Thought I would jot a few things down regarding the 2009 Divisionals. I am hesitant to be detail specific simply because our 2010 team might be returning to Escanaba to do it all over again.

 

But first I would like to thank those who made this possible for our team; Our tournament director Terry Hilbert, Bill Parbs, Roy Bragg who all took care of the messes we made, fed us and took charge when needed. I also want to thank our President Jeff Dyer and Brian Beebe for all the hours and hard work behind the scenes working with sponsors.

 

2009 Divisionals, Hosted by the state of Michigan at Big & Little Bay DeNoc in Escanaba.

 

Most of you know who all was on the 12 man team, so I will not list everyone, though every team member was just as important as the next. During the practice days the team was able to quickly figure out the "big" fish pattern and concentrations of them. Some location held schools of smallies, where others held roamers. 

 

DAY 1

 

A bass boat dream, absolutely calm and you could let the big engine eat gas with the pedal to the metal. I got to my spot 20 minutes from take off and boated 5 smallies for 17lbs. 15oz. in just 30 minutes. I then saw Dan Brovarney moving in so I slipped out and bumped into Jason and told him to get over there and join Dan. This spot produced, in my best guess, close to 50lbs for our team the first day. At the weigh-in I was not surprised to hear Kevin Fassbind had over 22lbs, Wes Haney and Jason Stangl had over 18lbs. After we all weighed, Wisconsin was in first place with total weight. I was confident our team was well on its way to a three peat.

 

DAY 2

 

The morning started out with 1 to 2 footers, certainly manageable at 40+ mph, I reached my spot within 40 minutes. The fish had moved, I was able to boat 4 fish by 1:00 for just under 13lbs., so I started my way back and began looking for Wes in the area he was fishing. Luckily I found him, he said he had over 18lbs and his partner had close to 20lbs. Wes told me where to start and on the second drift I was able to boat my 5th and final fish for a limit, that fish weighed 4lbs 3oz.. It was at that time my day two partner said "Wow, I can't believe he just let you in like that, our team would never do that!". I simply smiled, because I knew that any one of our team members would have done the same thing...that's how you win! The ride back took 1 1/2 hours. As the weigh-in came to a close, Wisconsin had slipped to 2nd leaving our team an important day 3. Great news was that Wes Haney was in 2nd place overall with 36lbs 15 oz.. 

 

DAY 3

 

A bass boat nightmare, at take off we battled 4-5 footers, both Wes and I knew we had to take the chance and go, knowing that the afternoon would be real nasty. I was thinking often about our two Junior fisherman (Michael Bodsberg and Cade Laufenberg) out with Bill Parbs and wondering if they are enjoying the wind and waves. It took me 1 hr 45 minutes to get to my starting spot, I was able to boat 2 nice fish by 10:00 and that was it, so I decided to make a move about 1/2 mile to a hump ledge no one had fished that day and boated 3 more for my limit. It was payback time as Wes pulled up behind me at 12:00 and said he only had 2 fish, so as he did the day before, I told him where the hot spot was and he finished out his limit...and in style I might add. The waves had kicked up to 7-10 footers, Wes and I agreed that we needed atleast 2 hours to get back and that we would stick together. As we were leaving we stopped to talk with Randy Burch and Ben Potracke, they both had 2 fish and were also leaving shortly. I must tell you that in all my years of fishing, I have never experienced mother nature like that, at times I was not sure the boat was going to land upright. Wes and I made it back with 10 minutes to spare, unfortunately the Coast Guard had passed us going the opposite direction and I had a bad feeling. When we pulled into the weigh-in we received the news that Ben's boat motor had fallen off and they were capsized, on top of that, Randy Burch was circling in attempt to find and rescue Ben and his partner. The Lord was watching over Ben and his partner as the Coast Guard arrived within a minute of his boat turning over.

 

FINAL WEIGH-IN

 

Our team was putting the heat on Michigan in our attempt for a three peat, most of the team had weighed in already and our juniors did well. I weighed in a respectable 14lbs and was okay with this, but knowing all along that Mr. Wes Haney most likely had more weight than me. MN took the over all lead with just Wes and the final Michigan member to go. Wes weighed in over 15lbs and took the overall lead away from MN, and fortunately for Wes the Michigan guy only weighed in 2 fish giving Wes the title as the 2009 Federation Nation Northern Division Champion. Now we all waited for the total team weights to find out if team Wisconsin would three peat, but, we lost to Michigan by just 2 pounds.

 

In closing, all of our team members worked well together and fished hard, of course there are a few times we all wish we would have executed better on a specific fish, or made a better decision. But all in all, we are the most feared state in our division and rightfully so. Thanks again to Terry, Bill, Roy, Jeff, Brian and the entire team for a great tournament.

 

We'll see you on the water,

Mike Mattis