July 29. 2008:  My dad, Kelly, Mike Miller experienced one of the greatest perch fishing trips tonight on Lake Michigan.  We launched out of Bridgman and fished in 38 foot of water using minnows.  The graph showed big fish arcs all over the bottom and pods of baitfish above them.  Kelly dropped her perch rig down first and brought up a double header that consisted of two 14 inch perch!  She thought she had a smallie on!  We ended up catching 50 jumbo 12-14 inch perch that were as fat as could be.  What a night!!!!

July 27, 2008:  Ron Nelson and I teamed up and fished an NBAA Division 25 tournament on Paw Paw Lake.  It was 85 degrees outside and the sky was filled with sunshine.  We decided to start fishing various structures on the inside weed edge because of the bright sun.  Ron caught our first limit within the first hour of the tournament but it only weighed 10 pounds.  While we were fishing shallow I managed to hook and lose a hog.  Probably a 4 to 5 pound fish:(...  I thought we missed our chance but the fish were just starting to bite.  We managed to cull out all but one of the bass we caught earlier.  We put a couple fours in the boat along with chunky threes.  We ended up winning first place with over 17 pounds of largeheads.  We also won big bass with a 4.16 pound toad.  It was a very exciting evening of bass fishing. 

July 26, 2008:  Kelly and I fished a Division 8 NBAA tournament on Paw Paw this evening.  Our first spot was loaded with keeper bass and we quickly put a limit in the boat.  Kelly caught two chunks and I landed three decent keepers.  We caught our bass with jigs and crankbaits.  The rest of the night was pretty slow and we were never able to get any big ones.  We ended up in 4th place with 9.82 pounds.  Mike Rappette and Steve Ficke luckily came in 3rd with 9.83 pounds :) 

"It was reported that Mike stuffed a pebble down a fish's mouth to get his .01 pound advantage"

John Gipson Sr and his son Jr came in second place with just under 12 pounds.  I'm not sure who the winners were but they had 13 pounds.  Big Bass honors went to Scott Davis and Chuck Nearpass with a 4 pound largehead.

July 20, 2008:  I was tired, and Mike was sore on day two.  We started this morning fishing jerkbaits and cranks because it was windy.  Mike picked up where he left off by catching a 3 pounder with a jerkbait.  I followed up with a 2 pound largehead that I caught with "The Big O".  We had 2 keepers in 15 minutes and I thought we were going to have a lights out day.  Well the next 4 hours produce diddly squat!  I was at a loss for words but we kept fishing.  With about a half hour left to fish the sun came out and the fish glued themselves to the docks.  Mike caught fire and brought in 3 nice keepers to fill our limit.  I managed to lose two more nice fish:(  Thank goodness Mike fished with me this weekend!!!  We ended up with 9.50 pounds giving us around 16 pounds for two days.  It was good enough for second place. 

July 19, 2008:  Mike Rappette and I signed up to fish a two day Master Casters tournament on Magician Lake this weekend.  Day one was a complete washout.  It poured down rain the entire day!  We started the morning fishing a couple deep areas that have been producing consistent keepers in weeks past.  We only managed to catch short fish and pike.  We switched gears and started pounding docks for the rest of the day.  Mike caught two decent keepers and lost a 3-4 pound hog.  Mike also caught a 3 pound smallie on a random cast only 10 ft from the boat.  I only caught short fish and more pike.  We ended the day with 3 bass that weighed 6.50 pounds.  I think we were setting in 5th place going into day two.  The leaders had 11 pounds.

July 15, 2008: I fished for perch out of New Buffalo with my wife today.  It was 90 degrees outside and there wasn't a breath of wind.  The lake temp was 75 degrees in most parts.  We only managed to catch 6 perch all day.  What a bummer!!! 

July 10, 2008:  Kelly and I teamed up for an NBAA Division 8 tournament this evening on Magician Lake.  The bite was TOUGH!!!!  We skipped docks for the first hour without a bite so we went searching for deep bass.  We found a school of bass setting on the edge of a main lake flat.  Kelly had on our first bass of the tournament at about 7:30.  It was a toad, about a 3-4 pounder.  It jumped a couple times and dove straight under the boat.  It pulled hard enough to break her line :( bummer.  She was able to redeem herself by catching two more keepers on back to back casts.  I was only able to bring in one keeper bass all night. 

We ended up getting fourth place with 6.30 pounds.  Dan Posey came in second with 4 bass that weighed 7.30 pounds.  The champs were Chuck Nearpass and Scott Davis with 5 bass weighing 7.50 pounds.

July 8, 2008:  I spent the morning fishing Pipestone Lake and the afternoon fishing Paw Paw Lake today.  Pipestone only produced two good bites for me.  One was a chunky 3.5 pounder and the other was a giant I never landed.  I'll say it was 7 pounds since it came off!!!! :)  I caught both bat with a jig n pig off the weed edge.

Paw Paw was a different story all together.  The fish were schooled up in tight bunches.  It didn't matter what I threw at them they would eat it.  In 2 hours of fishing I had over 18 pounds of largeheads.  My biggest for the day was a 4 pound 11 ouncer.

July 6, 2008:  I fished a Liars tournament on Lake of the Woods tonight and the bite was tough.  The weed kill they did really hurt the bass this year.  Healthy weeds were impossible for me to find and I couldn't keep the short fish off my baits.  I only managed to catch 2 keepers and I caught those in the first 10 minutes of the tournament.  I fished deep and shallow, slow and fast, but I just couldn't get any more keepers.  A father and son team won it with 4 bass that went 6 pounds.  (I'll have to get there names and post them later)

July 5, 2008:  It was perfectly calm and beatiful on the big pond this fine morning.  Kelly and fished all of the rock piles I have on Lake Michigan with tubes, and drop shot gobies.  We only managed to catch one 4 pound smallie.  I smallies just aren't schooling up yet on my rocks.