20007 BassFan Army Weekend Warrior Championship

[Eric]

This weekend, I had the honor of representing Michigan  in this tournament in Indiana at Syracuse Lake.  I drove down Friday night after work, so I could practice all say Saturday.  I practiced both Wawasee and Syracuse.  Pretty tough fishing.  I found what I think were some release fish on Wawasee, but nothing to win with.  later in the day, i found a flat with some weeds on it and while I was there, 2 other boats showed up.  I began talking to one of them and they caught one.  They put it inthe livewell.  i asked if they were in a tournament and they said they were.  Thinking I may have found something, I told them since they were in a tournament, I would quit fishing, and let them have them.  They said no to keepo fishing, that were plenty of fish there to go around.  Now I am really thinking I found something.  They put 2 more in the livewell before I left, and they told me what they were doing, what color, etc.  They told me they got 11 somehting Wednesday night off that spot, 12 1/2 more Thursday, and they weighed 11 1/2 in that tournament Saturday.  14 something won Saturday, so there are definitely fish in there somewhere.  We had our meeting and partner draw saturday afternoon, and then went to the Indiana president's nouse for a cookout.  This was the highlight of the weekend.  tons of great food, and spent the evening sitting around chatting with everyone.  What a ball that was.  Huge kudos to Doug for putting that on, and even huger kudos to Debbie for preparing the food.  Sunday morning brough a beautiful morning, and i was paired with a guy from Peoria, IL.  We started out on teh flat, then tried a couple of cuts he wanted to try, then back to the flat, then back into Syracuse.  He caught his on teh flat, and I caught mine drop shotting in Syracuse.  We both ended up 2nd.  The guy who won the boater side had 5 Wawasee hawgs, that he caught on buzzbaits under docks.  He waxed us all.  Oh well, great time, great trip, and hopefully I will be able to do it again, someday.  Thanks to all who offered some insight on this fishery.

[thedude]

great job eric
taking 2nd on that lake with little to no experience on it is a feat to be proud of. glad you got into some fish!

[Cheetam]

Good job Eric.  Does this qualify you for another tourney?

[Eric]

2nd place in this tournament got me absolutely nothing except having a respectable tournament and showing everyone that Michigan fisherman can catch a few and are pretty cool people.  This is a winner take all tournament basically.  The winner got $500 and gets to fish the National Championship next year for $25,000.  I went down there thinking they took 1 and 2, but they take 1 boater and 1 non boater.  So, nothing for me.  Unless they will go "down the list" if that guy can't or won't go.  Then I will go, but we'll see.

I don't think I've ever seen anywhere that has so many tournaments.  The guys I talked to on the lake had tournaments there Wed, Thurs, Sat, and Sun.  Sunday morning there were tournaments that took off at 6, 6:30, and 7 from one ramp.  Plus there was a night tournament at the other ramp that finished up mid morning and it looked there was a day tournement going out of that ramp also.  All on a 3000 acre lake.  Oh yeah, this lake has as many pleaseure craft as LSC, but all on a long skinny lake.  Every house has a dock, with boats of course, and every lot has a house.  And most them are out boating and skiing starting at 7AM all weekend.

[thedude]

ah welcome to indiana.......
you can just about count the number of lakes over 500 acres, north of Indy,  on 1 hand!