7-8-2010:  I usually really look forward to fishing tournaments on Paw Paw Lake but I was not excited to fish the Division 8 tournament tonight.  I started the evening fishing docks without any success.  I caught a couple small fish but that was all.  We targeted some very specific cover next that was in deep water.  We burned though 8 spots until we found some bass but it was already 8:20.  We only had 40 minutes left to fish.  Good thing it only took us 10 minutes to put four decnt bass into our livewell.  We ended up with 8.79 pounds.  John Gipson Jr. and his Grandpa were a close second with 8.75 pounds.

7-7-2010:  I went fun fishing at Paw Paw this morning starting at 6:00 am until 11:30 am.  I was expecting the fishing to have gotten better but I was dead wrong.  I was only able to get a couple bite all morning.  One was under a docknd the other was on a top water lure.  Paw Paw Lake is having a down year, the worst I've seen for years.

7-5-2010:  Pipestone lake was the venue in which John Gipson Jr. and I teamed up to fish a Monday night liars tournament.  We started the tournament skipping the few docks on the lake.  I managed to get two bites.  One was a decent keeper and the other one was a giant 5 pounder that broke me off on a dock pole.  The last half hour we targeted the weed edge and were able to get 9 more keeper bites.  They were all 15 inch fish so we ended up weighing in a limit that was around 11 pounds.  Our weight was good enough for 2nd place.

7-1-2010:  Kelly and I fished Pipestone lake this evening during an NBAA division 8 tournament.  It was a really slow night as we were only able to catch 3 bass.  The good news was that we landed every bass we had on.  I caught two on a black and blue jig and Kelly landed one on a senko.  We ended up getting 3rd place with our three bass that weighed in at 6.50 pounds.  Jim Horn and Chad Worvey came in second with 7 pounds.  Scott Davis and his son won 1st place with 9 pounds.

6-30-2010-  The SMAC tournament was on Lake of the Woods tonight and I fished with John Gipson Jr.  We decided to sell out and fish deep the whole evening with some success, at least Jr was able to catch them.  I only had a couple bites all night.  John caught a couple nice bass that weighed around 3 pounds.  We caught most of our bass on jigs and a few with worms.  Top water should have been the ticket but we couldn't get a bite.  Our best five weighed just under 11 pounds.  I thought we won for sure but our weight was only good enough for 3rd.

6-28-2010:  Paw Paw Lake has been a big bass factory for a long time now but the weed kill has made it tough out there this year.  John Gipson Jr. and I teamed up to fish a Monday night Liars tournament in the dead sea tonight.  It was tough we didn't get a bite for the first hour.  All of my normal hot spots are totally void of bass.  I found one group of green weeds a couple weeks ago and we managed to find some fish by them.  The jig was the ticket tonight.  We ended up getting 7 bites and catching 5 bass that weighed 11.50 poumds.  It was good enough for first place again.  Scott Davis and his son won big bass and second place with two bass that weighed 6 pounds.  Their big bass was 3.80 pounds.

6-26-2010:  The NBAA St. Joe Singles tournament was on Eagle/Juno Lake in Edwardsburg this morning.  Tournaments on these lakes are interesting because you have to choose your lake before the tournament.  Turns out I was the only angler to fish Juno Lake and everyone else was fishing Eagle.  I started the rainy morning fishing top water over weeds but had no takers.  I flipped pads next but nothing again.  I decided to skip docks and that was the ticket.  I caught 5 keepers and one of them was a 3.5 pound smallie.  The full moon called it up to the shallows to make a bed.  I didn't believe it when I saw it but it was locked on a fresh bed!  I ended up winning with 10.50 pounds and winning big bass.  Mark Nelson took second place with just under 8 pounds.

6-24-2010:  My wife Kelly and I enjoyed the beautiful weather on Magician Lake for a 3 hour NBAA Div * tournament.  We started the evening fishing docks and casting around the shallows.  I managed to catch a couple nice keepers and I saw a few more but the wouldn't bite.  We moved deep after an hour of skipping to fish some deep weeds with jigs and cranks.  The fish were biting pretty good and we caught our limit in the next hour.  We culled a couple times and ended up with 5 that weighed 10.30 pounds.  That weight was good enough for second place.  Mike Rappette and Steve Ficke won with 5 bass weighing 10.60.

6-21-2010:  The Monday night Liars club tournaments are still alive and well.  I fished Van Auken Lake with Jr. in a 3 and a half hour tournament.  The bass were stacked under docks early on.  We managed a quick limit by fishing every dock on the lake.  The rest of the time we casted jigs around weed clumps and work top water.  We caught the #$%^ out of the 14 inchers.  I think we landed around 20 keepers but our best 5 were still small.  Jr caught our three best fish tonight on his secret bait.  He also had few giants on that got down in the weeds and came off.  We ended up in second place with 10.15 pounds.  Mike Delarosa and his son came in with a big bag of bass weighing in at around 15 pounds.

6-19-10:  I fished an NBAA singles tournament on Paw Paw Lake in a 6 hour battle royal.  Paw Paw recently underwent a massive weed kill.  The water was dingy green and had floating weeds everywhere.  I fished top water early on and managed a small 2 pound keeper but that bite fizzled out fast.  I decided to fish some weed beds that always live through the chemical attack in 27 ft of water.  I wasn't catching much at first but the giants showed up around 10:00 am.  I managed a limit but I lost a couple huge bass by the boat trying to get them in my net.  I actually feel out of the boat trying to net a monster.  I slipped on the fiber glass by the big motor and in I went.  Needless to say the got off when I threw my rod acrooss the boat so I didn't drop it in the water.  I ended up winning with around 13.50 pounds and also won big bass with a 3.37 pound largie.

6-17-10:  Kelly and I fished the Lake of the Woods NBAA tournament tonight.  The water was 80 degrees and crystal clear.  I had the worst tournament I've had in a long time.  In the first half hour I hooked and lost 4 pretty big bass.  Each of them through the hook on their first jump.  I think I was a little rusty from being in Las Vagas for 5 days.  We only managed to land 2 bass.  Ouch!!  Four teams brought limits to the scales so the fishing was pretty good.  The winners had 5 bass weighing 9 pounds. 

6-16-10:  The Buchanan stretch of the Joe was a beast tonight during a SMAC tournament.  The water was as high and swift as I 've ever seen it.  Water was spilling over the top of the dam, I think.  The fishing wasn't horrible amazingly.  John Gipson Jr. and I didn't have any trouble catching small ones but 14 inchers were a different story.  We only managed one small smallie that I caught on a craw.  I think two bass weighing 4 pounds won the 14 boat tournament. 

6-3-2010:  My wife Kelly and I fished the NBAA Division 8 tournament on the Benton Harbor stretch of the Joe tonight.  It was a real struggle for us to get bites.  We only managed 6 bites in the three hour tournament.  We landed 5 of those bites thankfully and they were good ones.  We ended up with 11 pounds and finishing in first place.  Everything seems to be in a funk right now worse than I've ever seen it.

6-2-2010:  John Gipson Jr. and I fished a SMAC tournament on Magician Lake tonight that lasted three hours.  There were 17 boats fishing and everyone seemed to weigh in some bass.  The bite was a little slow do to the post spawn funk.  John and I were able to get on some deep fish and shallow fish.  We jumped around from spot to spot fishing with jigs and worms.  We caught around 10 keepers and our best five weighed 10 pound.  It ended up being good enough for 1st though and a nice check.  SMAC is the best payout around and their tournaments are ran very well.

5/29/10:   Opening day is finally here!!  I was extremely excited last night and could hardly sleep.  There were around 10 boats that showed up to fish the NBAA One on One tournament on Pipestone Lake this morning.  I started the morning fishing a 4 pound spawner in one of the little ponds attached to Pipestone.  I missed her twice to start the morning.  While I waited for her to set up after I missed her I casted around a wacky worm and caught about a 10 pound limit in the first hour of the tournament.  I never caught the big one I was after though.  I had a rough stretch for about 3 hours where I missed fish after fish.  I was getting a little mad but I hung in there.  At about 11:20 I skipped a dock and landed a 3 pounder and that got my mojo going.  I zoomed around the lake looking for hot spawners and I was able to catch one about 4 pounds at noon.  With an hour left I found two more decent fish and caught both of them with a worm.  I ended up winning 1st place with 14.77 pounds.  Mark Nelson won 2nd place with 13.50 pounds.  John Gipson Jr. rounded out the top 3 with just over 13 pounds.

5/23/10:  Got out to pre-fish Pipestone today and found a bunch of spawners starting to move up on beds.  It was a little surprising because the water was already close to 80 degrees.  I marked up 30 beds to fish next weekend during the one on one tournament.  I only casted at one bass because it was a giant and I wanted a pic of it.  She ended up weighing a little over 5 pounds.  Toad!!!  Hopefully she still around on opening day.

 

5/20/10: After a long break from bass fishing so I could complete my hunny-do list I'm officially back.  I fished Magician Lake with Mike Rappette tonight.  The water was crystal clear and right around 65 degrees in most of the lake.  I fished smallie beds first but most were empty.  I only managed one keeper smallie.  I switched gears and targeted largemouth beds next.   I found a few but nothing worth wasting much time with.  The biggest spawner was around 2 pounds.  We decided to fish the flat with senkos and we caught a couple more small keeps but still nothing big.  The last hour of the day we skipped docks and caught a couple 3 pound fish but still nothing huge.  Overall it was still nice to get back on the water.

5/3/2010:  The Benton Harbor stretch of the Joe can be hands down the best smallmouth fishery in southwest Michigan.  I was blessed to get the opportunity to fish with my good friend Andy Shingledecker.  We smashed them the entire time we fished.  Once we dialed in on the exact bait and presentation fish were practically jumping into my Stratos.  Andy was on fire!  He landed a handful of 3.5 to 4.5 pound smalljaws.  The look on his face was priceless while he was fighting them to the boat.  I ended up catching the big bass of the evening which weighed around 6 pounds.  Together we had five smallies that weighed just less than 24 pounds.  Fishing trips don't get much better.....

4/24/2010:  I love catch and release bass season in Michigan!  It is by far the best fishing of the year.  I decided to spend a few hours on Paw Paw Lake this afternoon chasing around smallies.  Largies are fun don't get me wrong but my mission was to catch giant smallies.  The water temp was right around 56 degrees around the lake.  The water was very clear for Paw Paw Lake.  I fished a long point to start with a blade bait and managed to catch a couple decent 3 pound smallies.  I fished around the area for a little while and managed to locate a school of pig smallies.  I picked the school apart with a TN 70 lipless crank and a shaky head worm.  I managed 23 smallies and 1 largie out of the school.  The biggest five were all around 5 pounds but amazingly the smallest was 3 pounds 11 ounces.  They were all pigs!  I took some poor pictures with my phone and I don't have them downloaded yet but I'll try to get them posted soon.

 

Fall 2005

• November 05' Report.html

Spring 2006

• Fishing Report Mar_Apr 06.html
• May 2006 Fishing Report.html
• June 2006 Fishing Report.html

Summer 2006

• July 2006 Fishing Report.html
• August-SeptemberFishingReport.html

Fall 2006

• October 2006 Fishing Report.html
• November 2006 Fishing Report.html

Spring 2007

• Fishing Report (March, 2007).html
• Fishing Report (April, 2007).html
• Fishing Report (May, 2007).html

Summer 2007

• Fishing Report (June 2007).html
• Fishing Report (July 2007).html
• http://www.southwestmichiganbass.com/Fishing Report (August 2007).htm

Fall 2007

• http://www.southwestmichiganbass.com/September 2007 Fishing Report.htm
• http://www.southwestmichiganbass.com/octobernovember2007.htm

Spring 2008

• http://www.southwestmichiganbass.com/marchmayreport.htm

Summer 2008

• http://www.southwestmichiganbass.com/2008junereport.htm
• http://www.southwestmichiganbass.com/2008julyreport.htm
• http://www.southwestmichiganbass.com/2008augustreport.htm

Fall 2008  

• http://www.southwestmichiganbass.com/octobernovember2008.htm

Fall, Summer, Spring 2009

• http://www.southwestmichiganbass.com/fishingreport2009.htm