Tackle Shack Report
Trevor Paulus and Dave Selig won an incredible smallmouth shootout in the Tackle Shack two-day event at Lake Charlevoix last weekend.
Paulus and Selix finished with 47.66 pounds that included the biggest bass of the tournament, a 6.99-pound smallmouth. The win and big fish earned them $1,600.
The winners made a long run into Lake Michigan to the same shallow, rocky area where they won the Tackle Shack tourney at Charlevoix last year. They said the bass were pre-spawn and in small, isolated areas.
“All the fish came on small swim jigs in 4 to 6 feet of water,” said Paulus. “The water temperature was 54-55 degrees and the bass bit best when there was wind which was key because fishing was tough without it in that clear water.”
Bill Mathews and Kris Iodice were second with 44.23 pounds in a borrowed boat to pocket $930. Mathews said they worked both a pre-spawn and post-spawn pattern during practice, knowing that a big wave would be moving up to spawn and didn’t want to count out pre-spawners.
“We found about three offshore spots in 20-35 feet of water that had pre-spawn fish on them, but they were few and far between,” he added. “We also found a ton of beds but only about 5 or 6 fish that were 3.5 pounds or bigger.”
When the tournament started, they fished a pre-spawn area with hopes of catching heavier fish, but that didn’t work out, so they decided to go catch bed fish that gave them a 17.5-pound limit. The fish came on the BAFA Bypass Ned head with the weed guard snipped off and a green pumpkin Z-man TRD.
“We went offshore for the remainder of the day and caught a few that didn’t help but also caught two 4 pounders to cull up to our final weight of 21 pounds, good enough for 7th place on day 1,” Mathews explained.
On Day 2, the outboard alarm went off on the way to their first spot. They were able to rectify the problem but got to their first spot later than they wanted.
“We were fishing in 25-30 feet in the morning, looking for pre-spawn fish because we knew we needed a big bag to make up some ground,” he added. “We locked the Bypass Ned in our hands and fished it as slow as we could since it was slick calm and bluebird sky. It paid off big time. One of the first fish we caught was a 6.6 pounder and followed it up with a 4, a 3 and a few smaller ones.
“We knew we had a 3-10 we needed to cull, but had to head back to the weigh-in. Fortunately, we got back near the ramp with about 15 minutes to spare and pulled up on one last spot.
“The wind was ripping, but I saw a lone blob on the Garmin (forward facing sonar). I watched it shoot right down to my bait and stare at it. I slowly dragged it about 20-30 feet and watched the fish nose up to it without eating multiple times. Then another massive blob shot towards my bait out of nowhere, pulled a wicked 180-degree turn and bombed it. I managed to land a 4-9 that was nearly a pound cull.”
Third place ($500) went to Andrew Miller and Jeff Showalter with 44.07 pounds.
“We caught all our fish off of beds, mainly in 4-6 feet of water,” offered Miller. “Most of the fish came on a drop shot with a Strike King Baby Z-Too. It was a bit tougher to find them on the first day and seemed like the average size was a bit smaller. The second day there were new fish pulling on beds throughout the day and we were able to locate some bigger fish later in the day.”