2010 Toledo Bass Club Season:
OHHHH BABY!!!!!.....THE NEW SEASON IS ALMOST HERE.....YEAH-IT'S ALL CAPS BECAUSE I AM SHOUTING!!!!!!!! Everyone have a great season and above all be safe. Oh, and don't forget to make sure your drag is set right. (I always forget first time out.)
A big welcome to all the new members and those that have come back to the club.
Alllll righty then.....Word has reached me that some folks other than club members actually read my rants on this site. Thus I will endeavor to be more prompt AND more entertaining. So with that in mind I have a nice glass of a italian red wine (so that I am mellow and not mean) and will now telll the tale of our first tournament of 2010. In the great words of Jackie Gleason..."and awayyyy we goooo!
Saturday April 24-Sandusky Mazurik Launch
Word from the stinking weatherman was we may be in for a wet and cool, breezy day. Well once again he was off a bit. Not too bad temperature and besides a few quick, light showers and
sprinkles it was O.K. The wind direction sucked coming in from northeast to more north and cooler in the afternoon. I wish those damn Canadians would keep their cold air to themselves, ehhh.
Launch was fine with blast off by 6:45. It was a totally new look to the club as we welcomed several brand new members and a former member coming back to the fold. New boats were here with some of the new and old members. I personally want to thank Brent and Hal. There were some technical difficulties with a member's boat so they volunteered to triple up and take myself and the boat owner out with them to fish. That’s the kind of club I am a member of. Not only that, the rest of the club agreed to lower the maximum fish to be weighed and the limit was changed to 3 fish a member because of the obvious live well capacities for the caught fish. Note to all who read this....ABOVE ALL ELSE WE ARE A CONSERVATION CLUB... and the fish's well being is considered in everything we do.
I was with Hal and a brand spanking new Lake Erie Fisherman, Chad. This day was many firsts for Chad. First day with the club, first tournament, first day on a bass boat, first day on Lake Erie and above all he caught his first SMALLMOUTH BASS. He was not alone; another new member caught three fish out in his first tournament including his first SMALLMOUTH BASS. Other new members did well too. Our boaters got them on fish and trust me the fish were not being all that cooperative.
We all ran to Kelly's Island and did our thing. Weather looked threatening at first but was O.K. Apparently, the fish saw the weather report and believed it because for some of us (ME) they weren't exactly jumping into the boat. Honest Hal however did his casual, cool as a cucumber act up front and caught at least 7 fish and had a nice three fish bag. The club was spread all around Kelly's Island.
Weigh in went off super. There were ZERO problems with the released fish. I was on the lookout for the curly hair Oompah Loompah dude and his Shiner's motorcycle with his trusty maniac dog. Information later revealed to me, he (herein referred to as the Oompah Loompah dude) had been at the launch and I missed him. I was figuring he would be out to chastise us about our lack of fish conservation but apparently the weather was a bit too much for him to hang out plus he had nothing to bitch about. Thanks to Honest Hal and El Presidente Brent for keeping the weigh in moving and to all that helped in recording the weights and releasing the fish. We might actually be getting his down.
After the weigh in was all said and done, Brent (yeah the bastard won again AND had big bass), newcomer, Mr. Black (who placed by catching the winning fish in the last fifteen minutes of fishing off Brent's boat) took second and Josh Miller, a former member who came back this year, coming in third. A special note on Jeremy Miller who had a big bass that was 2 1/100ths lighter than Brent's 5.20 lbs. big bass, well I think Jeremy needs a hug, that's awfully close. But hey it was a nice fish partner and I got the picture this time Jeremy. $$$$$ heh, heh, heh, $$$$$.
All in all it was a good day. Weights andmore pix etc. will be posted later. Next stop is Sterling Park Michigan-get out those drop shot poles!
Sunday May 30-Sterling State Park
So it goes, May 30 and it's as hot as it usually is in July...go figure. Blast off goes fine and away we all go into, through and around the bay. Apparently, the carp were in a "romantic" mood as they were flopping all around the bay making enough racket to scare off a school of deaf tuna. I was out with a new member Eric Peterson. We were working hard and as luck would have it we were catching the wrong species-walleye, later rock bass and then sheephead. We did pick up a few smallies along the way though.
From the looks of things we were not the only ones having "issues" with the bass as the boats were flying around the area, no one hanging on any one spot long. Oh, did I mention it was stinking hot! Interesting sighting bt members was a dead sturgeon of reasonable size observed floating around.
Weigh in was tricky, fish were stressed due to the heat, time of season etc. Sorry, there will not be many pictures this tournament as the club was in scramble mode to get the fish weighed and then returned to Bill Herzog's live wells for the trip back to the open lake. Thank you to Bill and his backseater, Chad, for taking care of the fish to be returned.
Weigh in was once again handled by "Honest Hal" with Bill Herzog winning the tournament with four fish and a beutiful big bass over 5.70 lbs. Interestingly, Bill lost a fish when he was taking it out of his livewell and transferring to the weigh in bag. Little bastard got away, swam off and Bill still won! Jeremy Miller had decent day and got second with El Presidente Brent taking third to stay in the money.
The bite was definatley off as members were all over and as you can see the bags were a bit light. (except for Bill-hell he's tossing them back in just to make it "interesting"!)
A gull flying by, apparently wanted to give his editorial opinion of the whole thing and with hi-tech, laser bomb accuracy dropped a load of sh*t on the shirt of my boat captain Eric during the weigh in. As if things were not tough enough now this.........
I quess it is time to reconsider the plan of attack as we will be returning to this same place in two weeks. Take that you bastard smallies....we will return!
Saturday June 12-Sterling State Park
The weather dude tried to scare us on this one. It ended up it was beutiful, albeit a little rough later on. The smallmouth bite has been tough so many of the crew tried for green bass to prime the pump so they say. Everyone went to the four corners of the area and as was expected, the smallies were less than cooperative. Little bastards....... Anyways, I was indoctrinated in advanced worm fishing by Mr. John Black. I learned allot and now have purchased some of those there fancy heavy plastic worms that sink like bricks (Senkos, Sinkos, Stinkos or something like that). A big first for me was a limit of green bass in a tournament, thank you John.
As stated prior, weather was great. Weigh in this time was great with ALL the fish coming in alive and going back to the lake in the same condition. It was a good day for backseaters as Pat Lesnieski won the day AND had big bass. (Unfortunatley, his big bass knocked MY big bass out of first place....rotten, sticking, lousy, Ohh...umm...Congratulations Pat!)
As we were all pulling away, we were looking forward to our two day tournament coming up, look out St. Clair, we is a coming!!!!!
I will try to get the total weigh ins up to date ASAP. The yard work and my employment are getting in the way of my recreation and maintaining this fine example of a web site.
Saturday and Sunday June 19 & 20-Lake St. Clair
What is there to say. The club ventures to Lake St. Clair to see what it is like in normal weather as opposed to last year's cold, dreary day. (The air show last year was really cool though!) I, your ever loving web punk, was paired up with Honest Hal. El Presidente was working with Cool Josh. Mr. Herzog was on his own and Jeremy Miller was taking our secret weapon, the stealth fisherman, Pat Lesniewski. John Black drove around with James Fellers and that set the teams for the two day event.
We could not cry too much about the weather, albeit the wind, when it did blow it did so from three different directions in a one hour period. There were other tournamnets launching from another launch nearby but to be honest I did not see as many bass boats flying around as I expected. But when you did get around some marinas and such, every type of boat and PWC (those damn, stinking, noisy lousy jet ski's that should be outlawed) were flying around with all the seamanship of two drunken moneys taking there turns trying operate a nuclear submarine.
The first day was reasonably tough with some of the better anglers having a tough day. I was thrilled to be in the hunt with four fish. I was sooooo wrong about that being in the hunt crap but I digress. We launched early and hit the ground running, apparently well before the other tournament. Everyone was commenting how tough it was for the first day. We'll blame it on the post spawn blahs, O.K.-alrighty then.
****NEWS FLASH-DO NOT BORROW YOUR WIFE'S DIGITAL CAMERA FOR OVERNIGHT TRIPS TO SAVE SPACE WHEN PACKING. THE STUPID THING WILL NOT WORK AND REALLY PISS YOU OFF. SORRY BUT NO PIX FOR THIS TOURNAMNET. BLAME WEB PUNK'S WIFE!****
That night a group of us went to a local restaurant for food and drink. We learned allot about our membership. One is very domestically oriented and not afraid to use razors any and everywhere. Another member explained what he thinks about before, well we just won't go there willl we. It is personal. Ohhh and another club angler likes to have a hands on approach to problem sovling, especially concerning speed limits. I am honored to be in the company of such men.
The second day was another early launch, no issues. Weather was about the same, and the mad scramble was on. Once everyone returned the weigh in went off without a hitch again, under the superior direction of Honest Hal. When it was said and done that rat bastard El Presidente edges out Mr. Herzog with steady Jermey coming in in the money. Two days of fishing and al but one fish back to the lake alive, not bad.
A great two day tournament, even if web punk fell flat on his face the second day and caught one stinking keeper. No I am not upset. Bullsh*t, I was mightily peeved at myself but hey it is fishing and not catching. There is next time......