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.