Lake St. Clair Day 2 Coverage
It's cut day in Michigan
Quick links
Bass, Brews and BBQ Festival details
Grigsby's day one leading patterns story
Douglas update
According to FLW Senior Director of Tournament Operations Bill Taylor, Josh Douglas possessed an invalid license for the Canadian waters he was fishing on day one and this morning. Therefore, his day one catch was disqualified, and after throwing back his fish from this morning, Douglas was granted a restart at around 2:15 p.m. He'll continue to fish in Michigan waters where he is legally licensed to fish. Douglas reportedly had nearly 22 pounds in the livewell before his restart.
2:05 p.m. – Signing off the blog
We haven't received official word on the Douglas situation, but if we do, we'll log back on and file an update. In the meantime, we're signing off the blog. Weigh-in starts at 3:15 p.m. ET. Come out to Lake St. Clair Metropark and enjoy the Bass, Brews and BBQ Festival if you're in the area, or watch weigh-in live at FLWFishing.com. Thanks for following along on day two of the FLW Tour event presented by Mercury at Lake St. Clair.
1:35 p.m. – Birge has a giant stringer
They don't count 'til we weigh 'em, but Zack Birge reportedly has what could be the heaviest stringer of the tournament so far. A 5-11 culled out a 3-8, boosting Birge to nearly 26 pounds. Yesterday he weighed in 15-7 and was in 131st place. Talk about a major turnaround.
1:30 p.m. – A situation is developing with Douglas
Some unfortunate news has just been reported. Nothing is official yet, but apparently Josh Douglas was ticketed for having the wrong fishing license in Canadian waters. The conservation officer told him to throw back three of his fish (his license apparently was only good for keeping two bass). Douglas is making his way back to U.S. waters now. We've spoken with tournament director Bill Taylor who is aware of the situation, but he hasn't been able to discuss details with Douglas yet due to poor cell service where Douglas was fishing. As we said, nothing is official, but the infraction could lead to Douglas being disqualified. We'll update again once we have official word from Taylor.
1:12 p.m. – More to report
One of our on-the-water reporters just made it back into cell range and has a string of updates to provide:
Kyle Cortiana has a 13-pound limit.
Dylan Hays is hanging tight at 23.
Brad Knight still has 20.
Grigsby is mostly done fishing. He has 23 1/2 still.
Luke Dunkin has 16.
Brian Latimer also has 16.
Chris McCall has 15.
Scott Canterbury has 17.
J. Todd Tucker has 15.
Gagliardi has improved to 18-plus.
1:10 p.m. – Updates
Josh Douglas is having himself a solid day. The Minnesota pro just landed a 5-pounder to bump his weight up to 21 pounds.
The Aussie Carl Jocumsen is still stuck with 18 to 19 pounds. A kicker should keep Carl in the top 30.
Cody Meyer just culled up to bring his total weight to around 20 pounds. He is definitely in contention to go fishing tomorrow.
Anthony Gagliardi has a limit of solid fish to bring his weight to at least 18 pounds – a improvement over his 10-2 bag from yesterday.
Bryan Thrift is hot on the heels of Mark Rose. We have word that Thrift has 21-plus pounds of smallmouths in his livewell at the moment. This AOY race is getting more and more interesting.
12:45 p.m. – Rose
The reports are slim right now as most of our crew is in Canadian waters. However, we do have one report that Mark Rose is still hovering in the 12 to 13-pound range. Mark will certainly need to catch a few afternoon kickers to prevent Scott Martin or Bryan Thrift from taking over the AOY race. The good news for Rose is that things can happen quick on this body of water – running into a wolf pack of 4-5 pounders he can easily change the outcome of his day.
11:48 a.m. – Dobson has 22
Local favorite Scott Dobson has 22 pounds. He's in good shape for the weekend.
Michael Wooley had a slow morning, and isn’t surprised. He caught his bag after lunch yesterday. His co-angler, Darius Kohl, weighed 17-plus yesterday and has another decent bag already today that puts him in the 32-pound range.
11:38 a.m. – Reyes tops 20
Texas pro Jason Reyes has 20-plus to go with 18-12 from yesterday.
Justin Atkins, the reigning Cup champ, has a limit for about 16 pounds. He's hoping for more wind. The report right now is that it's still pretty glassy on the south shore in Canada, but there is a little chop along the U.S. side.
Rose apparently broke a big one off and lost another good one. It's not going well for him today.
11:24 a.m. – The leaders are blasting them again
Expect to see the same names near the top of the standings again today. Chad Grigsby, the tournament leader, has 23 1/2 pounds. Dylan Hays, who started the day in fifth, has about 24 pounds. Eleventh-place pro Brad Knight has 23 pounds. St. Clair is showing out again thanks to sunny skies that seem to help the bite and a lack of forecasted wind that makes it easy to run and set up on just about anything out there. It's going to be another wild weigh-in.
Alex Davis reports just two keepers and a frustrating morning of fishing. He's covering a lot of water and trying to figure these fish out.
Koby Kreiger has five in the box, but they're little ones.
11:15 a.m. – Rose struggling
Mark Rose is fishing in an armada of boats, but it's not going well for him. He has 12 to 13 pounds. According to our reporter, the frustration is starting to set in for the Pennzoil Marine Angler of the Year leader. He's understandably upset about his performance thus far.
11 a.m. – Robertson is done for the day; Arey tops 20
Darrel Robertson is pounding on them again. His scale says 21 pounds, but yesterday he weighed his fish on the same scale and was off by 5 pounds total. So, who knows exactly what he has. Robertson says to call it 23, and we'll see at weigh-in. He's done fishing for the day anyway. No point in burning up his fish, he figures. He reports losing a 6-pounder earlier in the day that might have pushed him up around the 25-pound mark. Yeesh.
Matt Arey is fishing the Canadian side and is up to 20 pounds for the day.
Scott Suggs has a mid- to upper teens bag and is probably a good keeper away from making the cut.
Bradley Dortch has 16 to 17 pounds.
10:42 a.m. – Birge is having a big day; Batts struggling to keep his day-one pace
Oklahoma's Zack Birge is walloping them this morning on St. Clair. He has about 24 pounds in the livewell. That's called gettin' it done. Yesterday he had 15-7 and was in 131st place. He probably has right around 40 pounds total, and yesterday the 30th-place weight was 20 pounds, 1 ounce. He's going to be right around the cut line this afternoon.
Clayton Batts, who weighed in 20 pounds on day one and was still only in 32nd place, has a limit in the lower teens. He's fishing for late spanwers where the water is just 65 degrees. It seems his stuff has fizzled out today.
10:17 a.m. – Big weights coming from Canada
FLW Digital Editor Jody White just rolled into the waters of Canada and found a mess of anglers fishing among one another. He sent a hot list of updates that includes some impressive bags:
Andy Young has a 3-pounder and two 4s.
Braxton Setzer has two good ones and three little ones in his limit.
Aaron Britt already has 21 pounds.
Josh Douglas also has 21 pounds.
Carl Jocumsen just culled up for a half-pound upgrade. He has 18 1/2.
Gagliardi is struggling with just 9 pounds.
Stand by for more.
10:00 a.m. – Meyer joins the 15-pound club; wind is starting to pick up
Conditions havne't changed a whole lot over the last couple of hours, except that the wind is starting to blow just a little bit. Trees along St. Clair's shoreline have a bit of gentle sway to them. It's supposed to build throughout the day.
Cody Meyer has a 15-pound limit. He's one of many in that weight range.
9:45 a.m. – Robertson has a couple bigs
Second-place pro Darrel Robertson is catching a ton of fish, but mostly the wrong species. He's dialed in on walleyes and perch. The two smallmouths that the veteran Oklahoma pro has landed will go 4 and 5 pounds. At least he's on some quality bass.
Cory Johnston, who became a father earlier this week, has a limit for 15 to 16 pounds.
Ryan Chandler, who's currently in third, was struggling to get bit when we found him earlier this morning. He seemed unconcerned about the slow day.
8:55 a.m. – A few more updates
It's a gorgeous sunny day here in Detroit, Mich., and the smallmouths are starting to fire. Updates are rolling in much faster now.
Jim Jones has a limit for 16 pounds. So does Jason Reyes, who had five in the box before 8 a.m. Cameron Gautney has 15 pounds, and so does Greg Bohannan.
For reference, 15 pounds was good for 138th place on day one.
Interestingly, the lake is slick calm right now, but the forecast calls for south winds up to 13 mph this afternoon. Catching fish early, before the lake gets bumpy, could be really key in having a good second day.
8:45 a.m. – Updates from Canada
One of our reporters on the Canadian side hopped back into an area with cell service and sent a list of updates. Here goes:
Justin Atkins has zero.
Jeremy Lawyer was putting on a clinic in Canada. We saw him catch three good ones, but weren't able to get a report about what, if any, he had before we pulled up.
Matt Arey has three, including a 5, 4 and 2.
Luke Dunkin has a limit for 16 pounds.
Jay Kendrick caught a couple nice keepers early on this morning.
Mark Rose is fishing in the same area as the guys previously mentioned. We're heading to get an update momentarily.
Most of the anglers fishing this area are sharing a big flat that's about 18 feet deep, with scattered grass clumps. They're dragging tubes and other finesse baits. There's not much drifting going on because the lake is slick calm. Also, there seems to be a pretty good bug hatch over on the Canadian side.
8:38 a.m – Scott Martin continues putting pressure on the AOY leader
Scott Martin is nipping at Mark Rose's heels in the AOY race. Yesterday, Martin caught 21 pounds, 8 ounces to open the tournament in 16th place. This morning he already has 16 pounds in the livewell.
Jason Meninger had a rough day one. He caught 14-6 for 148th place. This morning he's off to a decent start with two 4 1/2-pounders and a 2-pounder.
8:35 a.m. – David Williams is getting after it
Smith Lake tournament champion David Williams is enjoying his morning on St. Clair. Williams has four keepers in the box for about 14 pounds.
8:25 a.m. – Dobson lands another; Grigsby fishing an area with poor cell service
First off, we apologize that there's been no update on leader Chad Grigsby. Cell service is sketchy on St. Clair, particularly once you wander into Canadian waters. Some members of the reporting team are having issues getting their phones to work on the Canadian side. We'll get an update as soon as we can.
Dobson has his third keeper in the boat. It's a 3-pounder caught on a good ol' tube. He caught it after moving a hundred yards or so from his starting spot. Dobson is fishing up around the St. Clair River. The water there is about 68 degrees.
7:56 a.m. – Dobson has one (UPDATE: Make it two, barely)
Scott Dobson is on the board with one keeper. He lost another, but that's all the action to report on him so far. Dobson says the fishing doesn't get good until 11 a.m. anyway. He's sharing his water with a couple of walleye trollers. No word on whether or not they're having any luck.
UDATE: Just a couple minutes after that last post Dobson boxed a squeaker. It wasn't much, and it won't do him any good if he has to take it to weigh-in. “We're gonna put it in the livewell just because I never throw back a fish," he said. "Don’t take a picture of this thing.”
7:30 a.m. – Reehm scores on a nice one
Clark Reehm is working a rock pile where he caught most of his 21-pound, 3-ounce bag yesterday. He broke off a good one early but followed up with a 4-6 to get on the board in a good way. Cody Meyer, Clark Wendlandt and Jimmy Reese are all fishing around the mouth of the Detroit River, near where Jeff Sprague is fishing.
Updates are slow this morning, but don't expect that to be the case for long.
7:10 a.m. – Sprague is the first on the board
Jeff Sprague scores first on day two. He has a pair of keepers. The first one ate a topwater bait. The second missed the topwater, but fell for a drop-shot that Sprague pitched in to follow up.
7 a.m. – Here we go again
It's cut day on Lake St. Clair, but there's so much more at stake today than just making it into Saturday's top 30. Today, most of the Forrest Wood Cup berths will be settled. Dreams of making it to Lake Ouachita and winning the biggest tournament of them all will come to an end, while for some pros, the journey will just be getting started.
By day's end, we'll have a Co-angler of the Year, and probably a Rookie of the Year. We might even have an Angler of the Year.
Before the -OYs get settled, however, there's a full day of fishing on one of the best smallmouth fisheries in the country.
Today promises to be warmer, muggier and windier than day one, which in all likelihood will impact overall results. Yesterday, 32 limits of more than 20 pounds were weighed in by the pro field. That number will probably drop today. Expect to see some shakeups in the leaderboard as well.
We'll have the updates rolling right here all day long. Stay tuned.
Conditions
Temperature at takeoff: 71 degrees
Forecast high: 89 degrees
Sky: sunny
Precipitation: 0 percent chance of rain
Wind: North at 4 mph but building throughout the day
Tournament Details
Folgers Morning Takeoff: 6:30 a.m. ET at Lake St. Clair Metropark, 31300 Metro Parkway, Harrison Township, MI
Weigh-in: Thursday and Friday at 3:15 p.m. ET at Lake St. Clair Metropark and 4 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday at Lake St. Clair Metropark
FLW Expo: 12 to 4 p.m. ET Saturday and Sunday at Lake St. Clair Metropark
FLW Live: Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 a.m. ET to 12:30 p.m. ET