I practiced with Randy Ramsey on Mon and Tue. We fished St. Clair on Mon and Erie on Tue. We caught lots of fish both days with about four over 4 lbs on Mon and two about 4lbs and one about 5lbs on Tue. Randy wasn't real happy with the number of bigger fish we were catching but you do the best you can.
I went to work Wed morning and left for the registration and meeting at lunch. I was paired with Jason Christie on day one. Some of you will remember Jason won the B.A.S.S open a couple weeks back on St. Clair. That had me feeling pretty good. So we run to St.Clair and he stops first at one of the biggest community holes on the lake. The channel marker that looks like the firecracker but not the firecracker.
We were boat 132 of 136 and I am suprised nobody is there. We fish for about 10 minutes and I catch one about 2 1/4 on a drop shot.. Then a Walleye, he catches a short then I catch a short. Then we head back out to the lake and his main spot. Jason is cracking a tube and I stick with the drop shot.
Pretty directly Jason catches one about 3.5 lbs. which is a good sign. He had told me he stayed away from this area all practice. He drives a Ray-o-Vac wrapped boat so he is easy to spot. He is not sure if the quantity and quality is still here. So this first decent fish is a good sign.
Well the fishing here is a little slow. Every so often we catch one. After a couple of hrs I have 4 and Jason has 2. So we head to a spot up the south channel were he thinks he can catch some 3lbers pretty easy. He catches a couple pike and loses a couple fish we never saw then catches one about 3.5lbs with half a dozen just like it following it in. We never get another bite after that so we head back out on to the lake.
The fishing is still a little slow but better in the afternoon. Our check in is 4:30. We catch them pretty reg and both are culling. At one point Jason sets up on one and snaps his line. He immedietly grabs another tube rod and throws back. He sets up again and I net the fish and it has his first bait already down its throat. All that is sticking out is the line.
Our time is up and we run back. I have 17.6 and Jason has 17.7 The bigger fish Jason was catching before are gone or fished out. I am happy with what a got and am in 16th place. Day 2 later if you guys want it.
Great story, keep em coming.
Day 2. Fri I am paired with John Leader. John also did well in the B.A.S.S Open and has still been catching fish in the same areas. He mentioned he caught and weighed 22lbs in Mondays practice.
We run to St. Clair and first stop at a secondary spot. Its a rockpile he caught a fish off late in the day on Thurs. Even though we are boat 4 today there is already a local by himself fishing the spot and another tourny boat pulls in right behind us. I hate fishing in crowds but it is not up to me.
We watch the co in the other boat catch a nice one. After a bit he catches another one. Then John catches a 4.5 lber. Then the other boater catches one. By now I am stressing big time. Nothing worse than being in a crowd and everyone seems to be catching fish but you.
Finally I catch one but it barely touches the 14 inch line. Ten minutes later I get a 3lber. I am throwing the drop shot again but switch up to a tube for a while and get another one about 3lbs. The other boater gets one on but a Muskie grabs it and after a couple minutes of fighting it the muskie wont let go and finally the line breaks.
I catch another one about 3.5 lbs and I am breathing much easier now. At about 9:30 the sun gets up and the bite stops. We head to Johns primary area and it is slow. After about 45 min of nothing I decide it is time for some Gulp. On my first pitch with the drop shot I catch a rockbass. A few minutes later I catch another one.
10 min later I hook up and its no rockbass. A 4+lber comes flying out of the water. I fight it to the boat and get it in the net. Happy to have a limit I am still worried about that line toucher and plan on measuring it a couple more times to see if it makes it but right now I still have lots of time to get rid of it.
After the 4lber we get no more bass bites for an hour and decide to move again. We get to the new spot and I flip my drop shot out and decide to shed some clothes. When I pick up my rod it is way behind the boat because John is on the trolling motor. I quickly crank it in to make another pitch and notice a bass chasing it to the boat. I open my bail let it go down the bass follows I wait a couple of seconds and lift but he isnt there.
I open my bail again and turn to tell John I had a follower and that there is fish in the area. I engage my real again Lift up and he is on. After a quick battle I get it in the boat and at 17inches it will for sure cull the 14incher. I feel very confident with what I have now I will make the top 20 cut.
After that fish we again get no more bass bites in that area. John decides to move again this time near the shipping channel. After a short while I hook up there with a heavy fish I believe is a catfish or a drum because it is hard to work off the bottom. Finally it makes a break for the surface and shows itself to be a bass of near 4lbs. I get it in successfully and now I am stoked.
I catch one more keeper there that doesnt help. The day comes to an end with me catching 8 keepers. The day before I had about 10-12 keepers. At the scales these fish weigh 16.2. Now being one of the first to weigh in I have to watch for 2hrs to see what happens. When all is said and done I am in 11th place.
Who needs to read The Girl With The Dragon Tatoo when there are great stories like these being shared. Great job! Sounds like a ball. More stories, more reports!!!
Great job with the fishing and very nice to share some good reading with us. I moved it here to relate to the topic for the anglers how like a good combination fishing report / tournament story. Some minor edits so everyone can read it easily on different devices. Thanks Team houston!
Day 3 No pressure today.
I acheived my goal of making the cut. My goal for this day was to catch a limit and move into the top 10. You always have a chance to win but being 5 lbs back I know its a real longshot.
Today I am paired with David McCrone. Dave lives in Minnesota but is originaly from Ohio so he knows Lake Erie well. For the third day in a row we are able to run full speed with light winds. It takes us about forty min to get out by Pelee. We get situated and I make my first drop with the dropshot. I engage my reel and FISH ON. I am thinking Oh man this is gonna be lights out.
After a few moments I realize it is a drum. Dave does catch a 2lber from this first spot so he is on the board. Dave has a bunch of waypoints in little groups. We fish each group for 15-30 min then move a few hundred yards to the next group. We do this all day.
Dave catches a fish about 4lbs and now has two. I finally get my first bite and it is a 4lber. I follow that with another 4lber. The fishing is slow we go a long time between bites.
After a couple hrs I am thinking A limit will be tough today. I hook another one and it jumps completly out of the water and throws my dropshot about 20 feet from the boat. BUMMER, with bites at a premium this morning I am thinking that's gonna kill me later.
All of the fish we have been catching have been jumping. No suprise for Smallmouth. We keep plugging along and in the early afternoon I find myself wth 4 fish. Finally I hook up again but the fish is stripping drag and staying on the bottom. A sure sign of a Drum. I tell dave to keep fishing.
I finally work the fish off the bottom and closer to the boat. When I get alook at it HOLY CRAP its a nice bass. Dave rushes for the net I get a little nervous because this could be number 5. In the net it goes. After I unhook the fish and put it in the livewell I allow myself in little fist pump YES!
Again the action does pick up later in the day and we are catching them more regular now. Dave has a big one jump off on him also that probably costs him a grand in the end. I cull once and catch four more that wont help me. Dave culls a couple times also and the day comes to an end.
We high five on a Great day on the water as we run full speed back. The wind has picked up a little so halfway back we have to slow down a little but still an easy ride for Erie.
Back at the weigh in I do manage to move up into the top 10 and settle into 9th place with a 17.2 lb bag.
What a great three days on the water. The weather was beatiful and though the fishing was slow at times I had three great boaters that were around quality fish and were great to fish with. Hope you guys enjoyed the read.
thanks for the play by play I found this very interesting to read and would like to see more of it
Great report, mine is not so nice.
Day 1 my pro is fishing his first big tourny. He says he has a good plan. We make an 80 mile run north to the upstream boundry. Fishing along the wall he in 15 feet me in 40 feet. He catches 5 for around 18 lbs. I manage 3 for 8 lbs. His plan did work because he got a nice check. Day 2 i decided to just have fun since I knew I could not catch enough to get a check. We head up river but not as far. My pro is fishing sea walls with top water. I kind of cast sideways hoping for a bite. I manage a nice LM. Around noon we head out to the lake and all I can catch are short fish. He manages a limit but is well short of a check. I added the miles up and it was over 300 miles of travel in 2 days. I am still sore today. Probably the last time I will ever fish as a co. I said that the last time though.
Anybody else want to share if they fished it?
I enjoyed reading your posts. thank you.
Great job !!! Love reading it .... I also had a great time fishing the northern open. I just can seem to put a good story up here like yourself..
All of the stories are good stories if you just tell them.
Thanks for posting Team houston!! Very good job fishing and telling about it! You're the 'rufus' of co-anglers!! :)
I fished Mon and Tues scouting with Jon Bondy on StClair. We enjoyed some decent fishing, considering we would catch one or two (or see some follows) then leave. I told Jon that I would throw whatever he wanted me to as the second stick in the boat so I had some fun throwing a few baits that I normally might not. It really opened my eyes. Some busting fish gave away an area that ended up producing for Jon in the event. During scouting, we were within site of Nixon, Cochran and Fukae and others, on and off during both days.
Jon felt that he had something to work with and I felt like I had my touch so I guess the practice went well.
Day 1, I was paired up with Mark Modrak. We had great water conditions and flew up to the StClair River. On this day, Mark was casting rather than drifting, so I fished hard in the areas where he wasn't. He caught fish and culled and ended up with a 15-03 bag. I was happy that I caught a limit and culled 2, but I realized that 11-07 probably wasn't going to get me a cheque, nevermind Day 3.
Day 2 and I am going to get my wish. I get paired up with Bryan Coates and we are going dropshotting out in Erie, something I have never done and wanted to learn. The weather cooperated and we ran full tilt out to somewhere in the islands. Right away, Bryan hooks up a big drum then gets a 2 lb bass. Then I stuck a big drum which really wakes you up when you aren't sure what it is. Bryan would fish his spot then move to another close by. We did this all day, coming back to a few of the productive ones. I was learning by watching and Bryan was open to talk and answered any questions that I had.
Within the first hour, I think, I had a 2 lb bass. It took awhile for me to catch a second (prob around noon to 1pm) but when I did, I rattled off 3 in a row (maybe Bryan caught one in there too) of which 2 were seen first on the Lowrance. I bagged a 5-4 which decided to jump into the boat on its own...right over the gunnel and deck into the bottom floor of Bryan's Ranger! Then it was a 4+ and a 3+. Bryan joked that I had a 2-3-4-5 and I said I wanted the 6 because I didn't want the 1.
I had one bite just before leaving but may have rushed the hookset. We will never know. Bryan was pretty cool as he stopped at a spot on the way in, climbed up on the deck and said "you have 5 minutes to get your limit". It would be nice if I said that I got one but I ended up weighing the 4 bass for 15-10 and a 52nd place cheque. I didn't dump a fish that I had on so I can't complain about "what if". It turned out to be a pretty good event for me. Thanks for reading.
Tim J
Great! Thanks for sharing! Always good to pick up and learn new things from different anglers!
Nice job Tim. Don't count yourself out of a check in multi day tournys after light first days.
Good reading...Thanks..