Great Fishing Expereinces of 2013

[TimH]

I know that it's usually around New Years that people start reflecting on what good things happened throughout the past year, but I find myself today thinking back about what a great "fishing" year it was.  I'm not usually one to reminisce about previous experiences, but my boat has only been winterized for two weeks and I already find myself going through "bass withdrawal" pretty bad.  I'm hoping by writing about my experiences and reading about the experiences of others, it will help things along.  Plus, as we head into Thanksgiving, I was thinking back about just how thankful I am for all the great opportunities I had this past year, especially those related to bass fishing.
My 1st good "bass experience" of the year came in early February when I purchased my first bass boat.  I have wanted a bass boat ever since I was about 12 years old and fortunately 20 years later I was able to finally buy one.  The boat I got is far from new based on years, but to me it's the best boat on the water.  I purchased a 2002 Javelin 170 with a 90 HP Johnson.  The boat was garage kept, hardly used, and looked almost showroom new when I got it.  I had many great days on this boat all spring, summer, and fall and am already counting down the days until 2014 C&R opener.
I also had many, and I mean many wonderful experiences with BASS holding two tournaments in Michigan.  The first BASS experience goes back to late May when I met Brandon Card.  My wife and I had just left a restaurant when I looked over at the nearby Super 8 and saw his rig in the parking lot.  One habit of mine is anytime I see a wrapped truck and boat in a parking lot, I pull in to get a closer look, and this time wasn't any different.  As I pulled into the Super 8 lot, I noticed that Brandon was in the process of cleaning down his boat. I hesitated from stopping to talk to him, because I didn't want to be "that guy", but I decided to get out and at least welcome him to Michigan and tell him how grateful I was that BASS was holding an Elite event in Michigan.  Brandon is a great guy who is extremely friendly.  We must have talked for about 20 minutes, plus he gave both me and my wife a t-shirt from one of his sponsors.
Another great BASS experience this year was when I was fortunate to have dinner with Ott DeFoe.  It was the Sunday night before the start of the Elite event on St. Clair.  It's a long story as to how I was able to get this dinner set up, but being able to talk fishing with him was great.  He is such a down to earth, genuinely nice guy that is probably one of the most consistent anglers out there.
The great experiences with BASS continued that week as I attended every blast off and weigh in while they were on Lake St. Clair.  At the weigh in on Thursday, I volunteered to help the local BASS Nation club, and was assigned the job of pulling the mesh bag out of the pro's weigh bag as they headed to tanks behind the stage.  This within itself was a great experience. This allowed me to meet, although it briefly, every pro that weighed in fish that day.  It also allowed me to experience the behind the scenes aspects of a BASS event, and let me tell you, the staff at BASS are some extremely dedicated, hard working folks. 
After the weigh in was over, I was standing next to Chuck Harbin, one of BASS's tournament directors, and I heard him mention that they were a few Marshalls short for Friday.  I told him that I would be willing to fill in if needed. Low and behold an hour later, I was signed up and ready to go.  If getting to Marshall wasn't enough, I was assigned to Marshall for Jason Christie.  This was a great opportunity not only because I have been a Jason Christie fan since he had started fishing FLW, but because Jason was near unstoppable for both tours in 2013.
Riding with Jason for that day was unreal.  Seeing firsthand how these guys fish really helps you appreciate just how hard they work to try and earn a living fishing professionally.  The pace they keep, the skill they have, and their ability to read and work the conditions is beyond impressive.
The final two days of the Lake St. Clair event, I enjoyed as a "fan in the crowds", which is still a great experience.  During those last two days I got the chance to meet Mark Zona and talk with Edwin Evers for a few minutes, both guys were great to talk to.
When BASS held there All Star weekend, my wife and I traveled over to the west side of the state and enjoyed ourselves at the blast offs and weigh-ins.  While I didn't have as many opportunities to talk with the pros in Muskegon as I did at Lake St. Clair, I still was able to talk to Brandon Palanuik and John Crews.  In addition to Crews and Palanuik, I finally had the chance to talk with this sites creator, Dan Kimmel.  Great talking with you Dan! One of the highlights from the All Star weekend was about an hour after blast off on Sunday when I took a drive up to the Light House at the inlet from Lake Michigan into White Lake.  I figured I would see if I would be able to get a good view of any pro's from this spot. It ended up being next to Marshalling, one of the best "up close" opportunities I could have had.  KVD was fishing the inlet, and I was able to stand on the seawall/walkway just a few feet away from him as he worked along both sides of the seawall.  Watching KVD fish for 30 plus minutes was great, and after watching other pro's fish, it's no doubt as to why KVD is so good.  Other pro's fish extremely well, but KVD is on his own level.  It almost as if he has a sixth sense that no one else does.
As for actual fishing, it was a pretty good year too.  I didn't fish as well as I would have liked in the local tournament trail I fish, but I did have my best finish in a tournament when I placed 4th in a small Open tourney on Lake St. Clair.  It's only my second year of tournament fishing, so I can't complain too much.
I also caught my personal best smallmouth this spring on Lake St. Clair.  It weighed just shy of 6lbs.
And of course, as I have mentioned on this site before, one of the best times this summer was when I had a great experience of taking a Veteran out fishing on Kent Lake for the Tips Up for Troops event.
I greatly apologize for the length of this post, but when it comes to fishing I can type or talk forever.    I hadn't realized how much I had typed until I was reading this before I posted it.  I hope everyone had some great bass experiences this year, and I look forward to reading about them.

[YpsiBass]

I fished more this year than last.  Joined the Downriver Bass Association so that helped a lot.  Friendly guys there.  Ended up fishing some tournaments at the end of the season with bob o which were some of the best times I've had on the water.  Went to a BBC rally in the spring up at Wixom Lake too.  When I was younger I didn't have a group of guys to fish and hang out with so it was really cool being part of a group like that, if only for the weekend.  Was on the water in Laporte's new boat which was quite the nice ride.  Helped bob o break in his new motor.  Went 80something MPH on a Bullet bass boat which wasn't nearly as terrifying as I thought it would be (hell of a lot of fun actually).  Went to the BASS weigh-in on LSC.  Ended up meeting Skeet Reese who was friendlier than I thought he'd be.  Iaconelli seemed friendlier than I was expecting too.

2013 was a pretty good year for fishing for me. You should join us for the swap meet in the spring.  Good times.

[spinnerbation]

Great stuff TimH! I always enjoy a good read! Must have been incredible to watch 2 of the best in the game today (JC & KVD) up close like that! I didn't get a chance to follow any of the tour action except online this year so I must admit a tad bit of jealousy! However, I had nothing short of an amazing year myself on and off the water.

The easiest way to describe the year I've had is that it's was a year of firsts. Unfortunately my firsts could not be described as the actual position I place in any of my tournaments this year, but they were rewarding none the less!

On April 27th my wife and I were blessed to bring our first child (my second) into the world a healthy 8lb 11oz boy! He's strong, alert and it amazes me every day just how smart he is! We couldn't be more thankful! Lately he's found himself enjoying watching all the fishing shows his Dad does. It's awesome to see how excited he gets whenever we watch our shows together!

This spring/summer I also had several opportunities to take my first born daughter of 3 (now 4) out fishing as often as I was able to. She also did her dad real proud this year in not only catching her first fish (crappie) in May, but also her first bass (and by extension her first fish on a lure) later that year in July!

At first she really just enjoyed spending time with me and only wanted to watch what I was doing. She really likes the lures with the lights on them (Spinnerbaits). But as time went on she wanted mimic everything I was doing when I fish them also. Well all her careful studying and practice paid off and she landed a nice keeper sized largy in a backwater cut not far from where we live.

She was absolutely ecstatic, though didn't want to touch it! We're working on that part but I'm couldn't be happier just to see her interested much less actively (and apparently effectively) participating!

2 weeks after Sam caught her first crappie in May, I was off the Cheboygan for my first BFL of the year on Burt Mullet. I had read and heard a lot about these lakes but never fished them before so suffice to say I was pretty amped for this event!

Both of my boater's during practice and the tournament were very helpful and accommodating. I learned a lot about dropshotting during the Pre-Fish that carried over well during the actual tournament.

When it was all said and done I had 17-02 for 7th on in the Co div. This was my first check with the BFL's and my first after a couple years of bad breaks, so the wife was happy about that! I had 2 smaller fish around 2 1/4 - 2 1/2 each, so a couple of more 3+'s might have put me in contention for the win (as the other 3 were solid 4 1/2's). But I really can't complain with how it all worked out so it was a great way to kick off the 2013 Tourney season!

Later this year (after a bit of an up and down season) I finally got the opportunity fish a team tournament with a good buddy of mine. We've fun fished quite a bit but this was his first time fishing a Tournament. I am not sure who was more excited him or me! I love bringing new blood into the sport but I remember how excited I was the first time I entered competition over 10 years ago.

Every year a bunch of us try to get together once or twice on St Clair out of Mitchells Bay in October when the weather permits for a little fun competition. I figured this would be a perfect opportunity for my buddy Jeremy to get his feet wet so we put our bills in the hat and had at'er!

We were by far the smallest boat in the field in a 14' tin can with a 20! But the weather wasn't terrible so we made the best with what we had. Turns out the winds played to our favor and pushed a lot of bait / forage into the only area we could fish lol. This in turn pulled some bigger fish up shallow with them. We managed 17 1/2 (for 4th or 5th) anchored with the BF for the day at 5 1/2.

All but 1 of our fish caught on a Spinnerbait. That in itself was a first for my buddy also. He is used to catching bass wacky rigging Senkos and throwing a frog over grass every once in a while. He hadn't yet had the opportunity to hold on to his rod for dear life while a Smallmouth tries to rip it out of your hands! I was a blast of a day as we caught several fish within 15 feet of the boat! No complaints that day, was a great way to cap off an early finish to the tourney season!

[fasttrack]

I had the pleasure of being a Marshall for 3 days at St Clair. Day 1 with Alton Jones was by far the best. Not only is he very nice guy, he's one of the best out there year in and out. Caught over 100 fish that day. Went one stretch catching 30-some on consecutive casts! (skipping a Yum tube up to a hard-to-reach sea wall with current break in a channel)

My buddy "Waterfoul" and I fished two different clubs and won Angler of the Year in both. Won some pretty good money and trophies, and lots of stories and good times along the way.

Unrelated to fishing, but I also ran my first 25k race and first Triathlon this spring. Two of my kids won their division in the 2013 Michigan Championship chess tournament. Was quite a year!

[detroit1]

You guys had a way more interesting year than I , lets hear some more....

[Big dreams]

It has been a great year!  I was able to meet some great guys at the Spring Rally on Wixom Lake.  Laporte taught me how to rig a drop shot which was something I had totally wrong.  I credit fishing the drop shot with me winning my clubs AOY. 

I learned a lot on drop shot this year.  I also started learning some things on the c-rig.  I have not caught a fish on it yet but I did begin to figure out how to drag it and determine what was on the bottom.

As stated above, I did win the small club trail that I fish.  Though I didn't do as good as I had hoped for, I was able to pull off a nail biter.  One of the things I need to work on is mentality and keeping my head up and focused when things are not going as planned.  This is especially true when I think I have tried everything...very frustrating but need to overcome if I want to become competitive in money tournaments.

I fished a lot more this year than in previous years.  This being said, we had our second child in March.

Filled with memories, good times

[TimH]

Ypsibass, that club you joined sounds pretty good.  I hope to find a decent club to fish in next year as the one I have been fishing just isn't doing it for me anymore for multiple reason I won't bore you with.  Spinnerbation, congrats on the birth of your child.  Fasttrack, congrats on winning A-O-Y in your tournament trail.  Also, nicely done on the 25k.  I give you credit, the only way I could run 25k is if I had a very large, angry animal chasing me for about 24.9k.  And Big Dream, congrats on the birth of your child and winning A-O-Y.  Great reading about everyones year, hope the stories keep getting posted.

[Team houston]

Speaking of the swap meet, have you thought about a date yet bob o? Thats one of my favorite events of the year. Way better than the fishing shows.

[Got Fish??]

It was all good. 2013 season was a great time to spend with Friends and family out on the water. Fished a few new lakes this year, caught a personnel best smallmouth. Remember to always fish where the water is wet, and the best time to fish. Is when their biting.