23 pounds, and nothing....

[MIbasser]

I had my last Federation tournament this weekend on Saginaw Bay. I hate the Bay. Earlier this week the waves were 4'-8'. So I tell my partner I really don't want to pre fish. So we did what we did last year and doing so cashed a check. Drink heavily on Saturday, wake up at 3:30 in the morning and go fish! That is one thing we are both good at. So we get up drive the 1 1/2 hours to the Bay and fish. I had a pretty hard morning. Tom put our smallest fish in the boat and I had two break offs. One was big as my rod doubled over (never saw it), the other was okay (did see it). That was the first time I had two break offs that I can ever remember. Talk about not having a good morning. Well it only got better. Our smallest fish in our bag was 3.92. Pretty sad when you need a 4 pounder to cull!! Our big fish was a 5.56 (4th biggest weighed in), caught by yours truly.

To sum it up, no prefish, hangover, and one little spot that we know of in the whole Bay, we ended up with 23.03 and finished 6th!!!!!!!!!!! That part sucked. The fishing, was great, the weather was great. Just not enough to cash a check. Oh well.





4 of the 5

[gonefishin3]

Congratulations! ! Its good to have a good day on the water. My last tournament is this comeing weekend (state championships) been practiceing a lot though it rained on us for three days straight last weekend. But it was fun.

[WatterBoy]

Wow, those are great looking Smallies! Congrats on fish even if you did finish 6th. I feel your pain on the lost fish. I had 4 or 5 real solid fish escape me on the way in to the boat last week, although none of them broke me off.

[rrw4258]

Boy just when you think you have a good day on the water, a good sack of fish, and then no check... what a bummer! We have had some close calls this year but have come out on top so far... one of our tournament wins this year was with 25.17 lbs of smallies, 2nd was 25.10, and 3rd was 25.02... talk about close! But congrats on the good day of fishing, and the hangover!

Ryan

[Jrob78]

So awesome and so disappointing at the same time. Nice sack either way!

[Bassboss]

Oh well sounds like the a pretty good post torney at least!

But for real, sounds like some pretty good fishin!

[bamabassman]

sorry you didn't finish as you wouod have liked to mi. BUT GOOD LAWD A THE BRONZIES!!!! those are jsut fantastic for real.

[Bender]

I've never been to the Bay and never considered fishing it any time other than the spring. I didn't know there were such good fish to be found there this time of year. That is a great day's catch in any case. What did it take to win out there?

[MIbasser]

Originally Posted by Bender

I've never been to the Bay and never considered fishing it any time other than the spring. I didn't know there were such good fish to be found there this time of year. That is a great day's catch in any case. What did it take to win out there?

It took over 25 to win and 4 other teams came in with 24. I guess the top 4 teams all had guys on them that qualified for the State Team, that fished the Bay 2 or 3 weeks prior. Big bass was 6.xx.....

[Dogmatic]

That's a nice bag. It's absolutely amazing what an incredible fishery the Lakes have become when it comes to SM. Just for a non-competitor, only the top three finish in the money, and how much would that money be?

[MIbasser]

Originally Posted by Dogmatic

That's a nice bag. It's absolutely amazing what an incredible fishery the Lakes have become when it comes to SM. Just for a non-competitor, only the top three finish in the money, and how much would that money be?

They actually paid out 4 spots on 18 boats. First place had almost a $1000 check each (2 man teams) and then they both got over $1000 in prizes such as a SS prop, rods, GPS's and a bunch of other things. 4th place would break even for the entry.