2019 Due South Classic 3rd Place
2nd Annual Due South Classic Boone, NC March 9, 2019
Well I had only eaten about 5 ribs and a small portion of steamed vegetables for lunch, had skipped breakfast that morning and was anxiously awaiting our dinner at Basils on Friday night in Boone. This dinner was a fund raiser for a greenway project that would allow additional public access to the local river there. It was a great cause, but…………………………..the highly anticipated dinner was not a dinner at all…………..it was only hors d’oevres. I had been on a no/low carb diet the past few weeks and almost all food offered involved some sort of bread or cracker. I was out of luck, but was having such a good time that I just went the rest of the night without eating. So for a fun little Rog fact, with my metabolism, I simply cannot go long periods of time without eating. If stranded at sea in a life boat, like you see some people in the movies that survive months with no food, I wouldn’t last two days. I get so sick and lethargic that my body just completely shuts down. Needless to say shortly after going to bed later that night, the onslaught of the low blood sugar vomits began. All night and most of the morning, I just didn’t think I was going to remain among the living, much less fish! So early that morning while during the pre-comp meeting, I sat in the car while Tiffany and Peyton went inside to get the rules and to do the beat draw. I felt like the grim reaper was waiting just outside the car door.
We had stopped at a McDonalds on the way to the gathering, so I tried eating tiny bites of a biscuit, while taking small sips of an ice cold Coca Cola. Little by little I began to feel better and started to regain some energy. Tiffany and Peyton come back to the car, and it looks like we drew beat 2 in Valle Crucis Park. This tournament had an interesting twist, where each individual needs to catch as many fish as possible, can select any ten fish over the course of the event to measure, and can only carry 25 flies for the entire day. Since I neglected to attend the rules meeting, I was thoroughly confused in the beginning. Most “measure ten” tournaments I had been to involved measuring ten fish each session……….but this was each competitor can measure ten fish all day. These little details can dramatically alter your strategy.
Dragging my self down to the water, I slowly rigged up for the Beat 2 at our drawn venue. The temps were cold, the water was cold and I knew that typical winter time techniques would be the ticket (to learn these techniques and plenty more click here) and it definitely was. As I suffered to recover, I caught 32 fish in the hour and a half session that we had and Peyton caught 3 to end the session with 35 fish. This start should get us near the top and with a decent 2nd session, should have us on the podium for the tournament.
After Lunch Session: After lunch the sun came out a little more, but the wind had picked up quite a bit.Beat 5 was relatively short, with only what I would say two small holding spots being a very small spot at the very bottom and a tiny spot at the top. The water had warmed up a little and we were able to utilize several different techniques to maximize our catch rates for a beat that offered little in holding water and that had been worked over pretty well in the previous session. I ended up getting 17 out of the session and Peyton caught three more for a total of 20. I figured that we had done enough to get on the podium but maybe not quite enough to finish at the very top of the podium.
All in all, it was a great competition for an excellent cause and we managed to take home a 3rd place plaque.
The thing that really excites me about each and every competition, is what I take away once it’s over. You seem to learn a little here and a little there at each and every day on the water. The competitions force you to narrow your focus on what worked, what didn’t, and what might have, as opposed to just going out pleasure fishing and not really thinking much about results. If you would like a complete breakdown of these two sessions, what flies I used, the techniques I employed and why etc. please join our members only team where you can learn all the various techniques that I have learned over the years from some of the greatest anglers on the planet, gain access to all of my notes from every competition that I have fished over the years with beat analysis and detailed break downs, and get 20% off in our online store and many more benefits.
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