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Lake St. Clair Elite Series

Competition Wrapup
Friday, August 28, 2015



Brent Chapman

> Day 1: 5, 11-09
> Day2: 5, 14-06
> Total = 10, 25-15 (86th place)

In hindsight, this is one I'd like to completely do over again. I know if we ever come back I won't be practicing in Lake St. Clair because it seems like everybody who really catches them doesn't fish in St. Clair.

Last time I caught them close (to the ramp) and with all the wind we had in practice, those were the only places I felt good about. I caught some decent fish so I knew the potential was there, even though it wasn't that great of a practice. A couple of guys fished near me and did okay.

I had the bites to probably make the cut. I lost two nice ones yesterday that were over 3 pounds and I should've had close to 19 or 20 today. I lost a 5 and two 4s for sure, and that just sucks. I mostly threw a jerkbait and I also did some dropshotting.

I've got a couple of other events to do and we've got nine episodes of "Pro vs. Joe" to film, so I'll keep busy in the offseason. The pressure's definitely going to be on for next year and I'm going to have to do some soul-searching and try to figure out what I've been doing wrong. I need to come back stronger and wiser.


Practice Summary
Wednesday, August 26, 2015



Brent Chapman
Practice overall for me was pretty tough. The weather and the wind made it quite challenging and it was really hard to get around and actually fish. I suspect whoever wins this deal is going to figure a lot of it out during the actual tournament and that guy might even find the winning fish in the tournament.

I've got one little area that I'm going to get into and hammer pretty good, and if I can get a decent bag I might get out and roam around and check some of the stuff I didn't get to look at in practice.

Again, it was tough, but sometimes that's a good thing.


Day 1 Practice Recap
Monday, August 24, 2015

BassFan
Photo: BassFan

Brent Chapman
The wind blew like 20 or 25 (mph) all day and being back on stable ground feels really weird. It was just one of those days you just try to survive. The wind very much hindered what I was hoping to accomplish and in hindsight I wish I'd done some different stuff, but that's what practice is all about.

I checked some stuff I'd fished in the past and got a few bites, but I definitely didn't see the quality I needed today. I'll keep hunting, and these are smallmouths, so just because they weren't in one place today doesn't mean they won't be there come tournament day.

It was so windy that it was hard to get around and I ended up just blowing through some areas, whereas on tournament days I'd hunker down and pick things apart. I stayed on the calm side of Lake St. Clair, and I can't imagine what Erie looked like today. Hopefully it won't blow quite so hard tomorrow.

I probably caught about 13 pounds, and that's not good enough on this body of water. From the homework I've done and the reports I've heard, guys are catching some heavy bags here. I'm expecting the weights to be better than they were last time we were here (in 2013).

BassFan
Photo: Chris Zaldain

Chris Zaldain
It was windy, windy, windy – it blew 15 to 25 miles an hour all day and it made getting around pretty difficult.

I knew it was going to blow so I started on a spot I'd found a couple years ago, a deep grass line, and I got three good bites right off the bat. I tried to duplicate that, running around and fishing down baits real slow, and I went several hours with no bites. I finally switched gears and went shallow, and I got a couple bites winding reaction-style baits.

The wind is supposed to calm down as the week progresses, so I'm really looking forward to that.

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