Round Two (Saginaw Bay)

Well, it has been almost a month since the last tournament. Just enough time for Kevin to finally get his truck back (yes it has been that long) and for him to get his boat dried out (we took some serious water over the bow on day two).

Being gone for 8 days on a training mission (if that is what you want to call it) has killed my pre-fishing time on the bay. I am however back in Michigan and will be fishing Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The captains meeting is Friday evening and fishing will start again on Saturday and Sunday Mornings. The current long term weather outlook is not good. Most of this week is calling for an Easterly wind. For those that have not fished the bay, it makes it very rough.

As if I had a crystal ball, I did purchase a brand new Gore Tex suit last week (had to spend my overtime money on something) as I was tired of cheap rainwear. You get what you pay for in this deal, and I had gore tex in the military (no longer fits me!). I was hoping I wouldn't have to use it so soon, but I think it will be a "must have". Mom and dad will be pulling the 5er over to the bay and be pre-fishing with me.

I have some new tactics I've been attempting to dial in so I want to play around with those a little bit. Hopefully, if the weather holds up, Kevin and I can go our separate ways on Wednesday and Thursday and then team up on Friday and put a plan together for the weekend. Unlike jigging, trolling really requires the people in the boat to be up on what each other is doing. Friday will be a good day to get on the same page in one boat.

Back-up plan will be river fishing (if we have to) but at least we have options!

I should be able to take a few photos this time too. Unlike jigging, trolling doesn't require me to hold a rod in my hand. If however she does get rough, I say with fish out of my boat until Kevin gets some "Smooth Moves" installed!!!!

Good luck to you guys, catch em up!


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Good luck boys and be careful.

See you two at camp, good luck!

Good luck guys. Be safe and enjoy your time on the water.

Mother nature sucks! Been sitting at the campground hoping to get out. Kevin and Eric braved it for awhile however it was getting worse. To add insult to injury, Kevin's "fixed" truck is no longer "fixed".

According to Kevin, he isn't even going to call them. Momma is gonna call. Oh how I would hate to be that repair shop! I guess I'll go shopping.

Been there, done that.

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Good Luck you guys....

Rich ,I feel for ya!!!!!
I cancelled a 4 day trip to erie this weekend because of this crummy weather, w
high winds and cold are not a good combo for a enjoyable walleye trip on the great lakes :(

The fishing was pretty bad. We braved the 2 and 3 footers for as long as we could but once the 4 footers started mixing in we called it quits. It didn't help that Kevins truck sprayed the whole bottom of the boat down with transmission fluid.

Can't say I e ever seen Kev p*seed off, but I bet Eric has. Sorry for the truck issue Kev.

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fixing a transmission should not be THAT big of a deal, I would not blame him if he blows a gasket on someone!!!!
I feel plenty safe in my boat even in 6 footers, ..........I just want to ENJOY my fishing!!!

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Originally Posted by yankee doodler

Can't say I e ever seen Kev p*seed off, but I bet Eric has. Sorry for the truck issue Kev.

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If Kevin ever gets really quiet its time to start worrying. rotfl

For as long as the guy has been working on the truck I can understand his frustrations.

I'm like you John. I'm okay in big water, but I don't fish it unless I have to. This weekend, we might have to.

Pre fished with mom and dad today. Went to a new area, looked at the map... yup, should be fish here. Took 24 walleye in a hair under three hours. I found some bigger fish too. Hope they stay for a few days. Kev and I could use em. I actually think mom got tired of reeling fish in. Especially when I handed her one after another for about 45 minutes straight.

Set Kevin up on my trolling patterns and hit the road. Besides my go too honey hole (which I didn't fish today), I now have a new pile of numbers to work from.

Weather and wind was awesome. But....here comes the storms

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Originally Posted by wicklundrh

I'm like you John. I'm okay in big water, but I don't fish it unless I have to. This weekend, we might have to.

Pre fished with mom and dad today. Went to a new area, looked at the map... yup, should be fish here. Took 24 walleye in a hair under three hours. I found some bigger fish too. Hope they stay for a few days. Kev and I could use em. I actually think mom got tired of reeling fish in. Especially when I handed her one after another for about 45 minutes straight.

Set Kevin up on my trolling patterns and hit the road. Besides my go too honey hole (which I didn't fish today), I now have a new pile of numbers to work from.

Weather and wind was awesome. But....here comes the storms

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Excellent news man! I hope you guys can get on some numbers this weekend.

Tournament director sent an email out last night stating that: do to the upcoming weekend wind outlook, the bay might be considered "off limits". That means a river only tournament.

So, back to the drawing board to find some fish on the river. Always a stick in the spokes

That's interesting as the wind doesn't appear its going to be too bad in the morning. I can't imagine all those boats crowded into the mouth of the river jigging.

:bash

I'd still put money on you Marine, you'll figure it out.


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So, we made the command decision this morning to double down. We hit the bay first then the river. We started at 10am in 1 footers. They built slightly but we put a quick two man 16 fish limit in the boat in an hour and a half. Dropped two back so we could continue to fish. Trolling rods in the locker, jigging rods and plastics out.

Did a ton of side scan scouting and found a great spot. Kevin and I had to hide what we were downing. Everyplace we went, at least one boat would pull in on us. Too bad we hid our catches really well and they have no idea WHAT we caught. I will say, if we have to fish the river, we know were we will start.

Committee will make the decision in the morning. We WILL fish the bay if allowed and are confident in numbers but we have a backup plan if we can't.

Great report and congrats on the good catch.

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4:30 AM:
Lunch made....
Socks, underware, base layer, sweatshirt, sitka rain gear, gore tex rain outer layer...
Damn, now I have to use the crapper! Who would have guessed pouring rain... cats and dogs... Launching starts at 5. Blast off at 7. Still no decision on the bay yet.

Good luck where ever you target.

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Good luck guys, can't wait to hear the report on how you did.

With wind to 24kts out of the north, they made the smart call to keep us in the river for safety.

Jigging didn't pan out so we put a new game plan together and started trolling the river. Even though the legal size is 13 inches, tournament rules say 15 only.

The good news is we caught 13 fish (boat 13...) the bad news was we could only weigh 3. Kev put them on the scale and I think the official weight was 4.3 lbs. Better than some but not better than others.

Frustrating to know you had a game plan get fowled because of weather. Oh well, that is all part of it. Everyone has the same conditions to fish.

Tomorrow, if we cannot hit the bay, do we stay on the little ones, or leave fish to find them? Decisions decisions.

Correction... 4.02 lbs. Put us almost dead center. Big hole to dig out of but a lot of zeros and 1's today. Only a few lbs out of the money. Those guys could have a bad day tomorrow and we could have a good day.

If the bay is open, that is were I'm going, if not, we have a plan now. My goal is to climb the board. Only one decent fish out of the top 15.

Go get em boys!