Time to Make it Happen

This season has been an interesting one and while it has been solid, I would be lying if I said I wasn’t super frustrated right now. Whether it ends in frustration or not is going to hinge on the last couple events. D&R on the river and Payback Bass out of Muskegon. Then wherever the classic for D&R may be. That is about all I’ve got left other than a lot of salmon jigging.

We’ve already snatched some early kings but I hope they hold off until after these next couple events. Trevor and I have weighed a bunch of nice fish in this year but it feels like I forgot how to win or something. Our weeknight series is no joke as we have 25-35 boats every week. But after a couple rough weeks to begin it seems like we are one fish away every week. 2nd a couple times, 3rd, getting our money back every week lately. I shouldn’t be complaining about that but dang it would be nice to get a lucky bite once in a while. Same thing goes for the weekend events. I did get to end the weeknight season on a high note with Mabel. Trevor couldn’t make it so it was just the 2 of us and although we struggled in the event (I’ll blame it on trying to practice for the weekend) I couldn’t be more proud of Mabel. She caught her very first bass/tournament keeper all by herself. She’s caught 4 pound smallies but those have all been “here is the rod, reel them in”. This was cast, feel the bite (Googan Baits Saucy Swimmer), and land the fish. The fish only measured by 1/8 of an inch but it was really to be a part of that. She netted all the rest of the bass, a big pike, and a big drum throughout the night. Unfortunately we didn’t get all the 4 pounders she was talking about so she could go buy a chess set but we still had fun! It would have been fun to go burn the good stuff down with her but I’ve been saving some stuff on Muskegon for this Payback event. I’m really hoping I don’t regret that but it’s hard to go burn stuff down for a weeknight tournament. We’re also all in on staying local for that Payback event and betting on those early fall winds closing the Lake (which isn’t going to happen). Hopefully teams from the westside will show up to that event and we can get close to the max boats.

We’ve also got to close out our D&R season strong on the Grand River next weekend. 1 point is all that separates us and 2 other teams so anything less than a win and it will be unlikely to stay on top. Luckily my partner is a true “river rat” despite what he says and I’m sure he’ll have a good plan going in. I’m going to sneak out there one day and try and find something overlooked if it works out. Of course, I have a bunch of work on Lake Michigan to get done next week and I would also really like to practice for both of these events. However, if we just had to go fishing that wouldn’t be the end of the world either. I feel like we’ve been saving some luck up for these events as we haven’t had one of those lucky breaks yet this entire year.

The last thing we are waiting on for whatever reason is the D&R Classic announcement. Since we are a month and half away I’d love to know what the deal is so we could get a place booked. It’s too late for any locals to weasel there way into the field now. Who knows if I’ll get a chance to pre practice or not because September is going to be pretty hectic with Amanda out of the country on a work trip for over a week. I’ve also got some maintenance to do on the trailer in between now and then just have to pony up the $$$ and find the time to get it going. I had to plug another tire this year from another object. This piece of metal didn’t even have a point but I am lucky to have discovered it while the boat was sitting in the garage vs on the side of the road. Finding things like that is never a welcome sight but it is just a minor detail in the grand scheme of things and I’m grateful it was no big deal.

We’ve been fishing well so hopefully the last little bit of fishing season is going to treat us well. Keep at it long enough and work hard enough and I know a couple lucky breaks will come our way. Stay tuned to find out how it works out!