West Central Bass League - Nest Lake

The first event of the 2010 West Central Bassmasters Bass League is in the books. We had a beautiful night to fish with cool temperatures and a light wind. I don't know if it was the weather or if people were just really ready to go fishing but for whatever reason we had the highest turnout ever for a bass league event with 26 teams showing up to compete. Most teams reported the fishing to be pretty tough and even though most of those competing were able to bring in a 3 fish limit the majority of the fish were quite small. There were some very nice bags as always though. My dad and I were able to get the year of to a very good start with a win in the first event of the season. We weighed in a 3 fish limit for 10.74 lbs. 2nd place went to Ron & Joe with 9.89 lbs. 3rd went to Jeff & Kris with 9.35 lbs and 4th went to Kelly & Mike with 8.60 lbs. The big fish for the evening was caught by David and weighed in at 4.04 lbs.

Our fishing for the evening seemed like it was pretty tough although in hindsight we really did have a pretty good night of fishing. We ended up catching around 15 fish and ended up throwing back enough weight to have had a high finish with the fish we released. The night did not go exactly according to plan though (but in fishing, it never really does.) We started on a deeper rocky area for smallmouth and after about 5 minutes I could tell the smallies were not "on" like they should have been. We still fished the area for another 20 minutes or so without a bite before moving to another area.

Despite realizing the smallmouth were not biting well our second stop was another smallmouth spot. This area was shallower with a mix of rock and weeds. On his first cast with a Strike King tube my dad boated a solid 3 1/2 lb largemouth. That was unexpected but a good fish none the less. A few minutes later I had a 5 lb largemouth shoot out of the water next to the boat as I was reeling my lure in. That fish caught me so off guard I was not able to drop my jig back to it quick enough to get it. We quickly realized that despite no smallies in the area there were a good number of quality largemouth around and we were able to move our weight up to the 10 lb range in the next hour. Those fish mostly came on watermelon jigs and tubes.

With a strong weight already in the box we were able to go back to our starting smallmouth area and really grind it out. Usually on a lake with both species you look for a largemouth to be your kicker fish but there are some really big smallies in Nest Lake and a 4 lb plus fish is a very good possibility. We did not find find one over 4 but my dad did finally catch a 3 1/2 lb smallie on a drop shot rig with a watermelon Lake Fork Tackle trick worm. That fish moved us up to our final weight for the evening. We were able to catch a few more 3 lb largemouth and smallmouth over the rest of the night but at that point they did not help us. It is always a good feeling when a 3 lb fish does not help your limit.

Thursday night league kicks off tonight on Lake Solomon and hopefully my dad and I can keep it going and win both events this week. We are sure going to give it our best shot!

Bass Fishing 2010

Well the bass season has finally arrived here in Minnesota and I've been going non-stop since Saturday morning. Saturday and Sunday were pretty tough days for me but I did manage to find a few nice fish. The past two days have been spent practicing on the Horseshoe Chain for the first Big Bass Bonanza tournament of the year. However, I won't reveal anything about my practice at this point. Our West Central Bassmasters Bass League also begins tomorrow night and will continue every Wednesday and Thursday until the end of August. With all that in mind I figured it was time to share my final tournament schedule for 2010. There are a few conflicting dates that I haven't decided how to deal with yet and July is very light on events but overall it is a good mix of lakes and should be a great tournament season! I'll try to update my blog as soon as possible after each tournament and league night.

June

6th - Big Bass Bonanza - Horseshoe Chain

13th - West Central Bassmasters state qualifier - Lake Minnewaska

20th - Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Ida

26th - West Central Bassmasters Summer Classic (Open Tournament) - Green Lake Spicer

27th - West Central Bassmasters state qualifier - Lake Osakis

July

11th - Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Minnewaska

August

8th - Big Bass Bonanza - Green Lake Spicer

11th - 13th - B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Northern Divisional

22nd - Big Bass Bonanza - Sauk Lake

September

9th-10th - B.A.S.S. MN State Tournament of Champions - Lake Minnetonka

12th - Big Bass Bonanza Tournament of Champions - Pending Qualification

12th - West Central Bassmasters Fall Classic (Open Tournament) - Green Lake Spicer

I am excited about this one since there has never been a fall tournament on Green Lake.

Preliminary 2010 Tournament Schedule

It's that time of year to start thinking about fishing. Maybe it's too early but I can't help it. I will be heading down to Alabama in about 2 weeks to watch the Bassmasters Classic and then do some fishing at Lake Guntersville and possibly Kentucky Lake on the way home if the conditions are suitable. So since I have fishing on the brain I've put together my tournament schedule for 2010.

June

6th - Big Bass Bonanza - Horseshoe Chain

12th - West Central Bassmasters state qualifier - Lake Minnewaska

13th - West Central Bassmasters state qualifier - Green Lake Spicer

20th - Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Ida

26th - West Central Bassmasters Summer Classic (Open Tournament) - Green Lake Spicer

July

11th - Big Bass Bonanza - Lake Minnewaska

August

B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Northern Divisional - Details are still sketchy on this but it will be sometime in August somewhere in Michigan. Get your act together B.A.S.S.!

8th - Big Bass Bonanza - Green Lake Spicer

22nd - Big Bass Bonanza - Sauk Lake

September

Big Bass Bonanza Tournament of Champions will be sometime in September I'm guessing. This is pending qualification but I plan to be in the top 10 at the end of the year.

9th-10th - B.A.S.S. MN State Tournament of Champions - Lake Minnetonka

12th - West Central Bassmasters Fall Classic (Open Tournament) - Green Lake Spicer

I am excited about this one since there has never been a fall tournament on Green Lake.

Besides these tournaments I will be fishing the local West Central Bassmasters League every Wednesday and Thursday night in June, July and August. I will also be fishing the West Central Bassmasters Fall League every Saturday in September and October.

After looking this schedule over I have to say I'm not loving it! June is going to be super busy and then in July there is practically nothing. I'll have to look into finding at least one more tournament for July. There is also an overabundance of Green Lake tournaments. This is my home water so thats cool but I don't like fishing the same lake over and over again. I'd like a little more variety but thats just how it worked out this year. At least the tournaments on Green Lake are at different times of the year and the primary patterns change quite a bit on this lake throughout the season.

End of the Year

2009 isn't over yet but my fishing season is. Since I pretty much only fish for bass and don't do any ice fishing at all I won't be fishing for a few months anyway. We were able to make the season a lot longer than usual though with relatively warm temps all the way until December 1st. December 1st was the last day we got out on the water which is the latest I can remember being out in the boat. It was around 45 degrees for a high but the winds were pretty strong so we didn't last long but in about 2 hours of fishing we managed to boat 15 nice smallies by dragging tubes in 25-30 feet of water. 12 of the fish came from one little spot that we just kept making repeated casts to. They really group up big time this time of year so when you find them it can be really good.

2009 ended up being a pretty good year overall for my results. It was much better than 2008 thats for sure. There weren't as many highlights as I would have liked but there weren't very many low points either. We only managed 1 win for the season and that was in our smaller West Central Bassmasters tourny on Norway Lake. The fishing was extremely tough that day but we had a 15 minute flurry where we put basically all our weight for the day in the boat and it was enough to hold on for the win.

In our Big Bass Bonanza season we ended up 3rd in the team of the year standings with finishes of 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in 5 total events. Our other 2 finishes were in the top half of the field as well so it was a very consistant year. I just wish we could have won the tourny that we placed 2nd in. We were only about a quarter pound off the winning weight and we had the fish on to make up that ground but just didn't put them in the boat.

The Minnesota State Bass Federation Tournament of Champions was also another successful one for me as I ended up finishing in 3rd place after taking 2nd place last year. I finally feel like I'm competing the way I want to in this tournament. It took a lot of years to get to the point where I feel like I can compete for a top 12 spot every year and advance to the Divisional tournament. I'm not saying I will be in the top 12 every year, just that I feel I can make a run at it anyways.

Our Bass League results were only what I would consider to be so-so for the year although there were some high points as well. We did manage to tie for team of the year on Wednesday nights but Thursday was a disaster where we only managed to finish 5th. I know 5th doesn't sound that bad but its been a long time since we finished that low in the standings. We really don't put the time in on these lakes like we used to and I think that might have hurt a little bit. The competition also keeps getting stronger every year. In the fall portion of the League schedule we were able to do very well. We finished 2nd in the first 2 events and then won the final 4 events.

The biggest lowlight of the year was definitely my bomb at the Bassmaster Divisionals on Lake Michigan. I only managed to catch 1 fish a day over the 3 day competition and finished very close to the bottom of the pack. This was my worst tournament in several years. I may not win as many tournaments as I would like but I have been able to avoid the really bad tournaments for the most part until this one. One good thing about the trip though was that I caught my 2nd and 3rd biggest smallmouth of my life during practice. They weighed 5.60 lbs and 5.10 lbs on my scale in the boat so that was very exciting.

As I am writing this it is snowing and the lakes are freezing over. This is not my favorite time of the year at all but fortunately the plan is to head to Alabama for the Bassmasters Classic in February. That is less than 3 months from now so my winter will be a lot shorter than most Minnesota bass fishermen have to put up with.

See you on the water in 2010!

West Central Fall Bass League - Long Lake

This past Saturday marked the final event of our Fall Bass League for 2009. The weather was actually very nice for a change with light winds and highs over 50 degrees. However the water temps were in the low 40's and that made for some very tough fishing on a shallow water lake such as Long. Most of the fish in the lake relate to reeds or shallow rocks so when the water gets cold they can be difficult to figure out. Out of the 5 teams fishing only 2 were able to bring a fish to the scales after 5 hours of fishing. 2nd place went to Tim & Grant with 1 fish for 4.85 lbs. 1st place went to my dad & I with 3 fish for 14.22 lbs. My dad also caught the big fish of the day which weighed in at 5.12 lbs. The win made it a clean sweep for us in October with wins in each of the 4 fall leagues held this month.

We started our day flipping reeds with jigs and soft plastics but after several stops in the first hour we had not had a bite. At this point I decided to try something a little different for the lake and I started throwing a Rapala X-Rap on steeper bare banks. I worked the bait with very small twitches and let it pause for as long as I could stand it. After about 5 minutes with the jerkbait I put a nice 4 1/4 lb bass in the boat. We continued to work this pattern for another hour or so but no luck. After catching one so quick I really thought that was going to be the deal but I guess not. After the jerkbait experiment it was back to the reeds for most of the rest of the day. We just kept working good areas as slowly as possible and eventually we ran across a small area of reeds that was holding some fish. My dad caught the first flipping fish on a black/blue craw tube. That one ended up being the big fish of the day. Less than 5 minutes later I missed a fish and then less than 5 minutes after that I had another one bite 4 times before I finally hooked it. I got it almost to the boat but it was just out of reach of the net when it came off. That fish was an easy 5 pounder and I was really worried that we let the win slip away right there. The last fish I caught came from the same area after we had let it rest for awhile. It weighed in at almost 5 lbs and was caught on a black/blue jig. I am kind of disappointed that we were not able to catch our 5 fish limit since we did have the opportunities but I won't complain too much with 3 fish weighing over 14 lbs and the win.

Since this was the last fall league of the year this is probably my last competitive fishing of the year as well. I'm hoping that November will be a lot more pleasant that October and that theres at least another month of fishing before the lakes freeze up but I won't be writing about those trips in the blog. I'll do a 2009 wrap up in several weeks once the boat is put away for the winter.

West Central Fall Bass League - Nest Lake

Saturday October 17th was our 5th fall event this year after last weekend was cancelled due to bad weather. It's been an extremely cold October so far but Saturday's weather was not too bad with only a light breeze and highs near 45 degrees. The slightly warmer weather didn't heat up the fishing though as only 2 teams out of the 6 boats competing were able to bring a five fish limit to the scales. The 2 limits that were weighed were very nice bags though. My dad and I were able to take 1st place with 16.96 lbs and 2nd went to Tim and Grant with 15.01 lbs. My dad also caught the big bass of the day which weighed 4.99 lbs.

Even though we ended up winning we did not have a great day as far as catching a lot of fish. In fact we only boated 5 fish in the 5 hours of fishing time but they happened to be almost all good ones. Our day started extremely slowly and we didn't even have a bite for the first 2 1/2 hours. Then the next 1 1/2 hours is when we boated all of our fish. I guess we got to the right area at the right time because earlier in the day we were fishing a similar pattern with no luck. All 5 of our fish came on a watermelon jig fished on the weed edge in about 6 feet of water. It seemed like the best areas were where the weeds were the thickest.

West Central Fall Bass Leauge Tournament - Big Birch Lake

This past Saturday is what we call the Fall Bass League Tournament. For the tournament there is a higher entry fee and a longer fishing day, otherwise all other league rules apply. We usually get a higher turnout for the Fall Tournament but this year the weather was very cold and rainy which I think kept many teams from showing up. With only 4 boats fishing it was a winner take all event and my dad and I were just able to squeak into 1st place with 11.10 lbs for our 5 fish limit. We edged out the 2nd place team of Brian & Mark who weighed in 10.90 lbs. The big fish for the day weighed in at 2.75 lbs.

With only 4 boats fishing a relatively good sized lake you would think there would be a lot of room to roam but as it turns out we ended up sharing our starting spot with another team in the event. The spot did not turn out to be nearly as good as I expected and after about an hour of fishing each boat only had 1 fish apiece. The fish I caught did end up being our largest of the day at just over 2 1/2 lbs. I caught that fish on my usual watermelon jig. After that we moved around at hit similar areas throughout the day. Our main pattern was keeping the boat in 15-20 feet of water and casting shallower to coontail beds. Our best area turned out to be one that we hadn't even fished in practice but it did fit the pattern and there seemed to be a lot of fish on it. I stuck with the jig most of the day and caught a fair number of fish but my dad threw a watermelon Brush Hog most of the day and that really seemed to be the ticket. He probably ended up outfishing me 2 to 1 from the back of the boat on the Brush Hog. He also ended up weighing probably all of our fish except for the first one I caught. In a team tournament though it doesn't matter who catches them as long as they get in the boat.