West Central Bassmasters State Qualifier - Lake Osakis

Sunday June 27th was our final qualifier event to determine which of our club members would go to the MN State Tournament of Champions. Unlike most of my other tournaments this is an individual event and we had 15 guys competing in this one. Going in it sounded like everyone had a very tough time in practice and extremely strong winds on tournament day did not help matters. I am not going to post the full results like I did last time but I will give some of the details. The winner on the day weighed in a 5 fish limit for 10.80 lbs and I came in 2nd with 10.02 lbs. After that no other bag topped 9 lbs. The big fish for the day was caught by my dad and it weighed 3.77 lbs. With my 2nd place finish I was able to move into the top spot for the club this year! This means that I will be the guaranteed boater from our club at the state tourney! It is always nice to be assured that you will be able to use your own boat.

Here is the list of state qualifiers from our club this year:

1st - Andy Nitchals

2nd - Brian Krause

3rd - Mike Nitchals

4th - Dean Drexler

5th - Grant King

6th - Joe Patock

Alternate - David Christinsen

This is a strong group of fishermen. Many of them have qualified for state multiple times and it should allow us to have a good showing. Besides my personal accomplishments at the state tourney over the past 2 years our club has also been the top club in the state in that portion of the event those 2 years. I see no reason why we can't keep that crown!

I had the same experience as the others in the club who had a tough time during practice. My dad and I spent about 9 hours on the lake the week before and caught about 10 fish. That doesn't sound too bad but they were all small except for 1 and also there really was no rhyme or reason to where we would get a bite. One area of reeds on the north end of the lake seemed to be a little bit better though so that is where I decided to start. Almost immediately I had a small keeper in the boat and a short time later my dad boated the big bass of the day. This got me feeling pretty good about the area and I decided to spend a good chunk of the morning without ever picking up the trolling motor. After fishing through the reeds and adding another small keeper, the cover turned to slop near the bank. I picked up a Zoom Horny Toad, which I almost never throw, and fired it up next to shore. As soon as it hit the water my biggest fish of the day was all over it. He got buried in the slop and I just skied it into the boat. That fish went right at 3 lbs and I was feeling pretty good about my chances if I could just fill my limit. After that we worked back through the reeds again with no action until I came to a few docks where I added another small keeper on a Strike King tube and my limit fish a short while later from a small reed pocket. By now it was 10:30 in the morning and I had not started the big motor since blastoff. For me that is very unusual but on this day it was effective. At that point I felt it was time to check some other stuff and the day got really slow. I didn't have another bite until 1:30 in the afternoon. That fish came on a black/blue jig pitched into the reeds and allowed me to cull up slightly.

This was an unusual tournament for me in that I spent so much time without moving and also the number of lures it took to get my limit. Most of the time if you aren't dialed into to just a couple of baits it means that you are struggling pretty bad. This tournament my 5 weigh fish came on 5 different lures. They were a Chigger Craw, Sweet Beaver, Horny Toad, jig and tx-rigged tube. I will say I felt like I was struggling out there but at the end of the day it turned out to be much better than I expected!