Lake Leelanau Big Stack - Practice
I didn't really know what to expect from Lake Leelanau other than smallmouth. We've been spending some vacation time in Leland for a few years but despite thinking I should probably spend some time there I haven't. Even if the fishing is good it is pretty hard to tear me away from the adventure of Grand Traverse bay for any inland lake up there including Leelanau. I'd done a little fishing on the North Lake and had only ever been on the South Lake briefly many years ago.
To start the week off I happened to absolutely smoke an underwater piling with my Ultrex during the Monday night tournament on Muskegon. Putting a nice crack in the shaft up by the mount. Not really ideal when planning on fishing a big tournament away from home. My big concern was keeping the water out and finding some back up motors. Luckily both Brent and Shaun Ford had motors I could use if it came down to it. I had liquid electrical tape and PVC tape all over the crack, hoping to keep water out and it from spreading. I was staying at my buddy Brent's on the penisula and the south lake was closest so I was going to start there on Thursday morning. I'd begin my search for bedding fish and avoid actually fishing altogether if I could help it. Before I even got my rods out I drifted over one on a bed and promptly caught it. It was over 3 pounds so I dropped a waypoint and knew what I was doing the rest of practice.
I was feeling pretty frustrated at the end of day 1. I'd found a lot of fish but so many were in that 2.75 - 2.95 range and I didn't have any real nice ones that weren't obvious. Plus why wasn't I finding 4 pounders, I thought this place was supposed to have them? The next day I planned to check a few areas on the North Lake then decide pretty quickly whether to stay or go back south. I wasn't finding anything revolutionary and there were so many boats in certain areas I just said screw it and put it back on the trailer. I ended up finding some more fish on the South Lake but I was still feeling frustrated. I didn't have much to go around and some of the fish I had found the day before were missing. I was boat number 2 and hadn't found one to really start on yet. Confidence was pretty low going into the next day and my bar was even lower. Just find fish over 3 pounds plus one to start on. I did have to get an hour or 2 of GTB fishing in while I was up there. I hopped in with Brent and his dad. While fishing wasn't spectacular we did boat a few. It was really interesting to see the slicks of dead alewives out there. Big time water temp fluctuations have taken their toll on the alewives up there. They are very sensitive to that especially in spring.
The last practice day brought more of the same. I knew I needed all my fish to have a good bag. I didn't have anything super sneaky but I did at least have a fish to start on that was really locked on and wasn't too far away. One disadvantage to my boat is if I was traveling a long distance someone could absolutely pass me racing to a particular fish. I had also found a weed bed that had some good fish eating mayflys and I was feeling really optimistic I could get a good bonus fish or 2 there. I wasn't going to have a chance to win with what I had on beds but if I could catch a couple big ones just fishing who knows.
I do know one thing is that I was regretting not having more practice days. A lot of these guys had come straight from the Burt/Mullet payback event and were definitely going to have more fish than me. This crew doesn't miss any and we had good conditions to look during practice. However if I got in a good rotation and could get a couple bonus fish I thought I could catch enough to get paid. Unless I was way off anything around 18lbs was going to be a really good bag.