(Sunday April 15, 2007)

Who’s teaching who?

By: Randy Williams

The tournament season is here and as with everything else in life you hear both sides of the issue. You have those of us who enjoy the competition and camaraderie amongst friends and fellow fisherman and then you have the rest who just don’t see the big picture.

In my opinion tournament fishing has brought so much to the industry some good some bad. One of the best and most environmentally sound reasons is the practice of catch and release. Not that many years ago it was considered foolish to release a fish. Believe me when I released that first 5 pound bass my Dad asked me what in the H-e double toothpicks we were fishing for if I was going to just throw it away. It’s only because of this practice that we are able to enjoy this sport to the extent that we do today!

There are so many other reasons; including the rapid evolution of lures, motors, lines, rods, reels, the list goes on. One of my biggest reasons for tournament fishing is spending time with my son Chad; whether it is fishing with him or standing on the side lines watching his success.

Chad has been fishing walleye tournaments for years; he has several techniques but his favorite technique is drift jigging. Chad utilized this technique while fishing a recent tournament near Orahula (downstream from Fremont). Chad and his partner as luck would have it were boat #52 of 54 total; but yet they caught 9 fish throughout the day with three of those walleyes being keepers (two big females; and one smaller male – the rest didn’t make the 15” minimum size as was required for the tournament). They won the tournament including a tie for the ‘big fish’ pot which pocketed them a little extra cash.

Now as his father I might try to discretely mention to any listener that my son learned all about fishing from; well from ME Randy Williams! The truth is I may have pointed Chad in the right direction as a youth but as of recent Chad has been teaching me his ‘old man’ the finer points of his techniques.

On this occasion Chad even went as far as showing me his tournament winning spots and handing me the jigs to do the job…should have been a done deal right? “One fish before I have to leave or I am done fishing walleyes forever” whispered the voices in my head (of which there are many); I ended up with one lousy 14” walleye the last second before I had to leave.

I really don’t know where this story has gone it started out about tournaments and their perceptions, jumped to my son’s success, and spiraled right to my short comings as a walleye fisherman. Confused; me too, but you know what its fishing and it doesn’t have to make sense. I am proud of my son Chad and tournaments do play a roll in this; its not the only reason but it is one of them.