Looking Back on 2024
Now that we are into the new year, I just wanted to reflect on last years season a bit. Was it the best ever? Definitely not but overall it was a pretty good one. Just another one of those years where you give yourself a chance at some big wins but the right things just don’t fall into place to make that happen. The right things fell into place to get close a couple times and that is all you can ask for. There were a couple rough ones too.
Let’s start with those first. White Lake really had my number a couple of times. I don’t even have a good explanation but it just wasn’t easy. Of course, those were on weekend tournaments and despite catching a decent amount of fish the quality just never came. The ultimate test was a weeknighter where we had 2 fish at 9:00 pm. I don’t remember the last time I weighed less than 5 there but it has been many years. It went right down to the wire but Trevor and I managed to snatch 3 in the last little bit for a moral victory.
There were a couple of fish that didn’t make it to the boat that really stand out too. I don’t remember it being an overly terrible year for losing fish…until the classics. There were a couple at both of those events that I remember pretty well. However, the one that stands out the most was one that just came off at the Houghton Lake Classic. Trevor had it on and it was just unquestionably “the one”. That one still stings a bit.
Tournaments that really stick out as good ones are the Muskegon Lake D&R and the White Lake D&R. One was a 3rd place finish and the other was a 2nd place finish but they could not have been more opposite in how it went down. Muskegon was one of those events where we already knew that a ton of bites were coming and there were going to be some good ones. Just a tournament where it all goes pretty much according to plan. We had a few epic stretches of just smashing quality fish that day. White couldn’t have been more opposite as there wasn’t a real plan. We took a gamble to start (that didn’t pay off) and I think were sitting on 1 fish a few hours into the event. Not ideal especially when my buddy Bryan was subbing for Trevor and I hoped to show him a good time. But we got it turned around when 1 3 pounder turned into 2 3 pounders and then by the 3rd one I knew we were going to get them. We weren’t getting a ton of bites but we got dialed real fast in what to look for. Essentially making something out of nothing (which is sometimes the best way to tournament fish) and finishing in 2nd with a big bag of largemouths.
I also really enjoyed fishing some weeknight tournaments with the girls. Despite some challenges both times with hats blowing off and nets going overboard. However, we will probably remember those 2 things more than the bass we caught. So, I guess that makes them a win.
One unique thing I did this year is dabbled in some salmon tournaments. Our salmon rig is less than ideal but there were big enough weather windows for both the Grand Haven event and the Muskegon event. They were a ton of fun and we had some great finishes in the amateur division. It actually set up really well for us to win both of them but things just didn’t go our way in the end. We’re also pretty inexperienced at making the right adjustments or having some little tricks to get a couple more bites.
Good finishes in both the Classics were another highlight. 17th at Elk/Torch and 5th at Houghton Lake. Both smallmouth events and it is always good to get paid in those as they are a little different than what we are used to. That is 2 years in a row we’ve been close at the D&R Championship (3rd at Charlevoix last year), maybe one of these years we will get the right bites. But like I said earlier all you can do is hang around. We’ve had an awful lot of top 5 finishes the last few years to not win one. But when it’s your time, it’s your time and I don’t think you can force that. So I’m very thankful to be hanging around and getting some of those good bites, tournament fishing in 2024 was definitely a success.