Kelly couldn't fish with me tonight because of her back to school night but my old partner Rich Charleston subbed for her. Rich lives in North Carolina now and is up visiting for Labor Day. It was fun fishing with my old partner again.
The tournament day started out horrible! Unbelievably horrible!! It al started when I drew boat 20 and was last to take off. Then while I was getting my G-Loomis spinning rod out of the locker the door slammed down on the tip, breaking it in half. I was ticked off and intently in a really bad mood.
The tournament continued on the same horrible path. I made my very first cast towards a dock and a big bass picked up my jig. I set the hook hard and a four pound plus bass shook it's head out of the water. My jig popped out of its mouth. This didn't make my mood any better. The very next dock I skipped I lost another keeper bass because I was out of position during my hook set. I could barely contain myself.
I was ready for the next dock. I skipped under it and instantly got a bite. I set the hook and it felt huge. When the fish swam from under the dock I saw it was a pike. A pike under a dock! What was going on?
I motored to the other side of the lake and started on a fresh row of docks. My luck wasn't any better. I got bitten under the first dock I skipped. When I set the hook my line snapped and another big fish swam away. I lost four big bass in the first hour of the tournament. I thought to myself, "I don't deserve to catch a keeper."
The good news was that I still had 2 hours left and the bass were eating. I skipped for another hour and caught two keeper bass. It started getting two dark to skip docks anymore so Rich and I decided to crank for the last 30 minutes. Rich caught a chunky keeper on a Norman's crankbait and I added another on a Rapala DT 10. We ended a tournament that started horrible with 4 keeper bass and I was pretty happy.
Rich and I ended up getting 2nd place with 6.66 pounds and solidifying the point championship for Kelly and I. Lieberg and Ohst won the tournament with four bass that weighed 7.50 pounds. Great job guys and thanks for a fun season.
8-16-2007: Have I ever said, "Paw Paw Lake is the best lake in southwest Michigan?" Kelly and I smoked'em
tonight on Paw Paw during an NBAA tournament. We caught five bass using
various different lures that weighed 16.50 pounds. The first bass we
caught was a 3 pounder that ate a Robo Worm in 26 ft. We couldn't get
another quality bite in deep water so we started pounding docks. I
skipped a jig under the first dock we pulled up to and I set the hook on a 3.0
pound largemouth. I cranked as fast as I could and Kelly scooped her
into the net before the hook fell out of it's mouth.I thought to myself, "Could it be possible, am I having GOOD Luck for a change."
I was having good luck! A few casts later I flipped my jig into a lily pad mat and my line straightened. I set the hook on another giant. I fought her to the boat and Kelly netted the 3.70 pounder. I skipped along for a little while longer when I noticed a boat on a lift that had weaving wires under it. Even though it was risky I skipped my jig under the boat. WHAM!! I set the hook on yet another giant largemouth. She had me tangled around every wire under the boat. I thought for sure she was going to break off. Miraculously she swam over, under, and between every wire and came out easily. She was another largemouth close to 4 pounds.
We couldn't get any more bites under docks so we changed gears and checked another deep spot. I hadn't caught a bass off of this spot in two years. Needless to say, I didn't have much confidence in it. I decided to cast a brown tube to the break. When it hit the ground a fish picked it up and started swimming away with it. I set the hook as hard as I could and fought in our fifth keeper. She was another 3.5 pound largie. What a blast!!!!
Kelly and I ended up taking first place with five bass that weighed 16.50 pounds. Ron and Randy Nelson came in second place with 11.30 pounds. Rick Lasota and Terry Blythe got third place with a 7.90 pound sack. Gerald Wilson and Joe Engel caught a 5.1 pound lunker to win big bass. Great Job Everyone!!! Picture coming soon.
8-15-2007: Ron and Randy Nelson fished with me on lake Michigan
this morning. There were scattered
showers and a light east wind. The lake was like glass and the bite was
pretty good. We targeted rocks in 25 ft just outside the peir heads in
St. Joe. We were getting a bite every 25 minutes so it was really
boring. The key was letting the tube set on the bottom and not moving
it. Every time my tubes went over a rock a smallie would grab it.
We caught 15 bass but none of them were giants. We caught five three
pound fish and 10 smaller ones. It was a lot better than working!!!!
8-12-2007: I had the pleasure of fishing with shallow water expert Mike Rappette on Paw Paw Lake in a Four Flags tournament this morning. We started the morning throwing top water and cranks over deep weeds. We had three nice fish on but they didn't cooperate and came off. This was the story of our day.
When the sun rose a little higher in the sky we started skipping docks, pontoons, and boat slips. We were on the right pattern now. I caught a fat 3.9 pound bass under our first pontoon. The very next dock produced a chunky 2.5 pounder. A couple docks later our third bass was in the boat and it was another 2.5 pounder. We rolled a couple other quality fish but never got them out far enough to see them.
A couple hours passed until we found another productive stretch of docks. I caught our fourth keeper and our fifth keeper under back to back docks. One was a really plump 3.5 pound toad.
We continued skipping around when I set my hook on a giant. I had her turned and coming towards the boat. SHE WAS A MONSTER!!! She wasn't really fighting hard and the hook just popped out? I was ticked and I knew it was going to cost us.
Mike ended up catching us another quality bass before the tournament ended. We weighed in a nice sack that went 14.3 pounds. It was only good enough for fourth though. C.R. Gooding and Brian Spear came in third place with 14.50 pounds. Ron Nelson and his nephew won second place with 16 pounds. The winners were Ohst and Poole with a huge bag that tipped the scales at 17.10 pounds. Ohst and Poole also had big bass, a 5.5 pound smallie. Great Job guys!!!!
8-9-2007: Kelly and I fished another NBAA Division 8 tournament on Lake of the Woods tonight and almost went to jail. Huge thunderstorms pushed through last night so the fish were acting weird. I fished docks for the first two hours without a single bite. Not even a dink. We were desperate for a keeper because a skunk would knock us way down in the point standing. With 30 minutes to go Kelly saved us from the infamous skunkaroo. She caught a 14 inch bass that was worth its weight in gold to us.
Well we really didn't almost go to jail but a lady did call the cops on us for fishing around her dock. She said, "Fishing isn't aloud this close to shore, it's a swim area." I don't think the cops appreciated the call because she didn't talk to us after she got off the phone.
Gooding and Spear walked away with the tournament with 5 bass that weighed around 8 pounds.
8-6-2007: The big Lake was
beautiful today and it was HOT once the clouds cleared up. The smallies
were finally biting again but not deep. They were on gravel beds in
12-15 ft about 500 yards off shore. They were searching the rocks for
crayfish and eating anything I put in front of them.
I was using 4 pound Gamma Fluorocarbon, a small Mann's craw, and the lightest
jig head I could find. I would locate a gravel bed and drop my craw onto
it. With my bail open so my line could spool out freely I motored away.
When I would get 50 yards away I'd close my bail and wait for a smallie to eat
my craw. I caught 3 smallies that were 4 pounds apiece off of the first
gravel bed I found. On the second gravel bed I caught a monstrous 4
pound 15 ounce smallie that was almost black. On the afternoon I caught
11 smallies and the best five weighed 19 pounds 3 ounces.
8-4-2007: I fished Indian Lake today from 11:00 am-3:00 pm. It was partly cloudy for most of the afternoon but the sunshine broke through for the last hour. I had a fantastic afternoon fishing while my wife swam circles around the boat. I caught 5 keeper bass off weed beds in 15 ft using a dropshot Robo Worm. I skipped docks for the last hour with a jig and caught 5 more chunky bass. My best five bass weighed 13 pounds, and my biggest bass was 3 pounds 10 ounces.
The evening started out really slow. Kelly and I were both pitching jigs by lay downs in Lake Chapin. We couldn't buy a bite. Although C.R. Gooding and Brian Spear didn't have any trouble catching 3 chunky keepers right behind us.
We decided to move up river and fish run off water because it was so hot outside. I thought maybe the water coming out of the shady hills would be a little cooler. The first run off we pulled up to yielded a keeper smallie but nothing else. The second run off we approached gave us a nice 2 pound largemouth. I thought I was on to something now!!!
I wasn't. The rest of the tournament consisted of short fish and monster stealhead shad. We ended the night with 2 bass that weighed 2.93 pounds. Amazingly our weight was good enough for third place and bunch of quality points. C.R. Gooding and Brian Spear came in second place with 3 largemouth that weighed just under 6 pounds. They also won big bass with a 2.08 pound largehead. Mike Rappette and Steve Ficke won first place with a nice limit of smallies that weighed just under 8 pounds. Nice Job Guys!!!!!!!