Well the final two day event of the MN Bassmaster Weekend Series was finally upon us.  I was able to get out on the lake one last time the Wednesday before for about 7 hours.  Spent most of that time check some deeper rock areas and a few weedlines and flipping milfoil, none of which produced.  Found a few new docks holding fish, but they were not close to my other areas, so who knew if I would get to them.

I drew boat #32 out of 36 and Mark was my partner.  I did not really care about my draw, because it would not effect where I would start.  Mark & I spent the morning working shallow milfoil, pads, sea walls & docks in the Excelsior area of the lake not far from Maynard where we took off from.  Things started slow for me.  Mark was able to get a quick keeper on a black spinnerbait.  I had a few bites early, but they must have been short striking my offerings, as I never hooked up.  About an hour & a half in, I was swimming a 1/2oz PB&J Tru-Tungsten Jig with a green pumpkin rage chunk along a pocket in the pads and I hooked up with a very good fish.  I had her coming and saw he jump, she had to be close to 4 lbs.  As I switched rod direction to bring her back to the left she must have got a little slack and popped free, tough break.  I am thinking I should have just kept the steady pressure…..  Right after that Mark was able to get a nice 2lb fish on a white frog.

This is the jig that accounted for 9 of my 10 fish weighed,
it’s been a good fall color for me

For the rest of the day, I kept my head down and fished shallow with my 3/8oz Sunfish Tru-Tungsten Jig matched with a green pumpkin YUM chunk.  It too a long time just to get a limit and they were all small, but I finally started culling around 11am and putting a few “tournament fish” in the box.  My partner got his At about 1pm, I left the excelsior area to run some docks in Crystal, North Arm & Maxwell.  Some had boats on them, the others did not produce.  As time was winding down, I ran some docks in the main lake, the last 5 docks i fished i dumped a 3 plus and a solid 2lb fish, then had another 2lb fish follow my jig, not good, all would have helped me, as I had a couple 13-14″ fish in the box still.  My final weight was 11.80lbs, which had me in 15th place, not terrible, but the fish I lost could have had me in the Top 5 and in the money cut.

Day 2 I fished with Doug Brooks and we were boat #9.  I decided to start and run a much of the same water as the day before.  I caught a quick 14″ keeper on a Brovarney Swim jig and then got a fish close to 3lbs out from a shallow pontoon right after that on the Sunfish jig.  Fish came quicker and bigger on day 2.  I left this area around noon and had a pretty good limit with only one small fish, all coming on the jig.  This day I ran to some pads in Libbs lake in hope for a kicker, but the only thing that bit was a pike.  I made one stop in Gray’s Bay where I flipped a Yum Vibra King Tube rigged with a 3/4oz Tru-Tungsten Flippin’ Weight on a 3/0 BMF hook into some heavy milfoil and I caught a nice 2lb fish to get rid of my small fish and about 10 flips later, caught one over 3lbs to get rid of that 2lb fish.  I was feeling pretty good about the day and had some time left, I felt I needed a kicker bite to make it a very good day. 

I made a spot on a deep milfoil spot in Wayzata, that produced only a 8″ bass for my partner.  I then ran to the docks that I lost the fish late in the day on Saturday.  Not even a tap!!!  I then stopped on some wood pier docks and caught a 8″ fish, not helping at this point.  I then decided to hit some wood pier docks next to Maynard’s with 30 mins left, but they were covered up by boats, so I ducked into St. Albans bay, fished what I saw and was rewarded with one last 3lb bite, that got rid of a 2.5lb fish, not the kicker I was hoping for, but I was happy to get the bite. 

My final tally for Day 2 was 14.50lbs and it gave me a two day total of 26.30lbs.  I ended up just outside of the money in 10th place, not a great tournament, but pretty decent on Tonka which I have not the most experience.  My 10th place finish bumped me to 3rd in the points, not to bad of a year!  Because of obligations on the home front, I am not going to be able to go to the 2 day regional on Kentucky Lake, good luck to the rest of the MN anglers that fish it!!!

Rich
RichLindgren.com 
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog