I just got back from representing Truman State University at the FLW National Guard College Fishing Tournament on the Detroit River with partner Mike McCarthy. Neither of us had ever fished the Detroit River before so we were excited for a chance to get to fish such different fishery. We left early Friday morning and made the 9-10 hour hike up to Michigan pondering where we were going to go and what techniques we were going to use to catch our fish.  Having done our research and map study we decided to fish a series of canals and bays in hopes of getting a limit of largemouth and then trying to figure out how to catch a better smallmouth. The key to fishing any river is to understand how fish use and relate to current breaks.

The tournament day started off with cloudy skies and a bunch of rain. We headed to our first spot a nice sea wall cut with rocks and grass and I hooked up with a short smallie on a sweet beaver within the first couple of minutes. We came around a point pitching to shallow grass and Mike set the hook into a 4lb fish that somehow didn't get hooked up and came off. A 4lb largemouth can be hard to come by on the Detroit River. Going into the tournament all of our research said that lighter line needed to be used but the problem with these fish is that they just bite so hard up north that you need a heavier rod and line to get the hooks in their mouth. We came around the next cut flipping still and I set the hook into a 2lb fish that never got hooked. I was flipping with a 7 foot Medium Heavy AiRRUS rod and 20lb test GAMMA High Performance co-polymer line. At this point we figured out that light line wasn't necessary and we both were fishing with heavy line from this point up until the end of the tournament. We fished the area and I was able to finally boat a 14 inch keeper on a green pumpkin sweet beaver. We figured out pretty early that the largemouth were shallow and were relating to the edge behind the grass just out in front of the seawalls. We decided to make a move up lake to fish another similar area.

Crossing the mouth of Erie was an amazing experience riding a 21 foot boat through 6 and 7 foot waves was crazy. We ended up spearing one of the waves and I thought it was the end. We had water up to our knees in the boat. Soaked despite wearing a full suit of rain gear we got to our second spot. We fished on down until we got to a canal and I was able to put keeper number two and three in the boat fishing the green pumpkin sweet beaver under boat docks. There was a canal with a nice grass patch and even though the water was very clear I decided to pick up a green scum frog and I ended up whacking  a 2 and a half pounder for keeper number 4 to make a cull. The crazy thing about College Fishing is that each angler is only allowed to weigh in their best 3 fish for the team so we needed to get Mike some fish or we would be toast. We made the voyage back to where we had lost the 4lber in the morning and Mike was able to connect with a 4lber on a baby brush hog. The fish got into the grass but we were able to get the boat over to it in time to get it in the net. We were happy to finally get a better fish in the boat. Mike caught the fish just 20 feet or so from where he had lost that 4lber in the morning. Maybe it was the same fish? With about two hours left of fishing and 4 keepers in the livewell we made a move to another spot we had found with map study and Mike was able to hook up with keeper number 5 on the brush hog. With about an hour left of fishing we fished our butts off but we couldn't upgrade or get Mike his 3rd keeper to weigh so we had to head to the scales with 5 fish. Our 5 keepers went 11lbs 11oz which gave us 7th place out of 40 for the tournament. We were one fish out of the top 5 as 13lbs was needed. If we would have been able to weigh my fourth keeper we could have made it in. That is what is frustrating about the format. It's all about strategy.

Looking back on the tournament I don't think we made any bad decisions and we were productive in our spots with our presentation. We headed up to the bridge with about 20 minutes to spare to try and get a retrieve from the Stren tournament and because we thought we might need a little more time getting back to the ramp. A lot of the bigger fish were caught dropshotting the main river channel and it is something we would have tried if we had a practice day. You only get 6 hours of fishing time. It was tough to be that close to getting into the top five and the money but we still have two more chances at qualifying for the college regional. Our next stop is Ft. Madison at the end of August and we have Lake of the Ozarks in October. I'm looking forward to both of these tournaments because I will be able to finally get the chance to pre-fish and hopefully find some big fish. 
 
Throughout the whole tournament I flipped and pitched with a 7 foot Medium Heavy AiRRUS Co-Matrix rod with 20 pound test Gamma High Performance Co-Polymer line. I pitched my beavers with a 3/8 oz weight on a 5/0 hook. Our most productive color was green pumpkin. That color produced our bigger bites. The size line didn't seem to matter. The fish were real aggressive and they didn't take long to bite if they were there. The key was finding the areas with deeper water, current, and grass. We caught a bunch of shorts on the day including a number of smallmouths. The Detroit River is something I could get used to fishing. We were kept in the Detroit River and not allowed to venture out on Erie or St. Claire and that is why the field’s weights were a little lower but one thing’s for sure the Detroit River is an amazing fishery. Thanks for reading and until next time keep it reel!