End of a Marathon – Lessons from Tournament Day

End of a Marathon: Tournament Day Gone Wrong

Sure, we’ve all had one of those days. Today was tournament day, and after a long Friday at work, we rolled into Lawrence around 9 PM—just in time to discover it was KU Graduation Weekend.

The scramble for a hotel room

First stop? No luck. It quickly became clear we might be spending the night in the truck at the ramp. As luck would have it, the very first hotel we called had an available room. We checked in, settled down, and prepped for the 4:30 AM derby wake-up.

Jump ahead to the boat ramp

All systems were checked and prepped from the last trip. Hours spent fixing brakes, tuning trolling motors, studying maps, prepping rods and baits. Everything was ready.

None of that matters if you don’t have the boat key.

Turns out the jacket I used to change that blown-out Goodyear Marathon tire had the boat keys in the pocket.

That pocket? Sitting 3 hours away in my truck at home.

We didn’t use my truck to tow the boat, so the keys were nowhere near the ramp. Just goes to show—it’s the little things that can make or break a day.

Salvaging the day

Couldn’t end the day like that. Too bitter to swallow without a chaser. So… we hit a local hole and found some fish on topwater. Bagged this girl with a Rebel Pop-R. Good end to a marathon.

@ksbigbass