On July 28, 2002 the Tear Drop Anglers launched amid some rainfilled skies. Almost perfect fishing weather though. The skies remained cloudy until late morning when they blew blue. We fished the day after a big Skeeter/Reese Tournament that saw 50 plus boats froth the water pretty hard. Fishing, needless to say, on Sunday was tough. Only 42 fish were brought in by 23 boats. Coming in with 5 fish weighing 12.125 lbs. was the team of Mike Meysar and Mike Smith. Second place was coveted by the Cadillac team of Ray Dillon and Gary Moore with 6 fish weighing 11.125 lbs. Third place was Rick Skinner Jr. and Matt Hosmer. They had 3 fish that weighed 8.125 lbs. Dennis Cook Sr. and Jr. took the fourth place spot with 3 fish that went 5.5 lbs. The fifth spot was garnered by another Cadillac team Jason Frolenko and Josh Meade with 3 fish that went 5.4375 lbs. Most fish came early either from worming weed edges, or topwater baits over the flats, and some fish came off shallow structure and docks.
Twenty-six boats signed up for a crack at the Cadillac and Mitchell bass. The weather on tournament mornng was sunny with clear skies. By midafternoon the wind picked up and it began to drizzle periodically, clearing again for the weigh-in. The lake temperature on Sunday was in the low sixties, the week before it had been in the fifties. This tournament was going to be a bit tougher fishing than most Tear Drop outings because the Flat River Club planned to fish it on Saturday, a day before our event. This kind of pressure tends to make the fish very wary. However, 95 fish were brought back to the new tournament stage for a grand total of 206 lbs. of bass. Despite hopes of finding that "Mother Load" of smallies that the Spring can conjure up on these lakes, most of the fish weighed in were largemouth. The water had warmed up enough to bring up the largemouth, but the smallies weren't up in numbers yet. James VanderHoning and Bob Jasman of Rockford MI gave Steve "The Weigh Meister" Wever 7 fish that stretch the scales to 19 lbs. and 2 ozs. All their fish were largemouth, which according to James, is what he's best at catching. Second place this week was a new father and son team of Dennis Cook Sr. and Jr. of Holly and Ludington respectively. These guys are featured in the picture above because they also had big bass of the tournament, a 4lb. 5 oz. smallie which really helped their limit catch of 7 fish tip the scales at 18 lbs. and 4 ozs. Third place this week went to one of several of our law enforcement teams, Dave Fowler of Fremont and Ron Hicks of White Cloud. They weighed in another bag of all largemouth bass that they caught on Supreme Spinnerbaits and tubes. Their limit pushed the scales to 17lbs. and 8 ozs. Dave owns Supreme Spinnerbaits and many of the Tear Drop anglers use them. In fact, Dennis Cook who proudly held up his big smallie that took big bass honors, unsolicitidly claimed he caught it on a Supreme Spinnerbait. Don comes prepared to all the tournaments so be sure to ask him to see what he has in his line of spinnerbaits and jigs. The Bass Lake Boys, Josh Myers of Irons and Matt Hoogerhyde of Wyoming fooled enough bass into biting to earn fourth place honors this week. They too had all largemouths and their 7 fish limit weighed 13 lbs. and 12 ozs. The last money spot went to the new team of Anthony Adams of Evart and Chris Mieras of Hersey. They gave 7 bass a ride to the scales that weighed in at 13lbs. and 10 ozs. ( F.Y.I. - All tournament fish are released as soon as they are weighed and you are penalized for any dead fish.) A special thanks goes out to this week's host Track and Trail Marine of Cadillac and the Na-Tah-Ka of Irons. Track and Trail donated two $50 gift certificates and the Na-Tah-Ka donates two fish dinners at every tournament. These donations brought the cash and prizes at this week's contest to over $1,000. Not big money, but it does make it interesting. Having the opportunity to win some money helps especially when you have to rationalize your fishing expenses to your spouse :-) . Watch your bobber and we'll see you in two weeks at Portage Lake in Onekama.
This year's tournament on Cadillac and Mitchell dawned with low fog and drizzle. Seemed like a perfect day for extra topwater action, but the action for most was just a bunch of fruitless chunkin' and windin'. Twenty-one boats fished and only a total of 37 fish were brought to the scales. Winning the tournament with15.48 lbs. was a local Cadillac resident Ray Dillon and his partner Murray Garner from Kalkaska. Big bass of the day went to the team of Dave Fowler and Ron Hicks. Ron caught the 4.5 lb. largemouth on one of Dave's Supreme spinner bait. For more of the action on Cadillac and Mitchell click on the "Cadillac and Mitchell" article from the home page.
In 1999, we fished these two lakes in what seemed to be a hurricane. It was windy from the time we took off from Kenwood park until weighin time. We fished the lakes on August 29 and it determined the Classic participants and became the clincher for the repeat anglers of year, Don Fowler and Steve Block. These guys rode out the wind and caught 6 fish weighing a whopping 17.4 lbs. They are still arguing who had big bass because they each caught 4 lb. plus smallies. Don, because he's tournament director gets the credit for the big one which weighed 4.3 lbs. Sorry Steve, next year you will have to knock Don's big one off with the net to get even. Because of the conditions, only 28 fish for the tournament were brought in to be weighed.
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