The Summer Classic on Norway Lake is 1 of 2 open events the West Central Bassmasters hold each summer. By open event I mean anyone is allowed to fish as opposed to our club tournaments where only club members fish. Our other event will be held in August on Green Lake and hopefully the turnout will be better than this one on Norway. Only 16 teams showed up to fish on Saturday which is down from last year, but this is the case with pretty much all the tournaments in Minnesota this year. I don't know why interest is down this year, maybe it's the economy, but that's just how it is. Just because there are less participants doesn't mean I want to win any less and that is just what my dad and I were able to do. We weighed in a 6 fish limit for 17.03 lbs to just barely edge out 2nd place. 2nd place went to Greg Jones & Scott Zypher with 16.65 lbs, 3rd was John & Jacob Zvorak with 13.84 lbs and 4th was Jim & Brad Hagedorn with 12.33 lbs. It's kind of interesting that 3 of the 4 teams in the money were father and son teams which is always good to see. The big bass for the day weighed 4.07 lbs and was caught by Greg & Scott. I was able to take the 2nd big bass money with a largemouth that weighed 3.50 lbs.
The recap of our fishing is going to be kind of brief because there really isn't all that much to tell. We headed to Games Lake first thing in the morning which is no secret to those who have fished with my us over the years. In practice we had located 2 schools of fish that seemed to be more concentrated than any other areas we could find. We only caught 1 fish in the 3 lb range in about 10 hours of practice time and that is where I wanted to start. Unfortunately 2 other boats were ahead of us and we were unable to get to the key area. We fished around them for awhile but after awhile we knew they weren't moving so we had to get out of there. At one point in the morning we pulled up to the other school we located in practice. It was a spot with a mix of weeds in 8-10 and a very defined edge to it. Right away my dad caught a sheephead and on my next cast I caught a bass close to 3 lbs. The wind was already blowing pretty hard at that point so I stayed on the trolling motor while my dad took care of the fish. My next cast after that I caught another good one. Then I caught another one and then another one. If I remember right I caught 4 fish in the 2-3 lb range in 6 casts. They were coming in so quick that at one point there were 3 fish laying in the cockpit area of our boat because my dad couldn't get them in the livewell that fast. After those 6 casts it slowed enough for my dad to get the fish in the livewell and catch one himself that went close to 3 lbs. Then a few minutes later I caught the 3.50 lb bass that was our big fish of the day. My fish all came on a watermelon Jig with a Strike King Denny Brauer 3x chunk and my dad's fish came on a watermelon Zoom Brush Hog. After about 10 minutes it was over. We obviously kept fishing the area but were only able to catch small fish that wouldn't help us. After awhile we moved to another weedline area and I caught one that upgraded our bag by about an ounce. Then we moved back to the sweet spot and about 50 yards away my dad was able to upgrade again by about 2 ounces with the Brush Hog. At this point it was around 9:00 in the morning and our fishing was basically done for the day. We tried various other spots including docks, reeds, milfoil, lily pads and more weedlines, but were hardly able to catch anything let alone anything that would help us. Out of our entire 8 hour tournament day we had most of our weight in 10 minutes and all of our weight in about a 45 minute period. It made for a pretty boring day but it doesn't matter when you catch them, just what they weigh at the end of the day.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
West Central Bass League - Solomon Lake
Our 5th stop on Thursday night brought us back to Solomon Lake. We had just fished the lake the previous Wednesday and this fishing was tough to say the least. That didn't stop 12 teams from trying their hand once again. Somewhat surprisingly the fishing was much better for many teams even though not much had changed as far as weather or water conditions. It was still a struggle for my dad and I though as we turned in our poorest performance of the season with a 6th place finish for our 8.51 lb limit. 1st place went to Jim & Brad with 11.64 lbs, 2nd was Tim & Grant with 11.09 lbs, and 3rd was Brad & Wayne with 10.29. The big fish for the night went 4.29 lbs. After 5 evenings Tim & Grant lead the team of the year race with 90 points. My dad and I are a close 2nd with 86 points.
There really isn't much to tell about our fishing for the night since we only caught 3 fish the whole night. The first bass was caught by my dad on a spinnerbait fished on a rocky area outside of the reeds. The second bass was also caught by my dad on a tube flipped into the reeds. Both of those fish were in the 3 3/4 lb range. I did not have a bite for 2 hours and 55 minutes. With 5 minutes to go before the end of the night I finally caught a fish on a blugill Yamamoto Senko near the reeds. It was just a small one but it was a relief to get our 3 fish limit in the boat and it saved us from dropping down even further in the standings.
There really isn't much to tell about our fishing for the night since we only caught 3 fish the whole night. The first bass was caught by my dad on a spinnerbait fished on a rocky area outside of the reeds. The second bass was also caught by my dad on a tube flipped into the reeds. Both of those fish were in the 3 3/4 lb range. I did not have a bite for 2 hours and 55 minutes. With 5 minutes to go before the end of the night I finally caught a fish on a blugill Yamamoto Senko near the reeds. It was just a small one but it was a relief to get our 3 fish limit in the boat and it saved us from dropping down even further in the standings.
West Central Bass League - Green Lake
This past Wednesday was the 5th event of the summer for the West Central Bass League. This stop was at Green Lake in Spicer and 17 teams came out to catch some of the smallmouth Green Lake is famous for. Green Lake is an amazing fishery but the fish have become much harder to catch in recent years due to the heavy amount of pressure the bass now recieve. The weights this year have also gone down a bit but not substantially. 1st place for the night went to Paul & Pete with 3 fish for 9.25 lbs, 2nd was my dad & I with 8.34 lbs, 3rd was Dean & JD with 8.26 lbs, and 4th went to Jon & Jeff with 8.18. The 4 in the money weights were all comprised of smallmouth but the big bass for the night was a 3.70 lb largemouth. After 5 evenings my dad and I are leading the points with 87 despite not having a win yet. 2nd place is at 77 points but with most of the summer remaining many teams still have a shot to win the team of the year.
We started our night throwing chartruese and white spinnerbaits over flats in 6-10 feet of water. This is more of a summer pattern and it hasn't been working very well so far this year but we still spent the first hour trying it out in various places. It was pretty unsuccessful as after that first hour we had 3 fish but only one was a decent one in the 2 3/4 lb range. We spent the next hour fishing several deep humps in the 20-30 foot range with watermelon Lake Fork Twitch Worms on drop shot rigs. The first hump produced 2 smallies in the 2 3/4 lb range. The next hump was empty and then the 3rd area again produced 2 more smallies in the same size range. After that we went to the shallow rocks and tried topwater for the rest of the evening. I couldn't get anything to come up on my Spook so I switched to a green pumpkin tube as I approched a small milfoil patch. Almost immediately I hooked another smallie in the 2 3/4 lb class. The very next cast I caught our big fish of the night which went 2.90 lbs on our scale. It seems we had found a school of biting fish but by that time we had to head in and we made it back to the dock with less than a minute to go before 9:00 pm.
We started our night throwing chartruese and white spinnerbaits over flats in 6-10 feet of water. This is more of a summer pattern and it hasn't been working very well so far this year but we still spent the first hour trying it out in various places. It was pretty unsuccessful as after that first hour we had 3 fish but only one was a decent one in the 2 3/4 lb range. We spent the next hour fishing several deep humps in the 20-30 foot range with watermelon Lake Fork Twitch Worms on drop shot rigs. The first hump produced 2 smallies in the 2 3/4 lb range. The next hump was empty and then the 3rd area again produced 2 more smallies in the same size range. After that we went to the shallow rocks and tried topwater for the rest of the evening. I couldn't get anything to come up on my Spook so I switched to a green pumpkin tube as I approched a small milfoil patch. Almost immediately I hooked another smallie in the 2 3/4 lb class. The very next cast I caught our big fish of the night which went 2.90 lbs on our scale. It seems we had found a school of biting fish but by that time we had to head in and we made it back to the dock with less than a minute to go before 9:00 pm.
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Minnewaska
Lake Minnewaska was the 2nd stop of 4 events on the Big Bass Bonanza circuit. 43 teams showed up to fish so there was a slightly larger turnout than the first even on Sauk Lake. The conditions were really ideal for fishing. It was warm, calm and for most of the day there was just a light rain. The end of the day was a different story though. The rain started coming down harder and the wind really picked up blowing directly into the weigh in site. People beached their boats but then the waves were coming right over the back filling everyones boats with water. For the most part the bilge pumps worked fine but one boat filled up to the point that only the very top was out of the water. They were able to get it back on the trailer though. As for the fishing it went very well for my dad and I as we took 2nd place with 22.87 lbs for our 8 fish limit. We just missed out on first place as they weighed in 23.11 lbs. I was also able to catch the 2nd big bass of the tournment that weighed in at 4.30 lbs for some additional money. Heres how we did it.
We were one of the very last boats to blast off so we were worried about getting to our spots but when we pulled into the first one there was no one nearby at all. It was a gravel flat in 5-6 feet of water and we thew Super Spooks hoping to get a few smallmouth to come up. My dad and I each had one bite on the Spook but they barely touched it and neither one of us was able to hook up. We went back through the area with tubes and football jigs but had no bites that pass so it was off to the next spot.
The next area was a weedline in 10-14 feet of water. Almost immediately my dad caught our first fish of the day and it was a solid 2 3/4 lb fish. This was the spot I expected to catch our biggest fish on so we stuck around for quite awhile but the only other fish we caught was a big sheephead. After that we hit a few more spots including reeds, another deeper weedbed, and a shallow sandy flat but struck out on all three. Next we tried to run to another spot we had found in practice but the guys who run the tournament were fishing basically right on out waypoint so instead we pulled into another nearby weedline in 10 feet of water. Again my dad had a bite pretty quick but it got off after just a second or two. He said it was a good one so we worked the area over pretty thoroughly but didn't get anymore bites. By now 2 1/2 hours had gone by and we only had 1 fish in the livewell. I was starting to get worried but I wasn't going to panic just yet.
Our next stop was on another shallow gravel and rock flat. Again my dad was the first to hook up and he put a nice 2 1/2 lb smallie in the boat on a football jig. After netting his fish I picked my rod rigged with a green pumpkin KVD tube that I had left in the water and there was another smallie on the line. This one weighed in at about 2 lbs. So after 2 1/2 hours with 1 fish we had just put 2 in the boat in a matter of seconds. We worked the area over some more and I caught anther small keeper smallie and it was time to go. Our next stop was another gravel and rock flat and I put 3 more small keeper smallies in the boat in about 10 minutes on the green pumpkin tube. I switched back to the Spook and caught another small keeper so after struggling for the first part of the day it took no time at all to fill our limit even though I knew it was going to be nothing to brag about if we didn't upgrade substantially.
After filling our limit we knew we needed much bigger fish so we headed back to the big fish weedline. We would end up hitting this spot 4 times throughout the day but this was the last time we would catch any fish on it. Within 10 minutes of arriving I hooked into what turned out to be the 4.30 lb largemouth on a watermelon jig. Not 5 minutes later I caught one weighing about 3 3/4 lbs on the jig. After that the action was done. We worked the spot over well and right before we left my dad hooked into a really good fish only to find out it was about a 5 lb walleye. I was hoping to catch more fish in the area but still catching 2 that weighed around 8 lbs combined was exactly what we needed at that point.
After that we made another stop on our starting spot and those smallies still wouldn't go so we moved pretty quickly to a shallower weedline in about 7 feet of water. I picked up a 2 1/2 lb largemouth on the watermelon jig but there were no other fish there. At that point it seemed like the largemouths were biting better than they had been earlier in the morning so I decided to fish that watermelon jig on weedlines the rest of the day. We moved back to the area where my dad had lost the good one earlier in the day and I missed a bite. The fish had ripped the trailer off my jig but I wanted to get back out there quickly so I pitched the undressed jig right to the same spot and the fish still ate it up. That one went about 3 lbs. Next we were able to move over to the weedline that was occupied earlier in the morning since that boat had left. It was the same kind of spot with a weedline right about 10 feet deep. I picked up another solid fish in the 2 3/4 lb range on the watermelon jig. Then it was mine turn to lose one. It was the first bite all day that hit on the fall and for whatever reason I just didn't get a good hook in it. I never saw it but I would guess that was a fish in the same size range as the other one.
At this point we knew we had a really solid bag but we also knew we still had that 2 lb smallmouth that we needed to get rid of. We bounced around to several other areas including the big fish spot 2 more times but were unable to come up with anything that would help us. We had our 2 chances for first with those fish we lost but it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe they weren't even bass but I'm almost positive they were. It also would have been nice to catch a bigger smallmouth since we had caught some good ones in practice but they just weren't going that day. There were very few smallies weighed in by any of the teams. For the most part though, besides the first 2 1/2 hours, our plan from practice went about as smoothly as possible. Our 2nd place finish combined with our 5th place in the first event has us in a 3 way tie for Team of the Year with 2 event remaining. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going and compete for the top spot at the end of the year. Our next event will be July 12th on Lake Ida.
We were one of the very last boats to blast off so we were worried about getting to our spots but when we pulled into the first one there was no one nearby at all. It was a gravel flat in 5-6 feet of water and we thew Super Spooks hoping to get a few smallmouth to come up. My dad and I each had one bite on the Spook but they barely touched it and neither one of us was able to hook up. We went back through the area with tubes and football jigs but had no bites that pass so it was off to the next spot.
The next area was a weedline in 10-14 feet of water. Almost immediately my dad caught our first fish of the day and it was a solid 2 3/4 lb fish. This was the spot I expected to catch our biggest fish on so we stuck around for quite awhile but the only other fish we caught was a big sheephead. After that we hit a few more spots including reeds, another deeper weedbed, and a shallow sandy flat but struck out on all three. Next we tried to run to another spot we had found in practice but the guys who run the tournament were fishing basically right on out waypoint so instead we pulled into another nearby weedline in 10 feet of water. Again my dad had a bite pretty quick but it got off after just a second or two. He said it was a good one so we worked the area over pretty thoroughly but didn't get anymore bites. By now 2 1/2 hours had gone by and we only had 1 fish in the livewell. I was starting to get worried but I wasn't going to panic just yet.
Our next stop was on another shallow gravel and rock flat. Again my dad was the first to hook up and he put a nice 2 1/2 lb smallie in the boat on a football jig. After netting his fish I picked my rod rigged with a green pumpkin KVD tube that I had left in the water and there was another smallie on the line. This one weighed in at about 2 lbs. So after 2 1/2 hours with 1 fish we had just put 2 in the boat in a matter of seconds. We worked the area over some more and I caught anther small keeper smallie and it was time to go. Our next stop was another gravel and rock flat and I put 3 more small keeper smallies in the boat in about 10 minutes on the green pumpkin tube. I switched back to the Spook and caught another small keeper so after struggling for the first part of the day it took no time at all to fill our limit even though I knew it was going to be nothing to brag about if we didn't upgrade substantially.
After filling our limit we knew we needed much bigger fish so we headed back to the big fish weedline. We would end up hitting this spot 4 times throughout the day but this was the last time we would catch any fish on it. Within 10 minutes of arriving I hooked into what turned out to be the 4.30 lb largemouth on a watermelon jig. Not 5 minutes later I caught one weighing about 3 3/4 lbs on the jig. After that the action was done. We worked the spot over well and right before we left my dad hooked into a really good fish only to find out it was about a 5 lb walleye. I was hoping to catch more fish in the area but still catching 2 that weighed around 8 lbs combined was exactly what we needed at that point.
After that we made another stop on our starting spot and those smallies still wouldn't go so we moved pretty quickly to a shallower weedline in about 7 feet of water. I picked up a 2 1/2 lb largemouth on the watermelon jig but there were no other fish there. At that point it seemed like the largemouths were biting better than they had been earlier in the morning so I decided to fish that watermelon jig on weedlines the rest of the day. We moved back to the area where my dad had lost the good one earlier in the day and I missed a bite. The fish had ripped the trailer off my jig but I wanted to get back out there quickly so I pitched the undressed jig right to the same spot and the fish still ate it up. That one went about 3 lbs. Next we were able to move over to the weedline that was occupied earlier in the morning since that boat had left. It was the same kind of spot with a weedline right about 10 feet deep. I picked up another solid fish in the 2 3/4 lb range on the watermelon jig. Then it was mine turn to lose one. It was the first bite all day that hit on the fall and for whatever reason I just didn't get a good hook in it. I never saw it but I would guess that was a fish in the same size range as the other one.
At this point we knew we had a really solid bag but we also knew we still had that 2 lb smallmouth that we needed to get rid of. We bounced around to several other areas including the big fish spot 2 more times but were unable to come up with anything that would help us. We had our 2 chances for first with those fish we lost but it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe they weren't even bass but I'm almost positive they were. It also would have been nice to catch a bigger smallmouth since we had caught some good ones in practice but they just weren't going that day. There were very few smallies weighed in by any of the teams. For the most part though, besides the first 2 1/2 hours, our plan from practice went about as smoothly as possible. Our 2nd place finish combined with our 5th place in the first event has us in a 3 way tie for Team of the Year with 2 event remaining. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going and compete for the top spot at the end of the year. Our next event will be July 12th on Lake Ida.
Saturday, June 20, 2009
West Central Bass League - Lake Calhoun
We had 15 teams for Thursday night on Lake Calhoun. Thursday nights have averaged around 14 boats while Wednesday's have averaged around 19 boats. I'm not sure why there is higher participation on one night versus the other but it is kind of nice to have less competition on the water sometimes. Even so we were not able to get to our starting area which is where the winning bag came from. Hopefully we will have a better start number next time and we can get there first. 1st place was Scott & Al with 11.86 lbs, 2nd was Paul & Troy with 10.72 lbs, 3rd was Brad & Wayne with 10.41 lbs and 4th was my dad and I with 10.25 lbs. It's tough when you catch 10 lbs but still only get the last place money. The big fish for the night was a nice 4.56 lb fish.
Even though we couldn't get to the sweet spot we fished in the general vicinity most of the night and were able to get into there after the winner already beat it up pretty good. We were able to pull our 2nd biggest fish of the night from the area though after he had left. We caught fish on docks, reeds and a mix of weeds in shallow water. That is as detailed as I am going to get at this point. Our fish came on black/blue Strike King Bleeding Bait tubes and watermelon/red flake Strike King Ochos and Yamamoto Senkos.
Even though we couldn't get to the sweet spot we fished in the general vicinity most of the night and were able to get into there after the winner already beat it up pretty good. We were able to pull our 2nd biggest fish of the night from the area though after he had left. We caught fish on docks, reeds and a mix of weeds in shallow water. That is as detailed as I am going to get at this point. Our fish came on black/blue Strike King Bleeding Bait tubes and watermelon/red flake Strike King Ochos and Yamamoto Senkos.
West Central Bass League - Solomon Lake
We had another good turnout on Wednesday night with 19 teams competing on Solomon Lake. Most teams reported the fishing to be slow like the lake has been the past couple of years. Even when the fishing is slow the weights are still very good usually. On Wednesday even the weights have started to slip a little bit. There have been times when 10 lbs will not even be in the money but there was only one 10 lb bag weighed in for the evening. 1st place when to Jeremey & Lee with 10.03 lbs, 2nd was David & Daniel with 9.95 lbs, 3rd was my dad and I with 9.14 lbs, and 4th was Wayne & Brad with 8.69 lbs. The big fish for the night was a monster 5.98 lb bass weighed in by David & Daniel.
I once again am not going to be very detailed since by random draw our league will be fishing out on Solomon again next week. We drew the last starting number so I knew we would not be able to get to the reed islands that we generally like to start on. In fact we fished one for about 15 minutes which is the least I think I have ever fished the islands during a league night. It turned out ok though since our first fish was close to 4 lbs from a small patch of reeds. Our next keeper came off of a log in the water and the final keeper we weighed in came on a rocky area. The first 2 fish came on a black/blue Strike King Flippin Tube and the rock fish came on a black/blue jig. I'll go into a bit more detail next week after we are done fishing the lake for the year.
I once again am not going to be very detailed since by random draw our league will be fishing out on Solomon again next week. We drew the last starting number so I knew we would not be able to get to the reed islands that we generally like to start on. In fact we fished one for about 15 minutes which is the least I think I have ever fished the islands during a league night. It turned out ok though since our first fish was close to 4 lbs from a small patch of reeds. Our next keeper came off of a log in the water and the final keeper we weighed in came on a rocky area. The first 2 fish came on a black/blue Strike King Flippin Tube and the rock fish came on a black/blue jig. I'll go into a bit more detail next week after we are done fishing the lake for the year.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
West Central Bassmasters State Qualifier Tournaments
This past weekend the West Central Bassmasters held two tournaments to determine which of our members would qualify for the Minnesota State Tournament of Champions held on Lake Pokagema in September. 12 members were attempting to reach the state tournament but only 6 would be allowed to go. On Saturday we fished Clearwater Lake. The winner weighed in 5 fish for 13.48 lbs while I weighed a limit weighing in at 9.62 lbs which put me in 6th place for the day. On Sunday we fished the Le Homme Dieu Chain in Alexandria. 1st place there weighed 5 fish for 13.20 lbs. My 5 weighed in at 9.35 lbs which put me in 5th place for the day. Overall when the points were combined I qualified for the state tournament in 4th place. Here are the qualifiers in the order they finished:
1 - Joe Patock
2 - Ron Mehr
3 - Mike Nitchals
4 - Andy Nitchals
5 - Dean Drexler
6 - Scott Van Buren
I'm going to be pretty brief in describing my fishing for the days. For one thing we will be fishing another tournament on Clearwater later this summer so I don't want to give too much away, and also the days were pretty uneventful as you can see from the very low weights I weighed in. On Clearwater I fished several different areas of the lake but all of the areas had several things in common. I concentrated on depths of 6-12 feet that featured heavy weed growth in the form of milfoil, cabbage and other assorted weeds. All of my weigh fish came on watermelon Sweet Beavers and jigs pitched into the heavy cover.
On the Alex chain I started throwing a white Strike King spinnerbait on a large cabbage flat in 6-9 feet of water. I had my 5 fish limit in the boat quickly but the size was much smaller than I had found in practice as they probably weighed less than 6 lbs combined. It is still nice to have an early limit though since it kind of frees you up to fish more loose the rest of the day. I try not to worry about catching a limit and just go fishing but in a tournament if you don't have a limit in the box it can start messing with your mind sometimes. Thankfully I usually don't have a problem with worrying about things like that but it can happen. After realizing the quality wasn't what I was expecting in my starting area I moved shallow to docks, overhanging trees and reeds. I spent most of the rest of the day shallow with a few forays into deeper water. None of the deep stuff was very productive at all, but I was able to cull out all 5 of my original limit in the shallow water using watermelon Sweet Beavers and green pumkin red/green flake Bleeding Bait tubes.
Congatulations to all who made it and better luck next year to those who didn't.
1 - Joe Patock
2 - Ron Mehr
3 - Mike Nitchals
4 - Andy Nitchals
5 - Dean Drexler
6 - Scott Van Buren
I'm going to be pretty brief in describing my fishing for the days. For one thing we will be fishing another tournament on Clearwater later this summer so I don't want to give too much away, and also the days were pretty uneventful as you can see from the very low weights I weighed in. On Clearwater I fished several different areas of the lake but all of the areas had several things in common. I concentrated on depths of 6-12 feet that featured heavy weed growth in the form of milfoil, cabbage and other assorted weeds. All of my weigh fish came on watermelon Sweet Beavers and jigs pitched into the heavy cover.
On the Alex chain I started throwing a white Strike King spinnerbait on a large cabbage flat in 6-9 feet of water. I had my 5 fish limit in the boat quickly but the size was much smaller than I had found in practice as they probably weighed less than 6 lbs combined. It is still nice to have an early limit though since it kind of frees you up to fish more loose the rest of the day. I try not to worry about catching a limit and just go fishing but in a tournament if you don't have a limit in the box it can start messing with your mind sometimes. Thankfully I usually don't have a problem with worrying about things like that but it can happen. After realizing the quality wasn't what I was expecting in my starting area I moved shallow to docks, overhanging trees and reeds. I spent most of the rest of the day shallow with a few forays into deeper water. None of the deep stuff was very productive at all, but I was able to cull out all 5 of my original limit in the shallow water using watermelon Sweet Beavers and green pumkin red/green flake Bleeding Bait tubes.
Congatulations to all who made it and better luck next year to those who didn't.
Friday, June 12, 2009
West Central Bass League - Lake Florida
On Thursday night the turnout was quite a bit lower than Wednesday with only 12 teams fishing. Maybe its because Florida has a reputation for small fish and Diamond is a big fish lake, but by the numbers Lake Florida turned out to be a much better lake this week. With 12 teams we pay 3 places instead of 4. 1st place went to Tim & Grant with 9.08 lbs, 2nd was Paul & Troy with 8.81 lbs and 3rd went to Brandon & Brent with 8.61 lbs. My dad and I were 4th with 8.54 lbs but since one of the teams ahead of us declined to enter the side pot we were able to make the 3rd place side pot money. The big bass for the night was 4.06 lbs.
Lake Florida is known as a dock lake since almost the entire shoreline is rimmed with docks. The last couple years my dad and I have almost completely avoided the docks to fish deeper water where we feel we have the best chance to win. This year with the cold spring and summer so far we decided to join the crowd and start on the docks. That turned out to be a mistake. We had a limit in about 10 minutes but we didn't end up weighing any of them in. The best fish were also not under the docks but my dad caught them by casting a chatterbait the other direction from the docks. After fishing a few docks we headed out deep and bounced around to various spots the rest of the night. It was not fast action but we were able to steadily upgrade throughout the night by fishing watermelon jigs in the thickest weeds we could find in 8-10 feet of water.
Lake Florida is known as a dock lake since almost the entire shoreline is rimmed with docks. The last couple years my dad and I have almost completely avoided the docks to fish deeper water where we feel we have the best chance to win. This year with the cold spring and summer so far we decided to join the crowd and start on the docks. That turned out to be a mistake. We had a limit in about 10 minutes but we didn't end up weighing any of them in. The best fish were also not under the docks but my dad caught them by casting a chatterbait the other direction from the docks. After fishing a few docks we headed out deep and bounced around to various spots the rest of the night. It was not fast action but we were able to steadily upgrade throughout the night by fishing watermelon jigs in the thickest weeds we could find in 8-10 feet of water.
West Central Bass League - Diamond Lake
We had another good turnout on Wednesday night with 18 teams showing up at Diamond Lake. Most people reported the fishing to be slow but most teams also were able to weigh in their 3 fish limits. The weights however were extremely small especially for Diamond. 1st place went to Mike & Greg with 8.26 lbs, 2nd was Dean & JD with 7.99 lbs, 3rd was Paul & Pete with 7.90 lbs and 4th went to my dad & I with 7.68 lbs. The big fish for the night was 3.98 lbs.
Our fishing for the night was pretty slow as I think we only boated 5 keepers on the night and 4 of them were just little fish under 2 lbs. I wanted to start on a certain section of a reed bed but when we got there 3 boats were already in the area so I pulled into the bay and worked the flat with logs on it. We didn't get anything there and when the reed area cleared out we pulled in and were able to get our first two small keepers flipping tubes to pockets in the reeds. After working that area another boat headed to a stretch of docks I wanted to fish so I quickly moved to the other end of the docks and worked towards them hoping to hit as many docks as I could before they did. Right when our boats met I skipped my Strike King Bleeding Bait tube under the last dock and caught our big fish of the night right in front of them. It went about 3 3/4 lbs and was the reason we were able to get into the money. After that we fished a combination of docks and reeds the rest of the night but were only able to manage to catch 2 more small keepers.
Our fishing for the night was pretty slow as I think we only boated 5 keepers on the night and 4 of them were just little fish under 2 lbs. I wanted to start on a certain section of a reed bed but when we got there 3 boats were already in the area so I pulled into the bay and worked the flat with logs on it. We didn't get anything there and when the reed area cleared out we pulled in and were able to get our first two small keepers flipping tubes to pockets in the reeds. After working that area another boat headed to a stretch of docks I wanted to fish so I quickly moved to the other end of the docks and worked towards them hoping to hit as many docks as I could before they did. Right when our boats met I skipped my Strike King Bleeding Bait tube under the last dock and caught our big fish of the night right in front of them. It went about 3 3/4 lbs and was the reason we were able to get into the money. After that we fished a combination of docks and reeds the rest of the night but were only able to manage to catch 2 more small keepers.
Friday, June 5, 2009
West Central Bass League - Lake Andrew
On Thursday night it was time to visit my namesake lake once again. Most people dread coming to this lake for good reason. Years ago it was an excellent lake with a lot of big bass swimming in it but now anything over 2 lbs is a really nice fish. There were 15 teams competing and for the most part the weights reflected the lack of big fish in the lake. The majority of the 3 fish limits brought in weighed under 5 lbs with one limit of 12 inchers weighing in at 2.71 lbs. It's tough to get much smaller than that. As is usually the case though someone finds em and that was Ron & Dave. They weighed in 10.74 lbs for 1st place. My dad & I were 2nd with 8.24 lbs, 3rd place went to Brad & Wayne with 6.73 lbs and 4th was Tim & Grant with 5.68 lbs. The big bass for the night was 5.78 lbs. That fish has a very good chance to be big fish of the year and no one would have expected it to come out of Andrew.
My dad and I started up in the bay on the north end of the lake. We managed to get a small limit pretty quickly by flipping Sweet Beavers into the shallow reeds in the area. We stuck around for what was probably too long but there was alot of fish in the area and we just were hoping to run into a bigger one. That didn't happen though and we left the bay with around 5 lbs. Our next stop was an inside corner along a deep weedline. Almost immediately I had a nice 2 1/2 lb bass in the boat on a watermelon jig. Just minutes later my dad caught a jig fish that went over 3 lbs. The action slowed a bit so I switched to a texas rigged watermelon worm and was able to catch another 2 1/2 lb class fish. Now I figured we were in pretty good shape for the night and the fish seemed to be getting on the weedlines so for the rest of the night we tried other deep areas that have been good to us in the past. Most of the areas had no fish on them at all but we did get into one other little flurry but none of those fish helped us.
My dad and I started up in the bay on the north end of the lake. We managed to get a small limit pretty quickly by flipping Sweet Beavers into the shallow reeds in the area. We stuck around for what was probably too long but there was alot of fish in the area and we just were hoping to run into a bigger one. That didn't happen though and we left the bay with around 5 lbs. Our next stop was an inside corner along a deep weedline. Almost immediately I had a nice 2 1/2 lb bass in the boat on a watermelon jig. Just minutes later my dad caught a jig fish that went over 3 lbs. The action slowed a bit so I switched to a texas rigged watermelon worm and was able to catch another 2 1/2 lb class fish. Now I figured we were in pretty good shape for the night and the fish seemed to be getting on the weedlines so for the rest of the night we tried other deep areas that have been good to us in the past. Most of the areas had no fish on them at all but we did get into one other little flurry but none of those fish helped us.
West Central Bass League - Norway Cup
This past Wednesday was the annual Norway Cup. All the same league rules apply but the entry is increased to $25. There are also two places paid for big bass instead of just one. This year we had an even 20 teams competing and all but one team weighed in their 3 fish limit. The problem for most though was that the limits were extremely small as only 3 bags over 7 lbs were weighed in. 1st place went to Ron & Joe with a very nice for the night bag of 10.85 lbs, 2nd place was Mike & Greg with 8.64 lbs, 3rd was John & Mary with 7.75 lbs and 4th was Troy & Brett with 6.98 lbs. The 1st big bass was 4.25 lbs and the 2nd big bass was 4.17 lbs. My dad and I finished out of the money in 7th place with 6.52 lbs.
Our fishing for the night was pretty uneventful. We caught 10 fish at the most and obviously they were all small. We started fishing on some of our deep stuff on Games Lake and had our limit relatively quickly throwing jigs and worms to the deep weedline. After realizing we weren't going to be able to upgrade we headed to some docks and shallow weedbeds but that was totally unproductive. Before leaving Games we tried the deep stuff once more but only upgraded a small amount with another slightly bigger fish. We then spent the last hour of the night in Norway Lake and only managed to catch 1 small fish on a swimbait over a shallow flat and that was it for our night.
Our fishing for the night was pretty uneventful. We caught 10 fish at the most and obviously they were all small. We started fishing on some of our deep stuff on Games Lake and had our limit relatively quickly throwing jigs and worms to the deep weedline. After realizing we weren't going to be able to upgrade we headed to some docks and shallow weedbeds but that was totally unproductive. Before leaving Games we tried the deep stuff once more but only upgraded a small amount with another slightly bigger fish. We then spent the last hour of the night in Norway Lake and only managed to catch 1 small fish on a swimbait over a shallow flat and that was it for our night.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Big Bass Bonanza - Sauk Lake
This past Sunday was the first of four tournaments on the Big Bass Bonanza circuit. It was held on Sauk Lake and after our practice my dad and I did not have the highest expectations coming into the event. We really struggled to get bites but at least when we did get a bite it was a good fish for the most part. We were able to narrow down our game plan to one general area of the lake that had several key spots in it but we were not on anything solid. Our whole goal was just to catch an eight fish limit in our eight hours of fishing time. As is often the case however practice is no indication of how the tournament will go and we were able to catch a solid limit weighing almost 23 lbs which was good for 5th place out of the 37 teams competing. Heres how we did it.
Our general area was a large flat in 5 to 10 feet of water that was almost entirely covered with curly leaf pondweed. This is a type of weed I generally do not like fishing in because it seems very difficult to catch fish out of for some reason. On Sauk though the fish were in there so that is where we fished. For our first stop I pulled up to one of our weighpoints near a shoreline point. Within 5 minutes I had a fish close to 3 lbs in the boat on a chrome sexy shad Strike King Red Eye Shad. After working that area shallow I pulled out deeper to the inside corner of the point and popped another fish close to 3 lbs on a watermelon Picasso Jig. We continued to work around the flat but the fishing slowed for awhile until we made our way to what proved to be our best spot for the day.
This area was still on the same flat but had a different feature that the fish were holding on. It was a ridge that came up to about 5 feet with 8 feet of water on either side of it. There were weeds on either side as well but on the very top of it was a bare area. We just worked back and forth keeping the boat in deeper water and casting up to the top of it. We were able to fill out our 8 fish limit by 9:30 in the morning which was way faster than we ever could have expected. Most of the fish were in the 2 - 2 1/2 lb range but I was able to put 2 in the boat in the 3 3/4 lb range. All of those fish came on the watermelon jig and a black/blue flack Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver dragged slowly across the ridge.
After filling our limit we fished the ridge awhile longer but it really slowed down so we started moving around more. We tried a few docks and trees and were able to get a small upgrade. We also tried another large weedy flat but struck out there. Towards the end of the day we made our way back to the ridge but again it was very slow. I eventually caught another solid fish on the jig and upgraded about a 1/2 lb but it was the only fish we caught there that time and it was time to head in.
Our general area was a large flat in 5 to 10 feet of water that was almost entirely covered with curly leaf pondweed. This is a type of weed I generally do not like fishing in because it seems very difficult to catch fish out of for some reason. On Sauk though the fish were in there so that is where we fished. For our first stop I pulled up to one of our weighpoints near a shoreline point. Within 5 minutes I had a fish close to 3 lbs in the boat on a chrome sexy shad Strike King Red Eye Shad. After working that area shallow I pulled out deeper to the inside corner of the point and popped another fish close to 3 lbs on a watermelon Picasso Jig. We continued to work around the flat but the fishing slowed for awhile until we made our way to what proved to be our best spot for the day.
This area was still on the same flat but had a different feature that the fish were holding on. It was a ridge that came up to about 5 feet with 8 feet of water on either side of it. There were weeds on either side as well but on the very top of it was a bare area. We just worked back and forth keeping the boat in deeper water and casting up to the top of it. We were able to fill out our 8 fish limit by 9:30 in the morning which was way faster than we ever could have expected. Most of the fish were in the 2 - 2 1/2 lb range but I was able to put 2 in the boat in the 3 3/4 lb range. All of those fish came on the watermelon jig and a black/blue flack Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver dragged slowly across the ridge.
After filling our limit we fished the ridge awhile longer but it really slowed down so we started moving around more. We tried a few docks and trees and were able to get a small upgrade. We also tried another large weedy flat but struck out there. Towards the end of the day we made our way back to the ridge but again it was very slow. I eventually caught another solid fish on the jig and upgraded about a 1/2 lb but it was the only fish we caught there that time and it was time to head in.
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