Saturday, May 22, marked the opening of the Southern Tier Bassmasters tournament season. It was our 6-Man Team fund raising event held annually on Lake Erie. Over the past couple years, we have moved this tournament from Dunkirk, to Sturgeon Point last year, to Buffalo this year. It seems as though the larger attendance occurs closer to Buffalo, and being a fund raiser, we want to go where the crowds are!!

I had the pleasure of having Fred (Oncebitten) as a partner. Being a very seasoned tournament angler as Fred is (he has cashed in 50% of his past tournaments! LOL!!), he was a perfect partner. Actually, any day in the boat with Fred, is sure to be a fun day, no matter how the fishing is.

We blasted off from the Small Boat Harbor at 6:00 sharp, and we headed to a couple of my familiar haunts. The weather was predicted to be quite “iffy”, with possible t-storms throughout the day. Heading around the last breakwall it was a pleasant surprise the lake was pretty flat, and we were able to run wide open to our initial spot nine miles away.

By the time we began to fish, the wind had died to nothing, making drift fishing non existent. Within moments, I had our first fish on, and lost at the side of the boat. A mere 3 1/2 pounder, a small one anyway, no big loss. Over the next 1/2 hour we lost another, and caught a couple shorts. Not going well at all, in fact, the first two hours was quite slow for us. Very few fish, and about 5 1/2 pounds for two fish in the well. We had hit a few different spots all in the same depth range, then I decided to go a little deeper. We traveled a ways out to a nice hump, with 25-32 foot flats all around it. Our first drift proved this was a good move, as Fred landed about 8 smallmouth on that initial drift, and I had maybe 1 on the tube. On the next drift (yes, the wind picked up a little) it was my turn, I caught several on the tube, and Fred had nothing on the spoon. Weird?? We made a couple more drifts, catching more fish as the wind began to shift a little. The next trip back to drift the area again we had to go out farther than we had as not to stop real close to other boats fishing the area. It was a good thing. The depth we went out to this time was about 34 feet. Not drifting too far I hit our first good fish on a tube, a good 5+ that ended up being in our bag at the end. That spot was “GPSed” immediately. With the wind still shifting, we had to start the drift in a slightly different position to try and hit the same area again. Shortly, Fred had the next good 5+ on a spoon. I quickly GPSed the area again. After a few minutes, I looked at the plotter, and noticed the two big fish came from almost the exact same spot. Guess where we spent the rest of the day! LOL!!!

Over the next few drifts, I discovered a slight diiference in this area that might have been holding the fish. At idle speed, it looked like a slow tapering slope from 30-34 feet. But at a slightly higher motor speed, it appeared to be a steeper drop from 31-33 feet, and a slow taper each way of that. It was about as small of a breakline as you could get I guess. We were on the spot for a couple hours before I noticed it.

With the wind coming and going, and calming down to nothing at times, we fished that spot as about thoroughly as possible. Another couple decent fish came from there, but maybe only one or two over 4 pounds. Nothing to help, and time ran out on us. With two good fish, and about 35-45 bass between us on the day, It was certainly a good time. The weather even held up for us, with only about 15 minutes of rain, and absolutely no thunder.

The ride back to the harbor was fun. A flat Lake Erie, and a bunch of boats all running wide open for miles to get back to the ramp. We don’t get to do that very often on this lake!!!

At the scales it was apparent that the fishing was “off” for most of the field again. Low numbers and low weights were common. Lake Erie has been doing that alot to us lately. I have caught more 2-3 pound fish in the last 2 weeks than I have in the last five or more years. combined. Where are the 4 1/2 to 5 1/2 pounders that usually plaque us at this time of year? Is it too early? or just a weird Spring we’re having? I am glad to see all these smaller fish, but I am abit concerned as to where the bigger ones are. Maybe the upcoming weeks will tell more of the story....

Anyway, Fred and I weighed in at 10.82 pounds, with a lunker weight of 5.63 pounds. All said and done, we ended up second out of the 25 boat field. Winners Ron and Bob had a weight of 10.90 pounds, and they had the tournament lunker of 5.64 pounds. So, we were beat out by 8/100th for total weight, and 1/100th of a pound for lunker. We were soooo close!!

Final results can be found at: [url]http://www.southerntierbass.com/Tournaments/Erie_Open_04/index.htm[/url]

It was a fun day, and a good fund raiser for our CTC team. Thanks to Fred for the “snack” brownies, and sandwiches. They hit the spot!