B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Northern Divisional - Mississippi River, Pools 18 & 19

As many of you probably know by now I had a very successful tournament last week at the Northern Divisional out of Ft. Madison Iowa held August 10-12. I finished the 3 day event with a combined total of 12 bass for 21 lbs 14 oz to place 11th out of 96 overall but more importantly it was the heaviest weight of anyone on the 12 man Minnesota team. By being the top angler for Minnesota I have earned the right to fish in the B.A.S.S. Federation National Championship to be held on the Ouachita River in Louisiana in November. If I finish 1st in my division at that tournament I will be going to the Bassmaster Classic! For this blog I will break down my week on the Mississippi.

Before I can get to the Iowa fishing I have to go back to last fall and the Minnesota State TOC on Lake Minnetonka. The main goal at the TOC is to finish in the top 12 to make the team for Divisionals but the secondary goal is to be in the top 6 which means you will be a guaranteed boater at Divisionals. I finished 7th last fall so going into the Divisionals I was already setting up a game plan as a non-boater. When I pulled into the hotel in Ft. Madison the first person I ran into was Rick Billings who finished 13th last fall. I was wondering what he was doing there and he informed me that the 5th place guy had dropped out and he had moved up to 12th. Later that evening at the team meeting I was officially given the opportunity to move up to the 6th and final guaranteed boater slot which I gladly accepted. In these tournaments each angler gets equal time running the trolling motor but being the boater is still quite a big advantage so I was thrilled with the chance. Now I just had to go catch em!

Day 1

On the first day of the tournament I had a great boat draw as the 5th boat out and a partner who didn't have a whole lot going but what he did have was all in the same general area that I planned to fish. This worked out well because the fishing was really tough and the portion of the river we were allowed to fish was huge. I wanted to spend as much time with a line in the water as I could instead of running all over up and down the river. After my practice I really only had confidence in 1 large backwater area and 1 smaller backwater lake nearby. I decided to go to the larger area simply because I felt it had the size to hold more fish and the way things were playing out I knew just catching 5 keepers, of any size, a day would probably be enough to do well.

After a 20 minute run I was able to start right on what I felt was the best stretch of water in my larger area. It was a ridge with logs and brush in about a foot of water on top that dropped off sharply to 3-4 foot along the edge. Several other boats, but not nearly as many as I expected, came into the area and set up on several of the other "good" brushy points nearby. Even though practice was tough I really felt like I could put 5 keepers in the boat quickly. Of course that didn't happen and after an hour of fishing I had only boated a couple of short fish.

After the slow start I jumped over to one of the brushy points that another boat had started on and promptly put my first keeper in the boat. Next I moved over to the other point a boat had started on and put 2 more keepers in the box followed by my 4th keeper a short ways down the same bank. Now I had 4 in the box and it was only an hour and a half into the day. Things were looking up but then reality struck and I didn't have another keeper bite for hours. Finally around noon or so I was able to put my 5th keeper in the boat. All of my fish on the first day came by flipping a black/blue Berkley HAVOC Pit Boss rigged with a 3/8 oz tungsten weight to brush and laydown logs.

On the 20 minute run back to the weigh in site I noticed that I was slowly losing RPMs along the way. I had never experienced anything like that before but I wasn't too worried by it so I made 1 last stop to fish for about 10 minutes before checking in. I didn't catch anything there but at that point I was barely able to get the boat back on plane. Now I definitely knew I had some sort of issue but we were able to cruise slowly to the weigh in with plenty of time to spare.

My 5 bass limit on day one was one of only 17 limits brought in by the entire field so as I expected the fishing was extremely tough. They weighed in at 9 lbs 5 oz which put me in 13th overall but 2nd on the Minnesota team to Tom Kiefer who weighed in 11 lbs.

Day 2

After the day 1 weigh in I scrambled around to try to figure out my boat issues but to make a long story short I wasn't able to get anything resolved. Fortunately our Minnesota team was full of great guys and I was able to borrow a boat from Joe Patock. I'm a Skeeter guy and Joe's boat is a Ranger but I won't complain too much. It was actually a great boat to fish out of and I can't thank Joe enough!

On day 2 I was in the middle of the pack for the blast off order but I was still able to get on the spot I wanted to start on which was the same place I started day 1. Once again all it produced was short fish. Next I moved to the same point I caught my first keeper on day 1. A boat had started there again but I was able to come behind them and pick up my first keeper of the day. After that I bounced around fishing points and banks with brush and laydowns and actually ended up catching a lot more fish than on day 1 but none of them met the 14" length limit.

By this time my partner wanted some time on the trolling motor and he chose to fish in a slough I had fished on day 1 but hadn't made my way to yet on this day. I was able to pick up my 2nd keeper behind him on just a muddy bank. My 2 fish from the backwaters, like day 1, came on a black/blue Berkley HAVOC Pit Boss. At this point he wanted to go check some of his other stuff and I was extremely disappointed to be leaving with only 2 keepers despite catching so many fish.

His first stop was a creek mouth with rip rap on either side. While he worked the rocks with a tube I wanted to show them something different so I picked up a chartreuse/black back Strike King KVD 1.5 crankbait and almost immediately had a keeper smallmouth in the boat. A short while later the crank struck again and I had another keeper largemouth in the boat. That was it for me on the day and I was just hoping that the fishing got tougher as everyone was predicting it to.

On day 2 my 4 bass weighed in at 6 lbs 10 oz which although much lighter than day 1 actually moved me up from 13th to 12th in the overall standings. It was a tough day for the rest of the Minnesota team as well and the day 1 leader zeroed. I actually went from about 2 lbs behind on day 1 to having a nearly 4 lb lead on the rest of the team going into day 3. I knew if there was ever a time to advance to the next tournament this was it but I also knew I still had to catch em on day 3. I was confident I could scrape out at least a few more keepers from my area on day 3 but nothing is ever guaranteed in fishing.

Day 3

On day 3 I was one of the last boats out at blast off but my partner for the day hadn't caught much the previous 2 days and since I was in a good position to finish first on the Minnesota team he told me to just go do my thing and he would stay out of the way. That really is true sportsmanship and if the positions were reversed I would do the same thing for him or anyone else. With that in mind I knew I had a full day to fish my area and just catch as much as I could.

I started on a different stretch than I did the first 2 days and almost right away I had one in the boat that was just on the edge of being a keeper or not. I decided to keep it for the time being and check it later in the day thinking that if it was the only fish I caught I would weigh it and risk the short fish penalty. It could have been the difference maker in a tough tournament like this. After that the action was just slow. I wasn't even getting many short fish like the previous day.

I started experimenting with several different lure and weight combinations, even though I don't think it made that much difference, but about halfway through the day I finally got a solid keeper on a black/blue Berkley Chigger Craw rigged with a 1/2 oz tungsten weight. I stuck with that combination for the rest of the day and was able to boat 2 more good keepers with the last one coming about 45 minutes before I had to leave for the weigh in. Right before leaving I checked the first fish I caught on the day and it just was too close to risk it so I threw it back leaving me with 3 fish in the box. With the 4 lb lead going into the day I felt pretty good about my chances but you just never know and I certainly didn't want to get penalized and lose out that way.

My 3 bass for the day weighed in at 5 lbs 15 oz and overall the fishing was even tougher yet so despite the smaller weight I once again moved up one place to finish 11th in the entire field. I was one of the last people in line to weigh on day 3 and before I even weighed in my Minnesota teammates informed me that my 3 fish were going to be more than enough to finish 1st on our team. I didn't want to believe it at first but when everything was officially weighed I had done it!

I have been fishing this Federation stuff for a long time and to finally make it to the National Championship is really unbelievable! It isn't over yet though. I still have to perform at the Ouachita River in November.

Now I'll address a couple of questions I have gotten that were pretty interesting to me. The first was about my choice of area for the tournament. Many people apparently felt that it would not be able to hold up over the course of a 3 day tournament. For me it was the only area I felt like I could get a number of keeper bites. I had a number of spots up and down the river that I felt like I could get maybe 1 or 2 bites off of but this backwater area was the only place I had the confidence I could go to and get multiple keeper bites. I knew there would be pressure from other fishermen in the area but as it turned out there weren't nearly as many boats in there as I expected and I'm sure that helped a lot but it was a large backwater and there's no question a large number of bass live there. It was just a matter of getting them to bite.

I was also asked about being nervous going into day 3 with a chance to close it out and to be honest I wasn't nervous at all. Like I told him I just go and do what I do and a lot of the time it works. Sometimes it doesn't. I do have a lot of confidence in the way I fish though and that really is what you need in tournaments like this. I won't lie though as day 3 ground on and the fishing was extremely slow I was feeling the pressure ratchet up and up. It was probably the most nerve-wracking day I've ever had on the water. That's not to say I got all spun out or anything that affected my fishing but it was pretty intense.

This was my 3rd consecutive Divisional tournament and I stunk it up the previous 2 years but I guess I made up for it this time! I wouldn't trade away those other 2 years though. For me the week of the Divisional has become my favorite week of the year. It really is an amazing experience to go down and hang out with the other state team members. If you fish B.A.S.S. Federation stuff you really do owe it to yourself to try as hard as you can to get on your 12 man state team. I'll sure be trying to make it again next year. I promise it will be a blast even if the fishing isn't so hot.