Lake Erie is known for two things, giant smallmouth and giant waves!  This week it lived up to it's reputation.  I went up a little earlier than usual because we filmed a TV show with Aaron Martin and BassEdge.  They are a great bunch of guys and we had a lot of fun catching smallmouth together.  Since I was up there early it really gave me a lot of time to explore Lake Erie.  This was the final event of the year and I already have qualified for the FLW Championship so points was not a factor in this event.  It was really kind of nice to not have the pressure. So I focused my whole practice on Lake Erie.  What an amazing place.  I really had a blast.  I focused most of my efforts around Pelee Island area which seemed to hold some of the better fish.  There were fish shallow and deep very scattered.  Dropshots and tubes were the best deal.  The bottom breaks can be real subtle that hold fish and time with the Lowrance was the key.  Sometimes a 8 inch break would hold fish.  Going into the tournament I felt like I had three key areas that I could catch 17+ pounds on, so it was just a matter of getting there and getting back.  The one thing that really concerned me was the fact that the large shoals give the fish a lot of options to move around on.  The fish seem to reposition with the change in winds and for someone not familiar with the lake it makes time a precious thing in the tournament to find the fish with the changing winds each day. 

Day 1 of the event found us with supercharged winds that would make the run long and miserable.  I made it out there with no problem just the usual bouncing around.  Pulled up to my first area that had a pretty good wad of fish unlike many of the other areas that they were usually spread out in.  No luck the fish moved with the changing winds, so I kept moving and trying to locate them without any luck and time was ticking.  I only had about 4 hours of fishing time so you have to act quickly.  I ran 7 miles to another area that I knew I could catch them on with that wind.  Seven miles doesn't seem like very far until you are going against those waves.  That move took about 45 minutes one way.  It was a small little shoal that was about 100 yards long with a subtle ledge.  I pull up and there is a charter boat fishing with live bait that had three guys in the back loaded up with good smallmouth right on top of my waypoints.  I fish around them without much luck hoping they would leave but with no luck so I decided to hit a place I knew I could catch 15 pounds on and get back to finish the day.  I ran back to Pelee Island and caught a limit of smallmouth that would weight about 12 pounds in about 45 minutes.  I needed one more good fish to get to the magic 14-15 pounds I knew I had to have to not blow the tournament.  I hooked a good 4+ pounder that I lost on one of those wild smallmouth surges.  So I had to make a choice it was about time to leave to make it in with plenty of time but I would only have a small limit that would put me way down the list, or stay and fish for another 10-20 minutes and try and catch a good one and still be in good position for day 2.  Without the points in mind and it being the end of the season I went ahead and gambled with time.  The winds had slowed down about 10mph at the time so I figured I would be able to make up the time.  I stayed a little longer and never hooked another good fish and my partner ended up catching two good ones in that time so I feel like it was a good calculated risk in that department.  We took off and started making tracks when we were about 30 minutes into our run and the winds really started to howl even worse.  The waves grew giant and it slowed our progress dramatically.  I made it to Colchester point in Canada after over an hour battle to get there.  My Lowrance Estimated Time of Arrival bounced between us being 20-30 minutes late and it was game over.  That was the first time in my six year career that I have been late to weigh-in and it was a sinking feeling.  We pulled into Colchester marina and called the tournament director and let them know we were fine and that we would be in later.  The marina looked like a war zone, there were boats with no motors and the marina operator said the Coast Guard had been pulling them in all day.  It wasn't pretty.  After a short break we headed back out to finish making it back in.  I asked my partner if he wanted to continue and he was game so we headed back out.  The ride wasn't to bad if you just took your time.  I had prepped the boat for Erie and it worked great.  We made it back by the end of weigh-in that also looked like a war zone with ripped of trolling motors and broken windshields etc.  We were fortunate and made it back with just a broken trolling motor pin so it wasn't bad.  Thank goodness for excellent equipment.  So the tournament was pretty much over after that no coming back in this one.  But I was ready to go fishing the next day.

Day 2  I stayed close in the river since there was really no reason to go out there again.  I caught about 15 keepers on various baits but no Erie sized Smallies. I ended the day with 12lb 8oz.  To finish the season.  It really hurt laying up the last day and not going out on Erie but my partner needed fish and there was no need to go out there and risk his tournament.  So we stayed close.  Not to pleased with the Tour season overall, I am looking forward to the FLW Championship in a few weeks it should be a tough tournament.  I can't wait!!!