Norway & Games Lakes
I was pretty worried about this one because in practice the fishing was really tough and the fish were not in the usual areas that I like to fish. I was able to find an area of reeds that seemed to have slightly better quality although not great for this lake. That is the area I ended up exploiting for my entire 4 fish limit including an unexpected kicker that weighed in at 3.40 lbs. All of my weigh fish ended up coming on a watermelon Yamamoto Senko fished slowly in the reeds. My 4 fish ended up weighing 9.43 lbs which put me in 3rd place for the morning. However the person finishing 2nd is our club tournament director who was not trying to qualify for state so I actually received the 2nd place points.
Lake Florida
We had a bass league event on Lake Florida the previous week which my dad and I were able to win so going into the afternoon tournament my game plan was to do basically the same thing as in league. That plan was to fish jigs and soft plastics in deeper weeds while most of the other competitors fished shallow around docks. During the 4 hours I really only fished 3 locations and the fishing was actually extremely tough. I probably only caught 5-6 bass on the afternoon but my 4 fish limit weighing 11.15 lbs was good for 3rd place. Once again the same situation as the morning tournament occurred as the tournament director finished 2nd so I was again able to receive 2nd place points. Normally those would be pretty strong showings but unfortunately for me Ron Mehr took 1st place in both events so I was behind the eight ball going into the final tournament on Sunday.
Washington & Stella Lakes
My practice for this event like Norway was also pretty unspectacular and I really only had one area that I had much confidence in and wouldn't you know it Ron started right where I was hoping to start! It turns out that this was a blessing in disguise as Ron struggled in the morning and I was forced to move to another part of the same area and caught them really good right off the bat. Within about an hour I had my 5 fish limit with 2 fish over 3 lbs and another around 2 1/2 lbs. Those fish came on Senkos fished in the bullrushes and a couple on a Strike King Bleeding Bait tube fished under a dock in the same area. After the action slowed I ran around without much success until I found a tree branch out in the middle of a shallow bay. I ran my Strike King spinnerbait along side the tree and was able to put another 3 lb class fish in the boat. Once again the action slowed for me until the last half hour of the day when I was able to put another 3 lb class fish in the boat. That fish came on a Berkley HAVOC Pit Boss fished over a shallow rocky area. At that point I knew I had a really good limit for the day but I would need some help from others as well. Even if I won the event, if Ron finished 2nd he still would have beat me for the club AOY. My 5 fish limit for 15.58 lbs was enough to win the event and I got the help I needed as 2 others finished between Ron and I to give me the club's AOY by just 1 point! This also ensures that I will be a guaranteed boater at the state TOC!
Here are the 2011 West Central Bassmasters state qualifiers:
1st - Andy Nitchals
2nd - Ron Mehr
3rd - Eric Tessmer
4th - Joe Patock
5th - Dean Drexler
6th - Tim Stockland
Alternate - Bill Neumann
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