Portage Chain 11-1-08 Open

[Bender]

Dave Wilson is hosting an open tournament on the Portage Chain near Pinckney this Saturday. Sorry for the late notice, I just received confirmation of the event this afternoon.
$40 entry + $5 or $10 for big bass
Ramp opens at 8 A.M., I'm guessing to fish 8:15 or so somewhere between 3:15 or 4.
Map of boat ramp: http://tinyurl.com/55john
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 55. North northeast wind between 6 and 10 mph.
See you there!

[Durand Dan]

Looks like a great fall day for a tourny. Anyone want to ride along?

[McCarter]

Bender and I fished a small 7 boat tournament on Portage Chain this past saturday and had an incredibly hard time finding cooperative fish.  We ended up with 2 keeper fish and one short at about 9:30 am on topwater.  Would have never even thought to throw a topwater in November but there were fish surfacing everywhere.  The topwater bite died once the wind picked up and we spent the rest of the day throwing everything we had at them but couldnt get another fish.  I broke one off setting the hook with a jig but that was the only other bite we got all day.

It ended up being tough for everyone and our 2 fish held up for 2nd place with 4.35 lbs.  First place had a nice limit but i didnt see the weight.  He did tell us he caught them on jigs and only had one fish until the final 20 minutes when he found a group of eaters.

I really thought we were going to have a good day with jerkbaits, especially with the weather the way it was Friday and what was predicted for Saturday.  But there would be no jerkbait fish.  We fished 4 lakes in the chain and even a couple river spots in between.  Saw about 6 good keeper largemouth in the river on the way up.  If we could do it again, i think we would have stayed on Big Portage where we caught them in the morning.

This was only my second time to this chain and the first time ever going into the other lakes.  WOW!!!  What a cool place.  I really want to spend more time there next year. 

McCarter himself