Houghton Lake - Day 2

Day 2 brought drastically different conditions. It was going to be calm and warmer. The calm waters might make the bite a bit tougher but today I could at least move around the lake and try and get on the rest of my stuff. I wasn’t going to use my B spot from yesterday right away today. I was really hoping to start on my A spot since I was number 24 today. If that was taken I would gamble on a couple shell beds I had caught a few but seen more big ones swimming around then head to my B spot.

Well you guessed it, that same boat was on my A spot again. They help with running the tournament and have to go in early and maintain an early boat number the entire event. I definitely watched them get far enough away a couple times that I could have weaseled in there and made some casts to try and draw the school my way. However that isn’t my style so I just kept my own space and followed my secondary rotation plan.

It just took a few throws and I was hooked up with a nice one. I put that one in the boat and was now looking for 4 more bites as long as that one ended up being one of my smallest fish. There weren’t as many fish on this spot and I would just get one more to bite. It wasn’t a big one but not a tiny one either and I was sitting with 2. I could see some fish roaming but they weren’t snapping and they weren’t setting up well. I planned on hitting places much faster today to try and get aggressive big ones vs catching every fish there. I probably should have stayed longer and picked up a couple more but there was a really good shell bed calling my name. I hadn’t caught them there yesterday but I’d seen the right ones.

Absolutely vacant today! I actually never caught one there all weekend despite being what I would consider a really good spot. It just wasted plenty of my time and gave me false hope. It was off to my B spot now hoping there were a few that showed up there to feed again today. First cast and I lost a decent one, next cast I caught a keeper. I’m certain I caught that fish the day before as it had a hook mark in it’s mouth. It was less than 2 pounds but I really wanted to get a limit early to settle me down the rest of the day. When I got back to the front the whole school was right by the boat. I used my Minn Kota Talons a ton during this event so at least there was no trolling motor to spook them. I flipped out and bowed up on one instantly. I never saw that fish but it came off and before my bait got back down to the bottom another one had it. Just another barely keeper but I was happy to have it. The next cast produced one of the right ones that came off right near the boat. That was heartbreaking for me and would have been a great fish to end my limit on. Then just like that the school was gone. I’m pretty sure they all said to themselves “that jerk is back again today” and just got out of there. A few stragglers were moving around the boat on 360 and I would hook 2 more of those. Both decent fish but neither made it to the boat. I couldn’t believe I didn’t have a limit by now! I rotated my 2 shell beds again and checked an area further down the break from my A spot. It produced nothing and I knew my other 2 places nearby that Kyle and Dave were leaning on so I wasn’t going to try and get in there.

I mentioned in a previous blog that I had a sneaky school saved for day 2. I had to make a run to get there but I really wanted to get there while they were biting. When I found them in practice it maybe had 10 fish in it but they were really grouped up. If they made it through yesterday and this morning (and never moved) I could get right in a hurry.

No one was on it or anywhere near the area so I took my time and eased in there. First cast and it was game on! The best part was it was a BIG one too. All I could do was try and not put too much pressure on and slowly work him to the boat. However while wallowing around on the surface about halfway back to the boat he came off. I had some choice words and fired in there again. Hooked up right away and filled my limit with a squeaker. It just barely kept but I was happy to have that fish. Next cast produced another weigh in fish that once again came off halfway to the boat. That really hurt and I knew they just weren’t getting it as good. I switched up baits to the dropshot but they just wouldn’t bite it.

Back to the reaction bait and I finally put a big one in the boat. Cool I needed to catch just 3 more today now! I would lose one more good one here and swap out one of the mini fish with a 2 pounder. I should have somewhere between 17 and what I had the day before already but instead I had a bunch of work to do. I moved to a couple places I had marked a few fish in practice but had never made a cast there and got rid of my mini ones. I need to get rid of 3 fish that were less than 3 pounds.

The rest of the day was uneventful for me. I made a few small culls, unsuccessfully tried to flip some green fish, and did some side imaging looking for a new school. I did lose one fish on a ned rig that might have been a good one but I never saw the fish to confirm. I really struggled to get quality both days in the afternoon. In practice that wasn’t the case but I just couldn’t get around the right stuff in the afternoon for whatever reason during the event.

I just hoped I could stay within check range and that other people would struggle too. People caught them again and my 14.75 bag slipped me to 12th. Lost fish just killed me this year but I was at least grateful to sneak out a check against that crew fishing solo. I know I was on the right stuff but it just wasn’t my time. All you can do at these is work hard and put yourself in position to get paychecks then hope every once in awhile it is your turn to have a special day and win. It does help a little bit that the winners caught another 20 pound bag (congrats to them) so even if I caught all my fish 2nd or 3rd was the best I could have done. I ended up winning an additional 750 on a random draw for a boat with Minn Kota Talons. It pays to have all the right sponsor stuff when fishing the D&R trail, there is so much money given away and you don’t even need to catch a fish!

All in all it was a great weekend and everyone in the house got paid! That is a major success against this field at any event. We had a great crew for this one and it was great end to the season. Houghton Lake really showed out and hopefully after a few years we will be back there again. Huge thanks to Amanda for holding down the fort while I fished the last couple weekends. I certainly enjoyed 2 weekends in a row of big tournaments and smallmouth fishing but I’m ready to do some hunting and hanging out with Amanda and the girls. I think Hutch is ready to fetch some ducks too, time to switch gears.