West Central Bass League - Week 6 & Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Minnewaska

West Central Bass League - Lake Florida - July 11th


As we were headed to Lake Florida on this Wednesday night we got a call telling us that someone had just drowned on the lake. When we got to the access nothing seemed to be happening but a short while later the emergency vehicles were flying past the access. As it turns out an older man fell off the dock and did not make it. That cast a somber atmosphere over the evening but the fish sure didn't seem to mind. The lake kicked out more quality bass than I can remember for at least the last 5 years.

1st - Lee & Nick - 3 - 10.94 lbs
2nd - Ron & Joe - 3 - 10.85 lbs
3rd - Jeff & Kris - 3 - 10.46 lbs
4th - Jim & Brad - 3 - 10.32 lbs
5th - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 9.94 lbs

Big Bass - Brad & Bill - 5.44 lbs

Generally a bag such as ours in the 10 lb range is enough to win on Lake Florida but it was only barely enough to squeak into the money on this night. In the older days of league Florida was known as a dock fishing lake and that is pretty much what everyone did. That has certainly changed though as the offshore bite is where many focus there attention. For awhile I had that deal mostly to myself but times have changed. With a middle of the pack boat draw there was no way I could get to my preferred starting area so it was off to another area which ended up being just as crowded. I was able to get right on the juice though and it didn't take long for the fish to start biting. The fish were biting for others in the area too but we were definitely out-catching everyone else. We did move around a bit but the majority of our night was spent sitting on that one hole. Our fish came on a variety of lures such as homemade jigs, 10" Berkley Power Worms, finesse worms either Texas rigged or on a drop shot but the best producer ended up being a slow rolled green pumpkin Z-Man Chatterbait.

West Central Bass League - Nest Lake - July 12th


From all the reports I had heard and my personal experience on Nest this year the fishing had been extremely tough prior to this weeks league but much like Florida on Wednesday night the fish turned on big time and the weights ended up being very impressive. I think part of the reason the fishing was so good is that all of the curly leaf pondweed or June weed had all died off at this point. For some reason the fishing just isn't very good when there is a ton of curly leaf in the lake. Fortunately it dies off around the first of July every year though. Maybe that had something to do with it or maybe not but in any case the fishing was excellent.

1st - Scott & Kelly - 3 - 11.90 lbs
2nd - Andy & Mike Nitchals - 3 - 11.65 lbs
3rd - Ron & Joe - 3 - 11.62 lbs
4th - Donovan & Brad - 3 - 11.42 lbs
5th - Paul & Pete - 3 - 9.78 lbs

Big Bass - Donovan & Brad - 5.16 lbs

We started our night on a shallow rocky area that is traditionally known for smallmouth but this year had been holding a number of quality largemouth. Within 5 minutes I hooked up with a good fish but instead of being the expected largemouth it was a smallie. Right then I knew we would focus most of our night on the brown fish and the 3 we brought to the scales ended up being the only limit of smallmouth weighed in on the night. We caught fish on a variety of lures but the 3 we weighed came on a green pumpkin Berkley HAVOC Pit Boss or a green pumpkin Biffle Hardhead jig rigged with a Biffle Bug.

Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Minnewaska - July 15th


We were finally able to break out of the slump we were in to start off the Big Bass Bonanza season. Our middle of the pack finishes in the first 2 events certainly could have been worse but they certainly weren't what I expect of myself, especially when one of the lakes is Green Lake. At Minnewaska we weighed in an 8 fish limit of smallmouth for 21.88 lbs. It was the only limit comprised solely of smallies and was enough to take 5th place out of 32 teams. The finished also jumped us way up in the TOY standings to a tie for 6th place, which is well within the top 15 championship cut with one event remaining.

Going into the event, like everything else this year, Minnewaska had been tough for us. We put in a long day on Saturday before the tournament and finally got a few things going. Our plan was to fish for smallies on shallow sand flats and largemouths on deep weedlines as well as under docks. Since I have already said we weighed all smallmouth it is clear that neither largemouth pattern held up at all. We caught a lot of green fish but none of them were even close to the size we needed. For the smallies the fishing was pretty simple. One of our weigh fish came on a Super Spook but all the rest came on green pumpkin or watermelon/red flake Strike King Coffee Tubes. The key for us was getting tube stuck in the sparse weeds and the popping it free. If we weren't in the weeds we would still hop the tube violently and that is when every bite happened. I know many people think of a tube as a finesse bait but I really like using it as a reaction bait like this especially for smallmouth. There is something about that action they just can't resist.