D&R Grand River 2023

It was going to be interesting to see how this one would shake out. The first thing to note is what a dumpster fire the Grand Haven Launch ramp is. If you go there you will want to use the ramps on either end of the launch. Those are the only pavement ones and there were a lot of tires spinning in all the rest of the gravel slips. We were really hoping for a good boat number in this event so we could at least fish one thing without being behind other boats. To my surprise Trevor came walking down the dock pretty quickly with boat number 9!

Off to Spring Lake it was and we actually got the first place we wanted. The only problem is the fish didn’t get the memo to show up there today. What should have been a place that would kick out 5 keepers only produced 3 short fish. Was it going to be one of those days? Spot number 2 went much better. We picked up 2 14.5 inchers right away. It was the Trevor show right now and the next 2 fish were a 2.5 pounder and one around 3 pounds. Those 2 fish really took the edge off as we had something to build on. It didn’t take long to snatch another keeper and then maybe cull once. We fished a couple more things and it was becoming obvious that it was a dock day today. I was getting pretty frustrated not being able to snatch a bonus fish from in between the docks despite seeing some activity on the surface.

One thing that is interesting about Spring Lake dock fishing is that it can be hard to see other competitors especially if you are tucked up in the docks. We were tucked up in the docks at one point and a competitor boat came racing in, set down, and went to start fishing. Trevor was seeing red but having fished against these guys for years (Jimmy V and Jason W), I knew they just didn’t see us. I said just poke the nose of the boat out there so they can see you. It was definitely a surprise to them that we were there. They apologized, fired up the big motor, and were off. A classy move as always from those guys and it is nice to compete against teams like that!

We just kind of kept the trolling motor down for awhile. Trying to capitialize on the morning bite. Things weren’t fast and furious but we were culling little by little. We got a couple decent ones on a chatterbait and Trevor kept catching them on the docks. We ran a few more areas and I had one of those random places I caught a nice one in practice. These things usually don’t work out but we had to try. Sure enough someone was home and despite almost getting us around a dock pole we added another fish close to 3 pounds. We had a couple “good ones” at this point, one over 2.5, and some solid 2 and 1/4s. It was a good start but we needed a big one. It was a good position to be in as we were already at an “above average” day and if the place fished as bad as it did last year at this time than we were probably in check range. However if we could find a way to get 2 big bites maybe it would be our day.

The River in the afternoon sure felt like the place for us to get a big bite so we began to work our way out of Spring Lake. We did cull one more time before we left off a dock to give us a little more. Trevor had some confidence places in the river to try and I had an area or 2 where I felt like there was some activity. Off to one of those confidence places and it was time to trade in the Spring Lake gear for flipping sticks and frogs. Area number 1 produced a few bites flipping but nothing that would help. The frog never got touched despite being in some good water for it. Those flashes of activity with the flipping stick definitely gave us the confidence we could catch one but also made it apparent they weren’t quite getting it right. We had missed more fish than we had caught.

On the way to another area that had some fish eating bait, there was a stretch of river that just looked right. Some wind, some pads, some mats, something about it just made it look good enough to give it a try. It was the right call and we got that right bite. The fish got to the top of the mat and was an obvious 4 pounder when it just came off. There was nothing that could have been done differently, it just wasn’t meant to be for us. It still hurt bad though as we knew if that bite got in the boat we would have a pretty solid bag. We probably should have pressed a little deeper into the next area to see if we could relocate the fish I had seen in practice. But there were just too many places we needed to be.

Another very high percentage area let us down and there were boats on some other stretches Trevor knew were holding fish. We were running out of time and options, we were catching a few fish here and there just none that helped us. We had around 30 minutes and we got the last bite of the day. Fortunately this one gave up in the pads and skied all the way back to the boat and in the net. It wasn’t a giant by any means but it was close to 3 pounds and was absolutely going to make a difference for us. I was pumped! I love some last minute tournament heroics and you just don’t know how much 1 fish can change your day. Those are the moments I live for in tournament fishing and what make it so great. It was going to be interesting to see if we had done enough. Either way we both felt good about our day and there were no regrets however it shook out.

I talked to one of the teams that was right behind us in TOY while waiting for the trailer. Sorry Ben and Brian but I was relieved to hear you say it had been a poor day. I don’t know the other team so we would just have to wait and see. We weighed in 13.80 which is solid for the river right now and we felt good about it. They would have to catch them to pass us and we were hopeful to get a check. That lost 4 pounder did really sting because it would have put us into another top 5. Instead we watched ourselves slip further and further down the leaderboard. We also watched Bussing and Heaton who were a point behind us weigh in 13.81. What are the odds of that? Things would finish up in a tie but we had slightly more weight on the season putting us in 1st place for team of the year! Congrats to those guys on a great season also. It felt good to be back on top of team of the year again. It is always my biggest goal at the start of the year and you really have to catch them with only 3 tournaments and also the bonus points for top 3 and 1st or 2nd big bass. We didn’t benefit from any bonus points this year and I don’t think it played much of a role for the other 2 teams either. But it could have certainly changed things if someone had a win and big bass. We also snuck into the last check in 14th place for the event. It was a great day all around especially since the chance for a disaster day is high on the river this time of year.

There was no time to relax as we had Payback Bass the next day on Muskegon Lake. It was time to get home, re tie, rig some other stuff up, and spend some time with the girls. Momentum was on our side and I felt way better about the Payback tournament than I did this one. Details are coming in the next round of blogs.