My annual Lake Erie tournament out of PIB was this past weekend. Friday practice had a small craft advisory with rain and 3-5 foot waves with occasional 6’s. I did a lot of graphing in the bay to try to find some backup spots in case I could not get out onto the lake on Saturday/Sunday.

I was able to manage 2-3 SM and several LM in practice. I tried my best to video and get pictures, but on tournament day, it is a struggle staying efficient while operating a camera, so I did the best I could.

This was my first time attempting to use my GoPro voice activated features with hindsight mode. I feel like my plan needs some tailoring because the voice commands as you will see in the video, do not work in the wind unless I’m yelling “GoPro start recording”.

To complicate matters further, I can’t use loop mode with the ultra wide lens mod, so I am forced to use hindsight, which records continually up to 30 seconds prior to voice/button activation. Needless to say, that forgetting to press the record button within 30 seconds of a hookset on windy lake during a tournament is a struggle. I’m not sure what the solution is because I don’t want to edit full length videos on my phone, but I want to capture a full video from hookset to landing the fish. To be continued…

This was the best video I could pull off where the catch was actually recorded and/or I did not land the fish at the console or at the back of the boat where it was out of frame. I’ll do better next time.

Saturday and Sunday was actually really good tournament weather. This is a combined 2 day tournament with a 3- 15” fish limit per day. Overall is was pretty tough fishing, but Lake Erie smallmouth are so much fun and I look forward to this trip every year.

Saturday was sunny with 10-15 mph SW winds. The “2 foot or less waves” had white caps in the afternoon, which made boat control challenging at times, but it was manageable.

I started in the bay to pickup 1 keeper smallmouth in the 16-17” range. I went out the main lake around 10 am to fish a flat mixed with weeds and rock. I caught another keeper in the 18” range. I worked out to about 17 fow and I started catching some smaller fish, so I went back in to the 7-8 foot range and caught my lunker for the tournament. The key was light enough weight to keep the bait out the weeds, without hopping it too much so the sheephead stay away. No largemouth can ever give me the same excitement that these smallmouth do.

Sunday had a thunderstorm in the early morning but actually turned into a really pleasant overcast day until weigh-in. It was windy with 1-3 foot waves forecast, but it was actually lighter winds and waves than Saturday.

I immediately went out to the main lake because thunderstorms were supposed to hit by 10 am.

I caught a 17” keeper off an offshore rock pile on a drop shot right off the bat. I was marking more fish on 2d but could not buy another bite for the next 20 minutes. I went back to the flat and caught a 15” fish on a tube. I caught a bunch of “dink” 14 - 3/4 smallmouth on a Ned rig, so after about 40 minutes of that, I laid the ned rod to rest in the rod locker.

I moved to a new spot and hooked into what appeared to be a 4 lb smallmouth. Fought it for a few seconds and it darted straight under the bow of the boat, wrapped around the trolling motor and broke off. It then taunted me by jumping multiple times a few minutes apart.

At one point I threw my bait back in thinking maybe he would bite again but no luck. Ofcourse the GoPro caught that disaster in its entirety. That one hurt.

Around 11 am I was able to pick up my 3rd keeper. It was maybe 17”. I ended up culling once more in the bay before heading back in to weigh-in.

Overall it was an awesome trip. It’s been 3 years since I’ve been able to fish the lake since it’s usually off limits with a small craft advisory. It definitely did not disappoint . I wish I could get back there one more time this year.

I ended up in 3rd place for both days (8 lbs 11 oz day 1; 8 lbs 15 oz day 2) and missed big bass payout by 4 oz.

Nice job.

Sounds like you had your work cut out for you.

Little GoPro tip for you.

While I do not have the constraints of derby fishing, I do run my cameras all day on the water.

Editing super long video clips is time-consuming and a PIA.

And using any 'feature' designed to be a shortcut to that has not worked out well for me.

So I run them on record constantly when I get a hookup, fight, and land a fish,

I stop recording and restart once I start fishing again.

That way, all my fish catches are always at the end of the video clip, regardless of how long it is.

Makes the editing deal considerably less time consuming, and I don't 'miss' recording anything.

Good luck.

A-Jay

Big wind. Big waves. Big water. Big backbone.

Thanks @A-Jay

Do you edit your footage from a computer or phone? It seems a bit cumbersome to download the entire video then edit in the quik app. I feel like doing it on the phone is the biggest drawback for me.

I completely agree though, these shortcuts have already cost me from recording the hookset portion of the biggest fish on the trip.

11 hours ago, stk44 said:

Thanks @A-Jay

Do you edit your footage from a computer or phone? It seems a bit cumbersome to download the entire video then edit in the quik app. I feel like doing it on the phone is the biggest drawback for me.

I completely agree though, these shortcuts have already cost me from recording the hookset portion of the biggest fish on the trip.

I use a PC . Don't even know how to use a phone although my wife is a whiz at it. Me,not so much.

The editing software used makes a differrence IMO.

I use Movavi. Easy and effective.

A-Jay

15 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

Big wind. Big waves. Big water. Big backbone.

I felt like I was on the water a few hours after being off the water each day. Every stabilizer muscle was put to the test.

1 minute ago, stk44 said:

I felt like I was on the water a few hours after being off the water each day. Every stabilizer muscle was put to the test.

Oh, I know the feeling. After running rapids all day, I'd like in the tent and feel like I was still falling and rising.

Netting a fish while on your knees always happens on Lake Erie if you are a true fisherman. Sounds like a great trip/tournament.

2 hours ago, Dwight Hottle said:

Netting a fish while on your knees always happens on Lake Erie if you are a true fisherman. Sounds like a great trip/tournament.

It was so much fun. I look forward to that tournament every year. Getting to go out on the lake both tournament days was a treat for sure and I learned a lot.