2009 Revisited

The 2009 season had it's ups and downs for me as far as fishing goes. I got to travel to a few exotic locations and caught a few big fish like the two I'm holding from Burt Lake. It seems like everyone likes to review 2009 this time of year and I couldn't help sharing a few of my fishing experiences from the past year.

As far as the club went I had a pretty bad year, only fishing 6 of the 8 tournaments and only cashing one check. I missed the clubs Classic by finishing 10th in the AOY standings and usually I would have been satisfied with that but after winning the 2008 Angler of the Year title it was a little disappointing. I'm not sure if I thought I was better than I actually was or if it was just a bad season. Probably a little bit of both.

I usually take a few fishing trips each year and 09' was no different. I fished Hardy Dam twice and St. Clair five times but those were in preparation for club events. I did however make my annual Spring and fall trips to Burt and Mullett lakes. But weather put a damper on both trips and we fished about half as much as usual and when we did get on the water the fishing was quite slow for those lakes.

A few trips did work out however and I made my first cast on Mille Lacs which is a huge canadian shield lake in northern Minnesota. I got to fish with my brother who lives in Minneapolis and on fathers day we put a whuppin on some bedding smallies. It was cool to find fish on such a big lake as fast as we did and a lot came on topwaters. Probably my best outing of the year.

My brother and I also spent a week in Manistique which is in Michigans upper peninsula. Being so close to Big Bay DeNoc was too tempting and we made it out on the great lake on a calm July morning. After covering miles of nothing we finally stumbled onto some rock and weed and ended up catching about 20 good smallies. It was another good outing and we'll probably head up there again in 2010.

I did manage to learn a few new techniques as well last year, specifically cranking and throwing frogs. These became addicting and I will use them more often this coming year in tournament competition. The frog bite is such an awsome thing and the second outing I used it resulted in my biggest fish of 2009, a 5.4lb largemouth out of Center Lake. I can't wait to throw that thing again and I am also purchasing a new cranking stick so I think I may need a deck extension for my Crestliner.

Well that about sums it up, not a great year but I got to fish probably 50 days out of the 365 which is more than most can say. I hope 2010 brings more big fish and hopefully a tournament win or two. It'll just be nice to see open water again and try out some of that new gear. Guess I'll go back to pitching plastics at my kids in the basement for a few more months.