A hectic schedule has not really allowed me to get out bass fishing as much as usual, I guess a 2 yr old and daughter #2 will likely be arriving any day will slow even the most dedicated bassers down. This past weekend I had 2 small tournaments on Mississippi River Pools 2 & 4 respectively.
Friday afternoon, I was able to get out for a couple hours to check water levels and a few areas on Pool 2 for Saturday’s tournament. Caught a few fish flipping a 4″ black neon tube on a 3/16oz Tru-Tungsten sinker . Also, inspired by K-Short’s performance on Lake Pickwick I threw my Ima Shaker around on Friday afternoon. It did not take long for my road to bow over with a beautiful 4.5lb largemouth cranked up off a shallow laydown.
Needless to say, this fat largie had to have this Shaker and CHOKED IT!!
The bite on Saturday morning was slower than I anticipated, it took about 3 hrs of tube flipping and one nice smallie on the Ima Shaker crank before I had my limit. It was time to start covering some new water. In the next area I started working my shallow crank around laydowns and quick culled 2 fish and caught a couple others with the Shaker . Now my bag was all 15″ plus fish, with one 17″ class fish. Hit a few more areas with nothing, returning to a stretch that produced several bites the evening before resulted in one broken line on a big fish and a nice keeper for my partner. The next area gave up a few more small keepers and than finally a nice 17.25″ largemouth. The last 90 minutes we spent in an area closer to the main channel for smallies. The area gave up many smallies earlier in the day and a few later in the day, but we did not get anything to help us. I ended up with a respectable 14.83lbs but that was only good enough for 5th.
My Key Gear from the Past Weekend
Sunday we launched from Colville Park near Red Wing. Again I started in a back cut with wood & grass. I caught a nice keeper largie pretty quickly on the Ima Shaker and my partner and I also both flipped one keeper each. My next area was occupied by a competitor and we cranked the outside edge, I got one squeaker smallie on the Shaker and several shorts, white bass and walleyes. We then tried some new water, caught some short fish and then ran to Pepin to try some other areas. My 2nd Pepin area produced keepers for me and my partner. My Ima Flit and a small beaver bait on a 1/8oz Picasso Shakey Football head worked best on my Lake Pepin rock spots. I was able to fill out a small 4 fish limit on the lake; we then returned to Red Wing to look for some better fish. Nothing happened, just a few more walleyes and shorts on the crank. My 4 fish weighed 6.7lbs, which on a tough day was good enough for 4th.
No wins this weekend, but the weather was beautiful and it was great to get out fishing against the guys in the club. I hope to get out on the opener to film an episode of “All About Bass” Catch ya’ll later!
