D&R Sports Center - Grand River
Coming off the best practice I’d ever had on the Grand, I was anxious to get this one started. I hadn’t really given much thought to boat number because I had a lot of places I’d be happy to be and they were all in the same direction. After finding some good stuff in practice, part of the strategy on the Grand is to find things easy to get to and close by. The no wake zones can really make it challenging if you have spots spread out all over the river system (I’ve been there and it’s a mess). Anyway we were boat 17 and we were optimistic we could get on a place that we knew had a bunch of them.
Things started off interesting with a boat passing us and another boat in a no wake zone. If you’ve fished tournaments for awhile you know this is a no no and a clear rules violation. So unless you want to get protested DON’T do it. I had guys let me know they saw that both during the tournament and at the weigh in. They didn’t head the same direction and I did not end up filing a protest. But I think it is worth mentioning because it may save someone who doesn’t know this some trouble down the road. I had bigger things to worry about like fishing and driving the river to the next no wake zone. The river always makes me a little nervous but luckily there was no passing/close boats/floating objects and it was smooth sailing to our starting spot.
It didn’t take long to get things started. We put 4 keepers in the box really fast and our 5th fish 10 minutes in was a good one! Certainly much different than my typical Grand River starts. We blasted them in that area and fished it for quite awhile. However we were struggling to get the right bites despite going through 30ish keepers. We lost some fish too and I’d say at least one of them was one of the right ones. We fought it for awhile in the junk and when it came off the bait flew back like a bullet right into my elbow. It hurt like crazy for awhile and actually drew blood. We had been mixing it up between flipping, frogs, and reaction baits. Even though we were still catching them I knew we needed to get going and try and find some more bigs. We had a solid start and a lot of good stuff left to fish. Our next stretch didn’t kick out much, maybe a couple small keepers and a dogfish on the frog that we thought was the THE ONE!
We rotated some more stuff and kept culling by ounces. There was a boat on one of the other stretches I really wanted. I’d have liked to hit that one before anyone else but I think we did weigh one of our smallest fish from there. Some of our stuff from practice had gotten weaker and our reaction bait bite just wasn’t happening like it was on Friday. However they were still biting on the big stick so we kept that in our hands a lot the rest of the day. We hadn’t done any damage on the next area during practice but things were looking right there for the pattern we were on. We cracked our 2nd biggest fish there and now things were getting interesting. We probably had enough to get paid and a lot of time left.
A couple more small keepers and the next one was one of those bites that you just hope is a bass. Trevor was hooked up with and when it jumped way out from the boat looked like a 3.5 pounder. Unfortunately when it hit the net it was the ultimate letdown and I’m not sure it ever spent any time in the livewell. On to the next spot and then things got really interesting. I set the hook on one and when it came out of the junk it was obviously a BIG ONE. We didn’t realize just how big it was until Trevor scooped him up and I went to go grab him out of the net. It was a Grand River KONG and I wasn’t sure how big but I knew it was over 5 pounds and might have a shot a big bass for the day. It took me a couple minutes to regain my composure after that because it isn’t everyday you get a special bite like that, especially in a tournament. Definitely one of those moments why I love tournament fishing so much and will never forget.
I did some quick math, subtracted some weight here and there (certain people call it Elliott math) and convinced myself we might be close to 17 pounds. We knew we were going to get paid and get some good points but the way they were biting today and during practice we needed 2 more fish over 4 pounds to be comfortable. We still had 2 that were under 3 pounds that absolutely needed to go. Even culling up half a pound on each of them would be huge and I was feeling confident we could do it. We kept the flipping sticks in our hands and kept catching them. There are definitely 3 or 4 fish that felt good, wrapped us up, and got off throughout the rest of the day. Who knows if any of them were actually big though. It is so hard to tell when they are in the thick stuff and that is just the nature of the game. You are going to lose some fish in the junk. Towards the end of the day we were running some history and other places that had the right ingredients. We bowed up on another good one and I could see a big white belly coming out of the stuff when it just came off. Who knows if it was a bass or a dogfish though but I really thought that one was going to cost us.
There was one place back closer to takeoff where I was confident we could at least get a 3+ pounder and make a cull. Unfortunately for us it never materialized and we headed to weigh in a few minutes early. With a good bag already in the livewell I wasn’t going to try and push it until the last minute. I’m always a little nervous about getting them out of the livewell on the water and then taking that step from the boat to the bank. But all went smoothly and I was excited to see what that big one was going to weigh. I knew it was going to be in the ball park of 6 but I still had myself convinced we had 17 pounds. It is always better to be surprised at the weigh in than disappointed. I may have just been a teeny tiny bit disappointed when the Grand River MEGA was only 5.99. However was pretty pleased when the scales said 19.59 but I’d be lying if my mind didn’t immediately go to the one fish I lost and how it might cost us the win on such an awesome day plus break 20 pounds on the river. We were the first ones to weigh in and I was sweating it until the very last team weighed in. But when it’s your day it’s your day and we ended up winning and getting big bass.
It felt damn good to win another D&R, it is so hard to win these big tournaments on the west side. There is a whole crew of guys that can drop a MEGA bag on the scales in the best and worst of conditions. We are definitely grateful it was our day on this day and appreciate all the congratulations at the weigh in. Unfortunately for Trevor it’s all downhill from here as it was his first D&R and there will be many more that don’t go according to plan than do.