Pecks LSC Pattern

I finally talked to Randy Peck and got the details on his win July 18th on St. Clair. Most people think of the mile roads, the rivers or the channels when it comes to summer fishing on LSC but Randy decided to go against the grain a little and fish some new water. He had only been on the big lake three times previous and found a weedbed marked on his hotspots fishing map that looked intriguing. Randy decided to spend Saturday looking for this weedbed and others like it up in the northeast corner of the lake known as Anchor Bay. This section is know for muskie and perch but doesn't get a lot of publicity for smallmouth this time of year.

Practice: Randy went looking for his weedbed but located a different patch of vegetation and decided to fish it. He caught a few fish but nothing decent and decided to call it a day early due to the high winds that were building. He figured he'd come back to this weedbed the next day and start there and try and get a few decent keepers before looking for new water.

Tourney Day: Randy returned to his practice spot and did catch a few decent fish early throwing 4" cinnamon grub teamed with a 1/4 oz jighead. Peck would slowly reel the plastic in and when it hung he would snap it free to trigger strikes. All was going well until a boat with two tournament anglers from another organization approached his buoy and started fishing it. Randy became very upset and said he lost his cool and let the two guys in the boat have it.

Instead of staying and fighting for the spot, Randy decided to take off and look for the original weedbed he had intended on fishing the day before. The spot was isolated weeds in 6-7 foot of water and when he found it, it didn't take long for him to start catching fish. "I think the key other that being an isolated bed is that the water was only 72 degrees up there" stated Peck as he culled about 20 keepers enroute to his 22 pound sack.

Randy also caught the big bass of the event and probably had second big bass as well but club rules only allow one per angler. Most fish fell prey to the grub fished on spinning tackle which was paired with 10 pound mono. Randy also stated that he found a second weedbed close to his hot spot and he rotated between the two to post his big weight. He returned to the launch ramp early, Tim Horton style and made sure his fish stayed alive for the weigh-in. It was an impressive a win as I've seen in the club for some time and hopefully Randy can keep making a serious run at the AOY title.