We met at a parking lot in Brainerd at around 6:15AM and found out we would be fishing the Cullen Chain. I was alright with that as I like the lakes and my boater Guy won the last tournament there. The weather promised to be warm, mostly sunny and breezy out of the SW. We launched out of the middle lakes access around quarter to 8AM. We were first boat out. Guy didn't want to run the risk of getting caught in the Culvert going to the Upper Lake so we went to a sunken island on the middle lake. There was a guy fishing topwater there already. We came in to the SW of him and about 3 of our boats also came in on this spot. I had what I'm pretty sure was a pike hit at my Stanley Phantom and other than that we got nothing.
We moved to a point off of some reeds and guy got two good quality fish right away. I got a pike on a black/blue Chigger Craw. Not wanting to retie I switched to a craw tube. I got a 12.5" bass on that as well as a rock bass. I think Guy landed a couple more small keepers. We then went to another point off of some reeds. I had tied on another Chigger Craw by then and was quickly rewarded with my best fish of the day a 15.5" largie.
We then fished some reeds and some slop. Guy got a nice dogfish. Guy made the call to head to the Lower Lake. We had to get out and push but made it. We started on a weedline spot just out from the channel and I was immediately rewarded with a 14" bass. We then moved around a bunch of places not getting anything. The wind had come up pretty good by now and there was a reed bed getting nailed by the wind. Guy caught a a keeper than two quality fish the first 15 minutes we were in the reeds. One of the fish was the 4/3 Lunker of the tournament. I broke off my Texas Rigged craw tube with 3/4oz Tungsten Sinker twice getting caught on the reeds, so I switch to a Strike King Hack Attack jig. We stayed in the reeds and I managed to get one that was just short of 14" and two 14.5" bass out of them on the Jig. I got my limit and I was happy. I didn't fish the rest of the day very well only getting a rock bass out of some pads missing a few other hits. Guy put together a pretty good pattern in the middle lake hitting pad and reed edges with the wind blowing in on them and picked up a few culls. We quit about 15 minutes early.
Results: My 6 fish went for 8/12 and put me in 20th place. Guy managed to win the thing by over 3lbs with 18lbs 2ozs
My thoughts: My head just wasn't in this one, especially after I caught my limit. I did enjoy watching Guy put on a show. This tournament sealed my fate of not going anywhere in the club point standings this year. Oh well.
