One thing that I forgot to mention about practice, is how bad the power situation for charging batteries was at the hotel before the official practice. There were a bunch of guys sharing plug-ins and many guys woke up the next morning with almost no charge on their batteries. Guys had to give up time on the water to come in and charge their batteries or try to practice with no trolling motor. My StayNCharge and All Charge systems that kept my batteries charged from my outboard and tow vehicle were a life saver until the actual boat yard was ready. It sure is nice having piece of mind, not worrying about getting a charge no matter where you are.
Day 1 – I drew David Thompson from Illinois. Talking to him, he seemed like a good hook, fished a lot of the Stren Series & Opens. He had some pad fish going in Buttes De Mortes, so he agreed we would fish my fish first and save his fish for the afternoon. We were boat #21 and made it to my area in South Asylum as the first boat there. I started on some point and docks that produced one evening on the second practice day, but all I got was a rock bass there. We jumped to another area with a sea wall and David quickly got a nice keeper on a Sweet Beaver. From there I caught 4 keepers in a row ( 3 on a blk blue 4″ Yum Tube / 1 Green Pumpkin Red Flake Baby Brush Hog) We each also caught a couple shorts and had some short bites. With 4 fish in the well, I ran some areas up further north looking to get a 3lb class largie on Winnebago. I caught a couple more shorts, then it was time to give my partner his time up front on his water.
The first area we pull into has some great looking Cow Lilys. I start with the a Black Cane Toad and get two hits, but both of them missed the bait. I also noticed they were hitting way on the end of my casts. David then got a nice 3lb plus largie on a fluke. I then switched to a white floating frog, figuring I could cast it further where I felt the fish were. About 5 casts later, I had what looked to be a good fish hit my frog, I felt him it, but he did not take it down. About 5 casts later into that area, one ate it and I reefed the fish across the 25yds of pads. It was a nice 2.75lb fish and that was my 5th and I was done at 10:15am. My partner continued to work this area and one other and finally got his 5th fish around 1:10pm.
We took a leisurely ride back to Miller park as we were not due in until 2:15pm. I weighed 10lbs 5oz and David had a few more ounces then that. That bag was good enough for 21st out of 96 on day 1. Overall I was pretty happy, I was still in the running, I felt I managed my fish well. I was 3rd on my team and only about a 1.5lbs back, which is nothing in a 3 day event. My plan for tomorrow would be similar. The MN team was also in 3rd after day 1, so we were in good position to make some good team $$$.
I will leave you with this parting photo of the leader with the Appleton Hooter’s Girls that attend the Weigh-In
Photo courtesy of BASS
Rich
RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog