This past Thursday was a new event for the bass league. The Norway Cup has been a long running night for bass league so this year we decided that Green Lake also deserved a special Cup night. The Cup events are basically the same as any other league night with the only differences being a higher entry fee and 2 big bass payouts instead of just 1. We had 15 teams fishing and many were rewarding with some excellent fishing. Most bass fishermen would agree that the fishing on Green has been "off" this year but it seems like its starting to turn around a little bit. 1st place went to John & Jacob with 10.51 lbs, 2nd was Ron & Joe with 9.86 lbs, 3rd went to Dean & John with 9.56 lbs and my dad & I took 4th with 9.23 lbs. The 2 big bass for the night weighed 4.32 lbs and 3.99 lbs.
We ended up having a very good night for numbers of fish and also were able to get better size than we have been able to any other time on Green this year. We actually weighed 3 fish that were all 3 lbs or a little more which is the first time we have caught 3 3 pounders on Green this year. We ended up catching probably about 15 fish in the 3 hours so it was a lot of fun. We started our night on the north side on a shallow rock area. I put a 3 pounder in the boat after about 15 minutes on a green pumpkin Strike King KVD tube with a 1/2 oz weight. We fished around for awhile after that but got no more strikes so we headed to the east side of the lake. We fished several different areas on the east side with a spinnerbait and tube and were able to catch several fish to fill out our limit and cull a couple times but still only had the 1 good fish. Next we headed to the south side near a milfoil patch that has been pretty good for us this year but instead of a good smallie my dad put a 6-7 lb walleye in the boat. After that we headed back to our starting area to work it over again. This time the fish were biting a little bit better and we caught several fish with one of them being another 3 lb fish on a Strike King tube. With time running out we made one final move to another milfoil patch near the access. I brought the boat off plane and checked the time. It was 8:54 pm so there was very little time to fish but we were only about 30 seconds from the ramp so there was time to catch one more and thats what I did. I cast my tube right in the middle of the milfoil and got kind of hung up in it. As soon as the bait popped free from the weeds another 3 lb smallie was on it and in the boat. That was yet another last cast fish for us this year and we made it back to the ramp with about a minute to spare.
Friday, July 31, 2009
West Central Bass League - Long Lake
This past Wednesday the West Central Bass League headed back to Long Lake just north of Willmar. We had fished out there a few weeks ago and the weedgrowth was so thick it made moving around very difficult. This time a lot of those weeds had died back but the lake now has a large amount of that bright green slimy stuff growing everywhere. The fish didn't seem to mind though as we had the largest weights of the year weighed in. There were 18 boats fishing and only 36 fish weighed in so the numbers weren't great but the average size of thoese 36 bass weighed an astounding 3.86 lbs. 1st place went to David & Lenny with 3 bass weighing 15.29 lbs, 2nd place went to Ron & Dave with 13.06 lbs, 3rd went to Ron & Joe with 12.80 lbs and 4th went to Brandon & Evan with 12.21 lbs. There were also 3 more bags over 10 lbs who finished out of the money. The big bass for the night weighed 5.47 lbs. My dad and I struggled to catch just 1 fish for 3.73 lbs and 14th place.
There really isn't much to tell about our night. We had 2 bites the entire night and only boated one of them. My dad caught our one keeper on a black Spro frog in the reeds. My only bite came on a watermelon Berkley Chigger Craw but as soon as I set the hook the fish was already buried in the reeds and I had no chance to get him out. We spent most of our night flipping which was apparently the wrong thing to have done that night as it seems most of the big bags came on moving baits like spinnerbaits and topwater. Last year we caught our heaviest 3 fish league bag ever weighing over 16 lbs on Long Lake but this year after our 2 events we only weighed 3 fish total. We just never figured them out this year but thats fishing I guess.
There really isn't much to tell about our night. We had 2 bites the entire night and only boated one of them. My dad caught our one keeper on a black Spro frog in the reeds. My only bite came on a watermelon Berkley Chigger Craw but as soon as I set the hook the fish was already buried in the reeds and I had no chance to get him out. We spent most of our night flipping which was apparently the wrong thing to have done that night as it seems most of the big bags came on moving baits like spinnerbaits and topwater. Last year we caught our heaviest 3 fish league bag ever weighing over 16 lbs on Long Lake but this year after our 2 events we only weighed 3 fish total. We just never figured them out this year but thats fishing I guess.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Green Mill Tournament - Green Lake
About a month ago the guys in our club started hearing talk of a tournament that was being held by Green Mill Restaurant in Willmar. They ended up approaching us in the club for help with running the tournament and using our equipment for the weigh in. 14 teams ended up fishing with about half the teams from our bass club and the other half being employees or friends of Green Mill. The wind blew extremely hard all day and the fish didn't bite as well as everyone would have hoped but it seemed like everyone had a good time and there is already talk of running another one next year. 1st place weighed in a 5 fish limit of largemouth weighing 15.07 lbs. 2nd place weighed in 5 smallmouth for 13.99 lbs. My dad and I finished in 3rd with a limit of smallies weighing 13.67 lbs. The big bass for the day was a 5.11 lb largemouth caught by the winning team.
We started our day on a milfoil patch near an inside corner on the south side of the lake. The waves were already coming in pretty good right away in the morning so we figured we needed to catch them before it got too windy to fish at all. We didn't end up catching any fish out of the milfoil but as we moved down the corner breakline we found the fish schooled up pretty good but the size wasn't what we had found earlier in the week. All those fish came on green pumpkin tubes in 8-10 feet of water. One thing I think helped trigger some of the bites was using a heavy 1/2 oz weight on the tube and really snapping it hard. That seemed to get more bites than just dragging the tube slowly along the bottom. After leaving the south side at around 9 am we had a very slow next few hours. We spent much of that time fishing deeper humps with drop shots but only managed 2 small fish. We also made an attempt to fish the south east section of the lake but the wind was blowing so hard we had waves coming over the front and back of the boat and it was just impossible to fish correctly in those kind of waves. At around noon we finally got into another little wad of fish on the north end of the lake. This time we were fishing much shallower around rocks in 5-6 feet of water but the heavy tube was still the bait of choice. I put 3 of our weigh fish in the boat in about 5 minutes and probably 20 minutes later my dad caught our big fish of the day which went 2.90 lbs on our handheld scale. After that flurry of activity the action died again and I don't think we caught another keeper in the last 1 1/2 hours.
We started our day on a milfoil patch near an inside corner on the south side of the lake. The waves were already coming in pretty good right away in the morning so we figured we needed to catch them before it got too windy to fish at all. We didn't end up catching any fish out of the milfoil but as we moved down the corner breakline we found the fish schooled up pretty good but the size wasn't what we had found earlier in the week. All those fish came on green pumpkin tubes in 8-10 feet of water. One thing I think helped trigger some of the bites was using a heavy 1/2 oz weight on the tube and really snapping it hard. That seemed to get more bites than just dragging the tube slowly along the bottom. After leaving the south side at around 9 am we had a very slow next few hours. We spent much of that time fishing deeper humps with drop shots but only managed 2 small fish. We also made an attempt to fish the south east section of the lake but the wind was blowing so hard we had waves coming over the front and back of the boat and it was just impossible to fish correctly in those kind of waves. At around noon we finally got into another little wad of fish on the north end of the lake. This time we were fishing much shallower around rocks in 5-6 feet of water but the heavy tube was still the bait of choice. I put 3 of our weigh fish in the boat in about 5 minutes and probably 20 minutes later my dad caught our big fish of the day which went 2.90 lbs on our handheld scale. After that flurry of activity the action died again and I don't think we caught another keeper in the last 1 1/2 hours.
West Central Bass League - Nest Lake
We had 14 boats fish Nest Lake on Thursday night. The fishing again was tough for most and out of all the fish weighed I believe there were only 5 smallmouth brought to the scales which has got to be close to a record for the fewest brown fish weighed in on Nest. 1st place went to Scott & Al with 9.55 lbs, 2nd was Ron & Joe with 8.53 lbs, 3rd was John & Chad with 8.41 lbs and 4th went to my dad and I with 7.59 lbs. The big bass for the night weighed 3.77 lbs.
Our fishing for the night was extremely slow although I think our bag could have been much better if we hadn't missed a couple of bites. We targeted smallies for most of the night with tubes and drop shots and caught maybe 6 smallies. We also had a few weedbeds we wanted to check for largemouth but only were able to manage 2 of those that went around the 2 lb mark. With about 20 minutes left in the night we started throwing Super Spooks and the action really seemed to pick up although most of the fish just kept hitting at the bait but not actually getting hooked up. We were able to follow up with tubes and catch a few of those fish though. We ended up weighing in 2 of those smallmouth that we caught in the last 20 minutes and it ended up being the difference between getting in the money and being in 5th place.
Our fishing for the night was extremely slow although I think our bag could have been much better if we hadn't missed a couple of bites. We targeted smallies for most of the night with tubes and drop shots and caught maybe 6 smallies. We also had a few weedbeds we wanted to check for largemouth but only were able to manage 2 of those that went around the 2 lb mark. With about 20 minutes left in the night we started throwing Super Spooks and the action really seemed to pick up although most of the fish just kept hitting at the bait but not actually getting hooked up. We were able to follow up with tubes and catch a few of those fish though. We ended up weighing in 2 of those smallmouth that we caught in the last 20 minutes and it ended up being the difference between getting in the money and being in 5th place.
West Central Bass League - Lake Johanna
The bass league returned to Johanna this past Wednesday and 15 teams showed up to try to figure out the fish once again. Some teams reported the fishing to be very tough while others caught a lot of fish. The weights were not all that impressive as is the case on Johanna the last couple of years. There was 1 big bag brought in and that was by my dad and I. We took 1st place with 11.87 lbs for our 3. 2nd place went to Tim & Grant with 9.43 lbs, 3rd went to Dean & John with 9.06 lbs and 4th went to Troy & Chad with 8.96 lbs. My dad caught the big fish of the night and it weighed in at 5.40 lbs.
Last time on Johanna my dad and I really struggled and only managed to catch 4 fish and they all came in the last half hour. This time we decided to just go where we caught those fish and stay there the whole night. We got to our area and put the trolling motor down and never picked it back up until it was time to head in. We ended up having a pretty good night catching around 15 bass but only 3 of them were over 3 lbs. Fortunately in these events we only need to weigh 3 bass. All of our fish came on Lake Fork Craw Tubes and Strike King Flippin Tubes in a variety of colors that we pitched to reed beds.
Last time on Johanna my dad and I really struggled and only managed to catch 4 fish and they all came in the last half hour. This time we decided to just go where we caught those fish and stay there the whole night. We got to our area and put the trolling motor down and never picked it back up until it was time to head in. We ended up having a pretty good night catching around 15 bass but only 3 of them were over 3 lbs. Fortunately in these events we only need to weigh 3 bass. All of our fish came on Lake Fork Craw Tubes and Strike King Flippin Tubes in a variety of colors that we pitched to reed beds.
Friday, July 17, 2009
West Central Bass League - Norway Lake
Thursday was another cold windy day and as a result only 11 teams showed up to fish Norway Lake. This was our lowest turnout of the year but I don't blame them. I wish we could have stayed home too. 1st place went to Ron & Joe with 10.92 lbs, 2nd went to Brandon & Brent with 7.26 lbs, and 3rd was Brad & Wayne with 6.23 lbs. The big bass for the night went 3.95 lbs. My dad and I blanked which put us in a tie for 10th with another team who also zeroed.
Not only did we not catch a single keeper we didn't even have a single bite from a bass. I caught 2 northerns and those were the only 2 bites we had for the night. This is were I usually talk about the fishing but obviously there isn't much to tell. We fished the first 1 1/2 hours in Games and had nothing on the 5 spots we tried. The water is so low getting through the lakes that we had to make a decision about going back to Norway because if we did there would be no returning to Games. We did make the move back to Norway and fished a bunch of different stuff but got no bites doing anything there either.
Not only did we not catch a single keeper we didn't even have a single bite from a bass. I caught 2 northerns and those were the only 2 bites we had for the night. This is were I usually talk about the fishing but obviously there isn't much to tell. We fished the first 1 1/2 hours in Games and had nothing on the 5 spots we tried. The water is so low getting through the lakes that we had to make a decision about going back to Norway because if we did there would be no returning to Games. We did make the move back to Norway and fished a bunch of different stuff but got no bites doing anything there either.
West Central Bass League - Eagle Lake
We were back on Eagle Lake this Wednesday. 14 teams showed up to compete which was the lowest turnout we have had on Wednesday this year. I think the strong winds coupled with the smallish lake kept at least a few people away. That is ok though on a lake like Eagle because space is at a premium with everyone fishing the same docks all night long. 1st place went to Paul & Pete with 10.67 lbs, 2nd was Ron & Joe with 9.80 lbs, 3rd was David & Lenny with 9.20 lbs and 4th went to Troy & Chad with 8.98 lbs. The big bass for the night went 4.06 lbs. My dad and I struggled and only caught 8.48 lbs for 6th place.
We fished docks for most of the night like everyone else and we had our 3 fish limit in about an hour but it just didn't seem like the docks were working as well as usual. At about 7:30 we ended up going offshore and found some very nice weedlines. There weren't many fish there but we did end up with one of our keepers out deep on a watermelon Brush Hog. I also caught a nice 19 inch walleye on a jig that I will be eating tonight. Our 2 other fish did come off of the docks on a green pumpkin tube and a watermelon jig.
We fished docks for most of the night like everyone else and we had our 3 fish limit in about an hour but it just didn't seem like the docks were working as well as usual. At about 7:30 we ended up going offshore and found some very nice weedlines. There weren't many fish there but we did end up with one of our keepers out deep on a watermelon Brush Hog. I also caught a nice 19 inch walleye on a jig that I will be eating tonight. Our 2 other fish did come off of the docks on a green pumpkin tube and a watermelon jig.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Ida
This past Sunday was the 3rd of 4 stops on the Big Bass Bonanza tournament circuit. Ida is a deep extremely clear lake that is known for huge numbers of bass. Catching fish on Ida is not a problem but what is difficult is finding the quality fish needed to win or do well in a tournament. Even though the average fish is well under 2 lbs it still takes around a 3 lb average to win and close to that to do well. After our practice I was just hoping to catch 16 lbs for our 8 fish and salvage a decent finish to keep us near the top in the team of the year standings. We ended up doing better than I expected and weighed a limit for 17.84 lbs which put us in 10th place out of 33 boats. Obviously this was by far our worst tournament of the year but I feel pretty good about it because it could have been a lot worse. I also feel we made good decisions on the water and fished a clean tournament to maximize the little we had going. The winners weighed 8 fish for 21.33 and 2nd place had 19.82 lbs. In the team of the year race we slipped from a 3 way tie for 1st to 2nd position but we are still in great position to make a charge at the team of the year. 1st place right now has 139 points but we are right behind with 136. There are also 2 teams with 135 points so the race is extremely tight.
Like I said earlier our practice was mediocre at best but we did have a few areas I thought we could catch 2 pounders on and maybe a few bigger than that. We started on an area where we caught our biggest fish in practice which wasn't even 3 lbs but there were also a few other decent fish around and if everything went right I felt like we could catch a limit of 2 pounders pretty quick and then try to figure out how to get a big bite the rest of the day. Of course that didn't happen even though we caught our limit in the first hour. The problem was the fish shrank and we didn't even have anything over 1 1/2 lbs let alone 2 lbs. After that hour it just seemed like the bigger fish weren't biting or had moved so we went to a few other areas to try to upgrade. We tried a few deep weedlines, shallow cabbage beds, reed beds and docks but only managed a few more small fish that helped by ounces not the pounds we needed.
By this point we had run through the 4 areas where we felt we had the best chance to do well and only had a small limit. With not much else to go to we headed back to our starting spot and hoped the fish had positioned better or were more willing to bite later in the morning. The spot really wasn't a spot but a long sharp breakline with sand on top and weeds growing right on the drop off. There were a few key areas along the drop off but really you could catch a fish anywhere along it. This time when we came back the eventual winners were sitting right on one of those little key spots. They were moving pretty slow and I know they are good fishermen so I knew something was going on and they were catching good fish. There was still plenty of area so we worked around and a few hundred yards north of them we finally started getting into some better fish. After working the area for a couple hours we had upgraded our bag to a little above the 16 lb range. All of those fish came on a watermelon Picasso jig with the small 2 1/2 inch Lake Fork Pig Claw trailer. The big key to the jig I feel was downsizing to lighter line and a smaller profile jig and trailer in the clear water. Usually if your looking for bigger fish you want to use bigger lures but in this case it was the exact opposite.
After the bite slowed in our primary area we had about an hour left in the day. The sun had started to come out so we decided to fish docks for the rest of the day. Dock fishing on Ida can be hit or miss but traditionally some of the biggest fish come from the docks and we have a few good stretches that we have relied on over the years. When we pulled in on our best docks there was already another boat there but they were far enough down that I was able to get the 10 docks I really wanted to fish. Almost immediately I caught one that went about 2 1/4 lbs and a few docks down I popped another that went 2 3/4 lbs. Both those fish were caught on a green pumpkin Strike King Bleeding Bait tube. Those were the last 2 fish we caught for the day but they were extremely important to our finish. The weights all the way down the board were very tight and without those 2 fish we would have finished much closer to the bottom of the pack than the 10th place we got.
The last stop on the Big Bass Bonanza trail is Clearwater Lake in early August. We fished it earlier in the year for one of our club state qualifier tournaments and didn't have a great day but I do like fishing on Clearwater. We have a fair amount of experience on the lake and even had a win on the Midwest Sportsman ciruit there a few years ago. I am definately not going to change the way I've been fishing just because of the points race. I go into every tournament with the goal to win and it will be no different for Clearwater. We will fish the way we feel is the best way to win the tournament based on our practice. Even if we wanted to fish conservatively it wouldn't make any sense because the points are so tight and the competition is so tough that if you stumble just a little bit theres a bunch of teams that will jump right past.
Like I said earlier our practice was mediocre at best but we did have a few areas I thought we could catch 2 pounders on and maybe a few bigger than that. We started on an area where we caught our biggest fish in practice which wasn't even 3 lbs but there were also a few other decent fish around and if everything went right I felt like we could catch a limit of 2 pounders pretty quick and then try to figure out how to get a big bite the rest of the day. Of course that didn't happen even though we caught our limit in the first hour. The problem was the fish shrank and we didn't even have anything over 1 1/2 lbs let alone 2 lbs. After that hour it just seemed like the bigger fish weren't biting or had moved so we went to a few other areas to try to upgrade. We tried a few deep weedlines, shallow cabbage beds, reed beds and docks but only managed a few more small fish that helped by ounces not the pounds we needed.
By this point we had run through the 4 areas where we felt we had the best chance to do well and only had a small limit. With not much else to go to we headed back to our starting spot and hoped the fish had positioned better or were more willing to bite later in the morning. The spot really wasn't a spot but a long sharp breakline with sand on top and weeds growing right on the drop off. There were a few key areas along the drop off but really you could catch a fish anywhere along it. This time when we came back the eventual winners were sitting right on one of those little key spots. They were moving pretty slow and I know they are good fishermen so I knew something was going on and they were catching good fish. There was still plenty of area so we worked around and a few hundred yards north of them we finally started getting into some better fish. After working the area for a couple hours we had upgraded our bag to a little above the 16 lb range. All of those fish came on a watermelon Picasso jig with the small 2 1/2 inch Lake Fork Pig Claw trailer. The big key to the jig I feel was downsizing to lighter line and a smaller profile jig and trailer in the clear water. Usually if your looking for bigger fish you want to use bigger lures but in this case it was the exact opposite.
After the bite slowed in our primary area we had about an hour left in the day. The sun had started to come out so we decided to fish docks for the rest of the day. Dock fishing on Ida can be hit or miss but traditionally some of the biggest fish come from the docks and we have a few good stretches that we have relied on over the years. When we pulled in on our best docks there was already another boat there but they were far enough down that I was able to get the 10 docks I really wanted to fish. Almost immediately I caught one that went about 2 1/4 lbs and a few docks down I popped another that went 2 3/4 lbs. Both those fish were caught on a green pumpkin Strike King Bleeding Bait tube. Those were the last 2 fish we caught for the day but they were extremely important to our finish. The weights all the way down the board were very tight and without those 2 fish we would have finished much closer to the bottom of the pack than the 10th place we got.
The last stop on the Big Bass Bonanza trail is Clearwater Lake in early August. We fished it earlier in the year for one of our club state qualifier tournaments and didn't have a great day but I do like fishing on Clearwater. We have a fair amount of experience on the lake and even had a win on the Midwest Sportsman ciruit there a few years ago. I am definately not going to change the way I've been fishing just because of the points race. I go into every tournament with the goal to win and it will be no different for Clearwater. We will fish the way we feel is the best way to win the tournament based on our practice. Even if we wanted to fish conservatively it wouldn't make any sense because the points are so tight and the competition is so tough that if you stumble just a little bit theres a bunch of teams that will jump right past.
Friday, July 10, 2009
West Central Bass League - Long Lake
We tied our best turnout of the year on Wednesday and Thursday this week we had our highest turnout with 16 teams fishing. Had they known how the lake was fishing many might have stayed home. It's not that the fishing is that bad on Long right now because it seems about normal for this time of year. The problem is the stringy weeds that are matted up in the shallow water pretty much around the entire lake. It makes it extremely difficult to move the boat around and fish effectively since you constantly have to clean off the trolling motor. But this is Long Lake so there were some good bags weighed in. Brad & Wayne took 1st place with 11.70 lbs, Paul & Terry took 2nd with 11.45 lbs, Dean & John took 3rd with 10.65 lbs, and Scott & Al were 4th with 10.10 lbs. My dad and I only weighed 2 fish for 5.91 lbs which put us in 7th place for the night. The big bass of the night went 4.85 lbs.
Thursday night was extremely disappointing for us as we turned in our worst performance of the season. I was hoping to weigh 3 fish every night of the year which I don't think we have ever done before. As easy as it might sound to just catch 3 fish in an evening, believe me it's not. What makes it worse though is we had the chances. If we only had 2 bites and caught 2 fish that would be one thing but we actually had 9 bites but only caught 2 of them. That kind of poor execution just won't get it done against this group of anglers. There really wasn't any reason for missing all those fish either. It was just one of those fluke things. As for the fish we did catch they both came by flipping the reeds with soft plastics which is pretty much what we did the entire night.
Thursday night was extremely disappointing for us as we turned in our worst performance of the season. I was hoping to weigh 3 fish every night of the year which I don't think we have ever done before. As easy as it might sound to just catch 3 fish in an evening, believe me it's not. What makes it worse though is we had the chances. If we only had 2 bites and caught 2 fish that would be one thing but we actually had 9 bites but only caught 2 of them. That kind of poor execution just won't get it done against this group of anglers. There really wasn't any reason for missing all those fish either. It was just one of those fluke things. As for the fish we did catch they both came by flipping the reeds with soft plastics which is pretty much what we did the entire night.
West Central Bass League - Norway Lake
We had another great turnout for Wednesday night with 20 teams showing up to fish. This matches the highest turnout we have had on Wednesdays. Unfortunately for most the fishing wasn't very good and only 12 of the 20 teams were able to weigh in their 3 fish limit. For the most part the limits that were weighed in were on the small side too. There were a few exceptions though as John & Mary took 1st with 10.66 lbs. My dad & I were 2nd with 10.26 lbs, Scott & Kelly took 3rd with 7.48 lbs and Paul & Pete were 4th with 7.30 lbs. My dad caught the big bass of the night and it weighed in at 4.00 lbs.
Our fishing for the night was very slow. We didn't catch a fish for about the first hour of the night and the last 2 hours weren't that great either. I think we ended up catching 6 keepers on the night with 3 of them being very small and the other 3 being very nice ones. We headed to Games Lake as usual to fish the weedlines. We bounced around to several different areas to start with before finding the spot we were looking for. The first fish we caught there was my dad's 4 pounder so we just kind of hunkered down and fished that small area very thoroughly. After about 45 minutes to an hour we had 2 more good fish in the box and that was it for our night. All of our keepers came on watermelon Picasso jigs.
Our fishing for the night was very slow. We didn't catch a fish for about the first hour of the night and the last 2 hours weren't that great either. I think we ended up catching 6 keepers on the night with 3 of them being very small and the other 3 being very nice ones. We headed to Games Lake as usual to fish the weedlines. We bounced around to several different areas to start with before finding the spot we were looking for. The first fish we caught there was my dad's 4 pounder so we just kind of hunkered down and fished that small area very thoroughly. After about 45 minutes to an hour we had 2 more good fish in the box and that was it for our night. All of our keepers came on watermelon Picasso jigs.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
West Central Bass League - Lake Johanna
Lake Johanna has a reputation as a big fish lake but the last few years in league have not really shown that at all. There are still nice average fish but the real big ones have seemed to disappear. That didn't stop 15 teams from trying to catch one of those Lake Johanna giants though. 1st place went to Paul & Pete with 10.67 lbs, 2nd was Ralph with 9.46 lbs, 3rd was Dean & John with 9.07 lbs and 4th went to John & Mary with 9.05 lbs. The big bass for the night went 4.41 lbs. My dad and I were able to salvage a 5th place finish with 8.60 lbs after struggling pretty much the entire night.
There isn't much to tell as far as the fishing goes for us. We had an extremely tough night. In fact we did not have a fish in the livewell until about 8:30 pm. With a 9:00 pm check in time that didn't leave much time to put something together. Fortunately the fish turned on a little bit at dusk and we were able to catch 4 fish in that time. We caught all our fish casting Yamamoto Senkos to the edges of a reed bed. Just like the previous night the last fish I caught was our big fish of the night and it weighed almost 4 lbs. That fish really moved us up in the standings for the night. Even though we were just out of the money the points will really help at the end of the year.
There isn't much to tell as far as the fishing goes for us. We had an extremely tough night. In fact we did not have a fish in the livewell until about 8:30 pm. With a 9:00 pm check in time that didn't leave much time to put something together. Fortunately the fish turned on a little bit at dusk and we were able to catch 4 fish in that time. We caught all our fish casting Yamamoto Senkos to the edges of a reed bed. Just like the previous night the last fish I caught was our big fish of the night and it weighed almost 4 lbs. That fish really moved us up in the standings for the night. Even though we were just out of the money the points will really help at the end of the year.
West Central Bass League - Lake Calhoun
This past Wednesday 18 teams returned to Lake Calhoun. We had fished the lake a few weeks ago on Thursday night and the fishing was very good with 4 bags over 10 lbs weighed in. This week the fishing was quite a bit tougher as only one bag over 10 lbs was caught. Fortunately that bag was caught by my dad and I. We weighed in 10.74 lbs to take 1st place for the night. 2nd place went to Dean & JD with 9.61 lbs, 3rd was Jim & Dwight with 9.15 lbs, and 4th was Paul & Pete with 8.41 lbs. I caught the big bass of the night and it went 3.85 lbs.
The area where the winning bag was caught last time is an area we frequently share with the guys who won. On this night we had a better start number than them so I went straight to the sweet spot. Unfortunately it wasn't very sweet this night and we ended up leaving pretty quickly with just one small keeper in the box. Next we hit a few docks and I put one in the boat a little over 2 lbs. A few docks down my dad caught his big fish of the night that went about 3 1/4 lbs. The dock fish came on Strike King Bleeding Bait Tubes. We fished more docks and several other weedy areas but were just not able to catch much else at all let alone upgrade fish. Towards the end of the evening we moved back to our starting area but there was still nothing happening so I started moving the boat out from the bank. The lake is basically just a flat bottom with weeds covering pretty much the entire lake so I was just kind of moving around randomly looking for an area the fish were holding. With about 10 minutes to go we found it. There wasn't really any particular reason for the fish to be right in one spot like that but they were stacked up. In the last 10 minutes I think we caught 5 good keepers with 4 of them being 3 lbs or better. My dad's fish came on a watermelon Picasso jig and mine were all on a watermelon Strike King Bleeding Bait Flippin Tube. With about 3 minutes before 9 pm my dad said we need to go in but I made one last cast. I actually picked up the trolling motor and when I had that stowed I picked up on my rod and caught one last fish on the last cast. That one ended up being the 3.85 that was the big fish for the night. I just wish we stumbled onto them a little bit earlier because I think we really could have got a bunch of fish. As it was we caught what we needed and had a very exciting end to the night.
The area where the winning bag was caught last time is an area we frequently share with the guys who won. On this night we had a better start number than them so I went straight to the sweet spot. Unfortunately it wasn't very sweet this night and we ended up leaving pretty quickly with just one small keeper in the box. Next we hit a few docks and I put one in the boat a little over 2 lbs. A few docks down my dad caught his big fish of the night that went about 3 1/4 lbs. The dock fish came on Strike King Bleeding Bait Tubes. We fished more docks and several other weedy areas but were just not able to catch much else at all let alone upgrade fish. Towards the end of the evening we moved back to our starting area but there was still nothing happening so I started moving the boat out from the bank. The lake is basically just a flat bottom with weeds covering pretty much the entire lake so I was just kind of moving around randomly looking for an area the fish were holding. With about 10 minutes to go we found it. There wasn't really any particular reason for the fish to be right in one spot like that but they were stacked up. In the last 10 minutes I think we caught 5 good keepers with 4 of them being 3 lbs or better. My dad's fish came on a watermelon Picasso jig and mine were all on a watermelon Strike King Bleeding Bait Flippin Tube. With about 3 minutes before 9 pm my dad said we need to go in but I made one last cast. I actually picked up the trolling motor and when I had that stowed I picked up on my rod and caught one last fish on the last cast. That one ended up being the 3.85 that was the big fish for the night. I just wish we stumbled onto them a little bit earlier because I think we really could have got a bunch of fish. As it was we caught what we needed and had a very exciting end to the night.
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