Saturday the 21st of June was the much anticipated Detroit River Open put on by NBAA (National Bass Anglers Association). The tournament morning started like many for Nick and I. We stopped and got some snacks for the boat, listened to some good music and proceeded to talk strategy for the day. When we arrived at the ramp, much to our surprise, we drew boat #1 out of 98. To add to the excitement, most of the states big names were in attendance including last years FLW winner Steve Clapper. We launched at 7am and had a 15lb limit by 8:30am. The only mistake we made was not to leave that spot sooner. IT IS SO HARD TO LEAVE BITING FISH!!! By 11am we finally decided that we couldn't get any bigger fish from our spot and we had to make a move. Our second spot was nothing more than a large flat in about 10ft of water with a weed bed in it the size of our boat. On about my 3rd cast with my chrome and blue rattle trap I hooked and landed a 4 pounder. From 11:30 until 2pm we proceeded to upgrade (by ounces) every fish in our live well. Nick had a little honey hole were he caught about 6 fish in a row, including our biggest fish of the day. Needless to say, he was in a zone for about a 1/2 hour, kind of like a dog on point.:) At 2:15 we made a decision to leave and head back towards the launch ramp leaving us considerable time to maybe find that elusive 5 pounder that haunted us. Fortunately for us, that decision turned into the best one of the day. We only had about 20 miles to run but about half way down we started to see flashes of lightning and hear rumbles of thunder coming from what looked like the mouth of the Detroit river, right where we were headed. We stopped for a few moments, put our rain gear on and battoned down the hatches. Whenever you are on a body of water like Lake St. Clair, you have to respect the fact that it can turn ugly extremely fast whenever there is a hint of bad weather, and that my friends is exactly what happened. With about 20 minutes until we had to be back, our thoughts of upgrading our limit turned to concern about making it in, in time. The area from just before windmill point to the lauch at St. Jeans had a visibility of about 40 feet and winds kicking up to around 40 mph. It was extremely hard to see let alone not worry about other boats seeing you. We had about 10 minutes and an 1/8th of a mile to go when it decided to pelt us with nickel sized hail. I hunkered down while Nick had to keep his head up and eyes peeled on the surroundings. Thank GOD for gps or at any moment we may have hit ground or worst yet even something on shore. Fortunately for us we made it in with about 2 minutes left although 18 teams did not make it back in time and were disqualified from the tournament. Although I feel for the teams that did not get back in time, I also respect them for not trying to push it and risk their lives as well as others. At the end of the day, we finished 3 pounds out of the lead and ended up in 19th place. This tournament, like many others this year is somewhat bittersweet. We did have a great time and the adrenaline rush from that storm will last with me forever. They say, hind sight is 20/20 but we were only 2 giant smallies from winning a new boat and I am confident that if we would have went to that second spot sooner, we may have caught them. Tournament fishing is all about making the right decisions and in a tournament like that one, you have to go for broke because second place is like kissing your sister. We gave it our all and I wouldn't have it any other way.
