Guys,
When I did my post before I left, I had three objectives. To finish on top of our team, to have our team in the top three teams and to draw Champman. Well, I’m 1 for 3. I did draw Jim (Champman) on the first day. After fishing with him it’s easy to see why he has accomplished so much. Other than a mishap with a rock we had a good day. Jim got a limit and I had 3 fish and lost a forth. Yes, it was a very tough bite. We had strong NW winds that blew several inches of water out of Jim’s starting spot. I thought I had a shallow reef all to my self, but when Jim and I got there I watch a boat land 4 fish off my spot. I’m sure Jim was sick of hearing me whine about it. By 2:00 we were out of trolling motor battery so we were limited as to what we could fish. Both of us through Spinnerbaits most of the day. On day two I drew Thad Takes (a Mississippi River rat) from the Iowa Team. Thad was leading his team so I agreed to fish his water. That day we had strong SE winds, and again out of battery by 1:00. We resorted to anchoring and a 25 LB anchor wasn’t enough to hold. The spinnerbait was the lure of choice. Thad had 3 fish for 5-10 and I had 2 for 5-9. Thad did win the Iowa top spot and will go to the Nationals. On the last day I drew a young man from Ohio who considers Lake Erie as his home water. We started on his spot and after an hour I put down the spinnerbait and tied on a Northland Tackle Manic Minnow. It’s unique swim bait that has a swimming tail and a body that rocks from side-to side. I did a side-by-side comparison of it against the Strom swim bait this summer on Green Bay and it was superior. Anyway, I caught a fish on the first cast and used it the rest of the day. I probably should have change earlier. The winds were down and I could fish my big fish spot, except they didn’t bite. My partner got one and lost another there. From there we jumped spots all day. I ended up with 4 for 11-5. The bottom line is I ended up 31st overall, 3rd on our team and on the 6th place team. We were in third after day one but slipped some every day. Had we had weather that would have allowed us to fish the bigger water I believe we would have gotten a trophy.
The Sevarin Sound area of Georgian Bay is one of the best big smallmouth areas I’ve seen. I’ve had the opportunity to fish the BASS Divisionals on Erie, Lake St. Claire and Green Bay. In my small sampling I would rank Georgian Bay #1 for big fish. That doesn’t take into account all of the variable such as year class, etc, it’s just what I observed. Just about everyone I talked too said they had caught a smallie over 5 pounds. One of the Minnesota guys had a 6-14, I had one well over 5 on my thumb but she slipped out of my grasp and jumped and shook the spinnerbait. It was my largest ever. I guess we should have netted her 1st and got the camera out 2nd. Live and learn. Any time you can have a 5 LB class smallie whack a spinnerbait I think you guys would agree you’re in fishing heaven. On Tuesday with light winds and sunshine, I would have cleared the 20 LB mark. My team mate reported seeing schools of 3 and 4 LB fish cruising the weed rock lines
The fishery there is quite diverse. You have rivers, mesotrophic areas,Canadian Shield features and every thing inbetween. I struggled in the shield areas but the meso areas were pretty easy to figure out. If you had a mixture of rock, milfoil and a depth change you had fish. The fish were often in very shallow water. However, the guys that found deeper fish got them early before the wind blew.
Other notes: Navigating in the high winds was very difficult because you had to stay in the navigation lanes, not drive into the wave like you would like to. Only 5 guys limited every day. Ken Milander won the MN team title. Ken and Jeremy are both on the Tri-State team. WI made a major charge thew last day and nearly upset Ontario. The drive took 17.5 hours, there were no public launches so you had to pay at the marinas. One charged $6 in, $6 out and $12 to park. Another was $10 in and $10 out. The killer was a case of beer was $34. Gas was $0.74 per liter ($2.08/gallon) one of our guys put $101 in his boat. The fishing license was $60. The good news was the exchange rate was $1.37 to $1 American dollars. You can see the final results at: http://espn.go.com/outdoors/bassmaster/s/tourn_03_fed_north_CAN_day3.html
Well, i got my gearcase swapped out about 7:00 that night and was ready for day two. My “partner” for day two was a different story, guess his idea of netting smallies is to swat um in the tail first! We all know what that does to a smallie on this web site! After the third fish he knocked in the arsh, i wasn’t about to let him near another- but didn’t get anymore bites. Ends up being that those 3 fish cost me going to nationals. Had a great partner from Iowa day three- i gave him the death talk in the morning about day 2, and he netted all my fish beatifully. Had a big bag on day three- just needed day two. The bite switched with the pressure of boats and weather conditions in which i found them buried in the thick weeds i 10 feet of water- ‘tonka style! HAd a great week with 20# bags in pre-fish(conditions where just better) and riverfan was and is a great fisherman and a pleasure to be in the same boat- and one of the best draws i’ve ever had. We worked good together at the pattern at hand and with the conditions we where encountered with. Next Year!!