RB-Lake Waconia

Sunday morning we hit Lake Waconia for the 5th Renegade Bassers tournament of the year. I was glad to be on Waconia. It is one of my favorite lakes to fish. I was needing to get some confidence back after the beating I took the day before on Rush. The was not starting out very good as the wind was howling before the sun came up. It would make it tough to fish some of mt better spots. Brian was my partner for the day. Brian grew up near the lake and he and I have spent many a day on Waconia. We started near some cabbage beds where we had both done well in the past. Nothing was working and the wind was blowing harder. I finally caught a keeper on a Outkast stick worm to break the ice. We then went to the spot where I had done so well last year. I managed to catch one on a tube craw but that was it. I wanted to try a off shore spot but lasted about 10 minutes as boat control was an issue in the wind. Back to the shorelines we went. I picked up another for the well on a jig worm. Brian had yet to put one in the box. We then moved to the cat tails to try the flippin bite. That was where Brian finally put his only fish of the day in the boat. I struggled to catch my last 2. At the scales I weighed 10.58 pounds good for 3rd place. My big bass was 2.54. The wind really controlled what we did as we could not fish the areas we wanted to. Congratulations to Pat P. for the win with 13.85 and to Ozzy with the big bass at 4.03. Our last tournament is in Sept. on Clearwater. The Angler of the Year points battle is getting close and any one of 6 guys have a shot.

RB-Rush Lake

Saturday Aug. 14th brought the Renegade Bassers to Rush Lake. I was scheduled to fish alone but Guy had to leave early so he jumped in with me for the 3 1/2 hours he could fish. We started fishing a shallow reed bed in the west side. I was flipping a Texas rigged tube craw and a jig. Finally I connected with a good fish and had one in the box. Guy followed up with one of his own. We moved to a new area and Guy scored right off the bat and followed with another. Guy had to leave so we weighed his fish and he was off. I then ran to a few other spots that I had caught fish pre fishing but all I could catch were short ones. I ran to some new water but could not get anything going. Finally I ran back to where we started and put a 3rd fish in the box. That was it for me for the day. I weighed in 3 fish for 5.91 pounds. My big fish was 3.75. It was just one of those days where everything I did was wrong. I had to put it behind me as on Sunday we fished another club event on Waconia. Congrats to Chris A for the win with 12.45 pounds and Steve W for a 3.85 Big Bass.

FOM-Gull Lake

Steve and I headed to Gull Lake on Friday morning to pre fish for Saturday's tournament. We put in and headed for areas we had each fished before. We caught fish at each stop but finding bigger fish was the days task. It was a task we never really accomplished. We were confidant we were going to get our 5 but getting the kickers we needed was going to be a chore. We had a middle of the pack draw and ran to out starting spot and put 5 in the well to get started. Of the 5 we had only 1 that was decent. We ran to few spots and kept up grading but weren't getting the ones we needed. We went to some new water that we had not fished the day before and Steve tied in to a good one that went 4.16 on the scales but that would be it for the day. We ended up 15th with 11.17 pounds. We fished hard and sorted through a lot of fish. We just never could get another big bite.

2010 Viking Tournament-Minnetonka

6.94 Lake Minnetonka Largemouth

Sunday Oct. 3rd my cousin Greg and I fished the Viking Invitational on Lake Minnetonka. Saturday we hit the lake to pre fish and spent the day trying to figure the fish out. We were having little success at doing that till late in the day we found some active fish and hoped they would be still going on Sunday. We had boat 33 at take off and were able to get to our spot and get after them. The fish were still there but not as active as they had been the day before. We got our limit by 9:00 and then started to move around looking for bigger fish. We went to a spot where we had in the past put a few bigger fish in the boat. We worked the area flipping jigs and soft plastics in the reeds. Just about to the end of our run I flipped in and felt the tell tale thump and set into something solid. Before I could yell net, Greg was standing there ready to net it. We got it in the net and a 22" beauty went into the well. It was the biggest bass I have caught in a tournament and one of the biggest I have ever caught. A true Minnesota trophy. We ended the day hitting a few points on the way back to weigh-in and were not able to cull out 2 of the smaller fish we had. At the scales the Big Bass went 6.94 pounds and our total weight was 15.34. We finished in 3rd place and took home the Big Bass pot. What a way to end the 2010 tournament season. Thanks to Greg for being "extreme net man" for the day. The bass was caught on an Outkast Tackle RT jig with a beaver trailer.