BFL Burt/Mullet

[Team houston]

I took Fri off and was able to practice with Rufus. I really did not care if we caught anything I just wanted to get a feel for what was going on.

As usual Rufus had everything dialed in with endless beds marked but more important for me he told me there were plenty of jerkbait fish to be had. As a co-angler that was good news to me.

We ended up staying on Burt all day. Idling around and finding new beds and checking ones he had already found. Occasionally he would catch a small one off a bed for fun. Unless he made a miscalculation, whoops that one is a 4.13.

I did catch a couple on a jerkbait and Rufus let me catch a couple small ones off beds. Tournament day I am paired with Nathan Nichols. Good news for me, he not only has plenty of beds to fish but also tells me we will be fishing some flats with cruisers that can be caught power fishing.

We start out on his big spawners, but with heavy overcast skies and the sun barely on the horizon the beds and fish are very hard to see. He does manage to hook one but it gets off. Nathan decides to come back to these later in the day. We head to a shallower area with some dark spots and scattered sand grass. He catches one on a tube off a dark spot(bed?) I catch a short on a jerkbait. He eventually catches two more on the tube.

As we are going along a dark line of scattered grass I am pitching a d-shot to anything that looks good. Lo and behold I feel a bite and lean back into a keeper. We get it into the net and I breath a sigh of relief. I have been to this tournament three times before and have caught only 2 keepers.

Nathan decides to head to the flats with beds and cruisers. I should mention that it has rained on us this morning, pretty hard some of the time. We start fishing again and I am throwing the jerkbait. In the middle of my cast I reach to put my hood up because its raining again. I feel a fish hit and try to set the hook but its not good enough and it pulls free.(darn rain)

A couple casts later I hook up again and get #2 into the net. A personal best for me in a tourny here. I should mention that we fished Mullet all day. a few minutes later I hook up again but this ones a short. We move to the next flat on the agenda and I hook up again with the jerkbait #3.

Nathan has been throwing a spinnerbait here with no luck. So he picks up the jerkbait and immedietly loses two in a row. I talk him into changing colors to something close to mine. He hooks up again and loses it again. What are you gonna do? This time I hook up and get #4 in the net. None of them are big but I would be happy with a limit.

Now the sun is starting to break free and the action has slowed. We head back to the first spot of the day. In pretty short order Nathan fills out his limit and culls one with three nice fish. This being his first year as a boater and first time up here he is happy with a 19lb limit. I can't thank him enough because content, he asks me what I want to do to get my limit.

Back to the jerkbait flats I say. We start fishing and he catches one quick on the jerk but its short. He switches to a chartruese spinnerbait and I stick with the jerk. We talk with another boater who is camping nearby him and both of them are throwing Chartruese spinnerbaits. We fish our strech and most the way back without a bite.

I decide to pick up a shad colored spinnerbait. Good decision within five minutes I hook up with #5. We finish out the day without any more keepers and I end up with 12.14 for 24th place. Nathan ends up with 19.13 and 25th. I want to thank him again for doing his best to get me a limit. It was great to share the boat with you.

[Firefighter Jeff]

Good report.  Nice read.  Congrats on the limit.

[PineLk 49]

Great report Team H!!
How was the water temp? Heading to Wilderness State Park next week for some bronze back fishing. With this cool weather in southern Mich, bet it is down right cool up there.

Great read
Dave

[Team houston]

I believe it was about 60. Maybe someone will chime in with a more accurate number. Rufus told me it changed a lot thru the previous week. The next full moon should bring up a whole new wave.

[rudycard72]

Was right at about 58-60 everywhere we fished on Mullet lake during the tournament. It was my first year fishing for $ since 2008 and it felt great to be competing again. I drew a very nice older gentleman for a boater but he wasn't on the fish. Told me at registration that the smallies weren't bedding yet, but I had serious doubts. We fished the 3 main points on the east side of Mullet all day long, I caught a 3# on a dropshot leach on a bed that I saw in 10fow at about 6:20. We didn't get another bite for like 5 hours when my boater caught a 2# fish and that was it. I had two goals going into the tournament,  1-fish with someone cool  and 2- catch a fish and get some points. I accomplished both, met a few good folks and learned a couple of things, see you in Detroit.

[Team houston]

Anybody else?  Anybody know what happen at the TBF state tourny?

[LAPORTE]

Anybody else?  Anybody know what happen at the TBF state tourny?

Dan posted on another tread...

[Team houston]

yeah, I saw that. I told him to make it a little smaller I can still read it lol.