West Central Bass League - Week 5

After a hectic and not particularly productive June I finally have a little time to relax and catch my breath. I have a two week break before my next tournament on July 15th. To say the start of the tournament season is a disappointment would be a huge understatement. I'm not sure what's going wrong so far this year but all I can do is keep fishing and hope I work my way out of it. Even though there are occasional breaks in the weekend tournament schedule the West Central Bass League goes every week so I am still able to get my competitive fishing fix.

West Central Bass League - Lake Calhoun - June 27th


It was hot, muggy and calm and actually pretty unpleasant out when we arrived at Lake Calhoun but didn't stop us from having the largest turnout of the year so far. Calhoun is always a popular lake but I was surprised when 26 teams showed up to fish. On a small lake like Calhoun it was pretty crowded but fish were still caught. To me it seemed a little off overall and whether that was related to the conditions or the crowds I'm not sure. Here are the results.

1st - Ross & Rob - 3 - 12.23 lbs
2nd - Donovan & Mike - 3 - 9.22 lbs
3rd - Kyle & Jim - 3 - 8.98 lbs
4th - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 8.57 lbs
5th - Ron & Joe - 3 - 8.07 lbs

Big Bass - Ross & Rob - 4.49 lbs

For us the night was extremely tough and I was very pleased that we ended up taking 4th place. We were one of the last boats out and I thought for sure someone would be where I wanted to start but we were able to start where I wanted. Of course it wasn't very productive but we did get one 2 1/2 pounder that we ended up weighing. That fish came on a Okochobee Craw Berkley HAVOC Pit Boss flipped into thick matted up reeds. After that we bounced around the lake and it was really slow until about the last half hour when I moved to a shallow inside weedline that had been fished all night long by other boats. It had opened up though and with the lower light conditions I hoped that they would turn on and that is exactly what happened. I started getting bit on almost every cast and although most were small we were able to steadily upgrade until right near the end of the night my dad put an almost 4 lb bass in the boat. Those fish all came on watermelon Strike King Ochos or Yamamoto Senkos.

West Central Bass League - Lake Johanna - June 28th


After having the largest turnout of the season the previous night only 16 teams decided to show up on Thursday night. I'm not sure what the reason for the drop off was since the lake had fished really well the previous week. In any case it was nice to move around and actually have areas to yourself. The fishing certainly didn't end up being as good as the previous week although the weights were still pretty strong.

1st - TJ & Isaiah - 3 - 11.00 lbs
2nd - Donovan & Brad - 3 - 10.94 lbs
3rd - Paul & Troy - 3 - 10.41 lbs
4th - Ron & Joe - 3 - 10.20 lbs

Big Bass - Donovan & Brad - 5.00 lbs

We really struggled for the night and only came in with 2 bass weighing 7.08 lbs to take 9th place. One of the goals for our league season every year is to catch a 3 bass limit every night and that ended. I don't believe we have ever done it in fact. You wouldn't think it would be that hard to do but apparently it is. We did basically the same thing we did the previous week when we finished 2nd and what everyone else was doing which is to fish the reeds and bullrushes but it just didn't work out for us. Our 2 weigh fish came on a okochobee craw Pit Boss and a watermelon 6" Yum Dinger.