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!