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!