Detroit River FLW Tour Open

Last week I fished in the second of four FLW Tour Opens that I'm doing this year at the Detroit River.  This is a great venue for a big tournament because its such a large system of water with Lake Erie, Lake St. Clair as well as the St. Clair and Detroit Rivers.  

I ended up having an okay tournament since I was lucky enough to slide into 49th place and earn a check.  I had a tough first day, only catching 12-10, landing in 107th place.  I fished St. Clair the first day and spent most of my day in one area and they just seemed to have moved and I couldn't get on them again.  I had a big area all to myself and there were plenty of good fish around it in the practice.  

On day two I went to Lake Erie and had a great day, landing 21-4, so I was able to make a good jump up the leader board.  

These fish were part of my 21-4 stringer on day two of the tournament

On-stage on day two with the big bag.  I caught most of my fish during the week on three different baits - crankbaits (Rapala DT 10's and DT 14's) as well as drop-shot rigs (Northland Impulse Jigging Leeches, X-Zone Slammers) and tubes.  

My Dad was down for the week with me to practice and help out so that was fun.  Here he is with a big one during practice.  

This is a really fun place to fish, provided the wind doesn't blow to hard!  We were lucky throughout the week that we were there that we didn't really have any bad weather days...I stuck around for a few days after the tournament and got on some big fish like this 5 pound smallouth.  

We don't catch these at Lake of the Woods!  This is a drum...they are absolutely thick on Lake Erie...my Dad caught about 50 of them during one of the days we practiced out there!  

There are two more FLW Tour Opens left this year, one at Wheeler Lake, Alabama and one at Sam Rayburn Reservoir in Texas.  The top five in points qualify for next year's Forrest Wood Cup.  After two tournaments I'm sitting in 9th, so I'm hangin' in there!