Skeeter Owner's Tourney-Elizabeth Park

[rufus]

I know this is a little late, but as the winter blues set in I thought everyone may be up for a tournament report that happened on September 11, 2008. I can honestly say as I write this that I am still shaking a little. You know me I just can't start typing in all the details I have to start with the prefish. The tourney was on Sunday and Matt and I decided to prefish Saturday morning until the 2-5 pm registration. Well, that had to be the most miserable weather to prefish in ever. It was windy and downpouring all morning. Matt has fished as a coangler in the BFL's and just bought his first boat in July. He bought a beautiful 2006 20i with a 225 Yamaha. It was actually Kelly Jordon's boat that he used in the Elites 2 yeas ago. Matt didn't have any GPS coordinates as this is his first boat and his first tournament he had ever fished out of his own boat. I took my old Garmin out of the Triton before I left home and rigged it up on my Vexilar mount so we could use it as a GPS. It worked like a charm but made me nervous sitting on the deck in the big waves. He wanted me to drive so he could have me give him a few tips on what to do in the big waves. Anyway, we checked some of my river mouth areas and they were holding fish. My first spot we caught three 4 pounders in 3 casts and left. The wind really was starting to pick up and we were now in 3-4 footers. We then went to my big fish spot which really has not produced very well for me at all in the last 2 years,but it used to be when they were their they were monsters and a lot of them. We caught only a short and decided to troll the edge to see if they had moved. We went about 400 feet and all of a sudden both of our rods doubled and we put two 2 1/2 pounders in the boat. We knew that this sized fish would not get us anything so we decided to have a little fun and catch a few more. We doubled on 2 1/2-3 pounders 3 more times on it in the next 10 minutes. Needless to say they were stacked there. We pulled to cast again when I catch another 2 1/2 pounder and following him in was a fish that was well over 5. I looked at Matt and said UH OH there are some big ones here. Matt's next cast produced a fish that went to his scales at 5'8" A few minutes later I catch a 6'6"!!!!!! We decided to leave  and "check"    it again on tourney day. It was absolutely miserable out and we were both soaked to the bone and very cold. It was only noon and registration did not start for another 3 hours. We decided to at least get out of the wind and go up in the river near Elizabeth Park. We did a little spinnerbaiting for fun and caught some decent largemouths and then went in to register. Many boats had decided not to fish due to the incoming weather and they ended up with around 50 or so boats I didn't hear the final count, but we were 34 and there were at least 10 boats behind us at the take off. The next days weather called for heavy winds out of the southwest at 35+mph as Hurrican Ike came up to meet us. As Most of you know this is not a good stiuation for the mouth of the river if it had enough south in it. The morning dawned with heavy winds as predicted and there was quite a bit of south in it. I told Matt we were gonna try to get out there no matter what. We ran to the first spot we tried the day before only because it was a little closer and boy was it rough. We were in 4-6 foot swells and most I could not see over. The fish were biting and we had 7 in under an hour that went about 23 pounds. I knew this may get us a check, but I really wanted a win and did not want those big monster waves rolling in to stop us. We decided it was now or never and ran out to the honey hole which was another 2 mile. It was even worse out there. Somehow we managed to hold fairly well between the swells, Matt only has a 42" shaft on his 101 Minnkota so we sucked a lot of air,but we managed to hold fairly well. We began doubling up again as we did the day before, except the fish had grown. They were all 3 1/2-5+. It was amazing. By 10:30 we had put 42 keepers in the boat. The wind died a little by then and the waves settled down to 2 footers and it was pretty easy to hold on the area now. The fish literally never quit biting and it was constant action. Culling actually took more time than the catching. Everytime we would catch a cull fish we would blow off the spot and have to idle back. The thing was as soon as we would get back on the spot the instant the tube hit the bottom it was gobbled up by another fish. We lost at least 8 fish over five as well as many others we did not see, but we also were catching so many it didn't bother either one of us. I know this sounds like a fish story, but our best guess and we tried to keep track was 81 keepers for the day and 42 of them were at 4 pounds or better. We ended up weighing in a 7 fish limit that went 34 pounds 5 ounces and won the tourney by about 5 pounds. Incredibly, there is no doubt in my mind that our bag could have topped 36, but I have no complaints. We went in with over an hour of fishing time left as we were watching another dark cloud bank coming up from the south. Every single one of our fish was caught on a tube on a little color my father-in-law and I discovered in a clearance bin. This tube won me a lot of money on Erie this fall. Poor Boy's Baits is going to see if they can mimic the color for me and it should be available next year. The good Lord blessed us with an amazing day that I will never forgot. God Bless Everyone I will see you out on the water next year or maybe in the next few weeks as the boat is not winterized yet and Erie is amazing this time of year.

[Cheetam]

Great write up.  Thanks for sharing!

[Jighead]

I always enjoy reading your reports Heath.  Thanks for sharing!

I took some clients out from Indy that were fishing that tournament and showed them around the mouth of the river on that Friday.  They were somewhat excited by what we found, although our fish were about half the size you found.  The conditions were quite a bit more calm on Friday, too.  I can't imagine what they thought on Sunday seeing what the mouth can do on a stiff south wind  

Doug

[mgray17]

I was wondering when you might write this tournament up Heath.  That was indeed a great day....I have never seen you shake so much before......or speechless.  Yes, Heath was speechless, as was I.  I have a Lowrance X-125 black and white at the bow and the bottom 2 inches of the screen was just littered with arches.  It was almost solid black! 

It was so good that Heath's tube had only 1 or 2 tentacles left on it and he was still catching fish!  Just one of those amazing days outdoors that the Good Lord blesses you with from time to time.

Thanks for fishing it with me Heath, you up for next year!!

[rufus]

Pencil me in Matt and we will see if we can manage a repeat  !

[mgray17]

Consider it done!!

Sent you a PM also.

[TCook]

Nice write up, sounds like the perfect day out on the big lake. Well done guys!

[canvsbk]

Randall this time, 9/27 ... no more Eire.

[Fishmael]

Canvsbk,

A while back, we were discussing a Skeeter you had for sale, but you got rid of it before I could contact you again.  Did you sell that in a private sale or did you trade it in?  I bought one from Lake Drive Marine that fit your description so well, I figured it had to be the same boat.

Later,
Fishmael

[canvsbk]

Yup, I traded it @ Lake Drive. Last spring.

[Fishmael]

That's funny!  After talking to you about it and then missing out, I still ended up with it!  I figured it had to be the same one.  Everything on it was exactly as you described.  I used it last year and it went well.  However, you didn't delete those waypoints, much to my benefit!!  I see there are waypoints from wawasee to Grand Traverse...the boat has been more places than I have!

[canvsbk]

I'll have to start being more careful when I run - I might run right into you! 
I downloaded the waypoints  to an SD card and I THOUGHT I wiped it clean 
None of those spots are any good anyway .... 

[Duke]

Are any of those spots for sale now? 

[Fishmael]

Of course they're not...But I will have to fish each one to determine whether they can be eliminated!     See you there!  Actually, the budget probably won't allow me to drive to most of those places!  However, on another note, it seems you really know how to set a boat up.  So, if I have any questions, I'll be sending them your way.  Do you know how many miles you can run on a tank of gas in that boat?