Part
1 -
The Preparation
Houghton Lake Sat-Sun May 28-29, Thurs-Sat Jun 2-3, 2005
My good friends and regular fishing partners Derek Baetz and Larry
Dekker talked me into giving the Top Bass circuit a try this year. Top
Bass has an interesting format in that you fish by yourself –
so everyone is a guaranteed boater. Makes it a personal challenge too
along with the normal tournament challenges.
I don’t fish Houghton Lake a lot anymore, maybe once a year
–usually opening weekend for a day to catch some easy canal
largemouths. I like to sight-fish quite a bit, so I took the risk
(besides Larry has a
Top
3 Places
and Big Bass Winner - I'm 2nd from the left. W.C. Paetz won (L) with
13.29 pounds.
cabin
near there so it was a cheap tournament that fit my tight 2005
tournament budget).
Parts of Houghton Lake are still suffering from the massive weed kill
the association performed a couple years ago – unfortunately,
many of the parts I normally like to fish. That was my first major
adjustment.
There were still some bass in canals, but an opening weekend tournament
was putting pressure on them, and surprisingly, many non-tournament
anglers were specifically targeting the beds better than I’m
used
to seeing, and catching quite a few. Some were keeping them. They can
legally do that and although I didn’t see any one angler
catching
and keeping a bunch, there were enough keeping 1 or 2 that it put the
remaining bass beds sparsely populated with shy bass.
Most I saw were small and I didn’t feel like putting my eggs
in
that basket. Besides, I thought all along that main lake smallies would
win… and I don’t know about you guys, but winning
is
always a great target to cast for. That’s a nice confidence
boost, and a shot of fresh cash into the fishing fund never hurts
either.
I started looking. I don’t do much catching in practice this
time
of year. When possible, I don’t cast at all. If I do, I try
to
remove hooks. Besides, it’s kind of like counting coup to be
able
to pull a jerkbait out of a nice smallies mouth. I always say,
“could have had you and maybe I’ll see you later
Mr.
Bass.”
I did find some decent bass on hard to see beds on the edge of sand
drops in North Bay, but not many. I also found one small milfoil bed
and caught 2 respectable largemouths on a spinnerbait. That was my last
two though and they were far from the ramp and not that big. I had a
couple nice smallies take a whack at spinnerbaits and minnows too
around my boat off the edge of a sand drop in North Bay, but the water
was fairly turbid and I wasn’t seeing enough to keep all the
anglers up there happy.
I really like the North Shore area too. I found several sand drops
where bass were cruising, but despite having 8 smallies whack a
spinnerbait along just one of them, I wasn’t seeing the size
normally there. The biggest one was just over 2 pounds. Many were
sub-keeper.
I was hearing all the rumors about big bass being caught from weeds at
the Middle Grounds, but that is a BIG area with lots of boats, and
sometimes all rumors do is get you off your game plan and on to an
inefficient path not right for you.
Despite running by there several times and seeing some bass boats, I
resisted the temptation to stop. I thought if someone did figure out
how to put 5 of those ‘big bass’ in the livewell,
then I
would bow to their superior game plan and execution. I just
didn’t have the time to check for both
spawners/prespawn/postspawn fish on the flats AND check the open lake
weed beds well. I made my choice and stuck with it based on my practice
time, past experiences and preferred fishing methods for that time of
year.
I did find a handful of beds with better smallies along part of the
North Shore, but I was concerned that they were a little too easy to
find and closer to the 2 tournaments that would launch out of the West
side of the lake than our South side launch site.
I’m only familiar with small parts of East Bay, but I decided
there would be my best chance to get to some fish first since the other
tournaments would have to run by us to get there. Again, I wrote off
the canals, only spending about a half hour in one to feel comfortable
with that decision. (I did go into one on the way in late one day just
to stick a couple fish for fun since it’s not easy looking at
fish all day and not catching them – I actually found a canal
full of spawning dogfish and got things out of my system mainly on
them. I kind of felt sorry for some of the bass that had been caught
multiple times…)
My Godson Aaron was up too on Thursday and Friday for his birthday and
it was fun watching him try to land those rolling, slashing doggies.
The little fish hound actually did stick a few bass too, but you
can’t blame a kid for trying hard. He bragged on Thursday
that he
caught a total of 14 bass, pike and walleye, all on tubes to whup his
Pop Derek that day.
Well, back to East Bay. I stopped my boat in the morning Friday (day
before the actual tournament) still not very comfortable with what
I’d found so far. And of course, a 2 pound smallie came up 20
feet from my boat off the break busting minnows (and laughing at me too
probably). That got me spending a half hour thinking I might be on to a
deeper pattern. No such luck. Just an odd distraction.
Up on the flats I went. For a while, I saw lots of good looking bottom,
but no fish. Then, about midmorning I had a smallie all of 12 inches
whack my spinnerbait outside of my boat on a slightly deeper flat. This
was not a promising looking area. (I actually heard later that 3rd
place came of this spot – just goes to show how impressions
can
be mistaken.) I cruised over and actually saw about 6 large beds in a
short distance. I had one more 2+ smallie on (did not hook him), but
didn’t see fish on the beds, or shooting off the beds.
I couldn’t see bottom much outside this area. After trying
several lures with no more bites, I wrote it off to a picked over/done
area and moved on. A little while later, I had a solid smallie whack
and throw my big ‘flat-checking’ spinnerbait (all
chartreuse and heavy thrown on a 7 foot All Star fiberglass crankbait
rod with 20 pound Shakespeare Supreme Super Tough line).
Advertisement
I ‘trolled’ over and couldn’t see a bed,
but it was a
little sand-gravel ridge that looked good. Luckily, I followed that
ridge farther out from shore before cutting out into the next
flat… because I immediately came across a large log with 2
beds
on it… and one respectable and ornery smallie guarding one
of
them.
This was looking more interesting. It was literally the middle of
Friday when I started moving back and forth across this flat. Every 60
to 100 feet, I’d find one more bed with a solid bass on it.
Sometimes the beds were just on a sand patch, which actually pleased me
because anglers gravitate to objects as much as fish, whereas, beds on
‘nothing’ might be overlooked.
I ended marking only about a dozen beds, but I only needed 5 and they
were scattered and not easy to find. Before I left, I actually watched
2 other competitors glide over the same area. Neither one looked very
excited although one did circle a couple times before moving on. I
don’t enjoy finding fish and then watching someone else go
through the same area. I’d rather be oblivious of that
knowledge,
but it does keep expectations realistic and I could not believe either
angler had spent any time to mark many beds, if any, after watching
them.
I decided right there that I’d found my starting area
–
even if 4 or 5 other boats came in with me, I thought I could get
several bass quick enough to be on my way to a limit early. Plus with
the forecast for Saturday, I knew the bass would be very hard to
impossible to see early, so I had marked them very well. Maybe other
anglers wouldn’t mark the individual beds close enough?
I felt a lot better now. The bass weren’t big enough by any
means
to start thinking what I was going to do with my winnings, but I felt I
was now going to be competitive, which was calming. I decided that the
next morning, I would run up onto the best part of the flat, get as
close to the beds as I could, and then throw my little jerkbait
(suspending to get down and stay down in their faces) to either catch
the bass (they didn’t seem to be real pressured) or at least
get
them to show so I could catch them on a tube. If I got a limit, I would
head out later when visibility was better to check the more scattered
main lake beds that were deeper, and for luck in hitting a school or
two of cruisers maybe.
Unfortunately, Derek had to go home Friday because of a death in the
family. After some discussion of the situation and timing, Larry and I
decided to stay for the tournament. Larry had one particular canal with
a few good fish on beds deep that he wanted to hit early, then he might
come out on the flat with me to see what was left.
