To save time I will skim my practice and get into the actual tournament blog.  My dad & I fished for about 6 hours on Saturday.  We checked a few areas and tried a few new things, we caught some fish in the new areas and pulled on fish in other areas we checked.  We also just plain stayed away from our key areas.  From the few fish we caught, our patterns and baits seem to be holding strong and I was feeling optimistic for tomorrow’s tournament.  At the pairings meeting, we found out it was another 7am start and I drew boat #53 out of 70.  I told my non-boater (Nick) not to worry about the draw, being in 4th flight gives us another 45 minutes of culling.

The big decision on Pokegama is wheter or not to head up the river or stay on the main lake.  I am partial to the main lake.  The day started with clear skies and a building wind.  Due to the late draw, I decided to start on a small reed point where I got a good fish in previous practice.  The logic was it was a small spot and if someone was going to be on my spot, they would probably be there regardless.  I got one keeper (1.75lbs) and my partner got two small keeper on jigs in 15 minutes off the reed point, no big bites.  We quickly shifted over to my weed point and turn where there is historically big smallies and some largemouth.  I got a keeper on a Yellow Magic popper and my partner limited out on a drop shot Zoom Finesse Worm (Grn Pumpkin Red)  It seemed obvious the big smallies were not cooperating, so I decided to run a stretch of docks that was nearby, they had good fish last weekend.

I started skipping and pitching my 3/8oz. Grn Pumpkin Brown Tru-Tungsten Jig paired with a Green Pumpkin Zoom Super Chunk.  I got 4 fish off these docks to fill my limit, one of them was close to 3lbs.  Even though I had my limit by 8:30am, in my mind I only had one keeper that I wanted.  Since there was good action on docks, I decided to hit a dock that I got a 5lb’r last weekend.  I pulled up a few docks down and caught another good keeper and another big fish followed that one out.  While I was culling, Nick threw in under the dock and broke off on one.  I fished the next few docks, no more bites.
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I made the run down the lake to a deep area with rocks and grass out to 18-19 ft and in about 5 pitches with my jig I put two fish between 3 & 4lbs in the boat.  Things were finally starting to look pretty good.  We fished the area for another 45 minutes, I caught 3 more fish that I could not use on jigs and a Baby Fork Creature fished mojo style with a 3/16oz Tru-Tungsten sinker pegged 20″ up the line from my hook.   Nick culled twice on his drop shot rig.  I decided it was getting kind of windy on another stretch of docks, so I headed over and switched to a 1/2oz Tru-Tungsten jig in the same patterns and culled with another solid keeper.  It was obvious the wind was not going to let up, so I thought I would try to hold on a main lake hump that produced big smallies and largemouth in practice.  It wind was very high, I smacked a small keeper as soon as we pulled up on my GPS spot.  We continued to fish and my partner got several short fish and rock bass on his drop shot.  I then decided to slide over to the wind side of the hump.  Very shortly there after I hooked a lost a really nice smallmouth on my baby creature.  I did not get a good look at it, but it was in the 3-4 lb class. 

I then ran back to the docks where I had the follow when I caught a fish.  I pitched in next to a boat lift and the wind took my line into a crack and a fish immediately grabbed it and pulled the line tight, there was nothing I could do.  Hard to tell how big, but every fish off that dock had been 3 lb plus.  Just like the next one as I pitched the jig up by the shallow tires and smacked another 4lb fish on my jig.  I ran down into the Sherry arm to a set of docks that produced a kicker fish in practice.  As we got there, another boat started on the other end towards us, as we got close to meeting, the other boat’s non-boater got a really nice fish.  We hit an area with big smallies across the bay and did not get a bite.  We decided to head back to the deep rock and weed area on more time.  After working the area for awhile, we each got a nice 3lb plus cull fish, I got mine on a 1/2oz TT Jig and Nick got his on a Texas Rigged Craw Tube.

For the rest of the tournament, we ran shallow docks and trees looking for one more kicker bite.  I got one good bite of a tree in Jay Gould Lake, it ended up being just a tad smaller than my small fish on my balance beam.  I really never got that really big 5lb bite that I was hoping for, I was slightly disappointed at the time.  I thought I had about 15-16lbs, I was just hoping to make another Top 10 at that point.

As it turned out, my bag weighed 17lbs 9oz and it was good enough for 2nd place out of 70 boats.  My non-boater had 3 fish for 8-06 and took top honors in the non-boater division.  This finish pushed me from 5th to 2nd in points for the series.  I trailed the leader by more than 80pts, now it is only 21 points with one event to go.

The key to my success was a good practice and keeping my jig wet, it was the 3/8oz Green Pumpkin/Brown Tru-Tungsten Jig early and often.  I also mixed in 1/2oz versions in Grn/Pumpkin Brown & Blk/Blu on occasion.  I fished my jig on a G. Loomis 844 IMX Casting Rod, Shimano Castaic SF spooled with 20lb Cajun Red Line.   

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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