Thursday, October 08, 2009

My 2009 Bass Snatchers Season Review

In 2009 I fished all 6 Baxter Bass Snatcher tournaments.

In the clubs official standings for the year I accumulated 160 points, which with my worst showing deducted came to my official total of 142 points which put in a tie for 12th place out of the 32 guys who fished this year. Last year I had 152 total with an official total 134 points and I came in 15th place.

This year I weighed 32 fish for a total weight of 52.06lbs or 8.68lbs per tournament and 1.63lbs per fish. My big bass of the year was 3.19lbs.

Last year I weighed 36 fish for a total weight of 65.13lbs or 10.85lbs per tournament and 1.81lbs per fish.

Even though I collected more points this year, it is pretty obvious from the other statistics that 2008 was a much better year for me in terms of the fishing. I feel I should have done better at 3 tournments this year (Cedar, South Long, Leech) where as I felt pretty good about all of the tournaments in 2008.

Even with the frustrations and tough tournaments it was a good year and as of right now I plan to fish with the Bass Snatchers again next year.

Saturday, October 03, 2009

Bass Snatchers Win The 2009 Challenge Cup Mission Lakes

Today was the Challenge Cup which is a longstanding contest between the Baxter Bass Snatcher Bass Club and the Range Bassmasters. The Cup was held on Upper and Lower Mission Lakes North of Brainerd. By virtue of the fact that other more highly seeded Bass Snatchers didn't want to fish I was allowed to be on this years 6 man team. There were 3 Snatcher boaters with 3 Range non-boaters and vise versa. My boater was Range Bassmaster Emmet Smith.

Going into the tournament the scuttlebutt on Emmet was that he was going to take me into the shallow junk all day and that I should use my allotted 4 hours in the front of the boat to hit weedlines. That isn't how it worked out.

The weather: From the low 40's in the morning to the low 50's in the afternoon. It was cloudy with a couple short rounds of light sprinkles. Wind was out of the North around 10mph.

Emmet started us off on a weedline spot on the West end of the upper lake. In the first hour Emmit managed 2 keeper bass around 2 pounds and a 10lb pike. I had a couple of hits on my black spinnerbait but they didn't hook up. One of those bites felt big. After about 45 minutes with no action we ran to the NE end of Upper Mission to a weedline spot I had fished before. I caught a pike and had my spinnerbait get bumped a couple of more times.

Next we headed to Lower Mission to try some docks, that was a bust, so we tried some reeds and that was a bust so we tried some weedlines and that too was a bust. We headed back to Upper Mission to our starting spot.

We spent a couple of hours flogging our starting spot and Emmet got a 12 incher and a pike, while I had a pike bite off and that was it. Totally perplexed we went right to a spot that I wanted to fish, even though I didn't mention the area to Emmit. We were fishing down a weedline towards Range boater and In-Fisherman Bass Guru Steve Quinn. We watched as Snatcher Bill Ludenia caught a small keeper. They were struggling like we were struggling and word was that the bite was very tough for everybody except Snatcher Chuck Steinbauer. We passed the Quinn boat and I got a bite on my tube, but it was a pike. Shortly after the pike Emmet caught 2 keeper bass on a jigworm off of the used water. We worked the weedline up the side of a point with no action so we decided to head back over the water where Emmit got the last 2 fish.

I was throwing my black spinnerbait and I hooked up, but once again it was a pike. Emmet caught a short, then Emmit got the idea that we should move a bit shallower. He was rewarded with his biggest bass of the day on a spinnerbait in the little reedbed up by shore. We kept working shallow into a slop bay. I thought I might have had a fish on for a second on a Strike King Pure Poison chatterjig when the next thing I knew Emmit was hauling in a 2lb bass. I picked up a Herb's Dilly Buzzbait and finally was rewarded with a bass just a little under 3lbs, at this point there was just an hour and a half left to fish; I was mighty relieved to have the skunk out of the boat with a good fish. We worked from the North side of the slop bay around to the South side of the slop bay where Emmit caught another 2lber on a craw tube pitching into the pads. Emmet had to cull, so I took the front of the boat and worked the rest of the South shore of the slop bay then I headed us quickly back to the North side. On the North side Emmet caught another 3lber on the craw tube and I got a pound and 3 quarter bass on the Herb's Dilly. Those would be our last fish although we would both miss bites in the reeds on our way back to the landing.

I don't and probably won't have the official numbers but I can report that 4 out of the 6 snatchers won in their boats. Chuck Steinbauer won with about 18lbs and Lunker that was right about 5lbs. I think Snatcher Dennis Lothspeich got 2nd and Emmet got 3rd. I think our Snatcher Club won total weight by around 4lbs.