FOM Club E&W Sylvia Bass Tounament July 9th

I couldn't resist the call of the lake that taught me to fish, so I signed up to fish the Fishers of Men Fishing Club (Twin Cities) Bass Tournament on East & West Sylvia in Wright County. My partner for the day would be Michael "Cyberfish" Thompson. I found out at the landing on tournament morning that Cyb hadn't paid his Club dues, so would be ineligible in the Club Tournament. Cyberfish didn't really care and was there to fish for fun anyway.

Tournament Rules: 3 biggest bass measured by half inches, with most total length winning. The Fishers of Men Club does "paper tournaments" so all fish are immediately released. I think there were 6 boats, but there may have been 5.

Conditions: Light Rain for the first 20 minutes or so with a pretty good breeze all day starting from the S SE switching to the S SW. It obviously was overcast early turning mostly cloudy around 10:30PM. It was a warm morning in the 70's and it got up to about 80 and it was pretty humid. The water on these lakes is very clear and the water was about as high as I've ever seen.

With the forecast calling for that South wind to be blowing by the time the tournament was underway I decided to start on a shallow rock reef on the back side of the island in West Sylvia. We ended up fishing West Sylvia all day. Mike caught a small bass right away, maybe on his first cast, on a slug. I think he got another small one and then I got a small one on a Herb's Dilly buzzbait. Mike caught 1 or 2 more smaller fish before we made a 2nd pass. The second pass was pretty much fruitless so we started drifting across the weed flat. Mike picked up a 15 on the slug. I was throwing a white Death Shimmer 2 spinnerbait and getting a few hits but nothing was hooking up. I know at least one of those bites was from a small pike as it came all the way to the boat. We drifted to a bullrush point and fished down the West side of that. I got a small pike on the Death Shimmer. Eventually we got into some pads and I got a 12.75" Larry on a bubblegum Berkley Havoc Lane's Grass Pig. We ended up fishing West along the shoreline where there were docks and some wood in the water. It looked awesome but all I got was a Sylvia Special (12") next to a dock. We rounded "Dink Point" and I got a 15.5" on the Grass Pig where there was trees overhanging and into the water. As you work the shoreline to the North a small point comes out before the lake opens to the main/biggest bay on West Sylvia. With the South wind this point was getting hit pretty good with the wind. I cast a black/blue Crawtube along the dropoff on the South side of the point (it drops pretty quick and I think there is a little zone of weeds there). I got hit and brought up a 15". I immediately checked the boat back into the wind to keep from blowing over the point as I thought there was a real possibility the fish might be stacked up here. Mike asked me what I was using and I showed him I was fishing a weighted Texas Rig, so he switched up to a green pumpkin jig. I think I just got done telling Mike all I needed was 1 really good fish and I would win the tournament, when Mike swung on that fish. Here it is:

It wasn't the fattest fish in the world, but it was 19" long which is an extremely good fish for Sylvia. I think I pulled a 12.75" on the Crawtube and Mike had a fish rip off the jig skirt and trailer on the hookset. That was all we would get so we headed North to the shoreline where my family's lake place used to be. Basically we worked an inside turn and then off the end of the point which was windblown. I caught a sunfish on the Death Shimmer 2 spinnerbait and had another bump or two. Eventually we worked ourselves in around the point where it was calm and there is a bunch of pads. This is an area I call the "Back Bay" as there is a man made boat channel that was on the back side of our old lake place. It was interesting to see that there is no longer an open boat lane and the Back Bay is overgrown with pads as nobody keeps a boat back there anymore. While fishing the mouth of the Back Bay I got a small bass on the Horny Toad and had another really good swirl close to the boat, but it didn't get the Toad. We worked a little ways into the Back Bay before it got too weed choked, but nothing was in there.

Next we headed to the NE corner of West Sylvia. It was interesting to see that a reedbed there had shrunk in size but cattails had grown close to shore. We fished the wind blown reeds/cattails and I missed a good hit on the Grass Pig, but it got into the reeds immediately. We got to "My Island" which used to feature an open spot behind reeds and rice. The rice is almost all gone and it's just reeds and cattails. I got a bite there from what was most likely a sunfish on a bed (I saw the sunny on the bed as we passed by). I pulled a Sylvia Special on a craw tube off the end of My Island point. We then fished into Turtle Bay. I told Mike that sometimes as you get here is "peanuts"/Sylvia Specials but sometimes there can be good fish too. We did get several peanuts, me on the Horny Toad, but I also did get a 15.5" on the Toad. It used to be that by late June Turtle Bay would be to weed choked so you couldn't fish into it very far, but now there are two docks with boats at the far back of the bay and there is a pretty good boat channel there. Combine that with the high water and I figured fish could be anywhere in the bay. The slop looked beautiful, but all we got were peanuts close to the boat channels, couldn't get anything deeper into the pads. As we worked our way back out it was dead and I got a bit frustrated as this water tends to be pretty good as you come back out of the Bay on the North side. We were almost out of the slop when I got a Sylvia Special out of the Cattails up by shore on the Grass Pig. We went out and worked a cabbage bed that was as in the wind as you can get and we didn't get a bite. We worked down "McGregor's" shore to the 2 docks. I missed a small bass in between 2 docks.

Next we moved to the "Sunkin Island" but we didn't get anything there, so we headed to "Lighthouse Point" with would be another wind blown point with a good drop off and weeds. I'm not sure I even had the trolling motor in the water yet and Mike was hooked up with a big fish and we knew it was a big bass because it jumped. He got it in and it was this nice 19.5" fish.

Needless to say we worked the point pretty good after that and we caught some fish but they were all Sylvia specials.

Next we moved into Flannery's Bay to the hump that I never knew existed until I got my Lakemaster Map. I pulled this 14.25" from there on a Crawtube, but that is all we would get.


Next we worked an inside turn and weedline in Flannery's and I picked up a few more fish on the Crawtube. I also missed several bites. There was about an hour left so we headed back to fish slop/pads in the Public Access Bay. By this time it was partly cloudy so there was quite a bit of sun. Right away I scored a 15.25" on the black Horny Toad. I caught several more Sylvia Specials including this one.

Results:
The tournament ended at 2PM. Mike's 53.5" destroyed everybody, but as that he was ineligible my 46" won the tournament. It was typical Sylvia in that everybody reported catching quite a few fish, but everything was small.

Analysis: What can I say but I love Sylvia/Twin and I know spots that have the potential to kick out better than your cookie cutter Sylvia Specials. I am a little surprised that I never made it to the channel between the lakes, but with the way the slop was going in Turtle Bay, I made the call to hit Lighthouse Point first and after that I didn't want to make the run across the big water in that wind. If you want to catch bigger than average fish in Sylvia, you might want to consider using a green/pumpkin bass jig.

Fishers of Men Fishing Club Twin Cities Bass Tournament at E&W Sylvia Preview

Tomorrow I am going to fish a bass tournament with the Fishers of Men Club out of the Twin Cities. It has been several years since I fished a tournament with them other than at the annual club Fall Outing. The pull of Sylvia was just to much to resist. My family had a cabin on Sylvia/Twin when I was growing up and they are the lakes upon which I learned to fish. I haven't been on the lakes since 2005 when I fished a Team Bass Guy/Gal Tournament; That tournament is kind of infamous because I went fishing before the tournament day started, which was against the club rules. Being the Guy/Gal tournament which I thought was for fun, I didn't think it mattered. Several of the Team Bass teams saw me fishing and didn't say a thing. Later, however, another guy in Team Bass read my blog about the tournament where I admitted I fished before the tournament day and got his panties in a bunch, even though the tournament and that season had long since passed as I didn't blog about that tournament until the following Spring. This dude just couldn't let it go and has told several lies about me and tried unsuccessfully to get the Baxter Bass Snatchers, not to accept me as a member when I first joined that club.

Anyway back to the tournament.

It will be interesting to see if much has changed on the lakes. One thing that is different now is that Lakemaster has a totally accurate lake map, so all the previously unmapped deep structure isn't a secret anymore. The forecast is calling for a pretty stiff South wind from start to finish and for the possibility of rain and thunderstorms, maybe strong storms. A straight South wind isn't what you really want and I am pretty much ruling out some places I would normally consider in East Sylvia. I will definitely start out looking for an active bite. I'm assuming the slop is still where it always has been and I plan to hit my fair share of shallow thick stuff, but if it's clouds and wind and rain reaction baits on the weed flats and in other select areas might be the deal.

I'm fishing with Michael "Cyberfish" Thompson who's new hobby is storm chasing. He is going to bring his storm chasing computer with him, so we might be able to get a heads up if a storm comes barreling towards us. If storms move in, he may very well ditch me and go storm chasing.

Hopefully it will be fun. The two tournaments I've fished on Sylvia both featured storms with lightening and heavy rain. The problem with that is you want to fish as long as you can before the storm hits, because the bite can really be phenomenal pre-storm.

Fishers of Men Club Twin Cities Fall Outing 2010

(FallEE WallEE the Fall Outing Tournament Trophy)

On Friday it was cold very windy and wet in the morning. Nobody wanted to go out in it. Around 1PM it dried up, still overcast, and I was willing to go out but nobody with a boat wanted too.

On Saturday I fished with Gary Pflipsen on Mule Lake. Conditions were clear, then cloudy, then clear again with little to no wind and it got warm enough that I fished for about 3 hours in a T-shirt.

When Gary and I arrived we motored a fair ways North of the access and started fishing the West shoreline. I got the first fish which was this largemouth.
It bit on a green pumpkin Strike King Pro Model tube on a leadhead jig. Gary got then next bass which was a 15+ largie caught off a dock. I got another decent bass on the tube. I was missing a few bites.

In the calm and overcast I started throwing topwater and I caught an 18" pike on a Lucky Craft Gunfish. Gary caught a nice mid 20" pike off a dock with a Senko. Finally we got down to the Narrows and on the North point I got largies number 3 & 4 on a PB&J Yum Wooly Bug. 4 Bass was the limit for bass in the FallEE WallEE Tournament. I believe bass #4 was 15" and my biggest of the day. To the East of the narrows we started seeing a lot of baitfish activity on the surface so I started throwing topwater. I got an 8" largie on a clear bluegill Deps Buzzjet Jr. I put on a motor oil Yum Wooly Bug and caught my second pike which was a meager 14 inches long. 2 was the tournament limit on pike and it was this fish that won me the top spot for 2010 on FallEE WallEE. I caught one more 11" largie on the bluegill Deps Buzzjet Jr. and a 12" largie off a dock on the Strike King tube.

When the sun came out in the afternoon the fishing got tough and I didn't catch any more fish.

As it turns out fishing was kind of tough on everybody. Several of the guys had their 4 bass, but didn't get there limit of pike. Because of this and Gary Pflipsen and Mike Thompson not participating in the tournament I won the top spot on FallEE WallEE. Gordy got second and Jim Druk got 3rd. Gordy was fishing out of his new boat on Boy Lake and Jim got his fish on Three Island Lake fishing with minnows.

Fishers of Men Club Beebe Lake 6/2/07

I left for the tournament before 5AM which gave me plenty of time to make it to "Land of Promise" and Beebe Lake by 8am. With the extra time I decided to hit the Crow River outside of St. Michael to see if I could get a little topwater smallie action. I must have hit the rip rap around 6:45 and started working my way down. I thought I got a hit from something small and kept right on going. A little while later I did get a hit from an 8" smallie that managed to get the whole back treble in it's mouth. Without pliars it was tough to get out, but I did, hopefully with no damage done to the fish. A little ways farther down I got a harder hit and the fight was on. The fish got caught up in some debree, but it did not come off. As it turns out the fish was hooked on the front of the dorsal fin. Once again this was a pain to get out without pliars, but I managed to do it and release the fish. Not a bad start to the day, two smallies on the Clown Frenzy Popper.

My 5th fish of the day. Was 15" or 16"
My limit fish and last bass of the day. I think it went 16.5" and tied for my big fish.

Partner Wayne Jacobson staves off the skunk with a 15.5"=2.3lb Keeper.

Thompson scores a Beebe Lake Toad. 20"=5lbs

Mike with a chuncky 18.5=3.9lbs.

The Story: The scheduled start of the tournament was 9am but we got started a little late. The weather went from fairly sunny to increasing clouds. The wind was probably 5-10mph out of the south. I think we had 7 boats with 13 participants. The lake was bursting at the seems with Curly Leaf Pond Weed. I only found millfoil in "telephone pole bay."

The day started quite slow for Wayne and I. First we hit the whole Eastern and Southern Shore of the big island hitting both the inside and outside weed edge. Not a sign of a fish. So then we tried around the reed Islands, I did get something, probably a small pike, to slash at my Zoom Horny Toad. From the reed Islands we progressed to the SW side of the lake just below the Southern notch/bay. While working that weedline we ran into Mike Cummins who told us there were lots of bass that were not biting on the inside weedline in the NE bay by "Land of Promise." After working down the SW weedline quite a ways we elected to pull up and hit the NE bay.

Finally there were signs of life. The inside weedline was full of sunfish and the occasional bass. I switched to a Senko knock off and tried to hit the holes in the weeds and around the docks. I was seeing an occasional bass but wasn't getting anything. I started throwing the white Zoom Horny Toad and got a blow up and caught a 15" largemouth from a hole in the weeds. We kept working our way around the inside weedline and I got another fish on the white Horny Toad. I had a couple of fish either boil on the toad or follow it to the boat. When we got to the Land of Promise East dock, Wayne decided to take a trip to Mcdonald's to get us some lunch. I threw some casts with the Horny Toad off the dock but didn't get anything. I then switched to a purple Frenzy Popper and was rewarded when a 16.5" bass annihilated it. This bass was barely hooked but I managed to fight it through the weeds and land it. After a while Wayne came back with some snack wraps for me to snack on.

We elected to go back and re-trace our steps in the NE bay. I set Wayne up with a Horny Toad. In the general area where I got my 1st fish I had a good take, but I missed it. This tried to hit through the matted weeds and I didn't give it long enough to take the bait down. We kept working our way W and I started mixing in the Frenzy Popper as the weedline would allow. After throwing it for quite a bit and almost giving up on it, I got a hit and landed my 4th bass of the day. We ended up giving the NE bay one more run through but didn't garner any fish.

We then headed to the North Point of the Island and worked our way down the Western side this time. The west side was full of activity and I saw a really nice bass and a few small one's but we just couldn't get anything to go. With about an hour to go we hit the "telephone pole bay." As we worked our way toward the telephone pole in the water I got a hit and missed it. Shortly after that Wayne had a solid strike on the Horny Toad but missed it. A little bit later I got a good blow up on the Horny Toad and landed my 5th fish (pictured). Just a little ways farther down as we were exiting the telephone pole area, I got another blow up and landed my second 16.5" fish (pictured). That fish was my limit fish. We worked our way out of the telephone pole bay onto the sunkin penninsula where I had a good blow up but missed it. Shortly after that Wayne got a 15.5" bass off of the outside weedline of the sunken penninsula. That was to be our last fish of the day and it wasn't long till we had to be in anyways.

When we got to the Western dock at land of Promise everyone was waiting. It had been a rough day on most boats with most of the anglers bringing in Skunks as far as I can tell. Before the weights were calculated I found out Cyberfish jacked a 20incher (pictured) and I knew it was over. Mike ended up winning with 6fish for 19.6lbs. I took 2nd with 14.2lbs. Mike Cummins had 6 fish for 10.4 lbs and 3rd. Wayne's lone fish was good enough for 4th place.

As it turns out Mike got 2 fish in the last half hour including the 20inch Toad. I thought that Mike would have caught the snot out of them, but he only got 6 keepers, but they were all nice fish.

Mike and I headed to Angeno's in Maple Grove after the Tournament for some Pizza. Yum Yum. It stormed something fierce while we were at Angeno's.

A big thanks to my partner Wayne Jacobson for turning us on to Land of Promise and for sharing his day in the boat with me.

BP's 2006 Tournament Outlook Part 1

Today was the day Team Bass started it's tournament season at the Apple River Flowage. I elected not to fish the tournament due to gas costs along with WI upping their Non-Resident license cost to $50. Also subsequent to my decision, was the little matter of being DQed for this tournament for my fun fishing at the guy/gal tournament last year. Anyway here is how the season shakes out.

Schedule-
May 20 Team Bass Apple River Flowage
June 3rd Team Bass Lake Osakis
June 10th Team Bass Lobster Lake
June 12-15 GEM Pepsi Challenge Tournaments Longville Area Lakes
June 17th Fishers of Men Club Twin Cities Buffalo
June 19-22 GEM Pepsi Challenge Tournaments Pine City Area Lakes
June 24th Team Bass Jr. Angler Upper Mississippi
June 26-29 GEM Pepsi Challenge Tournaments Pine City Area Lakes
July 3-6 GEM Pepsi Challenge Tournaments Longville Area Lakes
July 8 Team Bass Horseshoe Chain 1
July 10-13 GEM Pepsi Challenge Tournaments Longville Area Lakes
July 22 Team Bass Guy/Gal Upper Mississippi
July 29 Team Bass North and South Center
August 5th Team Bass East & West Rush
August 12 Hillman Lions Platte Sullivan Pike Tournament
August 19th Team Bass Horseshoe Chain 2
August 26th Team Bass Sauk Lake
Sept. 16th Team Bass Big Marine
Sept 23&24 Team Bass Tournament of Champions
Sept. 29&30?? Fishers of Men Club Fall Outing Tournaments and Fally Walleye.
Oct. 7th Team Bass Super Stars (for Top 10 in pts regular season)

Man that's a lot of tournaments.

GEM Tournaments Outlook: Last year Mitch Norman's boat was on fire. He won the lions Share of the Pepsi Challenge Tournaments for his own glory and the kids. This is gonna be my summer I can feel it.

Fishers of Men Tournaments Outlook: If I catch any fish I will be happy. I will look to dominate at the Fall outing.

Lions Pike Tournament Outlook: Looking to improve on last years finish in the money.

Team Bass Tournament Outlook:
I am looking to step up my game from 2005 where my results were usually less than satisfactory. In 2004 I accumulated 272 Pts in my Best 6 Tournaments for an Average 6th place finish per tournament which placed me tied for 11th out of 59 overall; in 2005 I dropped to 265 Pts (Avg 7th Place Finish) for a 14th Place Finish out of 48 overall. Two of the Teams that placed in front of me in 2005 will not be fishing Team Bass this summer and over all there will probably be a couple less teams with maybe a new team or two in the mix. The Team Bass roster for 2006 only has 40 names on it, which means there will probably be about 15-16 boats per tournament instead of around 20. The opportunity is definitely there.
Apparently, the Roster was not finalized so my intel was bad. One of the teams that finished in front of me is out and one is half in and another quality team that I thought was out is in. The roster has 43 people on it which mean 17-19 boats per tournament.

The big question: What do I need to do to improve in 2006?
I want to shoot for 278 Pts in my best 6 tournaments which would averaging slightly better than a 5th-place average place per tournament. To get there I think I need to do these 4 things.

1. Catch Limits- Got to start with the basics and catching a limit is the most basic component of being successful. Last year I failed to get limits at Bone, North South Center, Platte/Sullivan and both days of the TOC. One key to keeping a low average place per tournament is limiting the depth of the basement you must dig yourself out of. In Team Bass we get 3 throw away's; with the DNF at Apple River I am now down to 2. Catching Limits will hopefully allow me to stay away from the basement.

2. Catch Kickers- Last year I only had 1 fish at 4lbs and few fish in the 3lb class. Kickers are the way to lift the Fish Weight Average (FWA) and the FWA is the way to placing high. Not to mention the fact that there is cash for 1st and 2nd place Big Bass. I need to catch some big bass and have that mind set each and every time out.

3. Pre-fish smart- Prefishing in 2005 did me very little favors and hurt me in some cases. I need to turn that around. I probably will not get to pre-fish every tournament but when I do I've got to make it count.

4. Keep my focus- This has many dimensions. Tournament Fishing is very much a mental game and keeping yourself mentally focused is huge. Proper rest, Big Fish mindset, concentration on the task, decisive decision making, Pre-fish scouting with a purpose, endurance for the long haul, dealing with weather conditions, dealing with adversity and more are a part of keeping focus. If I want to do well I will need better focus than I had in 2005.

Part 2 will be a Pre-view of the Team Bass Lakes