Tackle Shack Report
Trevor Paulus and Dave Selig rallied from ninth place on Day Two of the Tackle Shack Tournament on Lake Charlevoix and walked off with first place plus the big bass pot worth $1,650.
Paulus and Selig had 44.90 pounds topped with a 6.72-pound smallmouth. It was the heaviest bag ever weighed in during a Tackle Shack tournament.
Paulus said they stayed in Charlevoix and fished for bedding smallmouth with drop-shot rigs the first day, but when the wind made it possible, they ran about 30 miles into Lake Michigan.
“After day one we realized that we could not win staying so we decided to make the 25-30 mile run out into Lake Michigan,” explained Paulus. “We caught all of our fish on a 200-yard stretch in 5-10 feet of water. The spot had a mixture of sand, gravel, and boulders.”
He added that they targeted pre-spawn fish that were just cruising a little edge or set up on boulders.
“We could either physically see them or cast to those we saw on LiveScope,” he says. “We caught our fish on a specific lure but I don't want to say, you can probably figure out why, but we did catch fish on tubes and A-rigs also. We had the big fish and most of our weight in the first 2 hours.”
The team also had boat issues due to low engine oil and had to cut a water bottle and pour oil from one tank to the other to keep the motor going well enough to get them back to the weigh in.
Troy Allard and Nate Yoder also fished Lake Michigan and caught 44.27 pounds for second place ($850).
They fished the Grand Traverse Bay area and led going into the second day and came within a few ounces of winning. They said they covered about 80 miles looking for the winning fish on Sunday and caught a good limit, but not quite enough.
Jonathan Vanover and Jason Ridenour were third ($250) with 42.98 pounds. They stayed in Dutchman’s Bay and fished weeds and breaklines in 5 to 20 feet of water.
“We caught a couple fish on Pop-Rs but most of the damage came dead sticking Senkos,” said Jason. “We caught fish all day both days. But we did catch our bigger ones in the last couple hours both days. The last hour yesterday was on fire; we caught 3 fish over 4 pounds on 3 casts with about 30 minutes to go yesterday. We were in the 17 pound range in the first 2 hours both days but upgrading was the challenge.”