I just returned from my final tour qualifier tournament of the year, out of Escanaba Michigan. Escanaba is a very nice town on the shores of Little Bay de Noc. If you are not familiar with the area, it is the very North bay on the Bay of Green Bay, part of lake Michigan. Going into the tournament, we knew the bite was going to be very tough, but not many knew just how tough it was going to be.
I approached this tournament knowing we were not going to get bit often and most likely we were going to be pulling spinners/crawlers on boards. This is exactly what we did for 5 days of prefishing and we were lucky enough to put together a pattern that did not produce many fish, but they were the right fish! Like this 10 pound 10 ounce monster I weighed on day one of the tournament
On day one of prefishing we got bit in 23 ft of water one time and that fish ended up being a 27 incher. From there we concentrated on that depth of water no matter what part of the lake we fished. Over 3 days we were able to get a spinner blade/bead/depth and speed combo that would produce about 5 to 6 fish per day. This is not a lot but for this tournament we could only weigh 2 fish over 23 inches so they needed to be good ones.
We also figured out prefishing that the farther we drove South the bigger the fish were. Instead of 26-28 inch fish near Little Bay, we were able to get 28-32 inch fish. Since I needed a good finish to make the tour championship, I had no choice but to make the 100 mile round trip run each day. But, the reward was nice fish like this one if you got bit.
Fishing on Green Bay is interesting to say the least. We caught my different species of fish including, Giant Carp, Catfish, Salmon, Sheephead and Gobies. In addition to those, Adam landed this nice Brown Trout. Since neither Adam nor I fish trout, we really weren’t sure what it was other than we thought it was big. We later found out this is a huge Brown for the area. It was almost 34 inches and weighed over 14 pounds. Like I said, I guess it is a nice one.
For all 3 days of the tournament I fished the same area 40 miles South of Escanaba trolling spinners. The first day I had my 2 fish in the first hour and had lots of time to work on catching smaller fish, to no evail. The second day I only had one bite and that fish was 8 pounds 10 ounces which moved me up to 14th overall. On day 3 I could not get bit as my fish had shifted a 1/2 SE. The 3 fish I weighed over the 3 days were enough for 34th place which was good enough to get me into the Tour Championship. After some bad luck this year, my sole goal of this tournament was to make the Championship and I was fortunate enough to do so.
In addition a big congrats to my teamate Jason Kerr who qualified for his first tour championship and a big thanks to Rick Nascak, John Renchen and Jarrad for their help this year. They did not make the championship, but were right on the bubble to make it in. It would be hard to fish the entire tour without a good team of guys to work with I am thankful to have a great team.
Now it is time to start getting ready for Cleveland!!
Great report Scott!
It is really cool to see the thought that goes into the decision making before and during a tournament such as the FLW Tour.
Congrats on the great finish, and making it to the Championship!
Good Jobs Scott Nice Finish!!!
Good Luck in th Championship!!!!!!
Congrats Scott. Good luck at the Championship.
Great report and congrats on making the championship. That had to be a blast pulling that Brown in on the walleye gear.
Thanks for the report Scott and GOOD LUCK at the FLW Championship
Congrats Scott on what sounded like a horrific bite.
Good luck in the Championship. We’ll be pullin for ya!
Good Luck Scott at the championship. Nice fish also.
Did you make home in time for Tom’s wedding?
Nice fish and Good luck !!!
big g
Congratulations. Give ’em heck at the championship!
well done scott. i’ll be checking in on the standings of the championship. good luck.
Nice job Scotty make another run in the championship like last year!!
Congratulations on making it to the championships once again Scott!
Hopefully, your luck will turn around and you’ll win it all!
Boog
Nice job! Did anyone do well staying in LLittle Bay trying to get a small limit each day?
Congrates Scott
Great report
Awesome fish Adam
Looks like you guys had some fun.
Good luck in the Championship run
Scott,
good luck at the championship…
that Brown is terrific…
Jack.
Yes, we loaded up the boat friday and I did not stay to pick up my check, just hit the road. I made it home Friday night in time to have a beer with the guys after the grooms dinner.
There were a few boats that stayed in little bay the entire tournament trying to get small fish. But, the bite was OK on day one but went down hill fast with the alwives showing up more and more each day. Between the bug hatches and the alwives the fish were very happy and not very interested in eating.
The good news is we fish Bay de Noc 2 weeks later next year, so the fish should be on the chew again.
Congrats Scott on making the big dance! Good Luck.
Great report Scott and congrats on making the championship!
Not much of a trout or salmon guy but that is one awesome looking brown!
Too bad you had to make the long haul everyday but you did what you had to do. Alewives make for a tough bite on de noc to say the least
Way to go Scott~! I’m sorry I had to be laid up and not be able to pre fish with you… My buddy Frank snuck me out of the house for the weigh in Saturday and we were there to cheer the team on…and was happy your early success held up!
Lord willing I will be of more help to the team next year and … who knows??? Maybe jump in somewhere as co-angler???
When the intense Mayfly/Alwive invasion is over the normal late summer patterns/bite are much more predictable…