day we, rather Randy caught three of our five bass we weighed in using this technique. All of the bass we caught were long skinny males as Randy put it. Another interesting sight I saw was bass moving along on their sides. At first I looked over to where Randy was pointing and I thought it was a piece of plastic lying in the water. I have never seen bass just lying on their sides like this. Randy explained to me that they were getting ready to spawn and you will never be able to catch them at this stage.

Other technique’s Randy taught me was swimming a jig and dropping a jig through heavy cover. As the day progressed he caught a bass on each of these two techniques so I know they work. Yes, I did have a couple of bites however; I was not fast enough to set the hook.

Oh, before the tournament Randy asked me if I wanted to fish this tournament like a pro. I said, “sure” not knowing what I was getting myself into. In pro fishing when they say “move” you have 6 seconds to be in your seat with lifejacket on and ready to go, and I mean go. The first time Randy said move I had all my stuff all over the back of the boat. My stuff included coat, poles, lures, lunch etc etc. This was my only mistake.

Time was up so we headed back to Paradise Point at full speed, 74 mph. We came across this large boat pushing a large wake. I looked ahead and thought to myself, this time Randy would slow down. Wrong again. As the boat jumped the wake Randy threw up his right arm and waved and we went on. Randy can definitely drive a boat.

We had a great day with a weigh in of over 14 lbs. The planning that went into this was tremendous. Mark, Jeff and their crew did a wonderful job considering the number of boats participating let alone all the “wild” ones who showed up for the fun of maybe catching a gift. I was very pleased that Mark’s Outdoors gave me the chance of a lifetime to fish with a pro like Randy Howell. Maybe next year Randy and I will be partners again.

Best regards,
Billy Daniels, Moody AL