NBAA One on One St.Clair

[fishon1219]

Here is the report of my terrible performance for the one on one super tournament held on sunday the 17th out of harly ensign.

Morning Story- Hit the ramp early to get the boat in before the crowds arrived. I was still very sore and wore out from fishing the NBAA open the day before. I forgot how much it hurts to be a fat guy when St. Clair gets rough from all of the boat traffic. My sides were aching from my love handles bouncing up and down from the run we made the day before and I think I strained my left man melon.

I draw blast off number 3 and know already that I was going to hit the flat just north of windmill point and get my limit quick and than look for some bigger fish by the mile roads somewere.

Me and Dartag fished this area the day before and it was no problem getting a limit quick on saturday with over 50 fish in the 2lb range.

As I blast off am running south and get almost to the band shell well out from shore and all of a sudden I hear a loud bang and my boat makes a sharp left turn throwing me into the passenger seat and un hooking my kill switch. I have no idea what I hit but as I look up 3 other tournament guys that were rapidly gaining on me have to take evasive fighter pilot manuvers to aviod running me over. I trim up the motor expecting to see no lower unit, but everything is fine. I hook up the kill switch fire it up and it takes off like nothing happened. I have no clue what I hit, but it was big.

I get to the flat and stop in an area were I can see fish slurping on the millions of mayflys floating around and catch my first keeper on a McCarter gobie in cinamon purple. I start casting around to every slurp and am catching nothing but short fish. I fish this area for a good 2 hours with 2 keepers and at least 40 fish that were to small.

I move up to the front of a marina in about 10 ft of water were me and Dartag caught a few fish the day before and couldnt get a bite. I move around a little and connect with a solid 3lber and now I have 3. I fish for a bit longer and couldnt get any more keepers. I kept wondering what was different from the day before when keepers were biting every were and the biggest difference was the north wind and the current was considerably stronger on sunday than saturday so I was sure the fish repositioned somewere out there, but decided to head up to the mile roads and try to get some there.

I move up by the band shell were we a caught a few bigger ones the day before on spinner baits and still I am catching shorts cast after cast. It is now 11:30 and the lake is rolling with tuna boats. I get a wild hair and think maybe in Muskamoot there will be some schools of cruisers looking for a quick meal so I head up into the bay and cast and cruise for almost and hour with nothing.

I get back in the drivers seat and decide to head into selfridge bay and try my luck there. As I get there I notice that I am about of gas as I only put in 15 gallons that morning not planning on running all over the lake and funds were tight.

I fish around selfridge bay with nothing but a 3 foot muskie that tore up my spinnerbait.

Time to head in and I only have three. What a poor performance by myself and I attribut that to leaving my starting area to early and the sunburn I have on my forhead from driving all over the lake. To much time spent running all over and not fishing.

I got to the weigh in scales and a few people were chuckling as to why bother weighing in only 3 fish when 20 lbs was in the lead and you need 15 to make a check. My comment was I paid my money, I am weighing my fish, and I am getting my picture taken. This made everybody laugh so it was all worth the riddicule I am about to get from all of my GLB heroes.

Have at it boys.

Kevin

[bshaner]

I am in a glass house, consequently I will have to refrain from throwing stones.

B

[Revtro]

No riducule here.  I fished the state championship a few years ago and hit something during the tourney and tore up my prop.  Had to limp back to the weigh in with only 2 fish when the previous day I had gotten a solid 16lbs in practice.  I was embarrased.  So I feel your pain.  I'm fishing Tuesday night and can't go out tonight to practice, so unless I get kind of lucky, I may indeed have a similar experience.  Thems the breaks I guess.

[MadWags]

Kevin,
Don't fret over it my friend. Stuff happens. On Saturday Jason and I fished the NBAA Open. I lost three fish over 4lbs. I managed to recover and regain my senses. Jason fished flawlessly and we weighed 15.58. I knew in my heart we were on the winning fish. So we signed up Sunday for thr Bassin Bums and Babes team tournament out of Harley as well. We both fished well and I made up for the day before by catching big bass as well. We won the tournament with 20.70. This I think would have netted us 5 Gs the day before but we settled for the 720 plus 90 big bass for a total purse of 810.
Now Kevin, I don't want you to feel bad but your initial instincts were correct. We fished the same area as you started with the same results, a small limit by 7:30am because we stuck with it. The big fish moved up and we culled to over 17lbs by 9:30am. Thinking we had already won we left and just cruised around playing and enjoying the beautiful day. We stopped in a midlake spot I haven't fished in over 2 years and caught the big bass and culled one more for the winning weight by high noon.
Sometimes everything just goes your way, but most of the time it does not. Such is the world of Tournament Fishing. Jason and I hope to win the Detroit Open next weekend.

[dartag]

Kev pretty much said it all.  we had fun on saturday but didn't get the big bite.  i followed behind him on sunday but didn't hit anything but fish flys.  my windshields and engine cowl are a mess.  i stopped up lake from where Kev went and was catching fish on top water.  i was throwing back 1.5 pounders since we caught so many the day before.  i caught a 3.5 and one around 2.  the sun came out and the top water bite died.   i headed out deep and nothing.  i went down lake by kev and he was in the same shape.  i headed back to the mile roads and caught little ones also.  i went across toward selfrige and it looked like I-75 on friday night.  anyone who thinks the economy is bad should have been there.   the wind was 10 mph and there were 4 footers.  i did manage 2 nice largemouth and one smallie to get my limit. i weighed 11.5 i think.  the good news was there were 20 boats so all who fished will get to fish the championship on gun lake in august.  i know why kev was low on gas my Smart Craft said i used 14 gallons of gas for the day. since the boys had used his boat on Kent on saturday i blamed the fish not biting on the slime washing off his boat.



the good news for the day is I won  5.00 off Kev on a side bet.

[Dan]

Did you fish the CATT Dart? A friend of mine weighed 18.38 for third in the CATT Saturday.

[JCOOPER]

How many boats did CATT have this year?  I fished it last year and just wondered?  Theres no reports on it anywhere

[squid]

I did love your comment just before you stepped up to the stage.  I paid to fish, so I am getting my picture taken...lol

I had over 14 and they never even WANTED to take my pic...lol  I stayed in Anchor Bay all day.  I only had 5 good bites...I knocked one off with my net and the other I missed when he shot my tube back at me....lol.  I would have had over 16 with either one of those. 

By the way, I would have weighed in 1 fish....cause it is the right thing to do, if you are just out to have fun...and try to win $$...but if there just for the $$... It's only fun if you win.

[squid]

CATT was not a good turn out for them this year...maybe 20 boats

[JCOOPER]

I just seen over on LSCN that someone had posted  "around 15" .   Not so good. 

With NBAA up though, maybe it will turn into 100 in the next year or so. I think they had 68 last year.  Next year should be 82.

[squid]

Here is some news on the 1 on 1 event.

St Clair One on One Super Qualifier!
Grubb dominates Field!
With almost 20 boats and anglers competing in the first of three One on One Super Qualifiers on Lake St Clair Sunday, one angler stood out among the rest. Tony Grubb brought in an enormous bag of 5 giant smallmouths that topped the scales at 20.44 pounds beating out his nearest competitor by over 3 pounds. Tony's win was worth nearly $400, a plaque and much deserved bragging rights for the winner of the first ever One on One Super Qualifier. Second place and big bass went to Todd Steele with a weight of 17.42 and his big bass weighed in at 4.46 pounds. And rounding out the top 3 was Brian Ward. Brian's limit of smallmouths also went 17.42 but with the big bass tie breaker, Todd edge Brian out of second place.

All of the St Clair anglers have now qualified to compete in the upcoming One on One championship on Gun Lake August 26 at Leaders Marine. We're taking the top 20 boats plus a wildcard from each of the three Super Qualifiers, plus divisional qualifiers to compete in this one day shootout championship. There will be an entry fee for the championship of $50 and this will include big bass. If you're interested in fishing the next One on One Super Qualifier it will be held on Muskegon Lake on July 15 launching out of Fisherman's Landing. For more information or questions please e-mail Jack Horning at jackhorning@sbcglobal.net and good fishing.

Download:
Tournament Results: 1on1_results_stclair_2007.pdf

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