At the end of this busy summer where it’s been a little too much science and not quite enough fishing, I want to share with you a pretty cool experience I had. Our club was hosting a larger multi-club tournament out of Turkey Point (Long Point Bay) on Lake Erie. I had decided not to fish as a competitor in this event as a) I was acting as tournament director and b) I had volunteered to pilot the “film boat” for Tom Martin and Brent Murdoch from GameChasersTV. Tom and Brent had joined up with our club to film an episode on grass roots tournament bass fishing for their show. First off, I have to thank my brother Doug for letting me borrow “Big Sexy” – his 18.5 foot Crestliner Big Tiller for the day. The boat worked flawlessly on the big water and provided a big, smooth, stable platform for the film crew to work off of. It was very interesting watching Tom and Brent go about the business of getting footage throughout the day, from the film boat, on competitors boats, via their drone etc. They took many, many hours of footage both on tournament day and on a day prefishing with some of our club members just to get enough for 22 minutes of showtime.
The bonus part of this experience for me was it allowed me to just sit and watch all of these talented anglers go about their tournament fishing process. I wasn’t out there to steal their secrets but I must say I learned a bit watching them – both good habits and bad. It was interesting being able to speak with them and be let in on some of their strategies as well – try doing that when you don’t have a film crew in your boat and I’m sure people will be much more tight lipped!
The episode won’t air until next year, hopefully I can share some footage after that happens.
Tom Martin (with camera) on the action on a competitors boat.
Brent Murdoch following the action.
Blast off!
View from the lead boat heading out.