West Central Bassmasters State Qualifier - Lake Osakis

Sunday June 27th was our final qualifier event to determine which of our club members would go to the MN State Tournament of Champions. Unlike most of my other tournaments this is an individual event and we had 15 guys competing in this one. Going in it sounded like everyone had a very tough time in practice and extremely strong winds on tournament day did not help matters. I am not going to post the full results like I did last time but I will give some of the details. The winner on the day weighed in a 5 fish limit for 10.80 lbs and I came in 2nd with 10.02 lbs. After that no other bag topped 9 lbs. The big fish for the day was caught by my dad and it weighed 3.77 lbs. With my 2nd place finish I was able to move into the top spot for the club this year! This means that I will be the guaranteed boater from our club at the state tourney! It is always nice to be assured that you will be able to use your own boat.

Here is the list of state qualifiers from our club this year:

1st - Andy Nitchals

2nd - Brian Krause

3rd - Mike Nitchals

4th - Dean Drexler

5th - Grant King

6th - Joe Patock

Alternate - David Christinsen

This is a strong group of fishermen. Many of them have qualified for state multiple times and it should allow us to have a good showing. Besides my personal accomplishments at the state tourney over the past 2 years our club has also been the top club in the state in that portion of the event those 2 years. I see no reason why we can't keep that crown!

I had the same experience as the others in the club who had a tough time during practice. My dad and I spent about 9 hours on the lake the week before and caught about 10 fish. That doesn't sound too bad but they were all small except for 1 and also there really was no rhyme or reason to where we would get a bite. One area of reeds on the north end of the lake seemed to be a little bit better though so that is where I decided to start. Almost immediately I had a small keeper in the boat and a short time later my dad boated the big bass of the day. This got me feeling pretty good about the area and I decided to spend a good chunk of the morning without ever picking up the trolling motor. After fishing through the reeds and adding another small keeper, the cover turned to slop near the bank. I picked up a Zoom Horny Toad, which I almost never throw, and fired it up next to shore. As soon as it hit the water my biggest fish of the day was all over it. He got buried in the slop and I just skied it into the boat. That fish went right at 3 lbs and I was feeling pretty good about my chances if I could just fill my limit. After that we worked back through the reeds again with no action until I came to a few docks where I added another small keeper on a Strike King tube and my limit fish a short while later from a small reed pocket. By now it was 10:30 in the morning and I had not started the big motor since blastoff. For me that is very unusual but on this day it was effective. At that point I felt it was time to check some other stuff and the day got really slow. I didn't have another bite until 1:30 in the afternoon. That fish came on a black/blue jig pitched into the reeds and allowed me to cull up slightly.

This was an unusual tournament for me in that I spent so much time without moving and also the number of lures it took to get my limit. Most of the time if you aren't dialed into to just a couple of baits it means that you are struggling pretty bad. This tournament my 5 weigh fish came on 5 different lures. They were a Chigger Craw, Sweet Beaver, Horny Toad, jig and tx-rigged tube. I will say I felt like I was struggling out there but at the end of the day it turned out to be much better than I expected!

WCB/Green Mill Summer Classic - Green Lake

Saturday June 26th marked the first of two events my Federation Nation club, the West Central Bassmasters, and Green Mill Restaurant will be holding this year on Green Lake in Spicer Minnesota. We had 33 teams show up from all over the state to compete on one of the premier tournament lakes in Minnesota. Although it is one of the best lakes in the state, this year it had been fishing tougher than I have ever seen it and many teams struggled to catch quality fish. There are always a few who figure it out though and some very nice bags were brought to the scales. With 33 teams competing, 6 spots were paid. Big bass of the day also earned a check.

1st - John & Jacob Zvorak 6 fish 18.89 lbs

2nd - Seth Fieder & Austin Felix 6 fish 18.58 lbs

3rd - Andy & Mike Nitchals 6 fish 17.68 lbs

4th - Matt & Verney Klemm 6 fish 17.50 lbs

5th - Jason Dudek & Jason Holmer 6 fish 16.90 lbs

6th - Paul Shimek & John Lindgren 6 fish 15.33 lbs

Big Bass - Matt & Verney Klemm 4.28 lbs

As you can see the weights at the top were pretty tight together as is usually the case on Green Lake but after that they began to tail off quite quickly. Only half the field was able to weigh in over a 2 lb. average which shows just how tough the lake is fishing right now. Another interesting note is the number of largemouth weighed in. Traditionally this has been a smallmouth lake and that is what most people fish for but in this tournament 70 largemouth were weighed compared to 88 smallmouth weighed. That is getting pretty close to a 50/50 mix. The big bass for the day was also a largemouth which is almost always the case in recent years.

My next tournament on Green is coming up July 11th on the Big Bass Bonanza circuit so in this post I cannot be very detailed with my fishing report. It looks like it is going to be hot for the next 2 weeks though so the fish will be moving and probably doing some completely different things by then but I still don't want to reveal too much. After the BBB tournament I will maybe get more detailed about the patterns and spots used for both tourneys.

So what can I say about this event? I guess there are a few things that I can reveal. It is pretty well known, amongst many in the area, that I enjoy fishing deep on Green. That was not the case this year though. I was not able to find any deep water areas I had confidence in for the tournament. All of the fish we caught came from water 10 feet deep or less. As far as what type of areas we were fishing in the shallow water I won't say but we fished a variety of spots. There were a couple keys subtleties that seemed to make a big difference though.

I will also say that one lure really produced much better than any others for us and that was a tube. We rigged it a variety of ways and worked them in several different ways as well. We did end up catching probably around 35-40 fish on the day and the vast majority of them came on a tube. Another interesting note is that the majority of the fish we caught were largemouth. We still caught around 15 smallies but I don't ever remember catching so many largemouth on a tournament day, especially since we were not necessarily targeting largemouths specifically. Our final bag ended up consisting of 3 smallies and 3 largemouths which is probably more largemouth than I have weighed in out of all my other tournaments out there combined.

Well I've probably said too much already but I hope that was an interesting read and still sufficiently vague.

West Central Bass League - Lake Florida

We fished Lake Florida for the first time this year for league June 17th. The reports coming into the event were that Lake Florida was really tough this year and from the little bit of time I put on the water I had to agree. Maybe that was the reason the turnout was so low with only 14 boats competing. The fishing, numbers wise, turned out to be better than I expected but as usual for the lake in recent years the weights were pretty small in general. Here are the results.

1st Andy & Mike (Me) 3 fish 9.94 lbs

2nd Tim Stockland & Grant King 3 fish 7.03 lbs

3rd Paul & Troy 3 fish 7.03 lbs

4th Ron & Joe 3 fish 6.48 lbs

Big Bass Andy Nitchals 3.49 lbs

As you can see there was a tie for second place in total weight but Tim & Grant won the tiebreaker by having a larger fish than Paul & Troy.

Writing this blog has become a little trickier for me in recent years as the readership has expanded. I generally have no problem talking about what worked and where but in certain instances I think I need dial back on the details. This is one of those instances. So even though I will not be very detailed in this report, I will not lie or try to deceive anyone on my blog.

My dad and I ended up having a very good night on what I was expecting to be a tough lake. We ended up catching maybe 15 or more keepers for the night and not to rub it in too much but we threw back 3 fish that would have also won handily. Maybe we should be allowed to weigh in 2 limits for a night? I'm just joking about that but we did have a fun night fishing the way I like to fish. All I am going to say about where we caught them is that they were deep. Our 3 weigh fish came on a variety of lures. We had one each on a Brush Hog, jig, and finesse worm rigged on a drop shot. We caught fish on several other lures as well but they didn't come to the scales.

West Central Bass League - Solomon Lake

The West Central Bass League returned to Lake Solomon on Wednesday June 16th. We had fished there the opening week on Thursday night and fishing was pretty good for most of the teams. It was the exact opposite this time as only 7 of the 24 teams competing were able to bring in a 3 fish limit. The winning weight was also the smallest that I can ever remember on Solomon. My dad and I really struggled for most of the evening but we did manage to bring in a 3 fish limit for 7.86 lbs which was good for 6th place. Here are the rest of the results.

1st David & Lenny 3 fish 8.80 lbs

2nd Ron & Joe 3 fish 8.77 lbs

3rd Paul & Pete 3 fish 8.26 lbs

4th Bill & Todd 3 fish 8.19 lbs

Big Bass Bill & Todd 4.47 lbs

As I said earlier we struggled for most of the night. We only had about a 20 minute period where we caught any fish at all so there really isn't much to tell in this report. I ended up catching 4 keepers in that 20 minutes by flipping a black/red flake Berkley Chigger Craw to the reeds. We must have hit that stretch before anyone else or something because the fish were biting pretty good for a little while at least. The rest of the night was just a struggle as we bounced around the lake searching for a bite that never came.

Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Ida

The second of five events on the BBB trail took place this past Sunday, June 20th on Lake Ida just north of Alexandria. There were 36 teams competing which was up slightly from the opening event a few weeks earlier. This is probably due to Ida being a much better fishing lake than the Horseshoe chain although the average size of the bass out there is pretty small. With 36 teams they ended up paying back 6 spots and my dad and I finished just out of the money in 7th place. We had an 8 fish limit for 16.70 lbs. With such a low weight I was pretty shocked to even be that close. The winning bag for the day was just over 24 lbs of smallmouth but 2nd place dropped all the way down to 17.81 lbs. The big bass for the day was a 3.96 lb largemouth.

Our practice for Ida was pretty tough overall and was interrupted by boat issues that cut our time short. Catching fish is never a problem on the lake but finding above average fish was extremely difficult even though an above average fish is only 2 lbs. We had located 2 areas that seemed to be holding more of the 2 lb fish at opposite ends of the lake. With that in mind we decided to start close to the launch site and get fishing quickly. The action started fast with a fish on my first cast but it wasn't a keeper. Several more short fish followed and we began to realize something had changed. We stuck around awhile longer and ended up adding 4 keepers but they were all small.

After that it was down to the other end of the lake to try our other "good" spot. This ended up being the same thing. A lot of small fish but the 2 pounders were gone. We did put our 8 fish limit together by about 8:30 am but we knew they would all have to be culled if we had any shot in this event. We fished around awhile longer but just couldn't find the right size so we decided to go to an area that only had small fish in practice. It was another stretch of deep weed line that has actually produced for us over the years but didn't seem to have the quality this year. For whatever reason the small fish in practice turned into 2 to 2 1/2 lb fish on tournament day though and we upgraded 7 times along that one weedline.

After the action slowed we went running docks and reeds for most of the afternoon looking for one big bite that would put us ahead of the rest of the field who we were sure would have limits of 2 lb fish. I was able to add 1 upgrade to our limit with a fish close to 2 lbs off of a dock but the big bite never came. After seeing the weights at the weigh in we realized that we messed up by leaving our honeyhole looking for a big bite that we didn't even need. I am almost positive that if we had sat on that one area the rest of the day we would have been able to cull up into 2nd place. There was no shot at first since they blew it away but I really wish we stayed put and just ground up a few ounces at a time. Hindsight is always 20/20 though.

Our weigh in fish, with the exception of the dock fish, came on watermelon LFT Twitch worms rigged on a drop-shot, watermelon Brush Hogs, and watermelon jigs. The dock fish came on a green pumpkin Strike King KVD tube.

West Central Bass League - Lake Andrew

After a record turnout the night before this Thursday had our lowest number of participants of the season. Strong winds and threats of severe thunderstorms kept most people home for the evening although it turned out to be not so bad after all. With only 13 boats fishing instead of the usual 20-25 it really opens a lake up to fish more areas. Those of us who did show up probably wished we had stayed home though after getting our butts handed to us by the winning team on what is traditionally a small fish lake. Here are the results.

1st - Superstars Tim Stockland & Grant King 3 fish 11.57 lbs

2nd - Paul & Troy 3 fish 7.70 lbs

3rd - Andy & Mike (My dad and I) 3 fish 7.09 lbs

4th - Scott & Al 3 fish 7.02 lbs

Big Bass - Tim & Grant 4.48 lbs

I'll keep this recap short and sweet since I went long on the last one and really there isn't a whole lot to say. We spent most of the night bouncing around various deep weedline areas in 10-12 feet of water. We did make two forays into the shallows but did not catch any that helped our limit. The fish we did catch were all about 2 1/4 lbs and they came on watermelon jigs and Brush Hogs.

Also I'd like to give a big THANKS to Lafe Swalin for letting us use his boat this week. Our boat broke down Tuesday morning and has been in the shop waiting for parts all week. Without his generosity we would not have been able to fish at all. Thank you Lafe!

West Central Bass League - Long Lake

This past Wednesday saw another record turnout as 27 teams showed up to compete on Long Lake. The weather was beautiful and the lake is known for kicking out some big fish so that is probably what got everyone out. The lake definitely lived up to its reputation as a big fish lake that doesn't have a lot of fish as you will see from the stats. Only 38 bass were weighed but the total weight was 139.26 lbs which made for a 3.66 lb. per fish average. That is gigantic for Minnesota! I believe only 2 fish under 3 lbs. were weighed in for the night. I lost 2 fish at the boat that would have weighed a combined 10 lbs and we only ended up weighing in 2 fish for 6.35 lbs. This was still good enough for 10th place out of the 27 teams though. Here are the rest of the results.

1st - Chad & John 3 fish 12.34 lbs

2nd - Bill & Todd 3 fish 11.90 lbs

3rd - Tom & Bob 3 fish 10.22 lbs

4th - David & Lenny 3 fish 9.53 lbs

Big Bass - Chad & John 4.96 lbs

We started our night on one of the reed islands that we shared with another boat. It is not a large area and with 2 boats on it we covered it pretty quickly without a bite for either one of us. After that it was off to another area of reeds that also failed to produce. This time though I moved off the reeds slightly into open water where the first disaster struck. I was swimming a homemade black/blue punch skirt rig with a Berkley Chigger Craw when a 4 1/2 lb fish hit right at the boat. I didn't get a very good hookset so instead of waiting for the net I just tried to boat flip it but of course it fell off just as my dad was getting the net to it. That is not the way to start the night!

With so many boats on the water our next location was one we choose simply because there was no one there. It was another stretch of reeds that I rarely fish. It turned out to be a good choice though because we boated our 2 keepers there on the punch skirt rig and a watermelon craw tube. After getting those bites we really worked the general area thoroughly for our 3rd keeper but it never came.

The rest of the night was spent fishing used water although I tried to fish it differently than others would have. Most people will just fish around the edges of the reeds but we tried to get way back in them where a fish may not have seen a lure. Towards the end of the night we got way back behind a reed point that is usually too shallow to fish but with all the rain we were able to get way back to the back where my dad had 2 blow ups on his frog but wasn't able to connect. A short while later I had a giant well over 5 lbs crush my black Spro Bronze Eye frog. The fish was absolutely crazy! It was out of the water for at least half the fight until disaster struck once again. I had it right to the boat and almost in the net when it just fell off for no apparent reason. I kept it on through all the jumping but when it was at the boat it just pulled free.

I guess there are two ways of looking at the night. One is that we fished terrible and lost big fish. It really is a horrible feeling. On the other hand I feel like we fished a perfect tournament from a mental aspect. We were able to generate the bites to win and get big bass for the night on a night when many struggled to catch just 1 fish. That is how I should look at it I suppose but I still feel sick!

West Central Bassmasters State Qualifier - Lake Minnewaska

Sunday June 13th marked the first West Central Bassmasters club event to determine which members will qualify for the Minnesota State Federation Tournament of Champions. It was held on Lake Minnewaska out of Starbuck Minnesota. We had 16 guys fishing, 12 of whom were trying to qualify for the state tourney. With 12 people trying we are allowed to send the top 6 to the state tourney. The conditions on Sunday were beautiful with light winds and cloudy skies with occasional rain showers. These are the type of conditions fish should bite well in but unfortunately for us it was just about the toughest I have ever seen the lake. Here are the results from the day's fishing:

June 13, 2010 Lake Minnewaska

Name # Fish Big Tot Wgt Place State Pts

Tim Stockland 5 3.50 10.51 1 12

Mike Nitchals 5 3.48 10.50 2 11

Andy Nitchals 5 3.96 10.24 3 10

Brian Krause 5 3.64 8.98 4 9

Dean Drexler 5 2.81 8.17 5 8

Paul Shimek 5 7.84 6

Joe Patock 5 7.59 7 7

Grant King 4 6.88 8 6

Ryan Brummond 5 2.32 6.73 9

Wayne Kitzmann 5 6.29 10

David Christinsen4 6.16 11 5

Jeff Wilke 5 5.48 12

Eric Tessmer 4 5.09 13 4

Solon Schaefer 4 4.68 14

Lenny Schaefer 3 2.89 15

Bill Neumann 2 2.83 16 3

Big Bass 3.96 Andy Nitchals

Before the tournament everyone I had talked to was complaining big time about the lake. Everyone is saying all the big fish were gone and the fishing was really tough out there. I spent about 6 hours on the lake the previous week and was able to compile 13-14 lbs pretty easily so I was really liking my chances going into the event. Of course practice and the actual tournament are much different things but I at least had confidence that I could get a few bigger bites than most of the field.

My plan was to fish weed lines in 8-14 feet of water and that is pretty much what I stuck to all day long. I did start on a rock and gravel area in about 4-6 feet of water where I was able to catch 2 quick smallmouth on watermelon/red flake Strike King Coffee Tubes but they were both only around 1 1/2 lbs. After that it was off to the weed lines for the rest of the day. I alternated between 1/2 oz and 3/4 oz watermelon jigs as well as a watermelon Brush Hog for most of my fishing. I just kept rotating through my old waypoints and some of the new areas I had found earlier in the week. I can't be too specific about the big fish of the day but I will say it came on a spot I found a couple years ago and every time I have fished it I have been able to catch at least one fish over 3 lbs off of it. It really seems like a consistent spot that doesn't receive a whole lot of pressure. That fish came on a 3/4 oz jig and if I hadn't caught that one I would have been really hurting since the rest of my limit was all small fish. I was just never able to get on the quality I had found earlier in the week although my dad, who was fishing with me, caught 2 fish in the 3- 3 1/2 lb range to enable him to finish 1 spot ahead of me. If only I had gotten one of those bites instead of him!

West Central Bass League - Norway Lake

Thursday June 10th was the Norway Cup edition of the West Central Bass Leauge. Basically the Cup night is just double the entry fee and 2 big bass are paid instead of 1. Otherwise all the other rules are the same. We had 19 teams fishing on another cool, windy and misty night. As has been the case the past couple of years there were a ton of fish caught by most of the teams but for the most part they were all small. Norway generally has one of the lowest average weights per fish of any of our league lakes. 1st place went to my dad & I with 8.15 lbs for 3 fish. 2nd went to Paul & Troy with 7.64 lbs. In 3rd was John & Jacob with 7.55 lbs and 4th went to Brad & Wayne with 7.28 lbs. The big fish for the night was caught by Paul & Troy. It weighed in at 3.93 lbs.

Our fishing for the night was extremely slow compared to many in the field. Most teams fished shallow and caught a bunch of little fish but we did the opposite and stayed out deep all night looking for a couple of the right bites which we were eventually able to find. We really only had 2 10 to 15 minute periods of activity all night long. We were able to fire up a school and catch 3 or 4 pretty quick and then just like that it was over. That is just how it goes when you are hunting for those deep water fish sometimes. I would have liked the schools to have more fish but it ended up being enough. We threw a variety of classic deep water baits including jigs, football jigs, brush hogs, 10 inch worms and Rapala DT 16 crankbaits but the 3 fish we weighed in came on football jigs and cranks.

This makes it 2 wins for us in 4 events so far this season. Hopefully we can keep up the pace and win every other time or so but with the level of competition that will be impossible. We are going to be giving it our best shot though. My next tournament is a club event to qualify for the MN BASS Federation state tournament. It will be held tomorrow on Lake Minnewaska. I enjoy the lake and have really gained a lot of confidence out there in the past couple years so it should be a good tournament. I'll update on that one as soon as possible.

West Central Bass League - Lake Johanna

We had another excellent turnout on Wednesday June 9th at Lake Johanna. 24 teams showed up to compete despite the cool and windy conditions. It seemed like a tale of two lakes while talking to the fishermen after the competition was done. Some teams reported catching a ton of fish while others including my dad and I struggled to get just a few bites. It sure seemed like one end of the lake was much more productive than the other. In any case the weights overall were pretty strong with 8 limits weighing over 9 lbs. 1st place went to Bruce & Cal with a monster 3 fish limit weighing 12.93 lbs which included the big bass of the night of 5.38 lbs. 2nd place went to Brian with 10.26 lbs. 3rd was T.J. & Isaiah with 9.98 lbs and 4th went Jeremy & Lee with 9.79 lbs. My dad & I finished 8th with 9.25 lbs.

As I mentioned earlier we had a tough time getting bites and only boated 5 fish for the evening. We did the same thing we always do on this lake which is fishing the reeds. We usually have a few boats around us in our starting area but on this night there were 5 other boats with us. It is not a large area so it was pretty crowded but we were able to start on the stretch we wanted and my dad put 2 fish in the boat within 20 minutes on a black/blue jig. After that we were out of fresh water so we began fishing used water and after about an hour we were able to pick up our limit fish also on the black/blue jig. At this point we decided to run to another area of reeds only to find that it had also been fished by several other boats. It was slow at first in the location too but as the sun got lower the fish pulled to the outside edge where I was able to upgrade twice with 3 lb fish on a Berkley Heavyweight Sink Worm.

Big Bass Bonanza - Horseshoe Chain

The first event of five on the Big Bass Bonanza tournament circuit is in the books. It was held June 6th on the Horseshoe Chain of lakes near St. Cloud Minnesota. The tournament did not go as well as planned for my dad and I as we could only manage 14.07 lbs for our 8 fish limit. It was still not a total disaster though because even that small limit put us in 14th out of 32 teams. The winning team came in with 20.24 lbs and it took around 17.5 lbs to get a check. Obviously I would have liked to do a lot better than that but it wasn't a total bomb anyways. I also had the second biggest bass weighed in with a 4.18 lb smallmouth that just missed out on being the big bass of the day to a 4.26 lb largemouth. I believe big bass was worth $600 so coming so close but missing out hurt a little bit. You can also tell from doing the math that our other 7 fish weighed a combined 10 lbs. We just could not figure out how to get any more decent fish to bite despite having a fair practice period earlier in the week.

We started our day on an area with heavy vegetation in the form of curly leaf pond weed with a few pads mixed in hear and there. Normally I do not like fishing curly leaf since it rarely seems to hold bass for me but this area had a number of fish over 2 lbs during practice. We started by throwing frogs and flipping Sweet Beavers in the heavy cover but it didn't seem quite right. After longer than expected I had a blow up on the frog that missed but I was able to pick him up on a follow up cast but it was only barely over 12 inches. After that disaster struck. I had 3 fish hooked and almost all the way to the boat before they fell off for no apparent reason. The hooks were sharp as tacks and I really don't know why they came off. My dad then started getting bit on the frog but was never able to hook into any of them. Fortunately none of the lost or missed fish seemed to be the right size anyways. Unfortunately that meant our best area no longer seemed to hold the quality we needed.

After that we decided to go after smallmouth. They typically play a huge role in Horseshoe tournaments and we had found some good ones in practice. We had several spots within one general area of the lake and when we arrived there were boats on 2 of them. A third spot we had marked was vacant so we pulled in there and within 5 minutes I boated that 4.18 lb beauty on a watermelon/red flake Strike King Coffee tube. I really thought it was going to be on but that was the last good smallmouth we caught the rest of the day. After working the area thoroughly we slid up to a row of nearby docks where we caught a couple more small largemouth to get us closer to filling our limit. By that time the other boats had left and we fished the used water to catch a few more keeper smallies but nothing much over a pound.

The rest of the day was spent bouncing around between rocky smallmouth areas and dock/tree lined banks looking for a few more good fish which unfortunately never came. We were able to fill our limit with small largemouth but were just not able to find the right quality. I believe the winners were mainly fishing docks but we just didnt come across the right stretches I guess.

This tournament leaves me pretty unsatisfied. We are still in position to make the top 10 year end tournament so that is good and I'm not disappointed that we only caught small fish. We I don't like is the poor execution on the frog fish in the morning, even though I don't know what I could of done differently, and what I feel was semi-poor decision making on my part. I just didn't really feel it out there for whatever reason. Maybe it was because it was the first tournament of the year but it wasn't coming together in my head the way I would of liked. I'll chalk it up to being the first tournament and just move on. Even though it may seem like we weren't even close, just 2 more good bites would have moved us way up and into the money.

My next tournament is a West Central Bassmasters club event on Lake Minnewaska. This is the first of two events to determine which club members will go to the state tournament. I was out on Waska today and I probably shouldn't say anything but I will say I like what I see.

West Central Bass League - Solomon Lake

The first night of the Thursday edition of the West Central Bassmasters league took place last night on Solomon Lake. Solomon is known as a lake that kicks out numbers of quality fish and it showed again last night. Quite a few teams struggled but the weights at the top of the leaderboard were very solid. With 18 teams competing 4 spots were paid. 1st place went to "Superstar" fishermen Grant King and Tim Stockland with a 3 fish limit weighing 10.50 lbs. 2nd place went to David & Daniel with 10.37 lbs. 3rd went to Todd & Jeff with 10.26 lbs and 4th went to Dean & JD with 9.78 lbs. There was a tie for big fish by David & Daniel and Todd & Jeff. Those fished weighed in at 4.19 lbs apiece. My dad and I were out of sync all night and ended up with 3 fish weighing 7.83 lbs which was good enough for 7th place.

We wanted to start our night on a point in a slough area but we had a poor start number and ended up following another boat into the slough. They headed straight for the point and we had to go to some secondary areas. They were still within view though and it turns out there were no fish left on the point anyway. There were no fish in our areas either so we quickly moved to the second stop which was a mix of bullrushes and reeds. I boated one close to 3 lbs on a black/red flake Berkley Chigger Craw on my first cast. We continued along the reeds and ended up catching close to 10 fish but nothing over 3 lbs. All of those fish came on Chigger Craws and hematoma Sweet Beavers. After the action slowed we moved to an area with several fallen trees where we upgraded slightly. At this point it was about half way through the night and we never boated another keeper the rest of the evening.

West Central Bass League - Nest Lake

The first event of the 2010 West Central Bassmasters Bass League is in the books. We had a beautiful night to fish with cool temperatures and a light wind. I don't know if it was the weather or if people were just really ready to go fishing but for whatever reason we had the highest turnout ever for a bass league event with 26 teams showing up to compete. Most teams reported the fishing to be pretty tough and even though most of those competing were able to bring in a 3 fish limit the majority of the fish were quite small. There were some very nice bags as always though. My dad and I were able to get the year of to a very good start with a win in the first event of the season. We weighed in a 3 fish limit for 10.74 lbs. 2nd place went to Ron & Joe with 9.89 lbs. 3rd went to Jeff & Kris with 9.35 lbs and 4th went to Kelly & Mike with 8.60 lbs. The big fish for the evening was caught by David and weighed in at 4.04 lbs.

Our fishing for the evening seemed like it was pretty tough although in hindsight we really did have a pretty good night of fishing. We ended up catching around 15 fish and ended up throwing back enough weight to have had a high finish with the fish we released. The night did not go exactly according to plan though (but in fishing, it never really does.) We started on a deeper rocky area for smallmouth and after about 5 minutes I could tell the smallies were not "on" like they should have been. We still fished the area for another 20 minutes or so without a bite before moving to another area.

Despite realizing the smallmouth were not biting well our second stop was another smallmouth spot. This area was shallower with a mix of rock and weeds. On his first cast with a Strike King tube my dad boated a solid 3 1/2 lb largemouth. That was unexpected but a good fish none the less. A few minutes later I had a 5 lb largemouth shoot out of the water next to the boat as I was reeling my lure in. That fish caught me so off guard I was not able to drop my jig back to it quick enough to get it. We quickly realized that despite no smallies in the area there were a good number of quality largemouth around and we were able to move our weight up to the 10 lb range in the next hour. Those fish mostly came on watermelon jigs and tubes.

With a strong weight already in the box we were able to go back to our starting smallmouth area and really grind it out. Usually on a lake with both species you look for a largemouth to be your kicker fish but there are some really big smallies in Nest Lake and a 4 lb plus fish is a very good possibility. We did not find find one over 4 but my dad did finally catch a 3 1/2 lb smallie on a drop shot rig with a watermelon Lake Fork Tackle trick worm. That fish moved us up to our final weight for the evening. We were able to catch a few more 3 lb largemouth and smallmouth over the rest of the night but at that point they did not help us. It is always a good feeling when a 3 lb fish does not help your limit.

Thursday night league kicks off tonight on Lake Solomon and hopefully my dad and I can keep it going and win both events this week. We are sure going to give it our best shot!

Bass Fishing 2010

Well the bass season has finally arrived here in Minnesota and I've been going non-stop since Saturday morning. Saturday and Sunday were pretty tough days for me but I did manage to find a few nice fish. The past two days have been spent practicing on the Horseshoe Chain for the first Big Bass Bonanza tournament of the year. However, I won't reveal anything about my practice at this point. Our West Central Bassmasters Bass League also begins tomorrow night and will continue every Wednesday and Thursday until the end of August. With all that in mind I figured it was time to share my final tournament schedule for 2010. There are a few conflicting dates that I haven't decided how to deal with yet and July is very light on events but overall it is a good mix of lakes and should be a great tournament season! I'll try to update my blog as soon as possible after each tournament and league night.

June

6th - Big Bass Bonanza - Horseshoe Chain

13th - West Central Bassmasters state qualifier - Lake Minnewaska

20th - Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Ida

26th - West Central Bassmasters Summer Classic (Open Tournament) - Green Lake Spicer

27th - West Central Bassmasters state qualifier - Lake Osakis

July

11th - Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Minnewaska

August

8th - Big Bass Bonanza - Green Lake Spicer

11th - 13th - B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Northern Divisional

22nd - Big Bass Bonanza - Sauk Lake

September

9th-10th - B.A.S.S. MN State Tournament of Champions - Lake Minnetonka

12th - Big Bass Bonanza Tournament of Champions - Pending Qualification

12th - West Central Bassmasters Fall Classic (Open Tournament) - Green Lake Spicer

I am excited about this one since there has never been a fall tournament on Green Lake.