Team Bass Club Tournament - Saginaw Bay...well River mostly!

[blakstr1]

After a long 2 month or so hiatus (life happens) I was back on the tournament scene, this time however taking on a different look of sorts, clinging to the back of the boat.  I was a co-angler for a couple years a while back then graduated to my own boat, but once again boatless and trying to adjust. 

It is Sunday August 20th, after days and days of calm, hot weather mother nature decided to throw us a curve ball and kick up some wind.  We launched out of the DNR launch in the Saginaw River near the Bay City Yacht Club (right at the mouth across from the Consumers plant).  The plan was to prepare for the upcoming state championship, this is a good launch to hop out on the Bay but also take advantage of the river if need be.

The forecast called for 4-7 footers on the Bay and with the wind whipping our tournament director didn't actually call the Bay off limits but said he didn't recommend it, most decided to stick with the river but some did venture out towards the Bay.  My painter wanted nothing to do with the big waves so we proceeded to fish in the river, starting with the close marinas.  We fished and moved, fished and moved, continuously heading towards Saginaw fishing every good looking spot along the way.  We pulled up on another Team Bass boat that had been fishing banks up towards Bay City when they ran into a wolf pack...nearly 10 bites in 5 minutes, all smallmouth most all keepers but nothing big.  We continued towards Saginaw, went all the way to the Rust street launch and turned around, all this time without a bite. 

There are a bunch of great looking spots in the Saginaw River, but we couldn't capitalize on anything, we through a variety of baits and fished almost every condition..but nothing.  Between the two of us we caught 3 short fish, that's without letting up the whole day too.  We were both frustrated and exhausted, he was losing more than me though, up until this tournament he was in 2nd place in the point standings, missing the last tournament put me out of any contention.

At the weigh in only 3 limits were brought in the largest being 11lb+, notables from the GLB website, chase5004 continued his consistency bringing in 6.5lbs for 4th place (he has now lead wire to wire for the season and placed 1, 2, 3, 4 in the tournaments respectively...kind of like hitting the cycle...with one tournament left I'm sure he can't hold off the 2nd place angler (Savage) with a 5th...they are suppose to fish together at that tournament up on Smallwood)  Another note was smbassman who finished 5th but managed to post the big bass for the day..$80 and a trophy...good job.

All in all it is good to be back..I hope the Bay is fishable for the state tournament...another day floating the river would be frustrating.

[smbassman]

That pretty much sums it up, but I can add that the low catches and poor day was definitely tied to the front that moved through the night before and continued to push through most of the morning. 

I have never fished much on the Saginaw river so I was poking around on the Saturday before and found several groups of very healthy smallmouths.  I won't give certain locations, because of the upcoming tournament that several of my club members are in.  But, I was very impressed and will be going back often I am sure.