Minnesota Pro Team Tour TOC - Clearwater Lake - September 15th-16th
We have fished the Big Bass Bonanza tournament circuit for a number of years but this year there were some major changes in store for the Tournament of Champions. This year BBB combined with the Excel tournament series to form the Minnesota Pro Team Tour. Excel is basically the northern division and BBB is the southern division. At the end of the year the top 15 teams from each division were invited to fish the TOC on Clearwater Lake. The stakes were also much higher than in past BBB TOC's. This year first place was worth $10,000 which is a great prize considering that there was no entry fee to fish the TOC.
Day 1
We had a tough practice but had enough good bites to put a game plan together that I thought could be pretty effective. We decided to start our tournament day on a large flat and to my surprise only 2 other boats started in the same area. Unfortunately they were set up on key spots that I had hoped to move around to. We didn't end up getting a bite for over an hour as we watched one of the other boats hammer the fish so it was time to try something else. Eventually we started putting some small keepers in the boat and then things really started rolling. I came to a tiny patch of milfoil and hooked into 3 bass in the 2 1/2 - 3 lb range but unfortunately I was only able to put 2 of them in the boat. At this point we moved back to our starting area and just ground it out. The bites weren't coming fast but every bite we got was a quality fish. By the end of the day we had worked up to an 8 fish limit weighing 22.18 lbs that put us in 7th place. For the day all of our fish came on either a green pumpkin or black and blue Berkley HAVOC Pit Boss flipped into or around milfoil.
Day 2
We were definitely off to a good start after day 1 but what concerned me was the lack of bites we were getting. We only caught 11 keepers on day 1 and I knew putting 8 more keepers in the boat on day 2 was going to be really tough. With the difficult practice we had we did not have many different things going so on day 2 we had to go with the same plan as day one and hope it worked out. Long story short it didn't. We did end up hooking into 8 bass on the day but I lost 3 quality fish and we only ended up weighing 5 fish for 9.66 lbs. That dropped us like a rock in the standings and we ended up in 22nd place. Definitely not what we were hoping for with the stakes so high but it was a great experience and I like the direction the Minnesota Pro Team Tour is heading.
West Central Fall Bass League - Norway Lake - September 23rd
The Fall Bass League is run the same way as the summer league except that we fish on Saturdays for 5 hours for a 5 fish limit. The first Fall league was actually the previous weekend but since we were fishing the MN Pro Team Tour TOC we had to miss it so this was our first shot at fall league this year. With the cold and windy morning only 4 boats decided to show up to fish and those who stayed home probably made a wise choice. The fishing was tough on Norway Lake as 3 of the boats combined to catch only 7 fish. Fortunately we had a pretty good day and our 5 fish limit weighing 13.34 lbs was easily enough for the win. I think the key for us on the day was fishing fast and covering a lot of different types of water but at the same time working our lures quite slowly if that makes any sense.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
Thursday, September 13, 2012
MN B.A.S.S. Federation Nation TOC - Island Lake Reservoir & Green Mill/West Central Bassmasters Fall Classic - Green Lake
Minnesota B.A.S.S. Federation Nation TOC - Island Lake Reservoir - Sept. 6-7th
The state TOC this year was held on Island Lake Reservoir near Duluth. It is a lake many of the competitors had never even heard of, let alone fished before it was announced. Although I went to college in Duluth I don't recall hearing much about it and I certainly had never fished it before the 4 days of official practice. It was an interesting body of water with a lot of rock, shallow weed cover and tannic water. One thing it seemed to lack though was a large population of bass. The primary species in the lake is smallmouth bass but there just weren't a lot of them or they weren't biting good as evidenced by the weights brought to the scales over the two day tournament. I expected the fishing to be tough but that is pretty much an understatement. When all was said and done only 2 people were able to bring a 5 fish limit to the scales on each of the days. I had a strong limit on day 1 with 5 weighing 13.97 lbs which put me in 3rd place. On day 2 I was only able to catch 2 weighing 5.81 lbs so I slipped to 10th place overall with a total weight of 19.78 lbs but in this tournament the goal is to make the top 12 and I was able to do that! This means that I have advanced to the Northern Divisionals which will be held next year in South Dakota on Francis Case Reservoir. There is also a team portion of the TOC. In that our club, the West Central Bassmasters finished 2nd. Over the past several years our club has shown that we are one of the best in the state no matter where the tournament is held. The full results of the tournament can be found here.
http://www.mnbfn.org/TOC/2012/index.html
Day 1
After practice I really didn't know what to expect coming in. I had a tough time getting enough bites like pretty much every one else I had talked to but I had also seen enough quality fish to feel like a good bag was a real possibility. Like I said to some of the guys the day before the tournament, "I could catch a big bag or I could zero." That was the absolute truth. As it turned out day 1 went almost as well as it could have. My original plan was to start on a shallow offshore rock pile but being boat 55 I was almost positive someone else would be on it by the time I got there. That turned out to be the case so I turned the other direction and went to the bank to fish docks. Docks were going to be my primary game plan anyway but generally that is not something you to until a little later in the day. It turned out perfect though as I had 3 keepers in the boat within the first half hour including one close to 3 lbs. I continued to run docks and not too long after I had another quality smallie in the boat. At around 9:30 am I decided to check a rocky point that I had gotten a number of bites on in practice. Almost immediately I had keeper number 5 in the boat on a green pumpkin Strike King Coffee tube. I was actually kind of shocked at how easily it was all coming together. I figured if I was going to get a limit it would pretty much take all day to get there. I worked over that point for quite awhile but it didn't give up any more fish so it was back to the docks for the rest of the day. Shortly after going back to the docks I caught a quality upgrade on a chartreuse and white Strike King Spinnerbait but after that it was like the bite was dead. At that point it was around 10:30 am and from then until the 4:30 pm it was just downright tough. By this point it seemed that every boat in the field had started fishing docks and I'm sure that was a big part of why it got so tough. Early in the afternoon I pulled into a stretch of docks that just felt like it wasn't getting as much pressure as the others. After fishing quite a few with nothing I finally hooked into the biggest fish I had seen all week. Of course it jumped right by the boat and came off just out of reach of the net. That was a heartbreaker but there is more to that story coming up. With only a little more than an hour to go I picked up my biggest fish of the day which was around 3 1/2 lbs. That allowed me to cull out one that was around 2 lbs so it was a big upgrade and that allowed me to end up with 5 for 13.97 lbs and 3rd place for the day. All of my dock fish came on a vampire orange Berkley HAVOC Pit Boss.
Day 2
After seeing all the pressure the docks were getting on day 1 my only hope was that they would reload overnight. Again I really didn't know what to expect. If we were fishing for largemouth I would expect that the dock fishing would be much tougher but since smallies move around more so I thought it there was a real possibility that fishing could be good. I decided to start my day on the same stretch of docks as I did on day 1 although I didn't go straight to the best 2 docks. That turned out to be a mistake as another competitor pulled right in front of me and started on those docks. Fortunately for me they didn't catch anything and I put a 13 inch keeper in the boat on the next dock over as they watched. I was off to a quick start again and feeling good about the day but that all came to a crashing halt. It was clear many other competitors were onto the dock pattern and everything was getting beat up. The next 4 hours or so were a complete bust. Then at around noon I finally got another bite only to have it get buried in a boat lift and break off. With about 1 1/2 hours left to fish I went back to the stretch of docks where I had lost that big fish on day 1. I had already fished it in the morning but with only 1 small keeper in the boat I was kind of thinking to myself that if it was a tough day one 4 lb class fish would possibly be enough to keep me in the top 12 so I went back hoping for just 1 big bite. After fishing a few docks I came to the dock where I had lost the fish. I fished it real thoroughly and eventually I hooked into a big one. It came flying out of the water just like on day 1 but this time it made it into the net. I know that it was the exact same fish! As it turned out that smallie weighed in at 4.50 lbs and my 2 fish on day 2 weighed a total of 5.81 lbs. If I had caught that big smallie on day 1 I would not have made the top 12 because I would have only gained around 2 lbs after the cull. By catching it on day 2 I kept all 4 1/2 lbs of it's weight and that was just enough to finish in 10th place. It's kind of crazy to say but losing a big fish actually ended up being the best thing that could have happened to me!
Green Mill/West Central Bassmasters Fall Classic - Green Lake - Sept. 9th
After returning from the TOC it was right into another tournament. Last year we didn't fish Green Lake at all for several weeks before the tournament and ended up winning. This year Green hasn't been as kind to us but my hopes were still high for this event. We had fished Green twice in the last few weeks of the league season and were able to finish 2nd both times so we felt like we knew what the fish were doing at least a little. As it turns out we couldn't figure anything out on tournament day. In our league nights we caught quality fish on topwaters shallow and drop shots out deep but on tournament day those quality fish turned into 2 pounders. Nothing we tried ended up working and our 6 fish limit weighing 13.24 lbs put us in 22nd out of 27 teams fishing. That was by far my worst tournament on Green Lake ever.
The state TOC this year was held on Island Lake Reservoir near Duluth. It is a lake many of the competitors had never even heard of, let alone fished before it was announced. Although I went to college in Duluth I don't recall hearing much about it and I certainly had never fished it before the 4 days of official practice. It was an interesting body of water with a lot of rock, shallow weed cover and tannic water. One thing it seemed to lack though was a large population of bass. The primary species in the lake is smallmouth bass but there just weren't a lot of them or they weren't biting good as evidenced by the weights brought to the scales over the two day tournament. I expected the fishing to be tough but that is pretty much an understatement. When all was said and done only 2 people were able to bring a 5 fish limit to the scales on each of the days. I had a strong limit on day 1 with 5 weighing 13.97 lbs which put me in 3rd place. On day 2 I was only able to catch 2 weighing 5.81 lbs so I slipped to 10th place overall with a total weight of 19.78 lbs but in this tournament the goal is to make the top 12 and I was able to do that! This means that I have advanced to the Northern Divisionals which will be held next year in South Dakota on Francis Case Reservoir. There is also a team portion of the TOC. In that our club, the West Central Bassmasters finished 2nd. Over the past several years our club has shown that we are one of the best in the state no matter where the tournament is held. The full results of the tournament can be found here.
http://www.mnbfn.org/TOC/2012/index.html
Day 1
After practice I really didn't know what to expect coming in. I had a tough time getting enough bites like pretty much every one else I had talked to but I had also seen enough quality fish to feel like a good bag was a real possibility. Like I said to some of the guys the day before the tournament, "I could catch a big bag or I could zero." That was the absolute truth. As it turned out day 1 went almost as well as it could have. My original plan was to start on a shallow offshore rock pile but being boat 55 I was almost positive someone else would be on it by the time I got there. That turned out to be the case so I turned the other direction and went to the bank to fish docks. Docks were going to be my primary game plan anyway but generally that is not something you to until a little later in the day. It turned out perfect though as I had 3 keepers in the boat within the first half hour including one close to 3 lbs. I continued to run docks and not too long after I had another quality smallie in the boat. At around 9:30 am I decided to check a rocky point that I had gotten a number of bites on in practice. Almost immediately I had keeper number 5 in the boat on a green pumpkin Strike King Coffee tube. I was actually kind of shocked at how easily it was all coming together. I figured if I was going to get a limit it would pretty much take all day to get there. I worked over that point for quite awhile but it didn't give up any more fish so it was back to the docks for the rest of the day. Shortly after going back to the docks I caught a quality upgrade on a chartreuse and white Strike King Spinnerbait but after that it was like the bite was dead. At that point it was around 10:30 am and from then until the 4:30 pm it was just downright tough. By this point it seemed that every boat in the field had started fishing docks and I'm sure that was a big part of why it got so tough. Early in the afternoon I pulled into a stretch of docks that just felt like it wasn't getting as much pressure as the others. After fishing quite a few with nothing I finally hooked into the biggest fish I had seen all week. Of course it jumped right by the boat and came off just out of reach of the net. That was a heartbreaker but there is more to that story coming up. With only a little more than an hour to go I picked up my biggest fish of the day which was around 3 1/2 lbs. That allowed me to cull out one that was around 2 lbs so it was a big upgrade and that allowed me to end up with 5 for 13.97 lbs and 3rd place for the day. All of my dock fish came on a vampire orange Berkley HAVOC Pit Boss.
Day 2
After seeing all the pressure the docks were getting on day 1 my only hope was that they would reload overnight. Again I really didn't know what to expect. If we were fishing for largemouth I would expect that the dock fishing would be much tougher but since smallies move around more so I thought it there was a real possibility that fishing could be good. I decided to start my day on the same stretch of docks as I did on day 1 although I didn't go straight to the best 2 docks. That turned out to be a mistake as another competitor pulled right in front of me and started on those docks. Fortunately for me they didn't catch anything and I put a 13 inch keeper in the boat on the next dock over as they watched. I was off to a quick start again and feeling good about the day but that all came to a crashing halt. It was clear many other competitors were onto the dock pattern and everything was getting beat up. The next 4 hours or so were a complete bust. Then at around noon I finally got another bite only to have it get buried in a boat lift and break off. With about 1 1/2 hours left to fish I went back to the stretch of docks where I had lost that big fish on day 1. I had already fished it in the morning but with only 1 small keeper in the boat I was kind of thinking to myself that if it was a tough day one 4 lb class fish would possibly be enough to keep me in the top 12 so I went back hoping for just 1 big bite. After fishing a few docks I came to the dock where I had lost the fish. I fished it real thoroughly and eventually I hooked into a big one. It came flying out of the water just like on day 1 but this time it made it into the net. I know that it was the exact same fish! As it turned out that smallie weighed in at 4.50 lbs and my 2 fish on day 2 weighed a total of 5.81 lbs. If I had caught that big smallie on day 1 I would not have made the top 12 because I would have only gained around 2 lbs after the cull. By catching it on day 2 I kept all 4 1/2 lbs of it's weight and that was just enough to finish in 10th place. It's kind of crazy to say but losing a big fish actually ended up being the best thing that could have happened to me!
Green Mill/West Central Bassmasters Fall Classic - Green Lake - Sept. 9th
After returning from the TOC it was right into another tournament. Last year we didn't fish Green Lake at all for several weeks before the tournament and ended up winning. This year Green hasn't been as kind to us but my hopes were still high for this event. We had fished Green twice in the last few weeks of the league season and were able to finish 2nd both times so we felt like we knew what the fish were doing at least a little. As it turns out we couldn't figure anything out on tournament day. In our league nights we caught quality fish on topwaters shallow and drop shots out deep but on tournament day those quality fish turned into 2 pounders. Nothing we tried ended up working and our 6 fish limit weighing 13.24 lbs put us in 22nd out of 27 teams fishing. That was by far my worst tournament on Green Lake ever.
Saturday, September 8, 2012
West Central Bass League - Tournament of Champions Week
West Central Bass League TOC - Green Lake - August 29th
At the end of the regular league season the top 10 teams in points are invited to fish the Tournament of Champions. Each of the 10 teams then throws a lake name into a hat and the TOC lake is chosen at random. We actually ended up having 11 teams fishing since two boats tied in points for the 10th place spot. This year the Wednesday night TOC lake ended up being Green Lake. The fishing for the night actually ended up being pretty tough with the overall weights pretty low although the top team really crushed em.
1st - Paul & Pete - 3 - 10.97 lbs
2nd - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 9.30 lbs
3rd - Tonya & Jared - 3 - 8.68 lbs
Big Bass #1 - Paul & Pete - 3.81 lbs
Big Bass #2 - Joe & Jodi - 3.50 lbs
We had fished several events on Green Lake in the previous weeks and in those our primary weapon was a Super Spook. However on this night the topwater bite was practically non-existent for us. In fact the shallow bite almost completely went away from us. My dad did end up putting one of our weigh fish in the boat on a chartreuse and white spinnerbait but other than that it was only a few other small fish. We ended up going out to the deep humps where we were able to put 2 more 3 lb class fish in the boat using Berkley HAVOC Bottom Hopper worms on a drop shot rig.
West Central Bass League TOC - Nest Lake - August 30th
The format for the Thursday night TOC works the same as on Wednesday night except that there were no ties so there were 10 boats fishing. By luck of the draw Nest Lake was chosen and I think everyone was pretty happy with the choice. The fishing on Nest was pretty tough back in early June but for the rest of the year the lake has been on fire and this night was no different. 7 of the 10 teams fishing ended up weighing over 10 lbs for their 3 fish limits which is impressive no matter where you go in Minnesota and a great way to cap off an amazing 2012 league season.
1st - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 11.91 lbs
2nd - Paul & Mark - 3 - 11.22 lbs
3rd - Joe & Pete - 3 - 11.12 lbs
Big Bass #1 - Paul & Mark - 4.36 lbs
Big Bass #2 - Dean & JD - 4.35 lbs
In our two previous league visits to Nest we weighed 3 fish limits of smallmouth over 11.5 lbs but came up 2nd both times. It was great to finally get over the hump and finish first with another big limit of smallies. In our previous visits we caught the majority of our fish off of one area but on this night another boat started there as well and they were catching fish and we couldn't buy a bite. After awhile it was time to abandon ship and head for new waters. The choice was a good one since as soon as we moved we had about 10 lbs in the boat in 5 minutes. The rest of the night was spent bouncing around and adding a good fish here and there. Our weigh fish ended up coming on various Strike King Coffee Tubes and Berkley HAVOC Pit Bosses.
At the end of the regular league season the top 10 teams in points are invited to fish the Tournament of Champions. Each of the 10 teams then throws a lake name into a hat and the TOC lake is chosen at random. We actually ended up having 11 teams fishing since two boats tied in points for the 10th place spot. This year the Wednesday night TOC lake ended up being Green Lake. The fishing for the night actually ended up being pretty tough with the overall weights pretty low although the top team really crushed em.
1st - Paul & Pete - 3 - 10.97 lbs
2nd - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 9.30 lbs
3rd - Tonya & Jared - 3 - 8.68 lbs
Big Bass #1 - Paul & Pete - 3.81 lbs
Big Bass #2 - Joe & Jodi - 3.50 lbs
We had fished several events on Green Lake in the previous weeks and in those our primary weapon was a Super Spook. However on this night the topwater bite was practically non-existent for us. In fact the shallow bite almost completely went away from us. My dad did end up putting one of our weigh fish in the boat on a chartreuse and white spinnerbait but other than that it was only a few other small fish. We ended up going out to the deep humps where we were able to put 2 more 3 lb class fish in the boat using Berkley HAVOC Bottom Hopper worms on a drop shot rig.
West Central Bass League TOC - Nest Lake - August 30th
The format for the Thursday night TOC works the same as on Wednesday night except that there were no ties so there were 10 boats fishing. By luck of the draw Nest Lake was chosen and I think everyone was pretty happy with the choice. The fishing on Nest was pretty tough back in early June but for the rest of the year the lake has been on fire and this night was no different. 7 of the 10 teams fishing ended up weighing over 10 lbs for their 3 fish limits which is impressive no matter where you go in Minnesota and a great way to cap off an amazing 2012 league season.
1st - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 11.91 lbs
2nd - Paul & Mark - 3 - 11.22 lbs
3rd - Joe & Pete - 3 - 11.12 lbs
Big Bass #1 - Paul & Mark - 4.36 lbs
Big Bass #2 - Dean & JD - 4.35 lbs
In our two previous league visits to Nest we weighed 3 fish limits of smallmouth over 11.5 lbs but came up 2nd both times. It was great to finally get over the hump and finish first with another big limit of smallies. In our previous visits we caught the majority of our fish off of one area but on this night another boat started there as well and they were catching fish and we couldn't buy a bite. After awhile it was time to abandon ship and head for new waters. The choice was a good one since as soon as we moved we had about 10 lbs in the boat in 5 minutes. The rest of the night was spent bouncing around and adding a good fish here and there. Our weigh fish ended up coming on various Strike King Coffee Tubes and Berkley HAVOC Pit Bosses.
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