Northwest side report...

[Dan]

Finally got my Stay N Charge sent to me. Took longer than I would have liked it to. Installation was fairly easy, if you have a savy friend who is very handy doing it for you. The only aspect of the Stay N Charge is that I can't visibly tell if the batteries are charged. I am assuming that the smart box is smart enough not to over charge. In any case, I went out on Lake Cadillac and through the channel into Mitchell for a test run and to scope out the water for a Sunday tournament. Saturday they had two tournaments on the lakes. One had about 63 boats and the other around 53. As I cruised around I only saw a couple of fresh beds, but no fish on them. The water in Cadillac/Mitchell is tanic colored and hard to see in as is and with the number of boats, the wind, and the thick cottonwood pollin it was very hard to see. I stayed out a few hours and never did make a cast. Trolling motor batteries were dying fast and I figured with last years problems with my onboard charger that they were shot so it was off to Wal Mart and I bought two new batteries. Naturally they were about an eigth of an inch longer and wouldn't sit in my trays as I sweat my butt off in the parking lot trying to make the switch. I head home picking up Chinese for the wife and mother-in-law that expected it hours earlier, but..... I get back to the cabin at 9:30 and have rods to retie and I'm beat. Four a.m. is going to come mighty fast. I'm awakened at 3:00 with wind and rain and get up to close windows. Four a.m. it's worse. The sky is crackling and the wind is blowing. Check the computer weather radar and the storm is still offshore and it looks like at least a couple more hours of some wicked weather.
Wasn't expecting so much rain so when I put the boat cover on I skimped because I was tired and didn't put all the straps on. It rained so hard that it pooled on the cover and it took a superhuman effort to get the cover off and about 100 gallons of water end up in the boat. Oh well the plugs out. I head out for Cadillac and part way there I pick up a caravan of bass boats and I follow spinnibug and a brand new orange BassCat. In Cadillac I get my first up close look at Baker and Evans new BassCat they won down in Arkansas. Man the 20 in chrome spoked wheels really stand out even in the predawn hours. Get to the ramp after a few on the road phone calls and they decide to delay the start until 7:30. As I talked to a few guys at the ramp I realized I left the landing net in the garage. Good thing my buddy Don lives in Cadillac and not too far from the lake. We all head out for some breakfast during the delay and we detour quick to pick up his spare net. After some eats we head back to the ramp for the take off. We also announced at the pretournament meeting that we are going to be auctioning off the number one starting number before each tournament and giving that money to Dan Chapman's Kids Scholarship fund. We also do a 50/50 drawing before each tournament and the winners Sunday donated it to the fund. So we collected over a 110 dollars for the kids that day. Anyone interested in making a donation can PM me and I'll give you the details. They have a trust set up already for them. Well, we drew number 13 and really didn't have a clue as to where to go. I have fished the lakes before, but not this early. Both Saturday tournaments released in Cadillac and I have a couple of summer spots so even though the majority of the boats were going through the channel we stay in Cadillac. First spot doesn't pan out so off to spot two. Another buddy is sitting right where I wanted to be so we pulled up and heading down the shoreline throwing a fluke. Caught several fish but nothing big - couple of 14 inch squeakers. We pull off the shore and head back up the lake and notice our number two spot is now open. Pulled in and after a few casts my partner hits a nice smallie on a spinnerbait. We move from there across the lake and fish a weed line. After just a few casts there, I hit a nice largemouth on a chartreuse and white spinnerbait. So we have a limit but really need to cull our two small fish. However, nothing else comes along that will help. We catch some pike, crappie, sunfish, and a number of small fish. As it turns out, the bulk of the guys got fish off beds up next to shore on Mitchell. Two of our young guns who took second on Saturday won our tournament with 14 pounds. All but two boats have limits. I was disappointed. All day I was thinking why am I on Cadillac. I always fish Mitchell. Should have went with my instincts and just went fishing on Mitchell. Would have found the shallow beds and maybe even ran across some of the bigger smallies that were taken off beds. Oh well, at least I didn't get towed in. Did have the trolling motor switch go out. First thing in the morning with the trolling motor dialed down to 20 I thought man these new batteries are great! I'm on 20 and it feels like I'm on 100. I'm feeling good!! Then I kick the power up and nothing changes. The rheostat is busted. I'm on 100 all the time! Oh well, anybody know where I can get a MinnKota 74 lbder fixed in the Grand Rapids area?

[spinninbug]

That was some pretty storm that we had to drive in wasn't it.  A couple times I thought my husband was going to dye laughing at me because I jumped right out of my skin when the thunder boomed right outside my door.

All in all a good day on the water.  It's been a several years since we have fished this club and there are alot of new faces.  Alot of younger new faces. 

With our Ranger broke down we had to take my dad's boat to fish in (which happens to be my husbands very old boat) Dan knew it was us as soon as he saw us.  I just knew I was in trouble with my husband on the water,  just knew he would loose his patience because we didn't have this or that,  as it was we forgot our bump board and had to use a tape my dad has on the side of the boat, if that wasn't scarey!  I even told some friends of ours that if he got out of hand I was calling them and they were coming to get me.  Low and behold we had a great day,  not once did he loose it.  We even had our limit.  That made us happy.  We aren't to use to team fishing anymore so it was fun.  We had a great day and it was great to see some of the old gang and meet the new people that we hadn't fished with before.

Oh and the ranger goes to the doctor on Wednesday next week so hopefully we will be good for the South Central Tourney on Hardy in two weeks.  If not I'm not going!!  I'm just happy fishin season is back!!  Feels good to get up at 4 in the morning in the pouring rain and lightning,  drive for an hour and then wait and wait some more and then finally we get to fish,  man it's all worth it!!