Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Abu Garcia Revo's listed on eBay
If your looking for some brand new reels at a great price I just listed three new revo's on eBay. One STX Revo for $115.00 and two Skeet Reese Revo's for $175.00. All three reels are left handed. My user name is uiowabass if you want to search for the reels. All proceeds from the sale will be going towards new jerseys for the University of Iowa Bass fishing Team. Check 'em out!
Thursday, September 25, 2008
National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship - Tournament
Tournament Day 1
The first day of the tournament greeted us with overcast skies after we had practiced three days with only sun. I didn't quite know what to expect. I knew that the weather would probably help our rattle trap bite, but thought that it might hinder our other patterns.
We started off the day throwing rattle traps in the 2-5ft range around smaller sticks that lined the bank. We moved through our first spot with no keepers, but continued down the bank. Finally at 8:30 Tyler caught a decent keeper on a Berkley frenzy rattle trap. I was overjoyed at this moment mainly because I have yet to weigh in a fish in a big college tournament. We continued down the bank and I caught a solid fish on a strike king red eye shad. He nailed it right at the bank, jumped three times, and managed to stay on. We now had 2 keepers in the box by 9:00 and things were looking way better than in 2007. However, that's where our keepers would stop.
We fished our marina pattern and our boat ramp pattern with no success. I couldn't believe it; well I could kind of believe it. We needed sun on those spots for them to produce. If the sun was out, the spots would move to the edge of the boat ramp slabs and we could catch them draggin plastics. We literally made one cast on two different boat ramps in practice and caught two keeper spots right away. So after a long afternoon, we manage only 3-4lbs and were stuck in 83rd place out of 100 boats. Not quite what I was shooting for. Some of the bags that were being brought in were nuts! I definitely underestimated the quality of the fish in Lake Lewisville.
One thing I would have done differently on Day 1 would have been to slow down. The area we fished in the morning had a couple other teams on it. One of them brought 16lbs to the scales... talk about a back breaker.
Tournament Day 2
On day 2 we had a better boat draw so we were able to get to our starting spot first. We picked up a couple small keepers before the other teams got there. I saw Tarleton State coming into the area and began to back off the spot. This was the team with 16lbs the first day and I figured they earned the right to fish it and had a better shot at making the top 5 than we did. However, I found out later that a different team ended up sitting on the spot most of the day and caught a couple 3-4lb fish. Too bad for the TSU guys, but I guess that's how it goes. We back over our starting spot again, but this time we started fishing the bigger/thicker wood outside of the sticks. Right away we began catching fish, but nothing that was big enough. In practice we didn't have a single bite on the big wood, but now they were on it.
We made a big run uplake to some other bigger wood after catching some on our first spot. As we were approaching the wood I was casting the red eye shad on a main lake point. I picked up our first keeper of the day which was a 13" spot. Nothing big, but a start. I then proceeded to pitch the wood with a ribbon tail worm t-rigged. I was getting bit on a lot of the trees that I was pitching to, but they were all 13"-13.75"...too small.
After running our marina pattern and boat ramp pattern again with no success, we just began to fish new water. I ended up catching about a 3.5lb fish on my red eye shad at about 12:00 and that's the last of the keepers we would see for the day. It turned out the be a tougher day in general for many teams. 14 team zeroed on day 2, so it made me feel a little better that we got two in the boat. We moved up 8 spots to 75th for the tournament. Its not the finish I had imagined, but we did do better than last year. I really learned a lot about fishing reservoirs and was able to talk to a couple local college kids that fished the lake quite a bit. They caught all their fish in the marinas and around the thick/bigger wood.
I feel that we were around the right areas, but just didn't capitalize or fish slow enough in them. However, getting to meet and talk to pros such as Kelly Jordan, Luke Clauses, Shawn Hoernke, Jeff kriet, and Tommy Biffle is something I will never forget. We also received so many perks from the sponsors of the tournament it was crazy. Free pair of frog toggs, ranger hats, $50.00 swiss army knives, free shirts, couple packs of the new biffle-o's...the list goes on and on. If we qualify for the championship event this upcoming spring/summer, you can bet that we will be back.
The first day of the tournament greeted us with overcast skies after we had practiced three days with only sun. I didn't quite know what to expect. I knew that the weather would probably help our rattle trap bite, but thought that it might hinder our other patterns.
We started off the day throwing rattle traps in the 2-5ft range around smaller sticks that lined the bank. We moved through our first spot with no keepers, but continued down the bank. Finally at 8:30 Tyler caught a decent keeper on a Berkley frenzy rattle trap. I was overjoyed at this moment mainly because I have yet to weigh in a fish in a big college tournament. We continued down the bank and I caught a solid fish on a strike king red eye shad. He nailed it right at the bank, jumped three times, and managed to stay on. We now had 2 keepers in the box by 9:00 and things were looking way better than in 2007. However, that's where our keepers would stop.
We fished our marina pattern and our boat ramp pattern with no success. I couldn't believe it; well I could kind of believe it. We needed sun on those spots for them to produce. If the sun was out, the spots would move to the edge of the boat ramp slabs and we could catch them draggin plastics. We literally made one cast on two different boat ramps in practice and caught two keeper spots right away. So after a long afternoon, we manage only 3-4lbs and were stuck in 83rd place out of 100 boats. Not quite what I was shooting for. Some of the bags that were being brought in were nuts! I definitely underestimated the quality of the fish in Lake Lewisville.
One thing I would have done differently on Day 1 would have been to slow down. The area we fished in the morning had a couple other teams on it. One of them brought 16lbs to the scales... talk about a back breaker.
Tournament Day 2
On day 2 we had a better boat draw so we were able to get to our starting spot first. We picked up a couple small keepers before the other teams got there. I saw Tarleton State coming into the area and began to back off the spot. This was the team with 16lbs the first day and I figured they earned the right to fish it and had a better shot at making the top 5 than we did. However, I found out later that a different team ended up sitting on the spot most of the day and caught a couple 3-4lb fish. Too bad for the TSU guys, but I guess that's how it goes. We back over our starting spot again, but this time we started fishing the bigger/thicker wood outside of the sticks. Right away we began catching fish, but nothing that was big enough. In practice we didn't have a single bite on the big wood, but now they were on it.
We made a big run uplake to some other bigger wood after catching some on our first spot. As we were approaching the wood I was casting the red eye shad on a main lake point. I picked up our first keeper of the day which was a 13" spot. Nothing big, but a start. I then proceeded to pitch the wood with a ribbon tail worm t-rigged. I was getting bit on a lot of the trees that I was pitching to, but they were all 13"-13.75"...too small.
After running our marina pattern and boat ramp pattern again with no success, we just began to fish new water. I ended up catching about a 3.5lb fish on my red eye shad at about 12:00 and that's the last of the keepers we would see for the day. It turned out the be a tougher day in general for many teams. 14 team zeroed on day 2, so it made me feel a little better that we got two in the boat. We moved up 8 spots to 75th for the tournament. Its not the finish I had imagined, but we did do better than last year. I really learned a lot about fishing reservoirs and was able to talk to a couple local college kids that fished the lake quite a bit. They caught all their fish in the marinas and around the thick/bigger wood.
I feel that we were around the right areas, but just didn't capitalize or fish slow enough in them. However, getting to meet and talk to pros such as Kelly Jordan, Luke Clauses, Shawn Hoernke, Jeff kriet, and Tommy Biffle is something I will never forget. We also received so many perks from the sponsors of the tournament it was crazy. Free pair of frog toggs, ranger hats, $50.00 swiss army knives, free shirts, couple packs of the new biffle-o's...the list goes on and on. If we qualify for the championship event this upcoming spring/summer, you can bet that we will be back.
Monday, September 22, 2008
National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship - Practice
I just got back from Texas a couple days ago after a fun, but at times stressful, week. The trip down to Lake Lewisville took us 14 hours, but most of it went without a problem. I traveled down with my fishing partner (Tyler) and one other car that had another 2 person team from our school. We got down to the lake, got our licenses that night and went to bed exhausted.
Day 1 Practice:
In the first hour of practice I was already having better success than in 2007. We found some good areas and covered a lot of water. We fished the main lake and also ran all the way up the lake into the muddy water. We focused on the western part of the lake and were able to eliminate a lot of water.
Day 2 Practice:
On this day we focused on the eastern part of the lake and once again ran a lot of water. We were able to expand on what we found the day before and also figured out another pattern that was actually working in 2007. We also began to have boat motor problems on this day which was a real drag. That night we spent time with Mark Gintert from The Bass Federation in a parking lot working on my fuel lines and fuel filters until about 11:00pm. It was a god send that Mark helped us out that night, unfortunately we would find out we hadn't solved the problem.
Day 3 Practice:
On Day 3 of practice we tried to expand on what we had found the first two days. We found a couple more areas, but our day was cut short when I couldn't get my motor to start. We ended up getting towed in by Boat U.S. (good thing I'm a member!). We then took the boat to a shop to get a compression test and found out that we had a blown head gasket. Well, $140.00 later it was fixed. If it weren't for the boat motor problems this trip would have gone fairly smoothly, it was really a drag worrying about whether the motor would start. It was hard to concentrate on the task at hand, and that was finding the fish.
Our main patterns:
Day 1 Practice:
In the first hour of practice I was already having better success than in 2007. We found some good areas and covered a lot of water. We fished the main lake and also ran all the way up the lake into the muddy water. We focused on the western part of the lake and were able to eliminate a lot of water.
Day 2 Practice:
On this day we focused on the eastern part of the lake and once again ran a lot of water. We were able to expand on what we found the day before and also figured out another pattern that was actually working in 2007. We also began to have boat motor problems on this day which was a real drag. That night we spent time with Mark Gintert from The Bass Federation in a parking lot working on my fuel lines and fuel filters until about 11:00pm. It was a god send that Mark helped us out that night, unfortunately we would find out we hadn't solved the problem.
Day 3 Practice:
On Day 3 of practice we tried to expand on what we had found the first two days. We found a couple more areas, but our day was cut short when I couldn't get my motor to start. We ended up getting towed in by Boat U.S. (good thing I'm a member!). We then took the boat to a shop to get a compression test and found out that we had a blown head gasket. Well, $140.00 later it was fixed. If it weren't for the boat motor problems this trip would have gone fairly smoothly, it was really a drag worrying about whether the motor would start. It was hard to concentrate on the task at hand, and that was finding the fish.
Our main patterns:
- Strike King Red Eye Shad in sexy shad color
- Dragging a storm hot craw on a football
- Targeting areas that had sticks on the inside edge with bigger wood outside of that. You could picture it as a weedline, but it was wood instead. We were catching most of our fish in the smaller sticks, not as much in the bigger wood.
- We also had success around marinas. I used a gamakatsu wacky head with a pink trick worm, an All Terrain Swim jig and an All Terrain senko to catch these bass that were suspended under the docks. The docks ranged from 25-40ft deep.
- Our bonus pattern was fishing boat ramps with a shakey head, hot craw, or tube. They changed the rules this year so we could bring in 12" spots. Last year it was 14". We pulled up to two boat ramps in practice and immediately caught two good spots right were the boat ramp slab ended in about 7-12 ft of water. We figured we could bank on these areas to finish out a limit.
Picture of the Gamakatsu wacky head
I will try and post about the actual tournament in the next day or two so stay tuned!
Monday, September 15, 2008
Silverado Pro/Am - Lake Minnetonka
I fished my last silverado tournament of the year this past weekend on Minnetonka and it ended up being a pretty fun day on the water. The information about the tournament will be short and sweet due to the fact that I'm in texas right now and don't have much free time to write.
I started off the day by plunging into the water to put my pro's plug in his boat because he forgot to do it at the launch. If anyone has tried to put a plug in a bass boat while its in the water, you know that its not easy and your pretty much going to get soaked. My pro thought since I had shorts on I'd just be able to hop in, bend down a little and put the plug in. Well... three minutes later I was soaked neck to toe and had to fish in drenched boxers, rain pants, and a sweatshirt with no undershirt for the morning. Talk about being cold... I had never been so miserable to start off a tournament and to top it off I forgot that my cell phone was in my pocket. Yup, you guessed it, it no longer works...
So after a wet start, the morning bite didn't lighten up my day much more. It was slow to say the least and we pretty much caught one fish here, one fish there, with nothing to really talk about. Things finally started to pick up in the afternoon when we pulled up to a lily pad spot.
I started pitching my trusty all terrain jig and went on to stick four good fish that were all between 2-2.75lbs. My pro put a couple good fish in the boat on a spro frog and that pretty much sums up our day in terms of what we caught our wiegh fish on.
We ended up weighing 15.88lbs which was better than I expected. We finished in 19th place, which put me in 35 place out of 70 amatures for the season. Thats not the type of finish in the AOY race that I wanted to have, but its hard to dictate where you will finish fishing as an Amature and not being able to make many decisions on the water. Overall I had a tremendous time fishing the silverado's this year. Billy Hildebrand and his staff are truly class acts and run one heck of a tournament. I will hopeully be back next year!
I started off the day by plunging into the water to put my pro's plug in his boat because he forgot to do it at the launch. If anyone has tried to put a plug in a bass boat while its in the water, you know that its not easy and your pretty much going to get soaked. My pro thought since I had shorts on I'd just be able to hop in, bend down a little and put the plug in. Well... three minutes later I was soaked neck to toe and had to fish in drenched boxers, rain pants, and a sweatshirt with no undershirt for the morning. Talk about being cold... I had never been so miserable to start off a tournament and to top it off I forgot that my cell phone was in my pocket. Yup, you guessed it, it no longer works...
So after a wet start, the morning bite didn't lighten up my day much more. It was slow to say the least and we pretty much caught one fish here, one fish there, with nothing to really talk about. Things finally started to pick up in the afternoon when we pulled up to a lily pad spot.
I started pitching my trusty all terrain jig and went on to stick four good fish that were all between 2-2.75lbs. My pro put a couple good fish in the boat on a spro frog and that pretty much sums up our day in terms of what we caught our wiegh fish on.
We ended up weighing 15.88lbs which was better than I expected. We finished in 19th place, which put me in 35 place out of 70 amatures for the season. Thats not the type of finish in the AOY race that I wanted to have, but its hard to dictate where you will finish fishing as an Amature and not being able to make many decisions on the water. Overall I had a tremendous time fishing the silverado's this year. Billy Hildebrand and his staff are truly class acts and run one heck of a tournament. I will hopeully be back next year!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Quick Update
Some things to get you up to date on what's happening in my world of fishing....
On labor day I bought my first bass boat (with the gracious help of my parents). It is a 1989 Ranger 361v with a 175 horsepower Envinrude. I can not wait until next summer to use this thing!!
Tomorrow I will be driving back to Minnesota for the fourth and final Silverado Pro/Am tournament. It will take place on lake Minnetonka on Friday. If your interested, come check out the weigh in at 3:00 pm at Lord Fletchers.
After the tournament I will drive back to Iowa City on Saturday. On Sunday morning at approximately 5:00 am I will be leaving for Lake Lewisville, Texas for the National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship. There will be 108 boats representing 56 schools from around the nation competing in this tournament!! I am excited to get down there and will also get to use my boat for the first time during that tournament too.
I have been extremely busy the past 3 weeks with school and trying to get work done before I have these tournaments. I have a couple other things to do and then its time to go fish for a week straight! Can't get much better than that!
Be sure to check my blog periodically throughout the next week as I will be giving a report from the Minnetonka tournament as well as updates from the College tournament down in Texas.
On labor day I bought my first bass boat (with the gracious help of my parents). It is a 1989 Ranger 361v with a 175 horsepower Envinrude. I can not wait until next summer to use this thing!!
Tomorrow I will be driving back to Minnesota for the fourth and final Silverado Pro/Am tournament. It will take place on lake Minnetonka on Friday. If your interested, come check out the weigh in at 3:00 pm at Lord Fletchers.
After the tournament I will drive back to Iowa City on Saturday. On Sunday morning at approximately 5:00 am I will be leaving for Lake Lewisville, Texas for the National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship. There will be 108 boats representing 56 schools from around the nation competing in this tournament!! I am excited to get down there and will also get to use my boat for the first time during that tournament too.
I have been extremely busy the past 3 weeks with school and trying to get work done before I have these tournaments. I have a couple other things to do and then its time to go fish for a week straight! Can't get much better than that!
Be sure to check my blog periodically throughout the next week as I will be giving a report from the Minnetonka tournament as well as updates from the College tournament down in Texas.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tournament Day - Lake Waconia
Going into this tournament I had very high expectations of catching a good bag of fish. When I practiced the week before I had found fish up shallow in the reeds and cattails on the north side of Waconia. I caught a couple 2 pounders a 3lb fish and also a 5lb 2oz piggy. I wasn't pounding these spots either. I would catch one fish, start up the motor move down the patch of reeds 100 yards, catch another one and do the same thing. At times I find there are sweet spots in the patches of reeds, this is what I was looking for, but it seemed like in practice they were just all over the place.
We launched at 7:00 with a little breeze already stirring up the lake. I started the morning in a patch of reeds on the north side and put together a small limit by 8:30. I caught all these fish and the rest of the fish I caught that day throwing a green 3/8oz All Terrain jig with a blk/blue trailer. As the morning progressed I began to upgrade my limit. A half pound here, a couple ounces there. I could never get that big bite! I tried moving to a different patch on the NE side of the lake, but the wind was pounding into this area and the water was pretty muddy. I caught one little fish there, but nothing else. I went back to my starting spot and continued to catch fish but they were all cookie cutter 2lbers.
I tried out deep some, but with the wind and my small boat, I just wasn't being very efficient. I know there are some big fish out deep on this lake, I just didn't have to time to find them. I truly beleive being efficient is one thing that you have to be at all times during a tournament. I constantly ask myself throughout a tournament day whether I believe I'm being efficient with my time. Should I zig or should I zag. Am I around the right kind of fish? Am I giving myself a good shot at winning?
Well, during that day I felt I was around the fish, but they turned out a little smaller than expected. It was really cold the night before and we were left with a sunny, windy, high pressure system during the tournament that I beleive shut off the some of the bigger shallow fish. I just couldn't get even a 3lb bite!
However, to my surprise, most everyone else in my club had a tough day as well. I ended up winning the tournament with 10lbs 6oz. For Waconia, thats not that great. It took 19lbs to win out there the weekend before for a Fishers of Men tournament with many other bags over 10lbs. But, I won't complain about a win. It was a great way to finish off my summer in Minnesota. I really did have a good time out there and caught a bunch of fish, just nothing over 2.5 pounds.
I will now take a little bit of a break from writing in my blog now that school has started up again... If I happen to get on a good bite down here in Iowa, I will be sure to post about it. And make sure to check back in mid September to see how the National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship is going. I will possilby post about practice and will definately be giving updates during the actual tournament. I'm really looking forward to getting down to Texas. Last year I couldn't have done worse, and I'm looking to turn it around this year.
Thanks to all who have been reading throughout the spring and summer!!
We launched at 7:00 with a little breeze already stirring up the lake. I started the morning in a patch of reeds on the north side and put together a small limit by 8:30. I caught all these fish and the rest of the fish I caught that day throwing a green 3/8oz All Terrain jig with a blk/blue trailer. As the morning progressed I began to upgrade my limit. A half pound here, a couple ounces there. I could never get that big bite! I tried moving to a different patch on the NE side of the lake, but the wind was pounding into this area and the water was pretty muddy. I caught one little fish there, but nothing else. I went back to my starting spot and continued to catch fish but they were all cookie cutter 2lbers.
I tried out deep some, but with the wind and my small boat, I just wasn't being very efficient. I know there are some big fish out deep on this lake, I just didn't have to time to find them. I truly beleive being efficient is one thing that you have to be at all times during a tournament. I constantly ask myself throughout a tournament day whether I believe I'm being efficient with my time. Should I zig or should I zag. Am I around the right kind of fish? Am I giving myself a good shot at winning?
Well, during that day I felt I was around the fish, but they turned out a little smaller than expected. It was really cold the night before and we were left with a sunny, windy, high pressure system during the tournament that I beleive shut off the some of the bigger shallow fish. I just couldn't get even a 3lb bite!
However, to my surprise, most everyone else in my club had a tough day as well. I ended up winning the tournament with 10lbs 6oz. For Waconia, thats not that great. It took 19lbs to win out there the weekend before for a Fishers of Men tournament with many other bags over 10lbs. But, I won't complain about a win. It was a great way to finish off my summer in Minnesota. I really did have a good time out there and caught a bunch of fish, just nothing over 2.5 pounds.
I will now take a little bit of a break from writing in my blog now that school has started up again... If I happen to get on a good bite down here in Iowa, I will be sure to post about it. And make sure to check back in mid September to see how the National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship is going. I will possilby post about practice and will definately be giving updates during the actual tournament. I'm really looking forward to getting down to Texas. Last year I couldn't have done worse, and I'm looking to turn it around this year.
Thanks to all who have been reading throughout the spring and summer!!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Silverado Pro/Am - Alexandria Chain of Lakes
This past weekend I had my third Silverado Pro/Am tournament on the Alexandria Chain of Lakes, also known as Le Homme Dieu. My pro and I drew boat #58 out of 59 boats so we were just a little bit behind everyone else. However, on a chain of lakes as big as this one it shouldn’t matter too much.
We started off the day throwing crankbaits on a weedline. I ended up catching 4 small bass before I got one that finally kept. After this spot we had 2 fish in the livewell that I had caught on a crankbait. On the next spot my pro got a decent fish on a t-rigged craw tube. We then proceeded to hit docks, reeds, and pads the rest of the day without much to show for it in terms of quality fish. We finished out our limit and culled twice but still only ended up with 8lbs and some change for 6 fish which is pretty brutal.
I wasn’t very happy with how the day turned out and would have probably done some things differently had I been in charge. This tournament kind of left a bad taste in my mouth and motivated me even more to try and fish as a pro next year. If I can get a suitable boat and afford the entry fees I might take a run at it.
I stayed at a friend’s cabin on Friday before the tournament and brought my boat up there to do a little fishing. I was catching a lot of fish on frogs way up under trees in about 1-2 feet of water which was really fun and made the weekend a little better. And wouldn’t you know…one of the top finishers in the Silverado tournament on saturday caught most of his fish up under trees in very skinny water.
I was also graced with the presence of 14 Skeet Reese Revos and 14 Elite Tech Rods when I got back to my house Saturday evening that Pure Fishing had sent to me. Talk about being excited!!! These rods and reels will go to our bass fishing team down at the University of Iowa. I went out to Lake Waconia on Sunday to do a little prefishing for this upcoming weekend and that skeet reese revo is awesome! The fishing wasn’t too shabby either.
I will write about the Waconia tournament next week sometime when I will be in Iowa and back at school. Summer break has come to an end and I’m not liking it! :)
We started off the day throwing crankbaits on a weedline. I ended up catching 4 small bass before I got one that finally kept. After this spot we had 2 fish in the livewell that I had caught on a crankbait. On the next spot my pro got a decent fish on a t-rigged craw tube. We then proceeded to hit docks, reeds, and pads the rest of the day without much to show for it in terms of quality fish. We finished out our limit and culled twice but still only ended up with 8lbs and some change for 6 fish which is pretty brutal.
I wasn’t very happy with how the day turned out and would have probably done some things differently had I been in charge. This tournament kind of left a bad taste in my mouth and motivated me even more to try and fish as a pro next year. If I can get a suitable boat and afford the entry fees I might take a run at it.
I stayed at a friend’s cabin on Friday before the tournament and brought my boat up there to do a little fishing. I was catching a lot of fish on frogs way up under trees in about 1-2 feet of water which was really fun and made the weekend a little better. And wouldn’t you know…one of the top finishers in the Silverado tournament on saturday caught most of his fish up under trees in very skinny water.
I was also graced with the presence of 14 Skeet Reese Revos and 14 Elite Tech Rods when I got back to my house Saturday evening that Pure Fishing had sent to me. Talk about being excited!!! These rods and reels will go to our bass fishing team down at the University of Iowa. I went out to Lake Waconia on Sunday to do a little prefishing for this upcoming weekend and that skeet reese revo is awesome! The fishing wasn’t too shabby either.
I will write about the Waconia tournament next week sometime when I will be in Iowa and back at school. Summer break has come to an end and I’m not liking it! :)
Monday, August 11, 2008
Tournament Day - Miss. River, Wabasha, MN
When I first saw the Mississippi River tournament on our club schedule earlier this year I was a little worried because I had never been on the river before. I was scared the current would be strong and that I wouldn’t know how to run the river and avoid the wing dams. However, when my uncle took me out and showed me around a little bit my worries were gone. It’s easy to run the river if you just be smart about it and stay between the markers. The current for mid to late summer wasn’t that strong either; which is probably the norm for this time of year.
With my worries about the river behind me, it was now time to catch some fish. My uncle fly fishes the river for smallies, so we fished the main river quite a bit during practice. I had a 4lb smallie in practice a couple 1.5-2lbers and also a solid 3lb largemouth. My practice day went pretty good and I felt fairly confident that I could catch 5-10lbs to wrap up the AOY title for my club.
I started the day on a wing dam in the main channel hoping to get into some smallmouth. I was throwing a silver zara spook and a rapala skitter pop. I fished a wing dam that had fish on it during practice for about 45 minutes with no luck. As I was pulling away from the wingdam going upriver I threw one last long cast with my popper and a good smallie nailed it. I was happy to have one in the boat. I was hoping to have about 2-3 in the boat after that spot, but the top water bite just wasn’t happening like it was the prior week.
I next went to an area where I caught the 3lb largemouth in practice. It was really a sweet spot that gave up a lot of fish for me in the tournament. It was a channel off the main river channel that had some good current flowing though it. It was 2-3ft deep on top and quick dropped of into 10-15ft of water. On the drop was both rocks and weeds. I ended up finishing my 4 fish limit (wisconsin rules on the river) in this spot with an All Terrain Finesse Jig and an All Terrain Rattling Jig. One went 18inches and the others were about 15-17 inches. I also caught fish in this spot on a drop shot with a white fluke and a texas rigged white tube with and EZ-tube inserted weight.
I would throw my lure up on the rocks or in the grass that was in the stronger current. They would either hit the bait on the initial fall or as the current washed the bait into the deeper water. I probably pulled 10-12 fish of this little spot. They were just schooled up in the current right on the steep break. Now, this spot wasn’t phenomenal, but it definitely has some potential. I was able to finish the day with a little over 9lbs for 4 fish. On the river I’d say that’s mediocre to decent. I lost one good 2.5-3lb fish on a drop shot that jumped off right in front of me that would have helped, but I still had enough to earn my second consecutice AOY title for my club which felt really good. I didn’t have as flashy of a season this year as 2007 when I won 4 in a row, but I felt I fished solid this year and scrapped out decent limits during the tougher events.
Carl Spande took first in the tournament with 10+ pounds in the countless backwater areas. He really had a nice bag for 4 fish and I believe some All Terrain Stick worms caught some of the fish he weighed in J. Nice job Carl!
I really had a fun time out there and will definitely be going back in the future. I won’t be able to fish the state tournament down there this year, but really wish I could.
Here is a list of lures that worked for me:
All Terrain Jigs: both finesse (1/4oz) and regular pitching (3/8oz) jigs
Colors: brown/amber/blk and black/blue
All Terrain Tubes: rigged with an ez-tube weight insert in 1/16oz. I really felt this inserted weight helped to keep me from getting hung up on rocks, grass and wood. I used a 3/0 EWG Gamakastu hook.
Drop Shot: 1/8oz weight, stand-out hook, white zoom fluke (“the fluke”, not the super fluke or the fluke jr. the mid-sized one)
Rapala Skitter Pop: Had a white underbelly like the minnows and shad in the river.
With my worries about the river behind me, it was now time to catch some fish. My uncle fly fishes the river for smallies, so we fished the main river quite a bit during practice. I had a 4lb smallie in practice a couple 1.5-2lbers and also a solid 3lb largemouth. My practice day went pretty good and I felt fairly confident that I could catch 5-10lbs to wrap up the AOY title for my club.
I started the day on a wing dam in the main channel hoping to get into some smallmouth. I was throwing a silver zara spook and a rapala skitter pop. I fished a wing dam that had fish on it during practice for about 45 minutes with no luck. As I was pulling away from the wingdam going upriver I threw one last long cast with my popper and a good smallie nailed it. I was happy to have one in the boat. I was hoping to have about 2-3 in the boat after that spot, but the top water bite just wasn’t happening like it was the prior week.
I next went to an area where I caught the 3lb largemouth in practice. It was really a sweet spot that gave up a lot of fish for me in the tournament. It was a channel off the main river channel that had some good current flowing though it. It was 2-3ft deep on top and quick dropped of into 10-15ft of water. On the drop was both rocks and weeds. I ended up finishing my 4 fish limit (wisconsin rules on the river) in this spot with an All Terrain Finesse Jig and an All Terrain Rattling Jig. One went 18inches and the others were about 15-17 inches. I also caught fish in this spot on a drop shot with a white fluke and a texas rigged white tube with and EZ-tube inserted weight.
I would throw my lure up on the rocks or in the grass that was in the stronger current. They would either hit the bait on the initial fall or as the current washed the bait into the deeper water. I probably pulled 10-12 fish of this little spot. They were just schooled up in the current right on the steep break. Now, this spot wasn’t phenomenal, but it definitely has some potential. I was able to finish the day with a little over 9lbs for 4 fish. On the river I’d say that’s mediocre to decent. I lost one good 2.5-3lb fish on a drop shot that jumped off right in front of me that would have helped, but I still had enough to earn my second consecutice AOY title for my club which felt really good. I didn’t have as flashy of a season this year as 2007 when I won 4 in a row, but I felt I fished solid this year and scrapped out decent limits during the tougher events.
Carl Spande took first in the tournament with 10+ pounds in the countless backwater areas. He really had a nice bag for 4 fish and I believe some All Terrain Stick worms caught some of the fish he weighed in J. Nice job Carl!
I really had a fun time out there and will definitely be going back in the future. I won’t be able to fish the state tournament down there this year, but really wish I could.
Here is a list of lures that worked for me:
All Terrain Jigs: both finesse (1/4oz) and regular pitching (3/8oz) jigs
Colors: brown/amber/blk and black/blue
All Terrain Tubes: rigged with an ez-tube weight insert in 1/16oz. I really felt this inserted weight helped to keep me from getting hung up on rocks, grass and wood. I used a 3/0 EWG Gamakastu hook.
Drop Shot: 1/8oz weight, stand-out hook, white zoom fluke (“the fluke”, not the super fluke or the fluke jr. the mid-sized one)
Rapala Skitter Pop: Had a white underbelly like the minnows and shad in the river.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Upcoming Tournaments and Report
My summer is beginning to wind down and come to an end with school approaching much faster than I want it too. School starts in a couple weeks here on August 25th for me. However, my tournament season is not quite wrapped up yet.
This weekend I have my final B.A.S.S club tournament on Pools 4 and 5 of the Mississippi River for the current year. My uncle and I went out and pre-fished for the tournament this past Saturday. He loves to fish just as much as I do and I really enjoyed being out on the river with him. He used a fly rod all day which was pretty cool too. I had never been on the river before and I had a blast. We caught a good amount of fish, but I think just having a change of pace besides fishing lakes all the time is what I liked so much. Getting a couple big bites will (as with any tournament) be a big factor down there this weekend. I’m shooting for my second consecutive AOY title and hope to wrap it up granted I don’t stumble too badly. The MNBF state championship is on the same water this fall, but I won’t be able to compete in it for the third consecutive year because of school which is kind of a drag.
The following weekend I have my 3rd Silverado tournament up on the Alexandria Chain of Lakes. This is another area I have never fished before and look forward to learning some stuff about the chain and making a good finish. I’ll finish up this tour in September when we visit Lake Minnetonka.
The last weekend before school starts I have another club tourney out on Lake Waconia which will count towards next years standings. I really like this lake and have won a tournament once out there before which always help in terms of confidence. After this tournament I will be making the drive down to school and my summer will be complete!
Here’s a quick report: I’ve been able to get out a couple times this week since the weekend and have found the fish both deep and shallow. A drop shot with a 4” zoom finesse worm has been good to me by deep weed lines and rocks. An A.T. jig has been the ticket up shallow around pads. Check back next week for a report on the Miss. River tournament!
This weekend I have my final B.A.S.S club tournament on Pools 4 and 5 of the Mississippi River for the current year. My uncle and I went out and pre-fished for the tournament this past Saturday. He loves to fish just as much as I do and I really enjoyed being out on the river with him. He used a fly rod all day which was pretty cool too. I had never been on the river before and I had a blast. We caught a good amount of fish, but I think just having a change of pace besides fishing lakes all the time is what I liked so much. Getting a couple big bites will (as with any tournament) be a big factor down there this weekend. I’m shooting for my second consecutive AOY title and hope to wrap it up granted I don’t stumble too badly. The MNBF state championship is on the same water this fall, but I won’t be able to compete in it for the third consecutive year because of school which is kind of a drag.
The following weekend I have my 3rd Silverado tournament up on the Alexandria Chain of Lakes. This is another area I have never fished before and look forward to learning some stuff about the chain and making a good finish. I’ll finish up this tour in September when we visit Lake Minnetonka.
The last weekend before school starts I have another club tourney out on Lake Waconia which will count towards next years standings. I really like this lake and have won a tournament once out there before which always help in terms of confidence. After this tournament I will be making the drive down to school and my summer will be complete!
Here’s a quick report: I’ve been able to get out a couple times this week since the weekend and have found the fish both deep and shallow. A drop shot with a 4” zoom finesse worm has been good to me by deep weed lines and rocks. An A.T. jig has been the ticket up shallow around pads. Check back next week for a report on the Miss. River tournament!
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
Coon Lake - Tournament Day
This past Saturday I had a club tournament on Coon Lake. We launched from the East Lake at 6am under clear skies with an air temp of about 60 degrees. As I took off for the West Lake in the morning I got to see one of the best sunrises I’ve seen this summer coming up behind me. A nice big red sun to start of the day, just perfect.
I had pre-fished the lake on July 20th only to find out that there was an ABA tournament the same day. I was fortunate enough to still find some fish that day and had about 18-19lbs. It was by far the best practice I’d ever had and I felt like I didn’t even put a dent in the areas I had found. I was just praying the whole week that the fish would stay in the same areas and be willing to bite on tournament day.
I started off the day in the west lake around some cattails with a black spro bronzeye frog. After about 15 minutes into the day a fish inhaled the frog. It buried itself in the cattails, but I was fortunate enough to get it out. It ended up being a nice 4 pound fish. I continued to work my way around the cattails and stuck another good 3lb fish on a green pumpkin texas rigged Gander Mountain brand beaver. After awhile with no more fish in this area I moved to another spot with cattails and caught one more 2.5lb fish on a frog.
In my next spot I filled out my limit with two smaller fish on the beaver. This was an area with pads that had produced a 4lber during practice. I stuck around this area hoping for a big bite, but it never came. Next I moved back into the east lake to a pad spot where I stuck a 5 pounder in practice. I switched my beaver color to black/blue here since the water was much dirtier in the east lake than the west. On about my third pitch with the beaver into the pads, I saw a flower from a different pad stem move about 5ft from where I put my lure. I lifted up my bait, felt the weight of the fish and laid into in. After a good battle I had landed a nice 4lb 12oz fish and big bass for the day. On the next pitch I caught a solid 2.5lb fish on the beaver. I had now culled out the smaller ones from the other pad spot. After working the spot once, I went back over it with a 3/8oz blk/blue All Terrain Jig. On my 2nd pitch going back over the spot I stuck another 4lb fish about 10ft from where the 4lb 12oz fish came from. This spot had now given up a 5lb, 4lb 12oz and 4lb fish in the two times I had fished it that week. It was just one of those magic spots that you need to win a tournament.
I now had a 4lb 12oz fish, two 4 pounders, a 3lb and 2.5lb fish. This is what I would end up with for day. I was pushing hard to try and get that 2.5lb fish culled, but that 3lb bite never came. I ended up with 18lbs 6oz for the day and it ended up being my best 5 fish limit to date. I felt good to finally get a 1st place finish this year after three 2nd place finishes so far. If you asked me whether I thought I could duplicate what I caught in practice, I would have said no way. I just didn’t think I could catch that much again. But it happened. That’s now the 3rd tournament I’ve won out on Coon. That lake and I have a good thing goingJ.
Sorry about the lack of pictures….I really need to get a camera!
Here are some notes on the gear I was using:
Frog:
7’ MH Fenwick HMG Casting Rod
Pflueger Trion Casting reel
50lb Power Pro braided line
Spro Bronzeye Frog (black)
Jig:
7’ MH St.Croix Avid Rod
Pflueger Trion Casting Reel
40lb Stren Superbraid line
3/8oz black/blue All Terrain Tackle Jig w/ Gander Mtn. brand craw trailer
Beaver:
7’ MH St.Croix Avid Rod
Pflueger Trion Casting Rod
50lb Power Pro Braided line
1/4oz Tru-Tungsten bullet weight
3/0 Gamakatsu Superline EWG hook
Gander Mtn. Brand Beaver (Blk/Blue and Green Pumpkin)
I had pre-fished the lake on July 20th only to find out that there was an ABA tournament the same day. I was fortunate enough to still find some fish that day and had about 18-19lbs. It was by far the best practice I’d ever had and I felt like I didn’t even put a dent in the areas I had found. I was just praying the whole week that the fish would stay in the same areas and be willing to bite on tournament day.
I started off the day in the west lake around some cattails with a black spro bronzeye frog. After about 15 minutes into the day a fish inhaled the frog. It buried itself in the cattails, but I was fortunate enough to get it out. It ended up being a nice 4 pound fish. I continued to work my way around the cattails and stuck another good 3lb fish on a green pumpkin texas rigged Gander Mountain brand beaver. After awhile with no more fish in this area I moved to another spot with cattails and caught one more 2.5lb fish on a frog.
In my next spot I filled out my limit with two smaller fish on the beaver. This was an area with pads that had produced a 4lber during practice. I stuck around this area hoping for a big bite, but it never came. Next I moved back into the east lake to a pad spot where I stuck a 5 pounder in practice. I switched my beaver color to black/blue here since the water was much dirtier in the east lake than the west. On about my third pitch with the beaver into the pads, I saw a flower from a different pad stem move about 5ft from where I put my lure. I lifted up my bait, felt the weight of the fish and laid into in. After a good battle I had landed a nice 4lb 12oz fish and big bass for the day. On the next pitch I caught a solid 2.5lb fish on the beaver. I had now culled out the smaller ones from the other pad spot. After working the spot once, I went back over it with a 3/8oz blk/blue All Terrain Jig. On my 2nd pitch going back over the spot I stuck another 4lb fish about 10ft from where the 4lb 12oz fish came from. This spot had now given up a 5lb, 4lb 12oz and 4lb fish in the two times I had fished it that week. It was just one of those magic spots that you need to win a tournament.
I now had a 4lb 12oz fish, two 4 pounders, a 3lb and 2.5lb fish. This is what I would end up with for day. I was pushing hard to try and get that 2.5lb fish culled, but that 3lb bite never came. I ended up with 18lbs 6oz for the day and it ended up being my best 5 fish limit to date. I felt good to finally get a 1st place finish this year after three 2nd place finishes so far. If you asked me whether I thought I could duplicate what I caught in practice, I would have said no way. I just didn’t think I could catch that much again. But it happened. That’s now the 3rd tournament I’ve won out on Coon. That lake and I have a good thing goingJ.
Sorry about the lack of pictures….I really need to get a camera!
Here are some notes on the gear I was using:
Frog:
7’ MH Fenwick HMG Casting Rod
Pflueger Trion Casting reel
50lb Power Pro braided line
Spro Bronzeye Frog (black)
Jig:
7’ MH St.Croix Avid Rod
Pflueger Trion Casting Reel
40lb Stren Superbraid line
3/8oz black/blue All Terrain Tackle Jig w/ Gander Mtn. brand craw trailer
Beaver:
7’ MH St.Croix Avid Rod
Pflueger Trion Casting Rod
50lb Power Pro Braided line
1/4oz Tru-Tungsten bullet weight
3/0 Gamakatsu Superline EWG hook
Gander Mtn. Brand Beaver (Blk/Blue and Green Pumpkin)
Friday, July 25, 2008
Recent Reports and Pre-Tournament Thoughts
I have taken a bit of a hiatus from writing a post since my last Pro/Am tournament a couple weeks ago. Since then I've had some memorable fishing outings and other ones that I would rather forget about. Summer patterns are beginning to really set in and this is one of my favorite times of the year to fish because things are usually pretty consistent in terms of fish not moving around a whole lot.
I've also been talking with our Collegiate Bass Fishing Sponsor Pure Fishing about the upcoming season during the school year and it promises to be a good one. They want start promoting newer products through us and even start including us in the research/testing behind some of their products. I can't explain how excited I am about this opportunity to work with such a well known company such as Pure Fishing. It should be a good experience, and being able to get product from them such as Skeet Reese REVOS and Elite Tech rods will make it that much better.
This weekend I have another club tournament on Coon Lake. I've won two tournaments on this lake in the past and have a lot of confidence going into it. I just hope the fish stay where they were a week ago when I was up there practicing. This is probably in the top 5 of my favorite lakes in Minnesota. It just seems to fit my style of fishing really well. Check back next week for a report on that tournament, hopefully I don't fall on my face now that I just wrote about my confidence going into the event! :)
I've also been talking with our Collegiate Bass Fishing Sponsor Pure Fishing about the upcoming season during the school year and it promises to be a good one. They want start promoting newer products through us and even start including us in the research/testing behind some of their products. I can't explain how excited I am about this opportunity to work with such a well known company such as Pure Fishing. It should be a good experience, and being able to get product from them such as Skeet Reese REVOS and Elite Tech rods will make it that much better.
This weekend I have another club tournament on Coon Lake. I've won two tournaments on this lake in the past and have a lot of confidence going into it. I just hope the fish stay where they were a week ago when I was up there practicing. This is probably in the top 5 of my favorite lakes in Minnesota. It just seems to fit my style of fishing really well. Check back next week for a report on that tournament, hopefully I don't fall on my face now that I just wrote about my confidence going into the event! :)
Monday, July 14, 2008
Silverado Pro/Am - Lake Minnewaska
HOLY WIND! It was a constantly taking water over the bow, "hey come stand on the front deck so we can hold", can't hardly cast 30ft, try not to fall out of the boat kind of WIND that we faced on Saturday for the 2nd Silverado Tournament of the year. However, we stayed right in the thick of it until about 12 before my pro thought we should try and make our way to a calmer area of the lake, just so we could make it back safely. They were forecasting 55mph gusts, and we didn't want a to be a part of that. 25-35mph in the morning was good enough for us.
I may sound like I have a couple loose screws in my head, but I actually enjoyed it! It helped that we were catching fish, but my pro said "Its taken me years to just not let it frustrate me and just fish in it" until I really realized I just had to forget about it and concentrate on fishing and not on the wind.
The pattern we were on was fishing "deeper" weeds in 8-12ft of water. Right in the morning I lost a decent 14-15inch fish, but soon after, my pro landed a smaller one on a texas rigged creature bait. We fished the shallower 8ft weeds with only a couple fish to show for it. We then moved out to the 12ft area and I caught a good one that went almost 4lbs on a texas rigged strike king wild thang creature bait.
We continued to fish this area and every so often the fish would get active. At about 10:00-10:30 my pro set into a good 3lb fish, I set my rod down (my bait was still in the water), netted his fish, picked up my rod and set the hook on another fish! My pro threw back out and stuck another good 3lb fish on the next cast. Talk about a 5 minute flurry! At about 11:30 the same thing happened again when I caught 2 on back to back casts.
By now we had a decent limit and it was about 12:00. We started heading back to the calmer side so we didn't risk losing any fish making our way back if the wind got worse. We ended up fishing some reeds on the way. I caught one more 3lb fish in the reeds on an All Terrain Green Pumpkin Jig that really helped, but we still had two 2.5lb fish in the well that needed to go. My pro had on about a 3-3.5lb fish in the reeds that got off, in hindsight this fish would have put us in the money. Man, that one really hurt, but we were probably not the only ones that had something like that happen to them that day, that's just part of tournament fishing.
With one hour to go, we fished a break line out in front of the weigh-in site along with about 25-30 other boats. Yes, this was the calm side of the lake. If you wanted to, you could have watched the tournament from shore. We were able to put some smallmouth in the boat on that spot using tubes, but nothing that would help.
In the end we finished with 16.25lbs in 16th place out of 59 boats. For most of the field it was a tough day and I think the wind attributed to that (HOLY WIND!). The last spot in the money had 16.60lbs, so one more fish over 3lbs and we would have been right there.
I learned a lot in this tournament. More so about not getting frustrated with the wind. Up until then I always got mad when the wind was strong (mainly because I fish out of a smaller boat), but now I hope that I can ignore it from here on out. I went out on Sunday in the wind mainly because I was motivated to do so after this tournaments (I told you there is a couple loose screws in my head). As you may know already, the fish still bite in the strong wind! Its just being able to hold in it which is the hard part.
Did I mention that it was windy that day? :)
I may sound like I have a couple loose screws in my head, but I actually enjoyed it! It helped that we were catching fish, but my pro said "Its taken me years to just not let it frustrate me and just fish in it" until I really realized I just had to forget about it and concentrate on fishing and not on the wind.
The pattern we were on was fishing "deeper" weeds in 8-12ft of water. Right in the morning I lost a decent 14-15inch fish, but soon after, my pro landed a smaller one on a texas rigged creature bait. We fished the shallower 8ft weeds with only a couple fish to show for it. We then moved out to the 12ft area and I caught a good one that went almost 4lbs on a texas rigged strike king wild thang creature bait.
We continued to fish this area and every so often the fish would get active. At about 10:00-10:30 my pro set into a good 3lb fish, I set my rod down (my bait was still in the water), netted his fish, picked up my rod and set the hook on another fish! My pro threw back out and stuck another good 3lb fish on the next cast. Talk about a 5 minute flurry! At about 11:30 the same thing happened again when I caught 2 on back to back casts.
By now we had a decent limit and it was about 12:00. We started heading back to the calmer side so we didn't risk losing any fish making our way back if the wind got worse. We ended up fishing some reeds on the way. I caught one more 3lb fish in the reeds on an All Terrain Green Pumpkin Jig that really helped, but we still had two 2.5lb fish in the well that needed to go. My pro had on about a 3-3.5lb fish in the reeds that got off, in hindsight this fish would have put us in the money. Man, that one really hurt, but we were probably not the only ones that had something like that happen to them that day, that's just part of tournament fishing.
With one hour to go, we fished a break line out in front of the weigh-in site along with about 25-30 other boats. Yes, this was the calm side of the lake. If you wanted to, you could have watched the tournament from shore. We were able to put some smallmouth in the boat on that spot using tubes, but nothing that would help.
In the end we finished with 16.25lbs in 16th place out of 59 boats. For most of the field it was a tough day and I think the wind attributed to that (HOLY WIND!). The last spot in the money had 16.60lbs, so one more fish over 3lbs and we would have been right there.
I learned a lot in this tournament. More so about not getting frustrated with the wind. Up until then I always got mad when the wind was strong (mainly because I fish out of a smaller boat), but now I hope that I can ignore it from here on out. I went out on Sunday in the wind mainly because I was motivated to do so after this tournaments (I told you there is a couple loose screws in my head). As you may know already, the fish still bite in the strong wind! Its just being able to hold in it which is the hard part.
Did I mention that it was windy that day? :)
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
All Terrain Tackle News and Collegiate Fishing
All Terrain Tackle has just joined the guys at Wire2fish.com and will begin to advertise on their website in the near future. This is very exciting seeing that All Terrain is a local company based out of Savage/Prior Lake, MN. I also have had the opportunity to be on their field-staff for this summer. Here is a small article on the announcement: http://wired2fish.com/WhatsUp.aspx?ArticleID=252 Be sure to check out some of their jigs at www.allterraintackle.com They truly have some top notch jigs for every jig fishing situation.
Also, two guys from our University of Iowa Bass Fishing Team are competing in the Under Armour Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship this week down in Arkansas. Live weigh-ins are online at 3:30, and day one was completed today. The lake their on is a little stingy as you can see from the results on www.collegebass.com but its still an exciting event for college bass fishing. check it out!
Also, two guys from our University of Iowa Bass Fishing Team are competing in the Under Armour Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship this week down in Arkansas. Live weigh-ins are online at 3:30, and day one was completed today. The lake their on is a little stingy as you can see from the results on www.collegebass.com but its still an exciting event for college bass fishing. check it out!
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
4th of July Fishing
Today is officially the first day that I have not wet a line in the past 10 days. The nine days prior to today have been nothing short of fantastic fishing and spending time with great people. I had the opportunity to take a week off from work over the 4th of July to spend some time up north at my cabin. I will keep the Lake name hush for now, but for your reference its about 45 minutes south of Walker, MN and 45 minutes north of Brainerd, MN.
The fish up there were in a postspawn mode, but they were really starting to feed up well. The water temperatures were anywhere from 72-78 degrees depending on the day and how cold it got during the night. I know the lake pretty well, so I was able to nail down various patterns throughout the week. The most reliable ones were as follows:
Postspawn\/\/
Prespawn \/\/ (same fish in next two pictures)
Not only was I able to fish a lot, I was able to get out on the water with my Grandpa, Mom, Dad, and even my 85 year old Grandma was able to get out and watch me fish one evening with me and my Mom which was pretty fun. I'm not sure I will ever get the opportunity to fish with my grandma in the boat again, so that was pretty special. We also took a small trip to "pike lake" - a lake in the middle of nowhere that probably gets fished maybe 5 times a summer. It has no boat landing and has been known to give up some big northerns. Its always and exciting trip because of the potential fish, but more so for the adventure. Here is a picture with a pike my Mom caught on our "pike lake" trip: (cell phone picture..)
The fish up there were in a postspawn mode, but they were really starting to feed up well. The water temperatures were anywhere from 72-78 degrees depending on the day and how cold it got during the night. I know the lake pretty well, so I was able to nail down various patterns throughout the week. The most reliable ones were as follows:
- Texas rigged plastics fished right in the weeds on a steep dropoff. I would pitch to the inside edge and drag the plastic (tubes, creatures, worms) right through the weeds. The best weeds were coontail and northern milfoil that was in about 6-10ft of water. I've really struggled in the postspawn in the metro area this year and will hopefully be able to apply this technique next year when the time comes.
- Spinnerbaits, flukes, senkos fished in the reeds (3-5ft). This pattern was the best in the mornings and evenings with lower light conditions.
- Tubes and crankbaits around rock piles. Rock piles that were in about 2-4ft of water and dropped very fast into about 12-15ft of water. The fish were right on the edges.
- Docks. Anything worked under docks as long as you fished them from about 12pm-6pm. This is where a lot of my bigger fish came from.
- Creature baits, Jigs, and frogs in the pads and rice patties. The pad bite was starting to heat up the last couple days I was up there which was fun.
Postspawn\/\/
Prespawn \/\/ (same fish in next two pictures)
Not only was I able to fish a lot, I was able to get out on the water with my Grandpa, Mom, Dad, and even my 85 year old Grandma was able to get out and watch me fish one evening with me and my Mom which was pretty fun. I'm not sure I will ever get the opportunity to fish with my grandma in the boat again, so that was pretty special. We also took a small trip to "pike lake" - a lake in the middle of nowhere that probably gets fished maybe 5 times a summer. It has no boat landing and has been known to give up some big northerns. Its always and exciting trip because of the potential fish, but more so for the adventure. Here is a picture with a pike my Mom caught on our "pike lake" trip: (cell phone picture..)
This one went about 8lbs, not huge, but a pretty good one in my book. Better yet she got it on an old silver weedless Johnson Spoon!
Metro Area Report:
Yesterday I was able to get out with a couple buddies on a south metro lake and we were able to catch them pretty good in the pads on jigs and creature baits. The fish were starting to get fat too. That was nice to see since it seems like this spring was sooo long with the late ice out this year. It was good to get out with some friends too, I find its always more enjoyable to fish with others in the boat.
I've also got another Silverado Pro/Am coming up this weekend on Lake Minnewaska so check for a report on that sometime next week! Hope everyone had an enjoyable and safe 4th of July!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Rush Lake - Tournament Day.
My Tournament today went fairly well, but it was definitely a grind. My goal going in was once again to catch 10lbs to keep me in contention for AOY. The temperatures dropped a fair amount and the morning started off a little colder than normal.
I started by throwing a spinnerbait around bulrushes with nothing to speak of. I was getting hung up in stringy shallow weeds on almost every cast and in the back of my mind I had thoughts telling me to move. I left the area and went down to the middle of West Rush to fish some large flats that were out in the middle of the lake. The flats had milfoil on them and I was burning a booyah spinnerbait over the top of them. After about 30 minutes I had put two fish in the boat. One was decent sized (1.5lbs), the other one was just a little swimmer(12 inches).
After I had hit the flats for awhile I moved to another patch of bulrushes, but this time I backed off. There was a curlyleaf pondweed weededge outside of the rushes and I was throwing to the outside edge of that. Most of the outside weedegdes around the lake were in the 10-12ft range. However, this spot had a hard bottom and this weededge only went to about 6 or 7ft. I pitched my All Terrain Jig to the outside edge of the weedline a caught a good fish right away, about 2lbs. I fished the area for a little longer with no bites, but finding this spot would come in handy later in the day.
I then went back to the flats area and picked up one more swimmer (barely went 12") on a spinnerbait. Knowing that I needed some bigger fish I went to fish some docks that I've had luck on in the past. On the second dock I threw to the edge of it and a pretty good sized bass came out and sucked my All Terrain Stick Worm right off the hook. I rigged up another one and on the next cast I landed a nice 3lb fish. I now had my limit and it was 9:45am. However, I had two little guys in the livewell that needed to go.
I proceeded to run around the lake and try many other areas without any luck. It was a grind going that long without a bite. All I needed was two more good bites, so I just kept my head down and continued going. At 1:00 I landed my next fish, about 1.5lbs, on a jig next to a dock. This would cull one of the small ones. Then, with 15 minutes to go until check in I went back to the hard bottom weededge. On my first cast, my jig started swimming off to the side and I stuck a good 3 pound fish, I was a little overjoyed at this moment even though I still didn't have a spectacular limit. I did what I needed to do though, and that was to get rid of the two little fish I had. This would cull out the other small one and help me reach my goal of catching 10lbs.
Overall I ended up in 2nd place with 11lbs and some change. If I were to fish the day over again I would probably spend more time fishing that one hard bottom area that I had found. With the wind blowing into that spot later in the day I think it could have been good had I left myself more time to exploit the area.
My next tournament is with the Silverado Pro/Am Tour and I will be spending the next week up north. I hope you all have a good 4th, and maybe even have a chance to catch a fish or two over the holiday!
I started by throwing a spinnerbait around bulrushes with nothing to speak of. I was getting hung up in stringy shallow weeds on almost every cast and in the back of my mind I had thoughts telling me to move. I left the area and went down to the middle of West Rush to fish some large flats that were out in the middle of the lake. The flats had milfoil on them and I was burning a booyah spinnerbait over the top of them. After about 30 minutes I had put two fish in the boat. One was decent sized (1.5lbs), the other one was just a little swimmer(12 inches).
After I had hit the flats for awhile I moved to another patch of bulrushes, but this time I backed off. There was a curlyleaf pondweed weededge outside of the rushes and I was throwing to the outside edge of that. Most of the outside weedegdes around the lake were in the 10-12ft range. However, this spot had a hard bottom and this weededge only went to about 6 or 7ft. I pitched my All Terrain Jig to the outside edge of the weedline a caught a good fish right away, about 2lbs. I fished the area for a little longer with no bites, but finding this spot would come in handy later in the day.
I then went back to the flats area and picked up one more swimmer (barely went 12") on a spinnerbait. Knowing that I needed some bigger fish I went to fish some docks that I've had luck on in the past. On the second dock I threw to the edge of it and a pretty good sized bass came out and sucked my All Terrain Stick Worm right off the hook. I rigged up another one and on the next cast I landed a nice 3lb fish. I now had my limit and it was 9:45am. However, I had two little guys in the livewell that needed to go.
I proceeded to run around the lake and try many other areas without any luck. It was a grind going that long without a bite. All I needed was two more good bites, so I just kept my head down and continued going. At 1:00 I landed my next fish, about 1.5lbs, on a jig next to a dock. This would cull one of the small ones. Then, with 15 minutes to go until check in I went back to the hard bottom weededge. On my first cast, my jig started swimming off to the side and I stuck a good 3 pound fish, I was a little overjoyed at this moment even though I still didn't have a spectacular limit. I did what I needed to do though, and that was to get rid of the two little fish I had. This would cull out the other small one and help me reach my goal of catching 10lbs.
Overall I ended up in 2nd place with 11lbs and some change. If I were to fish the day over again I would probably spend more time fishing that one hard bottom area that I had found. With the wind blowing into that spot later in the day I think it could have been good had I left myself more time to exploit the area.
My next tournament is with the Silverado Pro/Am Tour and I will be spending the next week up north. I hope you all have a good 4th, and maybe even have a chance to catch a fish or two over the holiday!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Wisconsin Trip, Tournament Preview, 4th of July
My trip to northern Wisconsin was much needed. Not necessarily from a fishing perspective, but more so for relaxation. It was nice to get away from work and out of the metro area for awhile. My buddy Sam has a cabin on a small lake that is very close to the Turtle Flambeau Flowage; a large reservoir type system that is known for its walleye, muskies, and football looking smallies.
The first day up there, we put the boat in at the "Flowage". We started in a spot that was shallow with plenty of rocks and wood and the fish were biting right from the get go. We were catching them mainly on weightless flukes and zara spooks, man was that a blast! I got one picture of a smallie I caught, but haven't got it sent to me yet (I'll post it if I get it). I swear once these fish hit about 15-17 inches, they don't get any longer. Just wider! They looked like deformed footballs. As a storm blew though the area we parked the boat on an island and waited it out for a little bit. I was still throwing a zara spook from the bank and proceeded to miss two more fish during the storm, made for some excitement at least! After the storm we moved to another area that had muskies in it last year as well as some smallies. Sam and my other buddies, Matt and Adam, were chuckin and windin for muskies while I was throwing a fluke. I ended up getting one more smallie before another much stronger storm came in that forced us off the lake. Overall it was a very fun day on the lake chasing those smallmouth. Oh yeah...Sam also caught a walleye on a fluke. He asked himself at the beginning of the fishing trip whether a walleye would hit a fluke, I guess he answered his question! I thought that was pretty cool.
After a fun filled night, we hit the lake that Sam's cabin is on the next day. We ended up catching some largemouth on frogs and tubes up shallow and Matt also landed a nice Smallie from under a dock that day too. I really enjoyed my weekend up there and I couldn't think of anything better than spending time with good friends on a deserted lake in the north country.
Looking ahead to this weekend... I have a club Tournament up on Rush Lake near Rush City, MN. I have fished the lake a couple times before and was able to prefish it two weeks ago. I'm not sure fishing it two weeks ago helped me much in establishing a pattern for this weekend, but it was good to get out on the lake to familiarize myself with it again. Not quite sure what to expect, but I have some ideas and all I can hope is that those ideas pan out...we'll see.
I'm also heading up to my cabin on Sunday. I will be up there for an entire week and I can't wait. Over the 4th the fishing can be good up there at times. Its also a good place to practice and gain confidence in new techniques mainly because its not a tournament situation and most times I have a general idea of where the fish are since I've been fishing the lake since I was in diaper.
I will try and get a quick post in on Saturday night about how the tournament went before I leave for my cabin on Sunday. Until then, boat one for me!
The first day up there, we put the boat in at the "Flowage". We started in a spot that was shallow with plenty of rocks and wood and the fish were biting right from the get go. We were catching them mainly on weightless flukes and zara spooks, man was that a blast! I got one picture of a smallie I caught, but haven't got it sent to me yet (I'll post it if I get it). I swear once these fish hit about 15-17 inches, they don't get any longer. Just wider! They looked like deformed footballs. As a storm blew though the area we parked the boat on an island and waited it out for a little bit. I was still throwing a zara spook from the bank and proceeded to miss two more fish during the storm, made for some excitement at least! After the storm we moved to another area that had muskies in it last year as well as some smallies. Sam and my other buddies, Matt and Adam, were chuckin and windin for muskies while I was throwing a fluke. I ended up getting one more smallie before another much stronger storm came in that forced us off the lake. Overall it was a very fun day on the lake chasing those smallmouth. Oh yeah...Sam also caught a walleye on a fluke. He asked himself at the beginning of the fishing trip whether a walleye would hit a fluke, I guess he answered his question! I thought that was pretty cool.
After a fun filled night, we hit the lake that Sam's cabin is on the next day. We ended up catching some largemouth on frogs and tubes up shallow and Matt also landed a nice Smallie from under a dock that day too. I really enjoyed my weekend up there and I couldn't think of anything better than spending time with good friends on a deserted lake in the north country.
Looking ahead to this weekend... I have a club Tournament up on Rush Lake near Rush City, MN. I have fished the lake a couple times before and was able to prefish it two weeks ago. I'm not sure fishing it two weeks ago helped me much in establishing a pattern for this weekend, but it was good to get out on the lake to familiarize myself with it again. Not quite sure what to expect, but I have some ideas and all I can hope is that those ideas pan out...we'll see.
I'm also heading up to my cabin on Sunday. I will be up there for an entire week and I can't wait. Over the 4th the fishing can be good up there at times. Its also a good place to practice and gain confidence in new techniques mainly because its not a tournament situation and most times I have a general idea of where the fish are since I've been fishing the lake since I was in diaper.
I will try and get a quick post in on Saturday night about how the tournament went before I leave for my cabin on Sunday. Until then, boat one for me!
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Recent Fishing Report
Its been awhile since my last post and I thought I'd log an entry here before I take off for my buddy's cabin in Northern Wisconsin tomorrow for a fun filled weekend. I'll be about 30 minutes from the UP of Michigan, should make for a nice relaxing time. Hopefully we'll be able to catch some muskies, smallmouth, largemouth, and possibly a couple walleye.
Since my last post I have been able to get out a couple times on some south and north metro lakes. I have found that the fish are still sort of in between all stages of the spawn here in the metro area of Minnesota. I have caught postspawn fish that are very skinny, some other postspawn fish that are getting chunky, and also a couple fish that still even have eggs in them.
Most of my success this week has come in the form of faster moving baits on offshore cover/structure, compared to the past couple weeks where I have caught them mainly on weightless plastics up shallow. "Offshore cover/structure"; by this I mean anything out away from the bank. This doesn't necessarily mean its deep water though. I have caught some fish on offshore shallow rock piles and also around weedbeds that have been offshore. However, some of the areas have also been deeper in about 10-12ft of water.
The main baits I have been using are a rapala DT3 flat, a basstrix swimbait, and an XR50 rattle trap type bait made by Xcalibur. I hope to get out tonight one last time before this weekend. I plan on slowing down on the outside weedlines to see if I can't connect with a couple more fish. If that doesn't work there is one shallow inside weedline that still might produce a few pre-spawn fish if I'm lucky, we'll see.
Hope everyone has a good weekend and lays into a few fish too! Tune in next week for a report on how my Northern Wisco weekend went (alliteration? hah).
Since my last post I have been able to get out a couple times on some south and north metro lakes. I have found that the fish are still sort of in between all stages of the spawn here in the metro area of Minnesota. I have caught postspawn fish that are very skinny, some other postspawn fish that are getting chunky, and also a couple fish that still even have eggs in them.
Most of my success this week has come in the form of faster moving baits on offshore cover/structure, compared to the past couple weeks where I have caught them mainly on weightless plastics up shallow. "Offshore cover/structure"; by this I mean anything out away from the bank. This doesn't necessarily mean its deep water though. I have caught some fish on offshore shallow rock piles and also around weedbeds that have been offshore. However, some of the areas have also been deeper in about 10-12ft of water.
The main baits I have been using are a rapala DT3 flat, a basstrix swimbait, and an XR50 rattle trap type bait made by Xcalibur. I hope to get out tonight one last time before this weekend. I plan on slowing down on the outside weedlines to see if I can't connect with a couple more fish. If that doesn't work there is one shallow inside weedline that still might produce a few pre-spawn fish if I'm lucky, we'll see.
Hope everyone has a good weekend and lays into a few fish too! Tune in next week for a report on how my Northern Wisco weekend went (alliteration? hah).
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Silverado Pro/Am - Green Lake
The site of my first Silverado tournament was on Green Lake in Spicer, MN. I was able to leave work a little early on Friday and made it to the pre-tournament meeting right at about 4pm. I was pretty excited to get out fishing the next day knowing the kind of fish that Green Lake offered. Last year I was fortunate enough to win a pro/am event on the lake with 27 some pounds for 8 fish, mostly smallmouth, which made it even better. This year went a little different.
We lanched and took off from Melvin's at 7am. I randomly drew a younger pro for this tournament who sounded like he was on some fish, so I was pumped for the day ahead. He said he had located some crusing and spawning smallmouth and that he would be sight fishing most of the day while I would be throwing faster moving baits to pick off crusing fish.
We got to the first spot in the morning and within the first 20 minutes I landed a nice 3lb smallmouth on a booyah spinnerbait. After that fish I thought it was going to be just like last year. However, it slowed down after that. I proceed to put two more fish in the boat on a spinnerbait in the morning hours, but they were much smaller fish. We ended up moving once the sun came out to another spot where my pro had found some smallmouth up shallow. When we got to the spot, there were fish everywhere! So many fish were crusing and also some on beds, but they were unbelievably spooky, which turned out to be the story of the day.
I switched to a smoke colored grub on a ballhead jig and began swimming that in the shallows and picked up another smallmouth. So now we had 4 fish in the livewell. My pro hadn't put a fish in the boat yet and I was starting to feel bad. We were definately around a lot of fish, but he couldn't get them to commit.
Eventually we moved to some small weed clumps later in the day and caught some largemouth on weightless senkos and texas rigged plastics to fill out our limit. We ended the day only culling once and had a total of 11lbs and some change which put us around the 50th spot out of 59 boats.. The winners ended up with 22lbs and many guys had 15-19lb bags. The top guys were catching them on a variety of lures, but the key for most of them was that they were targeting prespawn fish off the first deeper breakline. So we kind of missed the boat on the whole prespawn bite, but hindsight is 20/20 and that's just how it goes sometimes.
Even though we didn't finish too high in the standings, I really did have a fun time out there. My pro wasn't a slump either, he won a Denny's Event out on Lake Minnetonka a couple weeks ago, it just didn't go our way this time. It was fun fishing with him and I learned a little bit about how to go about catching spawning smallmouth, we just didn't do much catching :).
The one thing I gained from this event was motivation. Not only motivation to do well in the next tournament, but motivation to try and fish the pro side next year. This is the premier circuit in the state right now and after that tournament I'm driven to try and be able to compete with those guys next year. I'm not saying I'm going to do well if I do compete against them (they are pretty darn good!), but I'd sure love to try. The experience was really fun fishing against the best in the state of MN. The guys running the Silverado events do a great job and are truly a class act. Overall it was pretty good experience and I'm definately ready for the next one.
Fishing Report:
I have been able to get out the last two days since the tournament on some local south metro lakes and have found that the frog bite is starting to heat up. All the fish I caught on a frog except for one, were all postspawn and skinny as rails! It was still fun to get on some topwater fish though. I've also been catching some on weightless plastics in shallow water, but I believe most of the fish are out from the bank recouping right now from the spawn in the lakes I was fishing. However I did catch two big ones that were still full of eggs that had redtails (spawning fish). I definately wasn't seeing as many fish up shallow compared to a week and a half ago though. The water temp was in the low 70s.
I still believe we are about 1 to 2 weeks behind this spring compared to most springs. Most of the time the bass are just ending their spawning rituals around bass opener; at least in the south metro lakes. However, I have learned a lot about the stages of spawning fish this spring because of the colder water temps, which has been pretty cool.
I have a couple week break from tournament fishing since I won't be at the next club event this upcoming weekend. I'll also be in Northern Wisconsin chasing some muskies, walleye, and smallmouth in about 2 weeks which should be a good time. Hopefully I'll get some fishing reports from around the metro on the blog before I leave for that trip. Thanks for reading!!
We lanched and took off from Melvin's at 7am. I randomly drew a younger pro for this tournament who sounded like he was on some fish, so I was pumped for the day ahead. He said he had located some crusing and spawning smallmouth and that he would be sight fishing most of the day while I would be throwing faster moving baits to pick off crusing fish.
We got to the first spot in the morning and within the first 20 minutes I landed a nice 3lb smallmouth on a booyah spinnerbait. After that fish I thought it was going to be just like last year. However, it slowed down after that. I proceed to put two more fish in the boat on a spinnerbait in the morning hours, but they were much smaller fish. We ended up moving once the sun came out to another spot where my pro had found some smallmouth up shallow. When we got to the spot, there were fish everywhere! So many fish were crusing and also some on beds, but they were unbelievably spooky, which turned out to be the story of the day.
I switched to a smoke colored grub on a ballhead jig and began swimming that in the shallows and picked up another smallmouth. So now we had 4 fish in the livewell. My pro hadn't put a fish in the boat yet and I was starting to feel bad. We were definately around a lot of fish, but he couldn't get them to commit.
Eventually we moved to some small weed clumps later in the day and caught some largemouth on weightless senkos and texas rigged plastics to fill out our limit. We ended the day only culling once and had a total of 11lbs and some change which put us around the 50th spot out of 59 boats.. The winners ended up with 22lbs and many guys had 15-19lb bags. The top guys were catching them on a variety of lures, but the key for most of them was that they were targeting prespawn fish off the first deeper breakline. So we kind of missed the boat on the whole prespawn bite, but hindsight is 20/20 and that's just how it goes sometimes.
Even though we didn't finish too high in the standings, I really did have a fun time out there. My pro wasn't a slump either, he won a Denny's Event out on Lake Minnetonka a couple weeks ago, it just didn't go our way this time. It was fun fishing with him and I learned a little bit about how to go about catching spawning smallmouth, we just didn't do much catching :).
The one thing I gained from this event was motivation. Not only motivation to do well in the next tournament, but motivation to try and fish the pro side next year. This is the premier circuit in the state right now and after that tournament I'm driven to try and be able to compete with those guys next year. I'm not saying I'm going to do well if I do compete against them (they are pretty darn good!), but I'd sure love to try. The experience was really fun fishing against the best in the state of MN. The guys running the Silverado events do a great job and are truly a class act. Overall it was pretty good experience and I'm definately ready for the next one.
Fishing Report:
I have been able to get out the last two days since the tournament on some local south metro lakes and have found that the frog bite is starting to heat up. All the fish I caught on a frog except for one, were all postspawn and skinny as rails! It was still fun to get on some topwater fish though. I've also been catching some on weightless plastics in shallow water, but I believe most of the fish are out from the bank recouping right now from the spawn in the lakes I was fishing. However I did catch two big ones that were still full of eggs that had redtails (spawning fish). I definately wasn't seeing as many fish up shallow compared to a week and a half ago though. The water temp was in the low 70s.
I still believe we are about 1 to 2 weeks behind this spring compared to most springs. Most of the time the bass are just ending their spawning rituals around bass opener; at least in the south metro lakes. However, I have learned a lot about the stages of spawning fish this spring because of the colder water temps, which has been pretty cool.
I have a couple week break from tournament fishing since I won't be at the next club event this upcoming weekend. I'll also be in Northern Wisconsin chasing some muskies, walleye, and smallmouth in about 2 weeks which should be a good time. Hopefully I'll get some fishing reports from around the metro on the blog before I leave for that trip. Thanks for reading!!
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Lake Minnetonka - Tournament Day
My second club tournament of the year took place on the famed Lake Minnetonka. Going into the tournament I expected it to be fairly tough considering our tournament was the day after the Minnetonka Classic boasting a 100+ boat field. My goal was to get at least 10lbs to keep me in contention for angler of the year. After looking at past years results, if you can average 10lbs a tournament you have a pretty good shot at winning AOY.
We launched at 6am out of Maxwell Bay and I first headed into North Arm to begin to the day. In practice the week before I had found fish crusing the inside weedlines and this is where I began the day. I was throwing a 4 inch zoom centipede in a pumpkin color on 6lb flourocarbon. I expected that the fish would be a little skittish after the big tournament on Saturday so I downsized both my line and lure.
By 8:05 I had finished out my limit using the centipede. It wasn't anything special though, maybe 8lbs. I was making the longest casts possible along the inside edge of the weedline to make sure I wasn't spooking the fish by having them seeing me. And beleive me, I saw a lot of fish crusing, and a lot of fish that wounldn't bite because they also saw me. I continued to work down the bank and kept upgrading little by little throughout the day.
I wasn't doing anything real special or out of the ordinary. The keys were making sure the fish didn't see you and I also think the slow fall of the centipede in the shallow water also helped. It was a typical spring inside weedline type pattern. I was seeing a few fish that were spawning, but once again I couldn't get them to bite because they saw me too. I did find a few areas that seemed to have some better fish that were crusing a little deeper than the rest of the smaller fish. On one point I saw many 3-4lb fish a little deeper. I backed off and let the area rest for a little bit then came back with a long cast about 15 minutes later. I had one pick up the centipede right away and on the hook set I snapped my line at the knot. That one hurt. But I guess you can expect that to happen at least once with 6lb line and a hard hokk set. I could never get another bite off that point.
After fishing the inside weedlines for almost the entire day, I decided to move to a shallow flat that had sparse lilypads scattered throughout the entire area, this was in Maxwell Bay. At this point I had just about 10lbs and was looking to upgrade so I threw a 5" All Terrain stick worm in hoping that the bigger profile would entice some bigger bites. In the last hour of the day I was able to cull three more times and upgraded my final weight. This was an excited little hour of fishing, nothing like catching them pretty good with the countless floatillas of Lake Minnetonka all around you. That lake can be flat out awesome in the morning, but after everyone gets out of church on Sunday, I'd rather be any other place than at a crowded boat lauch waiting 30 minutes to put my boat on the trailer. Hah, I guess thats just how it is though.
My final weight for the day was 12lbs 13oz which for Minnetonka, isn't too much. But I was happy with it. It was good enough to put me in 2nd place for the day, and I'll take that whenever I can. I had a goal set in mind going into the tournament and fullfilled it. After a 1st place on the St.Croix River last fall and now two 2nd place finishes so far this year in the club, I feel that I'm continuing where I left from last year. It stinks losing by 1 ounce in the first tournament and now by 7 ounces in this last tournament, but thats how it goes sometimes. Who knows whether that fish that I snapped would have put me over the top. All in all it was a beautiful day on the water and it sure beat anything I could have been doing.
Gear used
Centipede: 6'6" St.Croix Avid Rod (Spinning), Diawa Regal Reel, 6lb Berkely 100% flourocarbon, Gamakatsu 3/0 light wire EWG hook, 4" zoom centipede (pumpkin)
A.T. stick worm: 7' St.Croix Avid Rod (Spinning), Shimano Sahara Reel, 6lb Berkely 100% Flourocarbon, Gamakatsu 4/0 red EWG hook, 5" A.T. stick worm (blue/blk swirl)
Centipede Picture:
Side note: I have my first Silverado Pro-Am tournament next weekend on Green Lake in Spicer, MN. We will most likely be chasing smallies as well as possibly a couple largemouth. I'm really looking forward to this tournament. Check back next week for a report on how it went.
Quick Report: I got out to a south metro lake yesterday evening and there were still some fish shallow. Lots of empty beds though, and many sunfish that had begun spawning. Caught most
of my fish on an A.T. stick worm weightless. Water temps were 66-71 depending on where you were on the lake. Not too many big ones, but enough to be a fun evening of fishing.
We launched at 6am out of Maxwell Bay and I first headed into North Arm to begin to the day. In practice the week before I had found fish crusing the inside weedlines and this is where I began the day. I was throwing a 4 inch zoom centipede in a pumpkin color on 6lb flourocarbon. I expected that the fish would be a little skittish after the big tournament on Saturday so I downsized both my line and lure.
By 8:05 I had finished out my limit using the centipede. It wasn't anything special though, maybe 8lbs. I was making the longest casts possible along the inside edge of the weedline to make sure I wasn't spooking the fish by having them seeing me. And beleive me, I saw a lot of fish crusing, and a lot of fish that wounldn't bite because they also saw me. I continued to work down the bank and kept upgrading little by little throughout the day.
I wasn't doing anything real special or out of the ordinary. The keys were making sure the fish didn't see you and I also think the slow fall of the centipede in the shallow water also helped. It was a typical spring inside weedline type pattern. I was seeing a few fish that were spawning, but once again I couldn't get them to bite because they saw me too. I did find a few areas that seemed to have some better fish that were crusing a little deeper than the rest of the smaller fish. On one point I saw many 3-4lb fish a little deeper. I backed off and let the area rest for a little bit then came back with a long cast about 15 minutes later. I had one pick up the centipede right away and on the hook set I snapped my line at the knot. That one hurt. But I guess you can expect that to happen at least once with 6lb line and a hard hokk set. I could never get another bite off that point.
After fishing the inside weedlines for almost the entire day, I decided to move to a shallow flat that had sparse lilypads scattered throughout the entire area, this was in Maxwell Bay. At this point I had just about 10lbs and was looking to upgrade so I threw a 5" All Terrain stick worm in hoping that the bigger profile would entice some bigger bites. In the last hour of the day I was able to cull three more times and upgraded my final weight. This was an excited little hour of fishing, nothing like catching them pretty good with the countless floatillas of Lake Minnetonka all around you. That lake can be flat out awesome in the morning, but after everyone gets out of church on Sunday, I'd rather be any other place than at a crowded boat lauch waiting 30 minutes to put my boat on the trailer. Hah, I guess thats just how it is though.
My final weight for the day was 12lbs 13oz which for Minnetonka, isn't too much. But I was happy with it. It was good enough to put me in 2nd place for the day, and I'll take that whenever I can. I had a goal set in mind going into the tournament and fullfilled it. After a 1st place on the St.Croix River last fall and now two 2nd place finishes so far this year in the club, I feel that I'm continuing where I left from last year. It stinks losing by 1 ounce in the first tournament and now by 7 ounces in this last tournament, but thats how it goes sometimes. Who knows whether that fish that I snapped would have put me over the top. All in all it was a beautiful day on the water and it sure beat anything I could have been doing.
Gear used
Centipede: 6'6" St.Croix Avid Rod (Spinning), Diawa Regal Reel, 6lb Berkely 100% flourocarbon, Gamakatsu 3/0 light wire EWG hook, 4" zoom centipede (pumpkin)
A.T. stick worm: 7' St.Croix Avid Rod (Spinning), Shimano Sahara Reel, 6lb Berkely 100% Flourocarbon, Gamakatsu 4/0 red EWG hook, 5" A.T. stick worm (blue/blk swirl)
Centipede Picture:
Side note: I have my first Silverado Pro-Am tournament next weekend on Green Lake in Spicer, MN. We will most likely be chasing smallies as well as possibly a couple largemouth. I'm really looking forward to this tournament. Check back next week for a report on how it went.
Quick Report: I got out to a south metro lake yesterday evening and there were still some fish shallow. Lots of empty beds though, and many sunfish that had begun spawning. Caught most
of my fish on an A.T. stick worm weightless. Water temps were 66-71 depending on where you were on the lake. Not too many big ones, but enough to be a fun evening of fishing.
Monday, May 26, 2008
MN Bass Fishing Opener Report
Overall I had a pretty good opener for the 2008 season. I was at my cabin just north of Outing, MN for Saturday and Sunday and then got out to Lake Minnetonka today to do some pre-fishing for a club tournament that I have out there next weekend.
Up north the water temps varied vastly from one area to the next. In the shallow bays the water temp was up to 65 degrees in the afternoon and the main lake was in the 50-55 degree range depending on where you were. This left me with a pre-spawn situation, with a few fish just getting ready to spawn.
The lake I fished up north is made up of three basins. One basin is quite shallow and heats up the fastest. Therefore I spent most of my time there. I was catching plenty of fish in the shallow bays and also crushed them pretty good with a big swimbait on shallow flats on the main lake that had just a little bit of weeds on them.
One really cool thing that happened this weekend was seeing Jim Moynagh fishing the same lake!! I thought this was so cool! A random lake out of the countless lakes in MN and he was on the same one I was. It was even cooler to see that we had found the same fish and at times were fishing right next to each other!
The main lures I was using were watermelon red flake All Terrain stick worms, pink zoom flukes, tennesse shad redeye shads, and a 3:16 bluegill swimbait. I absolutley crushed them on the 3:16 swimbait on windblown flats. The last hour I was there before going home I got 14 in an hour all 15-18 inches, it was nuts!
Heres a picture of the 3:16 Bluegill:
Today I got out to lake Minnetonka for some prefishing. Our club tournament will be interesting considering it will be the day after the Minnetonka Classic... a 100+ boat field. Talk about pressure. I found some fish today and kind of figured out what they are doing, but a lot will change in the next week with the spawn going on and the big tournament on Saturday. We'll see how it goes.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Beaver Dam Lake - Tournament Day
Having never been to this lake before, I was a little nervous on how my day would go. However, I seemed more relaxed than I usually am before most of my tournaments because I hadn't practiced and therefore didn't have anyfish located. I wasn't going into the tournament wondering whether or not the fish would be in the same areas where I caught them in practice. I was able to fish by the seat of my pants.
I started off in a shallow bay casting a strike king red eye shad in tennesse shad color. The water was stained to clear in color and 53-55 degrees in this area. After combing a small 50 yard stretch with no bites I picked up a booyah spinnerbait and caught a 13 inch bass on my second cast. Not big enough, but this gave me a little confidence. I continued back over the 50 yd stretch again and hooked up with a nice 17 inch fish, 1 fish in the livewell. After going over this spot a couple more times without a bite I went through into another bay where I threw a spinnerbait, All Terrain Stick Worm, and the redeye shad. I caught a couple more short fish in that bay along with some smaller northerns, but nothing to write home about.
I moved back out the area where I caught the 17 inch fish and moved out deeper into about 7ft of water casting the redeye shad. I immediately caught another keeper at 15 inches but decided to throw it back. I figured it was early in the day and with the no cull rules in Wisconsin I didn't want to burn a spot in my livewell. This decision wasn't easy. I continued fishing the redeye shad in 6-7ft of water with no luck. However, I did hook into about a 20-25 inch brown trout! I thought I had a monster smallie and was freaking out, but it ended up being a big trout.
After fishing for 1.5 hours with only one fish in the livewell I decided to find some new water. I just wasn't seeing the kind of action and quality of fish that I needed to do well. I made a long run into another portion of the lake. I had to go under a culvurt that my boat barely fit through, but it was worth it. I began cruzing around the other part of the lake and noticed the water was murky on this side and also 57-60 degrees. I continued to run around the area and then found the jackpot. I found about a 100yd bank loaded with laydowns and sunken trees.
I didn't know wether this spot would hold fish, but I thought I'd give it a try. On my 3rd pitch with an All Terrain Tackle green 3/8oz jig I caught a good 17 inch fish, 2 fish in the livewell. I thought to myself, "if thats any indication of whats to come on the rest of this bank, then it could get really good in a hurry". I continued down the bank and proceeded to put another 16 inch fish and a 17.5 inch fish in the boat, 3 and 4 fish in the livewell. This was heaven for me, I love to pitch jigs around shallow cover.
The rules we had set for the tournament is that we could weight our best 4 fish, but we could fish for a 5th fish and use it to replace one of the 4 already in the livewell come weigh-in. I proceeded to fish this bank loaded with wood for about 3-4 hours catching many 14-16inch fish. I threw them all back hoping to get a big one by the end of the day. During the last hour I finally hooked into another 17 inch fish and then headed back to the ramp since I had five fish in the livewell.
I took this pattern and expanded it to other laydowns in the dirty water. Even single isolated trees were holding fish. They were just flat out relating to wood. I was catching some in between the wood by pad stalks on a spinnerbait as well, but the main deal was the jig around wood. These fish were all either prespawn or spawning fish. Some were full of eggs, some half full with red tails. Overall I ended up catching 24 fish. 16 on an A.T. jig, 6 on a spinnerbait, 1 on a redeye shad, 1 on an A.T. Stick Worm.
I ended the day with 11lbs for 4 fish and was beat by two ounces by another guy in the club who had mostly smallies (some really nice smallies). I happy with how the tournament went and if I could do it again I wouldn't change a thing. I think the key for me was continuing to milk the area I had found with my jig. I think this is one thing too many people miss; they don't exploit an area to the fullest extent. They will fish a bank once or twice catch a couple fish and then move on. I bet I fished this bank at least 6 times and caught fish everytime I went down it. I've done this so many times, especially when fishing slower baits like a jig, to try and really exploit and area for all its worth on one day tournaments.
Heres some notes on the gear I was using
Jig:
7' MH St.Croix Avid Series rod (casting)
Pflueger Trion reel
50lb Stren Superbraid line
3/8oz Green All Terrain Tackle Jig
Spinnerbait:
6'6" M St.Croix Avid Series rod (casting)
Pflueger President reel
14lb Trilene XT
1/2 oz chart/orange/green spinnerbait
I started off in a shallow bay casting a strike king red eye shad in tennesse shad color. The water was stained to clear in color and 53-55 degrees in this area. After combing a small 50 yard stretch with no bites I picked up a booyah spinnerbait and caught a 13 inch bass on my second cast. Not big enough, but this gave me a little confidence. I continued back over the 50 yd stretch again and hooked up with a nice 17 inch fish, 1 fish in the livewell. After going over this spot a couple more times without a bite I went through into another bay where I threw a spinnerbait, All Terrain Stick Worm, and the redeye shad. I caught a couple more short fish in that bay along with some smaller northerns, but nothing to write home about.
I moved back out the area where I caught the 17 inch fish and moved out deeper into about 7ft of water casting the redeye shad. I immediately caught another keeper at 15 inches but decided to throw it back. I figured it was early in the day and with the no cull rules in Wisconsin I didn't want to burn a spot in my livewell. This decision wasn't easy. I continued fishing the redeye shad in 6-7ft of water with no luck. However, I did hook into about a 20-25 inch brown trout! I thought I had a monster smallie and was freaking out, but it ended up being a big trout.
After fishing for 1.5 hours with only one fish in the livewell I decided to find some new water. I just wasn't seeing the kind of action and quality of fish that I needed to do well. I made a long run into another portion of the lake. I had to go under a culvurt that my boat barely fit through, but it was worth it. I began cruzing around the other part of the lake and noticed the water was murky on this side and also 57-60 degrees. I continued to run around the area and then found the jackpot. I found about a 100yd bank loaded with laydowns and sunken trees.
I didn't know wether this spot would hold fish, but I thought I'd give it a try. On my 3rd pitch with an All Terrain Tackle green 3/8oz jig I caught a good 17 inch fish, 2 fish in the livewell. I thought to myself, "if thats any indication of whats to come on the rest of this bank, then it could get really good in a hurry". I continued down the bank and proceeded to put another 16 inch fish and a 17.5 inch fish in the boat, 3 and 4 fish in the livewell. This was heaven for me, I love to pitch jigs around shallow cover.
The rules we had set for the tournament is that we could weight our best 4 fish, but we could fish for a 5th fish and use it to replace one of the 4 already in the livewell come weigh-in. I proceeded to fish this bank loaded with wood for about 3-4 hours catching many 14-16inch fish. I threw them all back hoping to get a big one by the end of the day. During the last hour I finally hooked into another 17 inch fish and then headed back to the ramp since I had five fish in the livewell.
I took this pattern and expanded it to other laydowns in the dirty water. Even single isolated trees were holding fish. They were just flat out relating to wood. I was catching some in between the wood by pad stalks on a spinnerbait as well, but the main deal was the jig around wood. These fish were all either prespawn or spawning fish. Some were full of eggs, some half full with red tails. Overall I ended up catching 24 fish. 16 on an A.T. jig, 6 on a spinnerbait, 1 on a redeye shad, 1 on an A.T. Stick Worm.
I ended the day with 11lbs for 4 fish and was beat by two ounces by another guy in the club who had mostly smallies (some really nice smallies). I happy with how the tournament went and if I could do it again I wouldn't change a thing. I think the key for me was continuing to milk the area I had found with my jig. I think this is one thing too many people miss; they don't exploit an area to the fullest extent. They will fish a bank once or twice catch a couple fish and then move on. I bet I fished this bank at least 6 times and caught fish everytime I went down it. I've done this so many times, especially when fishing slower baits like a jig, to try and really exploit and area for all its worth on one day tournaments.
Heres some notes on the gear I was using
Jig:
7' MH St.Croix Avid Series rod (casting)
Pflueger Trion reel
50lb Stren Superbraid line
3/8oz Green All Terrain Tackle Jig
Spinnerbait:
6'6" M St.Croix Avid Series rod (casting)
Pflueger President reel
14lb Trilene XT
1/2 oz chart/orange/green spinnerbait
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Beaver Dam Lake Pre-Tournament Thoughts
Beaver Dam Lake located near Cumberland, Wisconsin is the designated location of the first club tournament I will fish this year. I have been extremly busy studying and taking finals this week for school and you can't beleive how excited I am to get back home to Minnesota to do some fishing. One more test and I'm there...can't wait!
I'll be driving home tomorrow and the tournament is on Saturday. So as you may have guessed, I have not prefished at all. I also have never once made a cast into Beaver Dam Lake. Should be interesting....
However, the good part is that we are in a springtime mode right now which will really help in eliminating a lot of deeper water. I'll be able to run many shallow bays throughout the lake with reaction type baits in hopes of getting on some fish by the end of day. If this doesn't pan out then hopefully I'll have time to find some offshore breaks that would have prespawn fish on them waiting to move up. I personally think that there will already be fish up shallow from what I'm hearing in terms of water temps in the area. I hope this is true, because it will make it a lot easier to find the better areas faster.
Check back next week to see how the tournament went!
I'll be driving home tomorrow and the tournament is on Saturday. So as you may have guessed, I have not prefished at all. I also have never once made a cast into Beaver Dam Lake. Should be interesting....
However, the good part is that we are in a springtime mode right now which will really help in eliminating a lot of deeper water. I'll be able to run many shallow bays throughout the lake with reaction type baits in hopes of getting on some fish by the end of day. If this doesn't pan out then hopefully I'll have time to find some offshore breaks that would have prespawn fish on them waiting to move up. I personally think that there will already be fish up shallow from what I'm hearing in terms of water temps in the area. I hope this is true, because it will make it a lot easier to find the better areas faster.
Check back next week to see how the tournament went!
Wednesday, May 7, 2008
Iowa Bass Fishing Team Qualifier
We had our first Qualifier this past weekend that will count towards the National Collegiate Bass Fishing Championship to be held next fall down in Texas. With the turnout of last years National Tournament, theres only one way I can go in the standings, and that is up.
Our qualifier was being held at some catch and release ponds/lakes that are about 15min from campus. The lakes offer good size bass and if you like the pitch and flip in heavy cover this place is for you. I started out the day pitching an All Terrain Jig around brush in a shallow cove only to find that they weren't in the same spot as one week ago. I proceeded to hit my areas that I usually catch fish in and ended up empty handed. (Sometimes fishing past memories can be a mistake)
After moving into areas that I had never been to before I started catching fish. The key was finding areas that had wood were there was shallow water with deep water close by, not typical of a spring time bite where they are usually up on flats. I was pitching an All Terrain jig around heavy wood cover for the first few hours and ended up with 19", 17", and 16" fish. As the day wore on the water was warming up and the bass were beggining to get skittish. I threw my jig at this one peice of wood about 15 times to see if I couldn't get a reaction bite. I finally put down the jig, picked up an All Terrain Stick Worm, and BAM! first cast one came shooting out of the cover and grabbed it. A nice 16.5" fish. That just goes to show that alot of the time the fish are in the area, its just finding the right bait to entice them that counts.
We ended the day at noon and I only had those 4 fish. However, my 4 fish held up to take the top spot in the tournament for the day. I was nice to get my confidence back up even though I had already qualified for the tournament through default of being the president of the club. I'm looking forward to getting back down the Texas next fall for the National Championship. I definately learned somethings down there this year that will help me out next fall.
Here's a look at the gear I was using for the Qualifier:
Our qualifier was being held at some catch and release ponds/lakes that are about 15min from campus. The lakes offer good size bass and if you like the pitch and flip in heavy cover this place is for you. I started out the day pitching an All Terrain Jig around brush in a shallow cove only to find that they weren't in the same spot as one week ago. I proceeded to hit my areas that I usually catch fish in and ended up empty handed. (Sometimes fishing past memories can be a mistake)
After moving into areas that I had never been to before I started catching fish. The key was finding areas that had wood were there was shallow water with deep water close by, not typical of a spring time bite where they are usually up on flats. I was pitching an All Terrain jig around heavy wood cover for the first few hours and ended up with 19", 17", and 16" fish. As the day wore on the water was warming up and the bass were beggining to get skittish. I threw my jig at this one peice of wood about 15 times to see if I couldn't get a reaction bite. I finally put down the jig, picked up an All Terrain Stick Worm, and BAM! first cast one came shooting out of the cover and grabbed it. A nice 16.5" fish. That just goes to show that alot of the time the fish are in the area, its just finding the right bait to entice them that counts.
We ended the day at noon and I only had those 4 fish. However, my 4 fish held up to take the top spot in the tournament for the day. I was nice to get my confidence back up even though I had already qualified for the tournament through default of being the president of the club. I'm looking forward to getting back down the Texas next fall for the National Championship. I definately learned somethings down there this year that will help me out next fall.
Here's a look at the gear I was using for the Qualifier:
- Jig Setup: 7'MH St.Croix Avid Series rod (casting), Pflueger Trion reel, 50lb Stren Superbraid line, 3/8oz All Terrain Tackle Jig (Blk/Blue)
- Stick Worm Setup: 6'6" St.Croix Avid Series rod (spinning), Diawa Regal reel, 6lb Berkley 100% Flouroarbon line, All Terrain Tackle Stick Worm (Blk/Blue)
All Terrain Pros Making Some Noise
A couple of the All Terrain Tackle Pros have been on fire as of late on the Professional level in both the BASS and FLW tour circuits.
Two weeks ago Minnesota's own Jim Moynagh took 2nd place down on Lake Norman by fishing an All Terrain Tackle Stick Worm around docks to catch finicky post-spawn bass. During a tournament that left most wondering how to put together 5-10lbs of fish per day, Moynagh was able to put up an average of about 12lbs a day. Not to mention he's got quite the hair-do going right now as well! Hey, if its not broken, why fix it?
On the BASS side Texas pro Todd Faircloth continues to tear it up on the Elite Series. His finishes for the first 5 tournaments have been 8th, 23rd, 41st, 1st, and 7th. He has yet to miss a cut and hasn't missed a cut for the last 10 BASS events he has fished. Talk about consistency! He took his second Elite Series win on Lake Amistad two weeks ago, and with the help of an All Terrain Tackle Jig he was able to finish 7th at Clarks Hill Resevoir this past weekend. With the great start that Faircloth has had this season he has moved himself into first place in the Angler of the Year race!
Hopefully these guys can continue to produce the rest of season like they have been so far! I'll be rootin for them
Two weeks ago Minnesota's own Jim Moynagh took 2nd place down on Lake Norman by fishing an All Terrain Tackle Stick Worm around docks to catch finicky post-spawn bass. During a tournament that left most wondering how to put together 5-10lbs of fish per day, Moynagh was able to put up an average of about 12lbs a day. Not to mention he's got quite the hair-do going right now as well! Hey, if its not broken, why fix it?
On the BASS side Texas pro Todd Faircloth continues to tear it up on the Elite Series. His finishes for the first 5 tournaments have been 8th, 23rd, 41st, 1st, and 7th. He has yet to miss a cut and hasn't missed a cut for the last 10 BASS events he has fished. Talk about consistency! He took his second Elite Series win on Lake Amistad two weeks ago, and with the help of an All Terrain Tackle Jig he was able to finish 7th at Clarks Hill Resevoir this past weekend. With the great start that Faircloth has had this season he has moved himself into first place in the Angler of the Year race!
Hopefully these guys can continue to produce the rest of season like they have been so far! I'll be rootin for them
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Spring Success!
It has been nice to finally get a little revenge on those little green creatures since the face plant I took at the Big Ten Championship. I've been able to get out to some local ponds here in Iowa and have faired well in the past couple weeks.
The key has been looking for those shallow flats with a small break off the edge of them. So far it has been a total reaction type bite with most of my fish coming on a blue crome and green crome Strike King Redeye Shad, and a chart/white/orange colored Booyah Spinnerbait. I have also caught a couple nice fish on a green pumpkin Yum Dinger. Last Thursday I almost hit the 30 fish mark but came up short with 28 bass caught that afternoon. Here are a couple pictures from that outing:
This upcoming weekend we have our first qualifying tournament for the Iowa Bass Fishing Team that will count towards going to the National Tourament next fall in Texas. I will be sure to give an update on how that went after this upcoming weekend. It will be held at a place that is notorious for giving up nice fish when pitching jigs around heavy wood cover. You can bet on it that I'll have my All Terrain jigs rigged and ready to go come Sunday Morning!
The key has been looking for those shallow flats with a small break off the edge of them. So far it has been a total reaction type bite with most of my fish coming on a blue crome and green crome Strike King Redeye Shad, and a chart/white/orange colored Booyah Spinnerbait. I have also caught a couple nice fish on a green pumpkin Yum Dinger. Last Thursday I almost hit the 30 fish mark but came up short with 28 bass caught that afternoon. Here are a couple pictures from that outing:
This upcoming weekend we have our first qualifying tournament for the Iowa Bass Fishing Team that will count towards going to the National Tourament next fall in Texas. I will be sure to give an update on how that went after this upcoming weekend. It will be held at a place that is notorious for giving up nice fish when pitching jigs around heavy wood cover. You can bet on it that I'll have my All Terrain jigs rigged and ready to go come Sunday Morning!
Monday, April 14, 2008
Practice Day 3 and Tournament Day
Practice Day 3:
On the third day of practice I had paired up with my partned for the official tournament and we got off to a good start when he landed a 3.5lb largemouth early in the day (oddly enough it was caught on the main lake, a place where no one was catching largemough). We quickly headed out of that area and began heading to the south end of the lake. It was once again windy which meant that you better be wearing your rain gear if your making the treck across the wind swept lake. The high temp for the day was 40 with on and off rain. I personally didn't think the fishing would be that great but we ended up getting three more fish for the day; one smallmouth and 2 largies. After this practice I knew exactly what I wanted to do during the tournament day and I was the most confident I had ever been going into a college based tournament.
The Pattern:
Alright, now that the tournament is over I will spill the info in terms of how we were catching them... First of all we were dealing with 44-49 degree water temperatures, not very warm to say the least. On the south end of the lake there were boat and marina channels. These areas held the warmest water temperature on the lake and also held the best bet for catching largemouth. I was catching them in the channels on spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, crankbaits, jigs, and a dropshot. On the main lake you were looking at 44-46 degree water and the main fish were smallmouth. I caught all the smallmouth on jerkbaits (x-rap and strike king wild shiner) in 4-7 feet of water wherever there was rock. A wind swept bank also helped.
The Tournament:
This is the hard part about keeping this blog up...writing about things you don't really want to write about. To start off, we ended up doing terrible. Our entire Iowa Team consisting of 10 guys accumulated 2 fish (thats not a typo). 2 fish! I stuck to my guns on tournament day and it just didn't pan out. It was the coldest weather I had ever fished in (high of 38) with snow flurries every now and then. The wind had shifted to coming from the north instead of the SW like the other days. I could sit here and complain some more, but we just didn't catch them, theres no excuse for it because some other teams caught fish.
The only thing I would have changed in this tournament is getting a faster boat. Some people beleive that the boat doesn't matter in fishing, the fish don't care, and most times (almost always) it doesn't, but for this tournament it did. When you have small channels where all the fish are biting, more than one boat is going to go there (how about at least 20 of the 30 some boats in the tournament). I got passed by boats going to the channels and literaly watched other boats catch fish right in from of me for the first hour of the tournament. I fished behind them and finally picked up one 13 inch fish on a drop shot with 6lb flourocarbon, not a keeper though. In the channels on the first practice day I caught 5 five, 4 of which would have kept. So I know I would have been able to catch the fish had I been there first, but thats just how it goes sometimes.
I have no excuse for the smallies. I just didn't catch them. We tried adjusting and fishing windy banks, but I think with the wind coming from the North instead of the Southwest it changed things up and we just couldn't get bit on the main lake. I beleive that I am officially cursed in college based tournaments. 3 big college tournaments and I have yet to weigh in a fish. I have zeroed 4 times ever in tournaments, 3 of them in college tournaments. However, I still got to fish for 4 days straight and had a real fun time in practice attempting to break down a new lake. It sure beat being in class and its always good to be humbled every now and then, I just hope the trend doesn't continue during the next college tournament.
On the third day of practice I had paired up with my partned for the official tournament and we got off to a good start when he landed a 3.5lb largemouth early in the day (oddly enough it was caught on the main lake, a place where no one was catching largemough). We quickly headed out of that area and began heading to the south end of the lake. It was once again windy which meant that you better be wearing your rain gear if your making the treck across the wind swept lake. The high temp for the day was 40 with on and off rain. I personally didn't think the fishing would be that great but we ended up getting three more fish for the day; one smallmouth and 2 largies. After this practice I knew exactly what I wanted to do during the tournament day and I was the most confident I had ever been going into a college based tournament.
The Pattern:
Alright, now that the tournament is over I will spill the info in terms of how we were catching them... First of all we were dealing with 44-49 degree water temperatures, not very warm to say the least. On the south end of the lake there were boat and marina channels. These areas held the warmest water temperature on the lake and also held the best bet for catching largemouth. I was catching them in the channels on spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, crankbaits, jigs, and a dropshot. On the main lake you were looking at 44-46 degree water and the main fish were smallmouth. I caught all the smallmouth on jerkbaits (x-rap and strike king wild shiner) in 4-7 feet of water wherever there was rock. A wind swept bank also helped.
The Tournament:
This is the hard part about keeping this blog up...writing about things you don't really want to write about. To start off, we ended up doing terrible. Our entire Iowa Team consisting of 10 guys accumulated 2 fish (thats not a typo). 2 fish! I stuck to my guns on tournament day and it just didn't pan out. It was the coldest weather I had ever fished in (high of 38) with snow flurries every now and then. The wind had shifted to coming from the north instead of the SW like the other days. I could sit here and complain some more, but we just didn't catch them, theres no excuse for it because some other teams caught fish.
The only thing I would have changed in this tournament is getting a faster boat. Some people beleive that the boat doesn't matter in fishing, the fish don't care, and most times (almost always) it doesn't, but for this tournament it did. When you have small channels where all the fish are biting, more than one boat is going to go there (how about at least 20 of the 30 some boats in the tournament). I got passed by boats going to the channels and literaly watched other boats catch fish right in from of me for the first hour of the tournament. I fished behind them and finally picked up one 13 inch fish on a drop shot with 6lb flourocarbon, not a keeper though. In the channels on the first practice day I caught 5 five, 4 of which would have kept. So I know I would have been able to catch the fish had I been there first, but thats just how it goes sometimes.
I have no excuse for the smallies. I just didn't catch them. We tried adjusting and fishing windy banks, but I think with the wind coming from the North instead of the Southwest it changed things up and we just couldn't get bit on the main lake. I beleive that I am officially cursed in college based tournaments. 3 big college tournaments and I have yet to weigh in a fish. I have zeroed 4 times ever in tournaments, 3 of them in college tournaments. However, I still got to fish for 4 days straight and had a real fun time in practice attempting to break down a new lake. It sure beat being in class and its always good to be humbled every now and then, I just hope the trend doesn't continue during the next college tournament.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Practice Days 1 and 2
The first 2 days of practice are complete, and now its time to get ready for the snow storm/official practice day and the tournament on Sunday (no I have never fished open water in the snow, could be interesting). Thankfully I've been able to locate both largemouth and smallmouth during the past two days on the lake. So I know the general area some fish are in, it will just be a matter of finding them again when the weather changes.
The first day of practice was one of the worst days I have ever fished weather wise. It rained all 9 hours that I was on the lake except for maybe the first half hour. The winds blew 20-30 mph, and with my smaller boat, it makes the lake fish a lot smaller, I don't mind fishing in the wind, but my boat just can't handle it when its that strong. However, the fishing wasn't too bad. I caught all my fish in the afternoon, and everyone of them came on a different bait, not too much for a pattern.
Today was much tougher fishing wise with post frontal conditions. I only caught 1 fish and one nice 18inch walleye for a bonus fish. I didn't hit my spots from the first practice day and was able to eliminate a lot of water which was a plus. The wind blew worse today (didn't think it could get any worse!), but higher temperatures with no rain made it a little bit more pleasurable to be on the water.
Tomorrow I'm looking to mix it up a little bit in hoping I can find some backup spots. The spots where I did catch all the fish on practice day 1 have been getting hit hard by other fisherman. I'm optimistic about the next two days as long as my fish don't change too much. However, the fact that its supposed to be a high of 38 degrees with snow and wind the next two days, has me wondering whether anyone will bring anything to wiegh in on tournament day. I guess we'll wait and see. Hopefully the mental battle with the weather conditions will thin out the field a little bit, thats half the battle!
The first day of practice was one of the worst days I have ever fished weather wise. It rained all 9 hours that I was on the lake except for maybe the first half hour. The winds blew 20-30 mph, and with my smaller boat, it makes the lake fish a lot smaller, I don't mind fishing in the wind, but my boat just can't handle it when its that strong. However, the fishing wasn't too bad. I caught all my fish in the afternoon, and everyone of them came on a different bait, not too much for a pattern.
Today was much tougher fishing wise with post frontal conditions. I only caught 1 fish and one nice 18inch walleye for a bonus fish. I didn't hit my spots from the first practice day and was able to eliminate a lot of water which was a plus. The wind blew worse today (didn't think it could get any worse!), but higher temperatures with no rain made it a little bit more pleasurable to be on the water.
Tomorrow I'm looking to mix it up a little bit in hoping I can find some backup spots. The spots where I did catch all the fish on practice day 1 have been getting hit hard by other fisherman. I'm optimistic about the next two days as long as my fish don't change too much. However, the fact that its supposed to be a high of 38 degrees with snow and wind the next two days, has me wondering whether anyone will bring anything to wiegh in on tournament day. I guess we'll wait and see. Hopefully the mental battle with the weather conditions will thin out the field a little bit, thats half the battle!
Monday, April 7, 2008
First Tournament on the Horizon
My first tournament of the 2008 season is coming up this week from April 12th-13th on Lake Maxinkuckee in NW Indiana. The tournament is the Big Ten Championship. This is the oldest Collegiate based bass fishing tournament in the nation and its great to be apart of the tradition. The tournament is on Sunday but I will be leaving on Wed. afternoon skipping out on a couple days of school to go prefish for the tournament (does it get much better ?).
I'm really excited to get back out on the water for the first time this year. Right now if the weather predictions hold up it could make for a tough tournament. They are predicting that it will get colder until the tournament day from here on out. They are even calling for a possibility of snow on tournament day which could make things interesting. We will probably be looking at a prespawn situation. Right now I have absolutely no clue how I will catch them. I've never been to the lake before and I won't know where these fish will be until I put the boat in the water and get a reading on the water temperature. I have an idea of many different things that I think will produce, but I don't know for sure what I will do until I get on the water. I think trying to figure out the fish is the most fun of fishing these tournaments and thats what keeps me coming back for more. Anyways, I have to get some school work done tonight before I leave this week, but check in throughout the week for updates on my practice. I'm going to try and post each day after practice and then a final post after the tournament day, so stay tuned!
I'm really excited to get back out on the water for the first time this year. Right now if the weather predictions hold up it could make for a tough tournament. They are predicting that it will get colder until the tournament day from here on out. They are even calling for a possibility of snow on tournament day which could make things interesting. We will probably be looking at a prespawn situation. Right now I have absolutely no clue how I will catch them. I've never been to the lake before and I won't know where these fish will be until I put the boat in the water and get a reading on the water temperature. I have an idea of many different things that I think will produce, but I don't know for sure what I will do until I get on the water. I think trying to figure out the fish is the most fun of fishing these tournaments and thats what keeps me coming back for more. Anyways, I have to get some school work done tonight before I leave this week, but check in throughout the week for updates on my practice. I'm going to try and post each day after practice and then a final post after the tournament day, so stay tuned!
Sunday, March 2, 2008
Looking for a better Jig?
Look no further than the jigs made by All Terrain Tackle. These jigs have had help in design from top touring pros such as Jim Moynagh (the football jig king himself) and Scott Martin to name a few. All Terrain has a great selection of jigs for any of your bass fishing situations that come about.
The Rattling A.T. jig, perfect for flipping and pitching wood, docks, reeds, and cattails. I have personally won 7 local and club tournaments in the past 2 years on this particular jig!
Jim Moynagh's Football Jig, designed and tested by Jim Moynagh himself on the FLW tour. This jig is a good bet when fishing deeper off shore structure. The "Terrain Tread" on the bottom of the jig helps to actually grip the bottom to help you feel whats down there. The football jig is becoming a hot commodity on the pro tours these days, and this one is quietly being used by a lot of pro anglers.
The A.T. Finesse jig. Perfect for those tough fighting smallies and also for when you need a little bit more of a finesse presentation on lakes that get a lot of pressure. I used this jig to win a club tournament on the St.Croix River last fall while fishing for smallmouth. Team it with a double tail grub and your good to go!
The A.T. Swim Jig. Designed with a lighter weed gaurd and lighter wire hook makes this the perfect swim jig that allows more solid hookups. A great bait of choice for spring bass that are on the move in shallow water.
Scott Martin's Grassmaster Weed Jig. The name says it all, this jig is meant to be flipped and pitched into the nastiest vegitation in the lake. The pointed, bullet shaped head makes for easy penetration into the thickest mats. This jig was tested by Scott Martin in the weed infested waters of Florida so you know that its going to perform in the right way while fishing for those big bass that are just buried in the weeds.
As you can see, All Terrain Tackle has every jig niche covered with their wide array of jig types for every jig fishing situation. However, this isn't even all that they offer. Be sure to check out their website (allterraintackle.com) to look at their "mighy jigs" for jigworm type applications, their tube jig heads, 4" flippin tubes, and their A.T. 5" Terrain Sticks for a senko type soft plastic stick bait. Their jigs and soft plastics are top notch and I will not go out on the lake whether it be fishing in a tournament or just for fun without at least one of these models tied on. Start the season off right by adding a couple of these products to your tackle collection.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Jones Takes 2008 Classic!
Congratulations to Alton Jones on winning the 2008 Bassmasters Classic! I was rootin' for the hometown classic rookie Casey Ashley, but a Day Two stumble held him from getting into the top spot. Watch out though, he's a good fisherman and one of the better young guys that will be a force fishing the 2008 Elite Series this year. I really enjoyed following the classic this weekend and thought that ESPN did a great job on coverage throughout. Its definately tough to cover fishing as a live sport, but they did a good job with their bass blogs that were updated throughout the days of the tournament. I also felt that they showed a lot more "on the water" coverage this year than they have in the past, which is always nice.
It was amazing how many different patterns were being applied this weekend by the classic anglers. Football jigs were being dragged slow and deep, guys were pitching finesse jigs up under docks, they were crankin both shallow and deep, small finesse worms on a drop shot. Jigging Spoons were even being applied when the bass were schooled up and busting bait on the surface. It was really exciting to watch.
One thing that I really thought was amazing (and this separates the best from the average) is how these pros adjust their techniques from day to day depending on what the weather and fish are doing. I knew before this tournament that the pros always applied this type of "fishing the moment" mentality, but watching this tournament really drove home that fact.
All in all it was a great and exciting tournament!
It was amazing how many different patterns were being applied this weekend by the classic anglers. Football jigs were being dragged slow and deep, guys were pitching finesse jigs up under docks, they were crankin both shallow and deep, small finesse worms on a drop shot. Jigging Spoons were even being applied when the bass were schooled up and busting bait on the surface. It was really exciting to watch.
One thing that I really thought was amazing (and this separates the best from the average) is how these pros adjust their techniques from day to day depending on what the weather and fish are doing. I knew before this tournament that the pros always applied this type of "fishing the moment" mentality, but watching this tournament really drove home that fact.
All in all it was a great and exciting tournament!
Tuesday, February 5, 2008
Bass Tournament Schedule 2008
I have just recently finalized (roughly) my tournament schedule for the upcoming 2008 season. I'll be taking part in three different tournament "circuits" this year, which means it will be the most tournaments I have fished in during the course of a year.
I will be fishing 4 (potentially 5) tournaments on the Sliverado Pro/Am Tour as an amature, 9 tournaments with my local bass club (Lakes Area Bassmasters), and at least 2 College based tournaments. The first two circuits will be held in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, with the College tournaments occuring in Indiana and presumably Texas (but this is not finalized).
I am really looking forward to this season in terms of growing my fishing ablilites, my tournament experience, and meeting many new great people involved with this sport. During preparation for the tournaments I will try and write about my practice and also how I ended up.
The first tournament will be the Big Ten Championship in Indiana sometime in April. Last year we (The University of Iowa) finished 3rd and hope to better that this year. It should be a fun tournament where we will probably looking at pre-spawn, spawn, or post-spawn conditions depending on what the weather does between now and then. Stay tuned in April for more info on how that tournament went.
I will be fishing 4 (potentially 5) tournaments on the Sliverado Pro/Am Tour as an amature, 9 tournaments with my local bass club (Lakes Area Bassmasters), and at least 2 College based tournaments. The first two circuits will be held in both Minnesota and Wisconsin, with the College tournaments occuring in Indiana and presumably Texas (but this is not finalized).
I am really looking forward to this season in terms of growing my fishing ablilites, my tournament experience, and meeting many new great people involved with this sport. During preparation for the tournaments I will try and write about my practice and also how I ended up.
The first tournament will be the Big Ten Championship in Indiana sometime in April. Last year we (The University of Iowa) finished 3rd and hope to better that this year. It should be a fun tournament where we will probably looking at pre-spawn, spawn, or post-spawn conditions depending on what the weather does between now and then. Stay tuned in April for more info on how that tournament went.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
Berkely's New Baits
Has anyone seen the new lures that Berkely has just come out with? They have recently released some new baits that they hope will help out their pro-staff anglers in the upcoming Bassmasters Classic on Lake Hartwell later this month. There is some pretty interesting stuff such as jigs, sinking worms, and the ever popular swimbait. I really liked the look of their swimbait (named the Hollow Body), which looks much like the basstrix paddletail that everyone is trying to get their hands on. As the name states the body is hollow which helps tremendously in more hook-ups and more fish in the boat. I went ahead and pre-ordered a couple packs of these baits in hopes that they will arrive in time for the season. I have a tournament in Indiana in which we may be looking at prespawn conditions. If those fish are up on the flats chasing a reaction type bait, this just might do the trick.
Heres a picture of the Hollow Body:
Heres a picture of the Hollow Body:
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
First Installment
Hey guys, my name is Bob Downey. As you may have already noticed this is my first post on my new blog. Pretty exciting stuff huh!? A little about me...I was born and raised in Minnesota and absolutely love the outdoors and all it has to offer. Specifically, I like to hunt and fish the most. While not fishing or hunting I attend the University of Iowa and am currently studying to earn a degree in business.
Ok, you may now be wondering why I have created this blog. My title "Bob's Fishing Blog" makes it pretty self-explanatory, this will be a blog about fishing! Specifically bass fishing, but I do some multi-species fishing as well. Everything from the tournaments I fish, how to fish certain techniques I like to use, the professional tours, to new products in the fishing industry, and just talking about fishing in general will be covered here on my blog.
I hope you take an interest in to what I have to offer in this vast world of fishing. I think it will be both fun and interesting if you follow along.
Bob Downey
Ok, you may now be wondering why I have created this blog. My title "Bob's Fishing Blog" makes it pretty self-explanatory, this will be a blog about fishing! Specifically bass fishing, but I do some multi-species fishing as well. Everything from the tournaments I fish, how to fish certain techniques I like to use, the professional tours, to new products in the fishing industry, and just talking about fishing in general will be covered here on my blog.
I hope you take an interest in to what I have to offer in this vast world of fishing. I think it will be both fun and interesting if you follow along.
Bob Downey
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