Sunday, August 30, 2009

West Central Bass League - Norway Lake

Thursday August 27th was also the final night for the bass league this year. The format was exactly the same as on Wednesday but on this night we had the full 10 team field fishing. It was a great night for fishing but the fish just didn't really cooperate for the most part. Ron & Joe again figured it out the best and went back to back in winning both Classics this year. On Thursday they weighed 8.49 lbs. 2nd place went to John & Jacob with 6.05 lbs and 3rd went to Paul & Troy with 6.01 lbs. The big bass for the night weighed 3.37 lbs and the 2nd big bass was 2.98 lbs. They were both caught by Ron & Joe so they made a nice haul for the night and the week. My dad and I were only able to come up with 4.97 lbs which put us in a disappointing 7th place for the night. For whatever reason we fished extremely poorly on Thursdays this year even though we ended up being team of the year on Wednesdays.

As you can tell from our weight we really struggled. We have been getting a lot of rain recently and since we figured the water would be up we obviously wanted to head to Games Lake. We found out quickly that they had not gotten as much rain right around the lake since we were unable to get our boat through the channel since it was much too shallow. That threw a wrench in our plans right off the bat but we regrouped quickly. Our first stop was a stretch of docks and I ended up catching a keeper on my very first cast. I caught another keeper on the very next dock. After that we ran more docks but it was a very long time until we were able to catch our 3rd fish. All those fish came on a black/blue Bleeding Bait tube. After that we tried some reeds where I was able to catch our biggest fish of the night which weighed around 2 lbs. That fish also came on a black/blue tube. We then tried another stretch of reeds where things really went wrong. We had probably 3 bites apiece but neither one of us was able to hook up at all. I don't know how big any of the fish were but with the low weights it wouldn't have taken much to move up. I have no clue why we couldn't catch any of those bites but it just didn't happen and the night was over.

These were the last 2 nights of league for the summer but we will be running the fall league again. We run the fall league on Saturdays since it's starting to get too dark in the evening this time of year. We also fish for 5 hours with a 5 fish limit instead of 3 hours with a 3 fish limit. Otherwise the rules are basically the same. We will be running these every Saturday until the end of October or as long as the weather permits. My next 2 events before the fall league begins are the Big Bass Bonanza TOC which is being held next weekend on Lake Osakis and then the week after that we have the Minnesota BASS Federation TOC on Lake Pokegama.

West Central Bass Leage - Nest Lake

Wednesday August 26th marked the final night of the West Central Bass League for the 2009 season. Only the top 10 in the points at the end of the year were invited to fish this final night. Each team then threw a lake name into a hat and Nest Lake was drawn. We ended up with only 9 teams fishing because of last minute circumstances that forced one team to drop out for the night. 1st place for the night went to Ron & Joe with 13.15 lbs which is the heaviest weight I can remember coming from Nest Lake. 2nd went to my dad & I with 11.75 lbs and 3rd went to Jeff & Kris with 10.45 lbs. The big bass for the night weighed 5.11 lbs and the 2nd big bass was caught by myself. It was a beautiful 4.48 lb smallmouth.

That big smallmouth was my first fish of the night and I caught it after fishing for less than 10 minutes. We fished a rocky area with green pumpkin tubes and watermelon worms rigged on a dropshot. After about 45 minutes we had 3 fish in the livewell so we headed to a few more areas around the lake. We tried several weedline areas for largemouths and several other rocky areas for smallies but the action was pretty slow with only a few fish that wouldn't help us. Eventually we went back to the starting area and it again was pretty slow but my dad was able to catch one about 3 1/2 lbs on a tube that upgraded our limit a little bit. Once again the action slowed so we bounced around the lake running and gunning looking for one more really big bite but we never caught another fish. I knew we had close to 12 lbs in the livewell so I was still feeling pretty confident since that would be the winning weight on Nest any other night except on this night.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

West Central Bass League - Green Lake

Just like Wednesday this past Thursday was the final regular season night for the league with the Classic to follow next week. We only had 10 teams show up to fish Green Lake on a cloudy, rainy and windy night. I don't blame most people for staying home because those are really the worst conditions for Green. The fish definately seem to bite better with a little bit of sun. The wind, if it's not too strong, is alright but the clouds and rain really seem to shut down the bite. That was reflected in the results for the night as most people reported struggling to catch fish. 1st place went to my dad & I with 7.73 lbs, 2nd was Paul & Pete with 7.71 lbs and 3rd went to Jim & John with 6.72 lbs. The big fish for the night was caught by my dad and it weighed 3.43 lbs. Wayne & Brad ended up holding on to the team of the year title with 189 points. They led pretty much the entire year and held off 2nd place by a mere 1 point. My dad and I ended up in 5th place for the standings which is the worst I can remember doing in forever.

Even though we ended up winning it was by no means easy. In fact we only caught 3 fish the entire night. We started on a shallow rock area that has been pretty good to us this year. It took awhile to get a bite but I finally put one in the boat on a green pumpkin Strike King KVD tube with a 1/2 oz weight. That fish was around 3 1/4 lbs so it was a very nice start to the night. After that we bounced around a few other shallow, mid-depth and deep areas with no success. After that we tried another deep area that only ever produces 1 fish but if you catch one there its a good one. That is where my dad caught the big fish of the night on a watermelon Lake Fork Tackle Trick Worm rigged on a drop shot in 26 feet of water. At this point it was 8 pm and we only had 2 fish. With an 8:45 pm check in there wasn't much time left. We tried a few more deep areas since we were seeing a lot of fish and bait but couldn't get anything to go. Finally I decided to run to the east side of the lake out in the wind. There is a tiny weedbed in about 12 feet of water that has had fish on it all year. We got over there with about 15 minutes to fish and I boated our final keeper on the KVD tube. It was only a little over 12 inches but it ended up being enough to seal the victory for the night.

West Central Bass League - Lake Koronis

This past Wednesday marked the final regular season night of the year for the West Central Bass League. There is still 1 more night to fish but that is the Classic where only the top 10 teams are invited to fish. We only had 11 teams show up to fish on a rainy and tough night for Koronis. 1st place went to Ron & Joe with 9.85 lbs, 2nd was Bill & Todd with 7.64 lbs, and 3rd was Paul & Pete. My dad and I weighed 4.80 lbs which put us in 6th place for the night. The big fish for the night weighed 4.03 lbs. Since this was the last night the team of the year was decided as well. Two teams ended up tied with 186 points and after some controversy over the tiebreaker we have decided to have co-teams of the year. Those teams are my dad & myself and Paul & Pete.

Our fishing for the night was extremely tough. We actually started off pretty quickly by boating our limit in just over half an hour. All those fish came from docks and trees on a black/blue Strike King Bleeding Bait tube. Unfortunately that first limit was what we ended up weighing in. We did catch a few more fish from the docks and trees but nothing that would help us. After awhile we headed to a smallmouth area where I was throwing a big Super Spook and had several fish blowup on my bait but none of them would get hooked up. Finally I hooked into one and had it almost to the boat before it came off. That fish was probably around 2 1/2 lbs which ended up costing us the outright team of the year title since it would have moved us up several spots for the night. After the action slowed in the smallmouth area we bounced around the lake trying shallow and deep with absolutely no action at all.

B.A.S.S. Northern Divisional - Bays de Noc

I guess I've put off writing this for about as long as I can but as most of you know by now I didn't fare very well out in Michigan. The tournament was held August 12-14 and my 3 day total was 3 fish for 8 lbs 13 oz. That put me in 94th place out of 113 anglers. I'm not sure exactly what went wrong but for the most part nothing really went right for me the entire week. I'll do a quick recap of the highlights few as they may be.

I arrived in Escanaba Michigan on Thursday the week before the tournament was to start. This gave me 5 full days of practice time before the actual tournament began. 5 days may seem like a lot but if I had it to do over again I'd want much more time. Not only did I struggle to find areas holding concentrations of fish but getting around on the water was difficult and time consuming. It would have been much nicer to have more time to pick and choose when and where to go out. With so much water to cover on a huge place like that 5 days really isn't a lot. But I'm not making excuses. Out of the 5 days of practice I only really had 1 good day where I thought I got onto something that would work for me in the tournament. That day was actually sunny and calm which was a rarity throughout the time I was there. I got onto a super shallow rock/sand pattern and was able to catch fish in most of the areas that seemed to have the right mix of bottom cover. I ended up getting around 20 bites that day but I shook most of them off. I did end up boating 5 of the bites I had and by my caculations would have had nearly 22 lbs for those 5 fish if it was a tournament day. Among those 5 fish were my 2nd and 3rd biggest smallmouth ever weighing in at 5.60 lbs and 5.10 lbs. Needless to say I was pretty excited about what I had found and thought I had a decent chance in the tournament even though the rest of my practice was not very good at all.

On day 1 of the tournament we again had calm conditions so I knew exactly where I wanted to go. I started on an area with the shallow rock/sand mix where I had caught my biggest fish. Right away things didn't seem right. The entire week we had been having south winds and the day before the tournament was a pretty strong north wind. With so much area of water the wind really moves alot of it around. The south winds had been blowing water in all week and the north wind blew it right back out. My already shallow area was now almost a foot shallower than it had been. I don't know for sure if that was the reason but the fish were entirely gone. I ran a few more miles down to my next similar spot and found the same thing. All the fish were gone except for one that we spotted. I made a few casts at it but was unable to get it to bite but my partner threw one cast at it and hooked and lost it. That fish looked to be between 4-5 lbs but it was the only fish in the area. After spending a few hours on my stuff we made the long run over to Big Bay de Noc. At least the lake was calm because it still took a little over 30 minutes running wide open to get to my partner's spot. That is by far the longest run I have ever made and when we got there it looked like it was going to be well worth it. Almost immediately I boated my 1 fish of the day. I caught it on a green pumpkin KVD tube and it weighed in at 4 lbs 1 oz. We continued fishing the area for several more hours and my partner boated 4 fish but I was never able to put another one in the boat.

Day 2 was again cloudy and with a fairly strong south wind. With the change in conditions I decided to start in the same areas again. I was just hoping something would move those big fish back in there or at least some keepers. That didn't happen and after a few hours I knew I needed to do something else. My backup area was a huge sand flat. There were high spots and grass patches on it but where I ended up catching my fish was a pipe that I hadn't even seen on my practice day there. We were just going along the sand and my partner says he thinks he saw a pipe running out across the lake. I turned the boat around and sure enough there was a pipe in the sand. Some of it was buried under the high spots but where the water was deeper it was exposed. We followed it for as far as we could and I eventually boated a 3 lb 4 oz smallie on a chartruese and white spinnerbait. After that it was off to his spots and that ended up being the only keeper I caught for the day.

On day 3 the wind was blowing right off the bat in the morning. My partner wanted to make the run to the Big Bay and I said we could go there because I didn't have anything going. Several of the boats ahead of us started in that direction but soon turned back around. Right as we were about to blast off my partner says not to make the long run. Now we were going to have a lot more time to fish instead of run but the problem was I didn't know where to catch any. I didn't want to go to the same areas first thing in the morning since that hadn't worked at all so instead we went to the pipe from the previous day. I struck out on the pipe but further down on a weed patch I boated my 1 keeper for the day on a green pumkin KVD tube. It was only a 14 incher, which is the minimum length, but it was a keeper. It actually ended up being my only claim to fame of the tournament since it weighed in at 1 lb 8 oz. which was the smallest fish weighed by any competitor all 3 days! After that we tried some of my partner's areas where he boated a small keeper but nothing for me. By now it was getting later in the day and I wanted to see if my big fish areas would be better at that time. Unfortunately the waves were huge by this time and it took forever to get there. Once we did get to the area I wasn't even able to fish it properly. I needed to be really shallow but the waves were so big if I got up real shallow the boat would have been bottoming out in the troughs. All the while the wind continued to build and by the time we were ready to head back to the weigh in the waves were consistant 6 footers with a few even bigger than that. It was the wildest water I have ever seen and honestly I'd rather not see it again. One boat actually got flipped over and they needed to be rescued by the Coast Guard. It wasn't my idea of fun thats for sure.

So all in all I'd have to say this was my worst tournament performance in years. I feel like I've gotten pretty consistent with my performances but this was a total bomb. If I had to do it all over again I'm not even sure what I would change. Obviously I needed to practice differently and probably spend more time over in the Big Bay since that is where many of the best bags came from even though the ride there and back would be treachorous. I basically fished like a rookie which at this level I was since it was my first time. Next time I make it back to the Divisionals I guarantee the same thing won't happen.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

West Central Bass League - Lake Florida

I am writing this from Michigan so I do not have the details with me and I am doing this from memory so it may not be completly accurate. This past Wednesday we had 18 teams fishing on a very tough night for Lake Florida. I do not remember who finished where so I will only be giving the weights. 1st place weighed 7.87 lbs, 2nd had 7.26 lbs, 3rd had 7.03 lbs and 4th weighed 6.93 lbs. The big bass for the night went 4.54 lbs. My dad and I only caught 2 keepers for 4.44 lbs. I'm not sure what place we finished but it was well back in the pack.

We spent the majority of our night out in deep water and that bite just wasn't happening. I ended up catching our 2 keepers in one area on a watermelon red flake Lake Fork Tackle Trick Worm. I also missed one other bite there that probably would have been our third keeper. Other than that we fished a few docks where we caught a few short fish but overall our night was very uneventful.

Michigan has been pretty uneventful as well. I'm not catching very many fish and it seems like they are really scattered. It's hard to find any areas where I feel like I can catch more than a couple fish. With a 3 day tournament I am going to have to find something more consistant if I am going to have any chance to do well. On a positive note I did catch a smallie that weighed almost 4 1/2 lbs and in that general area I saw half a dozen more that were all the same size. That won't be enuogh for the whole tournament but I feel like I can maybe at least pull one big one out of there each day. I still have 3 more days of practice left so hopefully I can figure something out. I'll keep posting updates when I have time.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Big Bass Bonanza - Clearwater Lake

Sunday was the 4th and final event of the regular season on the Big Bass Bonanza circuit. 32 teams showed up to fish Clearwater Lake and most were able to weigh in their 8 fish limits. The fishing for most however was extremely tough as the bigger fish seemed to disappear. The weights were extremely low with just a little over 18 lbs taking 1st place. My dad and I weighed a disappointing 13.94 lbs for our 8 fish which put us in 15th place for the day. Coming into the day we were in 2nd place for the team of the year standings with a good shot to take over the top spot but with our poor showing we slipped one spot into a tie for 3rd. It's a little bit tough to take knowing that we had such a good chance at team of the year but I'm not going to get too down about it because I would still consider it to be a good season overall on the BBB trail. With our 3rd place in the standings we qualified for the Tournament of Champions which will be held on Lake Osakis in early September. I haven't fished Osakis very much and its been at least 6 years if not longer since I have been there so it will be interesting to see what we can figure out for the TOC. I enjoy going to new waters so it should be fun even though the lake doesn't have the best reputation.

This is the part of the blog where I talk about our fishing for the day but this time there isn't going to be much to tell. We started in an adjacent lake where we found 2 areas that were holding quality fish. They were both weedline areas and the fish were biting right away. We had our 8 fish in the boat in just about an hour using watermelon Brush Hogs and Lake Fork Tackle Trick Worms. After that our day was pretty much done. For the rest of the day I think we caught 5 more keepers with a couple that helped us upgrade by maybe half a pound. We kept rotating through areas where we had found them in practice or where we had caught them in the past but nothing seemed to work. One thing I found really strange was our complete inability to get a bite on a jig. In practice they were eating it pretty good but on tournament day the only jig bite I had was a northern. For whatever reason the fish just were not doing the same thing they were on our practice days. Obviously that means you have to adjust and we did but we just were not able to figure it out well enough on Sunday.

My next tournament will be the B.A.S.S. Northern Divisional on Bays De Noc in Michigan which will be held Aug 12-14. I qualified for the tournament by finishing 2nd in last years State Tournament of Champions. Unfortunately this means I will be missing 3 league nights and the West Central Bassmasters Summer Classic on Green Lake Aug 15th. Obviously the Divisional is a much more important tournament so I don't mind at all but it is going to make things very interesting at the end of the year for our leagues. I'm not sure what kind of internet access I will have out there so there may not be any updates for awhile. If I can get on a computer out there I will try to post updates on how it's going. Otherwise I'll do my full report when I get back home in a few weeks.