Quick Trip
Before I get into anything else, I’ll give you a quick update on Case of the Monday’s West. We’ve been getting 34-37 boats at each tournament. That is crazy for a weeknight division and I hope we will hit 40 at one point this year. We’ve had decent bags every tournament with a 2nd, 6th, and 10th but just haven’t caught a big fish yet. The last tournament was a really fun one on the Grand River. Amanda had to leave for a work trip so it was either no fishing or take all 3 girls in that one.
I’ll say it was a lot to manage but we had a great time. I also don’t think I would have done it if I had to put the boat on plane at all. It was just slow no waking around for us and while it was a late night for a 3-year-old I’m glad we went. But it helps a lot that she has a lot of experience in the boat. We caught a bunch of fish (on all the fun stuff frogs, topwater, moving baits) and all the girls got to reel some in, it won’t be too long and Mabel will be like having an extra teammate in the boat. I know we aren’t nearly as efficient with them all in the boat but hopefully the payoff will come in a few years. They do always bring us some luck though and I think that’s the 3rd time we’ve finished 2nd with one of the girls in the boat. They were definitely happy about their 20 dollar bills!
We also got to spend a bunch of time on the lake for a family vacation up north. My parents rented a house up north on a small lake and we spent a few days up there with them and my brother and his wife. The weather was cold but manageable and the fishing was better than expected. There was a big bug hatch going on and I was assuming full post spawn mode. The nice thing about a small lake on a trip like this where most boat trips are short and always involve a crew of people, is that it takes about 15 minutes to get a feel of what is going on. Surprisingly there was quite a bit of spawning activity and also a good post spawn bite. To make things even better we might have seen a total of 10 other boats on the lake (both fishing/pleasure boats) all weekend. Everyone caught them, all the girls caught a bunch, my dad, brother, sister in law (caught her first on her first cast), and even Amanda caught one. She only really tries when we are ice fishing or bobber fishing.
I also got some more time with my MEGA Live 2 up there. I’m getting better and better with it every time out (especially how effective I can be in landscape mode). I’m also learning more and more about what exactly it can do. I probably need a full season to really dial it in but it is an effective tool. There are a few things I learned that it could do this weekend, that really surprised me. Full write up is coming soon but if you have previously written Humminbird’s forward facing sonar off, you should start paying attention again.