First let me explain,G-man: My oldest son's nick name, in this note I'm shortening it to G because I'm to lazy to type Garrison or G-man.
Choma Moment: An unexpected, unbelievable event that happens while Bass fishing for fun, or in a tournament. This was coined from adding my name with one of my fishing buddies nickname, "Coma", which is a whole other story, hence the name, "Choma." It's corny but it's stuck with me and my fishing buddies and even their other fishing buddies. It's also a lure company Keith Stevens, Jeremy Stevens, and I to an extent started.
This note is note being written by a proud father, or to boast, or to even sell Choma baits. It's just an unbelievable story and events that happened when I took my oldest son to fish in his first Tournament with his old man. A day God literally reached down and blessed a father and his son. I'm also writing it to have a record of it as well.The Wiregrass Bass Trail, sponsored and ran by Sportsman Outfitters, had it's February Tournament at Lake Eufaula this past Saturday the 12th. Already having other T's(tournaments) planned this month and the wife on me about fishing so much, I came up with the ultimate plan, take your son fishing so you can.
With a 29 degree outside temp, a high of only 56, 8-12 mph winds expected, and muddy water from recent rains, Eufaula is not a place to take your kid for his first Tournament right now. G of course didn't care, he was ready. We blasted off as boat# 12 from Lakepoint and set off on a 20 minute ride to the south end of the lake to get out of the muddy water. G was bundled up and I brought a thick sleeping bag that he covered up under and laid in the bottom of the boat during the ride. Water temp's were anywhere from 43 to 47 degrees. Tough fishing and not many bites when it's that cold so you got to make them count.
We started out in White Oak and fished for 3-4 hours with no luck. Moving on to several other spots running and gunning but shooting blanks we rode to the Georgia side of the lake around 11 am. Now I'm frustrated, I knew it would be tough but I can usually catch a small fish in that amount of time. G has fished hard the whole time. I've had to untangle his line, get him unhung from trees and docks, and even let him off on the bank for a Mother Nature call in the woods( another proud moment for me...lol, my buddies understand). G had his Ipod on the boat and never touched it, that's how focused he was.
We arrived at one of my best docks on the lake about 11:30 and G says to me, "I think this is where we'll get it going." I played it off because I've fished enough to know we were on a fast track for a goose egg and bad day on the lake. This dock has 2 boat slips in it and has always produced a small fish. I flip my jig up in the first boat slip, THUMP, the line jumps, I rear back and tell G to get the net. He jumps up, gets the net in the water and scoops the fish up, a solid 3 1/2 pound fish. He's going crazy while looking at the fish in the livewell, I flip under the other boat slip, THUMP, I set the hook and G jumps for the net, a solid 4 lber in the boat. In 2 casts we've turned the day around and lit a fire in this boy.
I think we may have found a pattern but for the next 2 hours we catch nada. It's 2 pm and weigh-in is at 3. We run back to Lakepoint and head to a spot where several Choma Moments have happened in the last hour of a tournament. The water is 44 degrees and a deep red mud color. I was hoping for at least one more decent fish and I knew we may get a top 10 out of the 30+ boats due to the conditions. Now as lucky as the 2 fish may have been earlier, I never would have expected what would happen that last 20 - 30 minutes of the tournament.
G is fishing hard. He's using a little $1 spinnerbait that he and his brother usually throw and catch a lot of small fish on when we go fun fishing. I had put a trailer hook on it just for extra sticking power if he did get a bite, even a 14 inch fish would have put us past the middle of the pack. I see some small shad flicking right on the bank, haven't seen this all day so i head for them. Where there are shad, usually there are bass. I'm clipping along pretty good and G is casting out the back of the boat. I look down at my clock, 2:30, guess we will have to see where those 2 good fish will place us. Then I hear a huge splash behind the boat, then the cry, "DADDY! DADDY! It's a fish!". I turn and G has this monster bass jumping trying to throw the spinnerbait. Now my tournament instinct kicked in and wanted to grab the rod from my rookie big bass catching son and get the fish in the boat, I mean he was using a 6' spinning rod with 10lb test line and a rinky dink hook on a spinnerbait to land this fish. But the father in me won out, I coached him and coached him, the fish took him around the boat and finally I got the net around it. G threw a fit like I've never seen,"I GOT HIM! I GOT HIM! I thought I was hung up daddy but it was a huge bass." The fish had engulfed the bait and the only hook in the fish was the trailer hook, which was only looped around a gill, no penetration anywhere, tell me God didn't want that boy to catch that fish.
This big burly, hairy, eat hot sauce on everything man, welled up with tears. As excited as he was, i was twice that way inside. It's 2:45 now and I was hoping to get one more from the area since we were only 5 minutes from the weigh-in. I changed to a spinnerbait similar to his but had no luck. G wanted to look at his fish so he put his rod down. I grabbed it immediately and threw it toward the bank. Not but one turn of the reel and BAM, I'm hooked up with a good fish. G almost literally does a front flip trying to get the net and I play the fish carefully because I can see it's barely hooked. I get the fish in the net and the bait comes flying out of it's mouth! G starts packing up everything so we can make it back to weigh-in.
At the weigh-in, G is grinning ear to ear. He wanted to carry the bag but it was too heavy so he follows me along side it with his hand touching it. The 4 fish weigh 16.54 lbs and wins the tournament by 3 lbs. G's bass weighs in a 5.34 lbs and winds up the 2nd or 3rd biggest bass of the tournament. That's a cool $1000 bucks in our pockets. G only wants to get some more spinnerbaits with his cut, he's hooked. Miracles happen every day, but what happened those last 20 minutes of the tournament was a literal gift from God, no doubt. Now I've had many last second catches, some won the T's some got us a high finish and a check, but that one right there may never be topped, except maybe when Will fishes with me in April in a tournament. He's already saying he'll catch a bigger and more fish than what G caught. Got to love that brotherly love.
Thank you if you suffered through reading this Dothan High School educated writer's story. This was the definition of a Choma Moment.
Thanks from one proud dad,Chad
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