Southcentral Michigan Basscasters

New Web Site

2011-03-12T18:54:00.000-08:00

Check out the new club website: http://southcentralmichiganbass.com/

Taking inventory

2011-03-02T06:57:00.000-08:00

With the Bass Pro Spring Sale yearly trip tomorrow I needed to get organized and take inventory of what I needed. What a chore but luckily I'm not one of those guys with tons of tackle and I'm pretty organized so it wasn't as daunting a task as I thought. One thing I noticed though after making my wish list is how it seems like I buy less and less tackle every year.

A few years back I opened my tube box and counted 15 different colors. Who needs that many options? Not me so that's when I decided to buy just the few colors I always seem to have tied on and have used that philosophy with all my plastics. It's cheaper and I don't have to wonder what shade of green to throw, making me more efficient.

I have also found that when I enter Bass Pro I definitely need a list to follow. It's easy to get sidetracked and this method keeps me focused making my trip quicker and cheaper. I'll probably spend more money on terminal tackle and line then I will on baits. I've already purchased a few rods so I won't have that expense so I should get out of there for under $200. This is just installment number one though but it makes it much easier on the pocket book (and the wife) if I spread it out.

Club News: Tom Kiefer is a two time Federation State Team member and has represented Michigan in the Nationals back in 2008 and he will be speaking at our club meeting next week. Tom and I went to college together back in the 80's and I've been following his fishing success ever since. He is also the owner of a bait company called Pro Angler Plastics and he will speak about that as well as breaking down Lake St. Clair which is where he excels. Hope everyone turns out to talk to Tom and start talking fishing.

Classic lessons

2011-02-25T05:55:00.000-08:00

I don't usually get much from watching fishing shows but the Bassmasters is regular viewing in the Smith house and especially during Classic Week. Usually the patterns and techniques used in big southern reservoirs don't translate to fishing around here but it's good viewing anyway.

But last weeks Classic in New Orleans was quite different and I took a lot of mental notes and believe a few lessons could be learned by watching how it was won. KVD is awesome and everyone already knew that but there were small subtle things he did that can definitely help me catch more fish, especially in early season events like Lake James.

The first thing I noticed was how the top few finishers found water that would be productive when a warming trend happened. They all mentioned finding areas where fish were coming to in preparation for the spawn and many hardly caught fish there in practice but knew they'd be productive under the right conditions. How many times have I found an area that looks "fishy" but doesn't produce? In the summer when everything is stable then it's probably not any good but in the spring when fish are always on the move, they could be absent one day and stacked the next. That's what VanDam found when he fished a large spawning flat loaded with old stumps. He knew a warming trend would send the fish flocking there and he was right. These could possibly be some of the conditions the club will face in the Mid-May event at James.

Another thing I noticed was the bait of choice for Kevin and all the top finishers. Early on they were catching fish on spinnerbaits as they were moving up and probably feeding. But as the weekend wore on and the fish were closer to making beds, they quit biting the blades and had to me coaxed with slower crankbaits that stayed in the strike zone a little longer. Heck if I caught them Friday on spinnerbaits then I'd throw that until my arm fell off the rest of the weekend. That's why I'm watching the Classic as opposed to fishing in it.

As far as lure selection goes VanDam said something interesting that I remember when he stated if the water was colder then the event would have been won on a rattling lipless bait. That is notoriously a good cold water bait and he won last years Classic throwing it in much brisker conditions. I also remember reading somewhere that an early season tournament was won on Lake James by guys throwing rattle traps in cold water. Maybe there's something to that.

Maybe I'm just eager to go out and fish a tournament, I'm not sure but hopefully these are a few lessons I'll file away when watching the replay this coming weekend. It sure beats watching Jimmy Houston kiss another bass on his show. Man I hate when he does that.

New tactics for 11'

2011-02-21T12:45:00.000-08:00

Every year I have a few ideas for techniques I can incorporate into my fishing arsenal and 2011 is no different. Sometimes they are new baits, types of line or just philosopy in finding fish but I'm looking forward to trying them out.

Swim baits: There is a very small scenario when I will use these but I think it's something I should explore. Say I've been catching fish on spinnerbaits on a big weedy flat and they quit biting. This is when I can pull one out and possibly catch a few more fish or even a big "kicker" fish since this is a big fish bait. I can see me slow rolling one on St. Clair to imitate a goby or just using it as a big search bait.

Big Spinnerbaits: I can't wait to throw these early in the spring. They cover water and can be worked easily through weeds. I can't think of a better pre-spawn lure and that was evident last weekend in New Orleans when many of the top finishers at the Bassmaster Classic used this bait.

Swim jigs: I will throw spinnerbaits a lot this year and I think I can coax a few more bites with a swim jig when they stop biting the blades. A swim jig is essentially a spinnerbait without the blades so why won't they hit this bait? It is very weedless and can be fished finesse style over heavy weed flats.

Punching plastics: I've talked about this before and believe in a one day tournament that catching a big fish could win me lots of cash. This is a big fish bait and I will have one tied on everywhere but St. Clair. You can always find a pad field or holes in the weeds where this will work, especially on Ovid. Would you rather catch a couple small keepers weighing 3 pounds or one big one that goes over 4? I'm not a math major but that just makes sense to me.

Braided line: I have mastered a line to line knot and will throw braid a lot this year. All my spinning rods, my topwater rod and my flipping combos will all have the superline attached and I'll have a flurorcarbon leader tied on. This should save me a few bucks when buying line next week at the BPS sale and I've noticed that a lot of pros have gone to this philosophy as well.

Bringing a new baby home

2011-02-13T14:28:00.000-08:00

After a LONG trip, Duane and I brought home my new (new to me at least) Triton Bass Boat. We're both very tired after a grueling road trip which saw us travel about 1300 miles in 24 hours which ended around noon Sunday. The boat was all it was cracked up to be and resting peacefully in my garage as we speak.

We made the transaction Saturday night around 11pm EST and headed home right after (I'll give all the travel details later). The boat is a 2004 Triton TR-186 with a 150 Mercury Optimax and although we couldn't drive it, it started right up and seemed to run really well in the garage.

Harold Mcfadded from Mcfadden Marine was a gracious host for the hour we spent in El Dorado Springs, Missouri and I would recommend his services to anyone. It was worth the drive but I will need a few days to recover since I only slept about 15 minutes on the trip. More details to follow.

Road Trip

2011-02-12T05:23:00.000-08:00

This morning fellow fishing buddy and former club member Duane Mroczka and I are heading to Springfield, Missouri to pick up my first official bass boat. I have not seen the boat in person yet and will not consider myself a new owner until it's sitting in my driveway but I should be towing it home sometime tomorrow morning.

Springfield is about 11 hours away and we will not be stopping at Bass ProShops Headquarters or anywhere else for that matter. We'll check out the boat, if I like it I'll write a check and we'll turn around and drive right back. I'll detail the trip, boat or not, and post it sometime next week when I've caught up on my sleep.

New Boat?

2011-02-07T19:48:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted lately due to the fact I've been searching so hard for a new boat and all my computer time has gone towards that. Just like anything else, once I get consumed with a project it takes up all my time and other things get neglected. Luckily there isn't any yard work to do but my driveway is still not clean. Hopefully I'll have a new boat to show for my dedication soon.

I've found a few things interesting while searching such as the differences in prices for the same style and years of boats. Different options such as electronics and engine styles make a huge difference in cost as do the actual make of the boat. Rangers seem to be the priciest and the Nitros seem to be the most plentiful, around here anyway. But after a while, you can tell which boats are over priced and ones that are a bargain.

I have had trouble finding a boat that suites what I want locally and have broadened my horizons. I think I might have found the perfect boat but unfortunately it's located in Western Missouri. I am currently scrambling to get my finances in order and may be taking off on a road trip this weekend. I won't divulge much until it is sitting in my driveway but it's starting to look as if it will happen. Anyone ready to ride shotgun and see the country?

I will detail my journey if it happens, I should know by Thursday or Friday. Luckily with the cold weather most of the early season boat sales are getting off to a slow start which is probably why I've found such a good deal already. Hope it works out.

Beds in Florida

2011-01-29T03:50:00.000-08:00

It's depressing this time of year for fishermen but I guess it doesn't have to be. During last weeks BASS Southern Open, many of the competitors reported catching bedding bass and lots of 20+ pound stringers were brought to the scales on Okechobee. I swear when I retire I will be there in January to get in on that action.

Last year the Smith family made it to Florida for spring break and I fished then but that was the first week of April and we had open water in Michigan by then. I have never done a southern trip to fish when it was still cold here but I may look into that next year. Five months not fishing is too long and you can only clean your reels so many times.

Club News: I talked to tournament director Scott Hartman recently and he is working diligently on putting the flyer together for the Spring Open. He is starting to work on sponsors and hopefully will have the flyer together and mailed by early April if not earlier.

The goal for the Open is 30 teams and Scott believes that is obtainable, especially since the tournament will be held on opening day. I have already been in contact with another organization which held an opening day event on Michigan Center last year and they are no longer in existence so we should have the lake to ourselves. Scott has a mailing list for the flyers that is probably 20 names long and we will expand it to hopefully 40. Scott is working hard to make this a viable fund raiser for the club once again and he's well on his way to doing so

Other club news

2011-01-22T20:16:00.000-08:00

Other than the schedule change there were a few other significant changes to our tournament rules for 2011. The first being how the tournament payouts are calculated which will now be a paycheck for every four entries. This will pay more places per event and will spread the money out a little more than in the past. The exact payout schedule will be determined at the February meeting but the one place for every four entries is set in stone.

Secondly, there will be less hardware given out at the banquet this year. We will now only award one trophy for first place for each tournament. I was quite suprised at this change because we routinely give out four or five per tournament but a motion was put on the floor and it was voted in so 10 plaques will be given out this year.

And lastly, the club will have the right to shorten tournaments due to launch or other unforseen factors by a majority vote the morning of an event. Last year the tournament director had the right to change the start time due to launch problems, weather, ect, but the rules stated that all tournaments had to be 8 hours so a late start meant a late finish. Now, a late start could result in a shortened tournament if the majority votes for it under the new format. It may not come into play this year but if for some reason we can't launch say until 9am, then we may fish a six hour tournament. I like the rule and think it gives the club some flexibility.

This might not be the most exciting time of year for the club but some good groundwork has been laid for 2011 and now we can start to think about just fishing again. The rules are set and so is the schedule so hopefully we'll talk fishing from now on. I'm working on a few guest speakers for the upcoming meetings and hopefully that will add a little excitement into our winter meetings. Don't look now but the Bass Pro Shops spring sale is about a month away.

Schedule Change

2011-01-15T05:20:00.001-08:00

We had quite a meeting last thursday when the club gathered for it's monthly get together and some very big changes came about. The most important being a schedule change for the 2011 season which moved the two day Wixom events to June 11th and 12th and the Devils lake tournament was rescheduled for June 19th. Basically we just swapped weekends for the two so hopefully it won't change anyones plans too much.

Fathers day is June 19th and some club members thought it might put a strain on family get-togethers if we were out of town on fathers day. This way will will still be fishing but just on Sunday and it will be close to home. I know we usually have a cook-out at the Smith house on Saturday and Sunday is left for dad to do his thing so I really think the club did a good job in looking out for everyone.

There were several other important changes but I'm going ice fishing now and will have to post that information at a later time. Hope the fish are biting.

Cost Saver #1

2011-01-13T05:22:00.000-08:00

Being kind of a tight-wad, I like to save money whenever I can and buying fishing tackle is no different. I tend to use the higher end stuff so it can get pricey, especially when buying fishing line. I use fluorocarbon about 80% of the time and I've found myself dropping $80 on line in the spring which puts my fishing expenditures in a bind quickly. Here are a few things I do to combat that high price tag.

First off I only buy my line when it's on sale. I use BPS xps fluoro and they always have it for about $10-$12 per spool in the spring. I save my old sale flyers and that gives me a good indication of what will be on sale this year, which their line always seems to be.

Secondly, I try and only buy a few sizes which will eliminate purchasing a whole spool of say #14 line which I only use for spinnerbaits. Instead I buy #12 which I can use with spinners as well as senkos and lighter flipping applications. It might not be the exact size line I need but it works well enough and saves me from buying an extra spool.

I also change line very often so my next trick involves line conservation. I fill all my reels with a cheap filler line and then put a piece of electrical tape on the spool. I leave enough room for another 50 yards or so which I fill with the good line. This is all that ever sees the water anyways and makes it easier to re-spool and pick out backlashes.

Spinning reels are no different and I've used a new setup the last few years which saves even more money. I have three spinning reels I use and like to use #8 fluoro on each. I also love braid but went away from it a few years back due to it's high visibility under water. But recently I've mastered a line to line knot which allows me to use braid and then tie a fluorocarbon leader to the business end. This setup allows me the sensitivity of braid with the invisibility of fluoro and I've not had a break off yet. I can buy one spool of braid and one spool of the flouro and be set for the year.

Of course I use my line savings and just spend it on other tackle anyway so I'm not saving much money overall but I feel I'm spending my money more wisely now.

January Meeting

2011-01-11T07:49:00.000-08:00

The January meeting is this coming Thursday night at 7pm, located at Art Moehn on Seymour Rd in Jackson. We will be discussing the club constitution which should remain unchanged but the tournament rules will also be reviewed and several changes are sure to come. I've heard through the grapevine that the payout schedule will be revisited and possibly the plaque situation. Last year the trophy fund was a little inadequate and some tweaking may have to be done.

I am also concerned with a small loophole which was discovered last year and I think should be addressed. That is when the tournament director needs to change the start time of an event due to ramp or weather conditions, the end time cannot be adjusted. Right now we must fish an eight hour tournament per the rules so if the start time is changed to 9am then it must finish at 5pm. I think the director should have the right to change the end time even though it might mean fishing a seven or six hour tournament. I might be in the minority on this subject but that's why it is so important for everyone to show up Thursday. Hope to see everyone there.

Year in Review

2011-01-05T17:40:00.001-08:00

Well just like anything this time of year, it's a good time to look back at 2010 and it's no different with me and fishing. I've evaluated as much as possible and tried to process everything I learned last year and hope to parlay that info into a much better 2011. Here is a sampling of what I learned last year and how most of it came from other fishermen beating my brains in.

Lesson #1: Always have a senko tied on no matter what. I usually do but even during the pre-spawn event at Baw Beese where I never thought it would come into play, it did. Jim and Trish Rice both caught good limits that day and a lot of our club events were won with the same lure.

Lesson #2: Rely on my instincts. I fished several tournaments in 2010 and pre-fished all but three of them. Guess which three I did the best in? That's right. I can catch fish pretty good but need to quit being stubborn and doing what I did in practice even though they're not biting and just go out and fish. I bet I'd do better with this attitude in 2011 and there's only one way to find out.

Lesson #3: Learn St Clair a little better. I've always wondered why tournament guys always head to Canada and to the southern end of the lake rather than head north? Well Randy Peck showed my why this may be a good option when he hammered 21 pounds in Anchor Bay during our club event. I always thought this would be a decent area during the hot summer months but never practiced up there. I will now.

Lesson #4: You can be on the fish and still not catch them. This was never truer than at Ovid when Matt Morgan and I shared water and he caught 16 pounds while I caught 2. Matt and I were doing basically the same thing but his presentation was slightly different which made all the difference in the world. Afterward he explained to me why he caught them and I didn't and it made perfect sense, albeit too late. I did listen to him though and used that same technique to catch the second biggest bass at the Classic a few weeks later.

All in all it was a decent year for me, I made the Classic after fishing only 7 tournaments and had several decent finishes throughout the year. I didn't win a tourney but felt I was close and am excited about next years' venues and think they fit my style of fishing. And one more thing I learned is that I need a new boat, but don't we all?

The Holidays

2010-12-29T18:06:00.000-08:00

I'm as busy as everyone this time of year, especially with a seven and a five year old but there is still a little time to spend outdoors. I've snuck in a few ice fishing trips and plan on heading to BPS soon. As far as gifts, I did open a few gift cards and one nice deep diving Lucky Craft crankbait which is always a good stocking stuffer. After the dust settles I'll start probing through the new Bass Pro master catalog and start working on the big order.

With all the family in town now, I can start planning out my summer and with the club schedule already done, it is even easier. It gets pretty busy during the warm months and good planning is a must at the Smith house. I travel to Minnesota, the UP, Burt Lake twice and throw in ten club events, you get the picture.

But as hectic as it gets during Christmas, I still love it and enjoy being home with the family. I tend to eat too much kielbasa and drink too many Miller Lites but isn't that what the Holidays are for? I start getting into cabin fever mode in early January and I've talked to fellow anglers who are already there so it won't be long. I'm already studying maps and researching new techniques so bass fishing is always on my mind. Hope to see everyone at the January meeting.

Club News

2010-12-21T18:12:00.000-08:00

The fishing might be over but the behind the scenes club activity is in full gear. Our schedule has been set and the board recently held it's monthly meeting and several interesting topics were discussed.

The tournament payout schedule was one such topic and one that usually demands a lot of attention. With tournament entry fees not only going to the top finishers, but the Classic, the Scholarship Fund and the trophy fund also come from the same pot. Deciding how to divide up the entry fees can be a hotly debated topic and one that will most likely be decided on during the January meeting.

Also, the Spring Open was discussed at length and several interesting bits of information came from it. First off, tournament director Scott Hartman discussed his plans on moving the fund raising event to the Memorial Day weekend the way it used to be. He surmised that this is the premiere tournament weekend to hold a catch and keep tournament since it's the opening day of bass season and everyone is chomping at the bit.

Secondly, Scott is also entertaining thoughts of moving the event back to Michigan Center Lake where it was held a few years back. There was a decent sized tourney there in 2010 which was put together at the last minute and it drew 23 boats so Scott believes we can do at least that. I fished the event last year as did several other club members and I'm sure with a little effort we can make good on Scotts vision.

I was in contact with the Leoni Township office today and they informed me that the Carp Carnival would be the only other event that we would need to consider when scheduling an event that time of year. We ran into such a conflict a few years back but they assured me that Memorial Day weekend would be an unlikely target date for the Carnival. Actually, the Lions Club picks the date and Leoni approves it but my call to the Lions Club resulted in a lot of people who acted as if they'd never heard of the Carp Carnival so I don't know this for sure. I think it's safe and would be an awesome event if Scott could put it together. I'll keep everyone posted.

Official Schedule

2010-12-13T14:45:00.000-08:00

Barring any problems with launch locations the official schedule has been set for the SCMBC 2011 season. Scott did a great job of trying to make it as easy as possible by scheduling out of town events next to closer venues, reducing travel and expenditures. I like back to back events but it can be tough on the pocket book shelling out tons of gas money so close together. He did plan back to back events in June, Wixom and Devils, but he had no choice with his work schedule and the 4th of July to work around. With Devils being so close, hopefully it won't be a problem for anyone and I'm looking forward to getting out there so early in the year.

One interesting thing is that we will not have any paper tournaments this year, having only one pre-season event located in Indiana. And the season finale will be a local event on Michigan Center which should result in a good turnout. One other venue I can't wait to fish is the Detroit River which the club has not visited for several years. But the cool thing about it is that we'll launch out of St. Jeans which is located near the mouth of St. Clair so familiar water will be close by if the river doesn't sound appealing. I've always wanted to fish the south shore in a tournament but it was always too long of a boat ride in the Crestliner. And the mile roads are just as close to St. Jeans as they are to Harley Ensign for those that frequent that area. So enough of the commentary, here is the schedule:

May 15 Lake James

June 12 Devils

June 18, 19 Wixom

July 10 St. Clair

July 23, 24 Ovid

Aug 7 Grand River

Aug 21 Detroit River

Sept 18 Michigan Center

Oct 1 Classic (unofficial)

The alternate lake for the pre-season is Hardy Dam, the alternate for the out of towner is Hamlin and Michigan Center will be the backup local lake. If the summer seems a little crowded that's because it is. There are ten tournaments and with only one pre-season that leaves us with a little less time to work with. September is very hectic around the Smith house and I think that's what Scott was thinking as well so only one September event shows up on the schedule. I believe the fall open will also fall near the end of that month so everything is spaced out pretty evenly. Again, great job to all who showed up at the meeting (20 members) and start thinking about the tournament rules meeting which is coming up in January.

The picks are in

2010-12-09T18:17:00.000-08:00

After much thought and discussion the club finally settled on a schedule for the 2011 season. There is a format change and a few new lakes and I think everyone did a great job putting it all together. The dates should be selected within a week but for now here are the lakes:

Pre-season: Lake James (Indiana)

Out of towner: Lake ovid, Wixom Lake

Local lakes: Michigan Center, Lake St Clair, Detroit River, Devils, Grand River (Lansing)

There will be more evaluation done over the weekend but overall I personally am pretty happy with the results. The Grand River is new and will be a different challenge as will Lake James, both of which I have never been on. I love Center and St. Clair and am looking forward to another shot at Ovid.

The launch site for the Detroit River is going to be St. Jeans which is located at the mouth of St. Clair making the south shore, Peche Island, the mile roads and the river all accessable. I was really hoping this would make it in and I think the club will really enjoy it.

I need a few days to digest everything but overall I am pleased and think newly elected tourney director Scott Hartman did a great job with everything. I'll post the dates when they are announced.

Lake Selections (part 2)

2010-12-07T18:12:00.000-08:00

I've got so many ideas I don't know where to start but with the December club meeting only two days away I need to get focused. I started thinking the other day how the club used to do things and for years it seemed like we went twice for out of towners ( two seperate tournaments) which would take up four of the clubs' events. I didn't like that format but have recently heard a few members may want to revisit it which is the beauty of this meeting, you never know what will happen. I've gone several years and thought I know how it would shake out but I was usually way off.

As I stated before, I like lakes that suit my fishing style and that I have confidence on. I like running and gunning and catching alot of fish and don't consider finesse fishing a strength of mine and plan on voting accordingly. Here are a few of my ideas on "local lakes" I'd like to see?

Michigan Center (twice): It's close, everyone knows it well and it fished really well last year. I can't tell you how many times we've gone to a lake during the "dog days" of summer and thought that it made more sense fishing closer to home and struggling as opposed to traveling and having the same tough bite. We always seem to draw a good crowd there as well so I will nominate it two times, hopefully once early in the season and then again late in the year.

St. Clair/Detroit River: LSC is a mainstay but since it's considered the best lake in the state, why only once? Double Digit limits are common even during the heat of the summer and everyone loves smallmouth so I will nominate this two times as well. But I think instead of launching from Harly both times, why not launch closer to the south shore or in the mouth of the Detroit River for one event. This would make the south shore accessable to everyone as well as the river. A lot of club guys ran down there anyway during last years event so it makes good sense. The lake has a lot more gravel and current closer to the river making it a great late summer destination and the St. Jean launch is located just inside the river, making this an ideal location.

Lake Ovid: I know weights were down last year but Matt showed us what swims in this body of water. The fishing was pretty crappy that time of year everywhere so I think this would be an ideal mid-summer locale, maybe even an "out of towner". I'ts close but has a great launch and an adjoining state park for camping. I believe this could be a great summer event and not having to deal with recreational boat traffic was awesome. I think the flipping bite and the frog bite could be on earlier in the year and it just fishes differently than most other lakes around here making it intriguing.

I also love fishing new bodies of water and I have one targeted in 2011 that's not too far and will offer a different challenge than we're used to. The Grand River will be my new lake I vote for this year and I've got several reasons to do so. Tourney Director Scott Hartman and Matt Zelienka have fished it several times and it sounds very interesting. It covers about 8 miles of shoreline and runs from Diamondale to Lansing. It has current, rip-rap, points, coves, wood and rock, just about everything possible to fish. You can also get out of the current in small backwater areas so you can fish anyway you probably want to. This venue is also fairly close, it's located just west of 127 off of 496 so we should draw a pretty decent crowd. I love fishing crankbaits and feel I could do this on the river but Scott says senko, frogs, grubs and jigs also do well up there. I hope this one gets voted in.

I may change a few things up between now and Thursday and the way things go I may not get any of these voted in but it's worth discussing hopefully a few get on the schedule. This cold weather has not deterred my enthusiasm for this meeting and hopefully we'll get a good turnout. Hope to see everyone Thursday at 7.

Lake Selections

2010-11-30T06:23:00.000-08:00

Next Thursday the club will have it's December monthly meeting but as anyone who knows me realizes this is one of my yearly highlights. This is where we select the lakes that will comprise next years' schedule and I put a lot of thought into it. Most of us have a few lakes that we never do well on and a few that we do. I try and tailor my selections towards a schedule that would benefit my style of fishing the most. Most guys never give it a second thought until they are actually at the meeting but I think it gives me something to look forward to during the winter, especially if we've added a new lake to the schedule.

I have a few thoughts already as to lakes I'd like to see next year, a few new ones and several regulars that I think we don't take enough advantage of. I'm short on time and will elaborate on this topic as next Thursday approaches but here are a few early thoughts:

Pre-Season I love the fact that we fish two catch and release events a year, the bite is pretty good and the pleasure boaters aren't out yet. But I don't really enjoy the task of trying to put my partner on fish when I have a hard enough time catching my limit. One partner event is good but how do we eliminate the other? How about going out of state. There are several decent lakes just over the Indiana border where we can catch and keep year round and we could hold normal weigh-ins and eliminate the need for co-anglers. The club used to do this back in the day and the lakes are only about an hours drive. The only downfall would be the out-of-state license but a day pass is only a few bucks and could be purchased on the internet.

I love Hardy Dam as much as the next guy but a local catch and release event could be awesome if the right lake is picked. I would love to see us visit Devils Lake in mid-May when the smallies would be on beds and we wouldn't have to drive 2.5 hours to get to there. Everyone could easily practice and the turnout would be pretty good. We've been to Hardy the last two years and I wouldn't mind doing something different this year. And the largemouth fishing would be pretty good as an added bonus. I know of another club in Jackson that fished Devils and Michigan Center last May and both events took 16 pounds to win. I know last years' warm spring had a lot to do with the good fishing but it still sounds like a decent idea to me. I have a few other ideas that I'm working on as well and will pass them along shortly. Did I mention I really look forward to this meeting?

Dale Popp Award

2010-11-24T16:44:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to comment briefly on winning the Dale Popp Jr sportsmanship award at the banquet a few weeks back. This award is given to the club member who displays exemplary sportsmanship qualities and conduct, adjectives that are not usually associated with my name, but I'll definitely take it. I was quite suprised but excited because it totally took me be suprise.

I don't consider myself as a great club member because I usually don't participate in many extracurricular activities and basically just fish the tournaments. I guess this blog was a big reason why I was chosen and that is great because it's something I love to do anyway. I'm just very grateful and would like to thank all that voted for me.

I know fishing is probably the last thing people are thinking about right now but the December meeting is two weeks away so this is a slight reminder. This is the meeting where the 2011 scheduled is voted on so start thinking about it. I have a few lakes in mind and a couple are new venues. I will comment on this topic in more detail next week and as usual will have a few suggestions for everyone to consider. Have a great Thanksgiving and keep an eye open for BPS and Cabelas sale flyers. There are great deals to be had this time of year.

New Boats

2010-11-19T19:23:00.000-08:00

I've been a boat owner since 1992 and have bought only three rigs in those 18 years, two Bass Trackers and my current boat, a 17' Crestliner Fish Hawk. I never gave much thought to owning a fiberglass boat and loved everything about an aluminum one such as the ease of towing, the good gas mileage and the lack of maintenance. But when I had trolling motor problems this spring and was boatless for a month, I borrowed Mike Maske's 18' Javelin and I started to see the light.

Now that I think I really need to move up in boat, I've started taking notice of all the other rigs our club members fish out of. I never paid much attention before and didn't care what was different about Nitros and Rangers, they were all the same. Well being a research freak like I am, I am quickly learning the intricacies of each and have a pretty good idea which one might suit me.

I have now started taking notice of what club guys fish out of and have started to appreciate what a good boat means to an angler. Several SCMBC guys have purchased boats recently, Scott Rice, Jim VanAken, Leo Knox and Scott Hartman (pictured above) and I can't wait to add my name to that list.

I actually now can look at a boat from a distance and tell whether it's a Skeeter or Triton and can actually figure out if it's one of my club members or not, something I could never do in the past. I have really begun to see what an advantage a good boat is in fishing and hope it will improve me as a fisherman. I will miss being able to handle four footers with ease like I did in a deep-V but will no longer get passed by everyone during our tournament blast-offs.

I will be putting the Crestliner up for sale in the spring and hopefully getting into something new (or new to me) by April. This is the master plan and I'll be spending all winter doing more research and looking at the classifieds. Hopefully everything works out that way but I figure the worst case scenario will have me in that boat one more year. Anyone looking for a good walleye boat? Just let me know.

Day on the Lake (Part 2)

2010-11-13T19:51:00.000-08:00

Well I was able to return to LeAnne two days later and hoped to convert on the fish that I had found. The water had warmed a little, 46.5 degrees but the sun was not out and it was a little windy. I had trouble getting the fish to bite on a stable sunny day and wondered if it would be even tougher today. After all, it was the second week of November.

I decided to hit a few of the small bays where I saw fish in two days earlier but could not manage a bite. I knew where the fish were and decided to go and try to catch them instead of trying to find new fish.

9:30 Moving back into my big bay I noticed the bait was still there and figured the bass were too. I caught one rather quickly on a Zoom Super Fluke although it was only 13 inches long. Moving further back into the bay I noticed that although the sun was not out and it felt colder, the bait seemed to be more active which suprised me. I decided that a Manns Baby Minus-1 crankbait would be the best bet but after one pass through my best area I had not received one bite. I could see the pike still feeding as was the case two days prior and figured the bass would not be far behind. These fish are still here and they'll bite something but what?

10: 00 A spinnerbait seemed like the logical choice because it resemble a school of bait and could be worked through the weeds effectively. Five minutes later my hunch was answered with a solid keeper on a slow rolled 1/2 oz white Nichols spinnerbait with white blades. A few minutes later I caught another solid keeper on the spinner and figured I'd figured them out. But after fishing the whole area without another biteI knew some tweeking needed to be done.

10:30 With the sun starting to pop out I decided I needed to try and match the bait a little more closely. I downsized to a 3/8 oz spinnerbait with silver blades and a more translucent skirt. The move paid off handsomely as my first cast resulted in a 4 pound largemouth that inhaled the spinnerbait as I slow rolled it through the sparse weeds. I followed that up with a 3 lb fish, two that went 2.5 lbs and another that went 2 lbs even. My slight adjustment however so insignificant was all I needed. I caught a few more good ones and lost one that was close to 4 lbs and then one that was near 3 lbs.

11:30 Afte the onslaught was over I decided to try and find a few new areas where I could exploit the biting fish but was unable to replicate what I'd found in my backwater bay area. I'm not sure why this seemed to be the only spot where I could catch them but after fishing deep into several backwater areas, I was convinced this spot was unique.

12:30 Well I once again had to be to work soon and never returned to my hot spot but explored a lot of the lake that I'd never seen and made a few notes for future reference. I ended up catching about 10 fish with 7 being keeper size and 12.5 pounds for the best five. Not bad for this time of year and I was very satisfied being able to figure out how to catch fish that I'd found earlier. Who'd have thought the bait of choice would be a spinnerbait but I was proud I could figure it out and do so well on an unfamiliar lake. Why can't I do that in our tournaments?

Day on the Lake

2010-11-12T06:14:00.001-08:00

Everyone loves the "Day on the Lake" segment in the Bassmaster magazine and I think it's the most helpful information that you can get when trying to figure out how to catch fish on a new lake or any lake for that matter. I had the opportunity to explore a new lake this past week and thought it would be cool to do my own mini day on the lake journal. My lake was LeAnne which is a private lake in the Somerset area. It is man made and is about 350 acres. Here's how my day went.

I arrived at LeAnne at about 9am and noticed that the water temps were about 45 degrees and the water was fairly clear. Being so cold I decided to focus on the sunny (west) bank and seek out quick dropping breaks which are key this time of year. I found such and area and started working a rip-rap bank that dropped quickly into 12 fow. I started with a medium diving crankbait and then backed off a little with a suspending jerkbait. The weather had been cold and just started warming up so the fish may be a little sluggish to start.

9:30 After no bites I continued north and found a steep dropping bank next to the dam. I threw the jerkbait along with a white Zoom Super Fluke but had no takers. There is a narrow channel at the north east end of the lake that opens up into a large bay and I continued into the bay alternating between a Fluke and Jerkbait.

Fishing back into the bay I had hoped the water would be a little warmer and looked for signs of baitfish but found neither. These areas usually stay warmer longer and the bait migrate to them, as do the bass. This lake does not have a lot of vegetation and is fairly featureless so I figured I'd just cover water until I found something.

10:00 I worked out of the bay with a shallow running crankbait and finally had a bite from a small fish and then another. I missed both but noticed some shallow eel grass which held lots of baitfish and probably the bass. I needed to find some more of that.

10:30 Having no luck in the first major bay I decided to head out to the main lake and fish some points. These are great fall locations that allow fish to move up and down in the water column easily and this lake had several decent ones. I headed to the biggest point on the lake which had sun on it and also had a very quick drop. I threw a deeper diving crankbait in a crawfish pattern and hauled water but noticed that it transitioned into a small flat and then to another point. I fished the flat and on my second cast had a big fish bite. After a good fight I lipped my first bass of the day, 4 pounds even. But that was the only bite on the flat and adjacent point, so much for my point pattern.

11:00 The sun was out now and the water was warming slightly to 45.5 degrees so I decided to fish the main lake a little longer before hitting some more bays. There is a big island on LeAnne with a few small humps surrounding it and it looking intriguing. There was a little vegetation around the humps (something that I was finding quite rare on LeAnne) and lots of bait so I pulled out a Strike King Red Eye Shad and started slow rolling it. The baitfish looked like shad or very small bluegill and the rattle bait resembled it perfectly. But after 15 minutes all I caught was a small pike.

11:30 It was starting to get warm and I decided to spend the rest of my day in the bays and cuts. This lake has lots of these and the biggest was located in the south east section of the lake. I again started working my way in, throwing the suspending jerkbait off the breaks that contained gravel and looked perfect, to me anyway. I came to a big Y in the bay and headed to the smaller section that dead-ended. I didn't catch anything but saw lots of weeds and more fish, a good sign.

As I worked back toward the center of the Y, I noticed a small pad field that butted up to deep water. Perfect I thought and threw my jerkbait to the outer edge of the pads. Two jerks later I had a vicious strike and shortly was sliding the net under a fish that looked bigger than the first. 4.3 pounds officially, I was starting to like LeAnne.

The other section of the Y went back quite a way and as I proceeded I noticed more bait and weeds and started seeing a few big bass cruising. The water was calm which didn't help but as I came to the back end of the cut I saw tons of bait cruising and more and more skittish bass. I caught one just short of being a keeper on a Super Fluke but most of the fish could see me coming from a mile away and even with long casts, couldn't muster a bite.

12:00 I finally found what I was looking for, lots of bait jammed into a small backwater area and lots of bass. I actually saw several fish feeding along with lots of pike slashing through the bait schools. It was an awesome sight, especially in 46 degree water and I had a front row seat. Baitfish were jumping, pike and bass were eating and I couldn't get a bite for nothing. I threw the rattle bait, the Fluke and a small crankbait to no avail. I even tried a senko but nada. Time was getting short and I found the honey hole but had to be to work soon.

12:30 Reluctantly I left my bay and wanted to scout out a few other areas. One more try with a Super Fluke on the gravel banks leading into the cut resulted in a bite from a 2 pounder which I promptly broke off but the fish were starting to get active, just in time for me to leave. I idled into a few small bays and saw big fish set up way in the back of each, just like I figured I would but it was time to go.

12:45 I ended my day with six bites, caught three and two big ones equalling 8.3 pounds. Not bad for November 10th but I knew the bite would improve. If I were to come back tomorrow I would focus my efforts on the big Y-shaped bay and find a way to get those fish to bite. I was proud of myself for finding these fish on an unfamiliar lake but disappointed I couldn't figure out how to catch them. I'm sure a few other smaller bays would hold fish as well and this is a pattern I could run and hopefully catch a few more. Maybe a little cloud cover or wind would help but everything is a crap-shoot this time of year.

Fortunately for me, I will be able to return in a few days and I'll post on whether I was able to catch these fish or not. Finding them is half the battle and I'm looking forward to the test.

Club Banquet

2010-11-08T19:13:00.000-08:00

The 2010 season is officially in the books with the completion of the season ending banquet and it was a great ending. Mike Pritchard picked an awesome venue with Steves Ranch House doing the hosting and everything was top notch. I am without my computer for a few days but will post a few pictures when I'm back online.

Back to the Banquet. The food was great and Mike did an excellent job with the prizes as well. It was a cozy atmosphere and probably one of the best setups for our small gathering. Having a room to ourselves is a big deal and I'd love to go back next year. This is probably my 10th banquet and I have more fun each year.

Back in the day it seemed like the party was a little more formal and I always thought it was a little "stuffy". But now it seems like the mood is more casual and whether that's due to smaller crowds or just everyone getting along better, I think it is definitely for the better.

And who would have thunk I'd win any sort of sportsmanship award but that's just what happened. I took home the Dale Popp award and was quite honored to do so. I'll comment more on the award later, the weather is good and all my free time will be spent on the water so everything will be delayed a few days. The bottom line is that the banquet was a success and thanks to everyone who helped make it that way.

Club Banquet

2010-11-03T16:26:00.000-07:00

Don't forget the Club Banquet is this coming weekend at Steve's Ranch House Restaurant in Jackson. Saturday night the festivities start with happy hour from 5:30-6:30 and dinner will be served shortly after. I've heard it will be a prime rib buffet but I'm sure it'll be good no matter what they serve up.

The highlight for me is of course the raffle when I hope to win a rod that is much more expensive than I would pay myself. This has happened a few times over the years but it seems like I usually come home with a coffee cup or candle holder more often than a $150 rod. Whatever I win, that's not the point. I just like seeing everyone, talking some shop and having a few drinks with my fishing buddies. Be prepared though, I've already been thinking about the lakes I'd like to see on next years schedule and I'll probably start dropping some hints Saturday night.

Hope to see everyone there and bring a few extra dollars for the raffle and 50/50. I've heard the grand prize is a cardboard cutout of Matt Morgan but I cannot confirm that so hopefully I heard wrong. That's probably what I'd win so a coffee mug might not be so bad.

Sunday Fishing

2010-10-31T17:40:00.000-07:00

Fellow club member Mike Maske and I were able to get out today for a few hours and we managed to hit one of the fall hotspots mentioned here a few posts ago. One of Lake Erie's warm water discharge rivers near Monroe was our destination today and the fishing was quite good. The water temps on Erie were in the high 40's but the discharge area had water temps in the 70's. It was quite a chore getting in there with high winds and low water but well worth the effort.

There is so much activity in these areas with all the baitfish and bass surfacing and carp jumping, it's an awesome sight. Mike and I started with spinnerbaits and jigs but quickly found a deep diving crankbait to be the bait of choice. There is a lot of wood and laydowns in the river and several riprap areas so with the dirty water (about 18" visibility) a crankbait seemed to be the obvious choice.

My main weapon was an old Strike King Series 5 deep diver in a shad color and I found the fish were actually away from the bank and cover, sitting in 8-12 foot of water. Together we caught about 20 fish, 10 being keepers and our best five went about 13.5 pounds. Not huge but lots of fun and great for this late in the season.

Our big fish was a 3.7 lb. smallmouth I caught off a small point and then Mike later caught back to back fish that both went close to 3 lbs. on a Series 6 crankbait. We both also foul hooked carp that actually pulled the boat during the fight and we managed to get one of the monsters in the net. It was a great day and hopefully we'll be back before the lake ices up.

Fall Destinations

2010-10-28T18:42:00.000-07:00

The weather has been mild this fall but it's starting to look as if the cold weather is coming quickly. Early fall bass fishing isn't much different than in the late summer but once the water cools, things change quickly. We've seen the water temps stay in the mid-50's to low 60's for a while now but should see temps in the low 50's to high 40's soon. To me this is the mid to late fall season and not every lake has good fishing available. These are a few of my favorite late season lakes to fish or ones I hope to soon.

Columbia: This is a small rerservior and fishes better in the cold months than the hot ones. Maybe it's the murky water or boat traffic, I'm not sure but I've caught em' here well into November. Matt Morgan had a great day here a few years back on New Years Day so as long as there's open water we should be able to catch them here. There is still lots of good green vegetation on Columbia and that is the key right now for any lake. If there's still good green weeds then the fish will be there.

Michigan Center: I have not personally been on Center real late in the year but local pro Jim VanAken says it gets good when the water is in the 40's. We're not there yet according to Jim and lots of good green weeds remain so I hope to get out there soon. He also recommends using shallow running crankbaits this time of year which is also my choice on Columbia.

St. Clair: This place is awesome in fall but very fickle as far as the weather goes. Muddy water is the enemy on LSC this time of year with all the rain and winds but if you get a few nice sunny days it is worth the trip. The south shore in Canada and along the southwest side contains most of St. Claires gravel and this is where you need to concentrate. A few years back Duane Mroczka and I fished on November 1st and clobbered em'. I've heard guys doing well into late November so I still may get out there.

Warm water discharges: Lake Erie and the Detroit River have a few of these and they can be phenominal during the colder months. I was on one such area this past March and while we still had some ice around here, the water temps on the "hot ponds" were in the 70's. I've heard this is the case right now and it seems like every largemouth in the lake makes it's way into the warm water. The one I fish is located near Monroe and I can be at the launch in a little over an hour and fishing shorlty thereafter. Crankbaits, spinnerbaits and jigs rule here and for those that don't hunt these discharge areas can greatly extend the fishing season as long as the launches stay ice free.

Weekend Fishing

2010-10-26T19:36:00.000-07:00

I can't believe the warm fall we're having so far but the fishing is not what I'd hoped for so far and this past weekend was no different. With mild air temps near 70 and water temps still in the mid-50's I thought we'd hammer the bass but it was just the opposite. Scott Hartman and I got out for about 5 hours Saturday and total we caught about 18 fish and no keepers.

I threw crankbaits, spinnerbaits, jigs and plastics to no avail. I fished deep weededges, points, cuts and main lake flats. I believe the water temps are still a little warm for the fish to go on feeding binges so hopefully this cold front moving through will get the fish active.

I talked to fellow club member Jim VanAken and he had similar results on Michigan Center this weekend as well. Jim fishes Center often and claims they bite well into November and the bite is really good when the water temps drop into the 40's. I am going out this weekend and will post all the info I can. I hope this warm spell will extend the season a few weeks because I'm having tournament withdrawls already. It's too early for that.

Recreation Passport

2010-10-21T13:50:00.000-07:00

A much cheaper alternative is what I call it but the DNR insists on "Recreation Passport" so that's what I'll refer to it as. If you have not heard yet, the DNR will allow you to purchase this "Passport" starting now and it will get you into state parks and DNR owned boat access sites instead of the old sticker system.

Under the current system, a sticker was required for entry into the state parks such as Wamplers, Lake Ovid and Portage. The access only sites such as St. Clair and Devils would require a separate sticker and at $24 apiece, I'd be shelling out close to $50 a year for stickers. Now for $10 I can purchase a passport and gain entry into both.

I renewed my truck tabs yesterday and that is when the passports should be purchased. The Secretary of State will ask if this is something you want to buy when renewing and a special plate tab will indicate you have the passport. Your registration also indicates that you have purchased the passport and this must be shown to the DNR Ranger when entering the parks.

This saves me $38 a year and I don't have to gum up my windshields anymore. I think it's a great idea, much like the permanent trailer plates from a few years ago. Hope this program sticks around awhile.

Still Fishing

2010-10-19T18:06:00.000-07:00

With the extended warm weather fellow club member Scott Hartman and I decided to take advantage of it Sunday and try out his new boat. He just purchased a red 1999 Nitro 882 with a 150 Mercury XR6 on it and we had to break it in. Lake Columbia was close enough so we could get about three hours on the water and still make it home in time for the Lions game.

The water is still surprisingly warm at 59 degrees and a lot of green weeds still remain. The bite was slow but steady and we caught five keepers and a total of about 12 pounds. Scott caught the biggest one which is pictured above, a 4.1 pounder that inhaled a spinnerbait on a shallow stumpy flat. I caught four keepers myself with the biggest going 2.5 lbs on a jig.

The fish aren't concentrated yet and most were very skinny. I believe the next big cold front will cause the fish to go on a big feeding frenzy and hopefully we'll be there to capitalize. Neither of us hunt so fishing will be our #1 priority this fall and hopefully I'll have a few more good outings to report on. St. Clair hopefully this weekend.

October Meeting

2010-10-14T18:19:00.001-07:00

I just got home from the clubs October meeting and I'd like to pass along a few of the highlights. First of all I'd like to congratulate Scott Hartman and Kathy Maurer on their new positions with the club. Scott took the Tournament Directors spot while Kathy will be the newsletter editor. Both will do an awesome job next year I'm sure.

Art Honsinger re-uppped as the President again but the special activities director seat is still open. This is an important post and hopefully someone will take the assignment before the new year.

Also, the banquet money was due tonight so if anyone is interested in attending then contact Mike Pritchard and let him know. The party will be at Steves Ranch House I believe and the cost is $20 for a prime rib buffet so it's a pretty good deal.

There will not be a club meeting next month so the next time we meet will be at the banquet. Decembers club meeting is when we select the lakes for next year schedule so it's not too early to start thinking about that. I haven't put the boat away yet and will not do so until all the launches are iced over so I'll keep the fishing reports coming.

Burt / Mullett

2010-10-12T17:44:00.000-07:00

Just returned from my annual fall trip up to Burt and Mullett lakes and it was a blast as usual. We had four guys go this year and other than myself two were club members, Mike Maske and Matt Morgan. The weather plays a big role this time of year up there and we've had everything over the years from almost snowing to sunny and warm. This year was pretty good as far as the weather goes with temps in the mid 60's and sunny and the water temps were in the mid to high 50's.

We stay in a cabin at the state park and fish Friday, Saturday and a little Sunday. The first day was probably the best fishing with Mike catching a 6+ pound smallie on a spinnerbait and Matt and I catching 12-15 good ones ourselves. The fish hadn't really moved up yet do to a recent warming trend but the smallies were still showing up and eating crankbaits, tubes and spinnerbaits.

Saturday marked our annual two boat tournament on Mullett and both teams brought 19+ pounds to the scales so we called it a draw. Once again Mike Maske caught a good one over 5 pounds and I added a 5 and a 4.7 to anchor our teams sack. Mr. Maske probably caught more fish than anyone on the trip and also guided his partner to several in the four pound category which were personal bests. I also added a 24" steelhead to my resume, caught on a crankbait which is always a bonus.

Sunday was a short one and most of our time was spent idling around and marking deep cover with Matt's side-imaging electronics. It was awesome seeing logs clearly in 15 fow and I probably marked 20 such spots. Hopefully there will be big fish bedding on these coordinates when I return next June. We also did a little fishing and Matt and I caught about a 15 pound limit in ten minutes off a large point on Burt to end a good trip.

The weather was great, we caught big fish and I got to spend time with three good guys, what more could you ask for. We ate more than you can imagine and unfortunately we probably drank more beer than we should have but what else are you going to do all night in a 12" x 12" cabin? Can't wait until next June.

Club Meeting

2010-10-07T09:37:00.000-07:00

I gave the wrong date in my last post about the October club meeting. The correct date will be next Thursday the 14th at 7pm. Sorry about the bad info. I will be heading up to Burt Lake tomorrow with club members Mike Maske and Matt Morgan to do a little smallmouth fishing and hope to have plenty of good pictures when we get back. Hope the weather cooperates.

Classic Pattern

2010-10-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

I don't ever remember a year when there have been more "blowout" wins at our club events. Matt Morgan did it at Ovid, Scott Rice at Cadillac and Randy Peck dominated at St. Clair. It was pretty much the same at the club championship this past Sunday at Gillettts lake when Jim Rice caught a limit and culled a few times while the next closest competitor brought three fish to the scales.

I talked to Jimbo afterward and although the water temps were around 55 degrees, he caught most of his fish throwing crankbaits. A shallow running Manns Baby-1 minus did the damage early and later in the day when the fish were deeper he switched to a Strike King Red Eye Shad lipless crank. Rice commented that most of the fish he caught literally swallowed the bait and he needed pliers to remove the hooks.

The early bite was up shallow and that's when the 1-Minus shines, diving to only a foot or so. When the fish moved deeper the better bite was out on the flats close to deep water and that's where I saw Jim spend the majority of the day. Rice also caught about 20-25 short fish, an incredible statistic considering the bite was so tough. Mark Dereadt managed to finish second and also bring in the big fish of the day, a 3 1/2 pound largemouth. Although there are smallies present at Gilletts, none were brought to the scales on this cold windy day.

Great job everyone who made the Classic and don't forget about the meeting this coming Thursday when we elect new board members and turn in our banquet forms.

Classic Results

2010-10-04T06:39:00.000-07:00

Gilletts Lake - 2010 Classic

1 Jim Rice 9.28

2 Mark Dereadt 7.92

3 Leo Knox 5.28

4 Jerry Smith 4.59

5 Scott Hartman 3.88

6 Matt Morgan 1.54

7 Scott Rice 1.51

8 Roy Albert 1.28

9 Randy Peck 0

10 Bill Maurer 0

Big Bass #1: Mark Dereadt 3.85

Big Bass #2: Jerry Smith 2.89

Big Fish Season

2010-09-30T16:25:00.000-07:00

Fall means cooling water temps which usually equals fish moving shallow and becoming catchable again. This trend is becoming evident on a few local lakes recently as I have witnessed some hogs being caught.

The first one to show up was a 5.2 pound smallie I caught on Clark Lake about 12 days ago on a Zoom Super Fluke. A five pounder is a good fish around here but the amazing thing was that it was very thin and measured 22" long. This fish should weigh closer to six pounds after it fattens up for the winter. It was on a shallow rocky flat in about three feet of water.

Pig number two showed up last weekend as part-time club member Nick Neves brought a massive largemouth to the launch during a small buddy tournament held on Lake Columbia. The fish weighed in at 6 pounds even on my scales and 6.4 on another set of scales. It was the biggest largemouth I have ever seen in person and Nick caught it flipping a shallow grass mat on a green pumpkin creature bait.

Hopefully a few big fish will show up at this weekends classic and with the colder temps rolling in, I wouldn't be surprised to see one. I was out tonight for a few hours and water temps are still about 67 degrees, up a little from the weekend. But lows in the 30's are expected for Friday and Saturday night so I'm not sure what to expect. I've been on the water when I thought the bite would be awesome and it was quite the opposite and vice-versa. Guess I'll let the fish tell me what they want or I'll just force feed them.

As far as the Classic goes, I'll be arriving at the 145 Truck Stop closer to 5:30 Sunday morning. I know the time was set at 6am and it isn't light until closer to 8, but getting an early start never hurts. I still plan on picking Devils as my lake due to the fact that the smallmouth may bite a little better even with the cold temps. I think this would offer the best opportunity for big stringers and a good classic, unlike last years slow bite. I'll be there at 5:30, maybe earlier.

Classic Week

2010-09-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

As with anything related to fishing, I've put a lot of thought recently into which lake I'd like to fish for the Classic this weekend. All ten anglers will select a lake and one will be pulled from a hat which only gives me a one in ten shot but I want to pick one that suites my style of fishing. The cool thing about the club championship is that with only ten angers, smaller lakes can be fished. Gilletts and Pleasant are small lakes that have hosted recent Classics so do I vote for a smaller body of water or go for a bigger one that I've had success on?

Here are a few small bodies of water that may get my vote:

Vineyard: This lake isn't really that small but doesn't get a lot of publicity. It has a good population of largemouth in the lower end and I've caught some smallies up to five pounds in the gravely upper end. It is about 450 acres and located fairly close to town but has one small drawback. The launch is a shallow gravel launch with no pavement and no dock. It will accommodate large boats, not ideal but doable.

Clarks: This is a good sized lake but never gets tournament pressure due to lack of a good launch. Fortunately I am a member of the CL Boat Club and have a pass for their launch so that would not be an issue. The lake has big smallies in it (I caught a five pounder just last week there) and a bigger population of largemouth. The drawback is that it is relatively featureless with large sandy flats and can fish tough. The smallies are there but undersized largemouth make up most of my catches. I think it would be tough to get limits and with the cold weather coming I'm pretty sure I won't be voting for Clarks.

Portage-Jackson: A small lake that would not support a regular club event but ten boats would not be too many for Portage. Located close to town, it has a decent population of smallies and some big largemouth as well. I really like this lake in the spring but being located in a state park makes is very popular with boaters and it fishes extremely tough in the summer. It should be pretty good now and the launch facilities are awesome.

Some bigger lakes that normally get tough during the summer but could be very good now:

Michigan Center: This lake is close to town and everyone know it well. It has fished really good this year and some big weights have been brought to the scales. If we hit it right the fishing could be awesome and limits could be plentiful. But the cold weather may shut the largemouth bite down and there are no smallies present to target.

Devils: I can't believe I would ever vote for this lake but it may be the leader in the clubhouse. A notoriously tough summer lake that has largemouth and smallmouth with plenty of room for everyone. But with the cooler water temps this lake could turn on and the adjacent Round Lake could also come into play. Our club event there this past August relulted in bigger weights than expected and when I fished here last week the bite was pretty good.

I know some guys don't even think about their Classic vote until we get to the restaurant on Sunday but obviously I have and I think I'm going with Devils as of right now. I'll keep an eye on the weather and that will play a role in my selection but that's the way I'm leaning right now.

Fall Open Results

2010-09-27T17:43:00.000-07:00

1) Dale Steward / Roger Steward 12.96 lbs
2) Jeff Elliott 10.97
3) Mark Dereadt / Kathy Maurer 10.64

Big Bass#1: Dereadt / Maurer 3.87 lbs
Big Bass#2: Wright / Wright 3.85

-There were 13 teams competing in the tournament
-The payouts were as follows: 1st $300, 2nd $200, 3rd $100
-Big Bass #1 paid $80 and Big Bass #2 paid $50
-Kathy Maurer and Mark Dereadt placed third and also served as tournament directors

Fall Open

2010-09-24T16:23:00.000-07:00

The clubs fall open is tomorrow at Wamplers Lake so if anyone still wants to fish we have plenty of room. The check in is 8am at the Hayes State Park launch ramp and the tournament will run from 9am until 5pm or earlier if determined at the boaters meeting. Rain is out of the forecast and sunny skies with pleasant temps are expected so feel free to show up and fish. This is a team event with the best five being weighed and this event is notoriously a big weight tourney. Hope to see a good turnout.

Classic field set

2010-09-21T17:46:00.000-07:00

With the regular season finished the next club event will be our annual "Classic" which features the top ten finishers in the Angler of the Year standings. The tournament will be held Sunday, October 3rd at a lake to be determined that morning. This years field includes two new faces, both club rookies. The entire field looks like this:

Scott Rice

Randy Peck

Matt Morgan

Jim Rice

Mark Dereadt

Bill Maurer

Leo Knox

Roy Albert

Jerry Smith

Scott Hartman

The majority of the field has been to at least a few classics so it's old hat but for Scott Hartman and Leo Knox, this will be their first. The cool thing about this event is that it's low key and pretty casual but everyone is guaranteed money and there is no entry fee. There isn't a lot of pressure to do well and I always have a good time fishing it. Hope to have decent weather.

This coming weekend is the annual fall open which will be held on Wamplers Lake again. This is a good fund raiser for the club so if anyone is interested then contact Bill Maurer or I believe Mark Dereadt. I'm not sure about Mark so call Bill and he can steer you in the right direction. This is a team event and Wamplers can be pretty good this time of year so expect 15 pounds or so to be a good benchmark. Anyone interested in fishing can contact me as well for more info.

2010 Angler of the Year - Scott Rice

2010-09-18T05:29:00.000-07:00

After the second tournament of the year Scott Rice approached me and told me he how bad he wasstruggling and he couldn't figure it out. Scott had weighed in one fish in the event and coupled with a poor finish at Baw Beese he was not only well out of the AOY lead but a long shot to make the top ten. I commented on how he'd make up for it the next weekend at Cadillac and didn't know how right I was. Scott dominated the field both days of the Cadillac event, winning both and getting the momentum started that would propel him to the top spot.

Scott is considered one of the best fishermen in the club and had won the AOY title in 2005 but was unable to duplicate that success until this year. He won three tournaments this year and won three in 2009 but it seems like he always had one or two stinkers every year which would prevent him from winning the coveted title. He had the stinkers this year as well but fished so well in the other events it didn't really matter.

Rice trailed Randy Peck who was looking for his first AOY title as they headed to Sleepy Hollow. Randy had a slim 1.5 pound lead but wasn't able to hold Scott off on a tough day at Lake Ovid. Randy could only bring one keeper to the scales and Scott had three fish to seal the deal. Randy had an awesome year as well and I'm sure it was disappointing for him to finish second but he should be proud of a great year.

Both anglers will participate in the "Classic" which will be held on Sunday, October 3rd on a lake to be determined. More info on the Classic qualifiers to come.

Morgan destroys field

2010-09-15T05:41:00.000-07:00

With all the good fishermen in the club very rarely does someone dominate a tournament but this year Scott Rice did it at Cadillac and Sunday Matt Morgan did it again on Lake Ovid. Matt brought in nearly 16 pounds while everyone else struggled to catch a few keepers and bested everyone else by over 10 pounds. Matt caught two that were over 4 pounds and also took home the big bass prize. Roy Albert took second with 6 pounds and Scott Rice just under six while taking home the Angler of the Year award in the process (more on that later). Here's how Matt did it.

Practice: Matt fished Ovid only once last weekend but from previous experiences on musky lakes he figured the fish would be shallow and tight in the weeds. The vegetation on Ovid is quite thick and the best way to access these fish is by flipping jigs and plastics into the weed mats. Morgan did just that and caught several good fish in practice, honing in on a few different areas and baits. He had a good idea he'd catch them pretty good Sunday but I don't think he knew how good.

Tournament: Morgan had a few key areas that had matted weeds but were close to deeper water and went to work. He flipped a jig and a plastic grub type bait (Erie Darter by Poor Boys Baits) both in watermelon hues into the tick vegetation. The water he flipped was anywhere from 2-6 feet deep and the water tended to be a little clearer inside the weed clumps. Both baits were of the 1/2 oz variety which was critical to get the bait into the heart of the cover which Matt felt was very important. At times if the baits hung up he would shake them free and allow the jigs to free fall deep into the weeds.

The bites came early and often as Matt caught two keepers fairly early including one of his big ones. He reported catching at least twenty fish and culled twice. The heavy jigs would penetrate the weed mats and once they did, the fish would grab the bait on the fall. Matt was sure the heavy weight was the key to the technique and I'm sure it was as I flipped a 3/8 oz bait all day and had only one bite. The smaller baits just couldn't penetrate the weeds.

Most flippers try and pitch their jigs into holes or openings in the weeds but the heavier weights allowed him to go right into the jungle and winch the fish out on his 50 pound power pro braid and 7'8" flipping stick. Great job and congratulations to Scott Rice for winning the AOY title as well.

Ovid Results

2010-09-13T10:38:00.000-07:00

1 Matt Morgan 15.94

2 Roy Albert 6.14

3 Scott Rice 5.89

4 Bill Maurer 4.06

5 Jim Rice 3.54

6 Connie Honsinger 2.33

7 Jerry Smith 2.07

8 Randy Peck 1.81

9 Art Honsinger 0

9 Kathy Maurer 0

9 Tom Curry 0

9 Scott Hartman 0

9 Matt Zelenka 0

9 Mike Mullaly 0

Big Bass #1: Matt Morgan 4.43

Big Bass #2: Roy Albert 4.34

Last minute report

2010-09-11T15:10:00.000-07:00

Well I spent about three hours on Lake Ovid today and it was SLOW. I fished with Matt Zelienka and between us we had three bites and caught two small fish. Matt has fished the lake routinely for the past few weeks and he has seen the fishing go from good to miserable in the span of two weeks.

The water temps have dropped about ten degrees to the mid-60's over the past week and the rain today may drop it even more. I was flipping a tube and a jig and will probably do the same tomorrow, looking for bigger bites. I talked to two other club members who were on the water this weekend and the results were similar.

The good news is that the sun will be out tomorrow and maybe that will improve the fishing. Also, in a tournament like this when the bites may be at a premium it could only take a few fish to get a win so anyone could pull it off. Hope to see everyone at the launch tomorrow and drive safe.

AOY up for grabs

2010-09-10T12:46:00.001-07:00

Just like in 2008 the Angler of the year title will come down to the final event of the season on an unfamiliar lake with several anglers still in the hunt. Randy Peck is the current leader but Scott Rice is only 1.5 lbs behind and don't count out his brother Jimbo who is about 5.5 lbs back. Randy has never won the coveted title and it will be great drama whether he can hang on or if someone will jump up and claim the trophy. Back in 08' there were three fishermen within 3 lbs of first heading into Austin Lake and then Scott Rice came in with a big stringer to almost steal the title all the way from 4th place.

Equally as interesting is the race for the last "Classic" spots. We will be taking 10 anglers this year for the club championship and rookie Scott Hartman is currently sitting in the 10th place slot. Just 5 lbs behind is Art Honsinger and 12th place belongs to Mike Pritchard who is 7.5 lbs out but definitely still in it.

The weather has cooled considerably and the latest reports have water temps on Ovid dropping 5 degrees from last weekend. Initially this could slow the bite for a few days but they might start biting come Sunday. Hopefully we'll have a good turnout for the last event of the season and good luck to everyone, especially those with a lot on the line.

Club News

2010-09-08T06:22:00.001-07:00

Don't forget the September club meeting which will be held Thursday Sept 9th at Art Moehn Chevy. I will not be in attendance due to parent teacher conferences at my daughters school, seems like there's always something going on. Also, the tentative date has been set for the club banquet by special events director Mike Pritchard. As of now November 6th which is a Saturday looks like the day so pencil it in. The venue looks like it's locked in as well but I won't announce it until it becomes official.

As for the fishing, the weather is starting to cool down which seems like happens every year right after the holiday. I have not been on Lake Ovid since last week but plan on going Friday. I've only heard one report by a club member this past weekend and he said the fishing was pretty good so I'm looking forward to getting back up there. I'll post a more recent report later in the week as well as updated weather info.

Lake Ovid Report

2010-09-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

I was able to spend a few hours on Lake Ovid Wednesday night and all I can say was it was interesting. First of all it took me 50 minutes to arrive at the launch from Jackson and the facility is one of the best you'll see in Michigan. Everything looks new this year and there is ample parking.

The lake is not giant but there are a lot of little ins and outs and a couple of islands in the middle. Most of the lake is shallow but several holes over ten feet are present. The West end close to the swimming beach probably has the deepest water, close to 20 foot. The water is quite dirty with visibility of around two to three feet.

There is quite a lot of vegetation and I'm not sure what type, I'm guessing milfoil. Whatever it is it gets thick and heavy mats are present throughout the lake. If you're in 8 foot of water or less, expect the weeds to be thick. Some areas are so thick that they're almost unaccessible with a trolling motor.

As far as the fishing goes, I was out with Matt Zelienka and we had about 5 bites in a little over 2.5 hours. We caught one keeper but Matt reports having some good days out there last week. As we were out there a front was coming through containing rain, cloudy skies and dropping temps. I think that probably had more to do with the tough fishing than anything, I hope anyway.

I did see lots of surface activity, so much so that it got frustrating not being able to catch much with fish jumping everywhere but I'll get out hopefully next week and try to figure something out. More reports to follow and hope everyone has a good holiday.

Directions to Lake Ovid

2010-09-01T19:07:00.000-07:00

-From Jackson take 127 north for 47 miles to Price Rd. (exit 91)

-Exit and take a right (east) for 4.5 miles to the stop sign at shepardsville rd.

-Go straight through the stop and the state park drive is 100 yards ahead on left.

-It's a brand new launch with plenty of parking. A really nice facility.

Day on the lake

2010-08-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

When I get my Bassmaster magazine I usually read it cover to cover instantly and the first thing I look at is the "Day on the lake" segment. That's the article where a pro goes to a mystery lake they've never been on and tries and catch fish during an eight hour day. It's interesting how these pros break down new water and it's not different then when we pre-fish for a tourney or go to a new body of water.

I had the unique experience of fishing a tournament this past weekend on a lake I have never been on other than a quick idle around the night before for an hour. My youngest brother owns a cottage near West Branch, east of Houghton Lake and the house is on a 550 acre private lake. It is private and has an association, much like Somerset and LeAnne around here. They held their first association Bass Tournament last year to raise money and it was a rousing success and I got invited to fish the second annual with my 13 year old nephew and his 16 year old cousin.

I saw a few things on our pre-tournament cruise and coupled with the kids' favorite areas we had assembled a good game plan. I don't fish many team tournaments but figured I'd have the kids throw senkos off to the side while I power fished in the front of the boat. Any time I hit a new body of water, covering lots of water with my confidence lures is always my first choice. My lure this day was an Xcaliber Zell Pop topwater and it was a good choice. Our first cove produced a good keeper and plenty of bites on the popper and my nephew Jackson nailed a 2.7 pound largemouth on his senko.

The kids fish regularly but are usually relegated to a pontoon or a paddle boat so our next area was close to the cabin and has produced for them in the past. I saved it for a little later in the morning due to the fact it would have shade on it longer and I'd still be able to throw the Zell Pop. Another good decision as I caught a 3.3 pounder on a shallow flat and then Jackson caught #4 on his senko.

The tourney had 30 boats entered but you could have as many fishermen as you like as long as they all paid the $20 entry fee. I usually don't like to fish with three in the boat but our third teammate Era landed fish #5 for us, a good two pounder on a senko near a dock and we became revitalized after a long lull in the action. The lake started to get busy and bites were coming slower and slower but that fifth fish gave us momentum.

It was getting later in the day and we had rotated all of our good areas and the fish seemed to have dried up. I thought we needed a kicker and started throwing frogs and jigs to deep pads but to no avail and burning a spinnerbait on windblown flats came up empty as well. Then one of the kids decided to fish an area new to them that had lighter boat traffic. I decided to switch things up as well and start skipping docks while they threw to the deeper weedline. Our strategy paid off again as I skipped a tube under a dock and actually commented on how I can't believe there isn't a fish under that dock. Just then I noticed my line shoot off and I set the hook on a big fish. A few minutes later my partners slid the net under a 3.9 pounder in what probably looked like a chinese fire drill but we got it in the boat anyway ( I still think the fish was well over 4 pounds but you can't argue with the scales).

We had a great day and I had a great time as did their dads as the teenagers took the tournaments only 5 fish limit to the scales amongst a lot of oohs and ahhs. We won handily weighing in 14.5 pounds while the kids' dads could only muster three fish. Why can't I do that in a club tournament? Must have been my partners I guess but we had a great time and our names will be on a plaque in the Lake Ogema general store for years to come.

Sleepy Hollow - Lake Ovid

2010-08-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

I haven't heard much on Lake Ovid yet but I plan on fishing it very soon and will report my findings. I do know this much, it is fairly shallow with only a couple deeper holes and is quite weedy. I also heard recently that there are musky present in the lake so that adds a different dynamic.

The DNR lake map shows three distinct holes that are 10' but I've heard 20' areas are available. But it sounds as if 80% of the water is shallow with heavy weeds and there are no homes on the water so no docks are available. It is a state park so there is some fishing pressure and I also believe it is a no wake lake but I'm not sure of that yet. I will try and get out this weekend and report any pertinent info.

My day on Devils

2010-08-25T16:57:00.000-07:00

I have not talked to Randy Peck to detail his day on the lake and the winning pattern but I hope to soon. I heard he fished mostly docks but I cannot confirm that so I'll pass along all the info when I contact him. As far as my day it went a little different that I expected but I did weigh in a few so I can't complain. I was currently sitting close to the cut for the classic so I needed a decent showing to keep me in contention and I think I accomplished that. Here is how my tourney broke down.

I practiced on Devils last monday and hooked two good fish on a jig flipping shallow weed clumps but wasn't sure if that was something that I could duplicate on tournament day. I tried to establish a pattern fishing various deep weededges but couldn't get that going either and when the winds picked up I called it a day. I decided for the event I would start with a topwater on a weedline I knew from previous years then start flipping shallow weeds and docks and look for a few big bites.

As luck would have it Bill Maurer wasn't able to fish the tourney and his wife Kathy called and wondered if I could fish with her from Bills boat. Kathy knew I wanted to fish Round Lake but my Crestliner couldn't access the smaller lake. Bills could and I quickly accepted. My practice day was all for not but I didn't mind since I've always wanted to fish the smaller Round Lake anyway.

Tourney Day: Once into Round Lake, Kathy directed us to a small flat with scattered weed clumps they had discovered in practice. I decided to stay with my topwater plan and on the first cast caught a 2 1/2 pound largemouth on a Xcaliber Zpop. Ten minutes later I caught another keeper on the popper and the day was shaping up nicely. After a few shorts we went back over the flat but couldn't get any more bites. I figured we could run this topwater pattern all day with the overcast skies but as luck would have it, the wind started really blowing and the topwater bite died quickly.

We next went to a long mid-lake point with gravel on top surrounded by thick weeds and with the wind blowing I thought I could get a quick smallie up shallow. Nothing doing but Kathy caught her first keeper with a smoke colored grub on the weededge. We then moved to a large flat with scattered weed clumps that Bill and Kathy found previous. It was hard to make out how the lake set up with the big winds and overcast skies. Bill has yet to enter the 21st century and not only does he not have a GPS but is without a depthfinder on the console. This made it hard to break down new water and Kathy and I were fishing somewhat blindly.

Despite the obstacles, we located a thick weed clump next to deep water and I decided since we weren't getting bites on senkos or grubs then I would start fishing a drop-shot on the outside weed edge. I was quickly rewarded with keeper number three, a small 14 incher but it was only 10 am and I was in business.

But as usually happens, the bite slowed and Kathy and I went about two hours without a bite. We threw senkos a lot but could not get a single bite so she stuck with the grub and I with the drop-shot rig. About 1pm we started catching a few fish again but couldn't get any keepers, now focusing on the 12-18 fow range. With time running out we decided to go back to the big weedy flat and target shallow fish again. Kathy scored keeper number two on a grub and I started throwing a spinnerbait into the wind. I caught several just under 14 inches but could not get number four for the life of me. We idled back into Devils and ran out of gas just as we reached the launch area. The boat that is.

Looking back I'm not sure if I could have done anything differently due to that fact I've never been on the lake before and not knowing it's characteristics. I had five rods on deck and threw every one of them but could not get on anything consistent. Kathy was a big help with trying to break the lake down but every time she fished it in the past, the conditions were sunny and calm. I guess I could have honkered down on the outside edge where I caught my first two but the more I fished it, the smaller the fish were getting. Overall I'm glad I got my three and should be good for the Classic and I thank Kathy for letting me fish with her. I was dreading this tournament but ended up having a decent day and I heard a lot of others say the same thing. I'd even go as far as saying I'll probably vote for this lake next year, just a little earlier maybe.

Devils Lake Results

2010-08-23T18:46:00.000-07:00

1 Randy Peck 11.62

2 Leo Knox 8.12

3 Jim VanAken 8.09

4 Mark Dereadt 6.53

5 Matt Morgan 6.47

6 Jerry Smith 5.41

7 Scott Hartman 4.51

7 Sam Caron 4.51

9 Art Honsinger 4.47

10 Brian Masters 3.69

11 Scott Rice 3.29

12 Kathy Maurer 2.68

13 Tom Curry 2.44

14 Roy Albert 2.32

15 Jim Rice 2.03

16 Tim Chapman 1.64

17 Mike Pritchard 1.47

18 Craig Deck

18 Mike Mullaly

18 Matt Zelienka

18 Patricia Rice

18 Connie Honsinger

Big Bass #1: Mark Dereadt 3.90

Big Bass #2: Art Honsinger 3.32

Latest Devils Update

2010-08-20T05:50:00.000-07:00

After a few bad reports earlier in the week I finally got some good news concerning Devils Lake. One guy I talked to yesterday had some pretty good success and commented how well the fish were biting and quite aggressively. I didn't get a lot of details but it was a credible source so hopefully they stay biting.

As for the weather, Saturday looks like a cloudy, rainy day which could work out in our favor. Devils gets tons of boat traffic so a dreary Saturday could keep the skiers and jet boats off the lake. Sunday looks to be in the high 70's with clouds in the morning and clear skies later in the day.

Directions to launch: I take 127 south to 223 towards Adrian. Devils Lake Highway runs to the south and is marked by a brown DNR access sign but I just look for the party store right before the lake and take a right. Devils Lake Hwy runs for a few miles along the lake and then snakes around the south end right to the launch on the south end of the lake. It is a DNR access site, same as St. Clair so a daily $6 fee is required unless you have a sticker.

Devils Lake Practice

2010-08-18T05:56:00.000-07:00

I was able to get out for about four hours Monday morning to practice on Devils for the upcoming club tourney and it was about what I expected. But first I tried unsuccessfully to access round lake and actually made it under the first bridge but couldn't make it under the second. It was worth a try. But once I decided to start fishing the reality that I was not in Escanaba anymore started to set in. The bite was slow and very tough with water clarity being about three feet thanks to all of the weekend boat traffic.

Reaction bites and power fishing seemed fruitless so I started to honker down on some deep weedlines that have produced in the past and still could not muster even one bite. It was quite windy adding to my problems so I decided to head shallow and start flipping with a jig. This did produce two good bites for me, one of which I lost and the other being a two pounder, both in the same area. I wanted to throw a frog but there is limited places for such a presentation even though I tried to make it happen. One small fish on the frog and one small fish on the deep weededge convinced me that I might be flipping for eight hours on Sunday.

I talked to two other club members who were on the lake this past weekend and they had similar experiences, few bites and even fewer keepers. I've never been a big fan of Devils and mid-August on this body of water is downright ridiculous. I still think Wamplers and Devils in August is a bad joke Bill Maurer is playing on the club but that's the reality of it and as Scott Rice showed two weeks ago, fish can still be caught.

My prediction will be for 7-8 pounds for the winning weight and I find it hard to believe anyone will catch a limit. Randy St. Amour did it a few years back so it's doable but I'll be power fishing and hoping for 3-4 bites and hope to capitalize on them. I am in a battle with several others for a "Classic" spot so I have to fish against my better judgement. It looks as if the weather will stay cooler which could help but it will still be tough. The guys that do well will probably find a school of fish on deeper weedlines and they'll have to milk that area. A good fish early will go a long way in this event and that's what I'm hoping for. I'm not sure anyone else will try and access Round Lake but I heard through the grapevine that it is a possiblity for a smaller boat. That would be the wild-card if anyone can get there. I'll post more reports if any become available.

Escanaba Family Trip

2010-08-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

Just got back from a "family" vacation to the Upper Peninsula yesterday but I was able to mix in a little fishing as well. Escanaba is about 140 miles west of the bridge but it's good sized with plenty of resorts, cabins and even a Wal-Mart. But best of all it is located on Little Bay DeNoc and is loaded with smallmouth.

Having never been on this body of water it took me a few days to find fish and on the final minutes of my outing on day two, I was able to locate some cleaner water that had a lot of good looking rock. I returned early on day three and my hunches were right as my brother and I caught around 25 fish with a 4.4 pounder (shown above) being the medalist for the trip.

Little Bay DeNoc is actually part of Green Bay as is Big Bay but I consider it all Lake Michigan. I had expected to be fishing 10-20 foot and drop-shotting offshore reefs but most of our fish came in less than eight foot of water on tubes. I even caught a few on topwaters, awesome fishing for mid-August.

As luck would have it, the BASS Federation Nation Northern Divisional was being held on little bay the same week and I was able to attend a few of the weigh-ins. I have never been to a BASS event and it was cool to see it in person. I also found out an old college football teammate of mine was fishing for the Michigan team and we were able to catch up a little as well as talk fishing.

It was also cool to go out on Wednesday morning to some of my newly found spots and find a few Federation guys fishing them. I kept my distance so not to interrupt the event but also followed a few guys later in the day and did a little spot stealing. I didn't fish any "stolen" spots but did include them on my GPS for future family trips.

Escanaba is definitely going to be a staple for the Smith family in the upcoming years after what I saw. It's a great town with plenty of sandy beaches, restaurants and of course big smallies. It is known for it's perch and walleye fishing and we hardly targeted them at all so there is plenty to explore next year. If anyone is looking for a long getaway destination with good fishing than I would definitely recommend this area. I may even part with a few of my newfound coordinates.

Meeting tonight, 7pm at Art Moehn

2010-08-12T10:30:00.001-07:00

The Club from a Rookie Perspective V2.0

2010-08-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

While Jerry is on yet another vacation he asked me to write something up while he was gone. Last year I wrote on my perspective of the club highlighting quite a few things that I liked and a few things that I would like to see changed.

I loved the camaraderie, the GREAT competition, and the willingness of those who did well to share with others on what they did to succeed.

Some of the changes I wanted to see were to have the open tournaments to be part of the AOY race and classic births. I also wanted at least one draw tournament as well as a tournament against another local club from a neighboring county.

In hindsight, The draw tournament is not as big of a deal to me anymore. I know quite a few of you and feel that if I simply asked, more than likely I could fish with someone different once in a while. I still feel as though the opens should have some sort of bearing on the results at the end of the year only because I would like those tournaments to be a true representation of how the club is and acts in order to "lure" new members. A tournament against another neighboring club would be awesome, but feel its tough enough for the tournament director to align a good schedule of lakes to fish without having to do so with another club even if it is for just one tournament.

The only other change that I think would be important for the club would be to list everyone who fished in the results of the tournaments listed on this website. For example, last week as we can all agree, Wamplers was tough fishing!!! We had 23 fisherman but only 13 weighed in a fish. For any onlookers or future potential members they may have seen our results and thought only 13 people fished. I for one would hate to be listed as a zero but we do already list the complete AOY standings. I don't feel that it would be a detriment to those that zeroed to list them as well only for the purpose of showing a true representation of the amount of fisherman we truly get.

In closing, I am having a blast again this year fishing against everyone and I truly hope that nobody takes these recommendations the wrong way!! These are just my opinions and honestly I was having a problem thinking of anything else to write about.

Sincerely!! Matt Morgan

Wamplers Lake Results

2010-08-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

1. Scott Rice 10.66
2. Mark Deraedt 6.17
3. Leo Knox 6.15
4. Mike Mullaly 6.12
5. Randy Peck 5.28
6. Jim Rice Jr. 5.22
7. Roy Albert 5.04
8. Matt Morgan 3.70
9. Brian Masters 2.79
10. Jim Van Aken 2.83
11. Connie Honsinger 1.72
12. Tim Chapman 1.42
13. Craig Deck 1.37

Big Bass – Matt Morgan 3.70
Scott Rice 3.43

Another Vacation

2010-08-05T19:13:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to wish everyone good luck at the Wamplers Lake tournament this coming weekend. I will not be fishing due to another family vacation, this one in Escanaba, Michigan up in the upper peninsula. I will be fishing Little Bay DeNoc for walley, perch and especially smallmouth so I hope to have a few good reports to post. Hope everyone catches them this weekend and I have something set up to get the results posted as soon as possible so bear with me. I also hope to have a guest blogger so stay tuned.

Rices Muskegon Pattern

2010-08-04T13:43:00.000-07:00

I always say I'd rather be lucky than good but when you're lucky and good, that's a great combination. Jim Rice was probably more good than lucky at Muskegon lake but both played a part in his first win of the season. Jimbo has been extremely consistent this year weighing in limits in each tournament and cashing a check in all seven as well but it took 10.8 pounds of largemouth to wrestle the win a way from Mark Dereadt July 25th at Muskegon Lake. Here's how he did it:

Practice: Jim hadn't been on Muskegon for nearly 8 years so he had to put in quite a bit of time on the water to get ready for the event. He was having trouble finding anything consistent and decided to just try and catch keeper fish instead of looking for hogs. He found such a pattern that consisted of certain rip-rap sections which had sandy bottoms extending out from shore. The right spots would have these sand transition areas which only extended a few feet from the rip-rap before turning into weeds. He found that there were key stretches with the right mix of sand and most of it was only in 12-18 inches of water and it only was a morning deal.

The lucky part came when Jim let the boat drift one practice day to re-tie and as he did, drifted over a small hump which consisted of slab wood that was surrounded by weeds. The wood came within 7-8 feet of the surface and was the size of a small garage but was surrounded by 25 foot of water. His partner (and wife) Trish got hooked up as Jims boat drifted over the structure that morning and he probably would not have even noticed it if she wasn't with him.

Tourney Day: When the event started, some of the boats (mine included) were heading out into Lake Michigan and Rice claimed he already had caught three keepers from his sandy spots before we even made it out of the Muskegon channel. He would throw his green senkos up close to the rocks and the fish would nail the bait before it got to the weedline. There were people fishing from shore and from the piers but that didn't bother the bite as he caught a limit fairly quickly.

After the morning bite died, Jim shifted gears and headed to the wood slabs where he began culling on a day where limits were scarce. "I was culling by ounces each time but culled about four fish on that spot" explained Rice and he needed every once because a dead fish penalty dropped his weight to 10.84, less that a half pound ahead of Mark Dereadt who weighed in a 10.48 limit. The win vaulted Jim to the top of the AOY standings, 2.5 pounds ahead of his brother Scott who finished fifth in the event.

Launch Info

2010-08-03T19:46:00.000-07:00

Talked to Bill tonight and here is the official info concerning the Wamplers Lake tourney this Sunday. The park will open between 7:30 and 8am so the check in time will be 8:30am. Anyone showing up later than that will be considered late. Bill is concerned with the clubs' safety and doesn't want a lineup of cars on the road at 6am as is usually the case.

I would suggest getting to the launch ramp no later than 7:30 and hopefully the park will open early and the tourney can start closer to 8am but maybe that's wishful thinking. The participants will decide when the event will end as everyone is checking in. Hope to see everyone there.

Wamplers Lake reports

2010-08-02T19:15:00.000-07:00

I don't have a ton of info to pass along yet but here is what I know so far. The water at Wamplers is off-colored, probably from all the summer boat traffic and the visibility is only a couple of feet. I've heard there has been a weed kill recently but cannot confirm that but the fishing has been slow. An NBAA event there last week only took two fish to win, granted it was only a three hour tournament but the fishing is tough.

A few club members started pre-fishing this past weekend and keepers were at a premium, heck bites were at a premium. Of the three guys I talked to, only three keeper fish were caught and they had about 15 bites combined for their efforts. This could be one of those 7 pounds to win events but I have a feeling someone will put it together and get a limit. I will not be attending this tournament but I will pass along any pertinent info I gather this week.

Don't forget, the start may be delayed due to the park not opening until 8am or so but that is at the discretion of the tournament director. More info will be relayed as far as that goes as well.

Pecks LSC Pattern

2010-07-29T18:21:00.000-07:00

I finally talked to Randy Peck and got the details on his win July 18th on St. Clair. Most people think of the mile roads, the rivers or the channels when it comes to summer fishing on LSC but Randy decided to go against the grain a little and fish some new water. He had only been on the big lake three times previous and found a weedbed marked on his hotspots fishing map that looked intriguing. Randy decided to spend Saturday looking for this weedbed and others like it up in the northeast corner of the lake known as Anchor Bay. This section is know for muskie and perch but doesn't get a lot of publicity for smallmouth this time of year.

Practice: Randy went looking for his weedbed but located a different patch of vegetation and decided to fish it. He caught a few fish but nothing decent and decided to call it a day early due to the high winds that were building. He figured he'd come back to this weedbed the next day and start there and try and get a few decent keepers before looking for new water.

Tourney Day: Randy returned to his practice spot and did catch a few decent fish early throwing 4" cinnamon grub teamed with a 1/4 oz jighead. Peck would slowly reel the plastic in and when it hung he would snap it free to trigger strikes. All was going well until a boat with two tournament anglers from another organization approached his buoy and started fishing it. Randy became very upset and said he lost his cool and let the two guys in the boat have it.

Instead of staying and fighting for the spot, Randy decided to take off and look for the original weedbed he had intended on fishing the day before. The spot was isolated weeds in 6-7 foot of water and when he found it, it didn't take long for him to start catching fish. "I think the key other that being an isolated bed is that the water was only 72 degrees up there" stated Peck as he culled about 20 keepers enroute to his 22 pound sack.

Randy also caught the big bass of the event and probably had second big bass as well but club rules only allow one per angler. Most fish fell prey to the grub fished on spinning tackle which was paired with 10 pound mono. Randy also stated that he found a second weedbed close to his hot spot and he rotated between the two to post his big weight. He returned to the launch ramp early, Tim Horton style and made sure his fish stayed alive for the weigh-in. It was an impressive a win as I've seen in the club for some time and hopefully Randy can keep making a serious run at the AOY title.

Muskegon Results

2010-07-27T13:35:00.000-07:00

1 Jim Rice 10.84

2 Mark Dereadt 10.48

3 Jerry Smith 10.42

4 Nick Neves 9.92

5 Scott Rice 8.51

6 Mike Pritchard 7.66

7 Bill Maurer 6.80

8 Roy Albert 6.63

9 Leo Knox 6.48

10 Art Honsinger 5.69

11 Randy Peck 5.45

12 Matt Morgan 3.17

13 Patricia Rice 2.26

14 Scott Hartman 2.14

15 Matt Zielenka 2.00

16 Sam Caron 1.29

Tourney Director Bill Maurer on the scales

Big Bass #1: Roy Albert 3.37

Big Bass #2: Leo Knox 3.08

Muskegon Weather

2010-07-23T09:09:00.000-07:00

I've gotten different info depending on which website I use but this I do know. Sunday will be mostly sunny with temps in the high 70's. Saturday will be very hot and storms are possible but that should clear out by tourney day.

The one thing that is unknown is the wind and more importantly the direction. Some club members will chose to head out into Lake Michigan and drive to one of the other lakes in the area and the wind speed and direction will greatly affect that. I've seen Northeast winds which would be ideal but another site this morning said light winds out of the West.

Lake Michigan behaves differently than St. Clair and Erie so I need to keep and eye on it. The run to Spring Lake and White Lake are both a little over ten miles while Mona lake seems to be closer to a five mile run. Most club members are already in Muskegon practicing so hopefully the weather is cooperating for the pre-fishing. Hope to see a good turnout.

Randy Peck wins LSC

2010-07-22T07:40:00.000-07:00

It's not often that someone dominates at Lake St. Clair but while most of the big boys were weighing in their 14-15 pound bags, Randy Peck calmly brought 21 pounds of smallies to the scale and blew everyone away. I have not been able to contact Randy to get the details but I do know that he was way up in Anchor Bay which is better known for it's perch and musky fishing. Peck also had two giant sows, one of which went 5.34 to take big bass. I hope to post more info on his win as soon as I talk to him.

The rest of the pack was led by newcomer Nick Neves who weighed in 15.77 and caught most of his weight cranking down by the mouth of the Detroit River. I'm not sure about Jim Rice but he usually fishes down near the south shore as does Scott Rice. Scott and Mark Dereadt fished together but I heard they were spotted near the river mouth as well.

Outside of the top 5 were Matt Morgan and Mike Maske who also weighed in 14+ pound stringers but were doing it a little differently. Matt who also weighed in the second big bass at 4.9 pounds was targeting 15-17 fow clean spots in the weeds down by the mile roads. Mike is a model of consistency on LSC, weighing in 14+ pounds in three of the last four years (out of the back of my boat), targeting isolated weedclumps up by the Metro launch. He may be fishing out of his own boat next year.

Overall it was a good event and I noticed that alot of anglers who have struggles at St. Clair in the past are starting to figure it out and are weighing in decent stringers. I will have a lot more details on this event but with the short turnaround between LSC and Muskegon I'll have to do it in the coming weeks.

Muskegon Directions:
I-96 West to M-31 (about 105 Miles)
31 North at exit 1B towards Ludington (6mi)
Mergo onto 31 business route (Moses Jones Pkwy) at exit 116 on left towards N. Muskegon
Right onto Marquette
Left onto Western

You can exit 31 a little earlier at exit 114 and head north on M-31
Then exit left onto Giddings which will also take you to fishermans landing.

LSC Results

2010-07-19T09:11:00.000-07:00

1 Randy Peck 21.3
2 Nick Neves 15.77
3 Jim Rice 15.67
4 Mark Dereadt 14.91
5 Scott Rice 14.59
6 Matt Morgan 14.3
7 Mike Maske 14.18
8 Scott Hartman 12.37
9 Sam Caron 12.08
10 Tim Chapman 11.58
11 Bill Maurer 11.19
12 Connie Honsinger 11.11
13 Art Honsinger 9.58
14 Patricia Rice 9.35
15 Jerry Smith 8.3
16 Mike Pritchard 7.78
17 Kathy Maurer 6.9
18 Leo Knox 6.88
19 Tom Curry 6.59
20 Craig Deck 6.24
21 Roy Albert 5.74
22 Matt Zelenka 4.38

Big Bass #1: Randy Peck 5.34
Big Bass #2: Matt Morgan 4.90

Official Practice Day

2010-07-16T19:11:00.000-07:00

As much as I hated to do it, I took Friday off and spent most of the day pre-fishing lake St. Clair with fellow club member Scott Hartman. I had been there a few weeks ago and found the fishing to be tough but wanted to hit some old hotspots and do a little searching and ended up having a pretty decent day on the water. Here are some of my findings.

The water is pretty clear and that has been the case for most of the summer. The water temps are in the mid-70's but I think that is irrelevant at this time of year. Most fish are in their summer patterns and to me the lake is fishing like a few weeks later due to the hot weather recently.

I've heard guys tell me the've been catching them from 8 to 17 feet of water so I decided to let the fish tell me what was going on. I have a few coordinates shallow and decided to check them first and caught nothing. We eventually moved deeper, up to 15 foot and had zero bites there so they must be in between right?

Actually, I have several good waypoints in the 9-12 fow range and that is where we had the best action. I could not catch fish shallow or deep but this depth was a consistent producer today and finding isolated weedbeds in this zone proved to be most productive.

We didn't catch any huge fish, 3 1/2 was probably the biggest but the 2-3 pound fish were cooperative and we probably caught three limits worth total. Most fish were caught on smoke colored tubes fished on 3/8 oz jigheads with a couple coming on a dropshot rig with a gulp minnow on the business end.

If I were to make a plan for Sunday I think I would just look for these isolated "dark spots" that indicate small weedbeds in the 9-12 foot range and throw tubes and grubs and expect to catch about 10-13 pounds. I like to find bigger concentrations of fish and try and catch a limit and if a big fish appears then it's that much better. I don't think this is a pattern that will catch 15 pounds which is what it usually takes to win our club event but I believe it's a solid approach and has earned me a few checks over the years.

One other small note, there is construction on 696 near I-94 so leave yourselves extra time Sunday morning. The traffic shouldn't be bad at 6am but leave a little early to avoid being late. The weatherman is calling for temps around the mid-80's with plenty of sun, enough to see those weedbeds, so bring the sunscreen. Hope to see a good turnout.

Directions to LSC

2010-07-13T14:11:00.000-07:00

For those who have not been to St. Clair, here's how I get to the Harley Ensign launch:

- I-94 to M-14

- M-14 to 275 North

- 275 to 696 East

- 696 to I-94 East

- Exit off 94 at Metropolitan Parkway and go East (right).

- Metro Parkway dead ends at Metro Park and then go North (left) on Jefferson

- Jefferson ends at South River, go East again (right) and South River ends at Harley

Once on Metro Parkway, follow the signs to Harley which is a DNR access site. Daily rates are $6 and a yearly pass is $24. The launch at Devils Lake is also a DNR access ramp so a yearly pass might be a good idea. Some guys just take I-94 all the way to Metro Parkway for a simpler route but I think it is a little longer. Going my route will take you anywhere from an hour and a half to two hours, depending on traffic and construction. I'm not sure about delays right now but will pass them along as soon as I can.

LSC weekend report

2010-07-11T18:45:00.001-07:00

Although I was not on the water this weekend, fellow club member Matt Morgan began his practice on St. Clair and had some interesting things to share after his fishing day. Matt was joined by his dad Charlie who is a very good fisherman as well and the two reported an improving bite which is good news for the upcoming club event.

Matt stated that most of his fish came from deep water, 14-15 feet and they were concentrating on open patches in the grass that has started to thicken up with the hot weather. They would basically drift and rip the tubes out of the weeds but occasionally they would stumble onto an open spot in the vegetation and that's where the bites occurred.

Matt said the weeds they were fishing were not real heavy and felt like mossy bottom cover but they were enough to render a dragging retrieve useless. As they headed south towards the mile roads area, the weeds thickened and you could actually see them below the waters surface in their thickest areas.

Tubes were the hot bait as usual and green shades were the best but Scott Hartman and I had our best action with smoke colors over the holiday weekend. Matt will be out later this week as will I and hopefully the bite continues to improve. I have not heard of anyone getting them in the channels yet or at least they aren't saying they are so I believe the main lake is still the best option for decent limits. I'm not used to fishing that deep and only have a few waypoints that meet the criteria so I might be starting from scratch but sometimes that works out better anyway. I'll keep the info coming as I get it.

Tough Fishing

2010-07-08T19:46:00.000-07:00

The summer dog days are here and the season is only half over. With the recent hot spell we've had, most of the fish are heading for deep water haunts and under thick cover. St. Clair has become tough as I found out last weekend and tonight I hit Devils for a little early pre-fishing and it was a grind as well.

The club had it's July meeting tonight and I have not heard how that went but I know we were supposed to have a guest speaker who is well versed on LSC. I hated to miss it but I only get a fishing pass every so often so I had to take advantage of it. I will pass along meeting notes as they become available to me.

As for St. Clair, I heard the 20 pound stringers are beginning to come in so hopefully the fish have started to settle into summer patterns. I will not be able to fish LSC as planned this week but Matt Morgan will be there tomorrow and I'll pass along any useful info. I am going to be in Chicago for a few days but hope to get heavy into Lake St. Clair starting next Monday.

LSC Report

2010-07-04T09:05:00.000-07:00

I know it's two weeks away from the club tourney on Lake St. Clair but I haven't been there yet this year and couldn't wait any longer. Fellow club member Scott Hartman joined me Saturday for a little practice session and it was also his first trip to the big lake ever. I wouldn't say I was a great guide but we did manage to catch a few and I'll pass along what we discovered.

First of all, the lake seems to be several weeks ahead of where it was at this point last season. The spawn is over, the mayflies have already had a big hatch and the weeds are quite dense all the way out into deep water. I've heard most of the good limits on the American side have come in 12-15 foot of water which I thought was pretty deep for July 3rd but we found that to be the case.

Scott and I started down by the 11 mile area and fished the shallower 6-8 fow rocky flats. After only minimal success we headed out to the 12-14 ft area and found the weeds to be fairly heavy even that far out. Dragging tubes was virtually impossible in the dense vegetation so we started just hopping and ripping the baits out of the grass. We periodically ventured back in shallower to the 10-11 ft depths where the weeds were more scattered but never got a bite in anything less than 12 foot of water.

One other interesting tidbit is that we caught mostly largemouth, even out to 14 foot and of the 15 fish caught, most were green. We observed lots of small fry swimming around but never saw fish around them. Later in the day we locked into the deeper water and had a pretty good flurry right before we left at noon.

Scott ended up catching 4 keepers and the big fish of the day which was a 3+ pound smallmouth and lost one that was probably bigger. I caught a small limit of 2 pound largemouth and eliminated a lot of water. The fish seem to be quite deep and I have a feeling may start to relate to current areas like the channels which are typical late summer patterns. I'll be out hopefully later this week and will post any findings.

Club News

2010-06-29T18:55:00.000-07:00

Well we have a break until the next club event which will be held July 18th on St. Clair so hopefully most club members will be spending their free time with families and enjoying the holiday. I will but you can bet I'll be on St. Clair a few times between now and then. As for the club, there are a few things I'd like to touch on but first a few items to wrap up the Cadillac tourney.

There were only 11 entries into the day one tournament with four limits coming to the scales. Day two had 15 participants with six limits being weighed in which is odd because of the increased pressure from our club and one other club. The 11 person showing was the lowest turnout I can remember in a long time for a club event and hope we can get those entries back up to where they should be.

The club was last in Cadillac two years ago and Scott Rice won day one up there as well weighing in 13.6 pounds and finished third on day two. It took 13+ pounds to win both days in 2008 and most of those winning fish came from Lake Mitchell much like in 2010. I can remember going up to Cadillac to fish club events on and off as long as I have been a club member (10 years) and I think it has been late June every time. Seems like they bite decent then because 12 limits were weighed in over the two days in 08'.

As far as the standing go, Matt Morgan relinquished his AOY lead but still remains in striking distance behind the Rice brothers, Bill Maurer and Randy Peck. Just as exciting to me though is some new faces showing up in the top ten. Leo Knox and Scott Hartman are both club rookies and are 9th and 10th respectively. This marks the half way mark for the year and St. Clair is coming up so the leaderboard will definitely shuffle.

As far as rumors go I want to address one I heard this weekend. The Muskegon Lake tournament had a few issues come up but I talked to Kathy Maurer Monday and everything is back on track. Seems the park hosting the event wanted to adjust our start time to accommodate another event but Kathy played hardball and our tourney will still run from 7-3pm, nice work.

I will be on Lake St. Clair this coming weekend and will start to post fishing reports as they become available. The bite is a little slow right now probably due to the mayflies, the post-spawn and all the fronts that have come through lately. Things should start settling down and I expect a shoot-out as usual. I have also heard we may have a guest speaker at the next meeting who is an expert at LSC. I have not confirmed this but hope to soon. The meeting is scheduled for next Thursday, July 8th so hope everyone can make it out.

Scott Rice Dominates

2010-06-26T09:51:00.000-07:00

After the Michigan Center tournament, Scott Rice only weighed in one fish and was way down in the AOY standings and commented to me how he was struggling to figure anything out this season. I hope he stopped his complaining because he was dominant at the two Cadillac events, winning both and propelling himself into the lead for the Angler of the Year. I was not present at either tourney but talked to Scott and got a little insight into what went down up north.

The club has been going to Cadillac off and on for years and a lot of anglers had their go to spots. Scott had done quite well here two years ago but for some reason could not re-connect with those fish. He arrived Wednesday and after a few days figured it was time to try and find something else. What he found ended up surrendering back to back 14+ pound limits and by the end of the tournament he had his pattern and spot so dialed in that he was almost calling his shots.

"Jim and I talked and we concluded that the fish were post-spawn and were right on the inside edges of the breaks" commented Scott referring to his brother Jim Rice. Scott found the fish would briefly roam away from the weeds early and they were pretty catchable but would get back into the vegetation, just sticking their noses out looking for easy meals. "You would have to get the bait right at the base of the weeds and if you weren't pulling your lure off the weeds to the edge then you wouldn't get bit".

The bait Scott used was his customary soft stickbait rigged wacky style in the 5 1/2" version. The color is unknown but I guess it was his usual cinnamon/purple flake edition. The twist was that he used a weighted hook and then customized it by shaving some of the weight off to give a slightly slower fall and making the bait not bury in the weeds so much. He would then pull that bait off the top of the stalks and let it set at the base of the weeds. He was fishing a small point but the way the weeds were was the key more so than the structure.

By Sunday Scott had this pattern dialed in and would catch a limit early while the fish were out cruising. But as the sun got higher, the fish buried farther into the weeds and that's when he went to work. He noticed a small section of his weed edge that was a little sparser than the rest and only stretched out for a few feet before it became heavy again. Rice figured the fish were using this small break in the weeds as the "path" to move from shallow to deep water and started to focus on this section.

Scott wanted to prove his "path" theory to his partner Randy Peck (who also weighed in 13 pounds) and predicted he would catch a fish on the outside of the weed break. He then proceeded to cast his senko into the area which lay in about 12 feet of water and just let it set for close to two minutes. Finally his line moved off and Rice set the hook on a 3+ pound fish, proving his theory and setting off an assault on the Lake Mitchell fish which resulted in several fish over 3 pounds and a first and second place finish for the two.

A lot of anglers reported catching fish early and then struggling to get bites later in the day which makes Scotts efforts that much more impressive. There was another tournament also using Cadillac and Mitchell lakes which made the post-spawn fish even finickier but as usual, someone always figures them out. Mark Dereadt also bumped up his yearly totals with two strong top 5 finishes and big fish for the tournament went to Scott Hartman at 3.7 pounds.

Cadillac Day #2

2010-06-24T11:18:00.000-07:00

1 Scott Rice 14.08

2 Randy Peck 13.56

3 Mark Dereadt 12.95

4 Terry Johnson 11.90

5 Jim Rice 11.39

6 Leo Knox 9.12

7 Bill Maurer 6.41

8 Wendy Johnson 6.17

9 Kathy Maurer 5.82

10 Patricia Rice 5.37

11 Roy Albert 3.76

12 Scott Hartman 3.70

13 Tom Curry 2.93

14 Matt Morgan 1.97

15 Matt Zielenka 1.64

Big Bass: #1) Scott Hartman 3.7

#2) Randy Peck 3.37

Cadillac Results

2010-06-23T07:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry I didn't get this information out sooner but I was out of town and had car problems and computer issues but I'm back now. Thanks to Kathy Maurer for getting all the numbers to me as quickly as she does. She is a great asset to the club and I want point that out to everyone as much as possible. I'll have more info on the Cadillac winning patterns as I obtain it but it may take a few days.

Cadillac Day 1

1 Scott Rice 14.92

2 Bill Maurer 10.78

3 Mark Dereadt 10.60

4 Scott Hartman 8.93

5 Art Honsinger 7.57

6 Connie Honsinger 5.41

7 Tom Curry 5.02

8 Kathy Maurer 4.94

9 Randy Peck 3.82

10 Leo Knox 3.10

11 Matt Morgan 1.73

Big Bass: #1 Scott Rice 3.51

#2 Tom Curry 3.26

Cadillac Info

2010-06-16T16:27:00.000-07:00

I am heading out of town Thursday morning, not to Cadillac unfortunately. But I have some info concerning the club tournaments I'd like to pass along. We will be launching from the city launch which is located on the northwest corner of Lake Cadillac. After crossing between the lakes on M-115 take a right just past Pilgrim Village and head north along the west shore of Lake Cadillac. The city launch will appear on the right and there is parking for vehicles across the street from the launch which is part of the city park I believe.

The weather is kind of cool right now with lows in the 40's tonight. But it will warm into the 80's for the weekend and partly sunny. A chance of showers is possible for Saturday but isn't there always a possibility? It should be good fishing weather and I will post results as soon as they become available to me. Good luck to everyone.

Morgan goes back to back

2010-06-15T18:18:00.000-07:00

As a club rookie last season, Matt Morgan had a pretty decent showing with several top 5's and a classic berth. But he was not able to seal the deal on a few tournaments and still had not won an event heading into 2010. That all changed at Hardy Dam and after he dropped 13.37 pounds on the scales this past Sunday at Michigan Center, Morgan had won his second SCMBC event in a row and now sits atop the AOY race by nearly 3 pounds. Here's how he did it.

Matt has lots of experience in tournaments but most were on big waters, St. Clair and Erie so joining the club last year was a learning experience. Learning to fish smaller inland lakes for largemouth was not new to him but something he didn't do to much. Matt commented to me that prior to Michigan Center that he never thought he'd have senkos and flukes littering the front deck of his boat. But that's exactly what he had tied on after doing his research.

Morgan learned that several events on Center this year had been won fishing soft stickbaits in the pads and slop in the stump fields on the south end of the lake. He also knew the water was high and when those conditions are present, the fish are usually always shallow. Matt and I fished Center on opening day and although we only caught a small limit, the groundwork was laid and we learned quite a lot.

Armed with a heavy 7'0" flipping stick, 50 pound braid and senkos, Morgan and his partner Craig Deck headed into the heaviest slop Center had to offer and they found that dragging the soft plastics into holes in the weeds and letting them soak for a few seconds was the key. Once the fish bit the heavy gear was then necessary to winch the fish out of the cover. Green pumpkin and brown were the colors used to fool the bass and Matt alternated between the two and only used the larger 6 inch worms. There is a lot of "junk" to fish at Michigan Center but Morgan had a few key areas that had isolated pads and holes within the weeds to present the baits.

Other than the heavy tackle Matt said there was one other key to his success. "My GPS route plotter showed me where I had been so although we stayed in a small area, we never went over the same route and were always fishing new water." Morgan culled about five times and caught two fish over 3 1/2 pounds while his partner caught four legals.

Jim Rice had his usual strong finish weighing in 11.46 pounds to finish second including big bass that went 4.38 pounds. Mike Maske also had a strong finish coming in third and could have challenged Morgan for the win if for not losing a 3+ pounder at the boat late in the day. The part time Center Lake guide Jim VanAken took fourth while club rookie Leo Knox notched his first top five appearance as well as capturing second big bass. There were 25 entries into this event and nine limits came to the scales. The club will now travel to Cadillac / Mitchell where they will fish two one day tournaments. More info on that event to follow soon.

Michigan Center Results

2010-06-14T16:19:00.000-07:00

1. Matt Morgan 13.37

2. Jim Rice 11.85

3. Mike Maske 11.46

4. Jim VanAken 10.5

5. Leo Knox 10.11

6. Roy Albert 9.50

7. Jerry Smith 9.41

8. Tom Curry 9.36

9. Bill Maurer 7.32

10. Craig Deck 7.21

11. Rob Schlosser 6.43

12. Joe Pritchard 6.05

13. Mike Pritchard 5.85

14. Brian Masters 5.77

15. Scott Hartman 4.48

16. Mike Mullaly 3.54

17. Art Honsinger 4.18

18. Randy Peck 3.79

19. Tim Chapman 3.32

20. Mark Dereadt 2.85

21. Patricia Rice 2.19

22. Connie Honsinger 1.68

23. Scott Rice 1.24

24. Matt Zielenka 0

25. Kathy Maurer 0

Big Bass: Jim Rice (4.38)

Big Bass #2: Leo Knox (4.09)

MC updates

2010-06-11T18:00:00.000-07:00

With most of the pre-fishing completed I have a few more tidbits to pass along concerning the club event on Michigan Center this weekend. The water temps have cooled from near 80 to the low 70's I'm guessing due to last weekends rains. The water is still quite high but I have been tracking it and it is 2-3 inches lower this morning than on Wednesday. I still don't think I can access other lakes beyond the Moon Lake Rd bridge though so that may throw a wrench into a few game plans.

There were two more tournaments on Center Wednesday night, a 12 boat event out of 5th street and a smaller one out of the DNR launch. I'm not sure about the official results but I heard that it only took 6 pounds to win the bigger tourney. I don't know if all the tournament pressure will affect the fishing or not because this is how Center is but it's hard to believe that it won't.

The weather man as of Friday night has taken rain out of the forecast for Sunday except for a few showers very early. Highs will approach the low 80's but I expect the humidity to be quite high. It calls for partly sunny skies but who knows if that means mainly sunny or overcast?

As for the fishing, I expect it to be very good especially if the weather is overcast and the Saturday rains keep weekend anglers off the water. I heard from one contact that they threw topwaters most of the day last weekend and caught nearly 50 fish during their tournament. This is the time of year when fish are recuperating from the spawn and start putting the feed bags on so the bite should be fairly good. I expect double digit anglers to bring limits to the scales and 13+ pounds needed to win. If the conditions change and the weather and fishing pressure change then it may only take 10 pounds or so to win but I expect it to be a slugfest. Hope to see a good turnout and maybe the weatherman will be right for a change.

Michigan Center Report

2010-06-09T17:39:00.001-07:00

I personally have not been on Center Lake, site of this weeks club tournament since Memorial Day but I have been keeping up with the latest info. There have been several local events held on the lake and some good limits have been coming to the scales.

The opening day tournament I was a part 0f took 14 pounds to win and close to 11 lbs for a check. Two more tourneys went out last Tuesday and Wednesday and it took close to that to claim first place. The lake seems to be fishing really good currently and I'm not aware of any tourneys going out this week so hopefully the bite stays consistent.

I was at the lake today to just look around and the water is very high, more so than in recent memory according to O'briens bait store. All three gates at the dam were open this afternoon and the current was ripping pretty good. The weeds are also about 75% of where they'll be at mid-summer so conditions will play a major part this weekend. Water temps are well into the high 70's and the fish should be in a heavy post-spawn pattern.

I assume topwaters, sinkworms and finesse plastics will all play a part in the outcome Sunday and hopefully the fish and the weather cooperate. The forecast calls for Temps in the high 70's with rains forecasted for the whole weekend. I've heard the topwater bite is starting to heat up and with overcast conditions, we could be throwing them all day. Hope to have a good turnout again and we will be launching at the 5th street launch in downtown Michigan Center.

Burt Lake Trip

2010-06-07T18:29:00.000-07:00

A few of my "boys" hanging out at the Burt Lake Cabin

Just got Back from my annual Burt Lake trip with my buddies and thought I'd share a little info on the fishing. I've been going here for about six years and usually eight of us head up the weekend following Memorial Day and spend a few days fishing and drinking cold beers. One of my buddies has a family cabin across the street from the lake so it works out perfectly. We usually have a small four boat tournament and it takes anywhere from 18-22 pounds to win. This year was no different, it took about 21 lbs to take home the trophy but the fishing was not the same as in years past.

Typically this is a bed fishing bonanza and you can go ripping down the bank throwing jerkbaits and spinnerbaits and catch lots of fish. Beds are usually plentiful in 4-8 foot of water and lots of threes and fours are bedding. There are a good number of deep bedders too but with the fishing so good shallow, who needs to do that? Well the last few years that has not been the case. My team personally only weighed in three fish for out tourney as did one other team. I know the winners did catch 21 pounds but the overall fishing for this time of year was disappointingly bad. Many club members remember a few years back when we fished a SCMBC event there and many big limits came in. Well I am hear to tell you that this lake has fished very differently since that tournament four years ago.

The friend that caught 21 pounds and many of the top finishers in the BFL event held on Burt Saturday ( the winner had 27 pounds) all caught their fish on very deep beds. Some reported catching fish as deep as 15 feet. I know smallies will bed this deep at times but I got to thinking about this and wondered if the fishing pressure the past few years has made more of the fish spawn deeper? There were some beds shallow but most were empty and in past years these same shallows contained two to three times the beds. Maybe most fish have spawned already but wouldn't I have seen more empty beds?

Bass adapt to their surroundings and just like getting conditioned to not bite a certain hot lure, wouldn't the increased pressure do the same thing to the spawning habits? Maybe I'm reading too much into this trip and we were just a little late and next year there will be shallow beds everywhere but I am a little concerned. I can go out and catch those deep fish but I want to catch lots of big fish throwing topwaters and flukes and fishing for deep bedders seems like a lot of work. We did catch our share of fish eventually over the weekend and had a great time as always but I'll be interested how the fishing shakes down next year.

Speaking of the BFL event, these guys had no trouble and it took 19 lbs to get a check but I know most were out deep because I saw them practicing on Friday. I did notice that several guys were using underwater viewing devices to help locate the deep beds. This device basically emulates someone looking into the water with a scuba mask on only it is three feet long and you don't have to get your face wet. It is called a "flogger" and has become very popular for bed fishing. Basically it eliminates all the surface glare and ripples and you can tell if that dark spot is a log or rock and if there is a bed present next to it.

One thing I learned this year for sure is that I will learn to look for deeper beds next time and I will own a "flogger" even if it is only to win a four boat tournament. Either that or I'll have a mask on and my partner will be holding me by my ankles. I think I'll probably spend the money.

Spring Open Results

2010-06-06T18:19:00.000-07:00

Here is the top 5 from Saturdays Spring Open held on Wamplers Lake

1. Jim Rice / Mike Pritchard 15.36

2. Mark Dereadt / Jay Dereadt 13.07

3. Walt Keyes / Walt Keyes Jr. 12.66

4. John Bittinger / Bob Rumsey 11.54

5. Bill Maurer / Roy Albert 10.92

There were 16 teams involved and 12 of those brought limits to the scales. Jim Rice and Mike Pritchard also weighed in the big bass of the tournament and took home a total of $650 for their efforts. Thanks to all who participated and who helped make it a successful fundraiser for the club.

Burt Lake

2010-06-02T13:54:00.000-07:00

I'm heading up north this weekend for the first big fishing extravaganza of the fishing. Burt Lake is the destination and it marks the 6th year in a row for this great trip. My buddy owns a cabin just two doors down from the Burt Lake State Park so it's real convenient and makes for an awesome home base.

We usually have a small tournament on Saturday, four boats with eight fishermen and as you can imagine some of the weights are pretty high this time of year. I think two years ago was the worst fishing we've had and it still took 17+ pounds to win. Usually it takes 20+ to beat everyone and I think the best weight I can remember was close to 25 lbs.

The BFL has it's annual Burt Lake event this Saturday so we may need to find a new venue for our event but that's OK with me, I like fishing new water. Hopefully the smallies will still be on beds which should be the case so I'll have some good pics to post when I get back.

The club will visit Michigan Center the following weekend so I'll start posting pre-fishing results as soon as they become available to me early next week. Hope everyone plans on fishing the SCMBC Open this weekend and I'll post the results of that as well next week.

Spring Open

2010-06-01T11:33:00.000-07:00

Just a reminder to everyone that the spring open will be held this coming weekend down at Wamplers Lake so if you havn't made plans to fish then do so soon. I believe the event will start around nine since the park does not officially open the gates until 8am but contact Mark Dereadt or Bill/Kathy Maurer for more info.

I will be up north and cannot be in attendance but the tournament is a good fund raiser for the club and always a lot of fun. A few years back it was held in Coldwater but has since been moved a few times to Wamplers and Michigan Center in order to get the participation level back up to where it was once was. Hopefully this year will see a good turnout and as always there will be a lot of good people involved. It is a team tournament which is always fun so get on the phone and sign up if you have not done so already.

Opening day is here

2010-05-30T18:07:00.000-07:00

It's finally here and for once the Memorial Day weekend weather cooperated and made the fishing quite enjoyable. I was in an open tournament held on Michigan Center lake and the good conditions had the fish biting. It took nearly 14 pounds to win and more that half of the 17 team field caught limits.

I fished with Matt Morgan and there were actually several SCMBC members representing. Jim VanAken, Roy Albert and Scott Hartman also fished so it was good to see some familiar faces. Matt and I weighed in a small limit and caught a ton of fish as did Jim and Roy. It was good practice for the club event on Center in two weeks and I obtained some real good info.

As expected, most of the teams that did well caught them with finesse techniques and soft plastics. The senko was a popular bait but I heard guys saying they were still catching bedding largemouth even though water temps were in the high 70's and reaching 80 in some areas.

Big Bass was only 3.7 pounds which tells me that most of the big females are recuperating from the spawn and have not put the feed bags on yet. We caught a lot of small males and a few post spawn females but that should change in two weeks. The weeds are quite bad already and there was a major weed kill done a few weeks back and a lot of the vegetation from Druyeas Point back to the fifth street launch was brown and dead. Not a lot of fish were reported being caught from this area and most did not fish there at all.

I will probably only pre-fish Michigan Center once before our tourney but that will probably be a few days prior. I'm heading to Burt Lake this coming weekend and hope to get in on the last of the smallmouth spawn. I will have a few pics and some fishing reports to share when I get back so hopefully this good weather holds up.

Hardy Review

2010-05-28T07:43:00.000-07:00

With opening day upon us it's time to gear it up for the catch and keep season but I had a few observations from the Hardy Dam tournament that I wanted to share. I learned quite a few things up there this year and I like to share info any time I run across it.

Tourney notes
-There were 26 participants at Hardy, the biggest club event since 2008
-Only 9 limits were recorded
-Only one four pound fish was recorded
-Matt Morgans win put him in the AOY lead by 1.33 lbs over Jim Rice

My observations
All of the top 5 finishers had at least two days of practice on Hardy which I believe was essential this year. There may have been a ton of beds but I know in my case it took a lot of looking and actually catching a few to see what was actually there. I have a hard time fishing on a bed, not knowing if there is actually a fish there. Talking to Matt Morgan he said that he would cast several times on beds without verifying whether the beds were active or not. This would avoid spooking the fish by coming too close which I believe was a problem with me.

Secondly, I believe you can use 50 pound braid and still catch bedding smallmouth. Matt used 10 pound fluorocarbon and I used 30 pound braid and I didn't see any negative effect on the fishing. I used a chartruese tube while Matt used bright pink and I believe the mood of the fish is actually more important than the color.

I had over 30 good beds marked for the tournament but I believe next year if we go back that I need to refine my pre-fishing. It is important to verify which fish are good ones and worthy of spending time on and which ones are not. The lake had beds everywhere which took a little of the pressure off some areas but you can waste a lot of time on a 1.5 pound fish when there's a 3+ just around the corner. In talking to some other club members I know there were fish that they could not get to bite only to go myself and catch the same fish on the first cast 30 minutes later. This has nothing to do with me being a great bed fisherman but more to do with the timing.

Case in point, I found a 3 pound fish in a cut late in the tournament day and my partner and I made about 15 casts apiece to it before I finally caught it. Matt Morgan came in a little later I found out afterwards and caught it on his second cast. I'm sure it was the same fish because it was in the same cut and we both commented on the overhanging tree that demanded pinpoint casts. Maybe that fish did like the pink better, who knows.

One last thing on Hardy were the accommodations. My group stayed at Oxbow park down towards the dam and it was awesome. It was cheaper than Brower Park without the hassle of paying $10 for each vehicle each day and I'll stay there again. Our cabin was up on a big hill which overlooked the lake and the owners were quite nice. Hope to go back next season.

Morgan Wins Hardy Dam

2010-05-25T05:42:00.000-07:00

For the second time in two club tournaments this year, first place went to a first time winner. Sunday it was Matt Morgans' turn to notch his first club victory at Hardy Dam and he did it in dramatic fashion. I talked to Matt at length after the win and here are the details.

Practice: Morgan pre-fished Hardy on Thursday and again on Saturday marking as many beds as possible in hopes to make a milk run on Sunday morning. He noticed many of the big fish were not locked onto their beds but did manage to catch a few three pounders and hoped they would be there the next morning. Matt tried to ignore many of the small males guarding beds and keyed in on only the bigger females. He narrowly missed winning last year and hoped that concentrating on the bigger fish would pay off.

Tourney Day: As the day unfolded the big fish became harder to come by and many of the bigger females Matt had marked the previous day had been replaced by small fish. He did manage grind out a decent limit by throwing a drop-shot rig and a pink tube but by 2pm his limit was around 13 pounds. Morgan commented how he ran up and down the lake trying to cull a few pound and a half fish on the score sheet and decided on a small mid-lake area he had visited earlier.

"There were a lot of boats and partying going on in this area but I think all the commotion conditioned the fish and they weren't as spooky", said Matt afterwards. He located a good fish and threw repeatedly at it as the crowd looked on. Finally the 3+ pounder bit and bumped his limit up to around 14.5 pounds which would put him in a virtual log jam with several other anglers. With only minutes to spare Morgan spotted a fish idling out of his "party area" sitting in a foot of water. "I thought it was a small male but when it turned to the side I could tell it was pretty big" exclaimed the Bigby Coffee exec.

At 2:45 Morgan knew he only had a few casts left and his co-angler Craig Deck took his position at the net encouraging his partner on. Matt flung the pink tube onto the nest one last time and this time the big fish bit. Matt set the hook and felt the weight of a big fish, only to then experience the sickening feeling of a slack line and a lost tournament. Amazingly he then looked down to find the bail on the reel had been open and as he took up line the fish was still hooked. Morgan calmly regained the fight and at 2:50 his partner slid the net under a 3.69 lb smallie to the cheers of a slightly intoxicated crowd. In Iaconelli fashion the two quickly weighed the fish, strapped the gear down and roared towards the launch ramp. That last fish was the winning margin and took second big bass honors as well. Congratulations on the great win Matt and everyone else who fished, it was an excellent tournament.

Hardy Dam Results

2010-05-25T05:19:00.000-07:00

1. Matt Morgan 16.38

2. Scott Rice 14.95

3. Jim Rice 14.88

4. Jerry Smith 14.64

5. Bill Maurer 13.9

6. Randy Peck 12.9

7. Mark Dereadt 12.0

8. Kathy Maurer 11.0

9. Terry Johnson 9.2

10. Scott Hartman 8.7

11. Rich Rice 8.57

12. Craig Deck 8.5

13. Roy Albert 7.56

14. Mike Pritchard 7.25

15. Brian Masters 6.5

16. Art Honsinger 6.38

17. Jim Vanaken 5.37

18. Wendy Johnson 5.3

19. Tim Chapman 5.0

20. Tom Curry 4.88

21. Connie Honsinger 4.78

22. Mike Maske 3.81

23. Leo Knox 1.94

24. Mike Mullaly 1.38

25. Matt Zelenka 0

25. Patricia Rice 0

Big Bass: Bill Maurer 4.4 lbs

2nd Big Bass: Matt Morgan, Jim Rice: 3.69

Hardy Dam Top 5

2010-05-24T05:20:00.000-07:00

Sorry I don't have the official standings in my possession yet but hopefully by the end of the day. I do remember the top five and kind of have a good idea of the weights so I can post that and finalize everything later.

1) Matt Morgan 16.3 lbs

2) Jim Rice 14.9

3) Scott Rice 14.8

4) Jerry Smith 14.6

5) Bill Maurer 13.9

Like I said, this is just from memory and may not be quite accurate but I think that's how it went down. Congratulations to Matt Morgan for his first club win and I think he said that he caught two three pound class fish in the last half hour to seal the win. I thought it would take over 17 pounds to win but the fish were not quite locked onto the beds like I had hoped and catching them was quite a challenge. The warm sunny weather gave the river system a summer feel and the boat traffic was something not usually encountered this early in the year on Hardy. Pleasure boaters clogged up many of the good cuts and channels which added to the fishing challenges but I'll never bad mouth a sunny 80 degree day. Everyone had fun and enjoyed the sunshine and that's what fishing is supposed to be about anyway. More info to follow.

Friday Practice

2010-05-22T04:40:00.000-07:00

I know most of the club is already in route to Hardy Dam but I just wanted to post my results from practice Friday. First of all, I have never seen that lake so full of beds in my ten years of going up there. I probably saw close to 100 beds in 6 hours of fishing and most had fish on them. I didn't fish for very many of them but wanted to check the size of a few big ones and caught them. Two pounders are very common but they were still a little skittish yesterday. I think with the warm sunny weather coming Sunday that it will be an awesome tournament. I'll have details posted when we get back Sunday night. Drive safe everyone.

Weekend Weather

2010-05-18T15:58:00.001-07:00

I'm sure everyone has checked this out already but here is the latest forecast for the Hardy Dam area. Wednesday and Thursday will be sunny and high 70's and even close to 80. It cools to 75 for Friday and Saturday with partly sunny skies predicted for both days. Sunday looks great as well with highs in the upper 70's and sun with SE winds at 15 mph. It looks as if rain is out of the forecast through the weekend so lets hope this hold up.

Directions: Take 127 to Lansing and then West on 96 towards Grand Rapids. Keep heading west towards Muskegon and then North on 131 towards Big Rapids. North on 131 for about 40 miles and then off at exit 131. Take a left off the exit ramp which is 8 mile rd. and then a quick left onto Old State Rd. Take this for about 2 miles and then onto Polk rd. for just over a mile and you'll run right into Brower Park. I am practicing Friday and will launch at the state park for that. To access the park exit off 131 at Jefferson road which is exit 125. Head left for 5 miles and then take a right into the park. Everyone should be up in the area by Friday but I'll post the results of my official practice day anyway. Hope to see everyone on the water.

Hardy Dam Report

2010-05-17T12:53:00.001-07:00

First off I want to thank my good friend and former SCMBC Classic Champion Duane Mroczka for letting me ride in his 18 foot ranger Sunday for a little practice session on Hardy Dam. Duane used to be a great club member but has decided to focus on raising a young family instead of fishing tournaments so our time on the water together has been limited. So yesterday was quite fun for us and also served as a valuable learning session.

Enough of the sentimental stuff, here's what I learned at Hardy yesterday. First off the water temps were from 55-58, down about 7 degrees from this time last week. The water was pretty dirty upriver from Brower Park but got considerably clearer as we went downriver. Actually the water was very clear for Hardy about mid-lake down to the dam and I don't see that changing much as the week progresses.

We spent most of our time looking for beds and found quite a few of them but about 75% of the beds were empty. I believe the dramatic drop in water temps pushed a lot of fish off the beds and back to deeper water. We caught very few fish and most reports I received from the weekend were similar. We witnessed a team tournament weigh-in at the launch and three fish was the best we heard when we left.

Now for the good news. The weather looks fantastic for this upcoming week and into the weekend. I think most of those empty beds will be re-populated with smallies as the water warms and the sun shines. I still think the majority of the spawning has yet to occur and we may time it up perfectly. Also, I talked to one boat on the water that had about a 16 pound limit fishing the breaks so even if the big shallow movement does not happen, fish can still be caught.

I am planning a return visit Friday and believe the lake will fish much differently by then. I will post a report although most of the club will be in Newaygo by then. I still stick to my prediction of 17 pounds for a winning weight but may adjust it slightly after practice on Friday.

Hopefully that predicted weight will increase.

Entry Fees Due

2010-05-13T13:34:00.001-07:00

The club meeting is tonight at Art Moehn at 7pm and the deadline for Hardy Dam entry forms are tonight as well. Anyone interested in fishing this event needs to be at the meeting or give Bill Maurer a call to work something out. As of this afternoon there are 22 confirmed entries for the tournament and that could grow to 24 or 26 by tonight. Not sure if I'll make the meeting due to work but I'd like to get there and join in on the Hardy Dam trash talkin'.

Hardy Dam coming up

2010-05-11T17:36:00.000-07:00

With the dreary weather in the area lately it's hard to get too excited about fishing but there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The forecast calls for a warm up this weekend and the clubs Hardy Dam event is right around the corner. But I've received a few recent local fishing reports so before I get ahead of myself let me report what I've heard.

First off there was another local club that had it's paper tournament recently on Michigan Center lake and their results were quite different from the SCMBC event held there last April. This event took place the same day we were on BawBeese but lots of big limits came in. This was a team event so the weights should be bigger but nonetheless it took close to 16 pounds to win and 13 something to get in the top five. Most fish were caught on the same techniques that produced on BawBeese but it's good to know that Center is producing good fish again. May have been just the cold weather last spring that kept the weights down but it still gets me excited for our club tourney out there the second week of June.

I was also on Clarks Lake yesterday to goof around a little and had water temps between 60-62 and caught several fish on beds. I saw several empty beds and I'm not sure if these fish were done spawning or just moved off due to cold weather. Either way it was good to tune up a little on my bed fishing techniques. I may need them at Hardy.

Alright, back to Hardy Dam. I know it's quite inaccurate in the spring but the extended forecast calls for warm temps to hit this weekend and continue for our tournament date. It got quite cold up there this past weekend and the lows for Sunday were in the low 20's. I know a few club members will start heading up this coming weekend and I plan on going Sunday as well. I'm not sure what to expect but I will report most (but not all) of my findings.

By the way, Brower Park is not taking reservations for their cabins and they are available on a first come, first serve basis. I don't like to criticize but I think this is quite ignorant and can not see how this makes good business sense. I however was able to reserve a cabin at another park so myself and 5 fellow club members will be staying off-site this year. Hated to do it because I like the club all being together when we're out of town but I guess I'm trying to prove a point. Either way the six of us will have a good time and I'm sure the rest of the group will enjoy Brower Park. Hope to have a few reports by this weekend.

My day on Baw Beese

2010-05-07T18:42:00.000-07:00

Since this is my blog page I think I should at least break down how my tournament day went even though it was not what I had hoped for. Any one that knows me understands that I am consumed with bass fishing and having six months to think about our first event of the season at Baw Beese understands how I have analyzed over and over how this tournament should go. When I saw this lake on the schedule all I could think about was covering mass amounts of water with jerkbaits and fast moving lures, something I have perfected during early season outings. I thought this lake set up perfectly for my style of fishing and all those worm draggin', senko throwing guys would have a hard time keeping up with my run and gun style right? I couldn't have been more wrong.

Most guys know that in early spring the spawning areas are key and once they are identified then just work backwards from there. If the fish aren't on beds then move out to the first break adjacent to the spawning flats and start fishing. Trish, Jimbo and most of the others that finished high at Hillsdale all fished close to these spawning areas and did well. I on the other hand targeted areas that looked like spawning grounds and continued to wait for fish that never showed up.

Hindsight is always awesome and the way fish were caught last Sunday made perfect sense. Second and Third lake were shallow somewhat murky lakes that were a little warmer than the much bigger and deeper BawBeese. There were visible beds on these small lakes as well as lilly pad stems which are magnets for early season stagers and even spawners. I knew the lakes and saw the beds and should have identified this pattern but did not. Instead I stayed on the main lake way too long and threw jerkbaits until I had blisters, waiting for what I thought would be the pattern.

Congrats to those that figured it out, it sounds easy now but at the time wasn't so obvious. Fishing tournaments is very humbling and I learned a good lesson last weekend and hope someday when the same conditions are present that I will be able to adjust and catch fish instead of doing what the magazines say I should be doing.

Trish gets first win

2010-05-05T17:19:00.000-07:00

If you would have told me one of the Rices would win the clubs first tournament on Baw Beese I would almost expect it, but Trish? Now don't get me wrong she can catch them but fishing on the back deck of her husband Jim Rices boat who happens to be a six time angler of the year is a tough way to fish. But she not only beat her husband, she caught over nine pounds of bass to easily beat the other 22 fishermen as well and earn her first club win. I caught up with Jimbo afterwards who managed to finish second and got a little insight as to how they tore up the field.

After starting on the main lake the duo already had five keepers when they wandered over towards second and third lakes. These lakes are small and have a little darker water and are not quite as deep as Baw Beese. This was an ideal location for early season spawners and pre-spawn fish that fell prey to weightless senko worms. Jim and Trish targeted shallow pad stems that were starting to emerge and are classic spots for early season bass to stage or even spawn on. Jim commented that some of the fish were caught in as little as 12 inches of water. When the sun came out the Rices noticed that there were beds in the area so some of their fish may have actually been spawners but most were probably just staging on the newly formed cabbage mixed in with the pads.

As the rest of the field struggled to get limits, the Rice boat caught between 15-20 keepers and numerous short fish. Almost all of the fish were taken on the larger 5 1/2 inch watermelon worms that were rigged texas style and most came from the second and third lake areas that were actually a few degrees warmer than the deeper main lake. Several other top finishers were spotted in these lakes as well and Randy Peck and Matt Morgan weighed in limits applying the same techniques as the Rices as did tournament director Bill Maurer who finished third.

This I believe was Patricia's first club win and she should be congratulated as should all the anglers who caught limits on a tough day of fishing. Only a couple of fish over three pounds came to the scales and I believe big fish went to Mike Pritchard at nearly 3.5 pounds. Next up is Hardy Dam in a little over two weeks and hopefully a lot more limits will come to the scales then. I'll make sure Mr. Maurer has his calculator for that one.

Baw Beese Results

2010-05-03T18:12:00.000-07:00

1 Patricia Rice (5) 9.13

2 Jim Rice Jr (5) 8.06

3 Bill Maurer (5) 8.00

4 Matt Morgan (5) 7.89

5 Randy Peck (5) 7.44

6 Roy Albert (4) 7.20

7 Mike Pritchard (3) 6.75

8 Brian Masters (3) 5.88

9 Mike Mullaly (2) 4.00

10 Kathy Maurer (2) 3.44

11 Jim Van Aken (1) 2.81

12 Jerry Smith (2) 2.32

13 Matt Zelenka (1) 2.19

14 Leo Knox (1) 2.06

15 Tim Chapman (1) 2.00

16 Rob Schlosser (1) 1.94

17 Scott Rice (1) 1.69

18 Art Honsinger (1) 1.44

18 Tom Curry (1) 1.44

20 Rich Rice (1) 1.37

21 Mark Dereadt 0

21 Connie Honsinger 0

21 Scott Hartman 0

21 Craig Deck 0

Latest Updates

2010-05-01T08:33:00.000-07:00

Got out on the water for a small practice session Friday morning and nothing had changed much. The water temps were still in the high 50's and the fish were still not ready to get after it yet. I did catch a few more fish but nothing great. I talked to a few other club members who struggled as well so I hope the approaching fronts will change things for the better.

I tried all the tricks I knew and still could not get anything going but still have a few ideas I may try on the fly Sunday. It still believe a limit will be hard to come by and big fish will be at a premium but one club member who asked to remain anonymous reported catching a 3 pounder and losing a 5 at the boat.

Make sure all club participants are at the launch by 6:30 for the drivers meeting by the latest or a penalty will be accessed. With the weights expected to be low already, don't put yourself in a hole. See everyone there.

Baw Beese Report

2010-04-29T04:52:00.000-07:00

I still don't have my boat back from the shop yet but fellow club member Mike Maske graciously loaned me his and I was able to get a little practice in on Baw Beese. I hit the water at probably 8:30 am and fished until 12:30. Here is what I observed.

The water temps were 57 degrees first thing in the morning and the skies were sunny and the water was flat calm. Air temps were about 45 but not too bad but with the sun and calm water the fish could see me a mile away. But I could see them as well. I started on the outside edge of a big flat and immediately saw fish cruising up and down the break. As I approached they would lazily swim away, ignoring any lure presentation. I tried to make extremely long casts and tried several different lures and except for a few short fish on a suspending jerkbait I didn't have much success.

I jumped around to a few other good breaks I know of and encountered the same thing, lots of spooky fish but no biters. I decided to move up onto the sun drenched flats a little and as I progressed shallower I encountered fewer fish. Searching a few docks for beds was fruitless as well and moved back out to the breaks to look for more cruisers.

I have fished this lake about 10 times but never this early in the season so I'm not quite sure where the bass bed but I have an idea. I headed for these suspected spawning grounds next and actually did observe a few traces of beds beginning to form but saw nothing locked onto them and only saw small male fish. I suspect these small males are beginning to fan out nests but are just starting and it will be a little bit before any females move up. I did see one big fish cruising a protected bedding area but was not locked on to anything.

I spent the remainder of the day just "looking" and even went into a few man made channels to look for beds but saw nothing but 10 and 12 inch fish on small beds. I did most of my pre-fishing on the main lake but ventured into third and I believe fourth lake which is under the bridge and saw nothing to get excited about. I ended up catching only about 3 or 4 fish but threw everything from plastics to crankbaits and jerbaits and even busted out a spinnerbait for a while. I think with the weather continuing to warm and the wind picking up as is the forecast for the weekend then the fishing should improve. The water temps were 60 when I left.

Summary: The fish still seemed to be in a pre-spawn mode but with warm weather that could change any day. I pretty much ruled out the sight fishing angle but wouldn't be suprised if a few beds popped up by Sunday. The spooky cruising fish out on the breaks could very well start moving up and biting with the warm windy weather especially later in the day and a small shower could enhance the bite as well. I would not be suprised to see water temps in the low 60's for Sunday and hope to be able to just run and gun the flats with lipless cranks and spinnerbaits but maybe that's just wishful thinking. I will be prepared for a finesse approach as well if thats what it comes down to. I still think 9 or 10 pounds will win this event with only a couple limits coming to the scales and most anglers catching 3-5 pounds. Hopefully I'm wrong and the bite really gets going but for now that is my prediction.

If a few big females move up then a good kicker fish will go a long way but I'm not seeing that yet. I will hopefully get back out on Friday and do a little more looking and will report back any relevant info. The forecast calls for warm air temps into the 70's this weekend with a chance of rain and a good chance on Sunday. The wind will probably be the biggest issue with 20 mph winds and gusts up to 40mph possible. These will most likely be out of the SW so keep that in mind when practicing. More reports to follow.