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.
No comments:
Post a Comment