West Central Fall Bass League - Diamond Lake

We had 7 teams fishing the West Central Fall Bass League on Oct. 22 on Diamond Lake. The weather was just about perfect for a late fall day with calm winds and mild temperatures. The fish apparently liked the weather too because a lot of fish were caught and some big ones were brought to the scales as well including one of the heaviest bass weighed for league in years. Here are the results.

1st - Pat & Nasha - 5 - 22.49 lbs

2nd - Kolton - 5 - 16.68 lbs

Big Bass - Butch - 6.42 lbs.

My dad and I had a great day for numbers as we caught more than 30 bass on the day but besides a couple in the 3-4 lb range we just were not able to find enough quality fish to compete. Our 5 weighed in at 14.60 lbs to take 3rd place. We focused our efforts on the trees and a few remaining docks and that was not the deal for the day. We caught fish on a variety of lures but all our weigh fish ended up coming on various colors of Sweet Beavers.

This was not the final event on the Fall League schedule but it was my last tournament of the year in Minnesota. It seems like almost yesterday when the season started. My fishing is not over yet though as I will soon be heading down to Louisiana to compete in the B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Championship on the Ouachita River. I did some scouting down there a few weeks ago and it is definitely a challenging fishery but I'm super excited to get back down there and earn my spot in the Bassmaster Classic!

West Central Fall Bass League Tournament - Lake Osakis

On October 1st The West Central Bassmasters held what we call the West Central Fall Bass League Tournament. Instead of our normal fall bass league format in which we fish 5 hours with a $20 entry fee, the tournament is a $50 entry and we fish for 7 hours. This year the lake chosen was Lake Osakis and after a day's fishing many were unhappy with the choice. The lake was very tough for the 8 teams fishing and only three 5 bass limits were brought to the scales. For some reason it wasn't tough for my dad and I and we were able to catch a lot of fish with a few nice ones to take the win handily. Here are the results.

1st - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 5 - 16.50 lbs

2nd - Paul & John - 5 - 13.36 lbs

Big Bass - Andy Nitchals - 3.74 lbs

As I said earlier we had a good day on the water. While the others struggled we were able to get onto a key area that gave up 30 or more bass for us on the day. What was interesting is that we never saw another tournament boat all day long. It is pretty rare when things happen like that. In my experience on Osakis you just have to fish a lot of water with no bites to find a small little area where the bass are schooled up and that is what we were able to find. All of our fish came by pitching jigs and various soft plastics to the reeds and bullrushes.