Meeting tonight, 7pm at Art Moehn

The Club from a Rookie Perspective V2.0

While Jerry is on yet another vacation he asked me to write something up while he was gone. Last year I wrote on my perspective of the club highlighting quite a few things that I liked and a few things that I would like to see changed.

I loved the camaraderie, the GREAT competition, and the willingness of those who did well to share with others on what they did to succeed.

Some of the changes I wanted to see were to have the open tournaments to be part of the AOY race and classic births. I also wanted at least one draw tournament as well as a tournament against another local club from a neighboring county.

In hindsight, The draw tournament is not as big of a deal to me anymore. I know quite a few of you and feel that if I simply asked, more than likely I could fish with someone different once in a while. I still feel as though the opens should have some sort of bearing on the results at the end of the year only because I would like those tournaments to be a true representation of how the club is and acts in order to "lure" new members. A tournament against another neighboring club would be awesome, but feel its tough enough for the tournament director to align a good schedule of lakes to fish without having to do so with another club even if it is for just one tournament.

The only other change that I think would be important for the club would be to list everyone who fished in the results of the tournaments listed on this website. For example, last week as we can all agree, Wamplers was tough fishing!!! We had 23 fisherman but only 13 weighed in a fish. For any onlookers or future potential members they may have seen our results and thought only 13 people fished. I for one would hate to be listed as a zero but we do already list the complete AOY standings. I don't feel that it would be a detriment to those that zeroed to list them as well only for the purpose of showing a true representation of the amount of fisherman we truly get.

In closing, I am having a blast again this year fishing against everyone and I truly hope that nobody takes these recommendations the wrong way!! These are just my opinions and honestly I was having a problem thinking of anything else to write about.

Sincerely!! Matt Morgan

Wamplers Lake Results

1. Scott Rice 10.66
2. Mark Deraedt 6.17
3. Leo Knox 6.15
4. Mike Mullaly 6.12
5. Randy Peck 5.28
6. Jim Rice Jr. 5.22
7. Roy Albert 5.04
8. Matt Morgan 3.70
9. Brian Masters 2.79
10. Jim Van Aken 2.83
11. Connie Honsinger 1.72
12. Tim Chapman 1.42
13. Craig Deck 1.37

Big Bass – Matt Morgan 3.70
Scott Rice 3.43

Another Vacation

Just wanted to wish everyone good luck at the Wamplers Lake tournament this coming weekend. I will not be fishing due to another family vacation, this one in Escanaba, Michigan up in the upper peninsula. I will be fishing Little Bay DeNoc for walley, perch and especially smallmouth so I hope to have a few good reports to post. Hope everyone catches them this weekend and I have something set up to get the results posted as soon as possible so bear with me. I also hope to have a guest blogger so stay tuned.

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.

Launch Info

Talked to Bill tonight and here is the official info concerning the Wamplers Lake tourney this Sunday. The park will open between 7:30 and 8am so the check in time will be 8:30am. Anyone showing up later than that will be considered late. Bill is concerned with the clubs' safety and doesn't want a lineup of cars on the road at 6am as is usually the case.

I would suggest getting to the launch ramp no later than 7:30 and hopefully the park will open early and the tourney can start closer to 8am but maybe that's wishful thinking. The participants will decide when the event will end as everyone is checking in. Hope to see everyone there.

Wamplers Lake reports

I don't have a ton of info to pass along yet but here is what I know so far. The water at Wamplers is off-colored, probably from all the summer boat traffic and the visibility is only a couple of feet. I've heard there has been a weed kill recently but cannot confirm that but the fishing has been slow. An NBAA event there last week only took two fish to win, granted it was only a three hour tournament but the fishing is tough.

A few club members started pre-fishing this past weekend and keepers were at a premium, heck bites were at a premium. Of the three guys I talked to, only three keeper fish were caught and they had about 15 bites combined for their efforts. This could be one of those 7 pounds to win events but I have a feeling someone will put it together and get a limit. I will not be attending this tournament but I will pass along any pertinent info I gather this week.

Don't forget, the start may be delayed due to the park not opening until 8am or so but that is at the discretion of the tournament director. More info will be relayed as far as that goes as well.