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2001 Tournament
Season
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This Page 2001 Tournament Schedule
Link to Pages
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My
2001 Tournament & Fishing
Season
Recap
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2001
was the year my best ‘shot’ to fish full time wound down. I thoroughly
enjoyed that season despite having it not turn out quite the way I hoped. It
wasn’t for lack of effort. I did some different things to stretch out the
opportunity, but my finances were such that I needed to win the All-American
to keep going. I’m
happy with how I did, but it wasn’t enough. |
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Easily the highlight of my 2001 fishing
season, fishing in the Wal-Mart BFL All-American in Hot Spring Arkansas on
Lake Hamilton. Here I’m receiving my award for 36th place and big
bass from Forrest L. Wood and Dan Grimes at the post-tournament awards
banquet.
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I
came off a pretty good year in 2000 with a Federation win in June, and then
big bass and All-American qualification at the Iowa BFL regional in October.
I wish I’d have done much better in the Southeastern EverStarts. I had a
great time fishing all those new lakes, but I never quite got on the good
bass, and of course lost my motor to a floating tree in Kentucky. You can
read about that on my 2000 Tournament
Recap. To
do all this fishing, I used money I saved and had from a buy out at my old
day job when they down-sized me (or
right-sized or whatever the latest term corporate America uses to do its
dirty work) the previous year. Late in the year, I was running out of money,
but really needed to stretch my time out until the 2001 All-American so I
could practice thoroughly. I
even spent 3 months getting up early every morning in the winter to deliver
newspapers on two or three routes. I always do a great job regardless of what
I’m doing to so I quickly started getting great tips. I had one lady tip me
$20 twice during that time just for putting the paper on her back step. I
also lost over 15 pounds, which was nice. Finally
had to get a full-time job before the All-American so I opted for temporary
work, but it took much longer than I expected to get something decent so I
pushed it much farther than I wanted to. A temporary job gave me the option
to guarantee I had the time off to go to Lake Hamilton for a week during the
spawn in April before the cut off, and then make the |
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actual Wal-Mart BFL All-American in May. I worked for three months with a really nice company that managed Blue Cross commissions for themselves and other agents. I also received a call from a past boss saying she might be starting up a new line of business she could use my computer skills in. I told her to call me in mid-May in case I didn’t win the All-American, but if I won, I would not be available. I
had already been down to Lake Hamilton for low-water reconnaissance in
December, and now headed down for a look at the spawn in April just before
the off limits began. Cameraguy went with me this time around and helped me
catch a bunch of bass while finding a lot of small to medium keepers. I
did receive some unsolicited help from a couple locals that pointed me toward
three places that held bigger bass. I found bigger bass on two of them and
found a couple more of my own spots with bigger bass. à |
We
also had fun one afternoon with giant gar – some bigger than my leg that
could tow the boat after getting them to slap a jerkbait. To
summarize the result for now, I ended up zigging at times instead of zagging
I guess and finished 36th with 7 keeper bass over the two days of
the All-American. |
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I did fish quite a few tournaments that season anyway, but my practice time was short and hectic. I seemed to be showing up at the last minute a lot. |
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The
rushed practice and low prep time showed throughout the year. I did have a
pretty good showing in the 3-day Windsor Canadian Open on St. Clair, but even
there, clearer thinking could have put me in a much higher place. I finished
in the money in 17th place, but I started the 2nd day
sitting with over 20 pounds in 4th place. It
didn’t take long using 5 inch Xtreme Bass tubes to start putting 4-pound smallies
into the livewell. They all came off the same area of Lake St. Clair, but
were scattered. Still, once the big ones started biting, most of the bass we
landed were over 3 ½ pounds. I
had a great partner who helped out. It felt pretty good to be in 4th
place with the competition in that tournament. We didn’t catch a ton of bass,
but caught enough to never get bored. I felt the time of year I was fishing
the spot that more fish would move in, so I liked my chances. So
did a few other bass anglers the 2nd day, but most didn’t crowd me
too much. I had another good partner and we started whacking 3-pound smallies
right away. I was feeling good because they actually started out smaller the à |
1st
day before getting big once we got a bunch of small ones out of the way. In
one small weed bed the 1st day I remember catching 11 dinks by
flipping into the middle before finally popping a 4-pounder. So
we kept popping the 3-pounders long after we had a 15-pound+ limit. I kept
thinking they would get bigger. We landed about 30 3-pound class smallies
before I finally wised up and realized we weren’t working our way into bigger
bass. By
then the damage was probably done on that area. We had 16 something pounds
and I slipped to around 10th or so. I didn’t have much going on
anywhere else that week so I went back to the same area the 3rd
day and worked it over hard. Day
3 was quite a bit different. We struggled just to get a limit for a while.
Even the dinks were harder to catch. The water seemed dead despite the current.
One key weed bed still held bass, but they were really squirrelly. I found
one reason why later in the tournament day. |
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On
day 1, by partner had lost a two to three pound bass to a good-sized musky.
He was fighting the bass when the musky shot up and snagged the smallie. He
fought it for a couple minutes before the musky finally broke his line.
Luckily, the poor bass wouldn’t have helped us as that day turned out. I
was noticing that the bass in my little weed bed were really skittish. They
would seem to swipe at the tube, but not chase it up at all. I wasn’t getting
multiple shots at them either. I
thought at one point I saw a long shadow coast along the weed edge, but the
water was a little silted. We had a limit, but it was small and I was anxious
about dropping out of the money. After a lull in the weed bed, I hooked a
solid 2-pounder, which we really needed to cull a last barely keeper. I
was fighting the bass practically under the boat when I saw a silver streak
rocket out of the weed edge slamming into my bass. I told my partner that my
bass was being eaten. He didn’t believe me at first, but my drag started
singing. The
poor smallie got away twice only to be slammed by the à |
musky
again. I was running out of time and needed the half a pound this smallie
would add. I pulled hard and the bass slipped out of the musky’s mouth and
shot towards the boat. The bass screamed by with the musky right on its tale.
I swear this bass was looking at us for dire assistance. I also swear it’s
the first time I ever had a bass itself yell, “GET THE NET!!!!” I
told my partner to get the net in the water. This poor bass flew out of the
water as the net touched the surface and blasted into the net like a Catfish
Hunter fastball. I think its also the first time I thought I saw a bass’
heart pounding. The ‘poor’ musky swam back and forth along the side of the
boat for a minute looking like it was gauging the distance for a jump into
the boat, or maybe it just knew that we sometimes throw bass back. Regardless,
it pulled the old ‘musky sink away to the bottom’ trick; We culled the scared
sliced-belly 2 ¼ pound smallie over the barely keeper and raced for the
Windsor weigh in. With less than 12 pounds, I slipped all the way to 17th
place, but made enough money to pay for the entry and most expenses. Can’t be
sure, but sticking all those 3-pounders the day before may have cost a much
higher finish. |
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After
the Canadian Open, things started to go down hill, picking up speed as they
went. It seems if you fish hard, there should be a least a bright spot or too.
One such bright spot was having another co-angler win out of the back of my
boat. Chuck
Hasty pulled off the win from my back deck with 14-12 in a St. Clair BFL on
August 18. He had a limit, but the key came when he stuck with a large Pop’R
for one more cast around noon up in the channels. A black 4-4 smallie
walloped the topwater and gave Chuck his winning kicker bass. I
did well enough to only need one keeper in the Super Tournament to make the
Regional at Lake Chautauqua in New York. I was confident enough, even though
the fishing had been spotty for me at times, that I went to Chautauqua early
in September to do some scouting, having never been there before. I
was surprised to find a muddy lake. I expected much clearer water and a lot
more weeds. I only had a couple days so I had to work fast. I started in the
deeper upper lake, but caught almost nothing to speak of. I think I landed a
dink largemouth out of some shallow dirty grass the first day. The
next day I went down to the lower, shallow basin and eventually found some
quality bass in three spots holding à |
around
rock and weed combinations. I landed several 2 and 3-pound smallies and
largemouths along with a few close to 4-pound smallies. I also boated one of
the average size muskies the lake is known for. I
left for home overall satisfied with what I found, but expecting the lake to
fish small. So I’m at the Super Tournament now on Lake Erie needing my one
keeper to make New York. FLW tournament director Charlie Evans is at the
event and he says to me that the fishing is so good it would be impossible to
get skunked. Right
then I should have known I was in trouble – the old ‘jinx’ we all wonder
about sometimes. I had an alternate game plan that day that where I decided
to stay in the southwest part of St. Clair for more fishing time, and because
it normally holds quality bass this time of year. Nothing seemed to go right
all day. As time ran on, I got more anxious, but knew – just KNEW – that I
would eventually get them. Unfortunately,
I never did. Time ran out and I didn’t have a single bass in my livewell. I
was disappointed. I even ‘blamed’ Charlie Evans for his earlier comment. He
was unsympathetic. (Can’t blame him for that.) I’d
gone to New York for nothing and now had bruised confidence for the upcoming
expensive EverStart on Erie. |
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I jumped right
back on the horse so to speak by going out the very next day, and heading up to
St. Clair as I would normally do. I caught a 3-pounder on the first spot that
would have done it for me easily. I had cameraguy with me and he showed me
some other places that were loaded with keepers. We caught keepers
on several spots all day and really loaded up on some spots. I wasn’t getting
on anything decent on Erie or the Detroit River, so with the EverStart coming
up a week and a half later, I opted to get back on St. Clair. I eventually
decided that I was catching the most bass towards the East end of St. Clair
and that being the year of mud on St. Clair and Erie, I put my eggs in the
clear You know how
sometimes thing just don’t seem to go your way? The first day I made my run
up to St. Clair and turned east down the south shore. Unfortunately, a strong
west wind was following me. By the time I was 6 or 7 miles down the shore,
the waves were getting ugly. I was having a hard time running them and they
were getting bigger fast. The worst sign of
all – the muddy water from the middle of à |
the lake was
following us too right down the lake. I turned around once it was clear that
the fishing would be muddy and unsafe by the time I got to the east end as
much as an hour later. We spent the rest
of the day in the far southwest corner of St. Clair fishing water that
normally produces at least a few keepers. It had been the slowest I’d seen it
ever lately though and this day was no different. Despite hitting many areas
and key spots, I ended up with only 2 small keepers. My unhappy co-angler had
1. I thought about
running to the channels on day 2, but I knew they could be pretty muddy and
the run was going to be very rough again based on the wind forecast. I opted
to maximize fishing time and hit all the Detroit River spots I knew since
Erie also looked to be very rough. I fished hard all
days, changing tactics often, trying different types of spots. In the end, my
co-angler landed a nice 3+ smallie and that was it for the whole day. A very
poor showing and a disappointing few weeks on normally great water. The
overall weights were way down with many skunks to keep me company. That
seemed to end a strange year of tournament fishing for me, but in the end I
couldn’t stop on this down note. |
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I was very disappointed in the initial ending of my 2001 tournament season. Despite working long hours at a new ‘day’ job an hour away from home, I wanted to do better. I fished a Cass Lake open in October as I’ve often done with lackluster results. Still not enough. I’d
never tried a BFL Wildcard regional before and being intrigued with Kentucky
Lake, decided to give it a try. A completely solo effort that is often good
for my soul. I bought maps and found out he basics and off I went. What
a tough place to fish in the fall that lake can be. It was down 5 feet for
winter pool – a lot for Kentucky Lake. People kept saying I should do good
since I know about smallies, but Kentucky Lake smallies don’t have the same
recognizable places to inhabit that I’m used to finding them on. I found plenty of bait, but mostly yellow bass eating it. When in doubt on reservoirs, I often head to roadbeds. I caught a huge perch and several nice bass in practice, but fished a lot of water with no more than single bites in a few places on the Kentucky side. I
drove over to Barkley and found a secondary point à |
roadbed
where I caught 11 bass. Although none easily went over 15 inches, I felt I
had to go where the numbers were since everyone I talked to was struggling to
catch any bass at all. I
fished it hard the first day catching one here and one there along that road
throughout a chilly day. I finally caught one barely keeper largemouth on a
Michiana rigged French fry. I saw good fish bust off the roadbed, plenty of
bait and lots of activity on the graph so I stuck with it, but never caught
another keeper. It just felt like I would. The
2nd was colder and drizzly so I ran back to the road thinking they
might move up on it and bite better. Out of 241 boats, only 2 limits were
weighed. It wouldn’t take much to be in good standing. The
roadbed was much slower though with less activity – it had a comatose feel to
it. I did some running to try other similar spots and some change up to spots
I caught a bass here or there on in practice. I also ran out into the main
lake, but never put anything together. The angler who caught the only
both-day limits won. Three total limits for two days out of 241 boats; that’s
tough fishing. |
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I did get one more chance to try a late season St. Clair ‘Shiver’ tournament with sponsor and friend Wayne Carpenter. We actually enjoyed one of those rare late fall balmy days. The fishing wasn’t furious, but we came in with the allowed 5-bass limit – 5 respectable smallies with one quality bass. Probably thanks to spectacular conditions – calm and warm – everyone got them so we finished in 5th or 6th place. Still, a beautiful day and some nice bass caught. |
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Date Event Description Mar 8-11 Lansing
Sportsfishing Show Fish
Info Serv booth/D&R Sports Mar 15-18 Grand Center Fishing Show Fish Info Serv booth |
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Date Event Location May 8-12 Wal-Mart
BFL All-American Lake
Hamilton, Hot Springs AR Jun 23 Wal-Mart
BFL MI Div Grand
River, Grand Haven, MI Jul 13-15 Windsor
Canadian Open Lake
St. Clair, Windsor ONT Jul 21 Wal-Mart
BFL MI Div Lake
St. Clair, Mt. Clemens, MI Aug 4 Wal-Mart
BFL MI Div Lake
Erie, Trenton MI Aug 18 Wal-Mart
BFL MI Div Lake
St. Clair, Mt. Clemens MI Sep 15-16 Wal-Mart
BFL MI Super Tourn Lake Erie,
Brownstown Twp MI Sep 26-29 Northern
EverStart Lake
Erie, Detroit MI Oct 9-13 Wal-Mart
BFL Regional Lake
Chautauqua, Jamestown NY Oct 14 Bass
N Gals Open Cass
Lake, Pontiac MI Nov 2-3 BFL
Wildcard Regional Kentucky
Lake, Gilbertsville KY Nov 17 St.
Clair Shiver Open Lake
St. Clair, Mt. Clemens MI |
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Money Finishes This Year |
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Date Event Finish Description May 10 Wal-Mart
BFL All-American Big
Bass 4 lbs 4 oz largemouth, Lake
Hamilton, Hot Springs AR May 11 Wal-Mart
BFL All-American 36th Lake Hamilton, Hot Springs AR Jul 13 – 15 Windsor
Canadian Open 17th Lake St. Clair Jul 21 Wal-Mart
BFL MI Ranger
Cup – Lake St. Clair |
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