Wednesday, FLW Tournament – Lake St. Clair, Day One
Dan writes:
There’s really only one place that in the last three days I’ve caught any keeper fish, and that’s up in Anchor Bay, so that is where I headed first thing this morning. Straight for the spot where I’d caught that four-and-a-half pound’er the other day. I got on top of that spot, but the wind had shifted around overnight and stirred the water up in that particular area, and I couldn’t see any of the beds that I knew were under there. The fish didn’t like the change in water color either, and we got no bites until we wandered out a little further and the water cleared up again.
We were catching some short fish, and were drifting over a large opening in the grass when I spied a great big bed, and I threw a buoy out to mark the spot. When I came back to it a few minutes later and threw my Gambler tube into it, I saw a keeper smallmouth follow it up to the surface. Had I not seen the fish I would not have spent much time on this bed, but I had no fish in the boat so I stayed and worked it. The fish bit twice and I missed it both times, but that just got me excited and I told my partner that once you get them to start biting it like this, they won’t stop until you catch them. When it bit for the third time, I just got too excited and jerked too hard, breaking her off on the hookset. Of course I was quite upset with myself, and blamed it on the fact that I’m not used to fishing ten-pound test line, so I sat down in the boat, stripped off the ten-pound line and respooled with twelve. I then re-rigged myself a tube, stood up and told my partner “If I can get a fish to bite three times, then I can get her to bite four.” We circled back to my marker and I started throwing in there again. Two minutes later I had her on again, and when I saw the size of her, I knew she was worth the wait. When she finally made it into the net, I had my first fish of the day, a three-and-a-half pound smallmouth.
My second fish came shortly afterwards, this one on a jerkbait. I have had dozens of fish follow my jerkbait in the last few days, so when they continued to do the same today I changed the colors a little, and caught a two-and-a-half pounder almost immediately. Now I had two fish that weighed around six pounds, and was feeling a little better about this area.
We fished a couple more hours though without catching any more keepers. The change in water clarity had me wondering if maybe the fish had moved out deeper, so we got on the big motor and moved out about a quarter-mile. Most of the other tournament boats fishing this area were out here also. The water looked better, and it wasn’t long before I spotted another big bed that I just had to mark with a buoy. I returned to fish it, and the scenario played out exactly like the last time: I missed her twice, then hooked her and broke her off, and then told my partner “I WILL catch this fish.” We gave her a ten-minute rest and when we returned, I put her in the livewell, another two-and-a-half pound’er, with my first tube still stuck in her throat. God, I love smallmouth on the beds!
My partner was catching just one short fish after another by pitching a tube out behind the boat, and eventually got his one keeper of the day, but for some reason I just couldn’t slow down enough for that, and kept throwing the jerkbait while keeping my eyes open for beds. It paid off when another two-and-a-half pound’er jumped on it, and I put my fourth fish in the livewell.
With just about a half-hour left to fish, we wandered over another big bed and I marked it with a buoy. I don’t know how I’m choosing which beds to mark, for there are hundreds of them out here and we’re catching rock bass instead of smallmouth on most of them, but without ever seeing a fish on these beds some little voice in me is just telling me when to throw out a marker. So we returned to this particular marker and I began fishing it. On maybe my twentieth cast I finally got a bite, and, following the pattern for today, missed it. I kept at it though, and about five minutes later got a second bite, and guess what: missed it again! This time though the fish had it for a second, and I got to see a good bend in my rod before she dropped it, so I was confident that this was another fish worth spending time on. It was another fifteen minutes before I got the third bite, and now, a little worried that I was running out of time, I wasn’t paying attention to which rod I was pitching at her with and jerked too hard, breaking her off. This was a heartbreaker, for though I knew that while this one was being more stubborn than the first two, still she was a catchable fish, but I had run out of time for today.
I weighed-in four fish for eleven pounds, one ounce, which left me sitting in 78’th place. That fifth fish, let’s just say two-and-a-half pounds, would have bumped me up into the 30’s. I had her on twice and blew it, and I’m afraid that that mistake is going to cost me in the end here.
Annie writes:
I wanted to use the truck today, therefore, I had to go with Dan at 5:15am to launch the boat. I came home and got a couple more hours of sleep. Before the weigh-in I managed to catch up on our laundry, respond to some emails, and get in a phone call to Dan’s mom.
Dan came in at 3:20, with four good fish. I was very proud of him and feel good about his start in the tournament. We have not had the best practice, so for him to bring in four good one’s today is a big relief. At this point I am just hoping for a check here, not to win. Of course winning would be nice, but I will be satisfied with a check and to keep up with our winning streak. This is the last FLW of the year and if you end with a bad tournament you have way too much time to think about it over the summer.
We returned home (the driving range), around 7pm and had dinner. Dan showered and prepared for tomorrow, and by 9:00 we were caught up with everything and had a nice hour of quality time together.