Lake Waconia-GHB

Sunday morning we were back on the lake at Lake Waconia. I was fishing alone today as my draw was out of town. I had been out a week ago and found a few spots that I wanted hit so I made a plan and hoped to stick with it. I was boat 2 out so I hoped I could out run a few guys to my starting spot. Well that did not happen and I had to revise my plan already. I started throwing a buzz bait over the shallow weeds on big flat. With no action I headed in to a few docks that had produced in the past. I threw a stick worm in the first boat lift and got bite as soon as it hit the water. Then nothing must not have got a good hook set. I had drifted down past the docks so I threw in behind under the walkway and got bit. Number 1 for the day in the well. I caught 6 fish on my next 7 casts. All keepers so I had my limit and culled twice and it was not even 7:00 o'clock yet. I worked down the run of docks with no more action. I had a spot with some cabbage and coon tail at the end of the run that I caught 2 on a tube. I was able to cull with 1 of them. With that I was off to hit two areas I found last week. As I pulled up I had the area to myself and it did not take long for the fish to cooperate. I pulled a 3 pounder and 2 more that were able upgrade my limit. I moved the 200 yards to the other spot and got fish there to. I was down to beaming as they were all about the same size. After working that for an hour or so I moved the 200yards back to the other side. After about 10 casts I felt the thump and set into something that just wouldn't move. My first thought was musky as last week I had a huge 45-50" fish in the same area. But as I got it out of the weeds I saw that it was a big bass. A quick one handed net job a 5.16 pound bass went in the box. My limit was starting to look good. I switched up my lure selection for awhile from a tube craw to a tube. But got nothing that would help. Back to the other spot. 2 quick ones from there with 1 going in the box. Things seemed to have slowed down. So I left to try a few other spots I had fished in the past. I caught a few but nothing that would help. So I made the call to go back to those two spots and kill the day. I was able to cull up 2 more times but by just the slightest of margins. It was finally time to head in for weigh in. I weighed in 15.10 which was enough for 1st place and my big fish was 5.16 was Big Bass. Full results here: www.goldenhookbassers.org/index_files/tourny6.htm It was a great on the water. I caught alot of fish and the weather was great. We have 1 GHB tournament left on October 3rd on Green Lake. It should be dandy. The top 4 anglers are within 4 pounds of each other and with the throw out it could be any ones game.

Big Birch Lake-GHB

Friday I drove up to Big Birch Lake to prefish for our Club tournament on Saturday. I drove thru some small rain bands and when I got to the lake it was already starting to clear but the wind had really started to blow. I started on a long point that dropped off fast with a good weed line. I caught a few northerns on a crankbait and the slowed down to fish with some soft plastics. I caught a few along that weedline and then moved on looking for similar areas. I had about 6 spots marked on my GPS that I wanted to fish offshore but the wind made that impossible. After doing some looking in the west side I moved to the east side and found a few spots that I would hit on Saturday. At around 3 pm we called it a day and headed into town for the night. Saturday morning was really cool and the wind had laid down. We headed to the lake for the start of the tournament. When we got to the lake the fog rolled in so it delayed the start to almost 7 am. We took of at idle speed as it was still foggy. Luckily my starting spot was close. My partner for the day was Steve M so I filled him in on what I is was going to do. I got my first two on a tube and the threw a Strike King Ocho and picked up 2 more throwing it on the drop and dead sticking it. Steve then got a few for the well throwing a senko. I finished out my limit with the tube and it was only 8:15. The fog had lifted enough to move at a greater speed than idle so we ran to my next spot. There was a gradual sloping rocky point that I really did not fish on Friday because of the wind but it looked to good not to fish. I threw the tube and got bite immediately and before I could yell for the net it came unbuttoned. It looked like a nice fish and really would have helped. We ran a streach of docks and Steve picked up another. We then ran to the east basin. We fished the outside weed line without any success so we moved in and hit the docks. I got one that I could cull and lost another one that would have helped. Steve wanted to fish the reeds so we ran those and Steve got his fourth fish. We then went back to the rocky point and I got what would be my big fish of the day a 3.30 smallmouth. We worked it for 15 minutes without any more bites. Back to my starting spot and I was able to cull another small one out. We then ran the reeds and Steve finally got his limit fish. By that time it was time to head in for weigh in. I weighed in 11.19 which was good for 2nd place and my 3.30 smallie was Big Bass for the day. Congratulations to Pat P for winning with 11.58. Full results are here: www.goldenhookbassers.org/index_files/tourny5.htm It was time to head home and get ready for Waconia on Sunday morning.

LHD-FOM

Saturday Steve and I were on the Le Homme Dieu Chain of lakes in Alexandria for the 4th Fishers of Men tournament. On Friday we prefished to find some new spots near where we knew we would be fishing. As we moved from spot to spot we seemed to be able to catch one here one there and nothing of much size. We were focused on the weed lines and breaks. Finally we hit on a great spot 3 fish in 4 casts. They were all decent size too. A quick way point was added and off we went. Friday night at the meeting Steve drew boat 21 so we were in the 2nd flight giving us an extra 15 minutes to fish on Saturday. Saturday it really cooled off and the wind was howling when we launched the boat. After checking in we retied a few rods and waited to take off. We got to our first spot and caught 2 fish that just made 12". We then went to another spot that we usually catch at least one nice one, but nothing there either. On to the spot we had found on Friday. We filled out our limit pretty quickly there but not with the size we had caught there yesterday. I was throwing a Lake Fork tube craw texas rigged letting it settle down in the coon tail. Just dragging through and popping it once in a while. We then went and got out of the wind and went froggin for awhile. Steve got a decent one that we were able to upgrade a few ounces. We then went back to the Friday spot and finished the day there. We were catching fish and hoping we could hit on a couple good ones. I finally got a good one but was to little to late. We headed for the weigh in and weighed 8.62# which tied us for 19th place. We were able to keep our 3rd place in the standings. With 1 tournament left at the end of August on the Horseshoe Chain our chances for the title are slim but we will give it our best shot.

GHB-Pokegama

After Saturday's disappointing day on the water I was looking for a lot better day. I was paired with Mark N one of the newer guys in the club. We were boat two this morning. As I didn't get to prefish Pokegama I had no idea where to go so we just found a weed flat and I started with a buzzbait. We moved up the channel to Jay Gould and I had a blow up on a frog but didn't hook up. Mark got one for the well on a worm on a deep weedline and there was no more to be found. We then went up the channel to the small lake. We were throwing spinnerbaits over the weeds and all we could catch were northerns. We moved further up the lake to a deep shoreline that had rock and wood where I finally got a 2 pounder on a RT jig flippin the wood. But no more takers there either. We worked down the opposite shore throwing spinnerbaits. I got what would be my biggest fish of the day a 2.81 largemouth. So we took off from there and headed to the main lake. At noon I was still really struggling with only 2 fish in the livewell. We fished down a shoreline that had a steep drop with a few inside turns on the weedline. I finally got a 3rd fish in the boat and Mark got his second. We decided to work the area as there was only an hour or so to fish. Mark hooked up with a Rattle Trap and I failed to get the net under it and it came unbuttoned. (sorry Mark) I was using a 3" Chigger Craw on a money jig. I then caught 2 more 15" to fill out my limit and Mark got 2 more to give him 4 as time was running out. On what was our last casts I was stowing everything and getting ready to go. My line jumped and I brought my last fish to the boat. It would help so as I culled Mark finished getting ready to go. At the weigh in. I weighed 9.35 which was good enough for 6th place. Mark ended up with 4 fish for 4.52 pounds. Again congratulations to Ozzy for sacking 14.26 pounds and beautiful 4.04 pound smallmouth for Big Bass. He is just on fire right now. Pokegama looks like an awesome fishery and I wish I had gotten out to prefish. There was just so much good looking water. Full results are here: www.goldenhookbassers.org/index_files/tourny4.htm Our next GHB tournament is on Big Birch lake on August 22nd. I hope to get a few practice days out ther to make up some ground I lost.

GHB-Wabana

This past Saturday the Golden Hook Bassers were on Lake Wabana north of Grand Rapids. A few of us traveled up early Friday as most of us had never been on the lake. After driving through the rain and storms on the way up we got to the lake with the sun shining. The prefishing was so-so with alot of small fish caught. I found a few spots that were candidates for starting locations. Saturday is paired with Wayne Pacyga and we were using my boat. We had take off position two. We decided to start in a reed bed right at the take off spot. I dropped the trolling motor and we were off. About half way around I put the first fish in the boat a 13" largemouth followed quickly by another 13" fish. They were both caught on a swim jig. We then moved to sheltered bay as the wind was really blowing and I had broke the rope on the trolling motor. As I fixed that Wayne was working some pads and a deep break to no takers. We worked around the island working wood and reeds. I picked another 14" fish on the swim jig and Wayne finally got a 16" fish in the weeds. I proceeded to hook into a big northern that broke my rod so I was not a happy camper from that point on. We started to work pads with buzz frogs and Rage shad baits. Wayne caught a couple more and I caught 2 more to fill my limit. All my fish were small. I did get to cull one out with another 14" fish caught on a craw tube. Wayne filled out his limit finally around noon. We then ran back to the reeds were we started. Wayne got a really nice smallie and a another nice largemouth. All I could get was fish that wouldn't help. As time was winding down we hit some pad fields by the landing. I missed two really blow ups on a Rage shad and Wayne was able to get another to cull a small fish. In the end I weighed in at 6.39 and Wayne had 10.68 good enough for 2nd place. Congratulations to Ozzy for winning with 10.92 and Big Bass of 3.30. Complete results are here: www.goldenhookbassers.org/index_files/tourney3.htm.
The unstable and windy weather did not help the day. It was hard to fish any offshore structure as the wind usually would blow you right off it. It was time to re rig as tomorrow we would be on Pokegama for day two.

FOM-Minnetonka

Saturday was the 3rd tournament of the year for the Fishers of Men. I met Steve at the Maxwell landing so we could drive across Lake Minnetonka to the take off spot at Maynards. The morning was cool and a little breezy. I drew boat number 13 at the Friday night meeting so we would not have to wait long to take off. With our game plan finalized all we had to do is wait. When our number was called we took off for our first spot. We got started and another boat just pulled in behind us and started fishing. We pulled around the other side of the point and continued to fish. Steve got us on the board with a 12" fish but that would be it there. We moved to a point we had caught some fish on pre fishing last week. We gave it a 20 minute try and didn't get a bite. We moved to another tried and true spot. The only thing we got there was a 5 pound toothy. At this point we made the decision to hit our best spot a little earlier than we wanted as it usually is a later bite there. We fished a string of docks going in. We quickly caught four 12"-13" fish to fill out our limit. But on Minnetonka you need a lot more than that. We then hit our good spot and Steve got a 3 pounder and I quickly followed with a 2 1/2. In the next hour we had culled out all the smaller fish and were getting a respectable bag. We still needed one good fish to put us where we thought we needed to be. I had that fish on but as it rolled to the surface it came unbuttoned and we were still searching. With the bite shut down there and 20 minutes to fish we had one spot to hit on the way to weigh in. We pulled up and had less than 10 minutes to fish. Steve then called for the net and soon a 3.85 largemouth was aboard. We culled out our last questionable fish and it was on to weigh in. We weighed in 15.76 pounds with a big bass of 3.85 pounds. Then the waiting started. We finally settled in the 7th spot which was a huge improvement over last year. We moved up to 3rd in points only 1 point behind 2nd and 13 points out of 1st. We put our fish in the boat using a variety of soft plastics on Outkast money jigs. Our next FOM tournament is on the Le Homme Dieu chain in Alexandria on August 1st.

Back at it

After a nice 4 week break from fishing tournaments and doing a little fun fishing. Saturday we'll be back on Minnetonka fishing the 3rd stop of the Fishers of Men series. We have been out pre fishing a few times and caught fish just not the kind needed to do well on Minnetonka. We have been fishing new water and not fishing our normal stuff. We have confidence in our normal stuff that we should do ok and hope to catch enough to stay close in the point standings. Next week is the GHB two day tournament Day 1 will be on Wabana and Day 2 on Pokeagama. I have not fished either of these lakes so I am going up on Friday to spend 4 hours or so on each lake to see what they are about. The next weekend is Le Homme Deiu for Fishers of Men. It will end a long 3 week stretch of tournaments. But in Minnesota with the limited fishing weekends you have to fish them as they come. I will post results and tactics after each tournament. Keep checking back for updates. The break has been nice but am looking forward to being back on the competitive waters.