It's been a while!!!

So sorry it's been a while since my last post. Maybe I should change the website from yourbasspro.com to youreverythingbutbasspro.com. Last weekend we fished the last regular season tournament for the "fishers of men"trail on Lake Erie. Considering that all we had to do was show up to make it to regionals, we looked at the day as a practice day for the regional tournament that is being held on lake Erie in two weeks. Although we went into the tournament with the mindset that we were just practicing, we surely wanted to catch more than on lousy fish.

A bad day, but still better than a sharp stick in your eye.

Stay tuned, in the next couple weeks I will journal the practice and preparation for our final big tournament of the year.

Wonderland Marine West Open Tournament

Last weekend was the 9th annual Wonderland tournament out of Erie Metro park near Flat Rock Michigan. This event brings out the best once a year for a winner take all team event. For the last 4 years, Nick and I have had average to slightly above average results. This year fortunately we were able to finish 16th out of about 110 boats. Our best finish yet for this tournament but still somewhat bittersweet. When you get as close as we have been this year, it's somewhat hard to swallow b/c it's been a while since we have experienced a win.

Mother Nature brought us 5 foot waves and cooler than normal temperatures, our decision to optimize our fishing time by staying close to the ramp turned out to be an extremely wise one. About half way through the day, we took a wave over the front of the boat that nearly caused me to lose balance and go in myself. If it hadn't been for quick thinking to immediately fall on my butt, I would have been swimming. One of the coolest things I experienced actually happened in the same conditions the day before. My buddy Craig Deck and I were pre-fishing when I hooked about a 12 lb sheephead. He asked me if I needed the net and I told not to worry about it. I simply timed the waves just right and when the peak of the wave went higher than the gunnel of the boat I slid the fish on the deck. Craig was amazed!! Plus he had just caught his first drop-shot fish so he was already in a good mood. Think GOD, because his tournament day turned out to be a nightmare, but we won't elaborate on that.

Above is a picture of my little boy Spencer. He was trying on my fishhedz mask while I was vacuming the boat last night. There was so much standing water that I had to empty Dad's 5 gallon shop vac four times.

This Saturday I have a Fishersofmen tournament on Erie as well. Wish me luck!!

Non-Fishing Weekend

Last weekend we were blessed to be able to go on a camping/canoeing trip with a group of my best friends. We canoed the upper platte river in Honor Michigan. Everyone had a great time!! I can honestly say that If I wasn't fishing, camping would be the next best thing to me! Attached is a picture of the beautiful women that joined us, our wives.

You win some, You lose some...

Last weekend we had an opportunity to go to lake Erie in the Loraine, Vermillion area and prefish for the upcoming BFL. What a bust. Unfortunately we only caught a handfull of smallies and a boat full of Drum (Sheephead, Poorman's lobster, etc) You can't go out and catch them good everytime. Lesson learned!!!

Another good Article about a father daughter trip to lake St. Clair

Guys and Gals, You must go to www.bassproz.com to read the article about Cecil Cole and his daughter Cierra. Cecil is a well known fisherman from the east side of the state. Whenever he has a chance, he takes his daughter with him. In this instance, he fished with her in a fishers of men tournament. It is a really good article, and another example of why it is important to introduce youngsters to the sport of fishing.

The reason why I fish...

As a youngster, my dad fished every weekend. I always knew that there was a spot in the boat for me. He never pushed me to go, but always invited me. I never will forget the gleam in his eyes when I would catch a big one. Because he never forced me, I never lost interest in the sport. While on vacation as a kid, while he was on the boat, I often times fished from shore and anticipated him coming back to take me.

Not too many kids these days are interested in fishing as much as the one I met over memorial weekend.
At about 6 in the evening the day before our the BBT memorial 100, Nick and I were looking for spawners and Nick took me to a channel which he said usually has fish. "There is a catch", he said. "The cove that I am going to take you in usually has a sprinkler on keeping fisherman out. This little boy's dad keeps the sprinkler on all day until him and his friends have a chance to fish for the bedding bass that lay all throughout this cove."

As we rounded the bend, sure enough, the sprinkler was on. Knowing how determined Nick is, he went under the sprinkler and found the mother load of keeper bass. About 4 to be exact. All of them around 2 - 3 pounds. About 3 minutes in the cove, out came the boy's dad to talk and describe why he keeps this sprinkler on. Little did he know that Nick talked to him 2 years ago about the same thing. The gentleman was extremely nice and asked that we don't catch them because of his son David who is an avid outdoors men. He said that his son would be back in a minute and would love to talk fishing with us. He even went out of his way to ask us if we wanted a cold drink. Although we were both really thirsty, we kindly declined on his offer but told him that if he can get his son out by the time we double back from fishing the remainder of the channel, we would love to give him a few baits and talk with him. In the back of my mind, I surely thought with a little barter, we might get them sprinklers off for the tournament the next day.

As we turned around to head out of the channel, out came David with a grin from ear to ear. We talked to him quite a bit and even offered the bounty to possibly fish his cove the next day. Nick offered him a 7'0" American Eagle baitcasting rod and a pinnacle reel (the exact combo that he lost over the side of the boat 3 weeks later) in return to fish his spot in the morning. David rubbed his hands together like he was making a business deal, thought about it pretty hard, but decided against it. We told him that even though we were going to stay away from his spot, we couldn't promise him others would do the same. He still agreed that his friends would be really mad at him if he let us catch all of the fish out of his little honey hole. David's Dad again invited us in their home to talk fishing, and perhaps get something to eat or drink. We obviously couldn't deny them twice so we went in to take a tour of their home, which was absolutely beautiful. We exchanged numbers, used their facilities, and were off on the water to launch the boat before it got dark.

The next day we entered their channel to fish another spot and saw two tournament anglers get under the sprinkler and catch a few of David's pet fish. I didn't quite feel sorry for David by the end of the day though. We shortly ran in to him and his Dad in another marina where David was catching anything he could put his eyes on. While Nick and I only had 2 fish in the boat. Attached is a picture of his stringer from that day. He himself could have cashed a check during that tournament.


David is the reason why I fish. I can only hope that my little Spencer grows up to be just like him. I sure know that I will sleep better at night with him in his bed, excited to get up and fish with me in the morning. Now I realize why my Dad had that gleam in his eyes while fishing with me.

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.