Peter Larmand Journal Entries
White Lake Oct 1 & 2, 2005
The BAA Classic this year was once again held on White Lake out of Bayview lodge. The weekend is supposed to be beautiful as far as weather goes and it was. Sunny all weekend. Saturday we were greeted with some heavy wind conditions.
Water temperature at the launch first thing this morning was 39 degrees. I decided that because it was a sunny day that I was going to fish shallow water as it would be the first part of the lake to warm up and that is where the bass would be. I took off to this one stretch of shoreline and I didn’t catch anything. Not even perch taps. Decided to move out and I fish another area in about 10 –12 foot of water where if I fish slow and deep that I would get something. I ended up catching 2 small fish both under 2 lbs. Spent the rest of the morning catching 11-inch clones. White lake has lots of them.
At 12:30 I decided to move to another part of the lake that I hadn’t been to in years. I started fishing the shoreline but within 15 feet from shore the water was 15 – 20 feet deep. I started casting and pitching to laydowns and weed patches. I pulled up to this fallen birch tree and I started working the treetop. A couple of twitches later and I get a pickup and it’s a bass. Bring him in and put in the live well. I continue working the laydown thinking that might be more than just the one fish in there. Start working the middle of the laydown and I catch and land my second fish on this tree. I wonder if there is a third bass. I notice that there is a fork in the tree but it’s right at the shoreline. I cast my bait into the fork and all of a sudden my line is moving towards the middle of the tree. I set the hook and the fun begins. I get it to the boat and it’s a solid 3 perhaps a 4. I now have 5 fish in the box and it’s only 2:00. Weigh in is at 4:00. I went the rest of the day without touching another fish. So I come in for the weigh in and I’m sitting in second place with just over 11 lbs. I’m 2 lbs out of first. The bass weighed in at 4 lbs 9 oz. So far it’s the biggest of the tournament. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.
Sunday morning we wake up to another sunny day but this time there is no wind. I didn’t want to think about the weight difference. All I was concentrating on was catching a limit and hopefully it will be bigger than the team in first. I figured if I could catch a limit and perhaps have another big fish to go along with it, that I might be all right and win this thing. Although I haven’t had much success on this body of water in the past 2 years that trying to make up 2 pounds could be harder than you think. However, if I bring a limit then I should be all right.
I decide to go back to that laydown to see if there were any other bass. Unfortunately, there wasn’t. I went to 3 mile bay and decided that I was going to throw a Poe’s baby bass pattern crankbait. It dives from 2 to 10 feet. I’m working a weed patch in 10 foot of water. I get a hit after about 5 casts. It’s a small 1 pounder but it’s a start to the day. The next cast I catch a 2 lbs 3 oz largemouth. I’m starting to think that this is going to be a good day. I leave here and go to a dock that I hadn’t fished yet because I was leaving it for today and I usually can get a good keeper size off of it. I fish the dock and the surrounding docks and I come out of there empty handed.
I’m starting to worry because now it’s coming close to 11:30 and I only have 2 keepers and we are weighing in an hour earlier today. Weighing in at 3:00 instead of 4:00. I pull up to another stretch of shoreline that I can usually catch 4 fish off of. I figure at least try and catch a limit. The sun is beaming on this shoreline, which has some laydowns, and some rocks. The same structure as the shoreline I fished yesterday where I caught the big one. I start casting a Booyah 3/8 oz fire tiger double willow leaf spinnerbait. I position the boat in about 5 feet of water and I start casting parallel to the shoreline in about 3 feet of water. No sooner does the spinnerbait hit the water, I start my retrieve and all of a sudden this smallmouth comes out of nowhere and nails it. I bring it in and it turns out to be 3+ pounds. Now I’ve 3 in the live well. I cast back into this little corner along the shore and then I catch another 1 ½ pounder. Now I’ve got 4. As I’m working the shoreline I can see a good size bass cruising around. It wants nothing to do with my spinnerbait. I drop a lizard, a tube, a tiki stick, and a flipping jig right in front of his nose and nothing. He doesn’t want it. So I continue along the shoreline and I’m thinking that maybe it just wants the bait from another angle. So I turn the boat around and go back down the shoreline, in the same direction that I just came from. I get to the area that the bass was cruising in. I cast about 10 feet past where he is and as I bring my spinnerbait across, he hits it and hits it hard. I get him in the boat and now I have 5.
Once again I fish the rest of the day and I only come in with 5 keepers. I’m thinking to myself that I didn’t do. I’m thinking that I didn’t make up the difference. I get to the scales and the smallmouth was 3 lbs 2 oz and my total weight for Sunday is just over 10 lbs for a 2-day total of 22 lbs 4 oz. I end up winning the tournament my mere ounces. Not only do I win the tournament but I also get big fish for the tournament. My first tournament win and it happens to be a classic. I am so excited. After having a hard season for most of the year, I end it with a win, a classic win. All of my fish on Saturday were caught on a black and blue tiki stick and on Sunday all of them were caught on the Poe’s crankbait and the Booyah spinnerbait.
I am looking forward to next season as I hope to increase the number of wins as well as regaining the consistency that I had last season. I hope to see everyone out on the water as there is still another month’s worth of good fall fishing before the boats go away for the cold long winter. At least this winter I will be able to look at my classic plaque and think about how it all comes together in 2 days.
By Peter Larmand
Oct 5, 2005
