D&R Muskegon 2022
After what felt like forever it was back to tournament fishing and what better tournament to kick that off with that a D&R on Muskegon. Although this year Muskegon feels like a different lake to me with nothing setting up very well I was hoping we could catch some fish. However I will be a little vague about everything because in a few weeks we have a Big Stack tournament here. Although it is open to run, I could very well stay on Muskegon for the tournament. It is likely going to be the most money I’ll ever fish for on Muskegon Lake!
Things were looking promising for D&R when Trevor fished Monday while I worked offshore on Lake Michigan. He ended up winning with 17+ pounds and that certainly gave us some confidence. The biggest fish came out of a historically inconsistent area of the lake and that was a bit worrisome but we did have something to go on. It also meant we could really explore freely the rest of practice. We had some different ideas than normal given the lake conditions. We forced some things we hoped would work in both familiar and new areas. All that brought on was disappointment and one lone solid fish that may or may not have been random.
But we kept at it and things started clicking, then things really started clicking, and then they started clicking some more. By the end of the day we felt we could drop a sack on the scales if things lined up right. We were definitely going to get some bites on tournament day and we had quite a few places we felt a quality fish or 2 could come from.
We actually wanted a good boat draw for this one. A lot of times I feel a bad boat draw helps me get in a rhythm on the lakeshore especially when I don’t have somewhere I really care about being first. This time I was concerned about pressure in both of the locations we had considered starting. Of course since it was a D&R on Muskegon lake it also meant the wind would blow 25 out of the SW all day and make getting around the lake a pain. We did end up getting one of the places we wanted despite being boat 43. It started happening pretty quick and we had 3 or 4 in no time. None were overly big but a couple were solid starter fish. However we didn’t pay much attention to them as we thought they’d all get culled out. We finished our limit and began culling hoping things would get right. They really weren’t and it was hurting our quality of fish. They also weren’t really setting up and we were getting them randomly. A clue that we should have taken more seriously.
Even though that area didn’t really pan out, there was a bunch of good stuff to run. Our next stop yielded a smallmouth that culled and a flathead. The flathead wasn’t a very big one so it really had us going that it was a quality bass. I’m never too disappointed when I get to catch a flathead though. It was still early and we knew one big bite would at least give us a quality bag. Despite trying really hard we never got that bite. We did however catch a crap ton more bass throughout the day. They were really snapping! It ended up being just one of those days where it doesn’t work out. While those days aren’t ideal they are better when you get to catch fish all day. We fished clean and never lost any which always makes it a little easier to deal with. We had a solid base of fish but nothing over 3lbs and ended with 13.81 and 20th place. It took 14.07 to get paid so we weren’t far off and 1 big bite would have made a huge difference. I hope I’m just saving them all for Big Stack!
It is always fun when the girls come to the weigh in (Millies first one). June got to cross the stage for the first time and I appreciate that WMB and D&R are welcoming to having the kids involved and also that all the other anglers are very respectful around them. They usually don’t show up unless we catch a decent bag but this is one of the few opportunities this year for them to come and it was great to have them there. On to the next one!