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.