The perseverance of Ish Monroe

Ish Monroe thought his tournament was over on Day 1 when he missed a turn in the driving rain and ran his boat onto a sandbar.

“I mean completely stopped, from 50 miles-an-hour to nothing,” Monroe said. “My day is done. But I got the boat turned around, then I got out and put my back to it. I pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed. And pushed. An hour later, I got off the sandbar, but I’m just beat.

“So I dropped my trolling motor and just started fishing. I’m a mile-and-a-half away from my starting spot, but it looked good, so I just started fishing. Ten minutes later I’ve got a limit that weighs 12 pounds.”

Monroe has expanded on that area and moved up the standings every day since – from 20th with 15-6 on Day 1 to sixth with 16-11 on Day 2 to third with 17-4 on Day 3. He’s got one rod on the deck, fishing 65-pound braid tied to a River2Sea Ish’s Phat Matt Daddy Frog. And he’s catching 50 bass a day, culling up by ounces in the process.

If Monroe had thrown up his hands when stuck on the sandbar Thursday, which would have been easy to do, look what he would have missed. Perseverance has definitely paid off for Monroe this week.

“I’m excited,” said Monroe yesterday.

The frog bite is started to turn on today. Monroe has a limit weighing 10 1/2 pounds, which has him in third place at 10:30, according to BASSTrakk.