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Wal-Mart FLW Tour Stop #6 Detroit River – Detroit, Michigan By Duke Jenkel Although this tournament carries the name of Detroit River, nearly all of the anglers in this event will fish either Lake Erie, or Lake St. Clair, which are connected by the Detroit River. Before I start I would like to mention that Lake Erie and St. Clair are two of the most absolute astonishing smallmouth fisheries I have ever seen or fished. Not only do you get a large number of bites, quite frequently you get bit by 3.5lb fish or bigger. If you have never experienced it, it is truly amazing. When I speak, I speak of Lake Erie, that’s where I have spent more time, I had never been to St. Clair before this trip, but all of this talk of a great fishery comes with some downfalls, when the wind blows it gets beyond what can be described as rough. Big waves, and potentially dangerous situations can form in a hurry on this pond, so if you go, be prepared for unbelievably rough water (I’m talking 3-5 footers are normal, the waves get bigger when it gets rough), take every precaution you can, and carry all of the necessary safety equipment required for the great lakes. Practice Practice started with an unusual sight, calm water on Lake Erie. Again I spent my entire practice time fishing with Jasper Engines and Transmissions Pro Chad Morgenthaler, he had chosen to practice on Erie, so off we went. The whole object to catching fish on Lake Erie is finding off-shore rock piles, or rock reefs. Once a pile or reef has been located, you set up to make a drift across the structure. There are only a few fishing methods needed to catch smallmouth on Lake Erie, one is the dropshot and the other is dragging a tube.
During practice both Chad and I rigged two rods each, and fished both rods simultaneously as we drifted across the reefs and piles. As for as the bait selection goes, as most of you already know, or have heard, Berkley Gulp products are unbelievable. The most popular being the Gulp Goby and the Gulp Leech. When it comes to color selection, as with most soft plastic baits, preferences range far and wide, but as long as your bag of baits says “Berkley Gulp”. I know some people will disagree with that last sentence, but it is unbelievable the amount of people using Gulp products during this tourney, on both ends of the boat.
Anyway, back to practice. Both Chad and I had been on Erie in 2006 for a Stren Series event, so we immediately went to check some familiar territory, and were we glad we did. After a few small fish and a few 2.5 lb fish, we eased across a large reef, marked some fish and began our drift. On the first pass we doubled up, Chad’s fish went 5.5 lbs and mine weighed 4.5 lbs, wow what a double. As we began ease back up to the area, Chad hooked and landed another 4lb fish. Once we identified the depth that the fish were coming from, we moved around the large area and were able to locate several more schools of fish using different parts of the reef. We fished Lake Erie for two more days, and we were able to find 3 more somewhat large areas holding good schools of fish. The majority of the fish caught while we were on Erie were coming on the dropshot rig, with either a Goby or a 5” Leech. However, I was able to get bit on several occasions throwing a 3.5” Strike King coffee tube, in green pumpkin with purple, gold and copper flake. I was throwing a bite-me big dude jig head in 3/8ths of an ounce on 12lb fluorocarbon line.
On the last day of practice the winds were forecast to blow 25mph so we headed to Lake St. Clair to formulate a back-up plan and to give me an opportunity to get familiar with this lake. The most amazing part about St. Clair came in the fact that there are no major bottom contour changes on St. Clair like there is on Erie, but there is a ton of vegetation. This made things a lot different fishing than the three previous days of practice. We fished large weed beds and weed lines on St. Clair and caught probably 50 fish that day, the only issue was catching a fish better than 3lbs. On a side note, most of the bites came on a tube rather than on the dropshot rig when we fished St. Clair. So as I prepared my rods for the tournament, Here’s the list: 1 GLoomis 6’10” Shaky Head rod model # SHR822S rod spooled with 6lb Maxima Fluorocarbon line and rigged with a Gulp Goby on a drop shot rig with a 3/8th ounce weight. 1 GLoomis 7’0” GLX rod model # BCR 853 rod spooled with 12lb Maxima Fluorocarbon Line and rigged with a 3/8th oz Bite-Me Big Dude Head and a 3.5” Strike King Coffee Tube – Green Pumpkin w/ Purple, Gold and Copper Flake. 1 GLoomis 7’0” GLX rod model # BCR 853 rod spooled with 12lb Maxima Fluorocarbon Line and rigged with a 3/8th ounce Bite-Me Big Dude Head and a 3.5” Strike King Coffee Tube – in Strike King’s “Chaos” color. 1 GLoomis 7’0” IMX spinning rod model # PR 842S rod spooled with 6lb Maxima Fluorocarbon line and rigged with a Gulp 5” leech on a drop shot rig with a 1/4 ounce weight. Tournament Day 1 On day 1 I was paired with Duracell pro Michael Bennett, Michael was the Smith Lake Tour event champion. Michael told me we would be spending the day on St. Clair. I sure was glad I got to go and practice there one day. We primarily fished one location the entire day; we made two early stops on the way to our primary location. Michael had boated one keeper and I had not caught a fish yet. We spent the next four and a half hours fishing an area about 2 acres in size. From discussions throughout the day, Michael had already qualified for the Forrest Wood Cup and this tournament was all about making a top ten, which helps me, understand why we waited for the big ones to bite. Michael was also throwing a Berkley Gulp 5” leech on a dropshot rig. The part that I had trouble understanding was the fact that I would catch a 14” fish and he would catch a 4lb fish. I’d catch another keeper and he’d get another 4lber. What I didn’t realize was when he would pull his dropshot out of the grass into a bare spot on the bottom, he would just shake the leech in that spot for an extended period of time, and just like clockwork, he’d whack a big one. I on the other hand would shake my dropshot rig, then move it a little, shake then move it, etc. I never kept my bait in the bare spots long enough. Either way, Michael only caught 8 keepers all day, but his best 5 weighed 20lbs and 8 oz! What a bag of fish. I on the other hand had 5 for 11 lbs and change. When the smoke cleared my 11 pounds had me solidly in 115th place. How terrible is that? I knew coming in that I would need a 120th place finish or better to qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup, nothing like pushing it to the limit. I caught 3 of my keepers on the dropshot and two on a Strike King tube. I would like to add that Michael was definitely a good partner to fish with; I’d like to draw him at any tournament. A special thank you also goes out to his girlfriend, who arrived at weigh-in with two pizzas, how’s that for perfect timing. Tournament Day 2 My day two partner was Ott Defoe from Knoxville, TN. Ott is a very good young angler; he won the southeast Stren Series event on Santee Cooper this year, and was in position to qualify for the Forrest Wood Cup. Day 2 started with another gut wrenching ride up the Detroit River to Lake St. Clair. Did I mention this place gets rough? Once we exited the river, it did get a little better. Ott had several places on St. Clair and we worked through all of them. Ott had 17lbs + on day one and was in good shape to get a big check, I on the other hand needed to catch them pretty good to keep from falling in the points standings. As we fished on day two, it became increasingly apparent that the fishing had gotten quite a bit tougher. It took Ott until almost noon to get his limit, and I didn’t get my first fish until 9 am. As we moved around and tried to locate where the fish had moved to, Ott managed to cull a few fish and I caught a couple of more keepers. With only a little bit of time left to fish I managed to catch keeper number four, knowing I had fallen one fish short of a limit in a tournament that is a catch-fest, made for a miserable ride back to weigh-in. I can’t begin to describe how gracious of a partner Ott was, he did his very best to get me my limit, I just couldn’t get it done. I think that was the part that bugged me the most, knowing I was in contention to make the FLW Cup and feeling like I had blown that opportunity in the last event of the season. As we weighed our fish, Ott’s limit weighed 11lbs and change, my four fish weighed 9 lbs and a few ounces. Knowing that 11 pounds had me in 115th, I knew I was going to tumble even further in the standings after this dismal weight. Tournament Notes: I finished the tournament in 107th place, I feel like I couldn’t have drawn any two better partners for this event, and I absolutely failed to catch any good fish on either day. The thought of blowing a trip to the championship had me pretty frustrated, and to be honest I was pretty disheartened as I sat in the harbor waiting for Ott to back down his trailer so I could load his boat. As I sat there a friend of mine came by and asked how I did, I told him the whole story and he summed it up quite well…”Whatever has happened today and for that matter all year is what was supposed to happen, the Lord is control of it all, don’t forget it’s his plan not yours”. The gentlemen who made that quote to me was Mark Rose and in my shortsightedness, he helped me recognize he was right. With that being said after the points were totaled I finished 32nd for the year and earned a trip to the Forrest Wood Cup in Columbia, SC on Lake Murray. Funny how you think the worst, only to find out in the end you were all right anyway. I also like to thank a couple of guys who allowed me to practice with them this year: First and foremost is Jasper Engines and Transmissions pro Chad Morgenthaler, Coppertone Pro Wesley Strader and Berkley Pro Glenn Browne, a lot of what I learned this year and much of my success is due to being able to practice with these guys and have an idea of what the fish are doing. Well, I’m off to the FLW Cup…I’ll have a recap when I get back! Good Luck and Good Fishin’, Duke Jenkel |
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