Gull Lake is one of the coolest looking lakes in southern Michigan with it's gigantic homes dotting the shoreline and it's deep crystal clear waters. But this beauty also draws lots of boat traffic and coupled with a big tournament fishing the day before, the SCMBC event on Gull Lake last July figured to be a tough one. It was and when I brought 3 fish to the scales at just under 5 pounds, it was enough to earn me my first win of the season and be the fifth winner in five events for the club. Here's how it broke down:
I pre-fished but never got on anything real consistent. I try to find the biggest flat on any new lake and start there when breaking down water. I focused on the 15-20 foot range and targeted isolated weed clumps but never caught them good there. I moved shallower, probably 8-12 foot and caught them a little easier so that's where I focused my attention.
Tournament day started slow and after a few small fish with fast moving baits, I scaled down with a drop shot rig and started fishing the isolated weed clumps. My big flat didn't procuce a keeper and around noon I went to the eastern shore to fish the same pattern. About 90 minutes later I caught 3 keepers including a two pounder which wound up being big fish for the tourney and just that quickly, my good fish quit biting. I never did catch another keeper but my three fish were enough to earn me my third club win. The biggest key for me was to abort the power fishing approach so early and concentrate on the drop-shot quicker than I normally would. I usually don't like to leave a familiar area, especially to fish new water during a tournament but I felt that was the best way to catch them and it paid off.
Gear notes: 6'6" BPS Extreme spinning rod (medium) paired with a Shimano Symetre. I used 8 pound BPS flourocarbon and a 4.5" Zoom finesse worm in green pumpkin. The worm was fished drop-shot style with a #1 Gamakatsu drop-shot hook and 1/4 oz round weight.
No comments:
Post a Comment