D and R Sports Cadillac and Mitchell 2026 - Tournament

One silver lining to tenting it was that we had a 2 minute ride to the launch. Our setup couldn't have been more minimalistic so take down was easy. Now there was that whole boat number thing. We really wanted a good one, so much so that I actually put in for the raffle. We didn't get 1st or 2nd take off and I'll probably continue my strategy or just letting things fall where they may at future events. It was 2nd flight and boat 41 for us.

I've got to commend the tournament directors for the orderly takeoff. Things could have been a real mess for everyone going to Mitchell and navigating the canal. But they were prepared for it and had a great plan. We were going to Mitchell and staying there for the day. The plan was to flip our way to success with no backup plan. Hopefully we could get on our best stretch and get in a good rotation.

This will be a tough story to tell because there really isn't much variability. We had the least amount of rods out that we ever will. Flipping, senko, worm, and I briefly had a swim jig and urchin out. I never threw either of those. It was nice to have so much space in the boat.

I don't know if everyone does this but for me if I have a good offshore flipping deal going. I'm going right at them first thing. I'm not trying to catch them feeding around on moving baits, I'm pulling up and going right to work with a flipping stick. To my surprise there was no one on our best stretch. One boat was near one end of it and another came out of nowhere throwing moving baits after we had settled in. Luckily they went right over the fish and got out of the way.

The fishing was a big let down though. We made a couple passes with just a couple keepers and one decent fish to show for it. I think that fish may have made our top 5 at the end of the day though. We had a choice to make. Do you press this harder and fish more thorough or start hopping around to your best stuff and get all the easy ones. There was enough boats around that it wasn't like we would have it to ourselves anyway. So it was time to burn some gas. I was shocked to see no one on another place I wanted badly so we headed there. The fish were right where they were supposed to be but they were just not big. We added another ok fish and I think we had 4 keepers at this point. There were a couple we could have measured and kept but honestly we knew we'd catch a bunch so there was no point in putting a fish like that in the livewell.

We had boats in the way at the next couple areas I wanted to I fish. It wouldn't be a terrible thing to visit our one area with sparser cover early. Unfortunately this area was dead both times we fished it. Back to the flipping sticks and some slightly more isolated stuff. I was particularly excited about one upcoming cabbage patch and the first pitch into it produced a bite. A 3.83 pound bite and our limit fish. 4 more like that and we were in business. We did pick another solid fish out of some nearby cabbage before continuing to make laps around the lake. The bite wasn't as consistent as the day before and there was a lot of stuff that we just couldn't get on. It is such a confusing lake to drive around on with so many offshore flats and fingers, thank god for Humminbird units and Lakemaster maps. I was sick of navigating by the end of the day for sure because we moved around a bunch.

It was still pretty early in the day and we were already exploring and expanding. We hit a little midday flurry while exploring and made 2 nice culls. One of the bites was crazy, I made a longer pitch to some cabbage in about 8 feet. My bait it the water and I felt a slack line thump right away. I just reacted and had a nice one coming to the boat. That fish must have been up near the surface to bite that fast. Shockingly it wasn't a pike which we had plenty of action from already. The pike we were catching today were bigger than yesterday and it would really be exciting for a few seconds when we hooked one of them.

We desperately needed another big one though. Although I didn't realize we were actually sitting pretty good already. We went on another flurry with 8 fish in a just a couple minutes. I think Trevor went 5-5 on pitches during this stretch. Some decent ones too and we had to work a little harder at culling. We never waste a bunch of time weighing all of our fish during the event and we never know what our actual weight is going to be. But after that flurry we figured out our smallest bass was a 2-10, finally using that Bubba scale I bought for contingency. That was a pleasant surprise because I was thinking we might have enough weight to hang around the top 15. We just needed to make one right pitch to get a big one. Or find another magic patch that was full of 3.5 pounders.

We worked so hard the rest of the day to make that happen. Fishing was brutal for a bit but we just stayed focused. We'd written some of our best areas off entirely and were instead looking for new stuff in areas with little boat traffic.

It wasn't until 2:40 that this finally paid off. We had just got done saying how desperately we needed a 3 pounder. When we got our 2nd biggest fish of the event. I couldn't believe it wasn't a pike when it came out of the clump and got flipped in the boat. Weights are always tight here and that fish was going to jump us up a few spots for sure.

Since we were in flight 2 all the big bags had already gotten weighed in. The usual suspects caught them just like we expected but it didn't seem like weights were overly impressive. I wasn't hearing anything about smallmouth domination either (that wasn't a shocker). I felt pretty good about getting paid and was happy with the day. Sure we could have done better and there are definitely some other things I would look for if we ever went back in June again. I'm going to keep those to myself but I would definitely practice differently. I would like to note that we both spent 2 days doing nothing but flipping with a BKK Heavy Cover Flipping Hook. If you haven't tried them you absolutely should. No bending, no hook eye slipping, no keepers breaking, and they are super sharp. Absolutely the best one I've used.

I did not expect us to snatch up the last spot in the top 5 though. One reason I don't like to weigh all the fish is that I always underestimate them and I like to have more weight at the weigh in than I'd been telling myself all day. That's exactly how this one played out!

Fishing certainly wasn't as good as expected this time around but it was great to see so many healthy bass in those lakes again. We'll chalk this one up as a major success and are looking forward to White Lake in a couple weeks