WMB Classic - Practice
It's been a few years since I've gone to a WMB classic. But with this one closer than the Soo we decided to go. Neither of us know Elk/Torch/Skeg well but we had some things to build on from the D&R Classic a few years ago. Worst case we would have a great time. We had an easy set up right at the launch campground staying in Brandon's camper so once we got up there it would be all fishing.
The plan would be to build on what we had learned in Elk/Skeg on the previous trip. Ideally get a good start in Skeg and then upgrade in Elk. The forecast was going to be ultra consistent and we had no idea of that was going to help or hurt us. But it would be a far cry from the many classics of frigid temps, wind, and precipitation. We departed Norton Shores at 3:30 am Thursday morning to see what we could come up with.
It was going to be dead calm pretty much all day. That isn't always a bad thing to start the day because sometimes the calm will give away active fish that you aren't even near. I always hope to spy some surface activity early for any tournament practice. There was none of that this time but it didn't take us long to get on some fish feeding. It almost seemed too easy and it was already nice to feel like we had an area that would kick out a fast limit. We built on that some and located a few more potential hot zones nearby. The only problem was that these fish weren't really on anything particular so the likelihood of them moving was high. We found a couple zones that were a little bit deeper/different and hopefully not as dependent on the morning feed.
We still hadn't caught any big fish but it hadn't been difficult to generate some bites. So it was off to Elk to see what that was capable of. Fishing both places on day 1 would help us dial in our practice plan for day 2. It wasn't overly difficult to catch fish the rest of the day in Elk. But the size was really weak and it wasn't even like we were seeing big ones in the graph. We headed back to Skeg to end the day and got some more bites along with a good top water fish.
The tournament was definitely looking like we would get a lot of Skeg time. We hadn't given up hope completely that we could catch good fish in Elk but we were pretty discouraged at the poor size.
Day 2 was more of the same and we added one more area in Skeg and overall just got more confidence there. That place just isn't what I envision when fishing for northern smallmouth so for me it takes a minute to wrap my head around fishing for them there. We did get back to Elk and found an area that was really good. Numbers and size were there but the fear was they just weren't on anything specific. Those kind of fish that you just know will be gone on tournament day but if they stay you'll look like a hero. We definitely weren't going to count on them and if we could get a good bag to start we wouldn't even go there until day 2.
At the end of practice we had found success on top water, finesse, and moving baits. We had absolute confidence we would catch a limit despite the tough bite. We hadn't handled any big ones yet but enough solid fish that a good bag was attainable. Then there was the bonus of a good boat number and if we could take a gamble and get a big fish out of a community hole early. It was unknown what the tournament would hold but we both felt good that we could have a good event if we could just get a couple solid bites a day.