LSC Report

I know it's two weeks away from the club tourney on Lake St. Clair but I haven't been there yet this year and couldn't wait any longer. Fellow club member Scott Hartman joined me Saturday for a little practice session and it was also his first trip to the big lake ever. I wouldn't say I was a great guide but we did manage to catch a few and I'll pass along what we discovered.

First of all, the lake seems to be several weeks ahead of where it was at this point last season. The spawn is over, the mayflies have already had a big hatch and the weeds are quite dense all the way out into deep water. I've heard most of the good limits on the American side have come in 12-15 foot of water which I thought was pretty deep for July 3rd but we found that to be the case.

Scott and I started down by the 11 mile area and fished the shallower 6-8 fow rocky flats. After only minimal success we headed out to the 12-14 ft area and found the weeds to be fairly heavy even that far out. Dragging tubes was virtually impossible in the dense vegetation so we started just hopping and ripping the baits out of the grass. We periodically ventured back in shallower to the 10-11 ft depths where the weeds were more scattered but never got a bite in anything less than 12 foot of water.

One other interesting tidbit is that we caught mostly largemouth, even out to 14 foot and of the 15 fish caught, most were green. We observed lots of small fry swimming around but never saw fish around them. Later in the day we locked into the deeper water and had a pretty good flurry right before we left at noon.

Scott ended up catching 4 keepers and the big fish of the day which was a 3+ pound smallmouth and lost one that was probably bigger. I caught a small limit of 2 pound largemouth and eliminated a lot of water. The fish seem to be quite deep and I have a feeling may start to relate to current areas like the channels which are typical late summer patterns. I'll be out hopefully later this week and will post any findings.

Club News

Well we have a break until the next club event which will be held July 18th on St. Clair so hopefully most club members will be spending their free time with families and enjoying the holiday. I will but you can bet I'll be on St. Clair a few times between now and then. As for the club, there are a few things I'd like to touch on but first a few items to wrap up the Cadillac tourney.

There were only 11 entries into the day one tournament with four limits coming to the scales. Day two had 15 participants with six limits being weighed in which is odd because of the increased pressure from our club and one other club. The 11 person showing was the lowest turnout I can remember in a long time for a club event and hope we can get those entries back up to where they should be.

The club was last in Cadillac two years ago and Scott Rice won day one up there as well weighing in 13.6 pounds and finished third on day two. It took 13+ pounds to win both days in 2008 and most of those winning fish came from Lake Mitchell much like in 2010. I can remember going up to Cadillac to fish club events on and off as long as I have been a club member (10 years) and I think it has been late June every time. Seems like they bite decent then because 12 limits were weighed in over the two days in 08'.

As far as the standing go, Matt Morgan relinquished his AOY lead but still remains in striking distance behind the Rice brothers, Bill Maurer and Randy Peck. Just as exciting to me though is some new faces showing up in the top ten. Leo Knox and Scott Hartman are both club rookies and are 9th and 10th respectively. This marks the half way mark for the year and St. Clair is coming up so the leaderboard will definitely shuffle.

As far as rumors go I want to address one I heard this weekend. The Muskegon Lake tournament had a few issues come up but I talked to Kathy Maurer Monday and everything is back on track. Seems the park hosting the event wanted to adjust our start time to accommodate another event but Kathy played hardball and our tourney will still run from 7-3pm, nice work.

I will be on Lake St. Clair this coming weekend and will start to post fishing reports as they become available. The bite is a little slow right now probably due to the mayflies, the post-spawn and all the fronts that have come through lately. Things should start settling down and I expect a shoot-out as usual. I have also heard we may have a guest speaker at the next meeting who is an expert at LSC. I have not confirmed this but hope to soon. The meeting is scheduled for next Thursday, July 8th so hope everyone can make it out.

Scott Rice Dominates

After the Michigan Center tournament, Scott Rice only weighed in one fish and was way down in the AOY standings and commented to me how he was struggling to figure anything out this season. I hope he stopped his complaining because he was dominant at the two Cadillac events, winning both and propelling himself into the lead for the Angler of the Year. I was not present at either tourney but talked to Scott and got a little insight into what went down up north.

The club has been going to Cadillac off and on for years and a lot of anglers had their go to spots. Scott had done quite well here two years ago but for some reason could not re-connect with those fish. He arrived Wednesday and after a few days figured it was time to try and find something else. What he found ended up surrendering back to back 14+ pound limits and by the end of the tournament he had his pattern and spot so dialed in that he was almost calling his shots.

"Jim and I talked and we concluded that the fish were post-spawn and were right on the inside edges of the breaks" commented Scott referring to his brother Jim Rice. Scott found the fish would briefly roam away from the weeds early and they were pretty catchable but would get back into the vegetation, just sticking their noses out looking for easy meals. "You would have to get the bait right at the base of the weeds and if you weren't pulling your lure off the weeds to the edge then you wouldn't get bit".

The bait Scott used was his customary soft stickbait rigged wacky style in the 5 1/2" version. The color is unknown but I guess it was his usual cinnamon/purple flake edition. The twist was that he used a weighted hook and then customized it by shaving some of the weight off to give a slightly slower fall and making the bait not bury in the weeds so much. He would then pull that bait off the top of the stalks and let it set at the base of the weeds. He was fishing a small point but the way the weeds were was the key more so than the structure.

By Sunday Scott had this pattern dialed in and would catch a limit early while the fish were out cruising. But as the sun got higher, the fish buried farther into the weeds and that's when he went to work. He noticed a small section of his weed edge that was a little sparser than the rest and only stretched out for a few feet before it became heavy again. Rice figured the fish were using this small break in the weeds as the "path" to move from shallow to deep water and started to focus on this section.

Scott wanted to prove his "path" theory to his partner Randy Peck (who also weighed in 13 pounds) and predicted he would catch a fish on the outside of the weed break. He then proceeded to cast his senko into the area which lay in about 12 feet of water and just let it set for close to two minutes. Finally his line moved off and Rice set the hook on a 3+ pound fish, proving his theory and setting off an assault on the Lake Mitchell fish which resulted in several fish over 3 pounds and a first and second place finish for the two.

A lot of anglers reported catching fish early and then struggling to get bites later in the day which makes Scotts efforts that much more impressive. There was another tournament also using Cadillac and Mitchell lakes which made the post-spawn fish even finickier but as usual, someone always figures them out. Mark Dereadt also bumped up his yearly totals with two strong top 5 finishes and big fish for the tournament went to Scott Hartman at 3.7 pounds.

Cadillac Day #2

1 Scott Rice 14.08

2 Randy Peck 13.56

3 Mark Dereadt 12.95

4 Terry Johnson 11.90

5 Jim Rice 11.39

6 Leo Knox 9.12

7 Bill Maurer 6.41

8 Wendy Johnson 6.17

9 Kathy Maurer 5.82

10 Patricia Rice 5.37

11 Roy Albert 3.76

12 Scott Hartman 3.70

13 Tom Curry 2.93

14 Matt Morgan 1.97

15 Matt Zielenka 1.64

Big Bass: #1) Scott Hartman 3.7

#2) Randy Peck 3.37

Cadillac Results

Sorry I didn't get this information out sooner but I was out of town and had car problems and computer issues but I'm back now. Thanks to Kathy Maurer for getting all the numbers to me as quickly as she does. She is a great asset to the club and I want point that out to everyone as much as possible. I'll have more info on the Cadillac winning patterns as I obtain it but it may take a few days.

Cadillac Day 1

1 Scott Rice 14.92

2 Bill Maurer 10.78

3 Mark Dereadt 10.60

4 Scott Hartman 8.93

5 Art Honsinger 7.57

6 Connie Honsinger 5.41

7 Tom Curry 5.02

8 Kathy Maurer 4.94

9 Randy Peck 3.82

10 Leo Knox 3.10

11 Matt Morgan 1.73

Big Bass: #1 Scott Rice 3.51

#2 Tom Curry 3.26

Cadillac Info

I am heading out of town Thursday morning, not to Cadillac unfortunately. But I have some info concerning the club tournaments I'd like to pass along. We will be launching from the city launch which is located on the northwest corner of Lake Cadillac. After crossing between the lakes on M-115 take a right just past Pilgrim Village and head north along the west shore of Lake Cadillac. The city launch will appear on the right and there is parking for vehicles across the street from the launch which is part of the city park I believe.

The weather is kind of cool right now with lows in the 40's tonight. But it will warm into the 80's for the weekend and partly sunny. A chance of showers is possible for Saturday but isn't there always a possibility? It should be good fishing weather and I will post results as soon as they become available to me. Good luck to everyone.

Morgan goes back to back

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.