Little Bay de Noc Fishing Reports

From the Escanaba Daily Press...

GLADSTONE - Whatever expectations bass anglers may have had about the Bays de Noc were literally blown out of the water this weekend.

It was bass galore Saturday during the Cabela's North American Bass Circuit qualifying event, with some of the largest smallmouth bass ever seen by some anglers being caught in the Bays.

A field of 26 teams came from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Michigan to compete in the inaugural tournament and for some, it was their first time discovering the hotbed of fishing that is Delta County. Judging from some of the remarks made on stage, it won't be their last:

"This was a great day and this is an excellent fishery," said Doug McDonald of Sturgeon Bay, Wis.

"What a factory this place this. This is just an incredible place," remarked Scott Bonnema of Zimmerman, Minn.

"This fishery is incredible. I've never caught so many smallers," said Gary Adkins of Green Bay, referring to smallmouth bass.

"It was a good day. This place is pretty amazing. I've never seen smallies like this before," Chad Larson of Eau Claire, Wis. exclaimed.

Tournament Director Dan Palmer called the Bays "an absolute bronzeback bonanza. You normally don't see smallmouth in that abundance. Hopefully this will put bass fishing on the map."

Over a dozen teams had weigh-ins of more than 18 pounds for five fish, a remarkable number given that a 17.5 pound weigh-in won the Circuit event in Oshkosh, Wis., June 11.

Teams were allowed to weigh their top five fish and also choose one to enter for the Big Bass Pot.

The team of Bob Perkins of Crosslake, Minn., and Justin Ohotto of Nisswa, Minn., won both the overall event with a weigh-in of 22.15 pounds, and the Big Bass Pot with a monster bass of 6.62 pounds.

"Whoo-hoo!" Perkins exclaimed when he reached the stage. "This is just a great body of water. We had a fun day and caught some nice fish.

"This is a great place to be. We had a buddy north of here who put us out on some good water. I can't believe there aren't more bass tournaments here. I don't know if this is the best fishery in the nation, but it's up there," Perkins said.

Perkins and Ohotto collected $5,000 for winning the Circuit and an additional $650 for winning the Big Bass Pot.

Delta County was well represented with 10 anglers hailing from Rapid River, Rock, Cooks, Gladstone and Escanaba. An additional five anglers came from Negaunee, Marquette, Skandia and Gwinn.

Although the local anglers didn't fare as well as some of the professionals from out of state, they enjoyed the experience.

"It wasn't too bad of a day. We made runs over to Big Bay. Our program was shake and bake," said Ray Young of Cooks with a grin.

The team of Young and Mark Jacques of Escanaba had a weigh-in of 16.89 pounds.

The team of Ed Pepin of Rock and Derek Parker of Skandia weighed in at 17.04 pounds.

"Today went really well. We caught a lot of fish. I'm not sure if we'll be in the top five, but we should be up there," Parker said.

Pepin and Parker didn't fall in the top 10 but fell around where most of their Delta County counterparts did.

Only one team was penalized for coming in late. The team of Jason Julian Sr. of Evergreen Park, Ill., and Edward Bohn of Alsip, Ill., was penalized for arriving after the 4 p.m. deadline and had their weight total cut in half. A possible weigh-in of 20.76 pounds was dropped to 10.38 pounds.

"We should have left earlier," Julian lamented. "It is what it is. There are no guarantees."

After the weigh-in, Palmer handed out bait and tackle boxes and raffled off fishing poles to children who attended the event.

Palmer will remain a temporary resident of Delta County this week as he prepares for the spotlight combine tournaments coming Friday and Saturday.

"I'm here for the week. I'm really excited for the Walleye Circuit. We have 275 boats registered so far from 30 different states," he said.

The Cabela's Masters Walleye Circuit and Cabela's National Team Championship will both take place Friday and Saturday with a built-in bad weather day Sunday if needed due to weather issues.