GoPro video shows Gonzales Bassmaster Open pro Gerald Spohrer running James River mud flat
Anglers in South Louisiana deal with falling tides all the time, but when you head up the East Coast the tides are a bit different — which is what Gonzales’ Gerald Spohrer discovered while practicing for a Bassmaster Open on the James River in Virginia.
“Talk about tide swings over here … it’s nothing like we’re used to back home,” Spohrer said, speaking into his GoPro camera. “I’ll give you an example: I’ve been back here for a while, and the tide fell out on me about 4 feet. So I’ve got to try to get out of here or stay back here all day — and that’s not going to happen.
“So what happens when a Coonass gets stuck in a situation where the tide falls on him 4 feet? We’re about to run across this mud flat and see what happens.”
Spohrer said he wasn’t sure he’d make it across the shallows, but he didn’t want to wait for the tide to turn.
“Worse case scenario, I got to sit on that flat,” he said. “But I’m not going to stay in this canal.
“Stand by.”
And with that, Spohrer disappears and cranks his boat up. He idles a few feet, and then puts a foot in it to pop the BassCat up on plane. Shallow mud banks fly by the boat as the tournament angler races along.
A few twists and turns of the canal, and the shoreline drops away — and clearly visible on one side of the screen is the path of another boat through mud,
Spohrer takes a wide berth of that area, but is soon racing through visible mud covered intermittently by inches of water.
In typical Cajun style, he never lets up, and soon a channel marker can be seen. Once he reaches that deeper water, Spohrer pulls back on the throttle and appears in front of the camera again.
“That works,” he said.
