Detroit River Super Tournament

[rufus]

Well, to say the least it was an event for everyone who fished out of the back of my boat. Grandpa (my father-in-law) and I arrived Wednesday to begin prefishing. We decided to hit the Michigan waters of Erie only for the day. The morning started out very tough and after checking some stuff we knew and some stuff we didn't we only had one small largemouth, one keeper largemouth, one sheephead and three nice walleyes to show for our efforts. At about noon I decided to hit some of my favorite shallow stuff and that is when we found them. In the next thirty minutes we caught 7 good keepers, but only one was a smallie. We had five largemouth from 3-4 pounds and the smallie was around 4 with one 15 incher on spinnerbaits and Erie Darters. I then noticed off in the distance that the terns were diving on shad and it appeared that the fish under the shad were hungry as well. I told grandpa we needed to go check them out. It was a 5 foot deep area with scattered weeds. We started throwing a crankbait and a spinnerbait into the schooling smallies and caught three toads in 5 minutes. I had a 5'4" and grandpa had 2 over 4. We left these fish and looked for others and saw at least 15 other schools busting shad, but they were very hard to run down with the trolling motor and I was only able to catch up with a couple more schools, but the fish in these shad were very large. We then left these and checked some other shallow stuff to no avail. We then went to some deeper stuff and still could not get bit. Just before we went in we checked on another deep spot and grandpa caught a 4+ and I lost one. We ended the day with 14 keepers and 7 each. My best 5 would have went around 16 pounds and grandpa had just shy of 20!
On Thursday we decided to head out on the big lake and check the deeper stuff. We stopped in an area with some scattered boulders in 28 fow. After marking a few we began fishing for them vertically with a drop shot rig. We caught 4 fish over 4 pounds with one being 5'6" in the next 30 minutes. We then left these fish and headed to some more similar areas, but in slightly shallower 22-25 fow. We ended up catching one more fish a little over 4 pounds and a big rock bass, but did not find the same bite as the deep area. I had concluded the deeper fish were biting the best. On the way back towards the ramp I told grandpa that there was one more area we should at least try even though I didn't think it would produce due to it being shallower than anything we had fished at around 19 feet. We pulled up on it and instantly noticed the graph lighting up with arches everywhere. A simple drop into a school would instantly produce a 4+ pound fish, but they were tight schools and you had to be on top of them and it was only a 100 foot area, but they were all good ones. We left and stopped at a couple of even shallower spots and only caught several short fish. On the way in to the ramp we were treated to a stiff east wind that made for a longgggggg and wetttttt run. At days end we had 13 keepers. I only had 4 but they went around 19 pounds and grandpa's best 5 went very close to 22 pounds! (Yes, he smoked me and never left the driver's seat of the boat while fishing!)
On Friday we awoke to howling winds out of the south and Erie was rocking. We decided to fish the Detroit River. It was a very slow day, but steady. We never found the fish really good and the size was not what we found in the lake.We threw mostly spinnerbaits and ended the day with 8 keepers with the best fish being 4 pounds and the smallest at 2 1/2 pounds. I had 3 and the coach had his limit that went around 14 pounds. (Yes, he smoked me again!!!)
Tournament day I was a little torn. The wind was very stiff out of the northwest at about 20 mph. Being in 9th place in the points I wanted to make sure I had a keeper before heading out on the big lake to the big ones. I thought I could get a quick fish in the mouth of the river. I stopped and my coangler quickly caught a 3 pound smallie and I caught a short. We sat there an hour and got no more. I decided with the way the wind was to head south and try the largemouth and schooling smallies. Upon arriving at my first spot I instantly started catching short and just keeper largemouths on a spinnerbait. I got a limit of them in about 30 minutes and my coangler picked up two 14 1/4's as well. I told him that these would not get us any money. The big largies were no longer there or not biting and my limit might have weighed 8 pounds at the time. I noticed the terns were not very actively diving on the shad and figured the cold morning was the cause of that, but the longer we stayed the more active they got. I decided to wait them out a little while and see if they would come up. I did finally see one school far off come up, but did not make it to them in time. I had one smack a rat-l-trap hard, but missed him. We ended up looking for them about an hour. We then decided to run back to the river and see if the fish had turned on. We caught a couple of reallllllly short fish. At 12:15 with three hours to fish I looked at my partner and said the only possibilty of cashing a check was to run out into the big lake 25 miles and try for the deep drop shot fish. He agreed and off we went. It was a good run due to the wind laying down and we arrived a little before 1:00. We stopped at the 19 foot spot and on his second cast my coangler caught a 4+ pound smallie. I noticed the schools were no longer tight as they had been and was seeing more individual fish on the graph. We had a few smack our bait, but could not hook up with them. I then decided to run one more mile to the deep fish. We again pulled up and my co catches one close to 5 pounds on his second cast. We only had about thirty minutes to fish. I noticed the fish out here were very tightly schooled and I started to drop into the schools. On my first vertical drop I got a hard bite and set the hook only to think I had hooked a very large sheepshead. The drag screamed and all of a sudden the fish started coming straight up. He boiled about 8 feet from the boat and swam straight towards me. What I saw scared me as the biggest smallie I had ever hooked was on the line. My co was hollering that fish is over 6! It was then that tragedy struck and one head shake and out came the hook. I was a little shook, but I knew with time running out I needed to get back on that school. I had my co throw a bouy as soon as I hooked it and I went right back to it. On my next drop I hook and land a smallie close to 5 pounds and I cull one of my largies with him. I noticed I had about 15 minutes to fish and I trolled back to the bouy. On my next drop I catch a 4+ and then culled again. I went right back to the bouy with 5 minutes and got one more bite that took my bait. We made a screaming run back to the launch. With my 3 little largies I weighed 13'8" which put me in 26th place. My co had 14'10" which put him in 6th and he was able to fish the 2nd day as only the top 17 made it to fish the second day. I was very disappointed with my finish, but it did move me up to 6th place in the end of the year points standings which made my third straight top ten finish.
Grandpa was fortunate to draw a good friend of ours who was fishing the same area of Erie we were. They each had 2 fish at days end, but his two just missed the cut by 6 ounces and he finished 19th with 8'14". One fish was over 5. Big bass on the coangler side was a 6'9" St Clair River TOAD! Grandpa's finish slipped him into 37th and he will be fishing regionals as well.
Fort Madison kicked my tail last year and I hope to have a little revenge. Hope to see some of you guys there! God Bless and Good Fishin'!!

[Team houston]

I always enjoy your write ups. One of these days you will win the points championship. Good luck in Iowa

[RipNLips]

yeah, that was my 6-9.