Co Angler Stories 2024
Matthew2000 reply :
Let's hear your best and worst. Either you the boater or co angler.
travis23 reply :
I met my boater in a Target parking lot to get in with him. We left, got almost an hour down the road, get a phone call from another club member who also met his non boater at the same location, saying my car was parked right smack dab in the middle of the parking lot isle lol. We HAD to turn back to keep from getting towed and sure enough it was right in the middle of the path. Talk about feelimg like crap. He handled it better than I think I would have, but man I just felt so stupid and bad about it. And in the end he wouldn't take my money....lol
scaleface reply :
These were both good partners .
Years ago I drew a partner for a small one day tournament who had his neck fused together . He could not move it at all. He had one "Fishin pole" a spincaster with about twenty foot of line that he could not cast and maybe two lures.It was early in the year and cold . I caught a keeper on a jig and pig and loaned him one. He could not cast it so he imitated me the best he could , lifting and dropping the lure straight up and down directly under the boat. We were in shallow water and he caught four keepers and won the tourney. I tried copying him but could not catch a fish.
I drew another partner who only had one arm.His other arm was like a pair pliers, great for gripping fish. This was his first tourney also. We were coming upon a stump that I have caught nice fish on before , I positioned the boat so he could get a good cast. He was using a bagleys crankbait and made a perfect cast. A few turns of the reel handle and he says "I'm snagged". I could see his line moving off and told him he had a huge fish.He landed that fish like a pro and with the help of a couple of barely legal fish , he won that tourney. I have a picture of the most proud guy in the world that day.
kikstand454 reply :
^^^^ awesome stories.
Sounds like YOU are the one who's a good partner!
BigSkyBasser reply :
I was fishing a tournament to try and qualify for a spot on the state team. We were beating banks all day and decided to dip into this small bay which had a lot of great stumps I had fished before. Upon arrival my boater insisted I take the pedal on the trolling motor (which I have very little experience with still to this day.) I started off a bit jerky but got around and he caught three nice keepers right next to me . When we decided to head back out and run to another spot was when I happened to not see a giant boulder that I took the boat right over. Ended up wrecking his motor guide prop to all hell and bent the shaft back till it was almost touching the Hull. This guy was so nice and so glad I didn't punch a whole through his boat that he refused to let me replace it nor would he take my boat gas. Turned out that between that cove and our previous spot was enough for him to win the 2 day tournament and he won enough money to buy more than just a new trolling unit haha. Felt like such a moron though.
RF813 reply :
Fished most of a season an a co angler, but decided it wasn't for me after having a few not so great days out.
The first was the boat I was in sat extremely low in the water. I had water washing over my feet and over my tackle bag all day, and then the guy hops in the seat and takes off before I even had my pfd on or was sitting down, he gunned it and I almost fell in. The guy was nice overall and there was good conversation.
The second time I can think of that stick out is this one boater was so meticulous about his boat (which I respect), Didn't really like me eating my lunch on the boat even though I was extremely careful, chastised me for applying sunscreen because it "Stank", as the day wore on he got more agitated since we weren't on fish. Then, I gave him money for the gas at the end of the day, and he proceeded to count it to make sure it was an acceptable amount.
Not really horror stories, but I couldn't stand the thought of being paired up with #2 again, It helped me decide it really wasn't for me.
scaleface reply :
On 2/14/2015 at 3:54 AM, RF813 said:
The second time I can think of that stick out is this one boater was so meticulous about his boat (which I respect), Didn't really like me eating my lunch on the boat even though I was extremely careful, chastised me for applying sunscreen because it "Stank", as the day wore on he got more agitated since we weren't on fish. Then, I gave him money for the gas at the end of the day, and he proceeded to count it to make sure it was an acceptable amount.
Not really horror stories, but I couldn't stand the thought of being paired up with #2 again, It helped me decide it really wasn't for me.
I fished a couple of times with guys like this.
You didnt get pee on his boat did you ?
RF813 reply :
On 2/14/2015 at 3:58 AM, scaleface said:I fished a couple of times with guys like this.
You didnt get pee on his boat did you ?
Thankfully no....I might not be here telling these stories if I had.
travis23 reply :
Haha I always feel bad getting pee on the back, but hey what can you do? There's this guy who is a non boater and he is absolutely rowdy!! They say he was a golden glove back in the day ( which makes sense to why he is the way he is). Anyways he took a **** off the back of some guys boat and it was the runs and I guess it was allllll over the boat from what I heard from the boater lol I don't think I could deal with all that...
BigSkyBasser reply :
I will lean as far as I can leaned on the outboard if I have to pee in order to not pee on the stern.
scaleface reply :
I thought the splash well was a built in urinal .
travis23 reply :
On 2/14/2015 at 10:30 AM, BigSkyBasser said:I will lean as far as I can leaned on the outboard if I have to pee in order to not pee on the stern.
Yeah I learned to always give the boater a heads up when I have to pee off the back. That moment when your leaning as far as you can and they hit the trolling motor...haha
CDMeyer reply :
This did not happen to me but I have herd of people offering to " buy fish " usually off the co-angler
macmichael reply :
I always take a coffee can to pee in.
Angry John reply :
Dirty birdOn 2/18/2015 at 9:55 AM, CDMeyer said:This did not happen to me but I have herd of people offering to " buy fish " usually off the co-angler
Bluebasser86 reply :
On 2/14/2015 at 9:39 AM, travis23 said:Haha I always feel bad getting pee on the back, but hey what can you do? There's this guy who is a non boater and he is absolutely rowdy!! They say he was a golden glove back in the day ( which makes sense to why he is the way he is). Anyways he took a **** off the back of some guys boat and it was the runs and I guess it was allllll over the boat from what I heard from the boater lol I don't think I could deal with all that...
We call that shooting a rooster tail or doing the orangutan hang off the back of the boat 
I've been unfortunate enough to see it done once.
My second tournament I ever fished, I was 16 and my boater was probably around 70 and came off kind of gruff. Despite that we had good conversation on the way to the lake (Table Rock), and I was excited for the day. I hadn't seen Table Rock since I was 5 and I was shocked how clear the water was. I don't think we caught a fish until noon. I started seeing fish on beds everywhere when we got back into a cut where it was calm. My boater didn't have the patience to fish for bedding fish and after I caught my second keeper he turned to me and asked if I knew how to run a trolling motor. Thinking he just wanted to take a leak or eat his lunch I told him I did, I shocked when he said "Well get up here and run it then. You have a chance to win this thing and I'll be lucky to catch a fish all day if this is how we have to fish, doesn't make any sense for both of us to do bad". So I walked to the front of this guys brand new 20' Ranger and proceeded to put enough fish in the boat to finish 4th that day. Ol' Mr. Wyatt was one of my favorite guys in the club after that day and was always very nice to me the whole time I fished with them.
Matthew2000 reply :
Has anybody ever had someone like make them pay or something stupid because they were on the boat at the time?
Logan S reply :
On 2/25/2015 at 8:57 AM, Matthew2000 said:Has anybody ever had someone like make them pay or something stupid because they were on the boat at the time?
Do you think it's unreasonable for a boater to expect the co-angler to at least offer to share some of the operating expenses for the day?
More to the original point, I've never had any really bad co-anglers...I'm pretty upfront about how I operate in the beginning of the day so there are no surprises or anything like that. Things like where will be fishing, how I will be fishing, netting preferences, and where they can store their stuff....I think this is important to break the ice. I'm also a pretty friendly guy so I get along with everyone, at least so far 
.
As for funny co-angler stories, I have a few but there is one that stands out. At a tournament down on Gaston my co-angler had a limit and caught his first cull-fish. As he was fumbling with the fish he just caught and the one he was culling...Another of his fish jumped straight out of the well and flopped in the lake, culling tag still attached! We chased the culling tag around trying to snag it for about 30 seconds until it was out of sight. Tat was the last keeper he caught and he ended up getting 2nd place on the co-angler side, missed first by less than a pound. I don't know if that fish cost him the win, but I do know it would have been awful close! He learned the hard way to always keep his livewell lid closed!
Matthew2000 reply :
I always pay at least 30$ in gas money depending on how much we are running. I was meaning more towards like motor failure and the boater blames it on you and says you have to pay half of the repair cost.On 2/25/2015 at 9:23 AM, Stratos20SS said:Do you think it's unreasonable for a boater to expect the co-angler to at least offer to share some of the operating expenses for the day?
More to the original point, I've never had any really bad co-anglers...I'm pretty upfront about how I operate in the beginning of the day so there are no surprises or anything like that. Things like where will be fishing, how I will be fishing, netting preferences, and where they can store their stuff....I think this is important to break the ice. I'm also a pretty friendly guy so I get along with everyone, at least so far
I think it's best to lay out what you will be doing during the day. Where you want things and how you operate its always best to know.
Logan S reply :
On 2/25/2015 at 9:39 AM, Matthew2000 said:I always pay at least 30$ in gas money depending on how much we are running. I was meaning more towards like motor failure and the boater blames it on you and says you have to pay half of the repair cost.
I think it's best to lay out what you will be doing during the day. Where you want things and how you operate its always best to know.
Ah, gotcha...You post was a little unclear. Man, it would have been awesome if I could have stuck my co-angler with the bill when my motor blew up during a tournament! 
(Joking of course)
Matthew2000 reply :
On 2/25/2015 at 9:46 AM, Stratos20SS said:Ah, gotcha...You post was a little unclear. Man, don't I wish I could have stuck my co-angler with the bill when my motor blew up during a tournament!
I was fishing a high school tourny on lake Murray some guy blew his lower unit off on a rock.. He got it 2 months before, consider yourself lucky for any problems to your motor. There's always so one who went through worse.
Logan S reply :
LOL I get what your saying, I guess...But short of sinking your boat or someone getting physically injured there's not much worse blowing your motor up...Replacing a lower unit sucks, replacing the entire motor sucks more 
. Anyway, sorry for the side track...back to the stories.
Matthew2000 reply :
Definitely agree, I would rather not do any of them. Back to the stories.On 2/25/2015 at 10:06 AM, Stratos20SS said:LOL I get what your saying, I guess...But short of sinking your boat or someone getting physically injured there's not much worse blowing your motor up...Replacing a lower unit sucks, replacing the entire motor sucks more
lmoore reply :
On 2/18/2015 at 9:55 AM, CDMeyer said:This did not happen to me but I have herd of people offering to " buy fish " usually off the co-angler
I had that happen a couple years ago in a BFL. Guy went on to finish 4th WITHOUT my fish, and he's done very well at the BFL level. I think he even signed on with Bass Pro recently. I can never see anything good happen to him without assuming he at least tried to cheat.
Funny thing was, while waiting for launch one of his buddies idled over and asked him about being accused of cheating on the previous tournament. Should've seen it coming I guess.
scaleface reply :
Back in my club days , my bass went missing.My older co-angler weighed it in with his fish. I told on him , he was disqualified but not kicked out of the club. He said it was an accident. It was on purpose .
Matthew2000 reply :
Why even fish if you are just gonna cheat ??On 2/25/2015 at 1:22 PM, lmoore said:I had that happen a couple years ago in a BFL. Guy went on to finish 4th WITHOUT my fish, and he's done very well at the BFL level. I think he even signed on with Bass Pro recently. I can never see anything good happen to him without assuming he at least tried to cheat.
Funny thing was, while waiting for launch one of his buddies idled over and asked him about being accused of cheating on the previous tournament. Should've seen it coming I guess.
lmoore reply :
On 2/26/2015 at 12:45 PM, Matthew2000 said:Why even fish if you are just gonna cheat ??
I agree. Didn't understand it when it happened, still don't to this day.
jhoffman reply :
Unfortunately money makes people do really bad things in all walks of life. If youve never been in a tournament and leveled fish only to get to the weigh in and not make a top ten you start wondering at times how someone sacked up 18lbs when the rest of the field struggled for bites all day but, it happens so youd really never know if you were cheated till someone was busted.
corn-on-the-rob reply :
On 3/2/2015 at 12:15 AM, jhoffman said:Unfortunately money makes people do really bad things in all walks of life. If youve never been in a tournament and leveled fish only to get to the weigh in and not make a top ten you start wondering at times how someone sacked up 18lbs when the rest of the field struggled for bites all day but, it happens so youd really never know if you were cheated till someone was busted.
Yea it is crazy sometimes. Even on the worst of days there are fish biting well somewhere.
I like to think that most anglers pride themselves on sportsmanship. It has been my experience that most are good people (like most of the fine gentlemen/women on this site). You also have to remember cheating in this sport is exceptionally risky, get caught once will likely get you blacklisted, never being able to fish tournaments again.
Brayberry reply :
Years ago, I qualified for a 2 day tournament on Buggs Island for the 6 man tournament. I was like 17 years old and still pretty new to the sport. I was always excited to meet my partner to learn new techniques and such. In previous years, I had always had great partners that taught me a lot, and were just great guys, well this year was different. I attended the pre tournament meeting to see who I was paired with, and was kinda disappointed when I met my partner who had the appearance of a homeless alcoholic. He reeked of alcohol, slurred speech, and saying things that made no sense whatsoever. We agreed to meet before the tournament at like 4:30 am. I went back to camp and all the guys in my club talked about the tournament or their partners. They all said that my guy had issues, but would be fine during the tournament, as he was just probably trying to relax before the big tournament. Well tournament day arrives and I meet up with my partner and he's plastered. He had been drinking all night, and was in no shape to do anything other then fish. Not knowing what to do, I launched with him. We spent the entire day, weaving around the lake, constantly going from wide open to immediate stop, to sharp turns, etc. Even on the trolling motor, it was a rough ride. I couldn't wait for this tournament to end, and it was miserable. Looking back I should have never even gotten in the boat with this guy
Matthew2000 reply :
On 3/17/2015 at 6:21 AM, Brayberry said:Years ago, I qualified for a 2 day tournament on Buggs Island for the 6 man tournament. I was like 17 years old and still pretty new to the sport. I was always excited to meet my partner to learn new techniques and such. In previous years, I had always had great partners that taught me a lot, and were just great guys, well this year was different. I attended the pre tournament meeting to see who I was paired with, and was kinda disappointed when I met my partner who had the appearance of a homeless alcoholic. He reeked of alcohol, slurred speech, and saying things that made no sense whatsoever. We agreed to meet before the tournament at like 4:30 am. I went back to camp and all the guys in my club talked about the tournament or their partners. They all said that my guy had issues, but would be fine during the tournament, as he was just probably trying to relax before the big tournament. Well tournament day arrives and I meet up with my partner and he's plastered. He had been drinking all night, and was in no shape to do anything other then fish. Not knowing what to do, I launched with him. We spent the entire day, weaving around the lake, constantly going from wide open to immediate stop, to sharp turns, etc. Even on the trolling motor, it was a rough ride. I couldn't wait for this tournament to end, and it was miserable. Looking back I should have never even gotten in the boat with this guy
Yeah that is a pretty big concern.
t4bama reply :
I just got finished fishing my first FLW Rayvac at Guntersville as a co-angler. There's some pro, guides and really good local anglers that entered this tournament. Then theres the guys that enter as a boater that have no bussiness being out there. I entered this tournament to learn more about fishing tournament of this size maybe some tecniques and what goes in to preparing 2 or 3 day event. All I learned is that I'll never fish this event again! The two people I was paired with weren't versitale didn't know the lake and just plan RUDE. I've fished the BFL which is more weekend anglers and never had any problems. Not sure guess when you pay more money to fish a event goes to your head makes you feel something your not. Sorry guess I'm just venting lol
Matthew2000 reply :
On 3/22/2015 at 7:48 AM, t4bama said:I just got finished fishing my first FLW Rayvac at Guntersville as a co-angler. There's some pro, guides and really good local anglers that entered this tournament. Then theres the guys that enter as a boater that have no bussiness being out there. I entered this tournament to learn more about fishing tournament of this size maybe some tecniques and what goes in to preparing 2 or 3 day event. All I learned is that I'll never fish this event again! The two people I was paired with weren't versitale didn't know the lake and just plan RUDE. I've fished the BFL which is more weekend anglers and never had any problems. Not sure guess when you pay more money to fish a event goes to your head makes you feel something your not. Sorry guess I'm just venting lol
That sucks. What was there problem? I have heard with those events that it really depends on the angler your with, the better they are the more succes you will have.
t4bama reply :
You are exactly right it does depend on the angler you fish with. I guess the biggest thing was how bad they cut me off from making a cast best example day two boater has a fish on I get the net fish have to be 15" on Guntersville. Ok get the fish in its 14 15/16 he's measuring and remeasuring I get back to fishing he gets back up front turns to me tells me " he's not going to fight me and the wind there's a sweet spot up here and I'm gonna milk it" turns the boat power poles down and I'm in shock not knowing what I've done believe me next five hours are very awkward. At the end of the day he apologizes for getting on me for casting where he just caught a fish. First off I really didn't know where the fish came from or where had made that cast second he thinks I'm gonna fight over a spot that's giving up fish that barley measure. Anyway lesson learned just not what I was hoping to learn in this tournament.On 3/22/2015 at 8:16 AM, Matthew2000 said:That sucks. What was there problem? I have heard with those events that it really depends on the angler your with, the better they are the more succes you will have.
gulfcaptain reply :
Fished an FLW Rayovac Event out west. Glad I didn't have that experience. Although both days were tough fishing, both boaters welcomed me to give them a call and come up and pre-fish the next event with them. Shoot, one was having a tough tournament, didn't even take the gas money I offered at the beginning of the second day. We just went out and had a good time fishing and made the best out of the tough conditions. Being in the front of the boat comes with lots of pressure. Having ran charterboats and knowing you can't always make the fish bite even if you park on them and know they are there. Both thanked me for being a pleasant fishing partner. This is probably the reason they both welcomed me to join them to pre-fish the next event.
t4bama reply :
Glad it was a good experience for you gulfcaptain. I know used the word never but after this wears off maybe someday I'll try it again. I guess I had vision of fishing with Gary Yamomoto, Mark Rose, etc....
DILLY07 reply :
Day one during Iowa Bass Nation, I was paired with old grumpy dude. It was during spring state in Lake Okoboji. I was a non-boater and I could take over the trolling motor for the half day, we even agreed during meeting the night before. So, in the morning, I meet him at the ramp and put my stuff in his boat. I get in his truck and back down the trailer down. His half day is up. I go, hey bud, is it okay if I take over and go to my spots. He says, No. I was like, Oh I thought we agreed. He nods to me, and says sucks to be you. Horrible tournament ever. I zeroed that day. Day 2 went better.
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