TW_Staff
07-23-2009, 10:38 AM
Mike Desforges won the 1000 Islands Northern Stren for the second year in a row last week, but he went about it a lot differently this time than he had in 2008. That was primarily due to the extremely cool spring and summer that the far northeastern part of the country has experienced.
The chilly weather pushed back the smallmouth spawn until later than normal. There were still a good number of bronzebacks on the beds, and many more that had recently completed the reproduction ritual and were still hanging around in shallow water. Those were the fish he exploited en route to victory.
The resident of Burlington, Ontario caught 63-13 over 3 days to beat out runner-up and fellow Ontarian Chris Johnston by nearly 3 1/2 pounds. He went into the final day with a lead of just over 2 pounds and sealed the win with a 20-10 stringer.
“It feels awesome to win again,” said Desforges, who has fished just six Stren Series events. “Being in a position to win and then blowing it is so disappointing, so finishing off with a win feels good.”
Desforges went into practice knowing that he wanted to focus on Lake Ontario. He said it's traditionally one of the last places in the region to complete the spawning cycle.
In order to find his fish in practice, Desforges covered water with a Rapala X-Rap #10 jerkbait in ghost color.
“Whenever a big fish would come up after the jerkbait, I’d pull it away and mark the area on the GPS,” he said. “When I returned in the tournament, about half of them would eat the jerkbait, but the other half I’d have to tease into biting by casting a tube or drop-shot Trigger X scentbait around the areas.”
"Given that, I was hoping to look for beds during most of practice," he said. "But it was so windy all through practice that I couldn't see the beds."
Instead he concentrated on places that were likely to harbor bedding fish, and he could often get them to chase a jerkbait.
"That would give me a general idea of where the bed might be, and then sometimes I could find an isolated boulder or something and pin down the exact spot.
"One afternoon it was calmer and I found about 10 that were sitting on beds, but they were mostly males from 2 to 3 1/2 pounds. There didn't seem to be many females around.
Competition:
During the week he caught four bass directly off beds, but the rest he described as bass still roaming around in the bedding areas.
“I’m really not sure what these fish are still doing in these areas,” he described. “Maybe they are guarding fry, or maybe they are still hanging around, hoping to spawn again. I really don’t know. But they were definitely defensive of their areas. It’s not that they were on beds, they were just protecting general areas and would run off any intruders that came around.”
Desforges caught his two biggest bed-fish on the morning of day 1. The bigger of the two, which he hooked and lost on his fourth cast, ended up going just an ounce shy of 6 pounds. He went back and caught it an hour later – after he'd put the other 5-plus in the box.
"What that did was allowed me to kind of take it easy on my spots," he said. "I only caught about eight fish that day.
He made his longest run of the tournament on day 2, which was the calmest day of the event. He went about 40 miles from the launch in Clayton, N.Y., to Duck Island to work on one more big spawner.
He couldn't get it to bite, so he went further down the bank with the idea of giving the fish a rest. While there, he caught one that went close to 5 on the jerkbait, then went back and hooked the bed-fish, but broke it off.
He finished the day there with no regard to conserving fish – stronger winds were forecast for the following day and he knew there was little chance he'd go back. He had a lead of almost 2 pounds over Johnston when the day was done.
Early on day 3, he drove by an area that he'd found in practice but which hadn't produced for him in the tournament, and he decided to stop and give it one more go. He put 18 pounds in the well in the first hour and a half, and that quintet included a 5-pounder and a 4.
He made several culls for an ounce or two at a time until about noon, when it became too windy to fish effectively.
"I figured I had about 20 pounds, but I wasn't overconfident (about winning)," he said. "I was mostly concerned about the guy in 3rd place (Rob LaFramboise). He's my roommate and he caught 22 pounds on the second day, and I was afraid he might do it again."
Pattern Notes:
To locate likely fish-holding areas, Desforges looked for a sand or shale bottom with a specific piece of structure, such as a single large rock. "It made it easier if there was something isolated and it wasn't just a field of boulders," he said.
The jerkbait accounted for most of his fish, but he also caught some on a tube and a dropshot rig. "Some of those areas had slimy bottoms and the tube would get slimed up. That's when I went to the dropshot."
His fish came from depths of 5 to 12 feet. "They weren't all bedding fish – some were finished spawning, but they were protecting an area. A lot of good ones came out of 12 feet. They were post-spawners and they were coming up and hitting the jerkbait."
He said a lot of competitors, especially non-locals, sought an offshore bite, but the only one who made the Top 10 was 5th-place finisher Derek Strub.
Winning Gear:
Jerkbait gear: 6'6" medium-action spinning rod, Browning Midas spinning reel, 10-pound Sufix fluorocarbon line, Rapala X-Rap XR10 jerkbait (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=RXR) (olive green).
Tube gear: 7'10" medium-heavy spinning rod, same reel, 10-pound Sufix fluorocarbon, 1/4-ounce homemade jighead with 3/0 Gamakatsu hook, 3 1/2" Mizmo Bass Teaser tube (watermelon/black flake).
Dropshot gear: 7' medium-action spinning rod, same reel, 8-pound Sufix fluorocarbon, 3/8-ounce dropshot weight, size 1 Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap hook (tied 15 inches above weight), 5" Trigger X Flutter Worm or Spadetail Worm (watermelon/black flake).
Main factor in his success – "Knowing the fish were on the beds or still wanting to protect an area was the key. More than likely, you weren't going to find a load of fish on a rockpile somewhere."
Performance edge – "The key piece of equipment was the 60-inch shaft on my Minn Kota trolling motor. With a shorter shaft, your motor was in and out of the water all the time in those 4- and 5-foot waves. You couldn't control the boat in the rocks and you'd also be spooking fish."
The Field:
Chris Johnston:
Johnston of Peterborough, Ontario, finished second with a three-day total of 60 pounds, 7 ounces. “I’m pretty happy with second place,” said the 20-year old Canadian. “Mike is a tough guy to beat out here on this water. I don’t think anyone knows this water as well as him. He’s awesome.”
Johnston spent the week fishing Canadian water with a drop-shot, jerkbait and spinnerbait. His best gig was a drop-shot tipped with a Slammer goby imitation made by Strike Zone lures in Canada.
“One thing that has helped me tremendously is using braided line out here in the wind and waves,” he said. “I use Power Pro (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=PPSL) as my main line and then tie it to a fluorocarbon leader for my drop-shot, and the sensitivity is extreme when you’re bouncing around out there in the waves.”
Rob Laframboise:
Laframboise of Sault St. Marie, Ontario, finished third with a three-day total of 58 pounds, 9 ounces. Laframboise rooms with Desforges, so consequently the two pros were on very similar patterns, fishing shallow for scattered smallmouths just coming off beds.
“The fish were in a strange mode this week,” Laframboise said. “I did not find them schooled up out deep; it’s like they were still up shallow around spawning areas, but not really on beds. They were territorial around certain boulders, but not locked on particular nests.”
During the week the Canadian pro relied on a smelt-colored jerkbait, a spinnerbait, Senkos and tubes.
Some of the fish he caught bit the spinnerbait, which he fished on Berkley Fireline (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BFBR). But others would just flash on or follow the spinnerbait, causing Laframboise to pitch a tube or Senko (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=YAS) at the fish for a second-chance bite.
Jeff Magee:
Magess of Yarker, Ontario, weighed in the biggest limit of day three – 21 pounds, 12 ounces – to jump into fourth place on the final day with a three-day total of 57 pounds, 4 ounces. Magee was drop-shotting and tubing in water down to 35 feet with a Berkley curl-tail finesse worm and a Berkley Powerbait tube in pumpkinseed color.
He, too, preferred braided line as his main line when drop-shotting and then tied to a fluorocarbon leader made of 12-pound-test Transition fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BVTF).
Derek Strub:
Strub of Elora, Ontario, rounded out the top five pros with a three-day total of 55 pounds, 12 ounces. Strub also fished out in Ontario, preferring to fish out deeper than most, targeting offshore structure in 25 to 35 feet with a drop-shot and tube.
His best drop-shot bait was a TriggerX Spadetail worm, which is a scented bait.
TW Staff
The chilly weather pushed back the smallmouth spawn until later than normal. There were still a good number of bronzebacks on the beds, and many more that had recently completed the reproduction ritual and were still hanging around in shallow water. Those were the fish he exploited en route to victory.
The resident of Burlington, Ontario caught 63-13 over 3 days to beat out runner-up and fellow Ontarian Chris Johnston by nearly 3 1/2 pounds. He went into the final day with a lead of just over 2 pounds and sealed the win with a 20-10 stringer.
“It feels awesome to win again,” said Desforges, who has fished just six Stren Series events. “Being in a position to win and then blowing it is so disappointing, so finishing off with a win feels good.”
Desforges went into practice knowing that he wanted to focus on Lake Ontario. He said it's traditionally one of the last places in the region to complete the spawning cycle.
In order to find his fish in practice, Desforges covered water with a Rapala X-Rap #10 jerkbait in ghost color.
“Whenever a big fish would come up after the jerkbait, I’d pull it away and mark the area on the GPS,” he said. “When I returned in the tournament, about half of them would eat the jerkbait, but the other half I’d have to tease into biting by casting a tube or drop-shot Trigger X scentbait around the areas.”
"Given that, I was hoping to look for beds during most of practice," he said. "But it was so windy all through practice that I couldn't see the beds."
Instead he concentrated on places that were likely to harbor bedding fish, and he could often get them to chase a jerkbait.
"That would give me a general idea of where the bed might be, and then sometimes I could find an isolated boulder or something and pin down the exact spot.
"One afternoon it was calmer and I found about 10 that were sitting on beds, but they were mostly males from 2 to 3 1/2 pounds. There didn't seem to be many females around.
Competition:
During the week he caught four bass directly off beds, but the rest he described as bass still roaming around in the bedding areas.
“I’m really not sure what these fish are still doing in these areas,” he described. “Maybe they are guarding fry, or maybe they are still hanging around, hoping to spawn again. I really don’t know. But they were definitely defensive of their areas. It’s not that they were on beds, they were just protecting general areas and would run off any intruders that came around.”
Desforges caught his two biggest bed-fish on the morning of day 1. The bigger of the two, which he hooked and lost on his fourth cast, ended up going just an ounce shy of 6 pounds. He went back and caught it an hour later – after he'd put the other 5-plus in the box.
"What that did was allowed me to kind of take it easy on my spots," he said. "I only caught about eight fish that day.
He made his longest run of the tournament on day 2, which was the calmest day of the event. He went about 40 miles from the launch in Clayton, N.Y., to Duck Island to work on one more big spawner.
He couldn't get it to bite, so he went further down the bank with the idea of giving the fish a rest. While there, he caught one that went close to 5 on the jerkbait, then went back and hooked the bed-fish, but broke it off.
He finished the day there with no regard to conserving fish – stronger winds were forecast for the following day and he knew there was little chance he'd go back. He had a lead of almost 2 pounds over Johnston when the day was done.
Early on day 3, he drove by an area that he'd found in practice but which hadn't produced for him in the tournament, and he decided to stop and give it one more go. He put 18 pounds in the well in the first hour and a half, and that quintet included a 5-pounder and a 4.
He made several culls for an ounce or two at a time until about noon, when it became too windy to fish effectively.
"I figured I had about 20 pounds, but I wasn't overconfident (about winning)," he said. "I was mostly concerned about the guy in 3rd place (Rob LaFramboise). He's my roommate and he caught 22 pounds on the second day, and I was afraid he might do it again."
Pattern Notes:
To locate likely fish-holding areas, Desforges looked for a sand or shale bottom with a specific piece of structure, such as a single large rock. "It made it easier if there was something isolated and it wasn't just a field of boulders," he said.
The jerkbait accounted for most of his fish, but he also caught some on a tube and a dropshot rig. "Some of those areas had slimy bottoms and the tube would get slimed up. That's when I went to the dropshot."
His fish came from depths of 5 to 12 feet. "They weren't all bedding fish – some were finished spawning, but they were protecting an area. A lot of good ones came out of 12 feet. They were post-spawners and they were coming up and hitting the jerkbait."
He said a lot of competitors, especially non-locals, sought an offshore bite, but the only one who made the Top 10 was 5th-place finisher Derek Strub.
Winning Gear:
Jerkbait gear: 6'6" medium-action spinning rod, Browning Midas spinning reel, 10-pound Sufix fluorocarbon line, Rapala X-Rap XR10 jerkbait (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=RXR) (olive green).
Tube gear: 7'10" medium-heavy spinning rod, same reel, 10-pound Sufix fluorocarbon, 1/4-ounce homemade jighead with 3/0 Gamakatsu hook, 3 1/2" Mizmo Bass Teaser tube (watermelon/black flake).
Dropshot gear: 7' medium-action spinning rod, same reel, 8-pound Sufix fluorocarbon, 3/8-ounce dropshot weight, size 1 Gamakatsu Finesse Wide Gap hook (tied 15 inches above weight), 5" Trigger X Flutter Worm or Spadetail Worm (watermelon/black flake).
Main factor in his success – "Knowing the fish were on the beds or still wanting to protect an area was the key. More than likely, you weren't going to find a load of fish on a rockpile somewhere."
Performance edge – "The key piece of equipment was the 60-inch shaft on my Minn Kota trolling motor. With a shorter shaft, your motor was in and out of the water all the time in those 4- and 5-foot waves. You couldn't control the boat in the rocks and you'd also be spooking fish."
The Field:
Chris Johnston:
Johnston of Peterborough, Ontario, finished second with a three-day total of 60 pounds, 7 ounces. “I’m pretty happy with second place,” said the 20-year old Canadian. “Mike is a tough guy to beat out here on this water. I don’t think anyone knows this water as well as him. He’s awesome.”
Johnston spent the week fishing Canadian water with a drop-shot, jerkbait and spinnerbait. His best gig was a drop-shot tipped with a Slammer goby imitation made by Strike Zone lures in Canada.
“One thing that has helped me tremendously is using braided line out here in the wind and waves,” he said. “I use Power Pro (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=PPSL) as my main line and then tie it to a fluorocarbon leader for my drop-shot, and the sensitivity is extreme when you’re bouncing around out there in the waves.”
Rob Laframboise:
Laframboise of Sault St. Marie, Ontario, finished third with a three-day total of 58 pounds, 9 ounces. Laframboise rooms with Desforges, so consequently the two pros were on very similar patterns, fishing shallow for scattered smallmouths just coming off beds.
“The fish were in a strange mode this week,” Laframboise said. “I did not find them schooled up out deep; it’s like they were still up shallow around spawning areas, but not really on beds. They were territorial around certain boulders, but not locked on particular nests.”
During the week the Canadian pro relied on a smelt-colored jerkbait, a spinnerbait, Senkos and tubes.
Some of the fish he caught bit the spinnerbait, which he fished on Berkley Fireline (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BFBR). But others would just flash on or follow the spinnerbait, causing Laframboise to pitch a tube or Senko (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=YAS) at the fish for a second-chance bite.
Jeff Magee:
Magess of Yarker, Ontario, weighed in the biggest limit of day three – 21 pounds, 12 ounces – to jump into fourth place on the final day with a three-day total of 57 pounds, 4 ounces. Magee was drop-shotting and tubing in water down to 35 feet with a Berkley curl-tail finesse worm and a Berkley Powerbait tube in pumpkinseed color.
He, too, preferred braided line as his main line when drop-shotting and then tied to a fluorocarbon leader made of 12-pound-test Transition fluorocarbon (http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/descpage.html?PCODE=BVTF).
Derek Strub:
Strub of Elora, Ontario, rounded out the top five pros with a three-day total of 55 pounds, 12 ounces. Strub also fished out in Ontario, preferring to fish out deeper than most, targeting offshore structure in 25 to 35 feet with a drop-shot and tube.
His best drop-shot bait was a TriggerX Spadetail worm, which is a scented bait.
TW Staff