July 17th 2014 B.B.S. Leech Lake

In line for blast off

This being written 8 months after the fact, so my details may be a bit sketchy.

I rode up with my boater Jim "Smitty" Smith.  We were supposed to have another guy from the club ride up with us, but he never showed.  We left maybe 20 minutes later then we originally planned.

Conditions:
67 getting up to 77 degrees We had sun and clouds off and on during the day.
Windy in the morning out of the W SW dying down a bit throughout the day.

The Day:
We blasted off around 7:45am or so and Smitty put the hammer down heading South then East.  Tuma passed us pretty early on when the water was still pretty calm.  I thought I really should have brought my Ipod to wear during the run.  Once we got far enough East it got rougher and rougher.  We passed the South end of bear Island and pulled into some reeds that were getting hit pretty well by the wind.  I might have had a bite but it was tough to tell.  We ended up not getting anything there in two passes.  We went to a reed bed that was closer to Bear Island and a little more protected.  I think Smitty got his first one of the day there, a small keeper.  We moved closer to Bear Island fishing reeds and rice that looked fishy to me;  Mostly nothing was home.  I think Jim got a couple off of keepers isolated cover.

We moved to the back side of Partridge Point and I got a 12.5 inch peanut out of reeds next to a dock on a Horny Toad.  That was it on that stretch.

It was about 10am and we made the decision to run North after hitting on last group of reeds where I had a pike hit at my Horny Toad.   Fortunately the ride wasn't nearly as rough as we expected it would be.  Still it must have taken about an hour.  We went to an area I think they call the Campground, we had good luck here in pre-fish.  I caught a 16 incher casting out towards some lilly pads off the back of the boat on the Horny Toad.  I think we both missed a couple of bites.  Smitty wanted to head North to "the juice" where I got my big one in pre-fish, but I said lets give it a little more time.  It worked out for Smitty as he got one.  Then we headed to "the juice", which was almost totally dead.  I did miss one hit.  We crossed paths with somebody Jim knows who was pre-fishing for another tournament.  They were both dumbfounded about how poor the fishing was.

We ended up going farther North and fished a point.  Smitty got a small keeper and I got a rock bass on a craw tube.  Next we went into Leech River Bay/Federal Dam and sucked eggs.  Jim maybe missed one bite.  With about an hour and a half left we bailed to go South.  The ride was a lot smoother and took may 15 to 20 minutes going hammer down most of the time.

We fished Urum Bay the rest of the time. Jim got his limit fish with about 20 minutes left.

Results:  My two fish weighed 3lbs 9ozs and put me in 28th out of 31 anglers fishing.  Jim's 12lb 14oz limit got him 12th place.  The lake was really off today.That weight would have put Jim in 27th Place the last time we fished here in 2012.  The winner was Dennis Lothspeich with 19lbs 5ozs.

My Thoughts:  The fishing royally sucked.  Leech kicked my butt for a third time on tournament day.

Next Tournament: Pelican Lake August 2nd