Opening day is here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.