May 2, Cal-Sag Results

Dave Smolen with two of his six fish limit

Cal-Sag Pictures

Wow…fishing the Cal Sag with no high winds and fairly warm temperatures! This was not your typical Maple tournament! Were the fish biting? Yes they were and Dave Smolen proved it! Dave caught a limit while fishing out of the back of Mel Hedrick’s boat and won the tournament with 11.25 lbs of fish that included a nice 3 lb smally! Dave caught most of his fish on a Texas rigged purple Baby Brush Hog up in Lake Calumet! Dave actually culled to get his limit but I don’t think he did it intentionally. I guess the moral to that story is; Never let a bass flop around on the back deck of a boat if you want to put it in the live well! Luckily for Dave the fish kept biting! Mel ended the day with a respectable sack of 4 fish that was good enough for 2^nd place with 7.07 lbs and the big bass of the tournament at 3.18 lbs. All of the fish appeared to be either on a bed or moving up to spawn. In 3^rd place with place with 5 fish that weighed 6.89 lbs was last years Mr. Bass Jim Keating and was followed closely by Dave Diest with 3 fish that weighed a respectable 5.92 lbs! Daves bag included a nice 3.01 lb smally that had Frank Lebanowski’s jig in its mouth when Dave caught it! Wow, as I understand it, the fish was hooked and lost 3 times before Dave finally caught it! Way to go Dave!

Just as a reminder, when you plan on utilizing the lock systems on our river systems please make sure you fully understand the rules for use before entering them. Not only can you become a captive audience in the lockmaster’s fish bowl but you can be fined and even arrested for failure to follow their rules. So if you are unfamiliar with their use, please make sure you go with someone experienced with the rules or at least ask someone how it works. Most of the Maple members are well versed in utilizing these systems. A couple of our boats found out the hard way what happens when you upset the lockmaster this weekend. At least they had time to put all their equipment away while they sat in the lock.

Mel