Charlevoix Classic - Tournament

Here we go, it was tournament day featuring some forecasted NW gusts in the 40’s. The big question was were we going to go or not? The call was made to hold tight and wait for daylight. I knew at that point we weren’t fishing today and I think most others did too. I also think it was the right call and I didn’t hear any complaining. You could see them rolling on the horizon looking down the lake and they were BIG!

What to do next? Go fish somewhere of course! Even on the small lake we went to if you idled from the windy end of the lake we were taking all kinds of spray. We fished for about 4 hours and it was pretty good. They were biting all the fun stuff too. We caught smallmouth, largemouth, and pike. No giants but some nice solid fish. It was different just getting the rest of the day to hang out. Football was on the TV and I think we all appreciated having a nice house for this event. The big question was would we even fish on day 2. The forecast was better but not as good as it had looked the previous day.

As soon as I hopped out of the truck someone told me we were going. I guess it was time to come up with a plan. I had a good feeling these winds were really going to move fish around and even the playing field. We decided we were all in on the main lake and put the temptation of a run to the south arm where we had caught a few out of our minds. Our plan was to start in an area where we had caught one of the deep fish. We were boat 31 and being first boat in last flight is always a good thing as it usually buys you some more fishing time. Despite the plan, while lining up we already called an audible. We were going to gamble on that wind putting them on a place where I had some confidence in. Was it going to be miserable there…absolutely. But if they were there I felt they’d be biting and there would be a bunch of them.

Well that didn’t work out at all but I always listen to my gut. I don’t care what reasons my brain can come up with against it. If my gut tells me to go fish there then I’m going. The good news was that place was off the radar for the rest of the day. I know I’d have been thinking about it at some point in the day if things weren’t going well. We made it back to the “calmer” side of the lake and hit our spot that we planned on starting on. About a half hour into that we spied a couple on MEGA Live and had a 2 pounder in the boat. Just getting one was a major victory but now it was time to focus on #2. We fished around deep some more, one place we couldn’t get on because of another boat and other places were just random.

I had purposely not fished shallow at all in practice because if it came down to it. Trevor and I could efficiently cover miles of water on the flats. It was time to head up there and I just knew we would catch one on this next place. I’ve never fished it before but it was just right and it turned out that we would get the clue we needed here. After fishing a couple minutes my spinnerbait felt like it was snagged on the bottom and a nice smallmouth came rocketing out of the water. Unfortunately this one had shrinkage from when I first saw it but it was still a nice fish when it hit the net. Ok time to find number 3 now and it only took the very next cast. This was the sign we needed and I knew exactly what I was looking for. We could run with this for sure. I finally found a way to use the wind to my advantage this weekend. While I was on the calm side of the lake, wind was still pounding things. That’s where I wanted to be the rest of the day.

We weren’t fully committed to just running the shallow deal though. Whenever we would come into a likely looking place or leave a likely looking place we would spend some time out deep. MEGA Live got us another one and it was a good one this time. It was early and I couldn’t believe we had 4 already. Confidence was flowing and decision making was going well. We were just fishing in the simplest way but looking for specific things. If we had some knowledge of the shallow water on the lake it certainly would have helped because at the next spot I spooked a magnum off of something I didn’t know was there. It didn’t abandon the area fast and I thought maybe we’d get lucky and get it to bite while swimming away. No luck, but it wasn’t another 2 minutes and Trevor finally had a Lake Charlevoix bass on. I stood there helpless watching this thing (it was a 5.11) swim around and jump in the crystal clear water. To make things more complicated the ned rig I just cast at that spooked fish was tangled in the net. So I had to hold the net in one hand and that rod in the other to prevent breaking the rod tip. Luckily no fancy net job was required and this fish was cause for celebration. Mission accomplished in catching 5 fish and we had a ton of time left. I was thinking at this time if we could get rid of that 2 pounder we might have a chance of getting paid. Everyone else we stayed with had a good practice and it certainly seemed like they were biting.

It was reassuring to catch a big one up shallow because previously we were thinking that might not be possible. It was time to keep running water but also bouncing back and forth from deep to shallow. It was a fun way to fish just on the move and pulling onto whatever looked good based on a few different factors. Our next couple fish were non keepers but it was still nice to get bit. We finally got our next bite and our luckiest fish of the year. We hadn’t caught a good one yet this year that wasn’t on something extremely high percentage. We were heading up shallow again but stopped short to make some deep casts and some at the break. Trevor hooked up again and we traded that 2 pounder for one over 4. He said he had a feeling about that cast for whatever reason. I was thinking now that we had a good chance to get paid and enough weight in the boat that we were probably in the teens. The rest of the day was all shallow action for us and whenever we would find the right thing we could call our shot that we were going to catch one. The next one just barely didn’t help us. The next was close enough that Trevor had to get the scale out. We found out that our smallest fish was over 3 pounds. We were doing better than I’d thought. Our last fish would cull for us again and would bring our total number of keepers on the day to 9.

The last hour or so just involved running around looking for the right stuff but never finding it in the area of the lake we were in. That was a bummer but we didn’t know if more were moving up or not. So we felt continuing to run new water was our best bet and it backfired for that last hour. I guess we know where not to look for the next trip there. Regardless of where we ended up in the standings we were both plenty happy with how the day turned out. I was feeling like we would probably get paid and maybe hang around 10th place or so.

The first people I talked to were Mike and Kendall who said they got em and had a 5 pounder. I expected them to do well so that was no surprise then we found out another team we expected to do well was in 8th with only 3 fish. I was thinking it was still early in the weigh but I didn’t realize so many people had come in early. The rest of the weigh in was just full of pleasant surprises. Our fish were bigger than I thought. I realized that when I pulled them out of the livewell and then again when the scale settled on 19.58. Miles announced we were in 3rd place (full results) and we headed out in the crowd to watch us fall down the leader board. Maybe 8 more teams and the scales were closed. Wait, what just happened? We somehow bumbled into 3rd place at the classic with a worthless practice, no plan, and just taking what the day gave us. That one felt good especially on a northern smallmouth fishery with those conditions. A great end to a great season and proof that sometimes its better to be lucky than good!