It was good to get back out on Lake Erie for a tournament this past weekend. The wind blew like crazy leading up to the tournament, so you had to just follow your instincts to where the combination of the right fish and water color would be. It was literally a 50/50 call right up to when we put the boat on plane at takeoff whether we were going to head to Michigan waters or go east through the cans area, to Kelly’s and Huron/Vermilllion in search of Erie gold. We opted for going east… After blasting through pure mud all around the cans area, we slowed down on some greenish water southeast of Kelly’s and my Lowrance sonar lit up with the right marks. We started fishing and caught a couple in the first hour, however they weren’t very big and the fish there didn’t seem very active. We decided to make a move and head down to Huron/Vermillion area. After running around down there for about 30 minutes, we just decided it wasn’t right; too muddy, too much bait, not enough good marks. The decision was made, fish the best combination of water color and marks we could find, that was Kelly’s. I hate the term ‘grind it out’, it’s the most overused phrase in tournament fishing, but we ground it out. It certainly wasn’t fast and furious, just a slow pick, upgrading here and there. We probably caught 10 fish. On the way in, I really didn’t account for how bad the conditions were leading up to this day, and thought we had a mediocre day, probably a little outside of check cashing range. To my surprise, we put 31.5lbs on the scale and started the LEWT season with a 5th/108! We’ll take it!!!! Keys to success: 1. Graphing for fish at speed with my electronics. 2. Fishing clean. 10 bites, 10 fish in the boat. I chalk up this partially to luck, mostly to Berkley Fusion 19 hooks, but it’s absolutely critical, especially on a tough bite. 3. Figuring out and adjusting to the current. The lake was relatively calm, but there was a massive east to west current caused by the lake settling from the previous days blow. All day long power from the Dakota Lithiums and slight tweaks to the bow mount power based on trolling direction, real niiiiiiiice.
