Monday, October 27, 2008

Kandi Lakes Fall Bass League - Long Lake

We had another windy day for this past Saturday's event on Long Lake. In fact it was even windier than last weekend on Diamond, but at least it wasn't too cold out so it was ok to fish in. The fish didn't want to cooperate though. Out of the 5 teams who fished, no limits where weighed in and 2 teams zeroed. 1st place came in with 4 fish for 16.36 lbs and 2nd was my dad and I with 2 fish for 8.46 lbs. I had the big bass for the day at 5.41 lbs.

The fishing was extremely tough and the wind did not help at all. The water temp was below 50 degrees so fishing very slow was a key but the wind blowing the boat around made that very difficult to do. The 2 fish we caught were both on reed points that were in proximity to a little bit deeper water. Both bites came on a black/blue jig with a Strike King Denny Brauer Chunk.

Monday, October 20, 2008

Kandi Lakes Fall Bass League - Diamond Lake

Diamond Lake has a reputation for big bass but also a reputation for being very tough at times. Last Saturday the tough side of the lake showed itself. The conditions were not ideal either with strong winds from the south making much of the lake unfishable. There were 7 teams who fished and only two 5 fish limits were weighed in. My dad and I were one of the teams with a limit and we took first place with 14.65 lbs. 2nd place weighed only 3 fish for 10.88 lbs. The big bass for the day was a 4.81 pounder.

There really isn't a lot to say about our fishing on the day. We tried a few different areas but ended up spending at least 4 of the 5 hours in one section of reeds. We must have worked every key spot in those reeds at least 3 times throughout the day. There were a few fish in there but they just weren't very easy to catch so we just had to grind it out slowly. We ended up catching 6 keepers on the day with 5 of them coming on green pumpkin Strike King Flippin Tubes. Our big fish of the day, which was close to 4 lbs, came on a black/blue jig with a Strike King Denny Brauer chunk but that was the only bite we had on a jig. It certainly wasn't an exciting day of fishing but it ended up being good enough to win by almost 4 lbs.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Kandi Lakes Fall Bass League - Nest Lake

This week was the first week of switching to a 12:00 pm start time instead of an 8:00 am start time. We still fish for 5 hours for our best 5 fish but since it is getting later in the year everyone felt like the afternoons would be the best time to fish. After the results on Nest Lake it would be hard to disagree. There were several very good bags weighed in out of the 7 teams who competed. My dad and I ended up taking first place with 18.48 lbs for our 5 and 2nd place had 17.58 lbs. Since there were 7 teams only 2 spots were paid. 3rd place still had 16.45 lbs and 4th had 14.44 lbs, so overall the fishing was very good. My dad and I also had big bass for the day at 4.77 lbs.

Nest Lake is one of my favorite lakes in Kandiyohi County but I really was not looking forward to this event. The reason was that we would not be allowed to weigh in any smallmouths. It is catch and release only for smallmouths at this time of year and that is primarily what we target on the lake. We do know how to catch largemouths out there but a couple weeks ago we looked for some and only managed 2 small keepers so we went in knowing we would just have to figure something out as the day went along.

We started on the area were we actually ended up catching all of our weigh fish but we struck out on the first pass through. Then we headed to a few reed areas and caught several small keepers. After fishing the reeds thoroughly we pulled out to the weedbeds in 3-5 feet of water and filled out our limit. All of those fish came on a variety of lures including tubes, buzzin frogs and Red Eye Shads. It felt good to have a limit so quickly but since it only weighed about 8 lbs we knew we had to upgrade. We ended up trying several more spots with no success. Finally I said we have to go back where we started and figure those fish out. It is a large flat in 3-7 feet of water with thick clumps of milfoil. It looked so good I knew fish had to be there and they were. Almost imediately after returning I caught one close to 4 lbs on a jig flipped in the milfoil and then less than 5 minutes later my dad put one in the boat that was about the same size. Now things were starting to happen and with 2 hours left in the day there was plenty of time to catch 3 more good ones. We just kept working that same general area the rest of the day and ended up catching probably 15-20 keepers to get to our 18.48 lbs. All of those fish came on a 1/2 oz. watermelon jig with a watermelon Lake Fork Pig Claw trailer. Most of the fish came on the outside edges of the milfoil but the biggest fish of the day came from a small hole right inside one of the larger patches.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Kandi Lakes Fall Bass League - Sauk Lake

This week's league was a little different than our previous fall leagues. Since Sauk Lake is not one of our normal league lakes we decided to make it a little bigger tournament. Instead of a $20 entry we made it $50 and instead of fishing until 1:00 pm we fished until 3:00 pm. All the other league rules remained in place. Despite the higher entry fee we still had a good turnout with 10 teams showing up to fish. 7 of the 10 teams were able to weigh in their limit but 1 team pretty much crushed the rest of us. 1st place weighed in 5 fish for 23.15 lbs, 2nd place had 16.88 lbs and 3rd weighed 15.54 lbs. My dad and I were first out of the money in 4th place with 13.03 lbs. The big bass for the day was 5.07 lbs.

The fishing for us was extremely tough. We started off ok with 4 keepers in the boat by about 10:30 in the morning but after that we didn't manage to catch our 5th keeper until almost 2:3o in the afternoon. So we had a really long dry spell in the middle of the day. None of are fish were anything special either. They all weighed between 2 1/2 and 3 lbs. They all came from overhanging trees in really shallow water. The best bait for us seemed to be a Strike King KVD tube in either black/blue or a green pumkin with red tails. My dad did pick up one of our keepers on a black/blue jig flipped into a tree.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Kandi Lakes Fall Bass League - Norway Lake

Sorry for the delay on this one. I completely forgot about writing it. I thought I had but tonight my dad told me it wasn't up so here it is now. We had 9 boats again last Saturday for Norway Lake which has been our usually turnout it seems this fall. There were a few good bags once again as well but overall the fishing was tough. 1st place weighed 5 for 15.87 lbs, 2nd had 14.78 lbs and 3rd was my dad and I with 12.26 lbs. The big fish for the day was a nice 5.52 lb beauty.

I'm not going to get real detailed on this one. We struggled big time for the day but were able to scratch out just enough to get into the money. Everyone knows that we would prefer to go over to Games Lake to fish but unfortunately for us the water is too low to get through the channel. We thought about borrowing a smaller boat but decided to just make due on Norway. For about the first 2 hours we just couldn't get anything going. I finally caught one that barely went 12 inches off a reed point. Since the wind was really blowing good in the right direction for a spot we have fished in the past we went there and they were stacked up. We caught 4 more there in about half an hour to fill our limit and we were feeling good just to do that. Then we bounce around in West Norway for awhile and I picked up our big fish of the day that went about 3 lbs on a jig flipped in the reeds. After awhile we went back to the spot we caught the 4 keepers and caught 5 more really quick but none of them helped us at all. My dad did pick up a nice 6 lb walleye on a jig but that didn't work for us. So overall the day was extremely slow with just one short flurry to get us up to our weight.