A box of chocolates
The Detroit River FLW Tour Open has come and gone and it was an eye-opener for me personally. I have fished all my life and covered tournaments across the country but I’ve never seen fishing quite like its done on St Clair and Lake Erie. For starters, the contour of St. Clair seems to change less than an inch per mile.
There are areas like those along the shipping channel, where massive freighters leave 20 feet tall wakes, that have a significant depth change. However the Bell River Hump, where half the top 10 fished (including winner Larry Nixon and runner-up Bill McDonald), is basically a 10-square mile flat under 14 feet of water.
The fish didn’t seem to care about contour. Some of the fishermen claimed the fish related to different bottom compositions, some to different bait, others to different types of vegetation. Some guys admitted they had no clue at all as to why the fish were where they were, they just were. One thing is for sure; fishing for smallmouth in 14 feet of crystal clear water is its own game entirely.
The conditions constantly changed as well for the anglers. Throughout the first three days the wind varied but was mild at most allowing some of the pros to run out to Erie and compete without risking life and limb in rough waters.
Day three even saw flat calm conditions at one point making it possible to see the cabbage that blanketed the bottom in some of the more productive areas. Vacant beds as well as cruising drum, smallmouths and muskies were also visible through the glassy surface.
It was day four that finally revealed what a little wind can do on St. Clair and Erie. A stiff wind greeted the anglers at takeoff and proceeded to torment them throughout the morning. Instead of worrying about the next bite, anglers now had to figure out a way to keep the trolling motor wet.
It was the angler that knew how to adapt that inevitably prevailed. Nixon, who has decades of St. Clair experience to pull from, made the decisions needed to pull off a commanding victory. When to throw a swimbait? When to drag a drop-shot? When to stay? When to go? All questions that some of the other competitors were still trying to derive the answer too. The veteran, the General never missed a step.
The determinant factor for Nixon was the wind. In stiff wind he would ease the drop-shot around, giving the fish time to find it in the decreased visibility. Calmer conditions made it possible for the fish to track moving baits better so it wasn’t until the wind died down that he would exchange the spinning rod for the swimbait.
Decisions like that are hard enough to make without tossing five more variables on top of them, but that’s the reality of professional fishing. In the words of Forrest Gump, you never know what you’re gonna get. That statement, though elementary, sums up what professional fishing is, a constant barrage of moving parts that rarely seem to fit up. However, if and when they do, it can be to the tune of $100,000. Congrats again to Nixon and see you soon at Wheeler.