I had a strong first day. I went with what I was best at and worked shallow fish on reaction baits such as shallow cranks, rattle traps and spinner baits. None of the fish caught were in deeper than 3 feet of water.? We also caught a Muskie, a Walleye and a Channel Cat. I ended the day with 16lbs 9oz and my co-angler has 15lbs 15oz. My coangler Rick Woods finished day one in fourth position to move on to day two and flat out told me that that was the most fun fishing he has had all year. I end the day in 15th place. The top 14 moved on to day two. :o
But I am happy that I can go to my sons football game today. That is more important to me than fishing. Also the weather doesn't look so good and I am sure that my pattern would have disappeared. ;D On a side note, 3 out of 5 of my co-anglers cashed checks this year.
Madwags - Nice meeting you on Friday night and nice to hear you got on some good shallow fish? ;D Just a few more ounces.....? :o
My day...
I drew out with Miles Johnson and we broke down 1 mile from the ramp. So we limped around the river on idle and knew that there some Stren fished dumped in close by? ;D Miles proceeded to put a whipping on me with a limit going 19-15 and ended up fifth. I got 3 fish for 8-3 and ended up 33rd.
Now I'm sweating it to see if I make the regional (fingers crossed !!)? :o
Miles was a great draw and a helluva nice guy. I had a joy fishing with him and was very happy when he landed a nice 4lb'er with 50 minutes to go to really help him out. Plus, we lost all batteries 10 minutes later, so he did it just in time. He had alot of great stories and can flat out fish. I wish him the best of luck today !!!
Also, CONGRATS TO TEAM HOUSTON who is fishing today also and is on A ROLL !!! Good luck to him as well.
Hopefully, I'll see some of you in Iowa...
Later Kev
where's Dan K.?? looks like a real low turn out. they were asking for boaters at the Stren meeting.
I feel bad enough already. I couldn't fish. I talked to Anthony earlier Friday and that didn't make me feel any better. I tried asking around for boaters and posted here and on lsc.net that there would be no late fee charged for boaters signing up. Most of the guys I talked to personally could not fish. Some had fished the Stren and were worn out.
I can't go to Iowa this year so it didn't matter that a mediocre limit would probably have kept me in the top 40. Mediocre has been how I've been doing that last couple months too so I should have gotten that.
Congrats to the anglers who did well from here. Sorry I couldn't be there too with you.
I had an interesting week to say the least. I showed up early Wednesday morning, as usual, ate at Denny's, and proceeded to Metro Park. We launched and headed out to Erie and while idling out in between the buoys we smacked something hard. It turned out we had severely bent the prop shaft and damaged the prop. Needless to say if you go out of Metro "BE CAREFUL!", there is something out at the end of the buoys closer to the green bouy. I quickly called a marina back home in Indiana and they overnighted a new prop and lower unit that I picked up and put on the next morning. We were back in the water Thursday afternoon at 4:30 pm. We managed about 3 hours of prefishing and caught 3 good fish each, but only two came from one spot. On Friday we ran up to the St. Clair river and spent the entire day looking around. We caught a ton of fish, but most were in the 2-2 1/2 pound range. Grandpa did catch one that went 6 1/4, but it was the only one their. I ended up with around 15 pounds and Grandpa had around 17 pounds. I really needed a day in the mouth of the river, but due to not seeing it I decided to run up to the St. Clair River for the tourney. I caught two fish early and my co-angler caught one. They were all 15 inchers and I decided to try for a limit of those and head back to the Detroit River to try to cull. We both finished our limit at around noon and headed back to the Detroit River to try and cull. It took forever getting back due to a lot of wind on the south side of the lake and a massive rain storm around the Bridge. With 45 minutes left by the time we got back to fishing I caught a 4 pounder and my coangler caught a 2 1/2 pounder that helped him out also. I ended up in 25th with 13' 11" and my co got 24th with 10'8". I realized the shallow bite was hot when we got back and would have loved to have spent the day in the river, but that is fishing. I was hoping the St. Clair Rvier would give me two or three of those toads and it wasn't to be. I ended up the year dropping one place to 7th. I will see everyone who goes in Ft Madison. Hopefully we will put 12 Michigan boys in the All American. God Bless and Good Fishin'!
Rufus
My Co-Angler from Day one, Rick Woods, ended up winning the tournament! Congrats to Rick. I managed to move up to 41st in the standings after zeroing at the Grand and having a bad tournament in August on the River. Maybe I'll get the call as one boater may not be able to make it to the Regional. Strange isn't it. Top 14 boats move on to day two and I finish 15th. Top 40 boats move on to the regional and I finish 41st. ::)
As CuradoKev said I was fortunate again to be put on fish. The first day we were out in Erie and my partner smacked 4 good ones right away. Then it got slow for quite a while. I picked one up here, one there, the bugs were swarming and it was SLOW. We then moved to another spot and at 1:30 my partner finally got his limit and boy was he relieved. 4 hours between your 4th and 5th fish is a long time. Meanwhile I kept peckin away and finally got five myself. The last one a stupidly swung in the boat because I thought it was a short. Boy my eyes got big when it came over the side and eye clearly saw it was a keeper. Towards the end of the day Mike Trombley came up th us and asked if he could fish there. He was leading the Stren and felt he needed one more good one. Credit to my boater Robert Conley Jr. who said it was ok. So he stayed on our buoy for about A half hr but didn't upgrade. Congrats to him for holding on to for the win. Meanwhile I qualified in 9th with 14.3 Day two I was with Scott Webster. Again back out to Erie, this time in very rough conditions. Scott could not fish with the trolling motor so we had to make drifts. After a couple of drifts he had two small keepers in the boat and some shorts. I could not buy a bite again. My third Tournament day in a row were could not get a bite let alone a fish for a couple hours. So finally after a couple nonkeeps and sheaphead Scott says this is our last drift. If we don't get a keeper we are going back to the river. It is now about 11'oclock Sure enough on that drift I catch a two lber so we have to make another drift. this time I nail three in a row and the middle one is pushing 4. They either turned on or we found the sweet spot because we caught keepers on every drift the rest of the day. I culled 4 times and I believe Scott culled at least that much also. We ended up 2 oz apart Mine went 17.1 His were 16.15 After weighing in only one fish each of the first two tournaments. I end up with three top fives in a row. Go figure.
I heard another GreatLakesBass.com forum member won the BFL Super Tournament yesterday? SClapper - Congratulations!
I have to go check the standings to determine The Angler's Genie contest winner, so I'll see who else did well besides those mentioned.
I guess because I take it for granted, I didn't mention -again - Reelin' Realtor had another high finish in 2nd - way to go Dave - sorry I keep dissing you - not on purpose.
225XS4Garza200PXL in the money again - maybe have to start calling him the money boy?!? He's making it a habit.
That's what I noticed as far as the other money boaters beside the 'legendary' SClapper. Nice story about that in the Stren Series thread under Other Tournaments.
And in the Co-anglers money, I see - Team houston - another guy on a hot streak who's already reported in. Must be that All-American experience paying off...
Did I miss any other members in the money? I always do.
Congrats to all the member's who have qualified for the Regional too!
My day started off great after haveing a keeper in the boat at 7:30 a.m. then it just went downhill for me with only catching dinks until
around 9:30. With my co-angler haveing no fish I decided to take a run up to St.Clair.
There to I caught nothing but dinks even with changing colors to what my co-angler was using it ended up my co-angler caught 13-11 in our area.
My co-angler (Doug Lepper) made it to the second day to fish with Jose Garza and ended up in ninth I believe .
Since I ended up 49th overall I'll have to see where the wild card is going to be held, Good Luck to everyone at the regional
John Yoscovits
I had the same kind of day at the St. Clair BFL earlier this year - my co-angler gets almost 15 pounds - mostly off of one spot - and I had barely over half - how it goes sometimes. Thanks for sharing your story.
My Son's football team lost their first game of the season by one point on Sunday.
That completed the one point trifecta.
Wags - bummer... but, I would have been happy to draw you this year. Obviously, I would have done a lot better ;D
You're doing something right when you are a 'co-angler money machine.'
Dan, sorry you couldn't make this last tournament. Do you still like me??? lol. I finished the year in 11th and the last outing with you in the Detroit river actually moved me into 9th up three spots, so even though it was a tough day it was enough. hope your doing great just wanted to say hey. I'm on my way to Iowa next month thanks for your help getting there.
Jeremy Baker
Good luck on the big muddy (if it still is so muddy). Take some white/chartreuse spinnerbaits with single various size Oklahoma/Turtleback blades (tandem is if you don't have single) in 4 to 6 size. Worked for me last time. Along with my green crayfish Bomber 6A and a white pearl Fat Free Fingerling crank.
Maybe a few ringworms if things get too slow.