The norm for Gopher Bassmasters is to fish two tourneys back to back on the same weekend.  For July we were fishing Lake Minnetonka twice and launching from different ends.  Saturday we launched from Maxwell Bay.  I had not been on lake since mid June and that was my only trip on Tonka this year for a Jr Tourney that I captained for.

My plan was to start deep in Cook’s Bay and try to find some good fish and use shallow as a backup plan.  The spot I wanted to start on had a boat on it, so I tried a deeper rock spot with not bites, I moved in and flipped the foil, missed a bite, caught a short and caught 12 incher.  The next deep rock/foil area produced no bites, but I slipped in on some docks nearby and caught 3 more tiny keepers to have 4 fish that would not have weighed 5lbs.  From there, I swung back out on the foil edge and fished along.  Shortly there after we ran into a school and we caught 11 nice keepers in about 15-20 minutes in 50yd stretch.  I caught mine on tubes & jigs.  These were nice fish, with a few in the 3-4lbs range.

I then went to where I wanted to start and immediately caught a 3.5lb fish on a football jig.  No more bites, spent the rest of the day bouncing around rocks, foil & docks.  My partner ended up filling out his limit and I caught some fish, but nothing to cull up with.  I finished the day will just under 18lbs and 4lb 3oz was my big fish.  It was good enough to first, but there were several nice bags in the tourney that day.

Sunday was a new day, new partner and launching out of Gray’s Bay.  I started on some weedlines and rock in Brown’s Bay.  I caught decent fish on a tube right away, then caught a musky and then a tiny keeper.  We then made the run to check the school I had in Cook’s.  I got some bites, but really had to work for them, losing one nice bite and catching a few including one fish close to 4lbs by deadsticking a jig worm.

We tried several more spots, nothing produced, so we went fishing shallow in St. Albans and I culled my really small fish with some 14″ fish and my partner ended up with 4 fish.  Much tougher day for us and turns out everyone else.  I ended up with 11.43lbs, which got me 3rd place and also enough to advance to 3rd round of Match Fishing.  See full results.  I also extended my healthy lead on the AOY race with two tournaments left.

Got a family vacation this coming week, hope to do some ocean fishing and then some more tourneys in August!