Due to some scheduling conflicts and changes for the Lakes Area Bassmasters, “Tonka Cup” phase two happened much earlier than anticipated. With notification of the switch I made my way back out to Lake Minnetonka for a day of practice on the Monday after the 4th of July. It was a zoo on the lake by about 10am which came as no surprise. Thankfully a storm system blew into the area by mid-afternoon to reduce the number of pleasure boaters on the lake. It was a long practice day that yielded some good things offshore, but my day was full of smaller caliber fish.
On tournament day I paired up with another club member, Dan. Dan is a solid angler and usually does well in our events. I felt that if we worked together we could both come in with solid limits. Dan and I hopped around to various offshore areas near our launch site for most of the day in pursuit of putting some better quality fish in the boat. I started off with two small fish caught on a drop-shot and then put my third fish in the boat about mid-morning on a t-rigged beaver; this was a much better fish. We continued to hop around to a few different bays. I was able to get my limit that consisted of a few decent fish and one 4 plus pounder. Meanwhile, Dan was unfortunately struggling to put the hook into the fish. He had a few unfortunate events throughout the day that ended up hurting him in the end. A few straightened hooks and a breakoff in some rocks really put a damper on his day. It’s never fun to witness these kinds of things, but I know he will come back strong in the next event. To help matters somewhat, Dan just found out that he will be fishing the Federation North Regional’s this year! Good luck buddy!
In the end I came in with a limit around 12.5 pounds which was surprisingly good enough to win and to retain the cup. I anticipated the bite to be tough based on my practice, but I felt for sure someone would have caught them good, its Tonka, and the big ones definitely live there!
Overall I think most guys brought in limits which was good to see. Our next club event is on Sugar Lake up by Annandale, MN. I have not been to this lake since I fished a junior bassmaster event on it about 6 years ago so we’ll see how it goes.
I’ll be fishing an ABA tournament this weekend on Waconia. It should take some solid weights to be in the money in that event. I’m going to have to really catch them to have a good finish. I should have a write-up about that event sometime next week. Until then, have a good weekend and keep your line wet!
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