D&R Muskegon Lake 2023 - Tournament

It is going to be hard to remember all the details to this one. So, I’m going to apologize right now knowing that I’ve already forgotten how a lot of the action went down. Unlike some tournaments there was a lot of action in this one. We also fished a ton of spots in this tournament often making moves every couple minutes. It was a lot less just fishing around and a ton of fishing really specific stuff. Anyway lets take it back to the beginning.

I actually hoped for a good boat number in this one. This often isn’t the rule at Muskegon but I wasn’t going to drive by anything good in this tournament. Practice left us with high hopes of catching a big bag but I really wanted to get off to a good start. We had a few grass patches that we were expecting good action in first thing in the morning so the hope was to get on one of them and get a quick limit. Boat 29 however wasn’t going to make that task easy. I despise being one of the last boats in first flight. I’d rather be boat 31 and get an extra 15 minutes of fishing time.

We blast off and there is a boat right on the place I really wanted. On to the next one and there is a boat right there, however just inside of where I wanted to be. This was a couple hundred yard stretch though and where I wanted to be was right in the middle. The other end had a walleye boat anchored and we ended up on the probably the least desirable end. This is more of a numbers hole with the hopes of some 3 pounders. Well it did not pan out, we picked up 1 14.25 incher on a senko as we pulled the trolling motor up to leave. Of course that inspired a few more casts but no more bites. I think we caught one 3 different times throughout the day after the trolling motor was pulled up. I’ll often make my last cast and then pull the motor up as the bait is falling to save a few seconds throughout the day.

We were out of there and onto a place I had high hopes on. Unfortunately, there was a boat sitting right there netting what seemed to be a decent fish. Someone was on the next community hole spot I was going to check and it was starting to feel like we were going to end up in a bad rotation. There are few things more challenging in tournament fishing than being in a bad rotation. Our next spot was a rather unproven place but it had some good isolated coontail and some garbage grass nearby that was holding a few decent fish. We caught one out of the best isolated coontail patch but it was just short of being a keeper. We had a lot of confidence in the rest of the day but had really hoped to score some easy ones to start. A couple comments complaining about how we weren’t going to get one of those random ones today and we finally got bit again. It seemed like a nicer fish and when it got to the boat there was no quit in it. It kept trying to get Trevor in the Minn Kota Talons and outboard motor. After some suspense I scooped it in the net and it was a solid fish over 3 pounds. Now we just needed 4 more fish the rest of the day. Out of desperation and because we had time, we fished some docks next. One a little over 2 pounds thought it would be fun to wrap me up in all sorts of stuff. After some patience we got that fish out and went to catching more small fish. This was another place we were hoping for a lucky one but it just didn’t happen.

It was time to start rotating through the stuff we really expected to pay off during this event. Strangely enough we were going to lean heavy on a crankbait and a dropshot throughout the rest of the day. We filled out our limit at the first spot on a crankbait but didn’t add anything great. The next place I had really high hopes for never fired one time throughout the day. We might have caught a short there and I know we caught a big dogfish. That place owes us a few at some point. Next stop kicked out a solid fish on a crankbait. It actually got pretty exciting for a minute. Trevor was hooked up with “a drum” when I also got bit. Mine came out of the water right away and was obviously going to help us out a bunch. As I got it closer to the boat Trevor started thinking his was a really big bass instead of a drum. The net was close to him so he scooped mine up while keeping tension on his. Unfortunately it did turn out to be a drum but at least we were making progress. Within the next few stops we hooked up with our biggest fish of the day. Of course it had to come 2 feet out of the water with a crankbait in its mouth and just scare us to death. Trevor made some panicked noise and I just assumed it came off. It was still on and when I scooped it up I guess I made some strange noise of relief too. Who knows I think I blacked out for a second, these are things that only happen in tournament fishing. The whole fishing experience is taken up another level. Now we only needed 3 more bites and it was still pretty early. We had one 15 incher that really needed to go and I told Trevor we would get quality fish at both of our next stops. It’s not often you can really call your shots but that plan worked out and we culled the rat and the 2 pounder both on a dropshot this time and with a less intense battle. We kept working on quality ones the rest of the day. Never getting that big bite but catching a bunch of fish that you would be happy to have in your livewell on Muskegon Lake. It was really a fun day. At one point we decided to go gamble on some smallmouth but we actually bailed on that halfway there.

I’ve got to give a huge shoutout to my Humminbird electronics in this event. Specifically MEGA side imaging and MEGA 360. Most of the stuff that produced our catch was found with side imaging and then most effectively fished with MEGA 360. MEGA Live certainly played a role too but we never caught one that was an individual fish we could see. There are just too many other fish around for it to be an effective tool at targeting individual fish for me. It does however show all the cover around. The one thing in this event is that much of that cover wasn’t too different from the bottom. So MEGA Live wouldn’t show it. It was however laid out perfectly on MEGA 360. Other places you couldn’t differentiate between stuff on the graph and the right stuff on the graph without MEGA 360. I really leaned on the 360 hard in this event and it is just so much more efficient than just fishing a waypoint.

I did make a tactical error at one point that may have really cost us. I pulled out the Carolina rig and started going to work. My 3rd bite was so heavy and solid but I broke it off. I’ll chalk it up to not being really dialed in with my Carolina rig set up and it is something I’m going to work on. It was absolutely my fault and a I shouldn’t have been setting the hook like that if I have braid spooled up. It was still a mystery fish so who really knows. But I haven’t caught a whole lot of things other than bass while dragging a brush hog. It certainly does hurt a lot worse when you lose one and know all the blame is on you. There’s one other bite I wish I could get back and that came off a dock. While we tested the shallow bite several times throughout the day it never really fired for us except for one time. The fish was flying the other way when I tightened up and I never got a hook in it. Who knows what it would have ended up being.

I know we made an afternoon cull with the Carolina rig and caught several more solid fish that were right at the same size as our smallest ones. We were running out of time and felt like our plan had run its course. It was time to try and fit in a few quick hitter spots to see if we could get one more. By now we knew pretty much everything had been fished and the wind wasn’t really ideal for fishing a lot of stuff towards takeoff. We did have one sneaky place that every once in awhile kicks one out and likely hadn’t been fished. It is so small it just takes a couple casts to find out.  Sure enough there were a couple bites to be had there, including one over 3 pounds. Another heart attack fish though as it went about 3 feet out of the water. At least this fish was on a dropshot and not a crankbait. I always feel better with a single hook vs a treble.

That would be our last bit of action and we assumed we had done enough to at least get paid in this event. The scales settled on 16.4 and I was certainly happy with that. We were in 2nd place for awhile but eventually bumped all the way down to 5th. One more 4 pounder would have done it for us and I can’t help but think about the one I broke off. Or the 2 big ones we caught the following Monday night when we weighed 16.19 for 2nd place. Those 2 bit on the wrong day! However big congrats to Dave and Kyle on “finally” winning a D&R Tournament.

No matter what it is always a good thing to make the top 10 in a D&R tournament. If we can keep hovering around that top 10 eventually it will be our day to get that extra bite or 2 that puts you at the top. 2 5th place finishes in D&R this year put us in the lead for AOY, not that it means anything on paper anymore. That’s all kind of disappointing to me since it is one of my top fishing goals every year and it still is. There are 2 teams behind us by one point (those dang bonus points for being in the top 3 are crushing unless you are the one getting them). We need to get some of those at the remaining tournament at the Grand River in August. The only way to ensure we stay on top is to win that event.