Mille Lacs

I've never been on Mille Lacs before and since we have a tournament there later in the year I wanted to check it out. My first impression was, it is big! It probably wasn't the best time of year since the tournament is in September and this spring has been so late. The weeds and reeds weren't really growing yet so it will look a lot different later in the year. Since there are regulations on the smallmouth my focus was on finding largemouths. Everyone knows it is a great walleye lake and many people know about the fantastic smallmouth fishing but no ones ever heard of fishing for largemouths. I managed to find a few largemouth and also a couple smallies. None of them were very big though. They were all in the 2 lb range. The smallies were bigger at about 2 3/4 lbs each, but they won't count. The funnest part was seeing all of the muskies. I had 2 hit my spinnerbait but they didn't get hooked up. I saw 2 others cruising and I also saw 4 pairs that I guess were spawning. They were swimming side by side. So in all I saw 12 muskies. Thats more than I've ever seen in a day before.

Today I was going to go out again but the weather turned pretty nasty so we headed back to Willmar. We thought about stopping at Nest Lake on the way back but decided to just head home. When we got back the TV and internet were both down so with nothing else to do, we headed back out to Nest Lake. The weather was tough. Cold, wind, and rain are not my idea of a good time but we caught a few fish. Our club tournament will be there on Saturday so I will let you know how it went afterwards.

Big Bass Bonanza Practice - Lake Ida

My dad and I put in 2 long days on Monday and Tuesday practicing for next Sundays Lake Ida tournament. It was a lot of fun since we caught a ton of fish but it was also very frustrating. On Monday between the 2 of us we caught probably 100 bass, but true to Lake Ida form most of them were under 2 lbs. We did find a few good ones though. My dad caught a 5.08 lb bass which is the biggest we have caught on the lake. We also found a few other 3 lb plus fish. The tournament limit is 8 fish and our best 8 would have went about 22 lbs. If we can do that on tournament day we should be up there.

Tuesday was a lot tougher. We spent most of the morning looking at new water and that was a waste of time. At least we elimanted a lot of water. In the afternoon we got onto a little something and ended up catching about 50 bass for the day. I got one that went 3.76 lbs on the scale which is a very nice kicker for this lake. Our best 8 would have went around 18 lbs.

I'm not going to go into too much detail for obvious reasons. I'll give a more detailed report after the tournament. What I can say is that going in we have 2 different patterns that at this point seem pretty solid for better than average fish. A better than average fish being 2 lbs or so. A limit of 2 pounders won't get it done though but at least we can catch that size pretty easily. Within those patterns theres several areas on the lake that are holding 3 lb fish or better. Unfortunately we only have a couple spots like that. If we can catch our average between the 2 days of 20 lbs I think we can do ok, and if we get a little lucky and get another 5 pounder we could contend. The tournament is still a couple days away though so who knows what will happen between now and then. It wasn't the best practice ever but it wasn't the worst either. I'm looking forward to getting out there for the first tournament of the year.

Opening Weekend Sunday

I decided to go out to Long Lake today since our first bass club state qualifier was suppose to be there next Saturday (more on that later). I don't really need to prefish since I already know where I'll be starting and all the spots I want to fish throughout the day but it's still a fun lake. I slept in a little bit today since I was so beat from battling the wind yesterday. I got out to the lake about noon and remembered this can be a really tough lake in the afternoon, even in the early spring. It's a much better morning and evening bite. Oh well it was too late now and sure enough the fishing was slow. I only ended up catching 7 bass in about 6 hours. But if it was a tournament day I think I would have done pretty well. My best 5 would have went a little over 20 lbs. I had 3 in the 4 1/2 lb range and the rest were between 2 1/2 lbs and 3 1/2 lbs. Most of my fish came on the new Berkley Hollow Belly swimbait including my biggest one that weighed in at 4.61 lbs. I'm really starting to like those things. One of my other big ones was actually a bed fish. The water was really stained from all the wind but I found that one good one in a little bit clearer area. As soon as I saw it I knew I could catch it. It wouldn't move no matter how close I got. After flipping a Strike King Craw Tube at it for almost 15 minutes it still wouldn't move but it showed no interest in my bait either. I switched to a smaller chartreuse Strike King tube and she was in the boat less than 5 minutes later. What a blast! Then later in the afternoon I found out the club tournament had been moved to Nest Lake due to a conflict with another tournament on Long the same day. That kinda sucks because I never really touched my best water and still ended up with 20 lbs. But I love Nest too so it's alright.

That change makes a busy week even busier though. The plan right now is to prefish Lake Ida on Monday and Tuesday for the Big Bass Bonanza tournament. Then my dad has a business conference Wednesday and Thursday up near Mille Lacs. Since I have never been on the lake and my dad has only been there once I figured it would be a good time to tag along with him and check out the waters. We don't fish Mille Lacs until September for Big Bass Bonanza but I just want to see what it looks like and what it has to offer. Friday was going to be a free day but now I'll have to get out to Nest for at least a few hours to check it out. Then Saturday is our club tournament and Sunday is the Lake Ida BBB tournament. Jam packed schedule but it's all fishing so I'm not complaining one bit!

Opening Day

I got out to Norway Lake a little before 7 am and the wind was already blowing. Little did I know what was in store for me. It kept getting stronger and stronger throughout the morning. When I got back home in the afternoon the weather report said the winds were 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph, but by that time the wind had gone done considerably. I'm guessing most of the morning it was a steady 30 mph + with gusts over 40 mph and maybe close to 50 mph. It was brutal. With wind like that it really limits your locations and techniques. Even the calm areas were windy. I actually started off pretty slow but after a few hours I figured out a pattern throwing a Strike King Red Eye Shad in chrome sexy shad color in 2-4 feet of water. I ended up catching the majority of my fish this way. I'd guess I ended up catching 25-30 bass with the biggest couple being only 2 1/2 lbs. At about 2 pm I was sick of the wind so I headed in for a little break.

After eating lunch the wind was not going down at all so I tried to think of lakes I could fish with a wind like that. I wasn't really coming up with anything and then it hit me. Eagle Lake! It runs north/south and has a pretty high bank along most of the east shore. It was actually perfectly calm all along that bank. It's no secret what I did to catch fish out there. I started fishing docks and was catching fish under almost every one. What surprised me though was with so many fish using the docks I could only catch 1 fish per dock. Then finally on a little nothing looking dock I popped 5 good fish. That was the only dock they were grouped on though. I ended up catching about 25 more fish on Eagle with a lot of them being in the 3-4 lb range. My biggest fish went 4.10 lbs on my scale.

That was a lot of fun but there was one disappointment. I skipped my tube up by a pontoon motor and immediately one hit it. I set the hook and right away I knew it was a big one. I got it out from the dock and realized it was a giant smallmouth. I played her nice and easy and got it up to the boat and got my hand on her but then she flopped one more time and slipped out of my hand. Right when that happened I saw the bait fly out of its mouth. She was gone. I'm gonna say that was a 5 lb fish and if it wasn't it was damn close. At least it wasn't in a tournament although if it was a tournament it would of been in the net. That was a tough one but I'll get over it.

I just finished rigging all my rods for tomorrow's opening day. I'll be carrying 10 Team Daiwa casting rods matched with Shimano Curado reels and 6 Team Daiwa spinning rods matched with Shimano reels. I know the brands don't match but I really love both companies products. The one thing I do like though is having consistency in my rods and reels. That way when I pick up another rod to switch techniques the rod and reel still feels the same in my hands. I think it helps with casting accuracy and just keeps my mind at ease.

I know 16 rod and reel combos may sound like a lot to some people and truthfully it's probably more than I needed the past couple of years. I have really narrowed my fishing down to just a handful of techniques that I feel confident with wherever I go. There is a lot to be said for fishing your strengths. The past 2 seasons have been by far my best as far as tournament results go. You really don't need to know how to do everything if you are very good at just a few things. Just look at Denny Brauer.

On the other hand it can't hurt to be versatile or at least familiar with a variety of techniques. This year there are several things I'd like to add to my arsenal. A couple "newer" things that I just haven't gotten into as much as I should have would be drop shotting and swimbaits. I know how effective they can be but I haven't put the time in to learn them very well yet. I hope to change that this year. A couple older techniques that I need to gain more confidence in are shallow cranking and frog fishing. I know everyone loves throwing a frog but for me I just can't seem to make it work very well. I know it can be a great way to catch a big fish though so I hope to figure it out this year.

Tomorrow I'll be heading out to Norway Lake. The past several years we have been starting the bass opener up on Leech Lake. Since it's Memorial weekend we have a lot of family getting together up there this time of year so thats where we headed. This year I'm skipping that to stick close to home. Before we started fishing Leech, Norway was always our traditional opening day lake. In fact the very first time we fished a bass opener was on Norway. I'm going back to old traditions. Also it doesn't hurt to get a little time out there since it will be the first lake for Wednesday night league.

Nest Lake

Nest might be my favorite lake in Kandiyohi county. There are so many good ones though it's hard to say, but it's way up there in any case. Nest has excellent populations of both largemouth and smallmouth bass but thats not the reason I like it so much. After fishing it for many years now we have found about half a dozen spots that at any given time we can pull up on and catch a tournament winning limit in as little as 15 minutes. No matter the conditions at least 1 of the 6 spots usually has a pile of fish on it. Sometimes they all have a bunch of fish on them. Thats when you can have a really fun day.

Today we really didn't fish at all. The water temp was in the low 60s so we got up on the banks and started cruising looking for beds. Big smallmouths were up all over the place. A lot of the fish were in the 3 lb range but I saw one that I would guess was pushing 5 lbs. After checking out the shallows we headed out to deeper water with the underwater camera to try to find something new. That was pretty unproductive. We didn't really see anything worth fishing. I feel like we might know all the sweetest spots but theres got to be some more areas they bunch up on. We just haven't found them yet. Finding deep structure like that can be very time consuming and frustrating when you don't get on anything. But on the other hand if you do find something good there can be a lot of fish in a small area.

Tomorrow is the last day before the bass opener. I probably won't go fishing at all. I'm going to spend my afternoon rigging up all 16 rod and reel combos I keep in the boat so I'm ready to go first thing Saturday morning.

Tadd & Upper Tadd Lakes

Calling Tadd and Upper Tadd "lakes" is somewhat of a misnomer. They really aren't lakes at all but 2 small ponds connected by a canal right on the edge of Atwater. These lakes or ponds or whatever you want to call them hold very fond memories for me though. This is basically where I learned how to fish for bass. Growing up my dad was strictly a walleye fisherman, as so many folks in Minnesota are. I didn't have anyone to teach me bass fishing so I learned myself. These ponds were loaded with bass so it was a great learning ground for me. You could pretty much fish any way you wanted and catch fish. There is no boat access so it is strictly shore fishing but you really don't need a boat anyway because they are so small. Lafe and I would have one of our parents drop us off in the morning and then pick us up later in the afternoon. We would have a blast trying different things and catching bass on most of the techniques we tried. 90% of the fish were under a pound but it didn't matter. Even though most were small we have caught bass up to 5 lbs there.

These ponds are also responsible for my 2 best numbers days. One day when I was about 14 my mom dropped me, my brother and Lafe off in the morning. By the time she got back Lafe had caught 112, I had caught 107, and my brother had caught about 80 bass. A lot of those fish came on the old Flying Lure from TV if you can remember those. They really do work LOL. 300 bass in one day for 3 people is pretty unbelievable but it happened. My other best numbers day came about 5 years ago. I went out in the spring with an ultralight rod and a beetle spin and stood in one spot and caught exactly 150 bass. I quit at 150 because it was getting late and I figured that was a nice round number. I have no doubt I could have caught 50 or maybe even 100 more. My thumb was a bloody pulp after that but I'll take that kind of pain any day. Again most were under a pound but probably 25 of them were between 2-4 pounds. What a fun day!

Today was not nearly as productive. I went to what I consider to be the best spot first. Which is maybe not a good idea because if I don't catch them there I know I probably won't catch them anywhere else. I came armed with only my ultralight rod and a beetlespin which is all you really need out there. I started casting and pretty much knew right away it wasn't going to be going. After about 10 minutes I finally caught one but it was only a tiny crappie. I tried a few more spots but I knew it was an exercise in futility. That little crappie was the only bite and only fish I caught today.

No fishing today but I did want to say congratulations to Mark Pack on his win at the Beaver Lake FLW Tour event over the weekend. He is the owner of Lake Fork Tackle. We have been using their products for many years now and they make some really good baits. He won the event on a prototype lure that sounds very interesting. I can't wait to try it.

Also I'd like to say: "Gee whiz Randy Ramsey. That sure is a gator kong." LOL. I don't know why but that just cracks me up. Thanks Z.

Long Lake

The story of Long Lake by Willmar is an interesting one. I remember fishing there as a kid with my mom, dad, and brother. We fished for walleyes (that was all my dad fished for at the time) along with many other boats. From what I remember everyone was very successful. Then the walleyes were gone. Some people thought the lake froze out and many people said the cormorants ate them all, but after that nobody fished the lake anymore. About 10-12 years ago one of my best friends and frequent fishing partner, Lafe Swalin, decided to go out to the lake on an early spring day to put up a duck blind. After building the blind he climbed up in it and looked into the water. He was amazed at what he saw. There were giant bass on beds everywhere he looked. That first spring he caught 2 over 7 lbs along with numerous others over 6 lbs. My best day was 4 fish over 5 lbs and another 6 over 4 1/2 lbs. I also put several over 6 lbs in the boat on various occasions. He had discovered a honey hole basically in our backyard and nobody else knew about it. We obviously tried to keep it to ourselves as best we could but over time word started to get out. Our bass club began holding state qualifier tournaments on the lake and the Kandi Lakes Bass League began fishing there several times a year. The fishing was amazing but with the pressure the lake began to go downhill. It has never again been the same as those first couple years when we were the only people fishing it. However having said that, it is still an amazing fishery. The Midwest Sportsman circuit visited the lake in 2006 and 2007 and the winning weight for a 5 fish limit was still over 20 lbs each time.

Like I said in my previous post I didn't plan to do a lot of fishing today. I mostly wanted to cruise the spawning areas to see what was down there. Unfortunately the conditions today were not conducive to looking. There were high winds and cloud cover much of the day. The water temp was only 59 degrees as well. I made my way to some protected areas and started cruising. It was extremely difficult to see but I did find a few small fish on beds. I didn't fish for any but they seemed like they would have been easy to catch. They were pretty much locked on the beds. I was only seeing small ones though so I made my way out deeper and found a huge dark spot. I couldn't really see anything but when I got right on top of it a dark shadow moved off to the side. I'm guessing that was a 5+ pounder.

After checking out all the calm water I headed out into the wind with a Shad Rap and Strike King spinnerbait for just a few casts looking for a northern or walleye. I managed to catch a small northern and a small bass. Then just a few feet down from the northern I caught a real nice bass. It went 4.91 lbs on my scale. Thats the biggest bass I've caught on Long in over a year. Hopefully I can find a few more like that when our bass club visits the lake on May 31st. I have a feeling its going to take a big weight to win it.

Foot Lake

After spending much of the weekend cleaning and polishing the boat and doing other preseason maintenance we decided after it had been clean for a few hours that it was time to get the boat dirty again. There was only a couple hours to fish after supper so we stayed close to home and headed to Foot Lake right outside Willmar. Since my dad and I are running the Kandi Lakes Bass League this year I decided to throw Foot Lake in the mix on a trial basis the last week of the season. I'm not too sure how happy people are about that. It seems like most folks don't think there are any bass in the lake. They don't know what they're missing. While there may not be many giants there are certainly enough bass to have a fun evening.

Since bass season is not open yet we were technically not bass fishing tonight. We were fishing for walleyes and northerns with Rapala Shad Raps and Husky Jerks. We didn't manage any walleyes but the bass and northerns sure liked them. In about 2 hours we caught 6 bass, 3 northerns, a sheephead, and a big buffalo. Most of the bass were in the 12 to 13 inch range but my dad popped a nice 2.66 lb largemouth on a chartreuse and white shallow Shad Rap. One tip for fishing this lake if you haven't before is to fish the bank. Every fish we caught tonight was by casting to the bank and they all hit within a couple turns of the reel handle. There is alot of structure on the lake but in my experience the bass stick to the bank most of the time.

I am really ready to go for the bass season. It's less than a week away now and I'm ready to fish for bass instead of just walleyes and northerns. I think tomorrow I'm going to head out to Long Lake and see if anything is up bedding yet. I probably won't even make a cast but just put the trolling motor down and cruise to see what I can see. Even if you're not fishing just looking at bass on the bed can be a lot of fun. At least I think it is. Especially with the toad monsters that live in Long Lake.

Welcome to my blog

I think I may have had one too many one night when I decided it would be a good idea to write a blog about the upcoming bass season. There is still 1 week before the season opens so since I can't fish yet I figured I could at least write a little something. I don't know how this will go but I'm going to give it a try. Maybe you will learn something from this and hopefully after reviewing my posts I will learn something as well. My name is Andy Nitchals and I love tournament bass fishing. I fish mostly local and regional team tournaments with my dad Mike Nitchals. We have had a fair amount of success over the past 2 years fishing the Midwest Sportsman and Anglers Choice tournament circuits with 5 wins and several other in the money finishes. We were also team of the year on the Anglers Choice circuit in 2006 and 3rd in the team of the year standings in 2007. We also qualified for the Anglers Choice year end regional tournaments the past 2 seasons on Table Rock Lake in Missouri and Kentucky/Barkley Lakes in Kentucky where we finished in the money each time. Unfortunately both of those circuits have decided not to host tournaments this year so we have had to find other tournaments to fish. So as of right now this is what my 2008 tournament schedule looks like:

May 31 - West Central Bassmasters State Qualifier - Long - Willmar
June 1 - Big Bass Bonanza - Ida
June 8 - West Central Bassmasters Mystery Circuit - Unknown Lake
June 22 - Big Bass Bonanza - Minnewaska
June 28 - West Central Bassmasters State Qualifier - Green - Spicer
July 6 - Big Bass Bonanza - Green - Spicer
July 12 - West Central Bassmasters Mystery Circuit - Unknown Lake
July 19 - West Central Bassmasters Summer Classic - Norway
August 3 - West Central Bassmasters Mystery Circuit - Unknown Lake
August 9 - West Central Bassmasters Summer Classic - Green - Spicer
August 17 - Big Bass Bonanza - Horseshoe Chain
September 7 - Big Bass Bonanza - Mille Lacs
September 13 - West Central Bassmasters Mystery Circuit - Unknown Lake

After typing all that out it looks like a pretty full schedule but we may add another tournament or two if something appealing comes up on a free date. My dad and I will also be running and fishing Wednesday and Thursday night leagues in the Kandiyohi County area.

Like I said I am giving this a try for the first time so I'm not sure how it will go but I will try to keep posting updates after practice days and tournament days or any other days of interest. I'm looking forward to a great season of tournaments. Although it will be difficult to top the past couple years we are sure going to try. I think that's it for now. Good luck to all of you on the upcoming season.