MSU Wins 2009 CBAA Big Ten Bass Fishing Championship

[djkimmel]

The MSU bass fishing team creamed the competition Sunday, October 12, 2009 with 15 bass weighing 49.08 pounds caught by their 3 best 2-man teams on Lake St. Clair. (My wolverines managed a respectable 3rd behind Indiana.)

I will have pictures and video up within the next few days.

Also, CBAA officials announced they are negotiating with the Big Ten Network for a possible televised CBAA bass fishing circuit for 2010. That would pump up the volume on bass fishing as a college sport!

(GLBass members MIBassKid and Ryan shown kneeling down 1 and 2 from the left)

[djkimmel]

For more information on the CBAA, check out www.collegiatebass.org

[River Rat]

Congratulations to MSU on their 2009 Championship!

Minus the "delay" at takeoff, that was a great event with many upsides and positives.  My guys from Wisconsin had never fished a "big" tournament before so this was their first shot after being called up to the "big squad" and they were pumped-up.

You could even deal with the cold and sitting in a boat for 9hrs not fishing, knowing that the kids could rip a big fish at any moment and when they did get a good one, the excitement was hilarious!  One kid tried to litereally run from the back deck up front to net a fish, problem was the bow dipped down into the wave trough and he 'bout kept going further than 19.5ft .  After a little "settle down and relax" mini speech, things were ok and the fish went into the box.

I forget who mentioned it prior to the event about sharing info and teaching how things are different for us on the big water but I remembered "your thoughts" and they worked.  Instead of just going thru our motions I think they appreciated being included in things as "small as" why we fill the livewells to the very top before running and stopping to recheck, why we sometimes have to follow along L'Anse Creuse instead of a straight shot north or south, and the fact that if your try to "horse" a dropshot fish into the boat like a little 1.5# inland largemouth on a jig, you're probably gonna lose that battle with a 4# smallie (we had that "learning curve".)

It was good to meet some new people and even see some of the same old faces.  Look forward to seeing that video you shot DK, you were a busy man there.

[MadWags]

I just wished the boaters would have payed more attention to the information provided. The start point was not the mouth of the river. It was the DNR dock. By the time all the boats had checked in at the first dock and the start team made their way to the DNR dock to start the boats everyone was out in the lake practically. Granted we are used to having a start boat and start in the lake beyond the no waks zone, but that was not the plan. I went back to the start point where I could hear the Tournament Director start the boats. When he called #1, that was us, you all had to wait while I idled out to start as was described in the information provided.  LOL!!. Gotcha! I tried to get you guys to line up like the walleye guys do but as bass anglers we are clueless to that effective method of starting boats. Although we did do that at the NBAA Classic on Houghton if I remember correctly.

Congrats to MSU on a dominating finish!
I enoyed both days. My guys caught fish, but many were short. It was a tough bite for them even fishing in areas where larger fish were being caught.

[MIBassKid]

Thanks for the congratulations guys. But even more important, thanks for all your help. Everyone really appreciated and even looked up to the volunteers that brought their boats. It just goes to show what kind of people we have in the fishing world, especially in the state of Michigan. Now for the report...

Myself and another GLB member, Ryan, started off Saturday morning on the mile roads just north of 9 mi. throwing everything we could find at them.  We picked up a short and a 2# within only a few minutes of each other around 11 fow.  We decided to go north a mile or two and fish that area. We were crankin 11-13 fow for most of the day with somewhat success. We picked up a 4.6 and a 5.0 and watched another boat catch 6 fish within 15 minutes of each other. Needless to say we left that area and hoped that other boat wouldn't beat them up too bad. The rest of the day was used fiddlin around throwin jigs and tubes at seawalls for largies. Two other teams in our club found fish on the mile roads so that was our plan for the next morning.

Sunday morning came and blast off wasn't the best situation. Seems like we could have started fishing 45 minutes earlier than what we did.  But, we made good use of our time anyhow.  The MSU club ran all 5 boats down to the mile rds. I had a fish over 5 lb and another around 2 1/2 within 15 minutes. One on a jerkbait, other on a crankbait.  Ryan and I had a solid limit by 10 oclock, but besides the 5# the rest of our bag was between 15-16" so we were looking to cull. We did. Many times, but only by a few ounces each time. We knew that in practice we had found the big fish on crankbaits so that's what we decided we were going to throw until our arms fell off. We kept picking up fish between the 15-17" range and culling when we could. By 1:00 3 of the 5 boats had solid limits and it took awhile for the next two boats to find their remaining fish. We finally ran into another solid fish that went over 4.5. The rest of the day we caught keepers slowly but steadily so we stayed. It definately paid off with the last two boats filling their fish, one of them with two fish over 5. We did not catch a fish that was not of legal size the entire day. I think we ended with 14 or 15 fish, all over 14".  The club finished in first by a large margin with two bags over 17 lbs. and all 5 bags over 13 lbs. We were pretty pumped to defend our "home" turf, Even though 6 of the guys in our club had never fished St. Clair before. Thanks again to the boaters, volunteers, and sponsors you guys did a great job and everyone appreciated it very much.  Especially thanks to the four boat volunteers that we had for our club. They knew that if we stayed long enough on the mile rds. that we could have a great chance at winning it all. Looking forward to next year!
-Luke and the rest of the MSU Fishing Club

[djkimmel]

CBAA Standings for the Lake St. Clair 2009 Big Ten Championship (weight is from the 3 highest finishing teams per school, 5 bass maximum per team)

1. Michigan State, 49.08 lbs
2. Indiana, 32.04 lbs
3. Michigan, 26.57 lbs
4. Penn State, 25.97 lbs
5. Illinois, 25.79 lbs
6. Iowa, 19.07 lbs
7. Purdue, 16.63 lbs
8. Wisconsin, 12.10 lbs

Big bass of the event was caught by one of the MSU anglers - a big 5.75 pound smallmouth bass. Biggest largemouth bass was 4.10 caught by my angler Dave from Penn State (the CBAA web site erroneously reports a bass under 4 pounds as the largest largemouth).

[Ryan]

Again, I would like to thank all of the volunteer boaters that helped to make this event a success.  It was definetly a fun weekend and walking away with the trophy made it just that much sweeter.

Luke summed up our day pretty well, we basically caught fish all day long.  The most important thing for me I think was confidence in our presentations.  The sunday before the tournament I came down to St. Clair with my dad to do a little practicing.  The only time I had ever been on the lake before was in two previous DK Spring Opens so I really didnt have much of an idea what to do.  Therefore, I just headed down to the Mile Roads and stopped in a random spot.  After moving in and out for several hours with only a couple small bass in the boat, I picked up a crankbait and moved out deeper.  Right away I lost a 4+ at the boat and then got a 5.6lbs smallie.  In the next 5 hours, I got 10 more solid keepers with 2 more over 5lbs in 11 to 13 ft of water all on crankbaits over a pretty broad area so I had a pretty good idea where to start.

On the first practice day, the fishing was tougher then I had thought it would be, but we did get 2 good fish as Luke noted.  I knew they were still in the area and just hoped we could get a limit.  I was glad to catch them atleast somewhat near the ramp since I had brought down my 18.5 ft Triton and didnt want to have to make a long run in potential rough water since I fish inland lakes almost exclusively and did not have a lot of rough water driving experiance.  I never caught a fish on a tube, dropshot, or spinnerbait, so I figured I would live and die by the crankbait on tournament day.  On the day of the tournament, the fishing definetly seemed to have picked up not just for me, but the whole team.  As Luke stated, I think all the State boats  started on the Mile Roads, but most of the boats ran a couple miles further then we did.  We fished really well on Sunday and boated most of our bites.  We just could not get more then 2 big bites.  The rest of our fish were cookie cutter 2.5 lbers and we defienetly put the culling beam to good use.

We ended up in second overall with 17.63, one more little cull would have put us over the top, but the important thing was MSU won so that was sweet.  Overall, it was a great tournament and a good way to for me to finish up my Big Ten fishing tournament career with a victory.

Thanks agiain to everyone that helped to make this tournament a success.

-Ryan

[Firefighter Jeff]

Congratulations Mibasskid and Ryan  !!!!!! Good to hear great lakes bass members doing well.  As posted on this site, my brother and I fished the mile roads last week.  We stumbled onto the same pattern, but we were in just a little too shallow (9 to 10 feet).  We did try out a little deeper once but must not have been in the right spot.  Plus we ran into some pretty muddy water from the winds.  Once again.... great job !!!

[psuderrick]

Congrats to MSU on the win at St. Clair. I was also at the tournament and want to thank all the boat volunteers that made this event possible. I would like to thank Dan, Mike , and Caleb on behalf of the Penn State team. They were essential for us on doing well this past weekend, due to the fact that none of us have ever been on st. clair. Thanks a lot guys. We really appreciated all your help!

Thanks again to all the boat volunteers!

[djkimmel]

You're welcome. I had fun. Next time I'm bringing a bigger thermos though

Penn State anglers did very well finishing 4th on a completely new lake under challenging conditions.

Thanks for signing up on GreatLakesBass.com too psuderrick! I appreciate that. Good luck with your schooling and future fishing.

[Waterfoul]

I had a BLAST despite the weather and conditions.  I just love fishing!!

Derrick, I need your address at school.... I have a few things for you and Robby.

You can shoot your address to my email:

waterfoul24 @ netzero.com

Mike

[motocross269]

Great job guys...Both the Contestants and the Boaters that helped out...I wish I could have been more involved but I have been blessed with lots of work lately...

[VinceR]

Congratulations Luke and Ryan! You guys have done GLB proud, and a big "Thumbs Up" to the boaters that made this possible.

Hopefully, I will get a chance to help out in the future.

[3Dracing]

Thank you to Dan Kimmel and all the volunteer boaters.
-Dave Grube Penn State Bass Fishing 

[smb5743]

Thanks Dan for a great weekend of fishing.  Can't wait till next year.  I like the pic and nickname.  Thanks again to everyone who helped and gave up their weekend for the event.

[djkimmel]

I hope the nickname only sticks if you want it I know you catch some toads too, but as I said, it takes real talent to get a fish that tiny on the hook!!! Next time you get one of those giant Susquehanna smallies, take a picture and sent it to me!?! I think that's the river you get to fish a lot?