TBF N.W Divisional

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Joel Alinen on May 16, 2016 at 10:53am

Big Congrats to PJ...what an awesome accomplishment!

Permalink Reply by Jake Anderson on May 16, 2016 at 12:21pm

I heard a little bit about what went down while at Potholes last weekend.  I'd like to read about it from the man himself....   If there's any truth to what I had heard regarding all the adversity overcome, then I am truly amazed.  A 3 day tournament with 2 days of official practice is a serious grind in which your mental strength is tested.  If anything at all goes sideways it is the easiest thing to fold up like a lawn chair...  To be deprived of sleep for 5 days, on a new body of water, in dangerous conditions, in somebody elses boat troubleshooting issues and still coming out on top in a field of extremely talented anglers is basically insane. 

Permalink Reply by Ryan Gates on May 16, 2016 at 4:43pm

Pj faced adversity and put a whoopin on that body of water. Way to keep your head down and keep chuggin along for an impressive victory. Congrats pj.

Permalink Reply by P.J. Koshi on May 16, 2016 at 6:03pm

Thank you guys for the kind words.  Sorry I didn't get to this sooner, been trying to recoup and spend time with my family and my girlfriend since I have been home.

First of all I would like to start by thanking two people who made this possible.  Keith Brooks for loaning me his boat and Chad for traveling with me and helping me practice.

Chad and I arrived in Cascade Locks OR on Sunday afternoon around 2pm.  We arrived to 5-8ft waves on the river and didn't even think about trying to launch. Nobody fished that day from what we saw.  Monday we launched and were able to fish 3 backwater areas before going in after approx 4 hours because I was too scared to navigate the river in the wind and wavy conditions that arose by 9am. Tuesday we launched again and were able to practice for about 6 hours because conditions were pretty good.  We practiced in the main river this time and bounced around a little bit trying to locate some decent fish.  I spent my whole practice fishing between the ramp at Cascade Locks and an area just down river from Hood. In my approx 9-10 hours of practice we caught quite a few keepers and 3 fish over 3lb.  We never once stopped to slow down we just covered water. 

The 1st day of the event I blasted off 8th and went running to my first area up river.  I pulled in and started fishing.  Had a limit of keepers in about 10 minutes.  I kept fishing my area as the wind began to build coming from the East. At this point I noticed the trolling motor was stuck on. Upon inspection the rubber boot over the switch under the button was all messed up and was keeping the switch from working properly to engaged and disengage the motor.  I removed the rubber boot and kept fishing.  By about 8:30 there were pretty good waves and I was realizing something was wrong as I had the 101 trolling motor on speed 100 and I was blowing down river 3mph and couldn't even turn the nose into the wind. My trolling batteries were out of juice almost completely at this point.  I called Keith and the tournament director and decided my best bet was to go back to the marina and get Keith to go to Walmart and get me 3 new batteries.  At this point I had a limit with 2 really good fish a decent 1 and 2 small keepers. So I made my way down river doing pretty well until I got about 1 mile from the host marina where I speared 2 waves. This was captain error as I had only driven this boat for about 10 hours and I have only driven a "real" Bass boat a handful of times. Thankfully nothing was damaged or lost but that was an experience! I met Keith and got the new batteries by 10:30 and I was too scared to run back up river in the waves so I fished nearby the marina slowly and effectively with my trolling motor working great. Right at the end of the day my co angler was up front and he turns and says the trolling motor is stuck on again.  This time the switch itself was not working. Thankfully by this time I was able to make 2 culls and went in with a 15lb bag to end day 1 of competition.  I put it on the trailer and then unhooked at the hotel so I could go to Portland and get 2 switches for the trolling motor pedal. I was sitting in 4th for WA and 21st overall after day 1. About 2.5lb behind the leader for WA and 5lb behind the leader of the event.

Day 2 was much better equipment and weather wise.  I went up river to my starting spot and was able to fish very effectively.  Only problem was there were no fish in the spot where I had found them in practice and the first day.  I had to expand my area about a mile downriver to find them again.  Again after doing that I was able to come up with a limit.  3 really good fish and 2 small keepers.  My co angler had an area he thought he could get keepers so we went there.  He was able to get 4 keepers and I was able to cull with a 2+lb fish I caught in there.  After fishing in there we bounced around a little bit and didn't get anything.  We saw a couple fish swimming around and couldn't get them to bite.  We ended the day in the same area I spent the whole second half of my first day and I was able to get a 4lb fish that culled my last small keeper. Interesting thing about that fish is my co angler only had 4 small fish and I probably had almost 14lbs when we found that fish. A few hours into the day my co angler snapped his spinning rod in half.  He asked me if I had one he could borrow for the rest of the day. I said of course and handed him a GLoomis 852 GLX spinning rod.  He tied up a dropshot and resumed fishing.  That 4lb fish late in the day was the only sight fished spawner I caught and 1 of only 3 spawning fish I weighed in over the 3 days.  The rest of my fish were pre spawn.  I saw that fish right away on its bed and knew it would help me quite a bit.  But I wanted my co angler to get a limit so I stood on the trolling motor and positioned the boat with the back in the best place to cast at it effectively.  He made a couple casts and hooked it on my GLX rod.  This fish was spawning right on the edge of a pretty serious weedline and it drug him into the weeds and came off about halfway back to the boat.  He removed the weeds and kept fishing the bed for a few minutes with no luck.  I happened to look over my shoulder and saw the fish sitting right back on it's bed positioned perfectly.  I asked my co angler if I could make a cast.  I caught that fish first cast and drug it over the weeds and into the net using a 1 power rod and 6lb test.  That ended my day and I weighed 16lbs. I was sitting in a virtual tie for the first position for WA at 31 and change. Do not know where I was in the overall standings after the second day.

Day 3 I went to blast off and the motor on my boat had been having some intermittent issues getting on pad and running at full rpm and speed.  So I step on the gas and it takes about 30 seconds to get on pad.  I go running up river to my spot with the hot foot down all the way doing 49mph when on Wednesday I did 62mph and it had a touch left in it. So I made it to my spot where I caught the 3 good fish in the morning on Thursday and I went to work with my trap.  Within the first half hour I had 3 fish that all appeared to be 4lb or bigger.  They stopped biting the trap so I picked up the other bait I had been using during the week a swimbait.  I caught a 4th fish that was pushing 5lb on the swimbait.  The wind was blowing good at this point again out of the East but my batteries were strong!  My co angler was able to pull 1 out of the spot on a tube that was about 3lb.  Then the bite slowed and we decided to bounce around a little.  I was able to get my 5th fish a 12in keeper and then cull that with a 2lb fish on a spinnerbait in an area I had seen some fish swimming around on Thursday.  My co angler fished on the front at a spot he knew well and he was able to catch a couple decent keepers there. When that slowed I asked him what he thought and he said lets hit your starting spot again. I was thinking the same so back we went.  I went thru with the Trap and Swimbait with no bites and he got no bites either. I decided to hold the boat and throw a dropshot right in the juice. I put on a 1/2 quick drop even though I was fishing 5-6ft because I wanted optimum feel of the bottom.  I hooked up another good fish and landed my 5th fish right around the 4lb mark.  At this time it was approx 10:30am.  We kept fishing and didn't get any more bites so we bounced around a little more and slowly worked our way down river toward the marina in the rough waves. At about noon or 1 the pump on my sided of the livewell stopped working.  Turned out to be a fuse and Keith had a spare in the boat.  My co angler was able to finish off his limit and cull once or twice in the area where I finished each day and we went in.  

I weighed in almost last since I was 3rd flight the last day and I dropped what I thought was 20.5lb on the scale because that was what my scale read after I weighed them all. Turned out to be 21-02 and the biggest bag of the event.  I had a big fish on 4-13oz which may or may not have been my biggest. They printed my ticket out and my 3 day total was 52-14 I believe. I believed after I caught my 4th good fish in the morning I had probably won for WA state, but I didn't think I could win the whole tournament even after I knew I had over 20.  The tournament director came up to me while we were waiting for the results to be announced and asked me what kind of boat and motor I run.  I replied Lund and Mercury and I was borrowing Keith's Ranger just for this event. As he walked away he mumbled "should have said Evinrude".  

So they announced the results and I ended up winning for WA and ended up winning the whole tournament by just over 2lb.  I felt an overwhelming amount of excitement and I felt very blessed.   

I caught fish I weighed in on a 3.8 Keitech swimbait, a Lipless crankbait, and a dropshot worm.  Also I want to point out that all of my Trap fish were caught on an Alpha Angler Rebound rod.  I didn't lose a single fish on that rod. Funny tidbit: I had never caught a bass on a trap until this past Tuesday. I really want to thank everyone for the support and well wishes during the week! Congrats to Ryan for making Nationals and from the back of the boat to boot.  

Permalink Reply by Dana Steiner on May 16, 2016 at 6:46pm

PJ,

Extremely proud of you young man, extremely proud! I know how hard you have been working and you deserve this. Enjoy the ride.

Permalink Reply by Keith Brooks on May 16, 2016 at 7:58pm

PJ did a fantastic job keeping a level head through all of the troubles and pressures! Fishing new water in a unfamiliar boat with strong current and high wind would be tough enough without the other issues that popped up. I also would like to congratulate Ryan Gates on qualifying for Nationals from the back of the boat, and thank the whole WSBF Team for a great effort and strong second place finish, this is a great group of anglers I am very pleased to be associated with. Thanks also to Charity and Samantha for their help at weigh in, as well as the fantastic meals. And Travis helping out an angler in distress, great job all around!

Permalink Reply by R Meyer on May 16, 2016 at 9:51pm

great detail, thanks for posting the story. It sounds like quite an adventure, scary part of the Columbia for sure

Permalink Reply by Austin Heyer on May 16, 2016 at 10:24pm

Awesome Job PJ!

Permalink Reply by David Parnicky on May 16, 2016 at 11:05pm

Congrats again and thanks for sharing your story, PJ! What an incredible week!

Permalink Reply by Ryan Gates on May 17, 2016 at 5:37am

Thanks pj it means alot

P.J. Koshi said:

Thank you guys for the kind words.  Sorry I didn't get to this sooner, been trying to recoup and spend time with my family and my girlfriend since I have been home.

First of all I would like to start by thanking two people who made this possible.  Keith Brooks for loaning me his boat and Chad for traveling with me and helping me practice.

Chad and I arrived in Cascade Locks OR on Sunday afternoon around 2pm.  We arrived to 5-8ft waves on the river and didn't even think about trying to launch. Nobody fished that day from what we saw.  Monday we launched and were able to fish 3 backwater areas before going in after approx 4 hours because I was too scared to navigate the river in the wind and wavy conditions that arose by 9am. Tuesday we launched again and were able to practice for about 6 hours because conditions were pretty good.  We practiced in the main river this time and bounced around a little bit trying to locate some decent fish.  I spent my whole practice fishing between the ramp at Cascade Locks and an area just down river from Hood. In my approx 9-10 hours of practice we caught quite a few keepers and 3 fish over 3lb.  We never once stopped to slow down we just covered water. 

The 1st day of the event I blasted off 8th and went running to my first area up river.  I pulled in and started fishing.  Had a limit of keepers in about 10 minutes.  I kept fishing my area as the wind began to build coming from the East. At this point I noticed the trolling motor was stuck on. Upon inspection the rubber boot over the switch under the button was all messed up and was keeping the switch from working properly to engaged and disengage the motor.  I removed the rubber boot and kept fishing.  By about 8:30 there were pretty good waves and I was realizing something was wrong as I had the 101 trolling motor on speed 100 and I was blowing down river 3mph and couldn't even turn the nose into the wind. My trolling batteries were out of juice almost completely at this point.  I called Keith and the tournament director and decided my best bet was to go back to the marina and get Keith to go to Walmart and get me 3 new batteries.  At this point I had a limit with 2 really good fish a decent 1 and 2 small keepers. So I made my way down river doing pretty well until I got about 1 mile from the host marina where I speared 2 waves. This was captain error as I had only driven this boat for about 10 hours and I have only driven a "real" Bass boat a handful of times. Thankfully nothing was damaged or lost but that was an experience! I met Keith and got the new batteries by 10:30 and I was too scared to run back up river in the waves so I fished nearby the marina slowly and effectively with my trolling motor working great. Right at the end of the day my co angler was up front and he turns and says the trolling motor is stuck on again.  This time the switch itself was not working. Thankfully by this time I was able to make 2 culls and went in with a 15lb bag to end day 1 of competition.  I put it on the trailer and then unhooked at the hotel so I could go to Portland and get 2 switches for the trolling motor pedal. I was sitting in 4th for WA and 21st overall after day 1. About 2.5lb behind the leader for WA and 5lb behind the leader of the event.

Day 2 was much better equipment and weather wise.  I went up river to my starting spot and was able to fish very effectively.  Only problem was there were no fish in the spot where I had found them in practice and the first day.  I had to expand my area about a mile downriver to find them again.  Again after doing that I was able to come up with a limit.  3 really good fish and 2 small keepers.  My co angler had an area he thought he could get keepers so we went there.  He was able to get 4 keepers and I was able to cull with a 2+lb fish I caught in there.  After fishing in there we bounced around a little bit and didn't get anything.  We saw a couple fish swimming around and couldn't get them to bite.  We ended the day in the same area I spent the whole second half of my first day and I was able to get a 4lb fish that culled my last small keeper. Interesting thing about that fish is my co angler only had 4 small fish and I probably had almost 14lbs when we found that fish. A few hours into the day my co angler snapped his spinning rod in half.  He asked me if I had one he could borrow for the rest of the day. I said of course and handed him a GLoomis 852 GLX spinning rod.  He tied up a dropshot and resumed fishing.  That 4lb fish late in the day was the only sight fished spawner I caught and 1 of only 3 spawning fish I weighed in over the 3 days.  The rest of my fish were pre spawn.  I saw that fish right away on its bed and knew it would help me quite a bit.  But I wanted my co angler to get a limit so I stood on the trolling motor and positioned the boat with the back in the best place to cast at it effectively.  He made a couple casts and hooked it on my GLX rod.  This fish was spawning right on the edge of a pretty serious weedline and it drug him into the weeds and came off about halfway back to the boat.  He removed the weeds and kept fishing the bed for a few minutes with no luck.  I happened to look over my shoulder and saw the fish sitting right back on it's bed positioned perfectly.  I asked my co angler if I could make a cast.  I caught that fish first cast and drug it over the weeds and into the net using a 1 power rod and 6lb test.  That ended my day and I weighed 16lbs. I was sitting in a virtual tie for the first position for WA at 31 and change. Do not know where I was in the overall standings after the second day.

Day 3 I went to blast off and the motor on my boat had been having some intermittent issues getting on pad and running at full rpm and speed.  So I step on the gas and it takes about 30 seconds to get on pad.  I go running up river to my spot with the hot foot down all the way doing 49mph when on Wednesday I did 62mph and it had a touch left in it. So I made it to my spot where I caught the 3 good fish in the morning on Thursday and I went to work with my trap.  Within the first half hour I had 3 fish that all appeared to be 4lb or bigger.  They stopped biting the trap so I picked up the other bait I had been using during the week a swimbait.  I caught a 4th fish that was pushing 5lb on the swimbait.  The wind was blowing good at this point again out of the East but my batteries were strong!  My co angler was able to pull 1 out of the spot on a tube that was about 3lb.  Then the bite slowed and we decided to bounce around a little.  I was able to get my 5th fish a 12in keeper and then cull that with a 2lb fish on a spinnerbait in an area I had seen some fish swimming around on Thursday.  My co angler fished on the front at a spot he knew well and he was able to catch a couple decent keepers there. When that slowed I asked him what he thought and he said lets hit your starting spot again. I was thinking the same so back we went.  I went thru with the Trap and Swimbait with no bites and he got no bites either. I decided to hold the boat and throw a dropshot right in the juice. I put on a 1/2 quick drop even though I was fishing 5-6ft because I wanted optimum feel of the bottom.  I hooked up another good fish and landed my 5th fish right around the 4lb mark.  At this time it was approx 10:30am.  We kept fishing and didn't get any more bites so we bounced around a little more and slowly worked our way down river toward the marina in the rough waves. At about noon or 1 the pump on my sided of the livewell stopped working.  Turned out to be a fuse and Keith had a spare in the boat.  My co angler was able to finish off his limit and cull once or twice in the area where I finished each day and we went in.  

I weighed in almost last since I was 3rd flight the last day and I dropped what I thought was 20.5lb on the scale because that was what my scale read after I weighed them all. Turned out to be 21-02 and the biggest bag of the event.  I had a big fish on 4-13oz which may or may not have been my biggest. They printed my ticket out and my 3 day total was 52-14 I believe. I believed after I caught my 4th good fish in the morning I had probably won for WA state, but I didn't think I could win the whole tournament even after I knew I had over 20.  The tournament director came up to me while we were waiting for the results to be announced and asked me what kind of boat and motor I run.  I replied Lund and Mercury and I was borrowing Keith's Ranger just for this event. As he walked away he mumbled "should have said Evinrude".  

So they announced the results and I ended up winning for WA and ended up winning the whole tournament by just over 2lb.  I felt an overwhelming amount of excitement and I felt very blessed.   

I caught fish I weighed in on a 3.8 Keitech swimbait, a Lipless crankbait, and a dropshot worm.  Also I want to point out that all of my Trap fish were caught on an Alpha Angler Rebound rod.  I didn't lose a single fish on that rod. Funny tidbit: I had never caught a bass on a trap until this past Tuesday. I really want to thank everyone for the support and well wishes during the week! Congrats to Ryan for making Nationals and from the back of the boat to boot.  

Permalink Reply by John Ellison on May 17, 2016 at 7:05am

Nice work you guys. Thanks for sharing.

Permalink Reply by Zach Chandler on May 17, 2016 at 7:55am

Great write up PJ. Congrats on the finish and the mental fortitude. I bet you'll pull from that experience for the rest of your life.

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