Lake Area Bassmasters - Forest Lake, MN

I was able to get out and practice for this tournament on Memorial Day. I spent a full day on the water trying to find a few key areas that would put me near the top in the standings. I was very surprised how far along the fish were in this lake already. I found some fish shallow, but not as many as I expected to find for this time of year. My best bite was actually on an offshore point in about 10-12 feet of water cranking an Academy Sports crankbait (A $3 bait that looks identical to a lucky craft! sweet deal).

We launched from lake #3 at 6:00am. I started off fishing shallow around a bed of cattails and was able round out my limit on an All Terrain Jig by 6:45. 2 of them were solid fish, the other 3 just swimmers. I then went out to the offshore point and fished right along side another guy in our club. I'm not sure if the school shifted or wasn't biting, but I was on one side of the point hauling water while the other guy was hauling in fish after fish. I finally caught one keeper that would cull a small fish on the crankbait, but thats all I would get off the point.

For the rest of the day I ran around the lake like a mad man trying to cull my two smaller fish. I ended up catching two more decent fish on an All Terrain Stick worm under docks that would round out my final limit that I weighed in. I had 9lb+ and ended up in third place, not great, but not too bad. First place (the angler who was fishing the other side of the point) was 11lbs, so I wasn't too far behing that mark; one 4lb bite and it would have been close.

It was a good first event for my 2010 club season and I was able to earn some much needed points since I have missed 3 events already for this season. Our next tournament is on Lake Minnetonka in a few weeks. I'm really looking forward to that one with the potential of a big bag coming from Tonka. Stay tuned and keep your line wet!