D&R Series – White Lake

Tournament day was going to start early for us! As I mentioned before the launch was going to be jam packed with salmon guys. We decided to get there at 5:30 to get a parking spot and have no added stress to the day. Trevor is still in high school so it isn’t quite the same as making adult make up a parking spot somewhere or figuring out what to do in a maze of boats. While he is totally capable of all of it is easier to just avoid the mess if we can. I’ve pretty much “thrown him to the wolves” when it comes to backing up the trailer or driving the boat on weeknights and these bigger tournaments. He’s been owning it all year and is a seasoned veteran for being in high school.

We were undecided on where to start and of course a lot depended on boat number. I knew I wanted to be in an “area” in the morning where we could spend some time. In these tournaments where there isn’t much to go around and you are going to be constantly fishing behind people I always want at least one area to myself to start. I was definitely not going to hit anything specific first. We were boat 45 and I was optimistic we still might get one of the 3 areas we wanted to start. However I wasn’t going to drive by any of the areas at that point to find another one covered up.

We started on some grass in the narrows where we had a few bites in practice. I thought we could probably get a limit there with a few decent fish. For whatever reason it wasn’t firing and we only had 2 bites alternating between flipping and a senko but one was a good 3+ pound fish. It is a good feeling knowing you only need to catch 4 more the rest of the day. We would definitely be back to this grass later in the day. Next we headed to a couple wood spots and picked up the crankbaits and jigs. All we had to show for that was a couple small keepers. I really had high hopes we could get another one of the right ones off of that. A boat was on the next area I wanted to be in so we headed for that derpy spot the 5 pounder in practice came from. To no surprise there was a boat right on top of it but that juicy looking coontail patch that had yet to surrender a bite was close by and open. We stopped there and flipped up another 3 pounder right away. Ok time for 3 more 3 plus pound bite and a ton of time left!

That area would surrender one or 2 more keepers but they were weak. We lost one fish there that may have been a good one but we never saw it so we will never know. The boat left the 5 pounder spot and we fished it next and came up empty handed. We had 2 good fish out of coontail so it made sense to go run some more grass. We tried to get on the wall of coontail but there were boats on it all morning. We transitioned to some deep fishing, wood fishing, and specific spots on breaklines where the coontail came out just a little further. It was a dink fest and we were running out of time before the White Lake lull kicked in. I always struggle on White when it is flat calm and that mid morning period hits. Anything we caught for a few hours would be a major bonus. We culled once more during that period with a 2.5-2.75 pound fish but still had two absolute rats that were less than 2 pounds. It was a largely uneventful hot lap around the lake and back through the narrows again. I was just waiting to hit some of the best stuff because I didn’t think it would get right until the afternoon. It is absolutely painful to wait like that but sometimes it’s the only option.

I finally was able to get on the coontail patch that we really wanted and we put another fish over 3 in the boat with a flipping stick. One rat and another one under 3 to get rid of, we needed a big bite bad! Back to the coontail we caught a 3 pounder at in the morning. We caught a couple small ones right away and then for some reason I came upon a really good looking isolated patch. I said to myself I’m going to catch big bass of the tournament right here on this cast. I actually got bit and bowed up on the fish but it came off in the coontail. Who knows if it was really a big one but it was kind of a kick in the teeth. However I don’t think it was going to beat Mike Elkins and Ben Neilsen’s 5.66 beast but maybe it would have helped our cause.

We still had the one rat but I was very confident we could get rid of it, but like I said I was waiting for things to get right. We ran some more coontail that we hadn’t fished yet but I generally fish in the afternoon in every big tournament on White. For whatever reason it is never good in the morning for me and it is always covered in boats then. Things looked good but we never caught a fish there. It was time to see if things were right and we headed out to see if those schools were going to fire on the specific pieces of structure. We rolled up to the one I would have considered the best one and after a lengthy battle put another fish over 3 in the boat. Then a couple that wouldn’t help, for some reason this one was not loaded today. However the next stop was ridiculous. Using Minn Kota Spot Lock and Humminbird 360 made it easy to make the right cast. The key was to position downwind, spot lock, and then you could see the structure and the little bass dots moving around every time the 360 would sweep. It was a lot of fun but it was also really strange to be catching them on a dropshot and a jig (White Lake = flipping sticks). At the end of the flurry we had a good bag but still needed a big one. It was time to go back to the coontail and try for that since that is where most of our quality bites had come from. Surprisingly our best patch was wide open and we had enough time to give it one last shot. We had maybe been there 5 minutes before we got a bite and it was a good one. Add another one to the livewell on the flipping stick. Despite knowing that all of our fish were over 3 pounds at this point I still assumed we had 14 pounds. We did get one more that was just incredibly skinny there. Should have been about 3.75 but instead weighed 2.88. Of course it had a big shank mark in it from someone using puncture cull tags. We actually caught 2 fish like that and we were no where near the ramp for either of them. It is frustrating that guys are still doing this!

We saved the spot we caught the 4 pounder in the narrows for last just hoping for a hero moment. It was just a strange little coontail spot so it would just take a minute to fish. Unfortunately no one was home today except a small keeper up by a nearby seawall. That was it we were out of time but I felt good about the day. We had caught enough to get good points for the day and I was confident we would get paid. Plus we had some really good flurries despite about 4 hours of inactivity, it was a fun day of catching fish on this very different White Lake.

However we had no idea about what was about to transpire. We were in flight 2 so we weighed in after probably half the teams. The first people we talked to were Mike and Ben and they had 15.75 with a 5.66. I didn’t know they were leading, I’m not even sure that they did. Since I was still sandbagging myself and convinced we had 14lbs, I was even more surprised when Kyle said we might be leading after he bagged our fish. The best thing about sandbagging yourself is that it’s always a surprise when you find out what they really weigh. I was thrilled when it said we had 16.41 and were somehow leading. I still didn’t think a whole lot of it but after seeing some of the teams that weighed in I had high hopes for top 3 or 5. A couple more teams weighed in that are always worrysome and Kyle and Dave had yet to weigh in and I knew for a fact that they had a good day. I was off in the distance and heard 16 called out again but luckily it was 16.18 and I saw those 2 walking off the stage. Dodged a bullet there and then I started paying attention because there weren’t many bags left to come.

I’m still surprised but it held out on a very tough White Lake and we won again. 2 D&R wins in one year? I must be dreaming. I’m extremely grateful to have come out on top twice, it is so dang hard to win one of these things. I’ll be looking forward to the next one on Muskegon to wrap the series up. Muskegon is always a difficult one that time of year. I’ve had good finishes and awful finishes in late August on that lake. Those young of year shad can make it so difficult and it won’t be long before they start keying in on them.