Classic Week

As with anything related to fishing, I've put a lot of thought recently into which lake I'd like to fish for the Classic this weekend. All ten anglers will select a lake and one will be pulled from a hat which only gives me a one in ten shot but I want to pick one that suites my style of fishing. The cool thing about the club championship is that with only ten angers, smaller lakes can be fished. Gilletts and Pleasant are small lakes that have hosted recent Classics so do I vote for a smaller body of water or go for a bigger one that I've had success on?

Here are a few small bodies of water that may get my vote:

Vineyard: This lake isn't really that small but doesn't get a lot of publicity. It has a good population of largemouth in the lower end and I've caught some smallies up to five pounds in the gravely upper end. It is about 450 acres and located fairly close to town but has one small drawback. The launch is a shallow gravel launch with no pavement and no dock. It will accommodate large boats, not ideal but doable.

Clarks: This is a good sized lake but never gets tournament pressure due to lack of a good launch. Fortunately I am a member of the CL Boat Club and have a pass for their launch so that would not be an issue. The lake has big smallies in it (I caught a five pounder just last week there) and a bigger population of largemouth. The drawback is that it is relatively featureless with large sandy flats and can fish tough. The smallies are there but undersized largemouth make up most of my catches. I think it would be tough to get limits and with the cold weather coming I'm pretty sure I won't be voting for Clarks.

Portage-Jackson: A small lake that would not support a regular club event but ten boats would not be too many for Portage. Located close to town, it has a decent population of smallies and some big largemouth as well. I really like this lake in the spring but being located in a state park makes is very popular with boaters and it fishes extremely tough in the summer. It should be pretty good now and the launch facilities are awesome.

Some bigger lakes that normally get tough during the summer but could be very good now:

Michigan Center: This lake is close to town and everyone know it well. It has fished really good this year and some big weights have been brought to the scales. If we hit it right the fishing could be awesome and limits could be plentiful. But the cold weather may shut the largemouth bite down and there are no smallies present to target.

Devils: I can't believe I would ever vote for this lake but it may be the leader in the clubhouse. A notoriously tough summer lake that has largemouth and smallmouth with plenty of room for everyone. But with the cooler water temps this lake could turn on and the adjacent Round Lake could also come into play. Our club event there this past August relulted in bigger weights than expected and when I fished here last week the bite was pretty good.

I know some guys don't even think about their Classic vote until we get to the restaurant on Sunday but obviously I have and I think I'm going with Devils as of right now. I'll keep an eye on the weather and that will play a role in my selection but that's the way I'm leaning right now.