This past weekend I fished an ABA tournament on Big Marine Lake. This lake is notorious for being full of fish, yet getting anything over 2lbs can be challenging. In practice I was able to find fish both shallow and deep and I was shooting for 10-12lbs. The shallow fish were caught on frogs and the deeper fish on a dropshot, jigworm, and crankbait.
I started the event out on a deep point that had a little bald spot in the weeds in about 13 feet of water. The area had a hard bottom and had plenty of fish on it in practice (aqua vu’s work well in clear water…) My high hopes of this spot quickly ran out within the first hour after I had only pulled two fish off of it. However, one was a solid 2.5lb fish which gave me a decent start. I caught the other one up on top of the point where fish were busting suspended sunfish in the morning.
In practice I had marked about five areas that I was able to get better bites on out deep and proceeded to hop around to each one throughout the next few hours. On my second deep spot I was able to put a 2.75lb fish in the boat on the drop shot, another good addition to my bag. My goal was to try and get a limit of 2lb fish in the boat before I went shallow looking for frog fish.
After fishing a few more deep areas I was able to round out my limit with smaller 1-1.5lb fish. With a few hours left in the tournament I decided to go shallow. The shallow fish that I caught in practice were tucked way back in a bay that was barely accessible. However, the fish that I caught back there were all 2.5lb plus fish. The reason I didn’t start back there is because I was not getting many bites in that area. It was about a 1 or 2 fish area; a spot where I was planning on going to get a kicker fish.
I fished through the shallow bay and proceed to miss 2 blowups on my frog. I never saw the fish and don’t know if they would have helped my bag. That’s just how it goes sometimes.
At the weigh-in my bag was 8.58lbs and I believe it only took 10lbs to be in the money. The winner had around 13lbs and I believe the winning fish were caught deep on a jigworm. This tournament was a tough one to swallow. I felt that for sure I could get five 2lb bites out deep and then take a chance at a big fish shallow, but sometimes a plan doesn’t pan out.
So now it’s on to the next one this weekend on Lake Minnetonka with the Lakes Area Bassmasters club. I spent a few hours on the lake last week, but did not find a whole lot. However, I did have a “Carl Spande” moment when a 40” musky ate the small northern that had eaten my crankbait! That was quite the fight and possibly the biggest fish I had ever caught. Come tournament day I might be hopping around the lake fishing some memories so we’ll see how it goes…
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