Thread: Round one wrap up

There is a thread on the main forum talking about picking a fishing partner. I agree with some of it, but not all of it! So, before I wrap things up, let me say this:
First and foremost, you have to pick someone that is "like you". The main article says differently. You need to have the same demeanor. A type "A" and type "B" personality doesn't work. You end up with one person being dominant and one person not..... By like you, I mean: Fish the same style. Have a similar personality and sense of humor. Willingness to go all day. I like to consider myself a diesel... I'm not built for speed, but I'll go all day long. You have to WANT to be there regardless of the weather. You have to be on the same sheet of music. You have to be willing to try new things. Most importantly, you have to have similar goals! That said, here you go:

When we started this, what goals do we have. Is it to get our feet wet in this tournament trail system? (Yes). Is it to put our skills up against the best anglers in the state of Michigan (and world) and see where we stack up? (Yes) Is it to try new things or put some of our skills up against more well known stuff? (Yes)

I've fished with Kevin and watched him fish over the last few years. What I noticed was that, like me, he was a Diesel. Stand at the front of the boat, cold hands, winds blowing, everyone else in the boat is sitting in the seats, and he is still fishing. Just like me. He isn't a "his way goes", we do it my way, type of person... just like me. He laughs at my jokes so he must have a similar sick twisted sense of humor... just like me.

When fishing these tournaments, you have moments when you just don't know where to go or what to do. You sit down, talk it over and make a decision. Sometimes it can be as simple as... Kevin, I have no idea, you decide. There is no right or wrong answer. Next time, he is going to say the same thing to me. When fish are caught... you never say "I caught 5"... it is always we!

One thing you CANNOT do is to follow the leader. Over the weekend I saw far too many guys watching the leaderboard on day one and making a decision on what to do for day two. Fishing areas is one thing but the guys at the top are fishing a different style than us. One they we are not familiar with and have never learned. We know why they are doing it. Going out and putting a trolling rod in the water to try and come up with a way that is similar is what a ton of guys did. We did not. We stuck to our plan and lived with the end result.

I posted most the stuff for Saturday. By the end of the day, we were in 67th place. Is it far down the board... middle of the road. Is it where we wanted to be... NO. You HAVE to look at the silver lining and go back to your goals and take solace in knowing that you did EVERYTHING you could do. You left it out there. WE put 5 fish on the scale. Some guys didn't do that. We put 5 fish on the scale jigging... MOST did not do that. So, we put our "Jigging" skills against some of the best fisherman in the state of Michigan and came out on top. We fished some of the toughest conditions we have ever been in and put a limit of fish in the boat. We tried new baits, new techniques and did what we needed to do to put a limit in the boat! I would say that is a success! 15th place and 67th place were separated by less than 5lbs (one medicore fish).

We knew what the top 15 boats were doing. They were hand lining fish 4 foot off the bottom that were staging in the Lewiston channel. The problem was... we are not setup to do that. We don't know how to do that. Going in to day two, we knew we had to make a move. Go to where the big fish were staging. If we caught them jigging, then we did. One thing would could NOT do was get wrapped up in finding some other way to get to the fish suspended off the bottom. We would spend too much time trying to figure something out.

On day two, they invert the field. Kevin and I got to sleep in. We launched at 7:15 am and were 13th from the end. Boat 60 started first in our flight at 7:45. Waves at the mouth of the river were 3 footers. Ever blasted off in three foot waves after 47 other boats? Let me tell you it is a 4 foot washing machine of waves coming from every direction. I saw a guy wearing a snowmobile helmet (wish I was joking) and several wearing goggles. We attempted to make it around Celeron Island and towards the Lewiston Channel. Unfortunately, the wind and waves were a safety concern so we made a decision together to go back to where we hit fish yesterday. It took forever to get there.

The river flows south, the wind was coming from the south. Normally, you have your trolling motor on 2.5 to stay vertical and the boat pointed North. Today, we pointed it into the wind going down river and had to have it on 7 to 9 and sometimes 10. We made 4 passes and just couldn't feel the bottom. Kev needed to warm his hands and re-tie and we decided to move to another area I had done well at Pre-fishing. During this time, 4 footers were rolling UP river and they were only separated by a few feet. Going up and nosing into waves was not fun. I will say that Kevin's boat deck was washed with at least 15 gallons of water on 4 occasions. I determined it was not safe or smart to go across the river. We found a spot on the back side of the new fishing pier that offered some shelter. We tried and tried to hit a fish in there but couldn't do it. We only needed 1 fish really. Looking around, we only saw hand line boats. You could not jig. Period. In the end, we made the smart decision to head for the dock. It was a good thing as the mouth of Erie was rolling with consistent 3 and 4 footers with two 6's added in for good measure. The side windshield was completely frozen (on my side) which made watching for floating debris impossible without putting your head into the spray.

We weighed zero fish on day two and 11 guys (some only having a couple of fish for the weekend) went over us. We ended up 78th place. Was it where we wanted to be... NO. BUT, we fished against the best guys on that river in the toughest conditions. Ones you would not do if you didn't pay your money to go type of deal. We out fished almost every jig boat on the river. Did we do what we set out to do? I think so. Had it only been a jigging tournament who knows how things would have panned out. I am proud of how we did, how we handled the weather, and the decisions we made.

Thanks to H2OHammer.com for some of the best baits I've ever had the pleasure of putting on my line. Thanks to my dad for the Zippo Hand warmers (best idea he has had in awhile). Thanks to Steve for the Propane tanks. We would not have been able to re-tie our baits without it. Thanks to Al, and Steve for pre-fishing with me. Thanks to Mary and Abby (my wife and daughter) for the lunches and snacks they made. Four weeks and we do it all over again. This time in Saginaw. Most will be trolling (just like us) and the playing field might be leveled a little bit. Now, if only someone will get us a 20 foot boat with at least a 250hp motor!!!!

17 degrees and you have to warm up the crapper before you use it!


Day two blast off. A line of 60 boats.


Kevin in a snow storm!


Visibility less than 100ft

I looked at a video on hand lining, it makes sense, but let me feel that bump,and a fish on a pole. I would say most would stay out of the river with weather like that. Good reading as always.