Banquet a success

The annual awards banquet was held last weekend at Knights Steak House in Jackson and as far as I'm concernced it was a big success. We had about 35 in attendence and everyone had a great time and it solidified the reason why I'm in the club.

All the awards for each tournament and AOY were handed out but there were also a few special ones as well. Kathy Maurer won the Dale Popp award which is a spotsmanship award and Scott Rice won a lifetime achievement plaque for his work over the years in the club. These are prestigious awards and the recipients were very deserving.

The club has a few weeks off but the December meeting will be held on the 10th and we will be picking lakes for next years tournaments so hopefully we'll get a big turnout. I look forward to this meeting every year although it never goes the way I think it should. Hopefully we go back to ten tournaments but that's a discussion for another day.

As far as the fishing I've been out several times lately but only had limited success. The water temps were in the high 40's Wednesday and I did catch about 6 fish including a 3.5 pounder out of Columbia but the bite has definitely slowed. I hate to say it but I may be done for the year. I know the weather is still pretty decent and I vowed to fish as long as the bass were still biting but it was pretty slow the other day. I'll still keep my rods in the boat for a while but it's not looking good is all I can say. I'll post any decent catches if I get out.

Still Fishing

Just wanted to keep everyone posted on local fishing conditions in case a few of you want to get one last outing in before winterizing the boat. I've been out at least once a week all through October and the fishing has been pretty decent of late. Actually, the water temps have warmed up over the past week and I registered 52 degrees yesterday.

I've been getting out on Lake Columbia lately through a good friend of mine who has lake access and it is an awsome lake. Yesterday Dwayne Mroczka and I caught close to 20 fish in a little under three hours with the biggest being over 3 pounds. Most of our fish came on shallow running crankbaits and the majority of the action has been coming in the back end of cuts and channels. I think since these areas are the warmest still and contain most of the baitfish is why these areas are productive.

Columbia does not receive the pressure like the public lakes and it has a little stain to it and seems to fish like a southern impoundment a bit as far as I'm concerned. I've never been on the lake early in the year because it gets pretty busy but it is a great crankbait lake and the fish on average are quite big. Our biggest last year was a 5.6 pounder by my fishing partner Mike Maske but I've heard bigger ones have been taken. I'll continue to fish here as long as my contact lets me so I need to stay on his good side. I've also heard decent reports of bass still being caught on Michigan Center and on Clark but I have a hard time going anywhere but Columbia. I also have an opportunity to fish a small private lake south of town next week that has a reputation for hogs so I will report any big ones.