St. Joe 4/30 & 5/1

[Bobbys Toy]

This past weekend was the second of our nine-tournament schedule with the Detroit Area Steelheaders and what a weekend it was. Checking the weather reports Wednesday night gave conflicting information as one forecast called for 4 - 6 foot waves while another said 2-3 subsiding to 1-2 then to 1 foot or less. I opted to believe the latter and we were rewarded in doing so. As predicted, it was a bit on the rough side Friday morning with a steady flow of 2-3 footers coming out of the South with a steady 15 to 20 knot wind.

Silver Addiction and Bobby’s Toy were the only club boats in the marina on Friday morning so we discussed our options. Mark decided he would head for the 65-foot range a few miles south while I worked the shallower water closer to port. The Silver Addiction was well rewarded for their efforts as they came in with 12 nice spring kings weighing 10 to 15 pounds. Bobby’s Toy did not fare as well as we only came up with four dinks for our 8-hour troll. We found no takers in the shallows so we moved out to 65-foot of water around 9:00 AM and were rewarded with our first 2 pound Coho at 9:15 AM which hit a regular Silver Streak black screwball set 18 down with a 100 foot stretch. We worked the 65-foot water for another hour without any action so moved out to 100 foot and started seeing action again. Over the course of the next couple of hours we boxed three more fish while losing twice that many on short strikes. All fish came on spoons in the regular size Silver Streaks with Blue Dolphin and Michael Jackson getting hit anywhere from 38 to 80 down over 100 to 110 foot of water. A couple of fish hit free floating sliders with matching spoons with one fish hitting a red dodger in OO size with a bloody nose Stinger spoon. At the end of our troll, we were approx 8 miles south of port. Our ride back was much easier as we had a following sea of 1 to 3 footers.

Saturday, tournament day, conditions improved with 1 to 2 footers coming out of the south. I decided to fish in close for the first hour as visibility was low and the chop was steady. At 6:20, a 7-pound lake trout hit a Super Slim double oranges crush set 45 down over 68 foot of water. I called Mark on the phone at 6:30 to see how things were going in his area and told me to get down here and join in the fun. We pulled lines and made the 8 mile run at 10 miles per hour. We set up in the 02’s in 80 FOW and kept it on a south troll. At 8:00 AM, we had a 15-pound plus king coming to the boat on the full core rig with a SS Mike Jackson spoon, regular size, set on an in-line board off to starboard. From then on it was all catching as we worked the area of the 02’s to the 00’s. We ran four downriggers and two full cores off boards, one on each side and proceeded to keep catching fish. All on spoons, riggers set 45 to 65 down with stretches of 50 to 70 feet. We ended up going 16 for 24 with Michael Jackson being the best bait followed by the Blue Dolphin, then Double Orange Crush and Double White Crush. We had a Dipsey out for a while but it proved to get in the way and did not produce a fish so we pulled after running it for an hour or so.

We were very excited about our catch and thanked my good pal Captain Mark Williams for putting us on the fish. Without his input, it is doubtful that I would have made that grueling ride south. I think Mark was as excited as we were with our results. We pulled lines at 2:00 PM still fighting our last fish. Once the fish was in, we made the 9 mile run back to port in calm seas and the sun shinning.

Our cooler was a chore to get off the boat, even using the low dock by the marina entrance was a chore. At the weigh in Almost Paradise had their catch lying on the ground waiting for the weigh master. We thought we might have trouble beating him, as he seemed to a have a couple of more larger fish than we did. We had six fish over 10 pounds with the rest in the 4 to 8 pound range. We ended up with 14 Kings, 1 Laker, and 1 Coho for a second place finish, losing by less than 5 pounds. However, we did manage biggest fish with a 15.20-pound King beating out Almost Paradise’s 15.15-pound King.

Therefore, we took our $40.00, kept our heads high, and talked about all the things we did right with no regrets on our second place finish.

Saturday night and Sunday morning brought storms and heavy rain so we slept in Sunday morning. We decided that we would tear the boat down, put her on the trailer, and go for breakfast before heading home. I started the boat, letting her idle for a few minuets to warm up before casting of the dock lines when all the sudden the engine sputtered and dies. Yep, out of gas. The fish gods did indeed smile upon us Saturday by allowing us to get back to our slip in time for the weigh in. I know we were close on fuel but I did think we had a few gallons left. First time in twenty-three seasons in this boat that I ever ran it out of gas. One gas can purchase and two gallons of gas latter we were on our way to the boat ramp.

[anthonyyost]

Nice post

[GLF]

Nice job Bob. Congrats on your 2nd place finish!

[A-Fishy-Anado]

Great post Bob! Any pictures of that big box of fish?

[Priority1]

Bob, Congrats on the 2cd place finish. Good report.

[Bobbys Toy]

Here is the catch...

[A-Fishy-Anado]

Now that......looks like it was one hell of a fun day!!!!

[fishinmachine2]

Nice job!!

Scott

[Adam Bomb]

Awesome haul!!!

[JWheeler]

Sounds like some solid fishing!

[jimbobber]

Great Job on the tourney finish ,any of you Detroit guys coming to Holland may 22 for the michigan steelheaders challenge?We would love to have ya! check out www.Hollandsteelheaders.org for more info.All you need is 1 current michigan steelheader on board and you can get a membership and sign up for the tourney at the same time for those of you who are interested. Jimmy

[Just Hook'n]

WOW. what a great couple days on the water.

NICE WORK.

[Bobbys Toy]

Jimmy,

we will be fishing Grand Haven that weekend for our first 2 day tournament. Good luck in Holland.

Thanks all for the kind words. My crew and I enjoyed our day, we were just tired by the time the picture was taken. (Knowing we had to clean all those fish!)