Topic: Topic about Ike on BBC Board

Participant

My Day with IKE I got lucky at Oneida and when I went to the board after day one and yep I was with him. It wasnt hard to find him he is always parked at the Yamaha trailer. (more on that later) I approached him and introduced myself and he was incredibly nice and introducing himself and went through everything we would be doing that next day.We are now on water waiting to launch in the mix of all the boats. It is amazing how every set of eyes there is on his boat. Guys waiving and yelling go IKE. He settles in around 50 feet from launch boat and hits some rocks with his motor. “oops” we were boat 33 so we are through quick and idling away from the beach area. He hits more rocks “there are too many F ing rocks in this place”We get to the first place quickly and start fishing. His game plan is frogging all day. He pulls in on a dock and starts frogging, He hits the dock and I quickly say “Mike when you throw there can I cast behind you there. He says “Dude you F ing fish, if you F up and do something stupid I will let you know. Otherwise you F ing fish and do your thing.He quickly boats a 4 pounder and is jumping and yelling giant. I grab the net and net it and he is pumped. We are now in heavy weeds and pads so it is easier for me to fish. When he is on shoreline and trolling on high you have to be perfect with every cast.He sets hook on another one. Yells giant and backs down into center and then up on back deck with me. I swear he was rubbing against me as I get around him to grab the net and net it. “maybe a 2 pounder” We start again and I have a blow up he had a beaver he was flipping in his hand and flips right where it blew up, keeper 3 a 2 pounder. I go and get 2 more blow ups and I follow it with something slow and of course nothing. He is like dude what color you using they like it. I cast again and hook up and he is quick with the net to net my first one about 2 3/4. The dam camera boat was coming in to us. Two minutes later and I would have been on web page with fish. We each get another blow up and he hooks up with the small one you saw on the web page pictures. We move and he gets none I pick up number 2. He is like dude did you get that off that corner piling? I said yes he is like “I F ing hit that” Now the wind is Howling right out of the east and I realize its gonna be rough and might be a struggle. We bounce all over he gets a few more keepers, nothing big and i cant get my third for my limit yet. I skip a dock he missed and set hook on good fish only wrong species.He is now running and gunning looking for weed mats and skipping an occasional dock that comes up. (let me tell you, my day one guy left plenty on the bone for me when I showed him some docks. With IKE the bone is clean. As we are fishing he is super nice, I can talk and ask him anything I want. He gladly talks and is not all about just fishing. He asks about me what I do, family, etc. I asked him about his show and tell him how much I like it and unfortunately he tells me he is done with it. I asked him if it was his idea to start it and here it was the producer and owner that came to him and they put it together. IKE was never the owner so he could say it was his show. He was only the host. They could not agree on terms of ownership so he left. He has a new show coming out in the winter of 2013 called Going Ike. City Limits will continue with a new host. He said his favorite places to fish are Champlain and Guntersville. . All throughout the day he is also explaining everything to me about conditions, this that etc. Throughout this, (its now about 1030) he has run aground another 8-10 times. We go over to Puddygut Bay. He was never in there. He is running wide open as we go in right in the middle, comes off plane and you guessed it cracks the motor again, he looks at me and laughs and says “my boat F ing hates me dude” We start in the middle and work back in towards the canal. He gets a 12 incher I get a good blow up and of course nothing on the follow. We work to the canal and nothing. He starts it up right out in front of where that huge concrete thing is “if you know where that is” he gets up on plane, I am like holy sh#t we r dead. He runs 50 yards off shore back to where we start and of course hits rocks coming off plane. Its now 1130 and I am not worried but because he is flying I start to think I am in a little trouble but remain confident and keep fishing. He quickly has a good blow up and throws in behind it sets the hook and starts jumping all over, GIANT, huge fish, he is all over, telling me to get the net. He is standing it. I go to him “your in the dam net. I get net and net it and he gets a 4 pounder. He starts laughing, He is now 3 for 3 with following a blow up slow and I am 0 for who knows lol. I get another blow up and of course it doesnt eat it and the follow is no good. He gets 2 more small ones. I get a big blow up see the bass, wait and set hook into the one I need. Good fish I tell him he is on deck with net. Halfway in off she comes. I keep my cool, but he goes nuts. You can guess a few of the things he said He was more upset than me. I of course knew when that fish came off I just lost a chance at winning. I had that feeling. It was a good 3-3 1/2 fish.We ran that out and no more. We head down lake. There are 5 footers and he is driving like he stole it. I cant lie, his basscat rode nice, but you can only do so much in weather like that. He tickles one and we get a little wet, I am raingeared up, he is not. I saw the next coming and had my head down. He DRILLS one. It was like getting knocked over at the beach with water. Never loses a beat, still on the gas screaming ” F ing yes, that was F ing awesome!!! That will wake you the F up. He is SOAKED he had a hood on and I guess rainpants. We get downlake and nothing we then run down lake more and over to otherside its about 130 with a 3 oclock weigh in. We hit some deep water stuff and he says we need to go shallow and look. He finds some good mats and he picks up the senko rod and hits a dock and gets hung. He goes in to get it and breaks about 8 inches off the rod. He curses out the dock and rod. He uses the white abu garcia rods I say so Mike what do you do send the rod back to Abu and they send you new one? He says “F no dude, I just throw it in the dumpster. (A friend texted me and asked me to get his autograph for his son Parker) I say to him can I ask a favor and he says you bet anything. I explain my friends son is a huge fan of yours. Would you mind autographing that for him. He was like dude, that would be F ing awesome, I would love to”.Now he is strictly frog I think to myself I have to get my fish here or I may go home with nothing. He is on high, so you only get one shot so you have to be perfect or you get nothing. out of a 5 dock stretch I get to hit 3 of them with nothing. I see a pontoon boat coming up with about 6 inches under it, it is on a lift. We have 2 docks before that one. I hit the first one and dont bother with the second cause I want to hit that boat. He is like ok dude we r out of here. I think to myself NO NO I gotta hit that. He is off trolling motor and with the momentum we drift towards it. He puts his rod down and I look at my cast. Its long I cant get where I want but a perfect cast I could get about 3 feet under. Luckily he did something so I have a second I let it and rip it goes about 2 feet under. I put the rod down and put my lifejacket on. Pick it up and feel weigh and set hook. Ike I got one. He hops up on back deck and nets it. “F ing yes dude, where the F did you get that, I saw you put your vest on” I told him so he says “ok, we are staying here” This was the only time during the day I questioned what he was doing. He wanted to hit the docks. There was a good 8-10 docks left. Based on my opinion, they looked real good on what I look for. He buzzed them. Never worked them. I thought he wasted about 20 minutes there.We run back uplake with about 30 minutes left. I get a few real good looks under some pontoon boats and docks. Neither of us score. He hits a dock out on the island. 10 minutes left We head back in. It is like an amusement park ride I look at his GPS its 2:51 he goes past the beach and says we have time and runs back up to the corner by 81 for about 5 casts. its now 2:58 and we have to be at beach at 3. He says its one minute fast. He flies just off shore to try and keep it in the water. We hit ramp area and he has to go out around the markers and into beach as the clock hits 3. We make it just on time.He says we are probably both a fish short. I know I am not fishing Sat, but I should get a decent check. As soon as we pull in the photographers are in his boat snapping pics, everyone is coming over to ask him how he did. He weighs in 13.13 I weigh in 6.2 with my three. It takes at least 30 minutes for him to get back to the boat with giving reports and signing autographs.MY PERSONNEL THOUGHTSI honestly liked his show since I started watching it. Like a lot of people I thought his screaming was theatrical at times. After spending a day on the water with him I think it is really who he is. Every fish he hooked was a giant he hopped all over the boat with his hooksets. He caught about 15 fish throughout the day. He ran aground over 15 times, we got stuck on rocks once or twice. He drove it like he stole it. When we got to weigh in he looks at me and says are you ok, I laughed and said i am fine. I felt like swinging back cause someone kicked my a*s.Once I backed his trailer in I take it right to the Yamaha trailer. His prop is shot. He spins it and says the shaft is ok, the mechanic comes out and Ike tells me he loves me too. The guy goes to work Ike gets in his boat and I go get my truck. He is retying as I unload my stuff. A guy comes over with about a 11 yr old boy and asks for a photo. He jumps out of the boat and says you bet takes some pics and talks with them. He gets done and I get unloaded. He gets the rod and I luckily had a black sharpie in my truck and signs it for Parker. He wrote never give up. It looks really nice on the white rod. In hindsight is IKE the guy you wanna fish with if you have a chance at winning, I would say for sure no. (You would be much better with a no name person who is on fish offshore. While he is an incredibly nice guy, and talks and explains on the water. He is there for him. He doesnt ask are you ok back there, hey cast over there. Had we been out on a shoal or weedbed it might have been different. But when they are on one thing like that it is incedibley difficult to fish, (I am not blowing my horn, but I am very happy to say I fished with one of the best in the world and held my own and caught a limit behind him) Was I upset I lost that fish and not fishing today. Sure I am. If I made the final day it would have been my third final day in a row. (Chesapeake, Erie and Oneida) But it was also on a frog and you know what frog fishing is like. Did I beat my wife when I got home or am I pissed now (or even when I left the parking lot) not at all. When you go as a co angler you always say i would love to get with an Elite, I always said I would love to fish with IKE. I even told a few people that years ago when i started doing the opens. So to me if I didnt get a check, it was still worth the $350 entry fee. I dont know how much I got I didnt stay for the check I came in 22nd. Next years schedule is James River, Detroit River and Cayuga.Ike is an incredible person. I have fished a few opens the last two years. When you see him he is always posing for pictures and signing autographs. He never leaves until everyone is happy. You can say what you want about the way he acts on the water. He cursed, oh well so does most everyone else. He is a great representative of our sport. He is one of the biggest names in the business and still fishes the opens. Everyone wants to meet him, have a pic and chat with him. He makes sure that everyone is happy when they leave him. I think that means something today in this business. Well thats my story I am sure I missed a few things, but I really had a blast. Ike is an incredibly nice guy and I will not say a bad word about him. Would I have liked to fish today, sure I would. Would I trade IKE for someone else yesterday. Not a chance, it was a day and an experience I will never forget!BrianHAWG Hunter2013 BassCat Eyra2013 Mercury 250 Pro XS Gen2 L/U