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.

Gull Lake-FOM

July 16th Steve and I fished the Gull Lake Fishers of Men tournament. We traveled up on Friday and were delayed getting on the water by nasty thunderstorm that rolled in just as we got to the landing. After getting on the water we decided to try some new water for us this year and headed north. We found fish just about every stop we made but the size was not there. Finally we found some better fish and had spot to start. Friday night we got a decent boat draw and were confident we would be able to get our spot. On Saturday morning we had 2 boats head the same way as we did and they both stopped short of where we wanted to start. It didn't take us long to start putting them in the boat. We had a limit in no time but as usual they were not as big as the day before. We did catch a nice 2 1/2 before moving on. We then moved though the spots from practice and did upgrade a few times. We then moved back down toward the launch area to a spot we always catch one good one and this time we did as well. I fired my tube on Outkast Money Jig to the target and it just kept going. I set into our biggest fish of the day a 3.13 Largemouth. It was time to head to the scales. We weighed in 11.02 lbs which was good for 13th place and moved us up in the yearly standings. The next FoM tournament is in August on the Whitefish Chain.

Wow

I cannot believe it's October already. I really have fallen behind on my posts. Over the next few week I will get up to date on the tournaments I have fished this summer and report on the fall fishing as I get out. This really is my favorite time of the year. Fishing gets better and better and the big ones are packing it on for winter. Football is going strong both the Packers and Badgers are looking really good. But then the time comes to put the boat in storage for the winter and a well received time away to recharge the batteries for next year. But spring will soon be here and it's time to start all over again.

Green Lake (Spicer)-FOM

Saturday June 18th Steve and I were back on Gren Lake for the second Fishers of Men tournament of the year. We got on the water Thursday evening for a few hours to look around and see what was going on on the water. We found a few things we liked and were back on the water Friday morning to expand on what we found the night before. We only were able to fish till around noon when a storm blew up and kicked us off the water. At the tournament meeting we drew boat 10 so we felt we could get our best starting spot which we did. I got us on the board right away with a top water fish on a Pop-r. I switched up to a tube and got 2 more with one being our big fish of the day at 3.41 pounds. Steve finally joined the action getting our 4th fish. We then ran to our next spot and quickly finished out our limit and culled two more times. We then kept moving to our other spots looking for upgrades. We caught a lot of fish just not any more that would help. We weighed in 14.95 pounds of smallmouth and a big bass of 3.41 pounds . That tied us for 7th place and got us a check. We moved to 12th place in the standings which is huge after our dismal showing on Clearwater. We caught most of our fish using tubes on Outkast Money Jigs. We also caught them on lizards, crankbaits and top water. Our next stop is Gull Lake in July.