Post Season Review

With one tournament left this season, on Hamlin Lake in a couple weeks. I’ve got some thoughts on how the rest of the year went. For the most part NOTHING came easy. From the start of our big tournaments on the Grand River. Where we got a top 5 and it looked good on paper, but it was a struggle and some clutch decisions saved the day. Although there were a few times that things felt “easy”, it wasn’t the theme for this year.

The only big tournament that really went well was our 3rd place finish on Hardy Dam. It’s funny how the tournament that we were most worried about was our best weekend finish of the year. It always feels like an accomplishment when you can put it together on a fishery you don’t know. After that, things just got tough. I like those years where you just desperately need a 3 pounder, pull into a spot, and get that bite. No real rhyme or reason to why some years are like that and others aren’t. Sometimes I think you just get in a groove to time things just right. Timing is everything in fishing and really the outdoors in general.

Muskegon was our first debacle and even though we still caught a respectable bag, guys really caught them that day. A bad rotation in the morning and just no big bites the rest of the day really sunk us for AOY in the D&R Series. It made it 2 tough ones in a row on Muskegon as who can forget the windiest HOTD tournament out there ever. The lake was just unfishable and despite that we still caught a solid backup bag and got that kicker bite. A true magnum kicker bite and I had to watch it just come off before our eyes. Those bites are killer and unfortunately it wouldn’t be the last one to come off or cost us a top 5 finish. The next Grand River event was the toughest one to swallow. Because we had the bites, to win? I don’t know but to finish 2nd absolutely.

It wasn’t like they were even bites we were planning on getting. It was scramble mode time and Trevor was putting us in the right places to get them. It just wouldn’t work out, even just one of the big fish we lost would have bumped us up a bunch. Somehow, we almost got paid with our 11 pounds as it was. I still think about that event.

Ending the year on White Lake was another let down. We got paid but dang was it a struggle. I don’t really feel good or bad about that one. Luckily, we landed one good bite and that is what kept us in it. Keeping us up there in the points for a respectable 3rd place AOY finish. It would have been tough to catch Miles and Randy with the season they had anyway and congrats to them. I really wish they would bring back some AOY incentives, it would also give everyone a reason to fish all 5 tournaments. West Michigan Bass’s HOTD series has it right with incentives for the top finishers at the end of the year.

Weeknights were good, not great but definitely good. We really had to scramble at a lot of events. We don’t practice for these unless we’ve been on the lake for a weekend tournament the weekend prior. So it is a lot of guessing and a goal of no matter what, catch 5 bass. If weeknight tournaments help teach one thing, it is a drill to go catch 5 keeper bass. It is a great way for young anglers to improve their tournament skills in a short amount of time. Notice I said tournament skills, you can be a great fisherman and struggle at tournaments, they are a different animal. Most of the time getting a limit on the lakeshore is not hard but there are always a couple nights that test you. Those nights make you a better fisherman for sure. It isn’t as easy as coming in with 5 against 30-40 competitive boats so you better be able to catch a few of the right ones too. We just kind of hung around all year, getting our money back at a lot of tournaments and then got hot at the end. Going on a streak of a 2 wins and a 2nd place finish. The last tournament was probably the first time we thought about the points race and despite it not going according to plan we caught enough to pull it off. We had never done that before so it was exciting to win the points in that.

I also want to touch on what worked for us this season. No, I'm not going to tell everything but I also won't be leading anyone astray. If you read something in the blog or I talk to you at the lake. I'm not going to make things up and tell outright lies. If I mention a specific bait, whether it is a sponsor bait or not. That's actually what I used and that goes for rods, reels, line, electronics, whatever it may be. I’m not in the business of making things up and I’m also not in the business of promoting things that don’t work for me. A lot of times I don't put the specific bait but I mention the technique or genre of technique. I'm not giving ALL the details sometimes and that's fair too but if you pay attention I think you might learn something. I don't fault anyone for keeping secrets, it is competitive fishing! But it's cheap when you see stuff being hyped when you know that's not the actual stuff that caught them. Keeping it honest, real, and truthful is important to me. Otherwise what credibility do you have?

So what worked? As always a lot of things, it is so rare for me to just have a couple of rods out. With the exception of one tournament, it was a variety of things. For the first time ever a minnow played. You can credit Humminbird MEGA Live 2 with that, we could not have seen our minnows well enough to catch those fish with MEGA Live 1. That was the only tournament we weighed anything on the minnow but they all came on it except one that was caught winding a swimbait.

Winding was a factor this year especially in weeknight tournaments. The last few years a chatterbait has been my choice for winding. But this year the chatterbait was off and a swim jig was on. While I still haven’t used a swim jig that is absolutely perfect. The Googan baits one is pretty good and that was tied onto a TFO Option Bass 735 with 30lb P-Line braid all season. We did catch some fishing cranking too but it was never an overwhelming part of the game plan. A DT-10 and a C-FLash 44 mag saw most of the cranking action. I think next year I will be prepared to do a little shallower cranking. I don’t think the fish see too much of that anymore.

Finesse was a big part of everything again. I fish a lot of really specific stuff and it is hard to beat finesse fishing around that a lot of times. Just your standard drop shots, ned rigs, and neko rigs. Although I will say the neko rig was sort of off this year. There was also some finesse fishing that happened around heavy cover. Definitely some potential there, just have to refine some setups a bit.

Topwater was another player especially on weeknights. There is a topwater window on every weeknight tournament but especially during the alewife spawn and when the young of year shad become important. We launch too late a lot of times for it to be a huge factor in the weekend tournaments. There are often other bites that I would rather capitalize on. Walking baits, poppers, a plopper style baits all had their moments for us. We did weigh some fish in on a frog too but it never dominated our bags.

Flipping grass had some moments of glory this year and I hope that trend continues. There is nothing I would rather go do than swing the big weight around all day long. But I’m also not going to live and die by it. Maybe it is the wrong strategy and would lead to more tournament wins but with that would come more tournament failures. Consistency and versatility is one of our biggest strengths and sometimes it would be easier to go away from that. But instead we are going to keep working hard to figure something out even when what we like isn’t working. Coming in without 5 bass is not an option!

I feel like something is missing though and we are due for it to finally all come together. The classic this year is going to be a big opportunity for that. A lake that is unfamiliar to most of the field, including us. But it is also a lake that has a bunch of fish in it, so I hear anyway. I think it is going to be a fun one and sets up well for us to find something good. The biggest thing is that it is close enough to go do some pre practice. I love that we only get one official practice day for the D&R Classic. Not that I wouldn’t like more practice but it works with my busy schedule and keeps the playing field even. But if you don’t know the lake or didn’t pre practice that is really tough. Especially since we’ll likely have a lot of time behind the wheel staring at my Humminbird Xplore’s Side Imaging. Maybe we’ll be able to find something special with it? I don’t know what I’m looking for up there either but hopefully after a trip, we’ll know. That is when I feel the most dangerous, knowing what to look for. If not I’m sure we’ll come up with something. I think the lake is about as big as Muskegon Lake, so at least it will give up it’s secrets easier than Houghton. It does look like a lot of flats, so I know there will be some hidden gems and we are going to try hard to find them.