Detroit River: Day Two Quotes

"I made a big gamble. I went for the win and it didn’t pay off. Maybe I can squeak out a check and go home and buy a lawnmower or something."

--Ryan Cooper, who added 15-13 to his Day One catch of 22-06 and missed the opportunity to fish on Saturday by one spot

"My hands are raw. The other day in practice I caught 61 smallmouths in one day."

--Tracy Adams (87th)

"Something major changed today and I could never get on the big fish."

--Ben Parker, who caught 5 pounds less today than he did yesterday, but still managed to squeak into the cut in 11th place.

"I’ve caught more smallmouth in the last seven days than I have in the rest of my life put together."

--Ben Parker

"Today I caught as many as yesterday, but yesterday I had a dozen 4-pounders and today I had a dozen 3-pounders. It’s bad when you’re catching threes and you’re mad about it."

--David Walker (10th)

"I couldn’t stay on my fish. I just used my trolling motor. I didn’t have a drift sock and my trolling motor was out of the water more than it was in the water."

--Al Farace (7th)

"If there’s an expert around here, come up and tell me what happened out there, because it was bad."

--Mike Elkins (91st)

"It’s a good pain."

--Elite Series pro Kevin Short (28th), describing his damaged hands, before recommending that St. Clair anglers invest in Neosporin and Band-Aids.

"The weather was fine. The wind was horrible."

--John Leader (18th)

"You could hold a tournament with 500 boats here."

--Mark Hicks (72nd), describing the spacious Lake St. Clair Metropark