Grand River BFL 2011

For some reason this popped into my head this week. I’m not sure why but with not much going on right now I think it is a good time for a story. I’ve only fished a couple BFL’s as a boater, I did fish 2 full seasons as a co angler but that is a story for another day. The first one I fished as a boater was on the Grand River, before I had moved over to the west side.

The BFL as a platform just like most of tournament fishing is a money losing endeavor. But it offers something that few other tournament series do. An article, a record, a profile, something that you can go back/look up and show someone what happened. That is the attraction to the BFL for me because the payouts are not great but it has some prestige that lasts slightly longer than a moment. For the record I’ve long since stopped micro obsessing about payouts. Someone has to make something to run events because it’s a lot of work and a thankless job. I just want the opportunity to fish against a lot of boats and great competition.

Anyway, that particular event was in 2011 out of Riverside Park which is 16 miles from the mouth of the Grand River. The Grand River wasn’t the fishery it is now either. Bags were often small and fishing was tough. The same can be said for Muskegon, however White was capable of MEGA bags and was near the peak of its fishery from what I’ve seen. So when you look at the weights for this event realize that it was a much different place than you see now.

I don’t remember how many practice days I put in, maybe 2.5? It wasn’t a ton and I was a little bit familiar with the lake from being there that spring or maybe it was the year before for a Lake Drive Marine Event. I do remember camping at Fisherman’s Landing and I remember it being super nice and angler friendly. It is a shame the city of Muskegon is likely to trade that property to another landowner on the lake and lose Fisherman’s Landing for good. Leading up to the event the forecast was good for running as all the lakes were open for this tournament. With White being the obvious choice for a big bag, the lake I was most familiar with, and a place loaded with grass I focused on that.

Practice was on fire. Stable weather and tons of grass meant a ton of bites and some good ones too. I had found 4 or 5 places along the trench where I could shake off fish after fish. I was mostly committed to flipping a Nemesis Baits bullet craw in deeper coontail. But I also had seen a 5 pounder come up on my frog in the narrows (which I knew little about). I was feeling really good about my chances for a good finish if I could get there and back. The only problem was that so did everyone else who fished up there. We were all getting a bunch of good bites and the tournament was shaping up to be a smash fest on White. The final day of practice I spent my time fishing around the river (which all looked fantastic) but got very few bites. The current from that tournament was the most I’ve ever seen on the Grand. Loading and unloading boats at Riverside Park was a show in the current. They had staff helping us and people were still slamming into docks and struggling in general, it was stressful. Knowing what I know now, I could have used that current to my advantage and maybe found a couple places along the way to pick up a fish or 2.

A couple things I distinctly remember from tournament morning. The run was going to be intimidating, It was a long way. Almost 30 miles from where we were taking off in the Grand. There were a bunch of no wake zones to navigate and also several “short cuts” that I had never run. Namely The South Channel and the Indian Channel. Both were full of hazards but I assumed I could get in line and follow the crowd out…until I was one of the first boats in my flight. Luckily a river veteran was the boat behind me and in one of the no wakes I said go ahead and pass me I’ll follow you. That certainly alleviated some of the stress and I wasn’t worried about getting out to Lake Michigan ahead of one other boat. I’d be taking it slow up to White and just focusing on executing my game plan. I also had a co angler to worry about so safety was extra important. I had a good time fishing with my co all day and I felt pretty bad for him at the same time. He had a stack of spinning rods and monofilament line which wasn’t exactly going to work well with the program I had going that day.

One really interesting thing about that morning is the Ottawa County sheriffs department was set up on a river stretch. With a radar gun and a bass boat with deputies in it. Looking to enforce the 55mph speed limit. That is the first time I had ever seen something like that in an event.

The run was beautiful once you got out there, as calm as it gets on Lake Michigan. This was going to help the run but it was also really going to change the bite as there wasn’t a ripple on White Lake that day. I rolled into my first spot and started flipping. I felt a thump on slack line and swung the bat. It was a magnum too, I got it out of the weeds and was working it through open water when it just came off. It was crushing and to this day I still remember everything about that sequence of events. It was the game changer of my day and just came off. I had been getting so many practice bites though that I thought I could overcome it. I think I caught a keeper pretty quickly after that but I had expected to easily catch a full limit right there. None of the juice spots really panned out and I lacked the experience to just go re find them there. Instead of assuming they moved and weren’t coming back. I assumed that they would pull up at some point and I would smash them if I just kept running that stuff. I know better now on that lake and any other place where there is a bunch of similar habitat available to them. I can’t tell you any details about any fish catches except the very last one to fill my limit.

I know it didn’t take me too long to get 4 but number 5 was a beast to catch. I’d flipped up a couple bullheads that got my hopes up even. But I remember catching number 5 out of a grass patch by the red light. It wasn’t a keeper by much but dang was I happy to have it. It had taken me so long that I wasn’t going to commit the time to running into the narrows to try for that 5 pounder and I also was unsure of my gas situation. However, I know I wouldn’t have caught that fish. A it wasn’t going to swipe at my frog again and B I didn’t possess the skills/know how to go flip them out of those big emergent mats. The lake was flat calm and just killing the bite. It could not have been more opposite than practice. I know I would have still struggled some but I really wish I could do that tournament over knowing what I know now!

I think I culled once and then ran out of time. Being unfamiliar with making a run like that I allowed a lot of time to get back in. Between the increased boat traffic with Coast Guard Festival, many no wake zones, running Lake Michigan, and an older boat. I just had a lot on my mind and I wasn’t going to push it to get back in. I was disappointed in what I had in my livewell but I did at least have some fish to weigh in that would have been a decent weight if everyone was locked into the Grand.

When the scales settled I had 11-11, a far cry from what I expected based on practice. But it was enough to keep me in the top 10 in 10th place. Given my day I couldn’t help but be somewhat happy with that. I do know that the fish I lost would have made a huge difference even if it was a 2.5 pounder. But there’s nothing I could do about that now. If you look at the list of names in that top 10, I was in some pretty good company. One of those guys even went on to win AOY on the FLW tour!