Thursday, November 20, 2008

Whitefish Tournament Day

My plan was to go after the smallmouth that I knew were in the area. I know if I can just get two or three of them to bite, they would be good ones and all I would need is a couple 2 pound largemouth and I would cash a check. If I could get them and a couple 2.5-3 pound bass, I would have a really good shot to win.

We arrived on our starting spot and began throwing topwater. Conditions were good, it was overcast and a little breeze in the air. I threw a lucky craft sammy for about 25-30 minutes and had no takers. After the wind picked up a little bit, I switched to a all white spinner bait (including blades) and a trailer hook. On about my 10th cast with the spinner bait, something CRUSHED my blade. After a few cranks it soared into the air and my co-angler and I got very excited. After a great battle that lasted a couple minutes I got it into the net. Thank god for the trailer hook, since it was the only hook in the fish. This smallmouth was a solid four pound fish. That's what I needed and it was the first fish of the day. I knew if I could get one more of those it would go a long way. Two four pounder's and three two pounder's would get me 14 pounds and would put me right there. This was going through my head and I may have gotten a little too fired up and after a couple hours, and no more fish in that area, my excitement soon turned into panic. I knew that I couldn't waste this fish by not getting a decent limit.


We left that area and looked for some largemouth's on a weedline that I had caught a bunch of fish on in practice. I didn't catch many big fish, but I knew there was a lot of fish there and I knew if I could catch as many as I did in practice, I would leave there with four two pound fish to go with my four pounder. We worked the area (hindsight too fast) and caught a couple fish that made it to the well, but not nearly the amount I had in practice. My non-boater caught a decent keeper that I "blew" right by with my texas rigged Berkley Power Worm. I caught a ton of fish with this lure in practice and always do. I just think I was working it too fast this time, which I rarely do.

We then headed back towards the launch site to hit a little inside turn on a weedline where I caught a couple nicer fish in practice. On the way I decided to stop by the smallmouth area as we were driving right by it. We spent about 30 minutes there with no luck. The only reason I stopped was the conditions were still right and some time had passed since we were last there.

Pulled up on the inside turn and caught a small weigh fish on the power worm. My non-boater lost a good fish on top of the flat which would of helped either of us. Worked the turn a little longer and had no takers. We then turned around and worked the top of the flat where my non-boater lost that decent fish with spinner baits and shallow running crankbaits. The only thing we could get to bite were a couple smaller bass and a bunch of small pike.

It was now noon and I only had one good fish and a couple small ones and the rain was coming down pretty good. Decided to make a change and go shallower. I went up the river where I found some decent fish in practice the day before and had some follow our Outkast Swim Jigs that I knew were still there. We worked the mouth of the river with no success. As we kept going into the river we had a couple swirls on the swim jigs but no takers yet. I knew the further we went up the river the better the population of fish was. I soon caught a decent 2-2.5# fish on the swim jig and got a little more fired up. However, we did not get any more fish in there and time was getting low.

Once I left the river I went to a shallow reed bed and started throwing a topwater frog. I had a blowup on my third cast but failed to hookup. After another five casts I boated a keeper. Well, I at least had a limit now, but was not impressed by all but the smallmouth. My non-boater was able to get his limit out of this area as well.

With about 30 minutes left until weigh-in we hit a weedline with some good cabbage on it. Fortunately for us the fish were biting really good there. We both upgraded a couple fish, but soon ran out of time. I know we could of upgraded more of our fish there if we had more time. I'm not saying we could of cleaned house in that area, but I really think we both could of added at least another pound to our weight.


I headed to weigh-in with mixed emotions. I knew I did ok, but I also knew I let a great opportunity (4 pound smallmouth) pretty much slip away. All I had to do was get a couple more decent fish and I would of been in the top five. I ended up in 15th place for the tournament. Which, I am pleased with, but I knew what could of been...

Lesson Learned
I actually took a couple things away from this tournament. I made a decision on the final day of practice to not head to an area I knew "should" produce the winning bag. Sure enough, the top two places were out of this area. I thought the lake was too "behind" for weed growth for the fish to be there, but I still should of checked it.

I also realized after the tournament how rushed I was during that day. After I caught that smallmouth I should of taken a few minutes and relaxed. Got my composure back and focused again.

Monday, August 11, 2008

Whitefish Practice Day 3

I started the day with the intent of covering water and finding some healthy thick weeds. I started on some humps and caught a few fish on a Outkast Money jig with a Berkley 4" power worm that were actually fairly decent. They were not tournament winners by any means but the average was better than the last couple of days. However, after spending a couple more hours in that lake I cam to realize the weeds were worse than the other lakes and found no substantial coontail growth which is the key on that chain. I made a short run to a couple other areas in a nearby lake that I just wanted to make sure they weren't on. Again, the weed growth was very poor and there were no fish to be found. It was about 11:00 and I had to make a decision, I would either try and find fish here, which is quite a ways away

Whitefish Practice Day 2

I really wanted to check on those smallmouth from day one early so I could see if they were worth going to. I started casting a Lucky Craft Sammy on top of the flat. I had a couple follows but no takers. Not sure if they couldn't find it or what the reason they were not eating it was. I left there knowing there were some fish there and if I could get one or two they would be better than average. I checked a few other spots in that area but had little to no luck finding bigger fish. I could literally catch as many as I wanted to but not what I needed. I then went and checked a flat with a good weedline on it and caught a bunch of fish on a Outkast RT Jig and actually had a couple better fish in the 2.5# range. This gave me some more confidence to go keep fishing the weedlines in hopes that I could find that one spot with good weeds where they would be stacked. However, after fishing the rest of the day and not getting any better bites I started checking shallow on docks and some slop. I was not able to connect with any good fish there either and was getting a little frustrated. I knew though, that all it takes is one good area and I will have 5 good fish. So I went back to the cabin and made some changes in gear and mindset. I needed to start covering water or I would never find those better areas and better weeds. I was heading north to some of the other lakes in the chain on Friday and had confidence that I could find them there.

Whitefish Practice Day 1

I was very much looking forward to this tournament as I have been on the Whitefish chain before and have had some success. I have not ever won here but I know what it takes to win and I was looking forward to finally fishing some fish that were in their summer pattern.

I arrived at the lake Wednesday at about noon and just started driving around looking to see what the weeds were doing as I heard that they were nowhere near where they should be for this time of year. After about 30 minutes of driving around I could already tell that this was the case. I was not able to find any weeds where they normally would be. That pretty much told me that I needed to find a better concentration of weeds and that would be a good start of where I could find some fish. I checked out a main lake area that can hold some smallmouth and had a couple smallmouth follow my bait back to the boat, they were not huge but I knew there were some bigger ones around there. From there I went to check some weedlines nearby that had some scattered weeds on them. I was catching a bunch of fish but nothing too big, which is typically the case on this chain of lakes. I pulled up to an inside turn that typically holds some better fish and had a good bite on a Berkley 4" pro tube on my third cast. I set the hook into what felt like a better fish and barely moved the fish before it came unhooked. I made a few more casts into that area and caught a smaller fish and another one about 2.75 pounds. I had confidence in that spot as I had caught fish there in the past and although it's not usually a spot that will hold a large school of fish it can hold a couple better ones. I fished weedlines and flats the rest of the evening but never caught another good fish. I caught probably 40 fish that afternoon but only a couple that would be worth keeping.

Saturday, July 26, 2008

Le Homme Dieu Tournament Day

The forecast for the day was to be mostly cloudy in the AM and clearing in the afternoon. I was hoping for the clouds to stay until after the tournament. That way the crankbait bite would hold up and the fish would not move shallow where they can be found more easily by other anglers. My non-boater for the day was Ryan Piersdorf. Ryan is 16 years old and will be fishing against us in n time. It's in his blood as he is related to Elite series pro Derek Remitz and his uncle fishes on the pro side here as well.

We pulled up to the first spot and I had a fish on the first cast that jumped off. Thank goodness it wasn't too big. We went down the weedline with the crankbaits and I had a limit pretty quickly but they needed work. We worked that weedline for quite awhile. I was able to get one fish from there that was around 2 pounds, but the rest were pretty small.

We moved to the next weedline and I was able to upgrade a couple more fish with the crankbait. Still nothing that made me get really excited. We continued to fish the weedlines in that are culling every few fish but not making much progress, but every ounce counts. The sun was starting to get close to coming out and I was starting to get thoughts in my head as to what to do when it comes out. I knew it made sense for the fish to go shallow but I wasn't going to head shallow just to do it. My bite had to quit before I went up there, otherwise I was just wasting time. We continued to catch a bunch of fish and I had upgraded enough to get myself over the 10 pound mark which is about where I knew I could get to. I just needed that 3 pound bite.

At about 1:00 our crankbait bite slowed down and the sun was completely out. I knew in the back of my mind that we needed to go shallow. I decided to make a short run to some shallow areas that I have caught fish in the past at but I was not able to find anything that would make me fish there to long. We fished shallow for about 45 minutes with no success. We then ran to a shallow flat outside of a spawning area that I knew the fish had to get on before they went into the spawning area. We caught quite a few fish on top of that flat and I was able to upgrade one more time. Still no big bites and our time was up.

I weighed in at 10.60 pounds which was good enough for 14th place. The best finish I have ever had on this body of water but still not satisfied. If I could do it over again I would of committed to the shallow bite as quite a few of the top 10 anglers caught their better fish shallow on docks.

Le Homme Dieu Practice

I was able to get four days of practice on Le Homme Dieu. I have not been here for a few years and I have not had much success here in the past. It usually takes about a 2.25-2.5 pound average to cash a check with a 3 pound average winning it. I wanted to learn as much as I could and figure some stuff out. I was anticipating the fish to be spawning with some maybe being pre and post spawn. I was surprised when I got on the water on Tuesday to find water temp in the high 50's! This is about 10 degrees behind what it should be for this time of the year. I knew it would be tough to find any shallow fish but if the weather did warm up the fish would be up there in a hurry.

I started checking weedlines and flats with crankbaits and swim jigs. I was able to find a bunch of fish when cranking the weedlines with a Rapala DT10. About every 15th fish would be a decent (over 2 pounds) fish. I figured worst case scenario I would catch as many fish as possible and hope to get enough bigger bites to get a check.

I checked a lot of other areas throughout the chain over the four days with mixed results. I did not catch a 3 pound bass during practice which I was not all that surprised by but it would of been nice to get one or two in order to get a little more confidence. I fished every lake in the chain and checked anywhere from one foot to twenty. The best area I could find was what I found on the first day on those weedlines. So, my plan was to play those averages and catch as many fish as I could and hope for a bigger bite sometime in the day. I know I wasn't on the fish to win but I knew I could catch enough to be in the top 15 or so.

Saturday, July 5, 2008

Opener




Caught these bass and a bunch of other good ones on a couple trips to a local metro lake that I had not yet been to. After these, I will be going back soon. You can see the one on the sunny day is a little beat up from spawning so it looks like not all of them are pre-spawn. The other fish were caught with my brother-in-law (Joe) and my nephew (Tyler). The majority of the fish we caught came on Outkast Swim Jigs rigged with fat tail grubs on 30# spiderwire. The fish were pre-spawn located just outside of smaller spawning areas on isolated grass clumps. You can see the one on the sunny day is a little beat up from spawning so it looks like not all of them are pre-spawn. They will move into these bays in the next week or so as long as the weather continues to improve.

St Jude Day 2

We knew we could not win after blanking on day one, or catch enough to cash a check. But we had our sights on the comeback award (silver lining). Which goes to the team with the biggest improvement from day 1. The wind laid down and the sun was suppose to shine for most of the day. We figured our best shot to catch 8 fish was to head out to lake Pepin. We started throwing jerkbaits and covering water looking for an area where the fish were concentrated. We knew the first spot we stopped at had some fish around it because it is a somewhat popular area and Brian had done well there not to long ago. I hooked a 2# fish right away and we had the skunk out of the boat. We continued to fish that area were Brian caught one more fish on a prototype Outkast Finesse Jig.

We moved up lake a little bit and hit another area that was holding some fish. We caught two more fish on jerkbaits and were halfway to a limit. Still no big fish, but they were weigh fish non the less.

We headed to a marina on the lake that I have fished quite a bit in the past and we were able to get another fish there on an Outkast Tube. We then went over to another marina and a small cut where we had a few smaller bites but were not able to boat anything that would keep.

We then headed back to the area where we caught two fish earlier in the day and caught one right away to give us 5 fish. We kind of decided at that point we need to work this area better and try to get the rest of our limit out of it. We caught another weigh fish shortly thereafter and now we only needed one more to have a limit. With about 20 minutes left Brian caught our eighth fish on a jerkbait and we thought we may have a shot at the comeback prize of $500.

We got back to the weigh-in and talked to a few other guys who did poorly on day one and they had all struggled on day two. Our hopes of saving face were soon thwarted when Dean Capra and Pat Martin (7 pounds day 1) brought in a 30 pound bag of smallmouth. We weighed our eight fish for 15.5 pounds and went on our way.

We learned a few things from this tournament. We learned that the river is not what it use to be. Two years ago if you were able to bring in a limit of two pound bass each day you would probably cash a check. Last year it took 46 pounds to win and twenty pounds a day to cash a check and we thought maybe that was a fluke. This year it took nearly 53 pounds to win and 43 pounds to cash a check. The river is getting better and we are not adjusting. The other thing that we realized is that we need to allow more practice time down there. There is no way we can cover that much water in 2 days and do it effectively. Here's to next year.

St Jude Day 1

Day one of the tournament greeted us with cold (45 degrees), windy (30 mph) rain. Since we had a less than stellar practice we had to go with what we had found and hope to find more. We started on the spot where I caught those three good smallmouth in as many casts. We pulled up and there was a boat on one of the points but his boat was on top of where I caught the fish and he was fishing shallower than I caught the fish. We were able to start on the what I thought was the better of the two points. The wind was blowing right into the current and it seemed much different than when I was there a couple days ago. We started fishing the point and around it with no success. We decided to try going down the wall out in front of the marina and still nothing. We idled back up and tried the point again, still nothing. By this time the other boat had moved enough that we were able to try the other point, but still nothing going on. We decided to go elsewhere and check back later when the water hopefully warmed up a bit and the fish become more active.

Rather than take up your time and retell one of, it not the worst day either of us have had during a tournament, I will tell you that we blanked on this day. We may of had a bass bite or two but we did not have a bass on our lines all day. Which is the first time this has happened to either of us. We were unable to make it out to the lake due to the wind, which is where we felt if need be, we could go catch a few fish.

St Jude practice Day 2

Day 2 started much the same as day one with cold weather and the looming chance of rain. The only thing different was that we were heading to Pool #5 today. We trailered down and launched there rather than have to deal with the possible barge traffic. I have not spent a lot of time on pool 5 but it is a section that I want to learn more about due to the potential that it has and the bags of fish that seem to come from there every year. I started down on the south end of the pool fishing a large are called weaver bottoms. I have never spent much time in this area and I started by just driving around and seeing what looked interesting. I found a few areas that looked really good but I was not able to get any bites as I think the water was just to cold for them to be in there really good. Had I gotten any bites I could of and probably would of spent a lot more time in there.

I left the bottoms and went further south and fished some rip-rap that I have had success on in the past. I was not able to get any bites in this area. The only thing I can think of is that the water is either too cold or there is current here where normally there is not. Not a good morning so far...

I then headed to a shoreline that normally has current on it and fairly deep water on it as the fish I caught yesterday were mostly all in current. I was hoping to work this area with an outkast tube but the current was way too strong and I had to just drift with the current and throw a crankbait. I picked up a couple smaller fish but there was no rhyme or reason to where they were. Which is fine if I am able to catch a good number of fish but when you only catch a couple, it's not worth going back to find them if they are not "locked on" any structure.

I then switched gears and tried my luck at some largemouth and fished some backwaters. I flipped a Berkley 4" Flippin tube in some laydown timber and had a couple smaller fish eat the tube but nothing with much size at all.

I proceeded into an area that gets fished quite a bit, but consistently puts out fish. I threw an outkast tube on top of this structure and after a few casts I caught a decent smallmouth. I made a few more casts with the tube with no success. I decided to throw the crankbait to try and cover a little more water to see if they were scattered or if they were on a particular spot there. After a few casts with the crank I hooked another decent fish. I decided to leave that area as I knew there was probably more fish around and in order for us to make the run down there, we would need to find more than that area.

I proceeded north on the river stopping to fish a few wing dams outside of spawning areas hoping that the fish would be stopping on them before they made there way in to spawn. I was unable to locate any wing dams that were holding the number or fish I was looking. I know there was one out there somewhere but I was unable to find the proverbial needle in a haystack.

That was about all of the time I had to fish that day as it was slightly shortened due to the tournament meeting. I got back to the launch about the same time Brian did and with the exception of a man bear pig that went around 6 pounds he had a similar day to me.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

St Jude practice Day 1

I thought open water was never going to come! This was one of the latest springs we have had in quite awhile. Global warming? I started out the season practicing for the St Jude tournament on pools 4 and 5 on the Mississippi River in Wabasha. The water was high and cold, which means tough fishing but once you find them they should be biting and schooled up pretty well. I knew I was going to focus on smallmouth as the largemouth would be tougher to find. Brian Brown and I were teaming up for this tournament just as we did last year.

My first day of practice was on May 1st, Brian and I decided to start practicing on pool 4. I had an idea of where the fish would be as I knew going into it, they would be pre-spawn due to the late spring. I started outside of a very popular spawning area looking for isolated stumps and small humps the fish would be stopping on while they were heading to their spawning areas. I was unable to find any fish where I felt they would be and I kept moving shallower. Once I moved a little shallower I found an emergent grass bed where I caught a few fish on a 1/4 oz white Outkast swim jig (my favorite river lure). However, these fish were not the size or number of fish we needed to do well. I then kept moving shallower just making sure that I could rule that out of my plan. I spent a couple hours (more than I should of) investigating a spawning area that usually holds fish. I was unable to find any fish and warm enough water and felt confident that I could rule that out of my plans.

I then decided to make a short run to another popular area that I know has big fish around it but you really need to know the exact spot. I did not know where the exact spot that the pre-spawn fish stop at but there is no other way to find it other than spend time looking. I caught a few smaller fish on the swim jig and a couple pike but was unable to find the "motherload" that I knew was around somewhere. This is an area that I need to spend more time in as it has produced large bags in the past.

My next stop was down river. The river was much higher than usual due to the heavy spring rain. I decided to spend some time fishing in some current outside of a large shallow bay. There are some really good current breaks that Brian and I have caught fish on in the past and I was able to catch a few decent fish on them this year. Although the current was too much to fish them effectively I was able to drift by the "eddies" and throw a bandit fire-tiger crankbait past them and the fish were in the slower water just waiting for some food to come by. I also caught a couple 6 pound plus walleye's here. I checked out a couple other spots in that area that had a few smaller fish on them, but again couldn't get anything that we could bank on.

The day was getting later and I had time to stop at one other spot that was a textbook pre-spawn area. There were a couple points just outside of a marina with good current pushing baitfish onto the points. I picked up a 3.5" Outkast tube in smoke/red pepper color. I made one cast just inside the marina and caught a smaller bass. I then turned the boat to face one of the points and fired onto the top of the point. My line immediatly jumped and I hooked a nice 3# smallmouth. I thought "huh, that makes sense". I made a similar cast again and as soon as the Outkast tube got to the point I hooked another 2.5# smallie. Ok, thats enough for that one. I turned to the other point and made a long cast and got it about halfway back and hooked another 2.5-3# bass. Finally, something that made sense had fish on it. I knew that spot had a lot of potential and there was a reason the fish were there.

I then had to head in and get checked into our motel room and re-tie some rods for tomorrow which would be spent on pool #5. Talked to Brian on the way in and he had pretty much had the same day I had with the exception of the last spot I stopped at. We still had plenty of work to do.

Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Welcome!

Hey all, welcome to my new website and my tournament blog. You will see frequent updates on my where-abouts and my fishing and tournament updates. My goal is to update this as much as I can. I will be notifying you about my practice and tournament results as well as giving some tips from what I find on the water that day. My next tournament is July 19th on the Whitefish chain in Cross Lake Minnesota. I am going to be practicing starting on July 15th. I am looking forward to this tournament as I have had some success on the Whitefish chain and I get to do what I love to do the most and that's structure fish. I will be updating more soon as well as recapping my spring.