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2006 Season in Review!
t3pt6k	Port: Grand Haven, MI	09/24/2006 15:07

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Posts: 2447

What a wonderful season!

Fishing started off strong and never really stopped excluding those few tough days mixed in. Started the season early, splashing Salmonhead April 1st in St. Joe for early season action – water temps were not favorable – but even on that day we managed to go 5 for 5 including our first fish being a beautiful king. We also had every layer of clothing we could find aboard … got to love that early spring wind on 40 degree water.

The season progressed well with a couple of weeks out of St. Joe and South Haven where the action that was simply outstanding. Pre-fishing for the South Haven Steelheader’s tournament was an incredible experience, fishing on both Salmonhead and Verdict III for more than a week and absolutely hammering the fish. Blucrop was kind enough to lend the bunkhouse to Team EO and hanging with blu and crew was awesome, even the key lime margaritas.

Grand Haven fishing was very good and challenging but a great time was had by all. The run down and back to Ludington was great, and the hospitality put on by Thunderduck and crew was greatly appreciated. Team EO managed to win the 333 Port Championship and have a much better showing than the previous year.

Manistee Bud Pro/Am was a blast and the fishing for most was good during the prefishing and marginal during the tournament. Sandpiper (Kevin Hughes) ran the greatest captain’s meeting of all time, started exactly on time and finished quickly; I guess that’s what you’d expect from a high school principal. Fished the barrel for the first time just north of Onekema – hard to beat a 150 foot deep 2 mile hole in 50 FOW, although we didn’t catch all of our fish we had a really good time up there, hanging with lots of EA members and talking fishing.

Ran down and back to Muskegon for the Cabela’s shootout and had a really good time, we finished poorly but did manage to get our limit on day 2 and day 1 was just a case of having the right number of bites but not putting the fish in the boat. Saint and the Muskegon Sportfishing crew put on a great event, everyone that is in the area should get this one on the schedule. Pig roast and a off-the-hook Christmas in July party was the talk of all the docks.

Returned to Ludington for the remainder of the season and the Ludington Offshore Classic where Team EO had a very good week of prefishing and an excellent finish for Team EO. We got our limits both days 9 kings – 3 trout and finished 12th out of 75 Pro boats in the toughest pro competition on the lake – the Offshore Classic is the biggest Salmon tourney on the lake with nearly 250 boats participating.

The fishing during the Educated Angler outing was off the hook and as good as it gets – getting 11 fish on Friday night in a few hours and 19 for 28 during the Saturday morning event. Food was great, many adult beverages were had, and the party was quite fun, topped off by a 26+ king being weighed as the big fish. Fishing remained strong all the way through the holiday weekend as evidenced by our slaughter fest with BFG – ask him about the 30 minute night bite in 45 FOW – he still may be bruised.

Our fish were very healthy and bait seemed prevalent along most of the east coast of Lake Michigan from “The Joe” to Onekema. We didn’t have a unhealthy fish, excluding the mutant hump back Laker that Salmonhead landed, and most came in with full bellies all season long; I would estimate a 10% or maybe even 15% increase in the size of our kings on average. Steelhead action was good when we needed it and this year we targeted Lake Trout and caught a bunch, unfortunately during the Grand Haven tourney most of ours were below the legal limit but none the less lots of fish.

But most of all it was a great season where we made lots of new friends, hung out with an amazing group of wonderful people, and fished our collective butts off. Few more weeks of fishing left and then we will see the Team boat hitting the winter storage, planning will begin for next fishing and tournament season and equipment will be getting cleaned, oiled, and readied for 2007.

Thanks to everyone especially our Educated Angler family who has made 2006 a season to remember!

Let’s hear your review of 2006.

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2006 Season in Review!

t3pt6k

09/24/2006 15:07

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