BASS Fishing Tournament, Lake Waconia, Minnesota

After participating in a few tournaments on Waconia over the past few years, I was hoping for a great day on the water as we pulled into the launch. Boats were already in the water and trailers filled about ten spots at 5 am. Seeing that another group was also having a tournament somewhat dampened my spirits, but the only gameplan I had was my starting spot, then anything would go. Little did I know that a day to remember was about to occur.

Our first spot was an area with docks, and it was a good area because there was vegetation and a depth range of 0-9 feet. After dad picked up one runt under a shallow dock, we decided to move on. Quickly we moved to a deeper weed line. I lined the boat parallel to the weedline, about 15 feet of water, and starting throwing a 14-16 foot diving crankbait. After only a few casts, I caught a 2 pounder with the crankbait deep in its mouth. I positioned the boat over the area that the crankbait bite occurred so we could thoroughly work the area with our drop shot rigs.

Almost immediately dad started slamming the fish. I was extremely surprised to see that almost every fish he brought up was close to, if not over, 3 pounds. Quickly he filled his limit while I was struggling to catch them. Soon I realized that his purple haze drop shot worm made by MG Lures was the ticket. After wrestling the package from his vice grip and putting him in a sleeper hold so I could have time to make a cast, I finally started to catch a few larger fish. It was awesome to find this school of fish, which must have consisted of about 10 bass caught in 2.5-3.5 lbs range. Also, it was a classic case where color truly made a difference, which always tends to surprise me a bit when the color is a purple/pink mix.

After fishing the school out and our livewell full, we moved shallower and started pitching creature baits. Dad started culling by throwing a brushhawg, and I started my culling session throwing the new Berkley Havoc bait designed by Bobby Lane. If there was one piece of equipment I wish I would've had on board, it would have been a culling beam. We caught so many fish that were so close in size, that we really could've utilized a beam. It turned out that we put a hurting on this area, and we have never been this fortunate to find an area that produced as many quality fish than what we experienced that day.

The rest of our day was spent in an area about the size of a football field. I waved over a boat in our club that had two guys and allowed them to fish our spot with us, as I felt somewhat generous that day. They both pulled in over 12 pounds and it was fun watching them catch fish alongside of us.

As a storm began to brew and we were hit by a downpouring rain with 15 minutes left to go, dad caught his biggest fish of the day and culled one last time. I am confident that we had near identical bags until that fish, and I am glad he caught it. He finished with his best weight ever, weighing in at 15 pounds, 3 ounces. I had my best club weight at 14 pounds, 11 ounces. We had nearly 30 pounds of bass in our Ranger! My area alone brought in 55 pounds of bass, while our 13 member club caught a total of 158 pounds of fish. I was really hoping that we would take 1st and 2nd, but Bob D. took home first place with 16 pounds, thus we ended up 2nd and 3rd. Overall it was a fantastic day, a day to remember.

Bass Fishing Tournaments and Fun Fishing

My most recent tournament took place at Clearwater Lake with the Fisher's of Men circuit. It was a full field and I was excited to kick off the season with this group and a new partner, Tom Harkman. To read about our tournament, visit Tom's website FiveBass.com. It was a challenging day for us, and we caught fish on deep weedlines, shallow milfoil, and docks. We were a two big bites away from having a much better outcome.

Last weekend I was able to get out and have a little fun fishing with my dad and brother at a local lake. We located some really nice fish outside of thick milfoil in 6-9 feet of water. I had a great day catching a 4 pound bass on a white spinnerbait with 3 willow leaf blades, and also a five pounder on a Strike King Rodent. Dad was able to punish a solid 3 pounder stroking a lizard on some mid-lake humps. We really had a great morning bite from about 6am to 9am. After that, the biting fish became few and far between. Lucky, we got out and made the best of a nice Sunday morning. My brother, Kevin, even managed to catch one 12 incher! I bet he will be back on the boat soon to redeem himself.

This upcoming weekend I am fishing at Waconia for our club, Lakes Area Bassmasters. There are three tournaments left for everyone to post their best six tournaments to determine AOY and our State Team. Currently, I am 4th of 6 for our State Team and I am in 3rd for AOY. It is an extremely close race and I am looking forward to competing the next month and a half.