It was a busy week for me with two league nights and 3 tournaments over the weekend. Fortunately by luck of the draw many of the lakes overlapped so it made prefishing much easier to schedule. The unfortunate part is that for the most part the fishing hasn't been very good.
West Central Bass League - Green Lake Cup - June 6th
Wednesday night was the Green Lake Cup. The cup nights are pretty much the same as a normal league night except that the entry fee is a little higher and we pay back 2 big bass instead of just one. Normally for our league nights we have a one week off limits period but because many of the same anglers were also fishing Green Lake over the weekend that was waved. Many of us got out on the water in the days before league are reported amazing fishing. On Wednesday night something changed though and almost everyone reported struggling. The weights were definitely not what I and many of the other 22 teams were expecting.
1st - Scott & Andy - 3 - 9.46 lbs
2nd - Grant & Tim - 3 - 9.20 lbs
3rd - Paul & Pete - 3 - 9.13 lbs
4th - Ron & Joe - 3 - 8.98 lbs
5th - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 8.48 lbs
Big Bass #1 - Grant & Tim - 3.97 lbs
Big Bass #2 - Andy Nitchals - 3.88 lbs
Since I have an upcoming Big Bass Bonanza tournament on Green Lake this weekend I can't reveal too much about our fishing on this night. I can say that it was tough though.We really had to scramble around and change tactics from what had worked so well just the day before. We pretty much ended up junking around and caught our fish in a variety of ways.
West Central Bass League - Norway/Games Lake Cup - June 7th
Just as we did on Wednesday we had 22 teams show up to compete on Thursday night for the Norway/Games Lake Cup. Also as on Wednesday the week long off limits was waved for this night and the expectation of those who had been out prefishing was that it wasn't very good. With the exception of one bag they were proven right as most of the teams came in with very small bags. Noway hasn't been great in recent years but the fishing is downright poor out there right now.
1st - Lee & Nick - 3 - 9.27 lbs
2nd - Tonya & Jared - 3 - 7.57 lbs
3rd - Ron & Joe - 3 - 7.31 lbs
4th - And & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 7.28 lbs
5th - Paul & Pete - 3 - 7.09 lbs
Big Bass #1 - Lee & Nick - 4.00 lbs
Big Bass #2 - Scott & Kelly - 2.86 lbs
Since there was no cutoff I got on the water for about an hour right before league started and was actually surprised to get 5 bites in that hour. I shook them off of course except for a 3 pounder that just wouldn't let go. That one would have went a long way for us later on in the evening but getting those bites formulated a game plan for us that we utilized right off the bat when league started. I had to places I wanted to go and as it turns out the place I didn't go kicked out 3 fish in the first 5 minutes of the night. My starting area also produced a keeper but it was small. We made a move and put 2 more keepers in the boat within the first 15 minutes so we were off to a good start but had nowhere near the size we would need. Eventually we made the move to deeper water where we were able to get on a decent school of fish to catch all of our weight. Those fish came on homemade watermelon/green pumpkin jigs tipped with green pumpkin Berkley Chigger Chunks.
West Central Bassmasters State Qualifier Tournaments
Over the weekend of June 9th-10th my club held 3 tournaments to determine which members would be going to the MN B.A.S.S. State Federation TOC on Island Lake Reservoir in September. We held a 4 hour tournament with a 4 fish limit on Green Lake on Saturday morning and then a 4 hour tournament with a 4 fish limit on Norway/Games in the afternoon. Then on Sunday we held an 8 hour tournament on Sauk Lake with a 5 fish limit. This year our club is allowed to send 8 members and 1 alternate to the TOC. My goal as always is to finish 1st in the club to gain the guaranteed boater slot and the State TOC.
Green Lake
Again because of an upcoming tournament I can't go into much detail about this event. I can say it was much like league night a few days earlier in that I pretty much just junked around and of the 4 smallies I weighed, each came on a different presentation in different areas. I ended up weighing 4 smallmouth for 11.74 lbs to easily secure the win. I also had big bass for the morning at 3.46 lbs.
Norway/Games Lake
In the afternoon I knew I wanted to start on the same school that produced Thursday night just to get some quick fish in the boat and it started of fast as I had what ended up being my biggest fish of the day in the boat on my 2nd cast. My dad then caught one real quick and after that it was over. The rest of the day was spent any shallow cover that looked good. My other 3 weigh fish came on an overhanging tree, and a deadhead that was a little ways offshore and a shallow cabbage bed. Those fish all came on my trusty Green Pumpkin Berkley HAVOC Pit Boss. For the afternoon I ended up weighing 4 bass for 9.04 lbs which was good enough to take 2nd place.
Sauk Lake
I was extremely happy to have the points lead coming into Sauk Lake. I have spent a fair amount of time on the lake this year but just cannot figure it out. Really I was just hoping to catch 1 fish. With the points I had I felt like that would be enough to qualify me for the TOC. Of course I wanted to retain my points lead as well and as it turns out I had the bites to do it. I just didn't put them in the boat. Pretty early on in the day I ended up abandoning everything I planned to do as my dad put 2 good fish in the boat on a toad/buzzin frog. I had been using a Spro Bronzeye Frog but for some reason they really seemed to prefer the toad on this day. I'm no dummy so I picked one up as well and threw it pretty much the rest of the day around shallow matted weeds. I ended up getting 6 bites on the day but only boated 3 of them for 8.24 lbs. This put me in 5th place for the day. After all the points were tallied I ended up in 2nd place, by 1 point, for the club this year. Congratulations to all those who made the State TOC!
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