David Simmons shows off a big 5 pound 2 ounce Lake St. Clair smallmouth bass!
I was back in Michigan again during August 2001 for the Bassmasters and had the chance to get out on St. Clair for a day of fishing with long-time fishing buddy Dan Kimmel of Lansing. The day started out rough and dark, but we managed to boat a few bass and Dan landed one decent Musky. Our persistence paid off with another Lake St. Clair trophy smallmouth. The beautiful 5 lbs. 2 oz. brownie was caught on a shad-colored Right-Bite tube with a 1/2oz head “vertically” jigging a seawall in 22 feet of water. She fought so hard my arms were shaking afterwards.
A hawg smallie like this really tops off a great day of fishing on a quality fishery like St. Clair. We had a terrific time discussing fishing, the tournament scene and Yamaha outboards, of course. Dan’s understanding of the fish and the market come from years of involvement with local organizations and State agencies. I was lucky to spend a day with him and learn a lot more than just how hard a big smallmouth pulls. Thanks Dan!
By David Simmons
Field Promotions Coordinator
Yamaha Marine Power Group*
Current-swept St. Clair River seawalls can produce some huge smallies with the right presentation like this beauty caught by David Simmons.
For those of you who haven’t been fortunate enough to meet David Simmons before, he’s an outgoing fellow who’s a friend to all anglers. He’s a pretty good angler too.
David is formerly from Lansing Michigan where he and I met years ago. David did a stint at Bass Pro Shops before moving on to his present post at Yamaha in Kennesaw Georgia. To say he’s thrived there is an understatement. Yamaha is in the tournament and fishing motor scene in a big way and David is a driving force behind that. Yamaha motors received the JD Powers awardsfor customer satisfaction in outboards.
In recognition of David’s impact for Yamaha Motors, and the fishing industry and tournament scene, he was recently awarded the first ever Bassfan.com 6th Man Award. Click here to read about more about this fine honor for a worthy, but “humble” person. It’s not difficult to see he’s the perfect person for the job and that he loves what he’s doing. I know I hope we get to spend another day on the water together sometime in the not-to-far future.
* David Simmons moved on from Yamaha to a dream job with FLW Outdoors helping rev up the crowd before the Tour weigh-ins among many other duties. He has now left FLW Outdoors, had a family and is an avid angler still instilling great character in his children for fishing and the outdoors.
Looks like nice guy and great angler (and GLBass member) Mike Trombly is leading the boater side after day one in the Michigan BFL on the Detroit River.
I was pleasantly shocked the next morning when I was called off as boat number 2. Larry was boat number 3. That doesn’t normally happen and boosted my confidence. The guys at Top Bass did their best to get us out quickly since we could see boats coming across the lake from the other tournaments as we launched.
Been wanting a new and better video service for some time. I like watching videos sometimes, especially fishing videos. Nice for us frozen Northerners this time of year.
Well, this didn’t go quite the way I personally hoped, but the team did pretty well. Modrak is leading and several other members – Cummings, Peck, Reiter off the top of my head (tired head) had real good weights.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources today announced that test results on fish collected in the ongoing fish kill event on Lake St. Clair were confirmed to be positive for viral hemorrhagic septicemia virus (VHSv).
Well… I probably won’t be able to forget today… ever. One part of the ‘fond’ memories of my massive 6 pound catch of 3 measly little squeaker keepers is hauling my nonboater partner back out of the St. Clair River (69 F water) after he took a header off the bow.
