The second Bassmaster event of the year was in Detroit where we launched in the Detroit River with the ability to fish Lake Erie, the Detroit River, Lake St. Clair or the St. Clair River. This tournament I knew would be a huge challenge going in. The last time I fished Lake St. Clair was more than ten years ago. I fished as an amateur in the Canadian Open back when I was 14 years old, which obviously didn’t give me much info going in. I had never seen the St. Clair River before, never made a cast on the Detroit River and after last year’s event out of Sandusky OH. I wasn’t exactly too confident in that end of Erie. My feeling, based on research, was that it would be won in St. Clair and most top finishes would also come from St. Clair.
You only have a handful of days to find the winning fish and this place is far too big to try and fish it all. You need to pattern the bigger fish, fish a bunch of different stuff and try to get a read on what the bigger fish are doing. I spent my first day of practice on Lake St. Clair within about 20 miles of Windsor ON. It was a tough day, a couple small fish. This was enough for me to eliminate this whole end of the Lake. The next day I crossed the border and launched in St. Clair Shores, MI….it was another tough day, more fish but nothing over 2 ½ lbs. This is not the place I was expecting, there are suppose to be 3lb fish everywhere. I was able to talk to a bunch of guys and everyone was doing the same thing with the same result, small fish and low numbers of fish. I had two and a half days left before the tournament started so I spent one day up the St. Clair River, one day in a new area of Lake St. Clair and the last half day was spent traveling from my hotel in St. Clair Shores to my hotel near the launch site with a few hours to mess around in the Detroit River to find a spot near the ramp. I wasn’t able to find anything in the Detroit River but I did find two schools of big fish on the lake. I was also able to find a shallow bite up the St. Clair River. I thought I could catch 2 - 3/12 lb fish on two different channel swings which had a good mix of cover.
I had found enough fish too be excited going into this event. My deep fish were the right size to knock one out of the park here but I still had a lot of uncertainty about the run. I had never made this run before and it was a fairly long one. We launched out of Trenton MI. which is in the Detroit River where it dumps into Lake Erie. This meant I had to run the whole Detroit River plus go across St. Clair and up the St. Clair River (to my furthest spot). If you haven’t driven the Detroit River before, it’s NASTY in the afternoons. The time it would take me to get back was my biggest worry because can’t be late and you don’t want to be too early because I had nothing to fish near the check-in. There is a section of the river that is known by tournament anglers as the “Miracle Mile” and trust me it’s named appropriately. So I got as much info about what to expect of the run from guys who knew this place well by talking to guys at the tournament meeting the night before. From the meeting I headed back to the hotel to get everything ready for another day of fun…I hoped.
Curt
This event I used three different baits. My main bait and the one I caught all my fish on was a green pumpkin Slammer made by X Zone Lures (formerly called Strike Zone Tournament Baits). I also employed a 3 1/2 inch green pumpkin tube on a 1/4 ounce jig head and a 3/8 ounce black and blue flipping jig with a black Zoom Big Salty Chunk. I threw the Slammer on 6lb test
Well this trip to Maryland's Chesapeake Bay was much less productive for me than in 2009. The tidal fishery whooped my butt this time around. Once again I fished for smallmouth in the Susquehanna River however it was a different time of year than last year and those big fish just weren't around. After practice I knew this was going to be a brutal event and just catching a limit each day would
My answer --- They could charge twice as much and I would still have two on my boat. Everywhere I go I get asked "what are those things sticking up on the back of your boat?" Well they are Power Poles, the next thing you are going to want to add to your rig. Power Poles are a hydraulic shallow water anchor which will silently anchor your boat with the push of a button in depths of 8 feet
It's always great when you can fish a tournament with only two rods on the deck and this was one of those times. I was dragging tubes and dropshots in 14-18 ft of water and I was also dropshoting directly below the boat. For the tube I was using a 7' MH Abu Garcia Vendetta Spinning rod paired with a Abu Garcia Soron STX 20 reel with 20lb SpiderWire Stealth braid and a 10lb Trilene 100%
Sunday April 17, 2011 BassTalk is a great learning tool for any angler. Each event features 6 of the countries top anglers and the best part is all the great food!!! $75 ($30 for kids 14 and under) gets you six seminars from some the most knowledgable speakers in the industry, coffee and snacks in the morning, lunch and great deals on electronics from the folks at Radioworld at the end of
Curt Richardson is a Canadian tournament pro who fishes the FLW Stren Series Northern Division, the B.A.S.S. Northern Opens, and various Canadian events. His blog gives you a behind the scenes look into the world of competitive bass fishing.
