Rockport Trout Tournament

[T-Boz]

Was absolutely stoked to take 1st place in the rockport tournament today only to be disqualified on a technicality. Apparently you have to have the monster trout to turn in for measurement it doesn’t actually count if it’s pulling your brand new fishing pole around at the bottom of the lake! Anywho, I took my 4 seat razor for the trip and made it onto the ice just fine despite the weight had no issues and had no need to call Jake from State Farm as I kept the thing above ice which is always a blessing! Fishing was rather slow for my buddy and I we arrived at 5am along with 100 other folks in the dark, one fisherman was so excited for the tourney he missed the hard right turn going into the park and ended up in the river! Hope he got towed out and was still able to get some fishing in. We fished in 25 FOW to 35 FOW catching about 15 perch between the 2 of us but while I was away from my pole a monster probably 30-77 inches or so ripped my pole into the abyss and was never seen again. When I got back to my hole I was scratching my head a bit as I was mostly certain there was a fishing pole there when I left. I put another in its place and pretty soon I was pulling in a healthy 18” rainbow! I cruised him over to the weigh in tent only barely missing 1st place by 4 3/4 inches! Overall we had a great time in the contest and the fish came home for dinner. Cajun perch tacos and lemon pepper trout! 

I had a pole taken through the hole by a big one last year at Rockport.  A few hours later, the kid near me hooked my line and pulled both the fish and the pole back out through the hole!  Backyard Boy T.V. caught the whole thing on video and posted it on youtube.  The fish was a big, pretty 21" 'bow.  My dad almost lost his pole a couple weeks later.  Those fish in Rockport, although lethargic, can be aggressive buggars!  I've made some tethers with carabiners and cord that I now always hook to my poles and my buckets or chairs.  Hopefully it will prevent such thievery in the future.  Sounded like a good time regardless.

I believe I read about this story last year that is some awesome luck!! With 700 other fishermen on the lake that day I was hoping for that but no such luck! I will be tethering my poles from now on for sure! It was my first ice tournament and it was a blast!!