U.S. Angler's Choice
South Lake Michigan Division

6-13-2004 News

Angler's Choice, Southern Lake Michigan

June 13th Tournament Results

Hoese and Skrzckut Go Back to Back

Mike Hoese (Crown Point, IN) and Brent Skrzckut (sha-coot) (Hammond, IN) repeated with the only five fish limit of the day. There winning weight of 14.22 lbs. was more that enough to hold off the team of Robb Rongers (Hobart, IN) and Dave Heath (Hobart, IN) who had 13.28 lbs. The downfall of the second place ($580) team was not being able to score with a fifth keeper and filling out a limit. “We were on some pretty good fish this week and just couldn't find that last bite today” said Dave. Our fishing area held a load of fish, but the area is big and on the main lake. The pair fished between the old Dean Mitchell power plant and the Gary Indiana Lighthouse which scored the Toad Award with the first ever largemouth for the honors that weigh 3.78 lbs. “All our bite today came on the Fred Schubert green/pumpkin tube”, said Robb Rongers. The fishing is slow right now and thing are quit different this season. “These smallie should be in full spawn right now and there not. I'm sure it's because of this years wind conditions with it putting big braking waves on the shoreline spawning areas, plus the barometer is doing the dance allover place. I would also like to thank Moore's Boat of Ligonier Indiana, Ranger Boats and Mercury Outboards for their support.

The winning team was a little more reluctant to give away any fishing areas away, but did tell us what was key for the victory. Mike Hoese explained the bait that the team was using which is something totally different than most anglers were using. Our number one bait is a four-inch worm rigged on a 1/16 oz. 1/O ball head jig in either a Green/pumpkin or watermelon color is working the best. We also were use grubs and tubes, but the better fish came on the worm. When asked why is this team so successful, Brent Skrzckut responded, “we're in the zone right now, we're thinking as one, hitting hole when we need to and switching running the trolling motor without even having to say anything to one another, total teamwork.” This win makes the teams fifth straight victory on the southern shores of Lake Michigan and added $900 to their payouts this season.

The team of Dave Adams (Schererville, IN) and Mike Myers (St. John, IN) took third place ($90) with three fish that weigh-in at 8.12 lbs. We're using the same baits we used to take the Mik-Lurch Tackle Outlet “Big Lake Shootout” last weekend with four inch Gary Yamamoto senko's, we're fishing areas around Dean Mitchell and Patrick's Marina” said Mike. “We lost two big fish at the boat today that would have given us a shot at taking this thing said Dave. Those two were real big toads too. I'd say they would of added nine pounds to our sack, to bad they broke off.” Lucky the team got in the side-pot because this tournament only payout two places. Tournament Director Ed Bohn added to the third place payout with a $50 dollar gift certificate from Bedford Sales of Morris Illinois to up the payout for the third place team.

Anglers Choice, Southern Lake Michigan Division would like to thank Dale Bowman from the Chicago Sun-Times Newspaper for being our guest Host and Weighmaster.