Entry 203-4
James Niggemeyer’s $62,500 Payday
Editor’s Note: James Niggemeyer of Van, Texas, was one part of a four-member team in mid-May who won the first Professional Anglers’ Association (PAA) Texas/Toyota Tournament at Lake Fork. PAA decided to hold some fishing events for the members of its organization. Professional fishermen can join the PAA on several different levels, and the highest level is where an angler earns 50% of his income from professional fishing – either in tournaments, by speaking at seminars or through endorsements.
Part 4: Disaster Strikes
Question: What happened on day 2 of the competition?
Niggemeyer: What happened the night before day 2 of the competition was what really impacted our fishing. The Lake Fork area had a tremendous number of thunderstorms and very heavy rain, which we realized probably would affect our pattern. However, since we didn’t really have anything else working for us, Terry Scroggins and Chris Daves, our teammates, decided to return to that same secondary point to see if they couldn’t scrape up some fish.
Because of the high winds that were still blowing, the sight-fishing pattern was pretty much out for the morning session. Terry and Chris had a tough morning, catching only three or four bass total for the two of them. But luckily, one of those bass was an 8 pounder. When Frank Ippoliti and I met with them in the middle of the day after they had fished, they told us that the bite was off on that point. Terry and Chris had caught one of their bass on a big swim bait, and they had to scratch to locate more bass by fishing various tactics and different types of cover. They recommended that we not return to the place where we’d all four been fishing earlier. 
Terry suggested that we go out and do what I’d do in this kind of situation. Since I guided on Lake Fork regularly, he figured I knew how to catch bass in that situation.
Our four-man team had dropped out of the top-10 teams after the morning’s fishing. Frank and I knew we had to catch a lot of bass, so we could make the top 10 teams and get to fish the final day. I decided to fish the Pure Poison because I had caught bass on it before in the tournament, and Frank elected to fish a deep-diving crankbait. I also thought that if we could get into some calm areas with some clear water, I’d try to sight fish for the bass and flip some of the standing timber. Frank threw a soft-plastic creature bait and caught a 4 pounder on it. I took a keeper bass on the Pure Poison. Then Frank caught another keeper bass on his creature bait. But we were really struggling.
As we motored out of the creek where we were fishing on day 2, we knew we were in trouble. 
As we came by that original secondary point where we’d all done so well on the first day, I turned to Frank and asked him if he wanted to give it a shot. Frank said, “Yeah, let’s do it. The conditions have changed, and perhaps the bass have started back feeding.” We turned off our big engine, I got on the trolling motor, and on one of my first casts, I caught a bass. Immediately Frank caught a bass too. In a short time, Frank had his limit with 22 pounds of bass, and I had my limit with 17 pounds. We had about 40 pounds for the 10 bass we’d taken that afternoon. Apparently the bass hadn’t been feeding that morning when Terry and Chris were on that spot because of the storm. However, in the afternoon when the bass pulled back on the point, they got in a feeding position. We could catch them on deep-diving crankbaits. We finished the second day in second place with only Alton Jones’s team ahead of us.
Contents:
- Part 1: How the PAA Texas/Toyota Tournament Was Set Up
- Part 2: What We Learned in Practice
- Part 3: First Day of Competition
- Part 4: Disaster Strikes
- Part 5: How Four of Us Won $250,000
