Lake Minnetonka. This lake can be associated with many things...great fishing, fun recreation, and the ability to kick my butt. My tournament on this lake with my club, Lakes Area Bassmasters, was a day fill with heavy wind, few bites, and ending in disappointment.
Dad and I had prefished Lake Minnetonka on a weekend morning for a few hours and had relative success. Most of the spots we tried we caught a few keepers, nothing really big, but fish regardless. I felt I could catch a limit fairly easily if the conditions stayed similar to practice, so I was hoping for the best come tournament day. In the morning of the tournament, the wind was already clipping at 6 am. What was worse, the wind was blowing forcefully into the area of my first spot, shutting down the fish completely. We decided to move without catching a single keeper and head to the next area I wanted to try.
At the new area, I was focused on fishing around and in the thick milfoil vegetation. I had caught my best fish in this area and I hoped I could hook into a few thick fish. I was trying to focus on an area of about 200 yards. As we were fishing, a boat with a three guys were coming parallel to us. After they moved past us, I turned around and observed one of the guys getting hung up on a dock. They were hung up on the dock for a good 20 minutes, just long enough for me to decide not to turn around and work my area. We were having limited luck until my Dad started throwing a spinner bait. He caught 2 keepers and that motivated me to grab my KVD spinner bait. A quick few casts later, I landed my first 13 inch keeper. We hung around that area for a bit until we realized that our efforts were fruitless.
As the day went on, I caught one more keeper within an hour to go of the long eight hour day. I caught two keepers all day with only getting five or six bites. I just didn't get any bites all day. I would like to blame the wind, but seeing the success of some of my competitors made me realize I just didn't know where the fish were. I ended the day in second to last place with 2 fish for 2 pounds, 4 ounces. Dad placed a position higher with 2 fish for 3 pounds, 9 ounces. Needless to say, it was a rough outing for our boat and I left the boat launch with a bitter taste in my mouth and vengence was sworn.
We will soon have another tournament on this lake. I am looking forward to fishing it again pitting myself against this vast water.
Thanks for reading.
Carl
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Bass Tournament- Full Throttle Event #3
Our third event in the Full Throttle circuit was on the infamous Green Lake in Chisago City, Minnesota. Dave and I were excited to be out on the water again together and we felt added pressure to finish well and continue earning points. We are in the top 10 in points and our goal is to finish in the top 5 or higher by the year's end.
The pre-tournament meeting was held at Frankie's Marina in Chisago and Dave attended for the both of us as I was at a wedding. It must have brought him luck, as the raffle tickets he bought put us in boat number 2 for takeoff, which is a coveted position on a lake that has a few known spots. Unfortunately, tournament day was supposed to be cold and wet and this led to a poor showing of entrants at the meeting. We have fished this event and lake with 50 boats and a large pot, so with our great blastoff position, we were disappointed with the turnout.
Tournament day came and we were jacked up to fish. The boat was full of gas and ethusiasm. At blastoff, we almost lost our takeoff position when I threw down the throttle and the engine bogged. It was embarrassing, but we got her up and towards our first spot. At our first spot, we were in an area that notoriously held large fish. A boat was coming upon us and I positioned the boat so they could pass. They got right where we had just been and dropped their trolling motor. Great, they just stole our spot. Jerks. This being a Christian-focused tournament trail, I decided to hold my tongue. Eventually, we moved and headed to new water.
We started fishing a bank and adjacent water with visible vegetation growth. We were throwing spinnerbaits, swim jigs, Texas rigged creature baits, and senkos. I caught 2 quick keepers after our location change and they increased our confidence and took our skunk away. We moved fairly quickly to cover water, power fishing our way around the bank. After some time with no fish, I made the suggestion to try a deeper weedline. I positioned the boat in about 10 feet of water and we began to drop shot the outside weedline. After about 15 minutes, Dave hooked into an awesome 4.29 pound bass. I'll tell you how he caught it if you ask!
As the day went on, the weather got worse. We spent most of the day in our rain gear. With about 2 hours to go, we moved to some thick milfoil areas and began to flip jigs and Texas rigged worms in the pockets. Dave nailed a 2 more fish to fill our limit and we felt we had a decent bag with the kicker fish. We were looking to cull 2 of our 5 fish, but failed to cull all day. At the weigh in, we ended with 11.92 pounds for 9th place out of 24. It was a tough finish, as the last place to get paid had about 13.5 pounds. So close yet again.
Points were earned and we hope that it helped us move up a few spots. Our next event with this group is on Forest Lake in just a few weeks. We have spent some time prefishing and we hope to beat our weight last year of 12+ pounds.
Stay tuned as I still have to catch up on our Lake Minnetonka tournament with our Bassmasters club that replaced White Bear.
Thanks for reading!
Carl
The pre-tournament meeting was held at Frankie's Marina in Chisago and Dave attended for the both of us as I was at a wedding. It must have brought him luck, as the raffle tickets he bought put us in boat number 2 for takeoff, which is a coveted position on a lake that has a few known spots. Unfortunately, tournament day was supposed to be cold and wet and this led to a poor showing of entrants at the meeting. We have fished this event and lake with 50 boats and a large pot, so with our great blastoff position, we were disappointed with the turnout.
Tournament day came and we were jacked up to fish. The boat was full of gas and ethusiasm. At blastoff, we almost lost our takeoff position when I threw down the throttle and the engine bogged. It was embarrassing, but we got her up and towards our first spot. At our first spot, we were in an area that notoriously held large fish. A boat was coming upon us and I positioned the boat so they could pass. They got right where we had just been and dropped their trolling motor. Great, they just stole our spot. Jerks. This being a Christian-focused tournament trail, I decided to hold my tongue. Eventually, we moved and headed to new water.
We started fishing a bank and adjacent water with visible vegetation growth. We were throwing spinnerbaits, swim jigs, Texas rigged creature baits, and senkos. I caught 2 quick keepers after our location change and they increased our confidence and took our skunk away. We moved fairly quickly to cover water, power fishing our way around the bank. After some time with no fish, I made the suggestion to try a deeper weedline. I positioned the boat in about 10 feet of water and we began to drop shot the outside weedline. After about 15 minutes, Dave hooked into an awesome 4.29 pound bass. I'll tell you how he caught it if you ask!
As the day went on, the weather got worse. We spent most of the day in our rain gear. With about 2 hours to go, we moved to some thick milfoil areas and began to flip jigs and Texas rigged worms in the pockets. Dave nailed a 2 more fish to fill our limit and we felt we had a decent bag with the kicker fish. We were looking to cull 2 of our 5 fish, but failed to cull all day. At the weigh in, we ended with 11.92 pounds for 9th place out of 24. It was a tough finish, as the last place to get paid had about 13.5 pounds. So close yet again.
Points were earned and we hope that it helped us move up a few spots. Our next event with this group is on Forest Lake in just a few weeks. We have spent some time prefishing and we hope to beat our weight last year of 12+ pounds.
Stay tuned as I still have to catch up on our Lake Minnetonka tournament with our Bassmasters club that replaced White Bear.
Thanks for reading!
Carl
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