Late last week, Dennis Sherrin and I returned to the Tennessee River in pursuit of white bass. We got to our spot and waited, and waited. As we were about to give up, the fish started breaking on the surface. Their was about 20 minutes of daylight left and we caught several using small top water lures, spinners, and twister tail grubs.
Saturday afternoon I made plans to wet a line with Larry Gabbard, a local resident of South of the River, and his son-in-law, David Scalia. As a side adventure I also needed to gather some driftwood to complete some taxidermy projects, so I recruited them to help. We arrived at Tellico Lake and as luck would have it, there was a FLW bass tournament going on at this time. There were hundreds of vehicles in the parking lot and the ramp area was packed. We decided to launch the boat grab some driftwood and clear out before the crowds would return for the weigh in.
The driftwood hunting was going well and we found some nice pieces for mounting of ducks. We made one more stop close to the ramp and we started to notice that the bass boats were rocketing back to the ramp. We decided to head back and try to beat the crowds before the weigh in began. I took over the controls of the green john boat from Larry and slowly backed away from the bank. I tried to shift the transmission from reverse to forward to head back toward the ramp when I got the sinking feeling that all of us have felt at one time or another. The boat motor transmission simply would not go into forward gear.
So let me set the scene for you, three full grown guys in a john boat, loaded with driftwood and fishing rods with a motor stuck in reverse about a quarter of a mile from the boat ramp. Add to this about fifty or so bass boats with throttles wide open and heading toward the bank and weigh-in. So being the improviser that I am, I chose the only thing that any logical thing that a self respecting outdoorsman would do and began joining the race back to the ramp in reverse. As you may suspect, running wide open in reverse for a quarter of mile against the current is probably not the best thing you can do for an outboard boat motor. Shortly into this reverse ride to the ramp, the motor began acting up and back firing. Each backfire would be followed by a large puff of blue smoke. With the boat loaded with driftwood, it looked like a huge porcupine on fire. As we approached the ramp I noticed that a crowd had formed and that the weigh in had begun. However, I also noticed that not many folks were paying much attention to the $30,000 bass boats or 3 lb bass being checked in. For the rest of the time that it took us to get to the ramp, get the trailer into the water and get the boat onto the trailer, all eyes were on the smoking, belching, reverse geared porcupine boat. I am not sure if the looks were from disbelief, pity, or disgust. I believe we may have even made the local news coverage of the tournament as a television camera was nearby.
We surveyed the problem with the motor, made some repairs and decided to head back out. We decided that the best plan was to catch some bait and try our luck. We launched below the dam and caught about 9 shad for bait; which was not an easy task considering that on the previous trip earlier in the week I had lost my bait tank and new throw net. Needless to say it blew out of the boat on the trip home after dark. As a backup, I went to one of my old cast nets but didn’t check its condition prior to leaving the house. It quickly become apparent that with all the holes and patches that my old throw net should have been thrown in the trash long ago. However, we persevered and began fishing. 
Now finally onto the fishing, David’s first cast landed him a 20 lb striper. Larry’s first fish was a large blue catfish followed by a couple stripers. David insisted that I use the last couple of bait fish. They brought me some luck with one striper and a broken line (it was a big one, promise).
Also near the dam, the Hickory shad and white bass were breaking and several people were fishing for them. We decided that we had about enough fun for one evening, were very late for dinner and decided to wait until next time.
Take someone fishing, Greg