All three days of events went off successfully leading with the Ladies and Kids event of Friday where 30+ plus boats went out to compete and they had to - compete with the weather which had the heaviest rain storms I've seen in some time but also had good to great fishing. The Ladies and Kids was won on the Pro side by Hot Spot followed by Reel Action and Thunderduck, and the Am side the winner was Water Dog followed by Slip Knot and In Pursuit.

Click Here - Pro Ladies and Kids
Click Here - Am Ladies and Kids

The Pro/Am looked to be more of the same as a thunderstorm cell swept in on the competitors as they waited outside the pier heads for the tournament to start. Luckliy the weather committee had the full use of technology including Radar and Sirius Satellite Weather integrated with their Raymarine electronics to indicate that the storm was moving fairly quickly and was a small cell that had nothing behind it. The weather committee smartly chose to keep the competitors outside the piers and start the tournament on time instead of risking having the boats in the channel and being slammed by the storm in there with no room to maneuver, placing the boats at further risk. Fifteen minutes after the start the storm had moved through and wonderful blue skies greeted the competitors as they began setting up on their spots.

Day one teams were required to donate their catch and that donation amounted to 3600 raw pounds of fish to the Teen Challenge for their food bank. Sunday was optional but many teams donated their fish so another great amount was donated resulting in some valuable chartiable giving from the tournament and its competitors

The Pro Division was taken by Ludington's Blue Fairways with a wire-to-wire win putting up a big number on the first day following up with just enough to hold off the competition. Blue Fairways posted a winning score of 371.5, no bonus points for trout were awarded just simply ten points per fish and a point per pound, followed closely by The Edge with 369.85 in second and Best Chance Too with 368.8 in third. The Pro field was as tight as it gets with just over 10 points seperating the Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results)

1. Blue Fairways
2. The Edge
3. Best Chance Too
4. Get Some
5. Sea Flea

The Huntington Championship Point Series (GL2S.CPS) had 9 boats take scores in Grand Haven and some reshuffling in the top of the series. Blue Fairways the leader of CPS after the previous event and Pro winner decided against taking a cull in Grand Haven and missed receiving the ever important first place points which allowed Sea Flea to leap into first with a total of 396 pts. The field is tight with many opportunities for movement with five events still to go. (Click Here - Big Jon Sports Scoreboard)

Am Division winner Early Bird brought in two nearly identical boxes for a total of 361.35 points followed by Team Reel Deal with 357.15 and Silver Addiction with 342. The Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results)

1. Early Bird
2. Reel Deal
3. Silver Addiction
4. Squirrel Cage
5. Too Fish

The South Haven Big Jon Pro/Am is in the record books and after all the weather that Michigan has to offer the scores are in.  Day one started with a hour delay as the tournament committee pondered weather reports, that delay turned into a cancellation of the fishing day.  But as Michigan weather goes, if you don't like the weather now wait five minutes proved to be true as available weather forecasts were completely wrong and the day turned out to be fabulous and water conditions settled within a couple hours of the decision.

Day 2 revealed windy initial conditions again but the forecasts indicated that the winds should tail and settle down the water.  Refer back to the Michigan Rule. Those forecasts proved to be wrong again as the winds stayed on the offensive delivering consistently building seas throughout the day forcing the tournament to be called more than an hour early.  Stop fishing was set for 11:30 leaving 45 minutes for boats to return to pierhead at 12:15 after that period.

This early call of the tournament threw a wrench into many strategies as the offshore fishery consistently had produced good catches during prefishing and teams that were ready, willing, and able made the run some in excess of 30 miles.  Those teams had to let everything hang out and take the abusive, and I don't think anyone would say abusive was an overstatement, run back in seas that had wave sets in the 10' neighborhood - perhaps more in cases.  As with any strategy sometimes it works out and some times it doesn't as you'll see some negative weights as penalties of 10 points (pounds) per minute were assesed for late arrivals.

The Pro Division crowned a new champ - Living the Dream - who beat it in from the offshore waters they had fished the entire week bringing an 11 fish box that weighed 94 lbs. resulting in a score of 234 points to secure first place.  Second place was taken by 2007 champ Best Chance Too with a total of 206.05 points, and Manistee Mama in an extremely close third with 205.15 points. The Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results)

1. Living the Dream
2. Best Chance Too
3. Mansitee Mama
4. Hunter
5. Blue Fairways

Nine professional teams took points in the Huntington GL2S.CPS Championship Point Series for this event reshuffling the leaderboard landing Blue Fairways in the lead.  (Click Here - Big Jon Sports Scoreboard).

The Amateur division was split into 2 divisions for the first time with the traditional Am and the 24' and Under division.  Spend A Buck did the toughest thing in tournament fishing by delivering a back to back win bringing the overall tournament wide highest score of 278.1 points and earning the travelling trophy as well as the champions trophy.  Giv-n-In took second with Coho's Aim in a distant third.  The Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results )

1. Spend A  Buck
2. Giv-n-In
3. Coho's Aim
4. Bonaventure
5. Therapy

The Under 24' Division's innagural champion was 1/2 Time all the way from Traverse City with a score of 145.8 pts followed by Lucky Five and Rocking Robin.

The Okuma Southwest Michigan Steelheaders Summer Challenge Pro and Am division contest have concluded.  The Mother's Day Ladies tournament, which was to have been held on Sunday was cancelled due to high winds and rough seas.  This venue again provided a very competitve field in both the Pro and Am divisions with good to excellent fishing present if your team was on the fish.

The Pro Division saw a familiar name on top the leaderboard after the first day.  Fuzzy Bear, the previous event's champion, turned in a 97.88 lbs box to lead the way.  But the cushion he enjoyed in the first event was not there as the Top 10 was loaded with boats capable of taking the championship.  Day Two saw nearly perfect conditions for the competitors with calm seas and sunshine which were not the only surprises of the day. 

In golf, Saturday is called moving day and that's exactly what the second day turned in to.  Hour Time, third after Day One, put up a big number to bring their total to 482.69, topping the field and securing the Pro Championship.  Dreamweaver continued landing the big fish, a 22.9 lb. hog on Day Two, to lock up second place over their homeport rival Blue Fairways by .13 (yes point - one - three).  Day One leader Fuzzy Bear had a very tough day and Polecat couldn't finish off their limit and ended up bringing only 10 fish to the scale. The Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results)

1. Hour Time
2. Dreamweaver
3. Blue Fairways
4. Waypoint 
5. Finweaver

Ten professional teams took points in the Huntington GL2S.CPS Championship Point Series for this event reshuffling the leaderboard and leaving a tie at the top with Dreamweaver and Sea Flea.  (Click Here - Big Jon Sports Scoreboard)

Two days of changing weather, brisk temperatures, and cold water brought out the foul weather gear, excluding Jack from Spend A Buck the Am champion who was seen cleaning his boat in shorts and a t-shirt when most were hunkered down trying to stay warm.  Perhaps it was this level of 'commitment', pun intended, that lead Spend-a-Buck to a decisive wire to wire victory totalling 387.44 points and besting Sea-Crete's 2nd place finish by more the 20 points.  The Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results )

1. Spend A  Buck
2. Sea-Crete
3. Miss Shelby
4. The Rod Father
5. Lake Effect II

The 34th annual Dreamweaver Hoosier Coho Club Classic in Michigan City, IN has come to a close with both days in the books.

The Pro Division saw Fuzzy Bear lead from start to finish with two big days of 223.25 points and 220.2 points for a winning total of 443.45 points.  The big mover of the day was Sea Flea coming from 7th after day one bringing a 222.8 point box to the scales on day two for a second place finish.  The Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results)

1. Fuzzy Bear
2. Sea Flea
3. Best Chance Too
4. Hunter
5. KC-1

Seven professional teams took points in the Huntington GL2S.CPS Championship Point Series in the first event of the year.  (Click Here - Big Jon Sports Scoreboard)

The Amateur divison also saw a winner lead both days as Giv-N-In took home the prize for first place with a final score of 381.50 points getting their limit both days.  Salmon Hawk and Spend A Buck fought it out until the end with Salmon Hawk landing in second and Spend A Buck in third.  The Top 5 (Click Here - Full Results)

1. Giv-N-In
2. Salmon Hawk
3. Spend A Buck
4. Fishin Pols
5. Utopia

GL2S Scoring v1.0 has been released and will debut at the Hoosier Coho Club Classic on May 3rd and 4th and then make its way up the Tournament Trail throughout the season.  The system was developed in-house and is the most comprehensive and flexible online scoring system available.  Scoring v1.0 includes a number of tools:

Team Bio Manager -  allows a registered users of gl2s.com to create and edit their team biography.

Event Manager - allows GL2S and Event Administrators to create and edit events, assign unlimted divisions to each event, and set unique scoring rules for each division

Scoring Manager - enter and manage scoring for each event and divison

Scoring Display - available to all visitors of gl2s.com and allows for live and archived access to scoring results from any event

Read more on the forums about Scoring v1.0

If little, green bass can make anglers rich and famous, big, silvery salmon certainly should be able to do the same.

That's the proposition behind the Great Lakes Salmon Series (GL2S), a potentially lucrative string of salmon fishing contests that will commence with the Hoosier Coho Club Classic in 2009.

Original Article - Click Here

Imagine going fishing on Lake Michigan and becoming $100,000 richer by the end of the day.

It may be a reality for Michigan City anglers in the near future.

"That is the five-year plan," said Tom Greenberg, co-founder of the newly formed Great Lakes Salmon Series.