S.O.B. results at Buckeye

I was dead tired after our tournament on Buckeye Lake Saturday, which is why I didn't get his written up until Sunday night. More on that later; first the results.
We had 30 anglers (29 members and one guest compete on a day that saw 26 of them weigh in 97 fish and with nine five-fish limits recorded. All of the top five had limits.
Bob Fulks won the event with 7 pounds, 15.2 ounces, but then second through fifth were divided by only about 4 ounces.
Guest Jerry Mossman finished second with 7 pounds, 3.2 ounces; Shaun Magers took third with 7 pounds, 1.8 ounces; Kenny Fulks placed fourth with 7 pounds, 1 ounce, and Kevin Samson was fifth with 6 pounds, 15.6 ounces.
Big Bass was a 2-pound, 11.2-ounce fish caught by Jeremy Parrish.
I had one of those days, or rather one of those weeks. When I fished the Pete Taylor Memorial Tournament the week before, I had very little trolling motor power I was sure I had charged the batteries, but something was wrong. When I checked things out, I discovered I either had a dead battery or one bank of the charger wasn't working. When I disconnected the batteries found that one was stone dead, so I had to replace it. I was also right about the charger: one bank isn't working.
Then, the first place I went to, I lost the first keeper I had on. Not good way to start, but at least I was right about fish being there. It didn't help that I saw another angler catch three keeper bass in water I had just fished over.
Then, after I had put one keeper in the boat, I hooked into a good fish. It took me under a dock, but I was able to get it out past the dock post and I could tell it was a good fish -- at least 3 pounds. I got it to the boat and was just reaching for the net when it came up again and came off. A little while later, about 20 yards from where I lost the big fish, I finally hooked another and this time put a 17-incher in the boat.
At the weigh-in it was 2 pounds, 15 ounces, but I lost out on the big bass award because it was dead (we give an 8-ounce deduction for dead fish). More on that in a minute.
I finally left there and tried a couple other spots, but only caught a small fish or two until I went into a channel I hadn't fished yet this year.
I started fishing a small craw and almost immediately lost another keeper. That didn't help my mood any, but I kept fishing the area and put my third keeper in the boat. Unfortunately, I also lost a good keeper. That made four I had lost.
My next stop was unproductive and I had time to hit one more area if I did it quickly.
I worked to the back of another channel and got my fourth keeper, but I was out of time. And when I opened the livewell to put it in, I discovered the wort news of the day: One bass was dead and another - the big one -- looked like it wouldn't make it.
I don't know what happened. I have never lost a fish in this boat's livewell. I don't know if I had failed to turn on the recirculation pump after I had pumped in some fresh water earlier in the afternoon, or if the fish were stressed from spawning or something else.

On top of it all, my weigh-in bag (a heavy black one) blew out of the boat on my way down the lake and I didn't notice until I got to the ramp.
As it was I finished 12th. If I hadn't had to two dead fish I would only have been 9th, but i would have had big bass. And if I hadn't lost that bigger fish, I would have won the tournament. Of course, I wasn't the only one to have lost a good fish, but it's still hard not to think that way. I just have to put it behind me and think about fishing Delaware Sunday.
Of the fish I weighed in, the big one hit a Big-O crankbait, two were caught on a small hand-poured craw (black and blue) and the other hit a green pumpkin hand-poured soft stickbait.