My week at Clear Lake, long...

[Mike Tuck]

First of all thanks to all of you who encouraged me throughout the week on this site and at the event. Secondly I forgot to mention a few people who were instrumental in this win and would like to use this forum to publicly thank a couple of great friends. First of all the guy who got things rolling for me was John Harper, I was boat 9 on day 1 and had a 6 lber to start on in a slough in the north end of the lake that I saw john in late on friday. He didn't however see the fish I found and I hadn't seen what he found. Following the draw he told me I might want to look in a few small areas for a few big fish. Well I didn't find those fish but I did catch my 1st day big fish of 6 1/2 lbs. while looking for them, and this helped me realize the potential of this spot. So thanks John and Congratulations on winning Angler of th Year!!! 2nd I would like to thank my team partner Russ Snyders, we had fished several events together leading up to this event, and we worked together throughout the week of the tournament and with the information we shared, together we both learned valuable information which lead us both to good finishes.

My 1st day partner was Chris Sisto, who was a heck of a guy and really worked hard all day for us, we started off with the big fish, then ran to some fish near soda bay that the wind had muddied the day before, luckily it had cleared enough to see the fish, I caught 2 that were 4-4 1/2 lbs. I saw a new fish @ 6lbs, that seemed safe to save for day 2 so we went to see if my other areas had cleared, sure enough I was able to catch another 4-4 1/2 lber. which was the last fish I was to catch this day that would help there was a 2.0 lber earlier. I saved a 4.0 in this area for D2 as well. It was only @12:30 as I remember and I was able to try for a big frog fish in the lakeport area all afternoon but it never happened. while frogging I found another 5lber that I decided to save for D2. The last thing I did was returned to my starting area with the frog, I hated the fact that I had saved all these big fish for D2 and still had a 2.0 in the well. Same story again no frog fish but I did locate a 5-6 lber. to start on on D2.

Day 2 I fish with a Guy about the same age as me from southern cal named Brian Linehan. I could not have kept it together on sunday without him, he was everything anyone in my shoes could have wished for in a partner with a boat on the line. I started on the 5-6 , while working on her brian gets a 2.0 on the frog, I soon get the fish and its 5.0 lbs, and I get another small one on a frog a few moments later. so we have 3 now and one good one we leave to start checking all of the fish from saturday, I work on a 5lber for @1 1/2 hours before giving up and I caught the buck about 1.5 lbs.
We go to leave and the big motor won't turn over, dead cranking battery. brian jumps my batteries with my trolling motor batteries and now were back in business although still uneasy about the big motor starting off of the trolling batteries. we return to where I started every day to finish off my limit on some small beds. then we went to check on a big one I saw earlier while working on the 5.0, no luck but a 7 1/2 is now 5 feet away under a gangway and is solid, so I commit to this fish and fortunatley it only took @ 15 minutes and we net her and cull a 1.30 were now at 17.25, go and check a spooky 4 and 3 they are now locked something fierce, problem is the closest I can get is like 8 feet away because of obstacles among them was a piece of 5/8 rebar which I have to go over. I lost my focus on these 2 and foul hook the female, so back goes about a 4 lber never to be seen again, next cast I hook the male and lose him while trying to pull him over the metal bar. On the way out of the slough I hook and lose a frog fish between 5 - 7 lbs. I'm normally pretty cool under pressure but this was a little much and I'm really falling apart now. Then my luck changed, I remembered a 5 lber in lakeport from the day before and on the way in brian sees a nice fish @ 3 lbs we figure, we decide to come back after checking the other fish. shes right there and couldn't have been any easier she went 5 lbs, back goes a 1.70, we check the previous fish and I hook her after about 15 minutes and shes bigger than 3.0, she went 5 lbs also, Im now over 23 1/2 lbs.
The rest was pretty uneventful, but what an emotional roller coaster this week was from only catching 4 fish in practice to leading on day 1 ,comming unglued and blowing the tournament on day 2 and finally recovering and putting it away.

Thanks again for the support fellas.

Mike Tuck

[sTony]

Sounds like a true roller coaster and emotional ride! Thanks for taking the time to post the story here and best of luck at the Championship event.

sTony

[Brandon Gee]

Well done. Thanks for the story.

Brandon Gee

PS Threepeat?

[Bob Simard]

Outstanding effort Tuck - I was on the pond for 8 days before game day and spent the last 4 including the tourney on those frog fish.... only got one to eat, a 5-er on Saturday. Didn't figure her out. You did - hats off to you (I'll spend next spring following you around - haha!)

Great Job - Regards,

Bob Simard

[Hipster]

on the forum Great Job!! See ya at the boat shop!!

Mark

[Pat]

Great job! And thanks for sharing!

Pat

[SABP]

Mike,

Great job under tough conditions to win. Also thanks for sharing your story on the forum. Keep it up.

Damon
SABP

[Johnny C]

Great story man..Tournament fisherman love this stuff....Congratulations on a super job!!!!!..Johnny C

[Dewayne]

and thanks for sharing the story.

[DDawg]

Good job buddy.
Congrats on the wire to wire!
Dave

[Brian Linehan]

I have to say that I had a great day fishing with Mike on Day 2 of the tournament. He was an excellent fisherman, cool as hell, and I'm glad he pulled it off. I haven't fished on the AM side for years and was very happy to draw such a class act. Initially, I was worried that I would draw someone who would backseat me, but that wasn't the case with Mike. I felt as if I was fishing with my team partner (my twin Kevin) and not somebody I had just met a day earlier. Thanks for everything Mike and I learned a lot from you. Call me anytime and lets get out to Mead over the summer.

Tight Lines,
Brian