Looking Forward to 2025

Now that we’ve seen what’s in the rear-view mirror. What is coming next? It’s still pretty early in the game for things but it does seem like there are some changes to our bigger schedules this year.

The D&R schedule is obviously the first place I looked. With no east division they added some more tournaments and mixed it up a little bit. I’ve been waiting for someone to finally throw a Hardy Dam back on the schedule. The only bummer is that I’ve heard nothing good about the fishing that time of year. So, I doubt the place will showcase how much better it has gotten. That said I haven’t fished there in forever so I’m just basing thing off what I hear about the fishing. Another interesting event in that series is an early Grand River tournament. I can’t say I’ve ever spent any time at the river there but I have a certain partner who has. The rest of them are just more of the same and I can’t say I have any one that I really feel good about doing well in. As is usually the case on the lakeshore everything will be different from the year before and you better figure something new out and then make the right adjustments on tourney day.

I haven’t seen anything rolled out on if there will be prizes for angler of the year or this years contingencies. But since we are back to one division, I sure hope they put some emphasis on performance throughout the series again. As always, they do a great job at stacking up continigency money for the anglers. I’ll be looking forward to an update on that and I hope they will invest some time in hyping up the trail this year. I know whether or not there is a prize for angler of the year that will be my number 1 tournament fishing focus.

West Michigan bass’s HOTD series was another one that always interests me. Even though there is no way I’ve got the time to do all of those too. The first thing I noticed is that they moved the bay up to May. That makes that tournament more attractive. Especially since it is unlikely that I’ll fish a Memorial Day event if there even is one.

I did hear that Payback Bass will be having a big money west side open this year or at least attempting it. While we have big turnouts in West Michigan, the big money model has yet to catch on over here. Maybe this will be the year? I’m a little worried it is going to fall on a weekend I am out of town since they are no conflicts with either planned vacation this year. Historically I feel like they’ve come west in August.

We can’t forget about Monday nights either. If you are looking for a weeknight trail to fish this is a good one. Very well ran, big turnouts, and really good competition. Some people aren’t a fan of that but the only way to get better is to challenge yourself. The 3.5 hour tournament format makes that even more challenging. But it is a fast track to making decisions/adjustments faster and really learning to trust your instinct in tournament fishing.

Lastly, I just want to do more family fishing trips. Millie will be 3 this spring and we can really get out and have a good time on the boat as a family. She’s holding her own in the ice shanty this weekend and the older 2 know the drill. It seems like it has been a long wait but it is a lot of fun to get outdoors with my crew of ladies.