My 2001 Tournament & Fishing Season Recap

2001 was the year my best ‘shot’ to fish full time wound down. I thoroughly enjoyed that season despite having it not turn out quite the way I hoped.

It wasn’t for lack of effort. I did some different things to stretch out the opportunity, but my finances were such that I needed to win the All-American to keep going.

I’m happy with how I did, but it wasn’t enough.

I came off a pretty good year in 2000 with a Federation win in June, and then big bass and All-American qualification at the Iowa BFL regional in October. I wish I’d have done much better in the Southeastern EverStarts. I had a great time fishing all those new lakes, but I never quite got on the good bass, and of course lost my motor to a floating tree in Kentucky. You can read about that on my 2000 Tournament Recap.

To do all this fishing, I used money I saved and had from a buy out at my old day job when they down-sized me  (or right-sized or whatever the latest term corporate America uses to do its dirty work) the previous year. Late in the year, I was running out of money, but really needed to stretch my time out until the 2001 All-American so I could practice thoroughly.

I even spent 3 months getting up early every morning in the winter to deliver newspapers on two or three routes. I always do a great job regardless of what I’m doing to so I quickly started getting great tips. I had one lady tip me $20 twice during that time just for putting the paper on her back step. I also lost over 15 pounds, which was nice.

Finally had to get a full-time job before the All-American so I opted for temporary work, but it took much longer than I expected to get something decent so I pushed it much farther than I wanted to. A temporary job gave me the option to guarantee I had the time off to go to Lake Hamilton for a week during the spawn in April before the cut off, and then make the actual Wal-Mart BFL All-American in May. I worked for three months with a really nice company that managed Blue Cross commissions for themselves and other agents. I also received a call from a past boss saying she might be starting up a new line of business she could use my computer skills in. I told her to call me in mid-May in case I didn’t win the All-American, but if I won, I would not be available.

I had already been down to Lake Hamilton for low-water reconnaissance in December, and now headed down for a look at the spawn in April just before the off limits began. Cameraguy went with me this time around and helped me catch a bunch of bass while finding a lot of small to medium keepers.

I did receive some unsolicited help from a couple locals that pointed me toward three places that held bigger bass. I found bigger bass on two of them and found a couple more of my own spots with bigger bass.

Cameraguy also caught a huge sheephead the first night so apparently I can’t escape those creatures no matter where I go.

We also had fun one afternoon with giant gar – some bigger than my leg that could tow the boat after getting them to slap a jerkbait.

To summarize the result for now, I ended up zigging at times instead of zagging I guess and finished 36^th with 7 keeper bass over the two days of the All-American.

I did catch the big bass on the boater side so I came out of it without a new full-time tournament career going right into a new day job that really ate my time up for the next year and a half. This is a screen shot taken from the actual raw truck tape from the last day of the All-American – Charlie Evans records my final day’s weight. A great sponsor had the clout to get a copy of this footage and send it to me for my files. Thanks David!

I did fish quite a few tournaments that season anyway, but my practice time was short and hectic. I seemed to be showing up at the last minute a lot.

The rushed practice and low prep time showed throughout the year. I did have a pretty good showing in the 3-day Windsor Canadian Open on St. Clair, but even there, clearer thinking could have put me in a much higher place. I finished in the money in 17^th place, but I started the 2^nd day sitting with over 20 pounds in 4^th place.

It didn’t take long using 5 inch Xtreme Bass tubes to start putting 4-pound smallies into the livewell. They all came off the same area of Lake St. Clair, but were scattered. Still, once the big ones started biting, most of the bass we landed were over 3 ½ pounds.

I had a great partner who helped out. It felt pretty good to be in 4^thplace with the competition in that tournament. We didn’t catch a ton of bass, but caught enough to never get bored. I felt the time of year I was fishing the spot that more fish would move in, so I liked my chances.

So did a few other bass anglers the 2^nd day, but most didn’t crowd me too much. I had another good partner and we started whacking 3-pound smallies right away. I was feeling good because they actually started out smaller the 1^st day before getting big once we got a bunch of small ones out of the way. In one small weed bed the 1^st day I remember catching 11 dinks by flipping into the middle before finally popping a 4-pounder.

So we kept popping the 3-pounders long after we had a 15-pound+ limit. I kept thinking they would get bigger. We landed about 30 3-pound class smallies before I finally wised up and realized we weren’t working our way into bigger bass.

By then the damage was probably done on that area. We had 16 something pounds and I slipped to around 10^th or so. I didn’t have much going on anywhere else that week so I went back to the same area the 3^rd day and worked it over hard.

Day 3 was quite a bit different. We struggled just to get a limit for a while. Even the dinks were harder to catch. The water seemed dead despite the current. One key weed bed still held bass, but they were really squirrelly. I found one reason why later in the tournament day.

On day 1, by partner had lost a two to three pound bass to a good-sized musky. He was fighting the bass when the musky shot up and snagged the smallie. He fought it for a couple minutes before the musky finally broke his line. Luckily, the poor bass wouldn’t have helped us as that day turned out.

I was noticing that the bass in my little weed bed were really skittish. They would seem to swipe at the tube, but not chase it up at all. I wasn’t getting multiple shots at them either.

I thought at one point I saw a long shadow coast along the weed edge, but the water was a little silted. We had a limit, but it was small and I was anxious about dropping out of the money. After a lull in the weed bed, I hooked a solid 2-pounder, which we really needed to cull a last barely keeper.

I was fighting the bass practically under the boat when I saw a silver streak rocket out of the weed edge slamming into my bass. I told my partner that my bass was being eaten. He didn’t believe me at first, but my drag started singing.

The poor smallie got away twice only to be slammed by the musky again. I was running out of time and needed the half a pound this smallie would add. I pulled hard and the bass slipped out of the musky’s mouth and shot towards the boat. The bass screamed by with the musky right on its tale. I swear this bass was looking at us for dire assistance. I also swear it’s the first time I ever had a bass itself yell, “GET THE NET!!!!”

I told my partner to get the net in the water. This poor bass flew out of the water as the net touched the surface and blasted into the net like a Catfish Hunter fastball. I think its also the first time I thought I saw a bass’ heart pounding. The ‘poor’ musky swam back and forth along the side of the boat for a minute looking like it was gauging the distance for a jump into the boat, or maybe it just knew that we sometimes throw bass back.

Regardless, it pulled the old ‘musky sink away to the bottom’ trick; We culled the scared sliced-belly 2 ¼ pound smallie over the barely keeper and raced for the Windsor weigh in. With less than 12 pounds, I slipped all the way to 17^thplace, but made enough money to pay for the entry and most expenses. Can’t be sure, but sticking all those 3-pounders the day before may have cost a much higher finish.

After the Canadian Open, things started to go down hill, picking up speed as they went. It seems if you fish hard, there should be a least a bright spot or too. One such bright spot was having another co-angler win out of the back of my boat.

Chuck Hasty pulled off the win from my back deck with 14-12 in a St. Clair BFL on August 18. He had a limit, but the key came when he stuck with a large Pop’R for one more cast around noon up in the channels. A black 4-4 smallie walloped the topwater and gave Chuck his winning kicker bass.

I did well enough to only need one keeper in the Super Tournament to make the Regional at Lake Chautauqua in New York. I was confident enough, even though the fishing had been spotty for me at times, that I went to Chautauqua early in September to do some scouting, having never been there before.

I was surprised to find a muddy lake. I expected much clearer water and a lot more weeds. I only had a couple days so I had to work fast. I started in the deeper upper lake, but caught almost nothing to speak of. I think I landed a dink largemouth out of some shallow dirty grass the first day.

The next day I went down to the lower, shallow basin and eventually found some quality bass in three spots holding around rock and weed combinations. I landed several 2 and 3-pound smallies and largemouths along with a few close to 4-pound smallies. I also boated one of the average size muskies the lake is known for.

I left for home overall satisfied with what I found, but expecting the lake to fish small. So I’m at the Super Tournament now on Lake Erie needing my one keeper to make New York. FLW tournament director Charlie Evans is at the event and he says to me that the fishing is so good it would be impossible to get skunked.

Right then I should have known I was in trouble – the old ‘jinx’ we all wonder about sometimes. I had an alternate game plan that day that where I decided to stay in the southwest part of St. Clair for more fishing time, and because it normally holds quality bass this time of year. Nothing seemed to go right all day. As time ran on, I got more anxious, but knew – just KNEW – that I would eventually get them.

Unfortunately, I never did. Time ran out and I didn’t have a single bass in my livewell. I was disappointed. I even ‘blamed’ Charlie Evans for his earlier comment. He was unsympathetic. (Can’t blame him for that.)

I’d gone to New York for nothing and now had bruised confidence for the upcoming expensive EverStart on Erie.

I jumped right back on the horse so to speak by going out the very next day, and heading up to St. Clair as I would normally do. I caught a 3-pounder on the first spot that would have done it for me easily. I had cameraguy with me and he showed me some other places that were loaded with keepers.

We caught keepers on several spots all day and really loaded up on some spots. I wasn’t getting on anything decent on Erie or the Detroit River, so with the EverStart coming up a week and a half later, I opted to get back on St. Clair. I eventually decided that I was catching the most bass towards the East end of St. Clair and that being the year of mud on St. Clair and Erie, I put my eggs in the clear water basket in that area.

You know how sometimes thing just don’t seem to go your way? The first day I made my run up to St. Clair and turned east down the south shore. Unfortunately, a strong west wind was following me. By the time I was 6 or 7 miles down the shore, the waves were getting ugly. I was having a hard time running them and they were getting bigger fast.

The worst sign of all – the muddy water from the middle of the lake was following us too right down the lake. I turned around once it was clear that the fishing would be muddy and unsafe by the time I got to the east end as much as an hour later.

We spent the rest of the day in the far southwest corner of St. Clair fishing water that normally produces at least a few keepers. It had been the slowest I’d seen it ever lately though and this day was no different. Despite hitting many areas and key spots, I ended up with only 2 small keepers. My unhappy co-angler had 1.

I thought about running to the channels on day 2, but I knew they could be pretty muddy and the run was going to be very rough again based on the wind forecast. I opted to maximize fishing time and hit all the Detroit River spots I knew since Erie also looked to be very rough.

I fished hard all days, changing tactics often, trying different types of spots. In the end, my co-angler landed a nice 3+ smallie and that was it for the whole day. A very poor showing and a disappointing few weeks on normally great water. The overall weights were way down with many skunks to keep me company. That seemed to end a strange year of tournament fishing for me, but in the end I couldn’t stop on this down note.

I was very disappointed in the initial ending of my 2001 tournament season. Despite working long hours at a new ‘day’ job an hour away from home, I wanted to do better. I fished a Cass Lake open in October as I’ve often done with lackluster results. Still not enough.

I’d never tried a BFL Wildcard regional before and being intrigued with Kentucky Lake, decided to give it a try. A completely solo effort that is often good for my soul. I bought maps and found out he basics and off I went.

What a tough place to fish in the fall that lake can be. It was down 5 feet for winter pool – a lot for Kentucky Lake. People kept saying I should do good since I know about smallies, but Kentucky Lake smallies don’t have the same recognizable places to inhabit that I’m used to finding them on.

I found plenty of bait, but mostly yellow bass eating it. When in doubt on reservoirs, I often head to roadbeds. I caught a huge perch and several nice bass in practice, but fished a lot of water with no more than single bites in a few places on the Kentucky side.

I drove over to Barkley and found a secondary point roadbed where I caught 11 bass. Although none easily went over 15 inches, I felt I had to go where the numbers were since everyone I talked to was struggling to catch any bass at all.

I fished it hard the first day catching one here and one there along that road throughout a chilly day. I finally caught one barely keeper largemouth on a Michiana rigged French fry. I saw good fish bust off the roadbed, plenty of bait and lots of activity on the graph so I stuck with it, but never caught another keeper. It just felt like I would.

The 2^nd was colder and drizzly so I ran back to the road thinking they might move up on it and bite better. Out of 241 boats, only 2 limits were weighed. It wouldn’t take much to be in good standing.

The roadbed was much slower though with less activity – it had a comatose feel to it. I did some running to try other similar spots and some change up to spots I caught a bass here or there on in practice. I also ran out into the main lake, but never put anything together. The angler who caught the only both-day limits won. Three total limits for two days out of 241 boats; that’s tough fishing.

I did get one more chance to try a late season St. Clair ‘Shiver’ tournament with sponsor and friend Wayne Carpenter. We actually enjoyed one of those rare late fall balmy days. The fishing wasn’t furious, but we came in with the allowed 5-bass limit – 5 respectable smallies with one quality bass. Probably thanks to spectacular conditions – calm and warm – everyone got them so we finished in 5^th or 6^th place. Still, a beautiful day and some nice bass caught.

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My 2001 Shows & Seminars Schedule
Date Mar 8-11 Mar 15-18	Event Lansing Sportsfishing Show Grand Center Fishing Show	Description Fish Info Serv booth/D&R Sports Fish Info Serv booth
My 2001 Tournament Schedule
Date May 8-12 Jun 23 Jul 13-15 Jul 21 Aug 4 Aug 18 Sep 15-16 Sep 26-29 Oct 9-13 Oct 14 Nov 2-3 Nov 17	Event Wal-Mart BFL All-American Wal-Mart BFL MI Div Windsor Canadian Open Wal-Mart BFL MI Div Wal-Mart BFL MI Div Wal-Mart BFL MI Div Wal-Mart BFL MI Super Tourn Northern EverStartWal-Mart BFL Regional Bass N Gals Open BFL Wildcard Regional St. Clair Shiver Open	Location Lake Hamilton, Hot Springs AR Grand River, Grand Haven, MI Lake St. Clair, Windsor ONT Lake St. Clair, Mt. Clemens, MI Lake Erie, Trenton MI Lake St. Clair, Mt. Clemens MI Lake Erie, Brownstown Twp MI Lake Erie, Detroit MILake Chautauqua, Jamestown NY Cass Lake, Pontiac MI Kentucky Lake, Gilbertsville KY Lake St. Clair, Mt. Clemens MI
Money Finishes This Year
Date May 10 May 11 Jul 13 – 15 Jul 21	Event Wal-Mart BFL All-American Wal-Mart BFL All-American Windsor Canadian Open Wal-Mart BFL MI	Finish Big Bass 4 lbs 4 oz largemouth 36th 17th Ranger Cup	Description Lake Hamilton, Hot Springs AR Lake Hamilton, Hot Springs AR Lake St. Clair Lake St. Clair