On Sunday from 7AM to 3PM my bass club the Baxter Bass Snatchers will be fishing our fourth tournament of the season on the Mississippi River out of Brainerd (Lum Park) from Rice Lake North. This tournament promises to be challenge for everyone. There will be 25 of us fishing this one, which means the lower placing finishers won't get very many points and the prospect of a skunk and 0 points is very real. In the past the Snatchers have fished 7 tournaments on the Mississippi. They fished 4 tournaments in the 90's, 2 in the 80's, and 1 in the 70's; The last tournament was in 1999. In those 7 tournaments there was a total of 3 limits caught, never more than 1 in a year, and a total of 60 skunks. This year the mighty Miss has been running high, fast, and dirty which will probably mean a complete buzzkill when it comes to smallmouth. The largemouth population on this stretch of river isn't particularly abundant, which is unfortunate because pre-fishing showed me there is plenty of water that looks like perfect largemouth habitat. It will probably take just a few quality fish to do very well, but the prospect of disaster is there for everybody.
My day of pre-fishing and the advice I have received leaves me guardedly optimistic that the tournament will not be a disaster for me; In fact there seems to be a serious upside if I can just get enough bites and put them in the boat. We seem to have found a few fish, quality fish, and I am comfortable with the patterns we uncovered. I am hoping that a pattern that didn't go in pre-fish might go tournament day if the fish are a bit more active. It was overcast during pre-fish and looks like there will be lots of sun tournament day. I am hoping that sun will help the bite.
I will be ecstatic if I can catch a limit. Heck I will be pretty happy as long as I have at least 1 fish to weigh. Realistically I hope to catch 3 or 4 and have 8 to 10lbs as I think this will be pretty solid. Who knows, maybe the river is actually better than I realise. A finish somewhere in the top half of the field would be nice.
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