BFL Journal June 24th

[Team houston]

I get off of work and get down to the meeting. I am paired with Charles Mackintosh from Brighton. He says we are fishing Erie but is not sure where yet depending on the weather.

So they call our boat #56 and off we go. The wind in the morning did not seem too bad and he had pulled up a forecast on his phone that said 16 mph west. So off to Pelee we head.

Well as usual the forecast was  WRONG. We get a couple miles out and with a west wind it gets worse and worse. Many times filling the boat with water and uncountable hard hits.

After about an hr and forty min we get to the far side of Pelee where is is quite nice. He stops short of his starting spot to repair the trolling motor that took a beating on the way.

While he is doing that I pick up a jerbait and start fan casting. On about my 10th cast I hook up and get a 2.5 lber in the boat. I am thinking well if we make it back at least I will have one to weigh in.

Unbelievable to me two other boats from our tourney make it out there too. That's at least six crazy people I know. Charles apologizes says to me if he knew it was gonna be this bad he wouldn't have came out there. He gets the motor working and we bump up to his starting spot.

Just a couple of casts and I hook up again with the jerkbait. This one is very fat but short of 14 inches. Charles catches one right after on a dropshot and is a good keeper. I hook up again and get one close to 3lbs in the boat. Charles now catches three good ones right in a row so I start dropshotting also. Its not lights out, but we are consistently catching them.

Charles has a limit and when I catch my 5th, my watch says its 9 o clock. We bounce around to about half a dozen different areas he wants to fish and cull up here and there. With a 2:15 check in we had decided to leave at 12.

I have a couple four lbers in the box and a couple 3s. With about a half hr left to fish I get another 4lber. I feel Charles has 18 or 19lbs and I have 17 maybe 18 if I am lucky.

After a horrific ride back I kiss the ground. Amazing all are fish are alive. I put mine on the scales and am surprised they go 19lbs 5oz and I take the lead. With more than half the field still to weigh I just assume someone would have more.

At the time big bass was 4.12  I weigh what I think was my biggest and it goes 4.11. I watch the rest of the weigh in and shockingly nobody topples me. All my fish are caught on the d-shot. The early jerkbait fish were culled out but they gave me a good start.

I celebrate with a couple friends of mine Gary and Karen Giovanninni and my brother at Primonti Bros  sandwich restaurant.  On a side note I fished my first BFL in about 1988. Those were the two worst boat rides in my life. Nearly 2hrs of constant pounding both ways.

Getting a win sure helps the pain. I no doubt earned that one.  Charles ended up with 18lbs and change and came in 11th. He was a pleasure to fish with.

[FrickerDude]

Great Job!

[dartag]

Good job.  Hopefully you got the rough water tournament out of the way for the year.

[Team houston]

Hopefully.

[CuradoKev]

Great job !!! Well deserved !! A win is always awesome, but even sweeter when you go through the "Erie Beating" 

[Maisch4077]

Congrats on the win!  I was one of those "other crazies" at Pelee and that was one hell of a ride back in.  Definitely in my top five worst rides on Erie. 

[SethV]

Way to go Phil!  I went over to Charlies house yesterday and helped him put the Z521 all back together again.  Its all fixed up and ready to do it again!!  No major damage to the boat, just some loose screws and a bent trolling motor bracket.

[21XDC]

Way to go Phil... Did you catch any doubles on the drop shot weights I made you? 

[Hollada]

Congrats!  I've never fished Pelee.   If we get a good weather day, I'll let you navigate :-)

[LAPORTE]

Nice job Phil. I sent you a txt the night of,  way to wack them for the win...

[Team houston]

Thanks guys. Mike I had one tied on, but put my rod down to net one of his fish and it got snagged. After I broke it off I didn't put another one on because the fish were biting really good and I didn't need it. I will be using it again for sure. Thanks Don I never got that text. I would have answered for sure. Have you caught any on those Ricos yet?

[Team houston]

Seth did you guys check for any stress fractures in the hull? I am Glad everything is still in working order for him. Maisch how did you do out there?

[SethV]

Hi Phil,  we looked at the usual internal areas that might crack (where I have broken 2 Rangers in the past) and his boat looked great.  I noticed the transom to stringer construction in the rear is much better / beefier on the new Z521 than the 520/Z21 was.

[djkimmel]

Congratulations again Mr. Repeat Champion!! Sometimes you have to take those brutal rides to win (though I DO NOT miss them one second myself!!).

Was wondering and thinking your boater had to be the CMack from this website. Way to team up!! Get them at the next one!