Strike King and Lew’s pros Mark Zona and Jay Przekurat head out for a day of fishing on Lake Huron – a familiar body of water for Zona, but a completely new experience for the smallmouth expert Przekurat.
“You’re a hero or zero on Lake Huron – you can not go hours, you can go days without catching them,” shares Zona. Zona’s experience on the Great Lakes has taught him that the power plants located on or near the lakes cause a warm water discharge that attracts smallmouth. So the pair heads to that area first.
Zona has fished every single great lake, but there is something definitely unique about Lake Huron. “To me, Lake Huron is by far the toughest one. But if you connect, you’re dealing with bass that really probably have not had much pressure – not this week – but probably not much pressure in their lifetime,” says Zona.
Zona feels as if their morning out on the water was very typical of what you can expect from the Great Lakes. It requires incessant effort until you finally “collide.” Przekurat was the first to get a bite, eventually reeling in a large smallmouth. Zona catches another “meat pie,” proving his point that catching fish on the Great Lakes come in waves and you’ll find smallmouth grouped together in most circumstances.
Przekurat is using the Baby Z-Too in The Juice, a new color to the Baby Z-Too family. Zona uses Strike King’s Coffee Tube in Green Pumpkin Purple Flake with a ½ oz. Tour Grade Crackin' Tube Head. Zona and Przekurat are targeting 13- to 20-feet of water.
“It is extremely tough to get on fish in the fall just because they group up so much,” says Przekurat. It was a little later in the morning when the sun was a little higher and things started to warm up when Zona and Przekurat really started catching. They knew they had found a great area, but they were unsure of how long it would last.
“Apparently I need to learn how to crack a tube,” says Przekurat as Zona’s rod arcs with tension from another bite on his line. Zona uses his special “tube cracking rod” because of its power next to the boat. “Most of these fish that I am catching on that tube they are on the initial drop or the first 5-feet that I’m poppin’ it,” says Zona.
On Przekurat’s dropshot set up, he used the 6’10” Signature Series Mark Zona Spinning Rod. It is his favorite dropshot rod because of its length to fit his stature and “it’s the perfect rod with the perfect tip.” He pairs it with a Lew’s new Custom Lite Spinning Reel. “The drag on the Custom Lite is pretty unbelievable,” shares Przekurat.
“The tube mimics things that smallmouth eat – it’s just like a gobey. And to me, Green Pumpkin Purple Flake – that’s a homewrecker. I was using a very heavy ½ oz. tube head because I want a smallmouth to not have time to think about it,” shares Zona.
Zona utilized the Lew’s 7’2” Signature Series Mark Zona Tube Crackin’ Special. “The beauty of that rod – when I’m fighting one way out there or I’m fighting one next to the boat, you’re able to turn him with that rod,” says Zona. It’s got a soft tip and tremendous backbone to allow the power needed to maneuver hard-fighting fish.
“Jay connected with one, and it was the right one. And it was breadcrumb we needed for where the rest of this show is going,” says Zona. After a huge catch from Przekurat, both anglers knew that they had found the ideal spot for the day.
“First Lake Huron experience and it’s pretty magical, I’d say,” shares Przekurat.
“That’s what I want people to take away from this show – we didn’t go out there with spots found or anything like that. We basically went out there blind and collided with a school of fish and caught them for one hour, and that was it. That’s the reality of fishing. That’s what I want people to take away from this show – it’s never easy and you have to work for every bite you get,” says Przekurat.
The pair closes out the show with a selfie after Zona catches an aggressive arctic char weighing around 40 lbs.
Find all the gear you need for fall fishing in your area at strikeking.com or lews.com or your local retailers. Keep an eye out for the next Pro Team Journal hosted by Strike King and Lew’s pro Mark Menendez.
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