Gopher Jr. Club Tournament – Clearwater Lake – August 27, 2006 | Rich Lindgren's Bass Fishing & Bassin' Blog

This past Sunday we had the 2nd of our two Jr. Club events. The first event was Prior Lake back in June, where the kids fished two to a boat with a boat captain who did not fish. This second tournament was a team format with one Jr. Angler partnered with an adult boater as a team. A shared limit of 5 fish and the Jr. angler must catch at least 3 of the 5 fish.

I fished with Cody Sieben who is the current MN State Champion and is headed to the Jr. World Championship in February on Lake Logan Martin. He and his father had been prefishing and I had not been on the lake in several years. Somehow my cell phone alarm failed me and I was 15-20 minutes late, so they started fishing out of his father’s boat and had 1 keeper in the boat on a spinnerbait our of the reeds when I picked him up.

We continued fishing the reeds he was in, and as I was digging a rod to rig up out of my rod locker he got another keeper on a Green Tree Bronzeye. I soon got my act together and caught two keepers on a Ring Fry and he missed one on the frog. He also got a couple short fish on a white Fluke and lost one on the Fluke.

We hit another reed area and we each missed a fish and the sun was getting high so we went to check a weedline of Cody’s. I caught a couple short fish on a Ikey Head and DT6, Cody then got a keeper on a drop-shotted Sour Grape Baby Ring Fry. He then got another on the Ring Fry which was a nicer fish that culled. We then moved to the docks and we each caught several fish, Cody got them on the Fluke and I got mine on Pumpkinseed Ring Fry and a Fall Craw 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Jig. He caught better fish then me and we ended up keeping 4 of his fish and only 1 of mine.

We won with 5 fish 9.7lbs, it was close all 5 teams had their 5 fish limit and all between 8 & 9lbs! Did I mention I fell in the lake at our first spot adter 15 minutes of fishing, I slipped on the landing net, that is the fun story!! I also caught a fish on Cody’s Bronzeye right at the landing after the weigh-in while waiting to load the boat. Jr. Tournaments are always fun