Lake Marion – Pan-O-Prog Days Tournament – July 8th, 2006 | Rich Lindgren's Bass Fishing & Bassin' Blog

PICTURES ADDED!!!

Ryan & I got up at 4:30am and headed to the ramp, launch and checked in with plenty of time to enjoy the rolls provided by the MN Pole Benders. I left drawing the boat number up to Ryan, he picked a respectable 16th out of 40. As we pulled up to our starting point, there was another boat setting down about 75yds to the right and we ended up each fishing one side of the point, 3-5ft. I quickly got one about 3lbs on a finesse carolina rigged (pegged Tru-Tungsten 1/8oz sinker 24″ from hook) baby watermelon Ring Fry. The other boat caught a couple small keepers on a black chatterbait. After fishing awhile we started working the flat over the next point. I caught one small keeper on a blk/purple Outkast Swim Jig with a Black Gulp Minnow Grub trailer. Then Ryan & I each got on keeper on a the baby Ring Fry off the point and I lost one that we saw jump, probably 1.5lbs. We fished one more mid-depth point in the rain and headed out to a deep spot on the main lake.

We pulled up to my primary deep hard bottom area and there were 4 tournament boats working up shallower. Within 25-30 minutes we boated 5 really nice keepers (including our big fish of the day), 3 on Carolina Rigged Lake Fork Creature (Bull Bream) and 1 on a C-rigged Senko (Cinnamon). The keys to the c-rig seemed to be the Tru-Tungsten weights and crawling it slower than slow. You could really feel the gravel and small rocks in 10-14ft with the tungsten weights. When the Carolina Bait slowed, I switched to a DT10 (Bluegill) and got another 3lb plus fish. I got one more bit that pulled an appendage of my creature and then the action stalled. We worked the area with jig worms, drops shots, 10″ Lake Fork Worm and other baits with no more bites. It was 10:45 and we decided to leave and try some other areas.

We hit a couple other weedlines and rows of docks, caught several keepers, on Swim Jigs & Tungsten Jigs, but nothing big enough to cull out our 2.5# small fish. I figured by working the docks we were playing good defense even if we did not manage any big bites. We eventually returned to our deep spot at around noon, we worked it over again with several baits including creatures and jigs, but no more action. We were having some starting battery issues so we opted to work the bar next to the landing for the last 30 minutes. No more bites, and we headed in about 10 minutes early to get a good spot on the beach and to ensure we were not late as we figured to have 20+ lbs in the well.

We weigh in with about half the field already weighed, had to wait to make sure Laura (my wife) was there before we brought the fish up. Our total for 6 fish was 20.85lbs with a big fish of 4.87lbs. When we weighed it was top weight and big fish so far. We ended up in 3rd, the same two teams from the previous year took 1st & 2nd, but our big fish held.

We were a little more than a pound out, we need one more 4lb bite. Those two 2lb fish held up back. I think we may have been a little late getting out to the deep spot, I think we only caught the tail end of the bite. Overall we fished very well and you can hardly complain about 20+lbs, the only fish we lost would not have helped. Looking back I wish we would have moved deep a little earlier.

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