Team Canada
Team Canada
| Mike Craftchick | Scott Huffman | Rob LaFleur |
07/17/2011: I spent 3 days in Kingston Ontario helping a friend prefish for the Canadian Open. We caught an absolute ton of fish - most in the 3-4lb class(L). Dropshot Darters in any colour and dropshotting the Darter Jr in any colour was the ticket for us.
I fished my first TBBA qualifier tournament of the year last weekend July 10th on Lake St. Clair. We finished 4th out of 71 teams with a total weight of 19.62 lbs (R). We also won big fish for the tournament with a 5.30 lbs smallmouth. We caught almost all of our fish on Mango Magic Erie Darters in 19 ft of water, however the big fish was caught on a Mango Magic drop shot darter.
Right after the tournament I went to a small lake in Northern Ontario where we went for a much needed family vacation. We fished the entire week out of a 14ft aluminium boat with just an electric trolling motor. What a blast! We caught a bunch of smallmouth and largemouth bass. The goto lures for the week was a Shiner Erie Darter, and a black supersoft Dropshot Darter. Will be spending the next couple weekends prefishing for my second qualifier tournament on Longpoint bay Lake Erie on Sunday Aug 7th. I will keep you posted.
09/24/2010: I just wanted to let you know that I won the TBBA Classic this past weekend on Lake Erie. On the first day we fished 4-6 ft of water using smoke purple Erie Darters and spinnerbaits. We weighed in a total weight of 20lbs and had a 2.5 lb lead going in to the second day. The second day didn't start out as planned we lost the first three fish we hooked. After a couple of nerve-wracking hours of no fish we decided to switch to a Mango Magic tubes. Almost immediately we landed 3 fish.
After another hour or so with no more fish I decided to throw a Mango Magic Erie Darter. Within 10 minutes I landed a 5.88lb smallmouth - which won big fish for the second day and for the tournament - and a 4 lbs smallmouth. We weighed in 19.39 lbs the second day and won the tournament by 10lbs! This is our first classic win. Thanks again to Poor Boy's Baits for there support and great lures they played a HUGE role in having the best season of my career so far!
09/05/2010: I fished my final qualifier last weekend on Rondeau Bay. I finished 15th out of 65 teams. I had a couple of real good pre-fish days leading up to the tournament, but the day before the tournament we had a cold front move in and made the fishing really tough. During the pre-fish I caught all my fish on topwater frogs and 10" worms in thick weeds. On tournament day I had to down size and really slow down. All my fish were caught on a shaky head and wacky rigged stick worms around docks. The 15th place finish at Rondeau put me in 7th overall out of 104 teams for the year. My next tournament will be the Classic (the top 25 teams out of the 104 who fished the series) out of Turkey Point Marina, Lake Erie on Sept 18 & 19. I will keep you posted. Thanks!
08/16/2010: I have spent the last two weeks pre-fishing for this past weekends tournament on the St. Clair river. I wasn't having much sucess fishing the river so I decided to make the long run and fish Lake Huron. I finished the tournament in 4th place out of 60 teams weighing in a bag of 16.95 lbs. I caught all my big fish during the pre-fish on Plenzler melon drop shot gobies and smoke purple Erie darters in 14-16 ft of water, but during the tournament all the fish came on jerkbaits and spinnerbaits on an 8ft flat. I've attached a picture from this past weekend. My next tournament will be Aug. 29th on Rondeau Bay.
07/21/2010: I finished 2nd out of 60 teams at the Long Point Bay Anglers Association Invitational (Eastern basin lake Erie). Most of our fish came on Mango Magic tubes and Mango Magic Erie Darters in 14 ft of water.
07/13/2010: Bass season opens the last Saturday in June here. I spent the first two weekends of the season pre-fishing for my first tournament which was this past weekend on lake St. Clair. I didn't fair that well because of some early motor troubles (only managed 12.66 lbs not too bad in 2 1/2 hours of fishing) not exactly sure where I finished as the final results have not been posted on the internet yet. During my pre-fish and the tournament I caught almost all my fish on Smoke Purple, Erie Darters and Mango Magic Drop Shot Darters in 14-18 ft of water. I have another tournament this weekend out of Turkey Point Marina, Lake Erie. I have had a pretty good pre-fish with alot of my fish coming on Mango Magic Tubes and Plenzler Melon Drop Shot Goby baits in 16-20 ft of water. Hopefully the weather co-operates this weekend so I can get to my best spots. I will keep you posted. Attached are some of my pre-fish photos. Along with some pictures from last years classic on lake St. Clair. All those fish were caught on smoke purple erie darters.
08/30/2010: Just wanted to update you on my tournament activities. Have had some very good tournaments and a couple that should have better if I landed the ones I had on.
Most recently this past weekend on Lake Erie, I beat out 124 other anglers and am now the Ontario Bass Federation Provincial Champion for 2010, and have secured a spot on Team Ontario 2011 for the third year in a row. I'm three for three....Yee-Ha! I was leading after day 1 by a pound and drew the second place non-boater for day 2. How nerve racking was that knowing I'm taking him to my water and competing head to head with him. Well, I culled up and caught 17 pounds and he only managed to catch 4 fish for 11 pounds. I ended up winning by almost a 4 pound margin. He was drop-shotting slammers and dragging tubes (not yours).
You'll never quess what I used. Yup, two rods all weekend on deck. One with a smoke/purple darter and one with St. Clair Special darter, both rigged on a 1/4 ounce round ball jighead. Off to Candlewood Lake, Connecticut in two weeks for the B.A.S.S. Eastern Divisional as part of Team Ontario 2010!
03/07/2010: I caught this bass last summer from Lake Erie on a Poor Boy's Erie Darter.