West Central Bass League - Week 8

West Central Bass League - Lake Johanna - July 20th

Johanna used to be one of the better big fish lakes on the West Central Bass League schedule but in recent years the big bass seem to be much more scarce. It does seem to be making a little comeback as far as the average size fish goes though. Overall the fishing was pretty tough with 17 boats fishing and only 31 bass brought to the scales but the average weight per fish was an impressive 3.28 lbs. It seemed to be a tale of two lakes on this night. Some teams reported catching them really good while the other half of the field struggled mightily. Put my dad and I in the latter camp as we failed to boat a fish to tie with 3 others for last place on the night. Here are the rest of the results.

1st - Paul & Pete - 3 - 11.89 lbs

2nd - Bill & Todd - 3 - 11.81 lbs

3rd - Jim & Brad - 3 - 11.02 lbs

4th - Ron & Joe - 3 - 10.38 lbs

5th - Paul & Dave - 3 - 9.52 lbs

Big Bass - Bill & Todd - 4.52 lbs

What can I say? We never had a bite in 3 hours of fishing. We mostly fished areas that have traditionally been good for us but nothing was happening. I could sense early on that it was going to be really tough so we buckled down and fished thoroughly in a couple of spots which turned out to be our big mistake. In retrospect we should have been moving faster and fishing different areas of the lake since the good bags came from a completely different area of the lake and everyone who was fishing the same general area as us struggled.

West Central Bass League - Nest Lake - July 21st

The West Central Bass League had visited Nest Lake 2 weeks earlier and the fishing was just about the worst it's ever been on the lake so the expectations for fishing on this night were not high among the 17 teams competing. The fishing did improve somewhat but for the most part it was another tough night on the water for most. Here are the results.

1st - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 11.10 lbs

2nd - Dean - 3 - 9.45 lbs

3rd - Ron & Joe - 3 - 8.23 lbs

4th - Donovan & Brad - 3 - 8.20 lbs

5th - Paul & Pete - 3 - 7.42 lbs

Big Bass - Andy Nitchals - 4.37 lbs

Despite the talk of tough fishing I mentioned earlier we actually caught them pretty good for the evening. We started on several smallmouth spots even though I knew they were going to be really tough to get to bite and that proved to be true. We never had a bite from a brown fish so it was on to the pattern I really felt would work. That involved finding the thickest milfoil and cabbage in 5-7 feet of water. We ran this pattern the rest of the night and it really paid off as we caught quality fish in several areas where we found the right combination of cover. We probably caught around 15 fish in the 3 hours and most of them were 3 lbs or better. It was a nice way to recover from the previous nights bomb. We caught our fish on a variety of soft plastics but all our weigh fish ended up biting a watermelon Zoom Brush Hog.

West Central Bass League - Week 7

West Central Bass League - Lake Solomon - July 13th

This was the second visit to Solomon for the West Central Bass League and while the fishing wasn't great earlier in the year, at the end of the night some pretty impressive weights were brought in. That was not the case on this night as most teams reported catching very few fish and the final weights were some of the lowest in years for this lake. With 19 teams fishing we paid back 5 spots.

1st - Scott & Kelly - 3 - 8.28 lbs

2nd - Travis & Hunter - 3 - 8.03 lbs

3rd - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 7.05 lbs

4th - Grant & April - 3 - 6.65 lbs

5th - Lee & Nick - 3 - 6.20 lbs

Big Bass - Scott & Kelly - 3.70 lbs

I knew going into the night that the bites would be few and far between so I put a 1/2 oz black/blue jig in my hands and stuck with it all night long hoping for just 3 good bites. We mostly flipped reeds all night long since that is the primary cover in the lake but we were never able to get a bite from the reeds. Our first and best fish in the 3 lb range came as I swam my jig by a log in the water. None of the other wood we fished panned out though and the rest of our keepers ended up coming when we found a school of small fish on a shallow rocky area. We probably caught 8 fish out of the school but the biggest 2 were only around 2 lbs which was at least enough to get us into 3rd.

West Central Bass League - Eagle Lake - July 14th

Last year Eagle Lake kicked out some of the largest weights seen on the West Central Bass League. This year the fishing was quite a bit tougher for the 18 teams competing but some nice weights were still brought to the scales. Here are the results.

1st - Scott & Al - 3 - 10.72 lbs

2nd - Ross & Daryl - 3 - 10.45 lbs

3rd - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 9.91 lbs

4th - Dean & JD - 3 - 9.35 lbs

5th - Paul & Troy - 3 - 9.34 lbs

Big Bass - Todd & Jeff - 4.60 lbs

Eagle is almost entirely developed so the primary cover is docks and that is where we started. Within half an hour we had a 3 fish limit in the boat with 2 fish over 3 lbs. Those fish came on a green pumpkin Strike King Bleeding Bait tube skipped under the docks. I was expecting the fishing to be a grind so it was great to get off to such a hot start. This allowed us to explore some offshore while most everyone else was beating the docks. We were able to find an area where a thick coontail weed line came up next to a rocky bottom. After working the area pretty thoroughly I was able to add a nice 3 lb smallie on a watermelon Berkley Slim Shaky worm rigged on a drop shot. That fish came about half way through the night and we were never able to catch another keeper the rest of the evening but it was enough to get us into 3rd once again.

With the 2 3rd place finishes this week we have moved back into the lead for the Team of the Year standings on both Wednesday and Thursday nights. We do allow 2 drops out of the 12 weeks we fish in the summer so it is tough to figured out how the points shake out until the very end of the year. In any case it is a good place to be right now.

West Central Bass League - Week 6 & Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Ida

West Central Bass League - Nest Lake - July 6th

Well it was another tough night of fishing for the West Central Bass League. Nest is usually one of the better lakes on the schedule with numbers of quality largemouth and smallmouth but they did not want to show themselves on this night. There were no smallies weighed in and 11 of the 19 teams were unable to bring in a 3 fish limit. That is just unheard of for Nest Lake. Here are the results.

1st - Jared & Tonya - 3 - 8.90 lbs

2nd - Ron & Joe - 3 - 8.88 lbs

3rd - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 8.60 lbs

4th - Paul & Pete - 3 - 8.06 lbs

5th - Scott & Kelly - 3 - 7.24 lbs

Big Bass - Mike Nitchals - 4.15 lbs

Even though we ended up in 3rd for the night it was still a struggle for us. We ended up boating only 4 keepers on the night. Our first couple of stops were areas that usually produce smallmouth for us but the action was nonexistent and after half the night was over we had not boated a fish. Finally we were able to catch 2 in the 2 1/4 lb range on back to back casts in shallow weeds from 5-7 feet deep. We decided to run this pattern the rest of the night but didn't have another bite until we got back to the area where we caught the first 2 and were able to fill out our limit with another 2 lb class fish. With about 10 minutes left before check in we hit one last spot with similar cover. 5 minutes before weigh in my dad was able to boat the big fish of the night. Catching a big fish at the very end of the night has been a trend for us this year it seems. It would be nice to catch them earlier and feel more comfortable but as long as we keep catching them I don't really care when it happens! All of our fish came on various soft plastics on Texas rigs.

West Central Bass League - Diamond Lake - July 7th

I know I've been talking a lot about the tough fishing for our West Central Bass League nights but for a change the fishing was actually really good on Diamond. Most of the 15 teams competing reported catching a lot of fish for the night and the top weights were quite impressive as well. My dad and I probably boated between 25-30 fish for the night but we were just not able to find any of the right bites and our 3 fish limit weighed in at 7.88 lbs to put us in 9th. Here are the rest of the results.

1st - Dean - 3 - 11.16 lbs

2nd - Ron & Joe - 3 - 10.50 lbs

3rd - Ross & Daryl - 3 - 10.38 lbs

4th - Grant & Tim - 3 - 9.65 lbs

Big Bass - Ross & Daryl - 4.11 lbs

Our plan for the night was to primarily target docks and trees and that is pretty much what we did all night. Like I said earlier getting bites was no problem at all but we were just unable to find any of the right bites. We did lose a couple of fish that would have moved us up in the standings but they wouldn't have been enough to get up into the money. I'm not really sure what I would do differently if I had it to do over again. Our fish ended up coming on jigs and various soft plastics.

Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Ida - July 10th

What a difference a year makes! Last year on Ida 23 lbs won but 2nd was just under 18 lbs. This year 18 lbs wasn't even in the top half of the field. I'm not sure why but the nicer fish really showed up this year. It took 22 lbs to win this year but the weights were tight all the way down the list. My dad and I weighed and 8 fish limit for 18.74 which we thought would be decent but we only ended up in 14th place out of 34 boats. This was really disappointing coming on the heels of our poor performance on Minnewaska. With 2 events to go on the circuit we are sitting in 14th place for the TOY standings. We have some work to do to get up into the top 10 to qualify for the Tournament of Champions.

There isn't a whole lot to say about the fishing on Ida. We came into the event with a specific game plan and stuck with it pretty much the entire day. That plan was to fish thicker weeds on a large flat in 8-12 feet of water and basically play the numbers game. It was difficult to pinpoint schools of larger fish so you just had to catch a number of fish and every once in awhile one would be a good one. The problem for us is that we just didn't catch enough fish. We probably caught 35 on the day but I know if we had caught 50 for the day a couple of those would have been big enough to get us into the money. We just didn't get the number of bites I was expecting. Our weigh fish ended up coming on Texas rigged Sweet Beavers and various straight tail worms rigged on a drop shot.

West Central Bass League - Week 5

West Central Bass League - Lake Koronis - June 27th

Once again we were faced with extremely windy conditions for league night. We just can't seem to escape the wind this year but at least it wasn't too bad out there. The fishing on the other hand was pretty bad as many teams reported tough fishing although most were able to bring in a 3 fish limit. With 14 teams fishing we paid 4 spots.

1st - Scott & Kelly - 3 - 10.12 lbs

2nd - Jared & Tonya - 3 - 9.89 lbs

3rd - Paul & Pete - 3 - 8.37 lbs

4th - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 7.98 lbs

Big Bass - Isaiah & Tyler - 4.30 lbs

My dad and I were one of the teams who really struggled for the night but things ended up alright for us as we squeaked into the last money spot. With the high water we decided to start on the trees and docks however it quickly became apparent that bite was not happening although I was able to put 1 in the boat that was around 13 inches. For the next 2 hours we bounced around trying shallow and deep for largemouth and smallies but were just never able to generate a bite. Around 8:15 I was finally able to a good one in the boat weighing nearly 4 lbs. That fish came on a watermelon Sweet Beaver fished on a weedy point. For the rest of the night we ran this pattern and were able to put 1 more nice one in the boat to give us just enough. We only boated 3 fish for the night but a lot of times in tournament fishing it's not about the number you catch, it's the size. Tonight it was just enough to get our money back.

West Central Bass League - Long Lake - June 28th

Well if Koronis was tough I don't know what to call Long Lake on this night. It's the worst night of fishing for the West Central Bass League in at least 5 years if not longer. What is strange too is that just a few weeks earlier this lake was absolutely on fire with numbers of 4 lb plus fish being caught. It was like a switch had been flipped though and none of us could get the bass to cooperate. Even the winners reported getting only 3 bites all night. The rest of us did not fair so well as only 20 total bass were brought in by the 19 teams fishing. The average weight was an impressive 3.57 lbs though. My dad and I were lucky to catch 1 bass weighing 3.21 lbs to put us in 11th for the night. Here are the rest of the results.

1st - TJ & Isaiah - 3 - 13.66 lbs

2nd - Jim & John - 2 - 7.45 lbs

3rd - Jared & Tonya - 2 - 6.94 lbs

4th - Scott & Al - 2 - 6.67 lbs

5th - Dean & JD - 1 - 4.84 lbs

Big Bass - Dean & JD - 4.84 lbs

There's not much to tell about our night. We went 2 1/2 hours without a bite to start the night. With a half hour left to fish I finally put one in the boat on a watermelon 6 inch Senko fished in the reeds. A short while later I had another one on the Senko halfway to the boat before he jumped off. That was really painful as it would have been enough to get us into the money but at least that's the only fish I have lost in competition this year that really hurt us. Hopefully it will be the last one too!