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Western Michigan Regional

Sunday, October 06, 2013

The Western Michigan Regional was held on October 6th out of Muskegon Lake. The weather was a test for the 14 teams as they were faced with cold, windy and rainy conditions for most of the day. Tournament Director John Federnok believes the weather changed the game plan for many in the field. "All of the boats stayed in Muskegon instead of going out onto Lake Michigan. It was 15-20 mph inside Muskegon and I'm sure there were big rollers out on the big lake," said Federnok. Even with the weather conditions, there were several nice bags of fish brought to the scales, including 6 limits. The top three were all fairly close and even those in 4th and 5th place were within striking distance of the win.

First place was Cliff and Bert Jackson who weighed in 14.79lbs. When asked about the day, Cliff said it was rough, but the team sought out the wind in the morning. "We tried to stay in the wind and fish for smallmouth first thing and we caught them on C-Flash Crankbaits, jigs and a spinnerbait but we ended up culling all of them out with largemouth later in the day," said Jackson. As the day went on they fished closer to the channel and targeted largemouth with Poor Boy's Jigs and the C-Flash Crankbaits. The last two hours of the day were the best for this team and overall they caught around 10 keepers. For the win, they brought home $700.

Second Place was the team of Mark Farver and Pat Hare who weighed in four fish for 13.06lbs and also the big fish of the tournament at 3.87lbs. The team said it was a slow day and only managed four keepers all day. "The weather was bad but that's typical for Muskegon in the Fall. It was slow and tedious all day, it was really a grind," said Hare. The team fished twintail gribs and swimjigs around shallow grass to catch their bass.

3rd was the team of Bill Shopshire and Adam Kozuszek who had 12.69lbs. Shopshire reported that the team caught close to 20 keepers on the day and had three keepers right away even in the rough weather. "We were fishing right in there where the waves were rolling and catching them on senkos in submerged grass between 8-10 feet. This was our first time ever fishing here and I came up here last week and found some places and that's where we ended up catching them," said Shopshire. The team also mixed in heavier jigs in the grass to catch some of their fish.

By: Tyler Brinks