The turnout was back up a little bit this Wednesday compared to last. We had 15 teams show up to fish Eagle Lake just north of Willmar. The lake has a lot of fish in the 3-5 lb range so it's pretty popular. The only problem is that there is pretty much 1 way to catch them and thats docks and trees. When you get 15 boats on a small lake all doing the same thing it gets beat up really quick but there are still fish to be caught. There was 1 monster bag but overall the weights were down quite a bit from the past. Usually at least half the field or more will weigh 9+ lbs for their 3, but last night only 3 teams topped that mark. 1st place was an astounding 13.57 lbs, 2nd was 9.90 lbs, and 3rd was my dad and I with 9.62 lbs. The big fish for the night was 4.87 lbs.
On this lake boat draw can be a pretty big deal but we unfortunately had a pretty bad number to start. I knew being that far back there was no way we could get to the docks I wanted to start on. Sure enough the first 5 or 6 boats all headed to that stretch so we went to our 2nd favorite stretch of docks. It was super shallow and weedy and just didn't look great and getting through all the weeds was really tough but I did manage to get our best fish of the night that was close to 4 lbs. After that we went across the lake to another stretch of docks that hadn't been hit yet and filled out our limit with small fish. At that point every dock in the lake had been fished so it was time to just buckle down and fish behind people. The fishing wasn't great but we managed to upgrade every once in awhile. We probably ended up catching about 8 fish for the night. All of our bites came on Strike King Bleeding Bait tubes skipped under the docks and trees.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Friday, July 25, 2008
KLBL - Long Lake
Thursday night was an interesting night on Long. It was extremely tough fishing which is no surprise to anyone who has fished Long in the summer before. Spring and fall can be dynamite fishing and it can be good in the summer too, but most of the time summer turns Long into the toughest lake around. Of the 8 teams that compete on Thursday nights only 1 ended up with a 3 fish limit. 1 other team had 2 fish. 3 boats had 1 fish each and 3 boats zeroed. 1st place had about 9.5 lbs and 2nd had about 7 lbs. My dad and I were thankfully one of the boats with 1 fish that weighed in at 4 lbs even. With 3 boats zeroing that 1 fish gave us just enough points to stay in the lead for the year. Unfortunately it is no longer an outright lead but we are tied for 1st with 46 points. 3rd place is a little ways back with 39 points. The big fish for the night was a football that weighed 4.70 lbs but was only 17 inches long.
As far as the fishing for us there really isn't that much to say. I never had a bite all night long. My dad caught our 1 fish and possibly had 1 other bite. We flipped reeds most of the night with a few stops on the rocky points. The 1 fish we did catch was on a watermelon Strike King flippin tube in the reeds.
As far as the fishing for us there really isn't that much to say. I never had a bite all night long. My dad caught our 1 fish and possibly had 1 other bite. We flipped reeds most of the night with a few stops on the rocky points. The 1 fish we did catch was on a watermelon Strike King flippin tube in the reeds.
KLBL - Lake Koronis
We had our lowest turnout on a Wednesday night with 10 teams, which isn't too surprising because many people just don't like fishing Koronis. It's a little farther than most of our league lakes so people just don't have the experience on it that they do on other lakes. The fishing wasn't great either so maybe they were all right to stay away. There was one monster bag though. 1st place had almost 12 lbs for their 3 fish including the big bass for the night and year at 5.66 lbs. 2nd place had 8.52 lbs and 3rd had 8.52 lbs as well. The tiebreaker is the biggest fish in the bag. My dad and I finished 6th with about 7 1/2 lbs
We did well the previous week on Koronis finishing 2nd in the Thursday night league. We caught all of those fish on a deep weedline spot so obviously we started there. It didn't really pan out though. After fishing there for quite awhile we ended up leaving with only 1 decent fish and 1 12 incher in the box. We tried to hit our trees and docks but there were boats all over that stuff so we hit a shallow rock and weed point. I managed to catch a 2 lb smallmouth on a Strike King tube so at least we had a limit. After that we hit a few more deep weedline spots and shallow rocks but didn't do anything so we went back to our starting spot. Again it just wasn't going for whatever reason but I did finally manage to put one close to 3 lbs in the boat on that Strike King tube. After that we were done, we tried a few more spots but never caught another fish.
We did well the previous week on Koronis finishing 2nd in the Thursday night league. We caught all of those fish on a deep weedline spot so obviously we started there. It didn't really pan out though. After fishing there for quite awhile we ended up leaving with only 1 decent fish and 1 12 incher in the box. We tried to hit our trees and docks but there were boats all over that stuff so we hit a shallow rock and weed point. I managed to catch a 2 lb smallmouth on a Strike King tube so at least we had a limit. After that we hit a few more deep weedline spots and shallow rocks but didn't do anything so we went back to our starting spot. Again it just wasn't going for whatever reason but I did finally manage to put one close to 3 lbs in the boat on that Strike King tube. After that we were done, we tried a few more spots but never caught another fish.
Saturday, July 19, 2008
West Central Bassmasters Summer Classic - Norway Lake
19 teams
1st place had 21.98 lbs for their 6 fish.
We had 8.37 lbs for our 4 fish to finish 12th.
That's all I have to say about that.
1st place had 21.98 lbs for their 6 fish.
We had 8.37 lbs for our 4 fish to finish 12th.
That's all I have to say about that.
Friday, July 18, 2008
KLBL - Lake Koronis
Lake Koronis can be very hit or miss. Some league nights take a very big weight to win and sometimes it's a very small weight. Tonight was somewhere in between. All 8 teams weighed in limits and most teams had a 3 lb class fish but there were no big fish and very few smallmouths were weighed in. 1st place was a team that ran up to Rice Lake which is connected by a small river. They had 8.89 lbs. My dad and I finished 2nd with 8.78 lbs. The big bass for the night was 3.19 lbs.
We started off our night fishing several stretches of trees and docks that have produced for us in the past. We had a limit in the boat that probably weighed about 6 1/2 lbs after 30 minutes but as we continued that pattern we could tell it wasn't going to produced a big fish for us. After fishing shallow for about an hour we decided to head to a couple deep weedline areas we like. The first one produced no bites but the second spot was very good to us. I actually started pretty far down from our waypoint and we weren't getting any bites but as soon as I got to the waypoint I caught one of our good ones. The very next cast I caught another real solid fish in the 2 3/4 lb range. After that the bite seemed to die but I knew if i caught fish on back to back casts on a spot like that there had to be more in there. After about 10 minutes without a bite I moved the boat up slightly shallower and we started catching them really good. We ended up catching probably close to 10 bass between 2 1/2 lbs and 3 lbs in an area about the size of a bass boat. All those fish came on a watermelon Picasso jig with a Lake Fork Pig Claw trailer. After fishing that area for about 45 minutes we realized the chances of catching one much over 3 lbs there were slim so we set off to try to catch a big smallmouth. For the last hour of the night we ran around hitting different smallie spots that have worked for us in the past but we came up empty on all of them so we went in with our limit of largemouths.
Tonight marked our 3rd 2nd place finish after fishing 5 Thursday nights. I won't complain too much but we need to start turning those 2nds into wins. Maybe I'm just greedy but I really want to win every single one. On the positive side our 2nd place tonight really gave us a cushion on 2nd place in the standings. We have 41 points now and 2nd place has 36 points. Last week we had a 1 point lead and after tonight its up to 5 points. Next Thursday is on Long Lake so hopefully we can keep it up and even if we don't we have a little protection as long as we don't totally bomb out.
We started off our night fishing several stretches of trees and docks that have produced for us in the past. We had a limit in the boat that probably weighed about 6 1/2 lbs after 30 minutes but as we continued that pattern we could tell it wasn't going to produced a big fish for us. After fishing shallow for about an hour we decided to head to a couple deep weedline areas we like. The first one produced no bites but the second spot was very good to us. I actually started pretty far down from our waypoint and we weren't getting any bites but as soon as I got to the waypoint I caught one of our good ones. The very next cast I caught another real solid fish in the 2 3/4 lb range. After that the bite seemed to die but I knew if i caught fish on back to back casts on a spot like that there had to be more in there. After about 10 minutes without a bite I moved the boat up slightly shallower and we started catching them really good. We ended up catching probably close to 10 bass between 2 1/2 lbs and 3 lbs in an area about the size of a bass boat. All those fish came on a watermelon Picasso jig with a Lake Fork Pig Claw trailer. After fishing that area for about 45 minutes we realized the chances of catching one much over 3 lbs there were slim so we set off to try to catch a big smallmouth. For the last hour of the night we ran around hitting different smallie spots that have worked for us in the past but we came up empty on all of them so we went in with our limit of largemouths.
Tonight marked our 3rd 2nd place finish after fishing 5 Thursday nights. I won't complain too much but we need to start turning those 2nds into wins. Maybe I'm just greedy but I really want to win every single one. On the positive side our 2nd place tonight really gave us a cushion on 2nd place in the standings. We have 41 points now and 2nd place has 36 points. Last week we had a 1 point lead and after tonight its up to 5 points. Next Thursday is on Long Lake so hopefully we can keep it up and even if we don't we have a little protection as long as we don't totally bomb out.
Thursday, July 17, 2008
KLBL - Green Lake
We had 14 teams competing tonight on Green Lake. That is a little lower than we have been getting on Wednesday nights but for Green its to be expected. I think a lot of people are a little intimidated by Green. There is a lot of water to fish and it can be very difficult if you are unfamiliar with the lake. Even if you do know the lake it can be extremely difficult as tonights results show. There were a few good bags though. 1st place had 9.67 lbs, 2nd had 9.60 lbs, 3rd had 8.86 lbs and my dad and I took 4th with 7.94 lbs. Big bass was a nice 3.94 lb smallmouth.
We started out fishing our spinnerbaits on the flats like we usually do this time of year. I pulled up near one of our waypoints and after about 15 minutes we hadn't caught anything but that changed quickly and we had a limit in the boat after about 20 minutes of fishing. Two of them were decent but one was just a 13 incher. That spot cooled off so we hit some of our other flats and I caught another decent fish on the spinnerbait. We threw that spinnerbait for the first 1 1/2 hours of the night and ended up catching 4 fish on it. Thats not bad because it's not a huge numbers pattern but usually produces bigger fish. Unfortunately tonight there were no big ones. After that we decided to head out deep. I caught 3 smallies on a Lake Fork twitch worm rigged on a dropshot out in about 25 feet of water. Only one of them helped us though and it still wasn't even 3 lbs. We ended up catching 7 fish in the 3 hours which isn't great but isn't all that bad either. I just wish we had a few bigger ones. We will definitely need more time out there before our next tournament on Green in August.
We started out fishing our spinnerbaits on the flats like we usually do this time of year. I pulled up near one of our waypoints and after about 15 minutes we hadn't caught anything but that changed quickly and we had a limit in the boat after about 20 minutes of fishing. Two of them were decent but one was just a 13 incher. That spot cooled off so we hit some of our other flats and I caught another decent fish on the spinnerbait. We threw that spinnerbait for the first 1 1/2 hours of the night and ended up catching 4 fish on it. Thats not bad because it's not a huge numbers pattern but usually produces bigger fish. Unfortunately tonight there were no big ones. After that we decided to head out deep. I caught 3 smallies on a Lake Fork twitch worm rigged on a dropshot out in about 25 feet of water. Only one of them helped us though and it still wasn't even 3 lbs. We ended up catching 7 fish in the 3 hours which isn't great but isn't all that bad either. I just wish we had a few bigger ones. We will definitely need more time out there before our next tournament on Green in August.
Friday, July 11, 2008
KLBL - Norway Lake
Since the West Central Bassmasters Summer Classic is being held on Norway Lake in a little over a week I will not be going into great detail for last nights fishing. I've got to keep a few secrets, at least for a week or so anyways. All 8 teams fishing commented about how tough the fishing was last night. The weights were down and there just weren't very many fish caught. I guess all the weights weren't down since my dad and I ended up in 1st place with 10.90 lbs. We certainly did not catch very many fish though. We just ended up getting the right bites. 2nd place was all the way down at 7.07 lbs. I also had the big fish for the night at 4.81 lbs. Even though the fishing wasn't great it still feels good to get a win under our belts. Last year we came out of the gate so strong with 5 wins in the first 6 weeks. This year we were starting to wonder if we could even win anymore. Last nights win also propelled us to 1st place in the standings with 33 points. 2nd is not far behind though with 32 points. After that it drops off substantially with 3rd place having 24 points. At this point it looks like a 2 team race but theres a lot of season left and anything can happen.
KLBL - Lake Calhoun
We had another good turnout on Wednesday night with 17 teams showing up to try their hand on Lake Calhoun. Some found the fishing to be very good, while other teams struggled. My dad and I were one of the teams struggling. I'm not sure where we placed but it was quite a ways down there. 1st place was about 10.5 lbs, 2nd was 9.9 lbs, 3rd dropped off to 8.5 lbs and 4th was about 8.2 lbs. The big fish for the night was 4.87 lbs. My dad and I ended up with 6.43 lbs.
We started on the docks and caught 2 fish that weighed about 2 lbs each within the first 4 docks. Those fish came on a Strike King Bleeding Bait tube. After such a quick start we thought we might be onto something but it quickly fizzled. We didn't get anymore bites on the docks so we headed towards a shallow sloppy area. I caught one real quick on a Senko to fill our limit and almost immediately my dad caught a better one on a Spro frog for our first cull of the night. Unfortunately it was our last cull as well. We ran around trying more docks, reeds, cabbage beds and just couldn't get anything going. We finally went back to the docks we started on and I hooked a real nice fish that was probably about 3 lbs but I couldn't get it in the boat. It was just one of those nights.
We started on the docks and caught 2 fish that weighed about 2 lbs each within the first 4 docks. Those fish came on a Strike King Bleeding Bait tube. After such a quick start we thought we might be onto something but it quickly fizzled. We didn't get anymore bites on the docks so we headed towards a shallow sloppy area. I caught one real quick on a Senko to fill our limit and almost immediately my dad caught a better one on a Spro frog for our first cull of the night. Unfortunately it was our last cull as well. We ran around trying more docks, reeds, cabbage beds and just couldn't get anything going. We finally went back to the docks we started on and I hooked a real nice fish that was probably about 3 lbs but I couldn't get it in the boat. It was just one of those nights.
Monday, July 7, 2008
Big Bass Bonanza - Green Lake
Well after two mediocre tournaments to start the BBB year we finally redeemed ourselves a little bit with a 5th place finish on Green Lake. It feels good to be back in the money again but at the same time it's a little disappointing not to win on Green, where we have a lot of experience. The problem is that the lake just isn't fishing very good right now and certainly not the way we are used to it fishing. The winning weight was 23.3 lbs which is very low for this lake. I've never seen a tournament out here take less than a 3 lb average to win. My dad and I had 21.89 lbs which while we were on the water I didn't think would be worth much at all but as the weigh in continued it was starting to look better and better. Most teams brought in bags in the 18 - 20 lb range which is solid but nothing spectacular for this lake. The weights are always tight on Green so getting a couple bigger bites is always key.
Our main pattern going into the event was throwing spinnerbaits on mid depth flats but this pattern usually works best for us from midmorning to mid afternoon. We didn't have much else going so to start our morning we decided to hit a variety of shallow rocky areas and hope to get a few 3 lb fish if we were lucky. The spot I wanted to start on already had a few boats on it so I slid over a couple hundred yards to another rocky area I know. I think we had 3 fish there but the biggest one was only about 2 1/2 lbs so we decided to leave. I know one boat commented at the end of the day they were surprised to see us leave because they went over there and caught fish after we had left. We ended up ahead of them in the tournament though so I don't feel bad about the decision to leave quickly at all. We hit a few more shallow rocks and one deep hump and had 6 fish in the livewell after about 2 1/2 hours but nothing over 2 1/2 lbs.
At that point we went to the mid depth stuff. The mid range areas we like are really pretty featureless and you never know where your going to get a bite so our favorite lure to use for this is a spinnerbait. This way we can put trolling motor down and just go fast until we catch one. We've tried using other lures doing this but the spinnerbait has been by far the best producer of bigger fish for us. Our last shallow area was pretty close to one of our better mid depth areas so i just started trolling out deeper from there. As soon as I got out to about 9 feet I caught one but it wasn't real big. It gave me confidence that the pattern was holding up though. A little while later my dad filled our 8 fish limit. Even though we had a limit I felt like we needed to get rid of at least 6 of them with bigger fish, but its still nice to have 8 in the boat. Right after my dad caught that fish the gals from Big Bass Bonanza pulled up and started taking pictures and filming us. They must have brought some luck with them because right away I caught a solid 3 pounder that they got on film. About 5 minutes later the luck turned sour though. While they were still filming a smallie over 3 lbs shot straight up from under the boat and attacked my spinnerbait. While I was waiting for the net it jumped and broke my spinnerbait in half. My dad flailed at it with the net but just couldn't snare it. It was so close to the boat I guess I should have just lifted it straight in. I'm not sure when the video will be available but you will be able to see I was pretty heartbroken from my reaction. I just knew we weren't fishing for many bites so when you get a big one you have to put it in the boat. Shortly after that we moved to another flat and the bite seemed to be slowing down. My dad finally put our biggest fish in the boat after about 45 minutes. That fish ended up weighing 3.71 lbs and that kind of fish goes a long ways on Green right now. We tried fishing a few more of those type areas but were somewhat surprised to see a boat on what I felt was going to be our best stretch of water.
With our spinnerbait bite dying out we decided to try a few more shallow areas. We ended up seeing quite a few nice fish but nothing on beds. They were just cruising around and seemed to be extremely spooky. We chased a few of the bigger ones around but they wanted nothing to do with our offerings. After figuring out the shallow stuff wasn't working for us we went really deep. We hit a series of humps in 22-28 feet of water. Only one of them produced any bites for us but the one hump gave up a 2 3/4 lb smallie and a 3 1/4 lb smallie. Both of those fish came on drop shot rigs. That's almost the only thing we throw for those deep fish anymore. They really seem to like it. By this point the day was winding down so we ran around and hit a few more flats and humps but didn't catch anything else. The spinnerbait bite had completely died, I think because of the boat traffic, but I did get one more good one to come up but it just barely had the spinnerbait and threw it on the first jump. I really felt like the 2 lost fish were really going to hurt us, and we would have been a lot closer to the lead if we had them, but in the end it didn't hurt too bad because we finally ended up with a check.
This will be the last Big Bass Bonanza tournament for awhile. We have a break until mid August when we head to the Horseshoe Chain. Between now and then our West Central Bassmasters will be holding tournaments on Norway Lake and Green Lake. The Norway event is in 2 weeks and I'm really looking forward to it since my dad and I won out there last year. Hopefully we can take some momentum from Green and repeat out on Norway.
Our main pattern going into the event was throwing spinnerbaits on mid depth flats but this pattern usually works best for us from midmorning to mid afternoon. We didn't have much else going so to start our morning we decided to hit a variety of shallow rocky areas and hope to get a few 3 lb fish if we were lucky. The spot I wanted to start on already had a few boats on it so I slid over a couple hundred yards to another rocky area I know. I think we had 3 fish there but the biggest one was only about 2 1/2 lbs so we decided to leave. I know one boat commented at the end of the day they were surprised to see us leave because they went over there and caught fish after we had left. We ended up ahead of them in the tournament though so I don't feel bad about the decision to leave quickly at all. We hit a few more shallow rocks and one deep hump and had 6 fish in the livewell after about 2 1/2 hours but nothing over 2 1/2 lbs.
At that point we went to the mid depth stuff. The mid range areas we like are really pretty featureless and you never know where your going to get a bite so our favorite lure to use for this is a spinnerbait. This way we can put trolling motor down and just go fast until we catch one. We've tried using other lures doing this but the spinnerbait has been by far the best producer of bigger fish for us. Our last shallow area was pretty close to one of our better mid depth areas so i just started trolling out deeper from there. As soon as I got out to about 9 feet I caught one but it wasn't real big. It gave me confidence that the pattern was holding up though. A little while later my dad filled our 8 fish limit. Even though we had a limit I felt like we needed to get rid of at least 6 of them with bigger fish, but its still nice to have 8 in the boat. Right after my dad caught that fish the gals from Big Bass Bonanza pulled up and started taking pictures and filming us. They must have brought some luck with them because right away I caught a solid 3 pounder that they got on film. About 5 minutes later the luck turned sour though. While they were still filming a smallie over 3 lbs shot straight up from under the boat and attacked my spinnerbait. While I was waiting for the net it jumped and broke my spinnerbait in half. My dad flailed at it with the net but just couldn't snare it. It was so close to the boat I guess I should have just lifted it straight in. I'm not sure when the video will be available but you will be able to see I was pretty heartbroken from my reaction. I just knew we weren't fishing for many bites so when you get a big one you have to put it in the boat. Shortly after that we moved to another flat and the bite seemed to be slowing down. My dad finally put our biggest fish in the boat after about 45 minutes. That fish ended up weighing 3.71 lbs and that kind of fish goes a long ways on Green right now. We tried fishing a few more of those type areas but were somewhat surprised to see a boat on what I felt was going to be our best stretch of water.
With our spinnerbait bite dying out we decided to try a few more shallow areas. We ended up seeing quite a few nice fish but nothing on beds. They were just cruising around and seemed to be extremely spooky. We chased a few of the bigger ones around but they wanted nothing to do with our offerings. After figuring out the shallow stuff wasn't working for us we went really deep. We hit a series of humps in 22-28 feet of water. Only one of them produced any bites for us but the one hump gave up a 2 3/4 lb smallie and a 3 1/4 lb smallie. Both of those fish came on drop shot rigs. That's almost the only thing we throw for those deep fish anymore. They really seem to like it. By this point the day was winding down so we ran around and hit a few more flats and humps but didn't catch anything else. The spinnerbait bite had completely died, I think because of the boat traffic, but I did get one more good one to come up but it just barely had the spinnerbait and threw it on the first jump. I really felt like the 2 lost fish were really going to hurt us, and we would have been a lot closer to the lead if we had them, but in the end it didn't hurt too bad because we finally ended up with a check.
This will be the last Big Bass Bonanza tournament for awhile. We have a break until mid August when we head to the Horseshoe Chain. Between now and then our West Central Bassmasters will be holding tournaments on Norway Lake and Green Lake. The Norway event is in 2 weeks and I'm really looking forward to it since my dad and I won out there last year. Hopefully we can take some momentum from Green and repeat out on Norway.
Friday, July 4, 2008
KLBL - Long Lake
Last nights league was not the normal Thursday night standings league. Since it is the 4th of July weekend we figured many people had plans. However a few teams still wanted to fish so we had league anyway. This was just a stand alone event. Only 6 boats showed up which was about what we expected. Of the 6 boats 4 of them weighed in over 10 lbs for their 3 fish. The winning weight was over 13 lbs. My dad and I ended up in 4th with 10.24 lbs. The big fish for the night was 5.08 lbs.
I've talked about Long Lake before and the primary pattern which is fishing the reeds. We started off doing that but after flipping reeds for over an hour we only had 1 small fish. We knew we needed to do something different so we went to a long, shallow, rocky point. Even though there are rocks down there everything was covered with weeds. Pretty much the only viable lure option was a frog. I started throwing a Spro Bronze Eye frog and almost immediately had one blow up on me. Then just a little bit later a bass close to 4 lbs sucked it in and we put it in the boat. We made another pass and I caught a small one on the frog and my dad picked up a 3 pounder on a Lake Fork Magic Shad. We left the area to let it rest a little before hitting it again right as time was winding down. On the very last cast my dad caught another 3 pounder on the frog and it was time to go in. This was the first league night in a very long time that we weighed 2 fish in that came on the frog.
I've talked about Long Lake before and the primary pattern which is fishing the reeds. We started off doing that but after flipping reeds for over an hour we only had 1 small fish. We knew we needed to do something different so we went to a long, shallow, rocky point. Even though there are rocks down there everything was covered with weeds. Pretty much the only viable lure option was a frog. I started throwing a Spro Bronze Eye frog and almost immediately had one blow up on me. Then just a little bit later a bass close to 4 lbs sucked it in and we put it in the boat. We made another pass and I caught a small one on the frog and my dad picked up a 3 pounder on a Lake Fork Magic Shad. We left the area to let it rest a little before hitting it again right as time was winding down. On the very last cast my dad caught another 3 pounder on the frog and it was time to go in. This was the first league night in a very long time that we weighed 2 fish in that came on the frog.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
KLBL - Diamond Lake
Even with the strong winds tonight we had another good turnout for Wednesday night league. 17 teams showed up to try their hand on Diamond Lake and overall the fishing was disappointing. Most every team caught their limit of 3 fish but the weights were down sharply from past years. 1st place was 8.68 lbs, my dad and I were 2nd with 8.60 lbs, 3rd was 8.49 lbs, and 4th was 8.44 lbs. As you can see the weights were very tight so it was competitive but generally this lake will produce a 3 fish bag of at least 10 lbs and often over 12 lbs for the winner. The big bass for the night was 4.07 lbs.
My dad and I started in our usual spot. I think we have started every league night for the past at least five years there. It's no secret what we do out there. It's a stretch of docks that has produced numerous big fish for us over the years, but tonight there were none to be had. I did end up catching a bass on my very first cast of the night but it was just a small keeper. We caught another small keeper a little bit later off the same dock and filled out our limit on the same stretch within about 20 minutes but we only had about 5 lbs. Next we ran to the reeds near Dogfish Bay but a boat was sitting right where we like to fish. We fished around a little bit with no success so we went to some other docks and reeds and also struck out. With about a half hour left to fish in the night we went back to our Dogfish reeds and no one was on them. I caught a small one, that culled one of our even smaller ones, almost right away and then in the next 20 minutes my dad caught two real good fish that were over 3 lbs each. So much like last week we caught all of our weigh fish right at the end of the night. Our 3 that we ended up weighing came on Strike King Flippin tubes and craw tubes in watermelon and green pumpkin. I feel like we might have messed up by not fishing that stretch of reeds as much as we should have but on the other hand the boat that was there at first stuck around there all night and only ended up with about 5 1/2 lbs. I think those fish just turned on towards the end of the night. Still if we had given ourselves 45 minutes instead of just 30 minutes we might have been able to make up the .08 lb difference between our 2nd place and 1st, but who knows. I felt like we didn't make great decisions all night but we ended up doing well with the one decision to go back to those reeds.
My dad and I started in our usual spot. I think we have started every league night for the past at least five years there. It's no secret what we do out there. It's a stretch of docks that has produced numerous big fish for us over the years, but tonight there were none to be had. I did end up catching a bass on my very first cast of the night but it was just a small keeper. We caught another small keeper a little bit later off the same dock and filled out our limit on the same stretch within about 20 minutes but we only had about 5 lbs. Next we ran to the reeds near Dogfish Bay but a boat was sitting right where we like to fish. We fished around a little bit with no success so we went to some other docks and reeds and also struck out. With about a half hour left to fish in the night we went back to our Dogfish reeds and no one was on them. I caught a small one, that culled one of our even smaller ones, almost right away and then in the next 20 minutes my dad caught two real good fish that were over 3 lbs each. So much like last week we caught all of our weigh fish right at the end of the night. Our 3 that we ended up weighing came on Strike King Flippin tubes and craw tubes in watermelon and green pumpkin. I feel like we might have messed up by not fishing that stretch of reeds as much as we should have but on the other hand the boat that was there at first stuck around there all night and only ended up with about 5 1/2 lbs. I think those fish just turned on towards the end of the night. Still if we had given ourselves 45 minutes instead of just 30 minutes we might have been able to make up the .08 lb difference between our 2nd place and 1st, but who knows. I felt like we didn't make great decisions all night but we ended up doing well with the one decision to go back to those reeds.
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
West Central Bassmasters State Qualifier - Green Lake
I haven't gotten around to writing about this one for a few days. The tournament was held Saturday June 28th on Green Lake. It was the final state qualifier for our club. I ended up finishing in 4th place on the day with 14.20 lbs for my 5 fish. That put me in 2nd place for the year, so I qualified for the state tournament in September. I really wanted to be 1st place since that is the guaranteed boater spot but 2nd is still not too bad. My dad also qualified for the state tournament in 5th place. The winning weight on the day was 14.88 lbs with 2nd being 14.76 lbs. The conditions were really bad with high winds and several periods of rain but those weights are still pretty low. Especially considering we are all locals with extensive time on the lake. I guess it's just fishing tough right now.
The day before the tournament we went out and marked as many good bed fish as we good find. Most were small but there were still a few good ones around. Unfortunately with the weather we couldn't really fish for all of them since the waves were just too big in some spots. A few other ones had left the bed since we found them but there were still a few that we ended up catching in the tournament. I caught 3 off beds that were all between 2 3/4 lbs and 3 lbs. They all came on a white Strike King KVD tube. I usually like using green pumpkin but they sure seemed to like the white a lot better that day. My other fish came on a spinnerbait and just casting a tube to a shallow rocky area. My dad had a few bed fish as well and he also caught one in 25 feet of water on a dropshot. That was the only keeper out deep in our boat.
I'm not going to do a full practice report like I have for the other Big Bass Bonanza tournaments since the practices for each event kind of ran into each other. I think we have spent 7 of the last 9 days out on Green. If anything Monday and Tuesday have been even worse than Saturday. I just can't seem to figure much out. Our deep bite seems almost totally dead and the shallow fish are getting done and moving out but they aren't there yet. Finding fish in the mid depth zone has been a chore too. There have been a few encouraging signs that our usually summer pattern is starting to happen but its been spotty. Even though I haven't caught a lot of fish I've seen enough fish following to win the tournament I think. Now we just have to figure out a way to turn those followers into biters and we should be ok. For the tournament we will probably fish shallow, deep, and in between, and just let whatever is working best that day dictate what we do. We have enough spots of each type that we should be able to move around a bit unless the winds are just too much. I just hope it stays hot and it gets that summer pattern going by Sunday. I'll report back after the tournament.
The day before the tournament we went out and marked as many good bed fish as we good find. Most were small but there were still a few good ones around. Unfortunately with the weather we couldn't really fish for all of them since the waves were just too big in some spots. A few other ones had left the bed since we found them but there were still a few that we ended up catching in the tournament. I caught 3 off beds that were all between 2 3/4 lbs and 3 lbs. They all came on a white Strike King KVD tube. I usually like using green pumpkin but they sure seemed to like the white a lot better that day. My other fish came on a spinnerbait and just casting a tube to a shallow rocky area. My dad had a few bed fish as well and he also caught one in 25 feet of water on a dropshot. That was the only keeper out deep in our boat.
I'm not going to do a full practice report like I have for the other Big Bass Bonanza tournaments since the practices for each event kind of ran into each other. I think we have spent 7 of the last 9 days out on Green. If anything Monday and Tuesday have been even worse than Saturday. I just can't seem to figure much out. Our deep bite seems almost totally dead and the shallow fish are getting done and moving out but they aren't there yet. Finding fish in the mid depth zone has been a chore too. There have been a few encouraging signs that our usually summer pattern is starting to happen but its been spotty. Even though I haven't caught a lot of fish I've seen enough fish following to win the tournament I think. Now we just have to figure out a way to turn those followers into biters and we should be ok. For the tournament we will probably fish shallow, deep, and in between, and just let whatever is working best that day dictate what we do. We have enough spots of each type that we should be able to move around a bit unless the winds are just too much. I just hope it stays hot and it gets that summer pattern going by Sunday. I'll report back after the tournament.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
