Detroit River Open 2008

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.

Happy Fathers Day!!

To all of those Dads out there reading this site. Have a great Day.

Next week we will be practicing for the Detroit River open. I will post some reports as soon as I get back.

Muskegon Recap

First of all, let me apologize to everyone folowing this site for my lack of posts lately!!! Things have been quite busy between fishing, work, and dreaded honey do's.

Our tour of Michigan didn't quite go as well as planned. The first stop in Saginaw bay went okay, but we uncovered a trolling motor problem that ended up hurting us for the whole weekend. We ended up weighing 19lbs of smallies, good enough for another top 10. Primarily all of our fish were caught on rattle traps in about a foot and a half of water. Saturday night we began our pre fishing for our muskegon tournament and were able to find quite a few smallies on beds on a lake way north of muskegon. Things were looking good until we looked at the forecast for Monday and it called for 15 - 20 mph winds out of the southwest. By Sunday afternoon we were becoming quite pessimistic on being able to run to our spot from Muskegon up lake Michigan. We decided at the last minute to try to go find something on Muskegon lake in case our plan to run back fires due to the weather. While pre fishing that evening we met quite a pleasant family with a 10 year old boy who might be the next Kevin VanDam. I plan on writing another post about him real soon. Kelly, Ken, or David Micheal, if you are reading this please send me DM's pix. I promised him I would put them on the site!!!

Monday morning I awoke at around 3am to rolling thunder and howling winds. Not a pleasant sound when planning a 80 mile run up the big lake in a bass boat. Nick and I decided after blast off to go to the pier heads anyway just to see what the lake looked like and eliminate the thought of making the run. While in the channel, 4 other boats turned around, one of them being some well known lake erie anglers. Nick stated, "if they aren't running, we aren't running." Which I thought was a pretty good idea considering as the salmon boats were heading out, they would dissapear in the troughs of the waves.

Throughout the afternoon, we fought a broken trolling motor and a lack of knowledge about Muskegon lake. It was a pretty dissapointing day to say the least. We left the lake early after only catching 5 really small male largies.

The moral of the story.... Never put all of your eggs in one basket! Especially for a tournament the you have been looking forward to for the whole year.

Random Info...

Congrats to Nick for finishing 8th in the BFL on Patoka Reservoir in Southern Indiana. Whats awesome about his finish is that he did it without a motor. The day before while practicing he blew his lower unit but stayed to fish anyways.

This weekend him and I will be touring the state fishing two tournaments on opening weekend. First we will be on Saginaw bay on Saturday fishing the Fishers of Men season opener, and then we will be heading over to Muskegon to defend our titles at the BBT Memorial 100 on Monday. Stay tuned to see how we did.

Pre Fishing Shortcuts -Nick Neves Legend Pro

Over the years I have been on various waters that adjoin state land, or have empty lake lots, and or public marina's. I learned years ago while pre fishing an event in Southern Indiana that I could actual pre fish from the shore and cover water much faster. There are multiple advantages to this technique. The first is huge. With todays prices of fuel, instead of driving around a whole lake and iddling endless channels, park the boat and trailer and walk marina's, walk the woods around the lake and observe. This is a real benefit when the fish are spawning. Most beds are shorline and marina spawn oriented and what better a way to see them than above looking straight down. There is less glare, no engine or trolling motor noise and zero mud kicked up in shallow area. Prior to GPS I would also utilize blaze orange tape and mark a twig directly above a hard to re locate bed. While I will not advocate littering, the bio degradable orange survey tape used by hunters marking trails and surveyors work great and will break down.

I will give 2 words of warning involving this method however, first make sure the marina doesn't have signs posted "no fishing" a small bribe may be all it takes, and lastly with the woods in spring and tall grasses CHECK FOR TICKS !! I had the sickening find of two ticks on my body after walking the banks of Barkley Lake in Kentucky, the fish were worth it as Matt Morgan will attest and we covered alot of water via foot, but I still itch writing this tip as I think of my afternoon find.

Give it a shot and good luck on the lake.

Special thanks to my sponsors ; Legend Bass Boats, Mercury Motors, Poor Boys Baits, Mizmo, GAMMA, Snack Daddy Lures, American Eagle Rods and Remax Mid-Michigan

Nick Neves

Las Vegas...

I will be gone to Vegas from now until next Monday. Good fishing to all!!! To the left is a picture of one of many fish that Nick and my Dad caught today on Lake St. Clair. If I were you, I would get there as fast as you can. Reports of 80-100 fish are common and many fish over 5lbs. Remember, Please release them immedietley so we can do this for many years to come.

Bed Fishing

Now that we are in the heat of the spawn here in Mid-Michigan. What is your favorite bed fishing technique? I have tried some really off the wall stuff but my two favorite lures to use when the bass are on their beds are a poorboys craw on a small ballhead jig or a 4 inch senko on a weightless hook. I first throw the craw to see how aggresive the fish is. If it doesn't bite right away, I reel in and throw the senko. The senko really works well once the fish is aggrivated b/c it just kind of sits in that strike zone for an extended ammount of time. I don't throw the senko first b/c it is harder to make a precise cast with that then it is with the little craw. Once the fish realizes that there is something in it's territory then it is easier to pick off with the weightless senko.

I'ts also very important to try and cast from the side of the bed as opposed to directly in front of it. Fish with escape routes to deep water feel less pressured then those in which are trapped with nowhere to go.

My most off the wall presentation for bed fishing is a suspending jerkbait. It's a sure fire bait when bed fishing, especially if you put a split shot up about 3 inches off the line tie. I resembles a minnow trying to look for eggs. The downside of using this rig is that you can only really use it on beds in open water because of the two sets of trebles on the bait.