BASS Northern Divisional – September 13-15 2006 | Rich Lindgren's Bass Fishing & Bassin' Blog

Day 1 – Boat #5 let me pretty much go where ever I wanted. So I decided to start on a deep spot in Le Homme Dieu. It was relatively calm, so my partner each started throwing topwaters. I got a fish on my first cast with a Bluegill colored Vixen and my partner got a keeper on his first toss with a Bone Pop-R. It then instantly slowed, we each got a few more fish there. I got some on a Parrot DT6 . We then hopped to another weedline where I filled out my limit on the DT6 .

I then moved into a small section of reeds that I had not practiced, but historically had been good to me. I got 3 good bites fairly quickly on a 3/8oz Green Pumpkin Tru-Tungsten Jig. This gave me about 10lbs and only being about 9am. I hit a few more reed patched, caught some fish on the jig, but could not upgrade. I wanted to go hit some docks for some bigger fish, but my partner wanted to get his limit and he has the right to half the fishing time. So we hopped around a few flats on Little Le Homme Dieu trying to fill out my partners limit and I squeezed in a few docks but nothing produced. I caught several more keepers and my partner got a small limit over the next couple hours. By the time we got to my docks, the day 1 leader on my team was fishing them for the 2nd time, I went to a small inside weedline where I could see some good fish, could not get them to bite and my partner wanted to fish a flat to try to cull out a couple squeakers. No good on the flat, we then finished up on a flat near check-in, we each caught some fish, none that helped me but my partner got rid of a 12″ fish.

My 10-04 put me in 13th out of 96 and I found that Jim Severson fished the docks I wanted to fish first very early and got some very nice fish there. What a tough blow, I made the wrong decision, I just did not realize they would be there first thing.

Day 2 – I am about 7lbs out of the lead and 7lbs out of qualifying for Nationals. I knew that Jim would likely only get 8lbs a day the last two days and that if I could get 12lbs a day, I could catch him. The winds were blowing 20-30mph today. Started in the same spot again, got a quick fish on a DT6 and then it stopped again. Stayed a little longer, got another keeper. My partner also had a couple keepers of this area. I then when straight for the reeds and caught 5 keepers out of there and culled a few times on my trusty jig. Nothing as big as Day 1, but quality keepers. I then headed for a small boat channel in Le Homme Dieu, where I culled twice. One nice fish off a dock with a weightless Pumpkin Ring Fry and another nice fish dropping my jig into some milfoil clumps. My partner got a small keeper on a watermelon Fluke. We hit one more small area with big fish potential and my partner got a keeper on a spinnerbait. We then had to turn to his fish as he needed to fill out a limit. We fished a couple humps in Carlos and I got a small keeper and he got nothing out there. He then took me to some weed edges in Little Darling, couple follows but no takers. I then got over to my inside weedline and there was guy there and he plucked a 2 & 3lb fish off of it. We finished the day again on a flat near check-in where my partner got his 4th fish on a shad colored minus-1 crank. Today’s total was 9-14, made up some ground and moved to 6th overall, but frustrating again to have that weigh early and get stuck.

Day 3 – The wind is still howling, we are boat 47 out of 48. I start in the boat channel where I culled twice the deay before. I get a small keeper on a Bronzeye and a big fish misses it and did not go for any follow ups. My partner got 3 keepers, two on a spinnerbait and one on a black senko. We then hit a flat nearby where I get my limit and cull once on a White Secret Weapon Double Willow Spinnerbait with Tandem Silver Willows and a couple on a shad colored Lucky Craft LVR D-10 . We then hit my reed patch and I can only manage one quality bite out of there on the jig. We then tried some more reeds and docks for several hours, I upgraded a few times but nothing that was getting anywhere close to what I needed to make up 5lbs. We came in near check in with less than an hour to go, my partner got his 5th fish on a spinnerbait and I caught a couple small keepers. Today’s weight was only 7-14, dropped me to 11th overall. I would have done better just sticking with flats and weedlines but I did not feel I could get the big bites there.

On the bright side, MN took first for team and I was one of the top contributors to that. First place team gets to split $22,000, so that helps swallow the pill that I do not get to go to Nationals. The tough thing was that I feel I was on the right fish to get it done, I just made bad decisions the first and second days not to start on the big fish. Congrats to Jim Severson for making better decisions and catching them. Thankfully I am only 27 and I plan on fishing a few more divisionals before it is all said and done, and I will not make the same mistake again