CLASSIC October 13, 7:30-3:30

bronzeback6 · Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2007 7:43 pm Post subject: CLASSIC October 13, 7:30-3:30

The classic is actually an open tournament. I call it a classic because it's the last tournament of the year. Everyone is invited. Its on the St. Joe River and we are launching out of river park, which is by the I-94 bridge.

Let me know if your planning on fishing.

$100 entry
$10 Big Bass
8 hours

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TCook · Posted: Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:48 pm Post subject:

If someone needs a non boater I would like to fish this event. PM me if anyone gets this in time.

Tim Cook

bronzeback6 · Posted: Mon Oct 15, 2007 2:39 pm Post subject:

Well it's in the books and it was amazing!! The weather was perfect for this years Classic on the Benton Harbor stretch of the St. Joe River. It was a little chilly in the morning with temps around forty degrees but it warmed up to about sixty by 2:00 pm. The fishing was incredible for two of the four boats that fished but tough for the other guys. The fish were very picky and were set up in the middle of the river on logs and other current breaks. The smallies were only bunched up in two areas of the river and were waiting to move up. The two boats that found these areas brought in huge sacks of lake smallies. First place was determined by ounces.

Ron Nelson was my partner for this event and we keyed in on transition areas in deep water with little current and wood. We were using small crayfish baits tied on 6 pound Gamma Edge Fluorocarbon. We caught all of the fish we weighed in the first three hours of the tournament. I started the day off on a good note when I hooked and landed a 3 pound 8 ounce smallies on my second cast towards our magic log in 22 ft of water. Ron followed it up with a very fat 4 pound 8 ounce smallmouth. We caught around eight 2-3 pound smallies off of our magic log to give us 15 pounds with seven hours to fish. We needed to find upgrades and cull out our 2-3 pound fish. I caught the first upgrade that weighed just under four pounds and our second upgrade that also weighed just under 4 pounds by randomly casting behind logs. Ron caught our last upgrade off a rock pile in the middle of the river that weighed 3 pounds 5 ounces. By 10:30 am we had over 18 pounds in the livewell. Our goal for the remainder of the tournament was to catch a giant but we never did. Overall we caught 20-30 keepers that weighed in at 18 pounds 14 ounces.

I thought we had the tournament in the bag with our 18 pound 14 ounce sack but John Gipson Sr. and his partner had a beautiful surprise waiting in their livewells. Gipson Sr. and his partner brought in an amazing sack of Lake Smallies to be remembered. They weighed in five smallies that went 19 pounds 8 ounces!!!! Their big bass was a pig bellied 4 pound 10 ounce smallmouth bass. They won first place and big bass. What a tournament!! Great job fellas.

See pics on www.southwestmichiganbass.com, look in the SMC Tournament Results link.

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