White Lake D&R 2024 - Part 2
We pulled into the next patch and right away caught another good one. This one was definitely over 3 and we had a solid bag if we could get rid of a 2 pounder. We fished around some more and it was becoming more obvious the type of grass I was looking for. We had one on that came off and then bowed up on “the one” except it turned out to be a pike. What a disappointment! I had some ideas for other grass areas and it also felt like the time was right to run some isolated stuff. If we ran all that and didn’t have another nice one then I would be shocked. I assumed we were 1 bite away from getting paid and had about “14 pounds” in the boat. Bryan kept saying my math only involved adding up the weight of 4 fish. We fished some top tier juice without even a bite and it was looking like this would be a little harder than I anticipated.
I had high hopes we returned to the place that Mike and I caught our biggest fish the week before. There was one waiting for us and while I don’t think it was quite 3, it wasn’t very far off either. The next spot was full of fast action and we caught 4 of them but nothing that would help us. My plan was to allow the wind to get going a bit and then have the last couple hours to fully commit to flipping. I felt we were probably getting paid but we were a bite or 2 away from having a chance to win. Although I had already talked to Dave and Kyle out there and knew we would need close to 20, so I didn’t get any of the excitement about actually thinking that it would be our day. I sure hope that day is coming though, going back to last year we’ve been in the top 5 in 5 of the last 7 D&R Tournaments. If we can keep hanging around there we are bound to get that winning bite.
Back to the event, it was surprising that it was a struggle to get bites with a little more wind out there. I thought it would be a lot easier but with flipping you have to be right on as the strike zone is small. It could have been a matter of just being off with our flips a little bit. But it is a lot easier to fish for one bite with a nice bag of fish already in the livewell. With maybe 45 minutes left we did get another bite. It was so bogged down in the coontail that there was no indication it was even there. But when the ball of coontail got in the net we could see some color and it looked like a good one. It was another cull and no question it was over 3 pounds. It was all down to managing time now and with some crazy floatilla of kayakers in the narrows that would get more interesting. I had one more place that has given me last minute magnums before and I probably should have hit it sooner. We got bit 3 times there but never hooked up on any. I can’t help but wonder what some of the fish we missed were. But I’m guessing out of the 8 or 10 bites that didn’t hook up, there’s a couple that might have helped.
We had to bail a little sooner than I’d have liked to weave through the kayak parade. Allegedly there was more than 1000 of them and they were trying to break some world record for most kayaks. One last ditch effort on a spot that had probably been fished 30 times throughout the day but hey you never know when one might pull up. I was feeling good that we’d get paid with what we had but even better when I talked to a bunch of good fisherman who had tough days. I way underestimated our fish and was pleasantly surprised with a 4.62 and 17.57 (thanks Chris for snapping a couple photos). Our big bass would end up being 3rd big bass (which gets no money) but we only fell one place to 2nd courtesy of Kyle and Dave. We were a couple pounds off their 19lb bag but we were still really happy with how it ended up.
It felt good to get some redemption from the week before and get through one of those tough fishing periods. It just felt like the last few weeknighters and the White Lake HOTD that no matter what I did I couldn’t catch a big one. It isn’t the first time it has been like that and it certainly won’t be the last. Mentally it is exhausting but if you never stop and never lose confidence you’ll get through it. I might have to go into a full blog about that sometime this fall.
But for now I’m going to be thankful to end the regular season on a high note. I’m going into full salmon mode now and probably need to start thinking about hunting and the 2 classics coming up. We are going to fish both the West Michigan Bass and D&R Classics this year. The D&R classic is on Houghton so I expect that to be a lot of fun. I’m hoping some of the stuff from my previous visit there will play and I can spend most of my time trying to find a way to get bit in the afternoon. Who knows what to expect from the WMB Classic on Elk/Torch, it is going to be a great way to get some more experience there and hopefully catch a few fish.