Rices Muskegon Pattern

I always say I'd rather be lucky than good but when you're lucky and good, that's a great combination. Jim Rice was probably more good than lucky at Muskegon lake but both played a part in his first win of the season. Jimbo has been extremely consistent this year weighing in limits in each tournament and cashing a check in all seven as well but it took 10.8 pounds of largemouth to wrestle the win a way from Mark Dereadt July 25th at Muskegon Lake. Here's how he did it:

Practice: Jim hadn't been on Muskegon for nearly 8 years so he had to put in quite a bit of time on the water to get ready for the event. He was having trouble finding anything consistent and decided to just try and catch keeper fish instead of looking for hogs. He found such a pattern that consisted of certain rip-rap sections which had sandy bottoms extending out from shore. The right spots would have these sand transition areas which only extended a few feet from the rip-rap before turning into weeds. He found that there were key stretches with the right mix of sand and most of it was only in 12-18 inches of water and it only was a morning deal.

The lucky part came when Jim let the boat drift one practice day to re-tie and as he did, drifted over a small hump which consisted of slab wood that was surrounded by weeds. The wood came within 7-8 feet of the surface and was the size of a small garage but was surrounded by 25 foot of water. His partner (and wife) Trish got hooked up as Jims boat drifted over the structure that morning and he probably would not have even noticed it if she wasn't with him.

Tourney Day: When the event started, some of the boats (mine included) were heading out into Lake Michigan and Rice claimed he already had caught three keepers from his sandy spots before we even made it out of the Muskegon channel. He would throw his green senkos up close to the rocks and the fish would nail the bait before it got to the weedline. There were people fishing from shore and from the piers but that didn't bother the bite as he caught a limit fairly quickly.

After the morning bite died, Jim shifted gears and headed to the wood slabs where he began culling on a day where limits were scarce. "I was culling by ounces each time but culled about four fish on that spot" explained Rice and he needed every once because a dead fish penalty dropped his weight to 10.84, less that a half pound ahead of Mark Dereadt who weighed in a 10.48 limit. The win vaulted Jim to the top of the AOY standings, 2.5 pounds ahead of his brother Scott who finished fifth in the event.