Tackle Shack Report
Bill Mathews and Kris Iodice are no strangers to the winner’s circle, but it took a second day rally on a tough Higgins Lake for them to win it all in the Tackle Shack Classic last weekend.
The tourney was held on Houghton Lake Saturday and Higgins on Sunday. Both lakes were pretty stingy.
John Gipson and Ken Holder jumped out to nearly a three-pound lead the first day but couldn’t put it together on day 2.
Mathews and Iodice finished with 27.89 pounds to win the $3,700 top prize money.
Ron Fabiszak and Chris Norton were second ($2,200) with 27.72 pounds.
Kenny Yoder and Bob Boyd were third ($1,200) with 27.07 and won another $700 for having the biggest bass, a 5.44-pound smallmouth.
Fourth place ($700) went to Pablo Gonzalez and Bob Miller with 26.22.
Here’s how the top finishers did it:
1st place
Bill Mathews and Kris Iodice - 1st Place
"This is by far one of the most anticipated events of the year for Kris and me,” said Mathews. “Kris had never fished either lake and I had only fished Houghton once in the middle of summer about 7 years ago and had never been on Higgins Lake. I knew how different the fisheries were and that was going to make this tournament very interesting.”
Mathews said their practice consisted of one day four hours on Houghton and six on Higgins.
“We found a few decent spots with two pounders at Houghton during practice,” says Mathews. “We knew we needed at least one big fish area to compete. We bounced around the lake looking for inconsistencies in the weeds and searching for fish using forward facing sonar. We finally found the best area of the day when I hooked a 4 pounder and watched about a dozen fish following it in trying to take my bait out of its mouth.”
Practice for Higgins was a different story. The team didn’t catch a bass for the first four hours. Eventually Kris managed to catch a 2.5 pounder in about 5 feet of water and it keyed them onto a potential shallow bite. They were fishing the hard edges of shallow flats.
When competition began, Mathews and Iodice ran to their big fish spot but and had to share it with another team.
“My first hook-up of the day was a giant,” says Mathews. “The fish came up, wallowed, and spit my bait right back out at me. It was most likely a 4-4.5 pounder, so that hurt. We kept our heads down and kept our baits in the water. We picked off a limit quick and began culling.”
He added that key baits on Houghton were a Strike King 2-3/4-inch coffee tube and a 3.25-inch Strike King Rage Swimmer.
“We culled our way to around 10 pounds, then Kris caught our first good one of the day, a 3.25,” Mathews describes. “We moved to another area where we caught keepers in practice and I immediately saw three fish on my ActiveTarget. I tossed my Rage Swimmer behind the boat and caught another 3.3.”
They bounced around the lake catching a few fish here and there, but nothing was upgrading for them. They started running new water with about two hours left and stumbled onto a huge rock/shell bed.
“Kris and I went back-to-back with two of our biggest fish of the day, his on a tube and mine on a swimbait,” he says. “That put us at 16.73 pounds and had us sitting in fifth place.”
At Higgins, the team avoided its shallow areas until the sun rose and the wind picked up, so they began fishing all new water out deep.
“I started seeing some very interesting looking marks hugging the bottom in 40-50 foot of water,” Mathews explains. “I was floating a 3/8-ounce head with a Strike King Baby Z2 down to them and it would take a long while for my bait to get to the right depth.”
Precise casts and boat placement was key.
“I caught two in about 45 feet of water, a 3 pounder and a solid 16 incher,” he says. “Kris caught another keeper on a Rage Swimmer casting towards the break.”
They fished more deep spots and tried the shallow pattern but couldn’t come up with another bite. Late in the day Kris caught two by launching a Rage Swimmer as far as he could. The long casts in the clear water, he insists, were definitely keys.
They were shocked that their 11.16 pound limit was good enough to land them into the lead from fifth.
2nd Place
Ron Fabiszak and Chris Norton - 2nd Place
Fabiszak said his team caught their fish on tubes and moving baits in 4-8 feet at Houghton.
“The fish were on sand spots in the grass, and we lost a couple that just wouldn’t stay buttoned, he offers.
Higgins was a grind, he adds, and says they lost the first fish that bit, about 3 1/2 pounder.
“We only had five more bites the rest of the day, all on moving baits,” he says. “We were trying to make as many casts as possible to get it in front of as many fish as possible since the lake doesn't seem to have a very big fish population in it. We’re grateful for the bites we got.”
3rd Place
Kenny Yoder and Bob Boyd - 3rd Place
Boyd and Yoder had a tough practice but got enough of an idea what to do.
“We had two hard spots just on the inside of the weed lines at Houghton,” describes Boyd. “We rotated through those two spots all day. Depths ranged from 3-9 feet and the only thing we could get bit on was a single swimbait.”
At Higgins, they started on the only spot where they got a bite during practice, but never got a bite.
“So, we put a single swimbait in our hands and just started covering water,” he says. “We ended up on a flat in about 15 foot of water. We caught two keepers on the flat and we had a two-pound smallmouth spit the hook.
We didn't think much of losing the one keeper but that one keeper is the fish that woulda won us the classic.”
4th Place
Pablo Gonzalez and Bob Miller - 4th Place
At Houghton, Miller and Gonzalez started on a shell bed in 4-5 feet of water. They managed to catch three there and lost one.
“Our next spot had someone on it so we went to another shell bed in six feet of water and caught maybe six or seven keepers and managed to cull some,” says Miller. “Most of our fish were caught on Hula Grubs and Ned baits.”
At Higgins, they started on the edge of a shallow flat in 4-5 feet of water and caught two.
“We checked another area but had no luck so we returned to our starting spot and just worked down the shoreline,” Miller says. “We threw Ned baits and Hula Grubs mostly, although our best fish was caught on a spinnerbait. We were casting to 5-6 feet of water and working out to 13-15 feet. It was a grind but we caught maybe 8-9 keepers along the way."