Modrak regroups, wins Detroit EverStart
2011 Detroit River EverStart Series champ Mark Modrak is joined onstage by his son Brandon. (Credit: David A. Brown)
Long St. Clair River run delivers tournament title
July 16, 2011 by David A. Brown
TRENTON, Mich. – Like a coach benching a frustrated player, only to have the refocused athlete return and nail the buzzer-beater, Mark Modrak gave himself a breather and came back to win the EverStart Series Central Division tournament on the Detroit River.
Modrak, who hails from China Township, Mich., spent most of his day about midway up the St. Clair River. Linking Lake St. Clair to the larger, cooler Lake Huron, the river had produced well for him on days one and two with limits of 17-9 and 20-15. Today, however, he experienced some frustrations that threatened to derail his final-round efforts.
Essentially, Modrak was dialed in on a good pattern, but the scenario’s dynamics created a high margin of error that temporarily got the better of him. Understandable, considering the investment of time, fuel and effort the 150-mile round trip required.
A long run up the St Clair River paid off big for pro Mark Modrak. (Credit: David A. Brown)
“It was a battle today; I lost so many fish today,” Modrak said. “Every day it’s been getting harder and harder to keep them on. I’m fishing really strong current and it’s like trout fishing – you just let your bait swing down in the current and you get a big bow in your line. When you get bit you have to really take up the slack.”
A challenging technique, no doubt, but it’s one that Modrak has perfected over some 20 years of fishing the river. He said he typically expects to catch 90 percent of the fish that bite, but today saw a much lower hookup ratio rattling his confidence. That’s when he decided a change of scenery would help him purge the frustration and allow him to hit the reset button.
“I fished with (second-place co-angler) Mark Myers today – he’s a professor and I felt like Gilligan,” Modrak lamented. “I’d catch a 2-pounder and he’d catch another 3 to 3 1/2. I don’t know, maybe I was too worked up.
“I told him ‘We’re going to leave this spot, we’re going to go fish somewhere else and we’ll come back to it.’ I went off and gathered myself, came back (to the original spot) and whacked three good ones right away. That allowed me to cull three little fish.”
2011 Detroit River EverStart champion Mark Modraks pulls out one of his big smallmouth bass. (Credit: David A. Brown)
Modrak caught the final round’s heaviest sack – a limit of 20-7 that gave him a three-day total of 58-15 and a winning margin of just 3 ounces. His final bag included a hefty smallmouth that clearly pushed him into the top spot.
When I brought that one in, I was hoping it was a little over 5 pounds,” Modrak said. “I caught one there yesterday that was 5-1 and I knew this fish was bigger – it was well over 6.”
Throughout the tournament, Modrak started each day with a Strike King Series 5 crankbait and then alternated between a dropshot with Berkley 3-inch Fry and Lunch Money tubes in green pumpkin and smoke on ¼- to 5/16-ounce KMR leadheads. Mondak used two different jig styles – one had a thinner, elongated head and a 90-degree line tie that enabled the jig to scoot along the bottom like a fleeing baitfish. The other featured a more weight-forward design and a 60-degree line tie. This style kept the bait’s head down and its tail up, so it mimicked a feeding crawfish or a small finfish.
Modrak found most of his fish on a little gravel bar in the St. Clair River. Traversing the Detroit River and Lake St. Clair was no walk in the park, but fortune favors the bold – especially the well-equipped.
“It’s a long run and that Detroit River is tough,” Modrak said. “The locals call it ‘The Miracle Mile,’ because when you get down there around the heart of Detroit, if you can make it through there without breaking anything, it’s a miracle.
“Thank God I got to run a Ranger and Evinrude. With the confidence you have in those boats and motors, you can run anywhere.”
Category: Tournament News
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