As of Thursday night there are 25 pre-registered teams entered in this years Spring Open Bass Tournament.  That is quite a few more than last year and we ended up with 36 teams total so it could be a banner year.  There is still time to pre-pay but walk-ups are still encouraged Saturday morning.  Registration on tourney day begins at 4:30 and ends at 5am so set the alarm clocks.  Even if you are pre-registered, you must be present for the 5am boaters meeting.

The lake conditions as of Wednesday were fairly stable but the cold front was just moving in.  Water temps were in the low 70′s and many empty beds and fry were spotted by some of the competitors that were practicing.  The water was still fairly clear but the high winds that have plagued the area will have something to say about that come Saturday.  The forecast for tourney day is 67 and partly sunny with low winds expected.  It should be a good event and a dry one for once and the club is looking forward to another great open.  Results will be posted hopefully towards the end of the holiday weekend.

This Saturday is the official catch and keep opener for bass in Michigan and it also marks the SouthCentral Michigan Basscasters annual “Spring Open”.  The tournament will again be held on the Michigan Center chain of lakes and will run from 6am until 2pm, going out of the DNR launch on the lakes Northeast shore.  The tourney is open to anyone who wants to fish and is a team event and we have had some pretty decent turnouts in recent years.  The 2011 “Open” drew 32 boats and last years extravaganza drew 34 entries.  We’re hoping to have at least that many this year and boat launch order is determined by the order in which we receive the registration forms so get them in if you have not already done so.

As for the fishing, many reports have filtered in and there are mixed reviews.  This time of year there are all phases of the spawn going on so fish are on beds, guarding fry and already making summer homes.  The fishing can be very sporadic during this time of year and the weather plays a vital role which is probably the reason for so many varying reports.  Water temps are in the high 60′s and there is a full moon on the day of the event.  We are expecting rain early this week and that will be followed by a slight cool down with highs expected in the 60′s.  Some of the best fishermen in Jackson will be on the water Saturday and someone will figure it out eventually like they always do.

Please feel free to contact a club member if more information is needed or click on the “Open” tab at the top of the website page.  Hope to see a good turnout this weekend and lets pray for sunny skies.

I have fished many catch and release tournaments with the club and have made a habit of getting my butt kicked.  But one thing I’ve learned over the years is that when there are fish on beds then you better be fishing them or you’ll get beat every time.  I put that lesson to good use when the club had it’s first tourney of the year on Clark Lake last weekend and there were definitely fish on beds.

Practice: I had been out ten days before the tournament just to get a feel for the water and what phase the fish were in.  It was cold and the water temps were only about 48 degrees and I didn’t see many fish in the shallows.  I returned just two days before the event and the water had warmed to over 60 degrees and there were beds everywhere.  My plan was to get a few areas where I could target pre-spawn largemouth out on the breaks and then GPS as many smallie beds as I could in a 7 hour period.

I did eventually find a few good potential areas where I could catch decent largemouth on a suspending jerkbait and a few good ones showed themselves so that was a good back-up plan. By the end of the day I also had coordinates to about 25-30 smallmouth beds that either had keeper fish on them or looked like they would by Sunday.  With this many beds I knew this contest would be won with smallmouth and I needed to get to those first on game day.

Tournament: When we took off Sunday I headed right for a big fish I’d found Friday and hoped to get to it first.  These fish can be fairly easy to catch once they’re locked onto the beds but after they’ve been caught a few times they tend to get leery or even leave.  Unfortunately another competitor was heading for the same area as we were and after a brief conversation I decided to head elsewhere.

Elsewhere was a shallow gravel flat not far away and it was so shallow I doubted anyone else would find these fish right away.  I threw mainly two baits this day when targeting beds, a tube and a zoom super fluke both in chartreuse.  My fluke produced the first keeper of the day, a small male and then followed it up with a 3 pounder a few minutes later.  The sun wasn’t out yet and the beds were hard to see but my coordinates were dead-on and I was able to make long casts without spooking the fish.

With two on the board we headed back to the big fish where we originally wanted to start and the coast was clear.  I caught another smallmouth off a bed right away which was close to 3 pounds on the Fluke again and then set my sights on the big one.  My partner John Bidle had two beds he could cast to and I was still able to barely make out the bigger bed holding the 4 pounder.  I used the tube for this one because I could make long accurate casts and feel the bed once I got on it.  Two casts later I hooked and promptly lost the big fish half way to the boat on her first jump.  No problem, bedding fish will bite again and a few minutes later I had a 4.1 pound smallmouth in the boat for fish number 4.

With the overcast conditions our plan was to get a few good smallmouth off beds and then head for off-shore largemouth which my partner was more accustomed to fishing for anyway.  The sun was starting to poke out and it was getting windy but I’d hoped the green fish would bite until later in the morning.  Our first spot was a weedy point that dropped off into deep water and I promptly hooked a monster with a Lucky Craft Pointer jerk bait.  The fish was well over 4 pounds but wanted nothing to do with the boat and just before John could slide a net under it, it was gone.  Those of you who have lost big fish in tournaments know the sick feeling that set in but it was still early and I had to shake it off.

We were close to a small area where I had some keeper beds marked and I wanted to fill out my limit before it got too late in the day.  These beds only had small fish on them Friday but the first cast with the Fluke had a 3.2 pounder inhale it and that was fish #5 and about 13 pounds.  We decided to focus on smallmouth beds for a while longer and then ventured over to the north shore where a big concentration of them were located.  A few club competitors were on the flat but the wind was picking up and I think that enabled  us to get close to the beds without spooking them.

It only took about 20 minutes for me to catch 3 good bed fish and cull out my small ones and give me my final weight of 17 pounds and it was only 11:30.  All 3 of those bed fish came on the tube and that big largemouth was all but forgotten.  My technique for catching the bedding fish was to get as far away as possible and still be able to see the bed.  I’d cast my tube past the target and with my fireline I’d be able to feel the small rocks located on the nests.  I’d usually leave it there for a while and many times the fish would just pick the bait up and start swimming with it.  I couldn’t see my line move but every once in a while I’d pick up and feel pressure and knew to set the hook.

We spent the rest of the day throwing jerk baits out on the breaks trying to catch those big pre-spawn largemouth but they never showed up.  We got several small keepers but could not connect with the bigger fish.  We had hit most of the beds but it was getting hard to figure which ones we already caught fish on in order to not duplicate our catches.  A lot of the better fish were gone later in the day which supported our decision to target spawners early before they got beat up too bad.  It was a good decision and probably the reason I was able to win the event.

My partner John hadn’t fished bedding smallmouth much so it was a learning process during the whole tournament.  But by the end of the day he was spotting the beds right away and making accurate casts to them and proved to be a quick learner.  I’m sure he will be a force in the club as he gets a little more experience and was a great guy to fish with all day.

Gear Notes: Tube bait was fished with a 1/4 oz jighead paired with 6 lb fireline and a 3′ leader of Bass Pro Shops XPS fluorocarbon.  Fluke was fished on 12 lb XPS fluorocarbon and paired with a 4/0 EWG worm hook.  The Lucky Craft Pointer 78 jerk bait was the ghost minnow pattern and was fished on 10 lb XPS fluoro

The club got it’s 2013 regular season underway in outstanding fashion last Sunday on Clarks Lake for our pre-season tournament.  Despite a little wind, we were greeted with warm temperatures and mostly sunny skies and the fish were biting.  It took 17 pounds to win and over 13 pounds to get a paycheck which testifies how good the fishing was.  Compared to 2012 which took 7 pounds to win and 2011 when only 5 pounds won, this was quite an upgrade.  The warm front that preceded the event warmed Clarks waters nearly 15 degrees in the week leading up to the tourney and the fish flocked to the shallows where the club members were there to great them.

Most of the top finishers targeted bedding smallmouth that had set up shop on the many shallow gravel bars that outlined the lake.  The pre-spawn largemouth bite was consistent but resulted in only small fish and those who targeted the green species only weighed in small limits.  The smallmouth fishing was where it was at and many started bed fishing from the get-go.  Three fish over 4 pounds were caught and many over 3 pounds came to the scales.  The extremely clear water made it easy for sight fishermen to cast to beds and aided in such high weights being registered.

Most that finished high in the standings used tube baits to trick the smallies but other lures such as grubs, super flukes and soft stickbaits caught fish.  Those that targeted largemouth reported doing most of their damage closer to the deep weedlines and the bait of choice was mainly suspending jerkbaits.  The largemouth bite was extremely consistent during the week leading up to the tournament but for some reason didn’t produce bigger fish on Sunday.  Most that were weighed in were less than two pounds and that may have been due to the partly cloudy and windy conditions.

The Clark Lake event drew 22 anglers which was the biggest turnout since 2011.  Of the 22 anglers who fished, 10 caught limits and only 3 anglers got shut-out.  The next club tournament will be held Sunday June 9th on Wamplers Lake and the annual Spring Open will be Saturday May 25th on the Michigan Center chain.

1.   Jerry Smith  (5)  17.10 lbs

2.   Mark Dereadt  (5)  15.69

3.   Scott Hartman  (5)  14.00

4.   Bill Maurer  (5)  13.57

5.   Scott Rice  (5)  13.11

6.   Mike Maske  (5)  12.50

7.   Craig Deck  (5)  9.88

8.   Aaron Latosewski  (4)  9.45

9.   Roy Albert  (5)  9.06

10.  Mike Mullaly  (5)  8.38

11.  Melissa Rice  (3)  8.10

12.  Jim Rice  (5)  7.31

13.  Matt Zelenka  (1)  3.19

14.  Ethan Angstman  (2)  2.44

14.  Jim VanAken  (2)  2.44

16.  Patty Dereadt  (1)  2.25

17.  Tom Curry  (1)  1.69

18.  Kathy Maurer  (1)  1.67

19.  John Bidle  (1)  1.20

20.  Trish Rice  0

20.  Connie Honsinger  0

20.  Art Honsinger  0

Big Bass #1:  Bill Maurer  4.18lbs

Big Bass #2:  Mark Dereadt  4.18lbs

I’d just like to thank Tourney Director Scott Hartman for scheduling our first club tournament during the first major warm spell of the year.  It takes great skill to project the weather months in advance and plan our Clark Lake event for such an awesome day.  But on a more serious note that is exactly what we’re in store for this coming Sunday when we get the season underway.

Most anglers in the club have been on Clarks at some point in their lives but we’ve never fished a club event there since I’ve been a member.  Some will have vast experience out there but there will be a few that will be seeing the lake for the first time.

Clarks is 580 acres and has extremely clear water with visibility to 15 feet.  It has a few prominent points and sunken humps and has a weedline that rings the dropoffs.  Although there are weeds present, they aren’t real thick and the east end has more than the west end.  There are both species of bass swimming in Clarks along with pike, gills, perch and a decent population of walleye. 

The lake temperature was around 48 degrees last Friday but I found temps close to 60 last night.  There are several gravel flats on the lake and that’s where the smallmouth will spawn but I’m not sure if that will be happening quite yet.  The largemouth will probably be in a prespawn pattern since they’re usually a little behind smallies when it comes to spawning.

Since both species are available, I believe a good limit will contain both types of  bass and most techniques should work.  Some spawning smallies could be caught but the prespawn green fish will be fat and eating and should be easier to catch.  My guess is that 12-14 pounds will win the event and the lake should fish really good.

The launch is located on Eagle Point Dr which runs north off of Jefferson Rd.  There is a $10 fee per boat which will be paid to Scott Hartman that morning.  It’s going to be a great day on the water and I’m sure everyone is as pumped up as I am.

Enough of the tiny jigs and panfish lures, this past weekend was the catch and release opener for bass and I took full advantage of it.  The toughest part was deciding whether to fish Clarks or Columbia, so I just fished both.  The water was still around 48 degrees due to the recent cold rains but the fish were biting.

I started at Columbia partly because it contains many small canals and bays that are shallow and would have warmed up the most.  It was a wise decision as I caught a 3.5 pounder with a shad rap crankbait on my third cast and that set the tone for the morning.  I probably caught around 30 fish, mostly on jigs but added a few on jerkbaits and spinnerbaits.  It was a great day and there is nothing better than breaking the ice on the fishing season with some good jig bites.

About 1 pm I ventured over to Clarks and it was quite different out there.  The lake doesn’t have any shallow canals or bays and everything is out in the open and exposed to the elements.  I fought the wind and managed to catch a few but nothing great.  The flats were void of life and anything I caught was out deeper and close to the breaks.  I did manage to catch a few good ones off a single weed bed on a jig which was surprising but fun anyway.  I think that lake will turn on soon with the warm weather predicted and we should be hitting it perfectly.

As for the fish, they were all fat on both lakes and many had fins sticking out of their throats.  These fish are just as tired of the cold weather as we are and should move up in droves this week.  I will get out on Clark later in the week and post a full report and preview the tournament.  Hope everyone else got out as well, it’s been a long winter.

I know it snowed yesterday but I believe spring is finally here.  We had a few 60 degree days and a big warm up is forecasted for this weekend.  Just in time as the first club tournament is in 10 days.  That just kinda snuck up on us but I can’t wait to get out there.  Bass C and R season opens this coming Saturday so we can get out and officially practice.

I will be out on Clarks this weekend and with the warm weather coming I’d expect the water temps to start creeping into the low 50′s.  The few reports I have received from Clarks is that a few fish have started moving shallow as of last week and the fish that were caught were big and fat.  I’ve been on clark many times in the spring and if the weather is right (which is looking good right now), 50 fish days are not out of the question.  I’m not sure beds will be made in time for our event but barring a big cold front, there will be lots of fish shallow and biting.

On another note, the Spring Open flyers have been mailed and Scott Hartman has already received several back.  Anyone still looking for a registration form can e-mail Scott and he’ll send you a printable version of the form.  Hope to see some familiar faces this weekend and I’ll report my findings.