This past Thursday was a new event for the bass league. The Norway Cup has been a long running night for bass league so this year we decided that Green Lake also deserved a special Cup night. The Cup events are basically the same as any other league night with the only differences being a higher entry fee and 2 big bass payouts instead of just 1. We had 15 teams fishing and many were rewarding with some excellent fishing. Most bass fishermen would agree that the fishing on Green has been "off" this year but it seems like its starting to turn around a little bit. 1st place went to John & Jacob with 10.51 lbs, 2nd was Ron & Joe with 9.86 lbs, 3rd went to Dean & John with 9.56 lbs and my dad & I took 4th with 9.23 lbs. The 2 big bass for the night weighed 4.32 lbs and 3.99 lbs.
We ended up having a very good night for numbers of fish and also were able to get better size than we have been able to any other time on Green this year. We actually weighed 3 fish that were all 3 lbs or a little more which is the first time we have caught 3 3 pounders on Green this year. We ended up catching probably about 15 fish in the 3 hours so it was a lot of fun. We started our night on the north side on a shallow rock area. I put a 3 pounder in the boat after about 15 minutes on a green pumpkin Strike King KVD tube with a 1/2 oz weight. We fished around for awhile after that but got no more strikes so we headed to the east side of the lake. We fished several different areas on the east side with a spinnerbait and tube and were able to catch several fish to fill out our limit and cull a couple times but still only had the 1 good fish. Next we headed to the south side near a milfoil patch that has been pretty good for us this year but instead of a good smallie my dad put a 6-7 lb walleye in the boat. After that we headed back to our starting area to work it over again. This time the fish were biting a little bit better and we caught several fish with one of them being another 3 lb fish on a Strike King tube. With time running out we made one final move to another milfoil patch near the access. I brought the boat off plane and checked the time. It was 8:54 pm so there was very little time to fish but we were only about 30 seconds from the ramp so there was time to catch one more and thats what I did. I cast my tube right in the middle of the milfoil and got kind of hung up in it. As soon as the bait popped free from the weeds another 3 lb smallie was on it and in the boat. That was yet another last cast fish for us this year and we made it back to the ramp with about a minute to spare.
Friday, July 31, 2009
West Central Bass League - Long Lake
This past Wednesday the West Central Bass League headed back to Long Lake just north of Willmar. We had fished out there a few weeks ago and the weedgrowth was so thick it made moving around very difficult. This time a lot of those weeds had died back but the lake now has a large amount of that bright green slimy stuff growing everywhere. The fish didn't seem to mind though as we had the largest weights of the year weighed in. There were 18 boats fishing and only 36 fish weighed in so the numbers weren't great but the average size of thoese 36 bass weighed an astounding 3.86 lbs. 1st place went to David & Lenny with 3 bass weighing 15.29 lbs, 2nd place went to Ron & Dave with 13.06 lbs, 3rd went to Ron & Joe with 12.80 lbs and 4th went to Brandon & Evan with 12.21 lbs. There were also 3 more bags over 10 lbs who finished out of the money. The big bass for the night weighed 5.47 lbs. My dad and I struggled to catch just 1 fish for 3.73 lbs and 14th place.
There really isn't much to tell about our night. We had 2 bites the entire night and only boated one of them. My dad caught our one keeper on a black Spro frog in the reeds. My only bite came on a watermelon Berkley Chigger Craw but as soon as I set the hook the fish was already buried in the reeds and I had no chance to get him out. We spent most of our night flipping which was apparently the wrong thing to have done that night as it seems most of the big bags came on moving baits like spinnerbaits and topwater. Last year we caught our heaviest 3 fish league bag ever weighing over 16 lbs on Long Lake but this year after our 2 events we only weighed 3 fish total. We just never figured them out this year but thats fishing I guess.
There really isn't much to tell about our night. We had 2 bites the entire night and only boated one of them. My dad caught our one keeper on a black Spro frog in the reeds. My only bite came on a watermelon Berkley Chigger Craw but as soon as I set the hook the fish was already buried in the reeds and I had no chance to get him out. We spent most of our night flipping which was apparently the wrong thing to have done that night as it seems most of the big bags came on moving baits like spinnerbaits and topwater. Last year we caught our heaviest 3 fish league bag ever weighing over 16 lbs on Long Lake but this year after our 2 events we only weighed 3 fish total. We just never figured them out this year but thats fishing I guess.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Green Mill Tournament - Green Lake
About a month ago the guys in our club started hearing talk of a tournament that was being held by Green Mill Restaurant in Willmar. They ended up approaching us in the club for help with running the tournament and using our equipment for the weigh in. 14 teams ended up fishing with about half the teams from our bass club and the other half being employees or friends of Green Mill. The wind blew extremely hard all day and the fish didn't bite as well as everyone would have hoped but it seemed like everyone had a good time and there is already talk of running another one next year. 1st place weighed in a 5 fish limit of largemouth weighing 15.07 lbs. 2nd place weighed in 5 smallmouth for 13.99 lbs. My dad and I finished in 3rd with a limit of smallies weighing 13.67 lbs. The big bass for the day was a 5.11 lb largemouth caught by the winning team.
We started our day on a milfoil patch near an inside corner on the south side of the lake. The waves were already coming in pretty good right away in the morning so we figured we needed to catch them before it got too windy to fish at all. We didn't end up catching any fish out of the milfoil but as we moved down the corner breakline we found the fish schooled up pretty good but the size wasn't what we had found earlier in the week. All those fish came on green pumpkin tubes in 8-10 feet of water. One thing I think helped trigger some of the bites was using a heavy 1/2 oz weight on the tube and really snapping it hard. That seemed to get more bites than just dragging the tube slowly along the bottom. After leaving the south side at around 9 am we had a very slow next few hours. We spent much of that time fishing deeper humps with drop shots but only managed 2 small fish. We also made an attempt to fish the south east section of the lake but the wind was blowing so hard we had waves coming over the front and back of the boat and it was just impossible to fish correctly in those kind of waves. At around noon we finally got into another little wad of fish on the north end of the lake. This time we were fishing much shallower around rocks in 5-6 feet of water but the heavy tube was still the bait of choice. I put 3 of our weigh fish in the boat in about 5 minutes and probably 20 minutes later my dad caught our big fish of the day which went 2.90 lbs on our handheld scale. After that flurry of activity the action died again and I don't think we caught another keeper in the last 1 1/2 hours.
We started our day on a milfoil patch near an inside corner on the south side of the lake. The waves were already coming in pretty good right away in the morning so we figured we needed to catch them before it got too windy to fish at all. We didn't end up catching any fish out of the milfoil but as we moved down the corner breakline we found the fish schooled up pretty good but the size wasn't what we had found earlier in the week. All those fish came on green pumpkin tubes in 8-10 feet of water. One thing I think helped trigger some of the bites was using a heavy 1/2 oz weight on the tube and really snapping it hard. That seemed to get more bites than just dragging the tube slowly along the bottom. After leaving the south side at around 9 am we had a very slow next few hours. We spent much of that time fishing deeper humps with drop shots but only managed 2 small fish. We also made an attempt to fish the south east section of the lake but the wind was blowing so hard we had waves coming over the front and back of the boat and it was just impossible to fish correctly in those kind of waves. At around noon we finally got into another little wad of fish on the north end of the lake. This time we were fishing much shallower around rocks in 5-6 feet of water but the heavy tube was still the bait of choice. I put 3 of our weigh fish in the boat in about 5 minutes and probably 20 minutes later my dad caught our big fish of the day which went 2.90 lbs on our handheld scale. After that flurry of activity the action died again and I don't think we caught another keeper in the last 1 1/2 hours.
West Central Bass League - Nest Lake
We had 14 boats fish Nest Lake on Thursday night. The fishing again was tough for most and out of all the fish weighed I believe there were only 5 smallmouth brought to the scales which has got to be close to a record for the fewest brown fish weighed in on Nest. 1st place went to Scott & Al with 9.55 lbs, 2nd was Ron & Joe with 8.53 lbs, 3rd was John & Chad with 8.41 lbs and 4th went to my dad and I with 7.59 lbs. The big bass for the night weighed 3.77 lbs.
Our fishing for the night was extremely slow although I think our bag could have been much better if we hadn't missed a couple of bites. We targeted smallies for most of the night with tubes and drop shots and caught maybe 6 smallies. We also had a few weedbeds we wanted to check for largemouth but only were able to manage 2 of those that went around the 2 lb mark. With about 20 minutes left in the night we started throwing Super Spooks and the action really seemed to pick up although most of the fish just kept hitting at the bait but not actually getting hooked up. We were able to follow up with tubes and catch a few of those fish though. We ended up weighing in 2 of those smallmouth that we caught in the last 20 minutes and it ended up being the difference between getting in the money and being in 5th place.
Our fishing for the night was extremely slow although I think our bag could have been much better if we hadn't missed a couple of bites. We targeted smallies for most of the night with tubes and drop shots and caught maybe 6 smallies. We also had a few weedbeds we wanted to check for largemouth but only were able to manage 2 of those that went around the 2 lb mark. With about 20 minutes left in the night we started throwing Super Spooks and the action really seemed to pick up although most of the fish just kept hitting at the bait but not actually getting hooked up. We were able to follow up with tubes and catch a few of those fish though. We ended up weighing in 2 of those smallmouth that we caught in the last 20 minutes and it ended up being the difference between getting in the money and being in 5th place.
West Central Bass League - Lake Johanna
The bass league returned to Johanna this past Wednesday and 15 teams showed up to try to figure out the fish once again. Some teams reported the fishing to be very tough while others caught a lot of fish. The weights were not all that impressive as is the case on Johanna the last couple of years. There was 1 big bag brought in and that was by my dad and I. We took 1st place with 11.87 lbs for our 3. 2nd place went to Tim & Grant with 9.43 lbs, 3rd went to Dean & John with 9.06 lbs and 4th went to Troy & Chad with 8.96 lbs. My dad caught the big fish of the night and it weighed in at 5.40 lbs.
Last time on Johanna my dad and I really struggled and only managed to catch 4 fish and they all came in the last half hour. This time we decided to just go where we caught those fish and stay there the whole night. We got to our area and put the trolling motor down and never picked it back up until it was time to head in. We ended up having a pretty good night catching around 15 bass but only 3 of them were over 3 lbs. Fortunately in these events we only need to weigh 3 bass. All of our fish came on Lake Fork Craw Tubes and Strike King Flippin Tubes in a variety of colors that we pitched to reed beds.
Last time on Johanna my dad and I really struggled and only managed to catch 4 fish and they all came in the last half hour. This time we decided to just go where we caught those fish and stay there the whole night. We got to our area and put the trolling motor down and never picked it back up until it was time to head in. We ended up having a pretty good night catching around 15 bass but only 3 of them were over 3 lbs. Fortunately in these events we only need to weigh 3 bass. All of our fish came on Lake Fork Craw Tubes and Strike King Flippin Tubes in a variety of colors that we pitched to reed beds.
Friday, July 17, 2009
West Central Bass League - Norway Lake
Thursday was another cold windy day and as a result only 11 teams showed up to fish Norway Lake. This was our lowest turnout of the year but I don't blame them. I wish we could have stayed home too. 1st place went to Ron & Joe with 10.92 lbs, 2nd went to Brandon & Brent with 7.26 lbs, and 3rd was Brad & Wayne with 6.23 lbs. The big bass for the night went 3.95 lbs. My dad and I blanked which put us in a tie for 10th with another team who also zeroed.
Not only did we not catch a single keeper we didn't even have a single bite from a bass. I caught 2 northerns and those were the only 2 bites we had for the night. This is were I usually talk about the fishing but obviously there isn't much to tell. We fished the first 1 1/2 hours in Games and had nothing on the 5 spots we tried. The water is so low getting through the lakes that we had to make a decision about going back to Norway because if we did there would be no returning to Games. We did make the move back to Norway and fished a bunch of different stuff but got no bites doing anything there either.
Not only did we not catch a single keeper we didn't even have a single bite from a bass. I caught 2 northerns and those were the only 2 bites we had for the night. This is were I usually talk about the fishing but obviously there isn't much to tell. We fished the first 1 1/2 hours in Games and had nothing on the 5 spots we tried. The water is so low getting through the lakes that we had to make a decision about going back to Norway because if we did there would be no returning to Games. We did make the move back to Norway and fished a bunch of different stuff but got no bites doing anything there either.
West Central Bass League - Eagle Lake
We were back on Eagle Lake this Wednesday. 14 teams showed up to compete which was the lowest turnout we have had on Wednesday this year. I think the strong winds coupled with the smallish lake kept at least a few people away. That is ok though on a lake like Eagle because space is at a premium with everyone fishing the same docks all night long. 1st place went to Paul & Pete with 10.67 lbs, 2nd was Ron & Joe with 9.80 lbs, 3rd was David & Lenny with 9.20 lbs and 4th went to Troy & Chad with 8.98 lbs. The big bass for the night went 4.06 lbs. My dad and I struggled and only caught 8.48 lbs for 6th place.
We fished docks for most of the night like everyone else and we had our 3 fish limit in about an hour but it just didn't seem like the docks were working as well as usual. At about 7:30 we ended up going offshore and found some very nice weedlines. There weren't many fish there but we did end up with one of our keepers out deep on a watermelon Brush Hog. I also caught a nice 19 inch walleye on a jig that I will be eating tonight. Our 2 other fish did come off of the docks on a green pumpkin tube and a watermelon jig.
We fished docks for most of the night like everyone else and we had our 3 fish limit in about an hour but it just didn't seem like the docks were working as well as usual. At about 7:30 we ended up going offshore and found some very nice weedlines. There weren't many fish there but we did end up with one of our keepers out deep on a watermelon Brush Hog. I also caught a nice 19 inch walleye on a jig that I will be eating tonight. Our 2 other fish did come off of the docks on a green pumpkin tube and a watermelon jig.
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