Big Stack Detroit River - Practice
One look at the forecast and it was pretty obvious that remnants of the hurricane were going to make this an even more interesting tournament. We had a lot of water to choose from but with gusts in the 30s forecasted for Sunday I was certain we would be locked in the river. No big deal to me, it wasn’t going to be a surprise and I could spend all my practice in the boundaries of the Detroit River. I headed over early Thursday morning and was excited to be on a fishery I hadn’t been on in 20 years.
One of the most intimidating things was just learning how to navigate. There are lots of channels out at the mouth and I’m not familiar with where you can run safely or not. Also there are various no wake restrictions in feet from shore depending on which municipality you are in. I immediately landed on a school of white bass and went to work. I can be easily distracted by fast and furious fish catching even when practicing for a tournament. They might be more fun than Grand Traverse Bay ciscos! Things progressed slowly after that as I bounced back and forth between deep and shallow water. I was employing a mixture of drifting and reaction baits for the day.
The first thing I found was a clean spot behind some weeds. There were plenty of them in the area but this one was different. Humminbird MEGA 360 revealed some scattered rock in this patch and I immediately caught a smallmouth. It would be the only bite there but I figured this was a place that could easily have a school show up. After that many hours were uneventful, I caught some walleye, I found a couple places where I could catch non keepers cast after cast, but nothing worth returning to. I eventually found one heavy current area where I caught a 4 pounder and a couple more fish. At least I had something to go on. After that I just put the trolling motor down and covered some water. I discovered I could catch some 3 pounders that way and did catch one really good largemouth around 4.5. I didn’t plan on fishing for them but I would certainly keep my options open just in case.
Back down towards the mouth of Erie I did some more drifting towards the end of the day and finally found some stuff. One area was a clean stretch that I caught 4 or 5 from and just out from that was the end of a deeper rock line that really had some fish on it. They weren’t big but there were a few decent ones mixed in. I had a depth to target and also was figuring out that these fish were often hanging out in depressions.
Day 2 I would head north and see if I could make anything happen around the islands up there. I struggled big time. Caught a few but no nice ones, I did find a wad of white bass big enough to prompt me to tie a blade bait on and have some fun. I kept working south and hit a couple of the places that had small fish on the day before but lots of them. I confirmed there were still small ones there and that was it. I knew I had a couple decent areas down towards the mouth so eventually I pulled the plug and just headed back down there and began searching for depressions.
It was still being determined where the boundaries were and I discovered they had changed from the initial posting. I could venture further out into the lake than I thought and went to investigate the dumping grounds. I put a crankbait and my hand and started catching them, some decent ones too. I was committed to finding more places down this way since I had a few things to fish now. Lakemaster was showing a likely depression and I started driving through it. MEGA SI lit up on a school of them and I pulled out a dropshot and started catching them. Not tournament winners but some nice ones mixed in. I found 6 places in that depression that were holding good numbers and knew I was at least going to catch a few. As of right now this was my best place to fish and a possible place to start. I would find 2 more good areas the rest of the day. One of them was pretty unassuming on the map and the other fit the exact description of what I would consider my best spot.
I ran out of time but I knew exactly what I wanted to look at on day 3. That pattern certainly held up and I could call my shots when I found a depression with the right mix of depth, clean spots, rock, or weeds. The fish were smaller except for one area and I noticed with the increased current, wind/wind direction, and maybe time of day that a tube was becoming more effective than a drop shot. The drop shot was really shining when it was dead calm but a tube and a crankbait were becoming the most effective weapons for me now. My buddy Jerry at Skaterbaits had made some awesome tube heads with a hook that really seems to get them and I put a magnum tube on there. I had hopes this would help trigger a few nicer bites on tournament day. The wind made it tough to maneuver around and find much else but I did re check a couple things. One cast with a crankbait on my shallower stuff revealed a nice fat one so I was confident they were at least sticking around on a few places. I was noticing that every day I would catch a couple more fat ones that spent their time out in Erie. I felt like they were coming to me and I knew I was going to get a lot of hook setting in on tournament day. The wild card was how bad was that wind actually going to be and could I actually effectively fish my stuff?