Muskegon Pro Am 2025
I hadn’t salmon fished at all since the Grand Haven tournament. It just hasn’t worked out to go in between bass tournaments, but I knew I needed to sharpen my salmon skills before the Muskegon tournament. The weather aligned and Cameron/Kelsey were ready for a trip in the 621. There were a few things that complicated it. A time crunch because Mabel, one of her friends, and Amanda were going to Michigan Adventure for Mabel’s birthday trip.
A shrinking weather window was also incoming as originally we were just going to bring the other girls. It worked out where I’m glad we didn’t because it did get rough out of the south with no wind. The forecast was spot on for the day. But we were going to do it like all summer salmon trips should. Get out there super early and have lines set when they start firing. We had some winds that shook up lake temps so all the rods were in play. The first rod that went was a short copper or leadcore and it took Kelsey way out to sea. That ended up being a good thing because we ended up getting 4 more bites while she was battling that one. If it wasn’t way back behind the boat there’s no way we wouldn’t have gotten a bunch of tangles especially with how dark it was. It was a start like a dream every salmon trip should be like. The action stayed hot, skills were sharpened, and we made it home in time.
Tournament time brought much different conditions. The temp break was deep and it was all long coppers, riggers, and mag divers. I was on Muskegon Lake for a bass tournament all during day 1. Unfortunately, I can’t fish 2 tournaments at once. But the crew doesn’t need me anyway and I knew they would get there 5 fish limit. They did but it was much harder than they anticipated. For whatever reason the fish were not staying hooked up and only 5 bites made it to the net all day. No big ones though and we were stuck middle of the pack. A big day 2 and we were moving up, so I was hopeful.
Day 2 brought much better fishing. A small blue Silver Horde plug was on fire to start. I usually don’t do much reeling in during the tournaments. More so netting and changing stuff but I happened to be standing right next to that rigger. I wasn’t complaining that it kept popping. I think we landed our 5 fish in a little over an hour so the pressure was off there. For the most part it was steady action except for a 2 hour dry spell right in the middle of the day. For whatever reason it was mostly a downrigger bite and our deep coppers and divers struggled. Our hook up ratio was better and I think we went 9 for 15 (7 kings and 2 steelhead).
Once again there were no big bites to be had. It was kind of the theme for my weekend. But it was a respectable box of fish for how the fishing was. It was going to move us up but not enough to make any noise. We made a big mistake though, there was some confusion between us all on what to do with our extra fish. I headed to the bathroom and they pulled up the rules to find out. The funny part is we all know this too; we’ve done it before and left the extra fish in the boat. It was a lot of work to go back and forth to the boat which is why we ever considered it. Day 2 burnout or whatever, I know I was still pretty crushed from the previous days tournament. But we all missed it and went up with all of our fish and couldn’t weigh in. This is normally my jam, knowing every little rule for each different series. I always stress when I talk to high school groups that one rule to be careful of in tournaments is how many fish you may have in your possession. Some allow for you to carry around up to your legal limit while others specify you must cull immediately upon landing your next fish. So, I’m still feeling pretty stupid and embarrassed because it is clearly in the rules. We weren’t the only team that made that mistake either and I think some of them had big boxes of fish. Other than our pride, we didn’t lose anything.
It was a crushing weekend of fishing for me and I am ready to move onto the next one. Grand River D&R is up next.