"Fall Brawl"

[ReggieMFD]

We had our annual "Fall Brawl" Tournament, Tuesday at Klinger Lake in White Pigeon, MI.  Every year a few of us from the fire department get together and fish a tournament in the Fall.  Last year it was cancelled because of inclement weather.    We went to the same lake this year that it was supposed to be at last year.  This year the day started out rainy, but not too bad. About 56 degrees, and light winds out of the Northwest.  Water temp. was 61 at start and 65 at finish.  There were only 4 boats this year as some of the guys backed out, last minute.  I fished with FFJeff from the board and my brother Larry fished with a fellow firefighter.  One guy fished alone and his brother fished with a buddy.  We put $10.00 a guy in a kitty just for some braggin' rights.  This year paid only first place and big bass.  It is really meant to get some of the guys out that don't have a chance to get out much on their own.  First, the one guys brother and his partner left early so they were not at the weigh in.  I don't think they had any fish.  It rained about the first half of the tourney, then just clouds after that.  The fishing was great for numbers of fish!!  Jeff and I had to have caught 35-40 bass.  The other guys experienced the same.  Bad thing is for us anyway, (Jeff and I) we couldn't get one to bump if our lives depended on it!!  We started catching fish on pop-r's and that bite really lasted all day.  We were catching them in 3'-6' of water around weed patches and out at the break.  We could see them cruising the break like they had not a care in the world!!  We would get some violent hits on the top water, then a good fight and we would think, yeah, this is the one to start us off!!    Not so.   Every time we would bump one it would be 13", 13 1/2",  13 3/4", 13 7/8" somewhere in there.  Jeff finally put our only keeper in the boat and caught it on a lipless crankbait.  And we had to pinch that tail like nobodies business to get it to bump and I finally said "Just put him in the livewell, he's good"!!  "We are not going in empty handed"!!  All fish were caught on pop-r's, lipless crankbaits, spinners, senkos, diving crankbaits, jerkbaits.  A few smallies were caught also.  At the weigh in, it was Larry and Matt, First Place, and Paul had big bass.  And Jeff and I brought our 1 fish in to save a little face!!
Larry and Matt with their limit weighing 8 lb. 13 oz.  Largemouth and smallmouth.



Paul, with the big bass that weighed 2 lbs. even. And 3 fish that weighed 4 lbs. 14 oz.
 

And then there is Jeff and I with our 14" (just barely)  5 1/2 lb. largemouth!!