Editors Note: After winning the Michigan Div. BFL event on the Detroit R., Heath entered the Central Div. EverStart event going out of the same location, just 2 weeks later. After leading the first 2 days, Heath finally ended up in 3rd place. Heath was kind enough to share his Tour journal from that event with our readers.
Everstart Series Practice 7/21-7/24
Grandpa and I headed over around 2 pm Sunday afternoon to begin our pre fish. We hit Bass Pro in Rossford quickly on the way over to pick up some more hot baits. We finally hit the water around 6 pm. We fished close in Michigan water on Erie since our time was limited. We were able to cycle through about 5 areas. We caught a few on the first 2, but nothing giant.
It was after fishing the 2nd spot I started studying the HD chip that my buddy Andy has loaned me several times. This chip shows stuff that I never knew existed, and is almost dead on when you pull up on a spot. I noticed a small hump about 3 miles offshore in 19 fow and told Grandpa that we needed to check this out. I had never in all my years seen another boat in this area nor had I ever fished it. I ran out to it and quickly side imaged it and noticed a few rocks on the edge, but it was mostly sand. It did not look that great, but looks can always be deceiving. We decided to try it out and GPS'd the 3 rocky areas on this hump. Well, it didn't take long and the 3-4 pounders were coming aboard. This place was loaded. We caught approximately 20 before deciding to pull off. This spot definitely had check potential as we each boated 19+ pounds in an hour.
We hit a couple more areas before heading in and caught a few more fish, but nothing that would have helped. It was a productive 3 hours of fishing. I didn't feel the win was living out there, but it gave me a backup depending on the weather. We headed off to Ryan Said's grandparents house who live about 15 minutes from Elizabeth Park in Lincoln Park. Ryan, too, was fishing this event. His grandparents had supper ready!
The next morning we headed out onto Erie to check the winning stuff from the BFL and to explore new and old water. Our first stop was on the glory hole. To my dismay, it was mostly dead. I caught 2 jumbo perch, a sheephead and a 2 pound smallie. It was a bit rough today with 2-3 footers rolling around, so moving around was a bit difficult, but we made due. Besides, it's only water! We cranked, tubed and dropshotted from 6'-30' and put several good fish in the boat.
We found a few places that had 2-4 pound fish on them, but nothing that had all big fish on it. My experience on Erie has always told me that you really need to find all big fish to have a viable chance at winning. Around 3 we were close to the glory hole and decided to check it out one more time. Two flips with the drop shot and two nearly 5 pounders came aboard.
I no sooner put these in the boat when I noticed a boat coming at us. This area receives virtually no pressure and I didn't want that to change. I knew pulling the plug and running away would not work, he already had my location so I simply continued fishing except trolling as far away from the sweet spot as possible and acting dumb. The boat stopped and began fishing about 200 yards away and in the next few minutes I was able to pull him about 200 more yards away. After I was satisfied that it would not be found, we headed out to check some more stuff.
The fish were biting and we whacked 'em wherever we went. At days end, Grandpa had nearly 24 pounds and I had 23 (typical:). We got back to the house at 9 pm and were greeted with our second home cooked meal.
Tuesday morning dawned very nice. The wind was supposed to pick up a bit, but 1-2 footers were in the forecast today. My plan was to expand on what I already knew, and to only fish new water and put the SI to good use. With the HD chip finding new water was fairly easy. It does not show exact places or what is on them, but reading the contours really helped with locating stuff.
Grandpa continued to whack em in the back. I kept up with him with numbers, but he was definitely catching the size. We have been drop shotting a bait that has really been producing big fish and he sticks with it. I on the other hand do a lot of switching to see if there is something that will work just as good. I also throw a tube a lot. At day's end we had found several new areas, but they were all similar to everything from the day before. A lot of mixed size fish from 2-4 pounds.
Grandpa ended the day with 23+ and I had around 19. A good practice day considering we hit nothing we were familiar with. Once again Ryan's grandparents had supper ready when we arrived "home".
Wednesday, the final practice day, dawned dead calm. The forecast was for light winds today. On a whim, I decided we were going to try to find some new water even further away. We were already putting $120 in gas in the boat each day, why not make it $150! After a long, nice run, we headed to an area that looked good on the chip. Several minutes of the SI and we quickly found several rises and small isolated rock piles. We marked at least 15 of these and began checking them out. It was not fast, but every single mark I made had a 3-4 pound fish on it. You would catch one right away and possibly two and then nothing. However every single new mark had a good fish on it. This area definitely had potential of a tournament victory. There didn't appear to be tons of fish here, but they were the right size. If my glory hole died, this is where I was coming.
We had to be off the water by 6 and were back at the ramp at 5:00. I dropped Grandpa off at the motel as he was being picked up by Dan to do some fishing on the St Clair River the next 2 days as I fished the tourney. I made it back to registration at 5:30. The meeting commenced at 6:30 and the pairings were all done by 7:00. I drew Marc Gallion a retired police officer from Chicago and traveling partner of Mike who I drew up at Burt and Mullet. I knew he would be a good draw as I had a great time with Mike. I drew boat 64 which was about middle of the pack. The forecast for the next day was to be nice so getting to my fish would not be a problem all I had to worry about on my sleepless night was the catching.
Everstart Detroit River Day 1
After a long night I met Marc at Elizabeth Park at 5:15 am. Blast off was at 6 and our weigh in was at 2:30. It was a beautiful morning and after prayer and the national anthem the boats were off. About 55% of the field headed north to St Clair and the rest headed to Erie. It was a beautiful run and I arrived at the glory hole at 6:46. There were a few boats around, but no one was within 3/4 of a mile from me. I could see a total of 7 boats.
I grabbed my smokin' purple flash tube and pitched it over the side of the boat. I was a bit concerned because I had not been here since Monday and the morning bite was not good then. My graph was showing fish, but I went 15 minutes without a bite. With my usual nerves, I was quickly getting concerned, because it just does not take long when you're right on top of them. I could see 'em, I just wasn't catching them. I flipped my drop shot down there a couple times and it was then I decided I needed to snap my tube a bit harder. It was then that it happened. The flurry that was about to come was unbelievable.
Within the next 45 minutes I caught a fish on nearly every drop. My first five went around 18 pounds, and I had them in the boat by 7:19. I wanted at least 21 before leaving this spot alone, and by 8 I had 22+ in the livewell. Marc finished his limit with two 4-pounders, a 3 pounder, and a couple 15-inchers. I told him we needed to leave this alone and I would get him a couple cull fish.
We hit a couple more deep areas with only a couple 2 pounders to show for it and Marc was not getting bit. Around 10 I decided to try and get him a couple shallow fish as very few guys were hitting the shallow stuff. I took him to a couple key boulders and told him to throw a crankbait at them. He quickly boated a fish that was nearly 4 on the first one. I was throwing my tube away from the key boulders as I was trying to let him get rid of that last 15 incher. I caught a couple 3 1/2 pounders on the tube that didn't help and a couple sheepshead as well. Marc lost 2 real good fish in between.
Just before 11 I cast my tube to a boulder after Marc fished it and set the hook on a solid fish. It stayed down and I instantly thought sheepshead and told Marc not to worry about the net. The water had about 4 feet of visibility and as it swam under the boat all I could see was BRONZE!!!!! I yelled at Marc to get the net and after what seemed like 2 days, I put a giant in the net. A few minutes later Marc hooked and landed a solid 4 pound fish. I had had enough for the day and Marc had as well. I told him I was going to protect my first spot. I ran out to it and stayed 200 yards away and just fished junk.
About 11:30 I did have a boat swipe real close to us, but no one touched the glory hole all day. There was not even a boat close as I was within site of it all day. We had the boat at the ramp at 1:58 and had them weighed by 2:30. I weighed in a whopping 24 pounds even and had the big bass of the day at 5-10 (the shallow giant:) Marc weighed in a solid 19-5 putting him in 4th on the co-angler side. It was a dream day with virtually no fish lost and everything clicked. Stay tuned day 2 is coming!
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