The third stop on the Lake Michigan Tournament Trail was held on May 19th and 20th out of South Haven, Michigan.  This year’s field had 113 participants, including 32 Pro boats paying down 7 places, and 81 Amateur boats paying 20 places.  The South Haven Steelheaders put on a nice event with an excellent captain's meeting, held at the Moose Lodge, and raffle with some very nice prizes including a big $700 Dreamweaver lure package.  Registration included a nice smoked sausage and a case of Lite beer which is never a bad way to start off a tournament.  The South Haven Steelheaders also did a lot of work within the community and many restaurants and retailers particpated by offering discounts to tournament anglers.

The week of pre-fishing was met with variable weather conditions including changing winds and high and low pressure offering an ever changing lake state but fishing remained strong when competitors were able to go out and get down to business.  Fishing on the days leading up to tournament were good to excellent for most with mixed bags of Kings, Coho, Steelhead and Lake Trout filling out limits and progressing quite nicely.

Tournament Day One saw changing conditions and moving fish as pre-fishing areas for some competitors were cold and adjustments needed to be made to get the fish, limit boxes were brought in by both divisions but 9 and 10 fish boxes had competitors in the Top 10 of both Divisions. 

The Pro Division saw the biggest box of the tournament brought to the scale by Best Chance Too with a whopping 130.75 lbs. worth 250.75 points carrying on from the impressive win in St. Joseph the week before.  Hunter and Hit Man brought in strong Day One boxes as well giving them 202.10 and 197.90 respectively.  Day Two saw a weather-shortened 3 hour fishing period and much smaller boxes making it to the scales and 8' waves pounded the competitors.  No movement in the top three but shuffling took place with close results for 5th through 7th.  The Pro Top Five was:

1. Best Chance Too
2. Hunter
3. Hit Man
4. Finweaver
5. Strong Performance

The Am division saw a tight race develop after Day One with the top 5 boats within a 24 point range which shaped up to be a good contest for Day Two.  Shore Hugger returned to the weigh-in with a first place box of 208.30 points followed by Giv'n In, Spend a Buck and Double Down.  The 3 hour limitation on Day Two saw a juggle at the top of the leader board with positions swapping around and some from further down the field making a rush for the top.  The Am Top Five was:

1. Giv'n In
2. Spend a Buck
3. Double Down
4. Wine Maker
5. J-Bird

Pro Full Field Results - Click Here

Am Full Field Results - Click Here

The Tournament Trail 333 had 59 competitors and was won by Best Chance Too with 40.35 for 3 fish weighed and the Big Fish was weighed by Maatley Crew at 14.60#.  The 333 Top Five was:

1. Best Chance Too
2. Hunter
3. Red Baron
4. Wine Maker
5. Red Baron

333 Full Results - Click Here  

Discuss on Educated Angler ( 0 )