MY WORST DAY OF BASS FISHING
Worst Days of Bass Fishing for Paul Elias and David
Fritts
 Editor's
Note: You're suppose to have fun when you fish for bass.
When you go bass fishing, you don't expect to find yourself
chained to a wall in a medieval dungeon to learn how
much torture you can endure. However, many anglers earn
their living professionally fishing for bass. Their
vocations and jobs mean they have to go to work when
they don't want to, fish in bad, nasty weather and endure
sickness, disaster and disappointment as parts of their
jobs, although most of us think of bass fishing as recreation.
You may think that you've had a bad day of fishing before
or fished in a really-bad bass tournament. But once
you read the experiences of some of America's best bass
fishermen and learn what's happened to them on their
worst days of fishing or during the worst tournaments
they've ever fished, your bad day of bass fishing may
not seem so bad.
 Paul
Elias: Pachuta, Mississippi, native Paul Elias's winnings
on the BASS circuit exceed $1/2-million. The 1982 Bassmaster
Classic winner has fished in the Classic 14 times. "The
last day of the 1994 Bassmaster Classic in Greensboro,
North Carolina, was the worst day of bass fishing I'd
ever had," Elias recalls. "I wasn't doing
great in the tournament, but I was in a position to
win - if I could have a good day and catch a lot of
bass. I got bites all day long, but I just couldn't
catch those bass. I had enough bites and hooked enough
fish to have weighed in a 20-pound stringer of bass
and win the tournament, but I only put one 3-pound bass
in the boat. I don't know what happened, and why I  performed
so poorly, but I know I've never had a day when I've
gotten more bites and missed more bass. What makes it
even worse was on my worst day of bass fishing, I had
the opportunity to win the Bassmaster Classic if I had
just had an average day of fishing. I'll never forget
that day and what might have been."
David Fritts: Fifty-six-year-old David Fritts, of Lexington,
North Carolina, has all-time BASS winnings of almost
$860,000. Fritts, who won the Classic in 1993, received
the Angler-of-the-Year title in 1994. "Last year
I was fishing the Elite 50 tournament in  Columbus,
Mississippi, and I'd had a great day of fishing,"
Fritts explains. "I'd caught one of the biggest
limits of bass taken that day, and I was on my way to
the weigh-in. However, to get back to the weigh-in site,
I had to go through a lock. When I got to the lock,
there was a barge in it, and the lock gate was shut.
So, there was no way for me to reach the weigh-in on
time. For two hours, I sat outside that lock gate and
waited on that barge, and I realized I couldn't get
to the weigh-in to weigh my fish. I probably would've
finished the day in the top five. But when I arrived
at the weigh-in, I was so late that I had to release
all of my bass and didn't get to weigh in a single fish.
As I sat outside that lock, I thought to myself, 'Bass
fishing doesn't get any worse than this. I've got what
could be the winning stringer of fish, and I've worked
hard all day to catch them. Now I won't even get to
weigh them.' "
TOMORROW: LEARN MORE ABOUT PROS' WORST DAYS OF BASS
FISHING
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