I don't understand it. How could, "having the winner fish" made the day worse?
These tournaments have a time limit the fishermen have to weigh in. If they are late, they can not enter their catch. With his motor trouble, he had to idle back to the marina and missed the time limit. But the fish he caught outweighed the fish that won, so if he would not have had trouble with the motor, he would have won.

I do not know what the prize was for this tournament, but some were 5K or over. I would think that with this being a holiday tournament, it would have paid big like that.