FOM-Whitefish Chain

Sunrise over Whitefish

Steve and I headed to Whitefish chain for our 3rd FOM tournament of 2014. The drive up was though a nasty thunderstorm with really heavy rain. As we got Brainard the rain lightened up and the day was looking better. We put in and started the prefish process. Our first two spots were what we thought they were. Catch a few and leave them alone the rest of the day. We moved around hitting some new areas and checking our old stuff. We went to the meeting a drew boat 30 out of 32. We were not to worried as our starting spot is that just a spot. We had a plan of how we wanted to fish the day and it was time to go to work. Steve got us on the board right away with a nice close to 4 pound fish. But that was it nothing more. We worked the area and wondered what was going on. We worked down the weed line over the next hour wondering if we needed to move. Steve then set the hook and called for the net again. This time it was a nice 3 1/2 pound largemouth. We worked the area again with no more bites. It was 9 am and we only had the 2 fish but a couple good ones. We decided to run to our second spot and give that a shot. I finally got a fish for the box on a Outkast Finesse jig. But the fishing was slow. I set into another fish and got number 4 in the box. We fish through the area without another fish. We decided to run back to our starting spot since we were close and we caught bigger fish there. As we pulled up we started  a bit further down the bank and I picked up our 5th keeper. We had our limit but it took 4 hours to get it. We then moved back to the area that Steve got our second fish and he set into a fish he couldn't move. I was waiting with the net not knowing if it was a pike or a bass. Finally we got a look at it and it was a big bass. I netted it and culled out the baby I had just caught. 3 really good fish and 2 so-so fish. We fished through the area again catching a few that would not help. We fired up the big motor and ran to a spot we had found on Friday. We were able to cull up a few more times. We ran back to out starting spot to kill the last hour of the day. We caught a few more but again nothing that would help. We were thinking that we had a good bag but we were going to be just one more good fish short. We weighed in 16.26 pounds and our Big Bass was 4.75 pounds. We sat in first place and then had to wait for about half the field to weigh in. After what seemed like hours everyone had weighted and our weight held up. We had finally got a win in the FOM. Someone did weigh in a 5 lb smallie which beat our 4.75 largemouth to take the big bass honors. We had a tough day with not a lot of bites but the ones we did get we good ones. Steve was the big bass machine on this day and I was a great net man.We caught our fish with a variety of soft plastics and jigs. After the points were posted we moved up to 5th place for the year. We still have a chance. There are 2 tournaments left in the season on N/S Center and Lake Minnetonka.

First Place Whitefish Chain

Rush Lake-Renegade Bassers

Sunday morning the Renegade Bassers hit Rush Lake for our 2nd tournament of the year. It was a tough morning as I got back from Alex and had to repack my gear in my boat after spending 2 days in Steve's boat and hitting a grad party on sat night. My partner for the day was AJ Madison. He was worse off than me as he never went to bed Sat night. We started in a reed bed where the week before I had caught some nice fish flippin a punch rig. We made a pas around with only a short fish that AJ got on a swim jig. We then moved to a few more spots that I had got fish the week before. All we could catch were northerns and short fish. As the day wore on I just could not believe that we still had not caught anything. At about noon the weather turned bad and a thunderstorm rolled in and it just downpoured. We fished the last 2 hours in the pouring rain with nothing to show. We both zeroed. It was probably one of the worst tournament I have ever fished. The few good bites I did have I couldn't connect and missed or lost the fish. Not the way I wanted to end the weekend. Time to put it behind me and think about the next tournament for the FOM on Whitefish chain in 3 weeks.

This is what I hoped to do on Rush Lake.

FOM LeHomme Dieu

Steve and I headed to Alexandria  on Fri June 20th to prefish for our next FOM event on the Le Homme Dieu Chain. We started by hitting our spots that usually hold fish and we caught some fish on the first 2 spots so we went looking for new water. We covered the chain north to south catching a few here and a few there. In the end we figured our first 2 spots were the best we had so we decided to concentrate on those on Sat. for the tournament. We had an early boat draw and had no problem getting our spot. The fish were there and we had a limit by 6:30 but they were all small. We bounced around a few spots upgrading a few times but could just not get that big bite we needed. We weighed in 9.93 pounds at the scales which was 20th place. We really did catch a lot of fish but they were all the same size. We never got the 1 or 2 bigger fish you need to move to the top. Time to get home and repack the boat for a club tournament the next day on Rush Lake.

Prior Lake- FOM

Saturday June 7th Steve and I fished the first Fishers of Men tournament of the year. We were on Prior Lake in the south metro. We prefished a couple weeks ago and caught a lot of fish but they were all small and we hoped that things changed a bit since then. The forecast called for thunderstorms to pass through in the morning and showers the rest of the day. They sure nailed the forecast for once as about the time we got to our first spot there was thunder and then the downpour started. We caught a few shorts before Steve put a small keeper in the boat. We kept working back and forth shallow to deep hoping to find some bigger fish. I was catching them on a Outkast Money Jig with various soft plastics. Steve was throwing a finesse jig and catching them as well. We finally put a limit in the boat around 8:30. We then just moved around hoping to find a school of bigger fish. On one stop I caught a small upgrade on an Outkast RT Jig. Steve connected with a 4.13 bass that would be our biggest of the day. We were able to cull out 1 more of the really little ones before heading to weigh in. At the scales we weighed 9.08 pounds. That was good enough for 11th place. We caught a lot of little fish all day long. The future of Prior looks good. We came out of it with a good finish for the points and we hope the the next tournament on the Le Homme Dieu chain on June 21st will be a good one for us.

Washington/Stella Renegade Bassers

My 2014 Tournament season started Saturday morning on Washington /Stella. Ryan G wash my draw partner for the day. We were boat 3 for take off and headed straight for Stella. Last week prefishing I found a bunch of nice fish that I figured would still be there. I was throwing the Outkast Tackle Swim Jig in Boldgill color with a cane thumper trailer. As I worked toward the area where I had my best bites last week my rod loaded up with the first bite of the morning it was short lived though as it jumped and came undone. Next cast loaded up again and just about had it to the boat and again it just pulled off. Next cast and again load up and set the hook a few times as I was getting a little peeved at loosing fish. As Ryan is standing there to net the fish it jumps and comes unbuttoned just out of reach. 3 casts and loose 3 fish between 3 and 4 lbs. That was going to hurt at the end of the day. I finally got one to stick a nice 3.63 largemouth that would my big fish for the day. Ryan got his first fish and I added 2 more before we moved on. We then hit a spot where I had caught come smallies that were on beds last week. Ryan caught a small one but the weeds had come up and the beds were scarce. We then moved up and fished shallow where there were fish everywhere. We both filled out out limits and culled a few times.Ryan was catching them on a stick worm and I was getting them on Outkast Finesse Jig or tube. We then moved to Washington during a downpour to fish some other areas I had. We each culled a few more times as we worked down the shore. Just never getting the bigger bites we needed. I was able to cull up 1 last time just as a nasty thunderstorm rolled in and basically killed the last hour of the day. At the end of the day I weighed in 13.53 good enough for 8th place. The 3 I lost early in the day may have added 3 lbs or so so it was not that big of a deal. It just put a little more distance on the points I need to make up. Ryan ended up with 9.80 pounds. Congrats to Steve O on the win with 18.83 and a big bass of 4.37.

I'm Back

Boy it has been awhile since I have posted anything on here. This year I intend to keep up to date with my tournament results and fishing in general. With my first tournament scheduled for Sat.on Washington/Stella I hope to post some good results early next week.

Warner's Dock

If your looking for something fishing related to do over the weekend. Come on out to Warner's Dock in New Richmond WI. They are having a Customer Appreciation Weekend Jan. 6th thru the 8th. They will have some seminars and local tackle vendors on site. I will be there on Sat at the Outkast booth so stop by and see the new jig colors for 2012. Check out the link for times and directions. www.warnersdock.com/OpenHousePromotion2012.htm Hope to see some of you there.