Team Bass Koronis Lake

Pre-Fish:The Plan was to Pre-fish Rice on Thursday and Koronis/Mud on Friday. I just could not get things together Thursday and at 1PM I decided it was too late to go and have a productive day and so I went to Rock lake by me instead which I thought resembled some area's of Rice and the river. I got my Snagproof and HT game on with numerous bass, the biggest being a 19"+. I was hoping for a big doggy , but got none.

Friday: I got out when I wanted but detoured in St. Cloud at the Verizon store and Sportsman Warehouse (Nice Store and Snagproof Pro Tournament Frogs for $5.99). I was on the Lake around 11:30 and proceeded to eliminate lots of water and find some potential spots. I caught a couple of nice 5lb Pike, several 2-3lb and smaller bass and had a couple of hints of possibly some bigger fish. It rained but not really hard enough for me to put the rain gear on. For the most part I was trying not to hook fish. Lots of Milfoil and CurlyLeafPond Crap in Rice. Towards the end of the day I took a river tour down to Mud within sight of the Koronis Bridge. I managed to get a few biters in the river and then ran up the river in the dark. Headed into Paynesville to get my gear set up and slept at a Way side Rest.

Tournament Day:
Dropped the boat at Camp Koronis and headed to the Koronis Access to meet my partner for this one Nick Graupe. He spent Fri. pre-fishing but wasn't sure he found anything. His best area didn't have the smallies yet and he found only a few fish on beds. We cruised out to flat and started with topwater. I landed about a 12" right away that I didn't even bother to measure and threw back. Dale and Roger had also pulled onto the same flat and Roger nailed a nice smallie on topwater right away. After about 45min with neither us or them getting anything we headed to Island 3 where there were some beds. Nick had a blow up and I followed with a wacky Senko and got a pick up; I set the hook, and got back a hook because it must have only taken one end. A little ways down I got an 11" smallie. Of all the smallies on the lake I had to catch two dinks.

We then headed to the river to the area that I had found that happened to also be what Nick found. Nick missed the first few hits but then put a 14" in the boat. We worked around the whole area and caught a few more. Nick on topwater and me on my secret bait. I had a good one smash it out of a hole in the grass that I'd gotten a smaller one out of the day before. We then ran a long run of unproductive water, it started to rain and headed back into Koronis.

Nick started getting bit by some nice largemouth but they kept flipping us off. He lost a solid 3lber about 1 foot before it was in the net. Nick was getting quite frustrated. He lost one fish when the hook or split ring broke off. I think Nick landed our limit fish and then I got our first culling on a Lucky Craft Sammy. A short time later I had a large Smallie come up under the Sammy but it didn't take it; It was a big dude. We may have gotten one or two more on the stretch before it got slow.

We headed to a stretch of water across the bay which was similar and where I had found some smaller smallies pre-fishing a couple of years back. Nick got a rock bass. It started pouring hard and I decided to put on that bright colored Bullfrog Frenzy Pop and work the flat by casting out towards the lake. Almost immediately I hooked into that Smallie in the Picks. I didn't know it was a good one until it jumped cause it took it fairly light and was swimming at the boat, but there was little doubt after that first jump what kind of fish it was. It went airborne 2 or 3 more times and we landed the bronze beauty that went 4lbs even (Last year I had two 4-2's and lost a bigger one). I was surprised it went 4 cause it was only a little over 18" inches long, can you say "CHUNK." We didn't get another strike in that area.

We then went back to the stretch where Nick missed those fish and I saw the Smallie. We managed to cull out our 3 bass that were 14.25inches. With about 1/2hour left we headed to our starting spot. I had a good blow up on Spook but it didn't hook up and was probably only slapping at it. Time was up and we headed in.

Nick and I both guessed we had 15 something and Nick thought it would be good enough for 6th. As it turns out we were just shy of 17 with 16lbs13oz. We came in 6th Place.

Here's our two Best.


Congratulations to Craig Sanders and Roger Ellwein
for their win and Craig for getting Big Bass.

BP's Note: This was Craig's 1st Team Bass Win and probably Rogers as well. At my very first Team Bass tournament I teamed up with Craig and we had a fun time even though our results were not great. Craig is a really nice guy and loves to fish tournaments and it was great to see him come out on top. At the dock I watched him pulling fish some nice fish out of the well. I asked him if he thought they 20 and he said more like 15-16 and I guarantee he wasn't sandbagging me, he was truly shocked they had what they had. That a Boy Craig!

Stats:
For Koronis
TLA: 1.000
LCP: 1.000
FWA: 2.80Lbs
BBP: .166
TDWA: 16.81Lbs

For Season
TLA: .500
LCP: .500
FWA: 2.83lbs
BBP: .143
TDWA: 9.91Lbs

After Thoughts: Had a good day on the water with Nick and it's hard to be disappointed with a nearly 17lb bag when not everything was going our way. It's interesting to see how different fishing styles work out as that I would have fished the day probably much differently than we did as a team.

Mistakes: Most of what we did worked or could have worked to a great degree, so it's really hard to find anything glaring like at Bone. Probably one of my bigger ones was not throwing that bright colored bullfrog Frenzy Pop sooner. Maybe that smallie that looked at the Sammy would have crushed the Frenzy. Who knows.

The only thing I can really come up with was that after we got a limit we could have spent more time trying to dig up big smallies, but as it was we culled up several largemouth and probably gained more than a pound on those last 3 keeper Largemouth, would we have tied into a couple of smallies is an unknown and what we did worked.

Parting Thoughts: 6th place points should be good for help in the end of the year standings. I love the rain, baby. Man did catching that Smallie make my day! It was a leaper.

Next Tournament:See below Range Bassmasters

Next Team Bass June 25th @ Lobster.

Range Bassmasters @ Platte/Sullivan

Today the Range Bassmasters MN BASS Federation club had a tournament at Platte/Sullivan and of coarse I had to make it to the weigh in to see how they faired. Originally I was gonna "mock" fish against them but I was too tired from Koronis and slept in.

The Range Bassmasters is a Brainerd Area Club and has Steve Quinn of In-Fisherman as member. Other notables in the club are Bill Bongs, Brian Brown and I recognized a couple of other guys, but don't know their names. It was nice to see a few teens in the club and even a woman or two. It looked like there were about 10-12 boats.

The tournament was won by Emmet Smith who had a 5fish 16lb+ bag and many of the bags were 12lb+.

This was Big Bass:

caught by Tyler Malloy. I believe the bass was 4lb13oz???

Brandon Jedlenski with another 4lber.


Here's a couple of more Platte/Sullivan Specials:
Perry Alfords with a fish that had to be a 4lber.

A typical P/S 3lber. Lots of those were weighed in.

BP's Notes: Surprizingly, not a single 5lber came in and I've yet to catch one since openner. Where are the Super Toads? I did get a couple before the bass openner and some guys reported losing large fish in the thick stuff. Maybe it's post-spawn and the fish just didn't have the feedbag on yet. All in all lots of 17-18inch Platte/Sullivan specials. The post weigh-in environment reflected a tournament where people caught fish and had a lot of fun on the water. The top sack of 16lbs is very impressive when you consider it is 2 people fishing out of the same boat for 5 fish limit separate weights.

I didn't hear much talk about "the rice," which is a bit of a surprize because their are some good beds forming this year. But then again I haven't found em there either.

This is an example of a Fishers of Men Club Bass tournament score sheet. Hopefully Dave V will be able to copy or capture what he needs. (click to enlarge)

Revision in Team Bass Goals

Here's the New and Improved Goals for 2005 (Thanks to a miserable showing in WI@Bone)

The New and improved version...
Team Bass Trail:
1. Win 2 Tournaments (1@Horseshoe)
2. Win Big Bass 2 Times
3. Place in the Money 7 times
4. Never Finish below 10th place in Minnesocold
5. Limit every tournament in Minnesocold
6. Average over 2.25lbs per fish

Team Bass Bone Lake

Pre-Fish:


5/10: Was tired after the Teen Challenge Weekend at Wapo and so I didn't get out to Bone until the late afternoon. I think I got out after 5PM. I started by doing some Sonar and GPS work then went to the entrance to the Boat Channel. Fish were in there pretty thick and I popped a bunch on topwater and a wacky rigged Senko including a hefty 19" inch fish. Water temps were upper 50's main lake to mid 60's in the channel. Saw a bunch of Eagles, they are all over the place.



5/11: I decided that a week and a half out was plenty of time for the lake to change and I wanted to catch something so I started the morning by fishing the channel entrance and then go inside. It was sunny and warm and I Popped a bunch of fish on the wacky senko's and on a white jig n pig. Got another hefty 19" on the Jig pitched to the base of an isolated pad. Lost the jig to a big muskie that wrapped me in a boat lift; I played the fish all wrong and really should have landed it. The muskie jumped and swam by or under the boat many times in the 10 minutes I fought it. On my pass out I did get a couple of more nice bass. I then went out and did some GPS work and then fished the area by the little island and landed several more keeper bass there on the wacky rig and with a swim jig. Overall a very good day on the water, my 5 Best were easily 13+ and might have gone 15+. I explored much of the East Side. Feeling Good about Bone as I went home.

5/15 Headed to Bone after the MN Opener with GEM at the St. Louis River. Got to Bone about 1:30 on Sunday which was Sunny and Cool after a windy and wet Saturday. Took my time launching and talked with WI Federation guy who was pre-fishing for 8Bone 8Deer 2day split tourney the same weekend as us. They would be launching at 6:30 and so would have first crack at the Channel if any of them wanted it. Just what I didn't need. Got on the water and did GPS work and fished a bit on the North End. Started to rain as I was getting off the water. Found something interesting.

5/16 The start of the Weathermen being dead wrong. Waited all morning for it to get warmer than low 50's. I headed out about 1PM when it finally got over 60 and it looked like it was gonna warm up. Worked down the lake on the West Side and got into a 35or36 Muskie on PinkHJ along with several small bass. Worked the West side as it got cloudier, cooler, and more windy. Popped another muskie this time on craw Frenzy Jerk, this one was bigger, maybe 38". Both muskies unhooked at boat side. Water temps now in mid to low 50's.

5/17 Once again cloudy, windy, cool. The weatherman had predicted 70's and sun every day and was wrong every day. I did some GPS work on the upper West Side. The water was getting colder not warmer. Also did some work on the East Side. Was only catching small fish. I was not satisfied and the weather predictions were still for warming so I decided I would be back Fri.

5/20 Got out a bit late and arrived about 3 or so. Shot the bull will Jack Kiffe and Brad Seiwert and then went out to do some Aqua Viewing. Didn't see a single bass out deep but did find lots of pannies in certain area's. As the sun went down the water had warmed in shallow and there was activity and I found something in super shallow. Would the night temps hold them in? Main Lake Upper 50's North end shallows low to mid 60's.

Tournament Day:
Watched 2 boats from WI FED club go right to NBC. Team Bass had 19 Teams and I drew out 17th. It did get into the low 50's but stayed calm and warmer for much of the evening. Was threatening to rain and storm as we launched. I headed right to a shallow area I thought would be good. Much of the North Bay was covered. I immediately landed a 12" on topwater. With boats close I played some defensive fishing and didn't go super shallow right away (this was a mistake as I think I had a good hour were I could have gotten into some better fish super shallow). Caught 3 more on topwater with one just under 14". Just after 7:45 the wind started up a bit out of the SE and the fish moved out. I went super shallow when I had some breathing room 8:30 but by then they were gone.

The wind eventually started really blowing and I headed toward the channel in rollers. Caught a few shorts on a spinnerbait over the flat as I headed to NBC. Nick and Doug were in there working it hard. I fished the entrance with the HT and a ways into the channel. Did miss something by a dock, but got no other bites. As I headed out I decided to work the entrance with the BSF and caught several more shorts.

I then headed out to crank the L in the wind. Out on the Tip did get 2 close shorts on consecutive casts while ripping the weeds with a Bluegill DT 10. I thought I might be onto something but that was it. Worked the inside windblown along the windblown out side and backside without anything. Was 1 PM and nothing in the Well so I headed to the Glass House. Worked the glass house West with a crank and Jerk and got into some shorts. The wind was blowing pretty good and it was getting warmer and got a few shorts on a spinnerbait. Went back and decided to work the Glass house break with a tube and promptly landed a nice fish but it was really blowing and my anchor wasn't holding, got several more shorts. Watched Wick land a couple on Docks, for goodness sakes. Got a few more hits from shorts and a Rocky Rocco, but no more keepers. Time was running short and so I did a quick hit in the Deer Playground, I then remembered I was 10 slow and had to head in. 1 stinking keeper.

Bone Stat Line:
TLA: .000
LCP: .200
FWA: 3Lbs
BBP: .000

After Thoughts: It's tough when you are catching short fish on everything you try and have a history on the lake of popping shorts along with good fish in the same area's and techniques together. I kept believing the next bite would measure but they kept being short.

I can't believe the winning team did it on on docks.

Mistakes (What I wish I would have done differently):
1. Not going supper shallow and fishing with the HT right off the bat. I think the fish were there, but I was trying not to tip others off. Plus I was expecting a front/storm from the west not wind out of the SE. I thought the water was gonna be protected and there would be a spree when the front arrived. Instead of playing the weather the weather played me all the way on this one. The weather forecasts being wrong played havoc with my game plan.

2. I recognized the fish moved out and was just to slow in getting to the NBC. I could have beaten Doug's boat in there and could have shared the area with Nick and probably landed at least a couple of good keepers.

3. Should have thrown a jig on the L Tip after the bite stopped.

4. Spent too much time shallow and probably on the L, which meant I left some water on the table. I should have gotten to my spot on LBSKI point even though it would have been roller city there and throwing a spinnerbait off the buoy flat may have been good too.

5. Jack and I should have teamed up. Together we very well might have won it as that he was on better fish and I was using techniques that were getting bites and I almost certainly would have pulled a couple from the back deck.

Parting Thought:
Which is better: A 16th Place(worthless35Pt)3LB FWA and .200LCP
or a 9th Place(42Pt) Skunk?

I'd take the Points and the skunk.

Next Tournament: Koronis/Rice June 4th with Nick Graupe

BP's Tournament Goals 2005

Dogfish:
1. Repeat as MN Bowfin Grand Champion

Pike:
1. Win or place in the money in Hillman Lions Platte Lake Pike Tournament (August)

Team Bass Trail:
1. Win 2 Tournaments (1@Horseshoe)
2. Win Big Bass 2 Times
3. Place in the Money 7 times
4. Never Finish below 10th place
5. Limit every tournament
6. Average over 2.25lbs per fish

Thoughts on Bass Fishing Statistics

Most sports measure achievement in one way or another with a diverse variety of statistics. Bass fishing can be measured in the same way. Here are my proposed statistical categories that I think all Bass Fishing Organizations should keep and that I will keep for myself on at the BP Tourny HQ.

TLA or "Tournament Limiting Average" : Number of days with limit weighed divided by total tournament days fished.

Angler A gets 8 Limits in 10 Tournaments for a TLA of .800%

LCP or "Limit Catch Pace" or "Limit Catch Percentage" : Total Number of fish caught in the tournament season divided by the accumlation of limit X tournment days.

Angler L weighs 40 out of a possible 50 fish for a LCP of .800%.

A TLA of 1000 would equal a LCP of 1000 but one could conceive of having a poor TLA and a pretty high LCP. Say a angler gets a limit in 4 of 10 tournies for a TLA .400% yet out of the 50 fish limit total possible they weigh 43 fish for a LCP of .860%

FWA or "Fish Weighed Average" : Total Weight of fish weighed divided by number of fish weighed. I think this one is very important.

Angler F weighs 115lbs by way of 50 fish for a FWA of 2.3lbs
Angler W weighs 115lbs by way of 40 fish for a FWA of 2.87lbs.

BBP or Big Bass Percentage: Total of fish over 4lb weighed divided by total fish weighed.

Angler BP weighs 6 Toads out of 50 for a BBP of .120%

Update: Bass Parade Blog has done a post on Bass Fishing Statistics.

Bulldog Lake Ice Fishing Contest 2/12/05

What a beautiful day. Temps were in the mid 40's and I had a to wear shades it was so sunny.

I started the day by heading over to Bulldog lake for the annual Holy Family Church Fishing Contest and Raffle. As it turns out Don Weinmeister and I drove separately for this one, but as I was pulling down the drive way Don passed right in front of me. The contest would run from 12:30-2:00.

We headed out to the lake together, and discovered that NO ELECTRONICS OR SONAR was a rule. Needless to say I was not a happy camper. To me Ice Fishing without electronics is like having dinner without having something to drink. Sure you CAN do it, but why! I find it hard to accept that the electronics give me an unfair advantage when I've used it in two previous Ice Fishing contests this year and won nothing; last week I got skunked. Electronics won't catch you the winning fish, but they will help you catch fish or more fish than you would have otherwise. Basically, the rule excluded one of the main reason's why I enjoy ice fishing. LAME.

Anyway I headed out to what I thought would be the deepest water and when they honked the horn I started fishing. I figured I was in about 23 feet of water which was less than I wanted to be in. In Bulldog the main hole goes down 36 feet or so. I started with Maggots on a Fat Boy but got nothing. Some fish were getting caught just to the South of me. I also watched a girl fishing right by the weigh in car catching sunfish after sunfish. It appeared that lots of small sunnies and perch were being brought up. Also some people to just to the South of me brought up a couple of almost half pound Crappies. I switched to a spoon and jigging a minnow figuring a Pike would be the winning ticket. In the last half hour I switched to a minnow hoping to get a Crappie as that no pike had been brought in and there was a 3 way tie with Crappies.

With about 15 minutes left I took this pic figuring I wouldn't catch anything.

With about 10 minutes left, I missed what appeared to be a Perch bite. With about 4 minutes left I got another bite and it looked very Crappie like so I took my time before setting the hook. It turned out to be a small Bluegill, but hey I wasn't skunked. I took a picture but apparently it didn't transfer into the memory card. I didn't win a door prize at the raffle ohh well.

Erskine Tourny (Pine Center Sportsman Club)

On 2/5/05 the Pine Center Sportsman hosted an Ice fishing Contest on Erskine Lake that I fished with Don Weinmeister (Picture) . The Prizes were $300 for the biggest fish, $100 for the 10th biggest fish, and $100 for the first fish. I didn't qualify for any of those cause I got skunked. The Contest had probably 200 to 300 people and only 5 fish were caught total. I don't know what they did about that 10th biggest fish. However, I did win two candy bars as door prizes, Woohoo! A Milky Way and a Twix.

Erskine is a little dishpan lake about 5 miles North of Platte. I've never fished the lake except for a few casts in the spring off the public access. The fishing area was about 150 yards out from the access and seemed to be barren sand bottom. Probably not the best choice of spots on the lake to have a contest. Don says it's a pretty good bass lake, I might have to check it out next summer.

Aitken Jaycess Ice Tourny

Try your Luck on the Dead Sea?

Not too Crowded.


Well it was a beautiful morning when I and Don Weinmeister set about after fame and fortune on the Mille Lacs Lake glacier. Ok it was a little hazy, but the temps were good and there was very little wind. The Contest was sponsored by the Aitkin Jaycees (duh!) and was held out of Barnacle's Resort on the NE corner of the "Big Pond."

We arrived a little over an hour and a half early and did some scouting with the Vex. We immdiately found water 26ft deep and marked fish. We basically decided that was good enough and set up shop in the NE corner of the designated fishing area. Sure enough as soon as the contest started I had fish looking at my offerings.

Unfortunatly I didn't catch anything until about 45 minutes in when I seriously downsized to maggies and then all was catching were 2-3" perch. Finally I got a couple of perch I thought might have a shot at the prizes. I weighed the biggest, but by then he wasn't big enough to make the Top 25 for prizes. I gave it a good effort in the last hour but just could not get a bigger fish to go. I pretty much had crowds of little perch around the whole time from start to finish.

Since it was so nice out, Don and I decided to fish while the crowds made there way off the ice. There are a few more Ice Contests I hope to hit this winter. Maybe if I was able to weigh all the Perch I caught, I would have had enough to get a prize. Oh well, it's just a Ice Fishing contest and the money goes to the community.

Here's Don

2004 Wisconsin Tournament Review.

Come on it's Czecheslovakia. We zip in we pick them up we zip right out again. We'renot going to Moscow. It's Czecheslovakia. It's like going into Wisconsin.

Click to hear the quote, do you know what movie it's from?

Anyway here is a review of the two Team Bass Wisconsin Tourneys I fished last year.

Deer Lake-9th Place Tie Weight 0-00
What can I say, the pre-fishing psyched me out. I had two "good days" for pre-fishing; sunny and calm and so I knew that keeper bass would not be easy to come by. I consider myself pretty good on the pre-spawn fish and they just were not there to be had. By tourney day I was not looking foreword to it and really wished we would have been on another lake. Deer is clearly on a down cycle as far a largemouth, but maybe in a couple of years it will be better; I caught a lot of 8-11" bass on the days I pre-fished. I also landed several Ski's pre-fishing which was cool and saw a bunch more. At one point during pre-fishing I went down a row of docks and there was musky at each one for 5 docks in a row.

The tournament day was cloudy and cool with a bit of wind, the weather cleared and warmed up for about the last hour or so. All I got tourney day was one nice crappie, I don't think I even got one short bass during the tourney; the day before I caught a bunch of shorts. All but 8 of the 23 teams skunked and nobody got a limit which is unheard of for Team Bass. After the tournament was over I stayed and fished, actually getting into a bunch of shorts and maybe a keeper or two. I then headed to Bone and had a blast catching bass on topwater at dusk.

Winning weight: 3Fish 12lb3oz BB:4lb10oz

Bone Lake-1st Place and Big Bass Weight:13lb14oz BB:4lb1oz
What can I say, but I like this lake. The tourney day started out terrible, however, as I took a spill while launching the boat and my right side was soaked. I had to put on different shoes without socks for fishing. I pre-fished the lake and felt much better than I did going into Deer. As it turned out, my plan A was a winner thanks to a little luck. Another boat got into the area I wanted first, but they didn't get anything and moved out quick.

I then went in and worked the area as methodically as I could and the fish were there. The rest is history.

Here is a longer recounting of my win on Bone:

I guess being Team 7 was my lucky number as that was the cut off for me to go to my #1 spot over #2. The water in this #1 area was the warmest in the lake I could find and probably among the murkiest. As it turns out drawing #7 wasn't good enough for me to be first to it so I stopped short of the area to give the boat ahead of me a chance to work the area first. In the meantime I caught a couple of short fish off of some docks on a Super Fluke. By the time I was getting to the last dock on the stretch, the other boat was on it's way out of the area I wanted to fish and they hadn't had any luck.

However, they were in and out quickly so I thought maybe they were fishing it to fast and my slow methodical approach would pull a fish or two that I figured had to be in there. The week before the area yielded 3 solid keepers for a club tournament winner.

Note on that- I wanted to fish and would have fished this area regardless of seeing the club guys in there catch fish. The week before, after the Deer lake tournament, I went to Bone to pre-fish and this was pretty much the first area I went into, catching a nice fish missing 4 others and it was loaded with panfish and there were at least 4 muskies there. The next day I also pre-fished Bone and nabbed a 3.5 and missed several fish yet again. I also learned that I better pay more attention to my casting angles and hooksets. The next week when I saw the club guys in there catching fish 1st thing in the morning it just confirmed that the area should be my first spot if I could get it. Those club guys got the fish on Zoom Baby Brush Hogs, a lure that I do not own and was not willing to go out and buy. As it turns out between me and the 2nd place boat this area proved it was a lot better than the 3 fish those club guys pulled the week before or the area just got plain might have gotten better.

Anyway back to catching the fish. In the first stretch of water I thought something hit my Super Fluke, but there was nothing there. A couple of minutes later I got a 10incher which I took as a good sign. A bit farther down by a clump of Lilly pads and pontoon I had a good swirl, hookset and thought I had my first keeper, but it was just shy of 14." I then cast by some other nearby pads and got one just over 14".

Just after that I noticed a fin come out of the water I was sure belonged to a good sized female bass spawning. The first cast two the spot something tipped the fluke but didn't take it. On the next cast I got a 10" male. A couple more casts to the exact spot gave nothing. I then cast down the shore, and when the Fluke got to the pocket just beyond the area where I saw the fin a nice bass came out and just crushed it. I got a good set but didn't stick the fish. I was a bit dejected that I blew that opportunity. However I did learn that the fish may be spawning and I went back and worked the area where I caught that male just under 14 and all around the pontoon and pads where I got the 1st keeper in the hopes that female might have been passed over; No luck.

About minutes had passed after missing that good fish and so I pitched the Fluke back to the same pocket . To my surprise something boiled on it and I stuck her this time, a one eyed mid three lb 17incher full of eggs. "Ole One eye" tends to miss baits which may have been the case with the first miss and also i think they tend to be more aggressive than your average bass because of the one eye.

I then slowed down even more and tried to work as precisely as I could so as not to miss any females I might come across. As I moved down a bit further I caught a couple more shorts on the fluke and then up close to the shore I saw some signs of fish movement. I repeatedly cast the fluke to the spot without any results. I then switched up to a jig n pig. On the very first pitch the line jumped and I set into a solid 15inch bulging female. I kept the jig on and about 3 pitches later the line jumped again and I got another female that was just over 15inches.

By this time another boat had come into the area and I watched them get a couple of keepers in behind where I had been but had worked over thoroughly or so I had thought. I kept working the jig for a while but no more luck so I went back to the fluke. I got to the pontoon where prefishing I had gotten a mid 3lb fish. I made a solid cast way underneath and I felt some pressure. I reared back and made a solid set and the days Big Bass came out from under the pontoon and I had her in the net in no time. I now had my limit with one dink, two solid keepers, and two really nice fish. I was elated and relieved to have a limit after skunking at Deer.

A few minutes later I had a solid take on the fluke where I saw the flash of the fish and set into what I thought was going to be another big bass; that was until the fish came up and I saw the shape of of a missile. Instead of a good bass it was a 3 to 4lb Pike. Yes it was a pike and not a ski.

I was coming to the end of the area when I had another good boil on the fluke and I set the hook hard but had broken my line or so I thought. I was kicking myself for not retying after I got the pike, I gave the line a good look over but figured I missed something and it cost me the fish. Then I reeled in and discovered that my hook was still there; the fish must have only had the back of the fluke and it ripped right off on the hookset. I decided however that it was time to retie anyway.

After retying, I thought that a fluke would not be the best choice to go back after the fish with. On a whim I put on a black Snag Proof tournament frog and casted beyond the spot of the boil and into the bulrushes along shore. I then worked the frog slowly out and over the spot. I gave the frog a twitch and she nailed it. I put the hammer down on the set and had her speeding into the boat, another solid 15inch female and I culled out the one just over 14. I worked what was left of the area and got a couple of shorts and then headed back toward the other boat. After not getting anything for a while I decided to head out to one of my deeper spots. As I passed the other boat we compared notes, and they had four with two solid fish. They were pretty sure there were some more good fish in the area and if they could catch them after the way I worked the area then I would have to give them props.

I headed out to my deep-water spot and fished it with cranks, a jignpig, and drop-shot. I missed a good hit with the jig and got a short. I had panfish hit the drop-shot and set the hook a couple of times but no bass. I got a muskie follow and 14.75" bass on the crank. After battling the wind and mist I decided to head into some calmer water and try and nail a kicker on a good flat with a buzzbait and Storm Swimbait. I got a short on the buzzbait and had a muskie follow the Swimbait. With about an hour left I decided to head back to the area I had gotten the fish. The other guys were still there and said they filled their limit and got a bunch of fish culling several times but hadn't really added that much weight in the process. I caught one about 14.5" and couple of shorts, but no more big females and then it was time to go in.

I figured I had between 11 and 13 pounds and was hoping just to be in the money. I was surprised that my big one was over 4lbs as that I measured her at 18.5". I must have got her at her pre-spawn zenith in weight. After last years big bags I thought I really needed one more 3plus pound fish to even have any shot at all. Amazingly enough my weight held and I won one of these things and I know that ain't easy in Team Bass.

Special Thanks to Jeff and Erin Sutter-Maas my main sponsors and my boat sponsor G.E.M. Camp (Great Expectations Ministries).

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