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
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Saturday I was out on Minnetonka again, trying to get dialed in for the Weekend Series tourney this weekend.  I cannot say that I found anything that great, guess I have a couple 3-4 new areas that have some 3lbs plus potential, and I will need plenty of those for this 2 day tournament format.  My best fish came on 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Jigs and soft plastics.

Sunday was our 4th annual Gopher Fall Classic for the club.  This is our one tournament that is more fun, as it does not count towards standing and its a team format.  I was on the winning team the prior 3 years, so I had high expectations for Frank & I.  Another unique thing, is that we do not find out the tournament site until 2 days before the tournament and there is no practice allowed.

Frank has had some prior experience on this lake, and I have been on it a couple times, but never really this time of year.  We started in the reeds, Frank caught a small keeper on a Power Slug and lost one on a jig in the second set of reeds.  We then hit a few adjacent docks and I was able to boat keepers 2 & 3 on a Sunfish 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten jig.  We then hit Cemetery reed, the weeds were starting to die and there was a lot of slime, we tried anyways, not a tap.

We then agreed to give the docks some more time.  I did not take long to limit out on the docks with my jig and cull once.  We then tried some other docks, because all our fish were not very big.  We ended up catching a few more fish, only a couple culled.

We then hit two more deep areas on the way back to the ramp, nothing happened there.  We never really got on the fish, we ended up with just under 10lbs for 6 fish.  Not very good for this lake.  Ryan Brant & John Haynes won with a nice bag of 17lbs.  Sounds like most of there fish came out of reeds later in the day after the wind picked up.  They were fishing Tru-Tungsten jigs and soft plastics.

I am hoping to get out on Tonka one day this week to get a little more practice in for my last event!

Rich
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Well, my partner for Day 2 was Paul Perovich and he was able to utilize a Skeeter iClass 20 footer with a 250VMAX, so we had the means to run the lake and that was the plan.  Paul had weighed 2 fish the day before, so he said we could fish my fish.  We had some intense fog on day 2 and did not get to take off until about 10:20am opposed to out 7:15am scheduled take off.

We were in the 3rd flight and boat #45 on day 2.  It took less then 20 minutes to make the same run today, as we averaged about 71.5mph in the Skeeter opposed to the 57mph in my Aries the morning prior.  I started in the same area as day 1 and was able to get a similar start, as I boated a 16″ largemouth on a Black Yum Tube.  I also caught a short smallmouth.  We went to area #2, I caught several short smallmouth on a fork craw and Paul was able to boat a keeper largemouth on a junebug swimjig.

I went to area #3 where I had caught and released the one 15″ smallmouth on day 1.  Things were quite a bit more intense this time.  I caught 3 smallmouth on the Yellow Magic that hovered around the 14″ mark right away, but I threw them all back without putting them on the bump board, as I felt I needed all 2lbs fish today.  It was easier to throw them back without knowing they could have been legal fish.  I finally got a decent 15″ smallie that I boxed reluctantly on the Yellow Magic.  Occasionally we even saw the fish busting shad in this area.  I started switching back & forth with the Barely Legal Vixen topwater and the first fish I caught on that was about a 17″ smallmouth, that fish of course went in the box.  That gave me 3 fish at about noon.  I caught several more fish that would have been keepers, but I really wanted another quality fish to ensure a good limit.  Paul caught two keepers in this area, one on a Rapala Skitter Pop and another on a White/Chart swimjig.

I decided it was time to revisit our second area.  It only took about 5 casts with the Yellow Magic and I hooked up with a dandy smallmouth.  I played her carefully and we finally got her in the net.  She was really long with a big head, but a very skinny body.  She was over 19″, I thought she had to go 4lbs for sure.  I felt at that moment that I had punched my ticket to the top 12, but I wanted again to find one more 15-16″ fish so that I did not have to weigh that small smallmouth.  We returned to my starting area, had a couple bites but could not convert.  We then ran several areas on the way back to Wabasha, never did get that last bite.

The 2 smallies that anchored my day 2 bag of 10.08lbs that elevated my to 3rd place
My total on Day 2 was 4 fish for 10.08 lbs and put me in 2nd when I weighed.  My gangly looking smallie only weighed about 3.5lbs.  After all the fish were weighed, I ended up in 3rd, which I kind of preferred over 2nd, as I have finished 2nd in the TOC twice before and I did not want to become the Aaron Martens of the MN Bass Federation

Talking to Steve Soukup on stage from Skeeter Boats about my day on the water
I am excited to get back to divisionals next year in Lake St. Claire near Detroit, MI.   After getting so close to qualifying for nationals, I wanted to get back sooner then later.  Now its time to focus on the last Bassmaster Weekend Series event on Lake Minnetonka at the end of September!

Here are the standings from the Top 20:
MN Bass Federation Nation
Individual Results
9/04- 9/05/2008 MS River Pools 4&5, Wabasha – FINAL Standings
Participant Club Fish B/F Net Weight
1 Randy Wieczorek RIVER RATS BASSMASTERS # 6 8/8 4.08 21.17
2 Andy Nitchals WEST CENTRAL BASSMASTERS #23 8/8 4.54 20.53
3 Rich Lindgren GOPHER BASSMASTERS # 5 8/8 3.42 19.45
4 Dean Capra 10,000 LAKES BASSMASTERS #20 8/8 3.45 19.2
5 Matt Hanson ZUMBRO VALLEY BASSMASTERS #25 7/7 3.18 19.16
6 John Zvorak WEST CENTRAL BASSMASTERS #23 8/8 2.55 18.85
7 Jim Pinke BASS WACKERS #19 5/5 18.84
8 Doug Pietzrak GRANITE CITY BASSMASTERS #17 8/8 2.89 18.59
9 Brad Ballard RIVER RATS BASSMASTERS # 6 8/8 3.49 18.33
10 Brian Brown RANGE BASSMASTERS #10 7/7 3.23 18.08
11 Scott Fischer RIVER RATS BASSMASTERS # 6 7/7 3.41 17.9
12 John W. Schlee Jr. LOON STATE BASSMASTERS #22 7/7 3.15 17.39
13 Tim Vondersitt UPPER IOWA BASSMASTERS # 1 8/8 2.65 17.21
14 Chad Keller GRANITE CITY BASSMASTERS #17 8/8 2.77 16.84
15 Paul Shimek WEST CENTRAL BASSMASTERS #23 7/7 16.8
16 Trevor Rogge CLASSIC SEVEN BASSMASTERS # 2 8/8 16.49
17 Dan Bonneson SPORTSMEN BASSMASTERS #11 8/8 16.14
18 Jeff Mulholland ZUMBRO VALLEY BASSMASTERS #25 7/7 3.67 15.93
19 Dale Youngquist LOON STATE BASSMASTERS #22 7/7 3.01 15.89
20 Greg Halleland ZUMBRO VALLEY BASSMASTERS #25 5/5 15.69

Rich
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Per the usual the pairings meeting occurred the night before day 1 of the tournament.  We had a nice meeting, dinner and raffle to raise some money for the local food shelf of Wabasha.  I even won two spools of 17lb Vicious Fluorocarbon, which is a line I use all the time!  My day 1 partner was a young guy named Josh from the host club, Zumbro Valley Bassmasters out of Rochester.  This was his first state tournament and we were boat #31 in the 2nd flight.

The weather forecast looked very good wind wise to fish Lake Pepin both days, so I was pretty excited about that.  When our boat number was let out, we turned the bow north and ran up the river and lake to the tune of a 25 minute run up Lake Pepin.  We got to my first area all, no other boats.  I caught a 16″ largemouth on a 3/8ozFall Craw Tru-Tungsten jig with a green pumpkin Rage Tail Chunk and my partner got a 15″ largemouth on a 7″ power worm.  I also caught two short fish as well.

On to the second area and Josh got a nice 15″ smallie on a Shad colored Rapala Fat Rap.  This fish really did not seem to be clicking here, so on to the next area.  I caught a 15.5″ skinny smallie on a Yellow Magic popper, but I decided to let it go.  No more bites there.  The next area I quickly caught a fat 14.5″ largemouth on a Fork Craw.  I decided I better keep that one as time was starting to be an issue.  We continued to catch several more largemouth and smallmouth but all of them short.  I started to work down the bank a ways and I caught a skinny 17″ smallie and in the box that fish went, which brought me to 3 fish.  We worked the area for a bit more, trying to get another good bite and just more short fish.  We returned to my starting spot and I caught a nice 17″ largemouth on my jig.  That gave me the tournament limit of 4 fish, so we decided to run south in hopes of getting one more bite so I did not have to weight my 14″ largemouth and to get my partner some more fish.

Then things turned sour in a hurry.  About 2 miles south of Lake City my outboard seized up   Not good, it was about 12:45pm.  So what turned into a good position of having 3 hours to get one quality bite and have a very good bag became a struggle to get in to weigh our fish.  I was able to get a hold of the tournament director and get the alternate from my club to bring me a boat. (THANKS JASON ELMES!!!)  By the time we got the boat switched, we had about 30 minutes to fish.  We tried two areas, a duck weed spot of mine and a wood & grass bank of my partners.  We had a couple bites, but never connected on anything.  We had to weigh what we had.
Try to keep my spirits high after a decent catch but a blown powerhead
My 4 fish weighed 9.37lbs, my biggest smallmouth weighed around 2.9lbs.  That put me in 29th place out of a 149 competitors, but I was less then a pound out of the top 12 cut and about 3lbs out of the lead.  I knew I was very much in this thing and if I could match my catch from day 1 on day 2, I would have a very solid change at the Top 12.  And if I could get 10-12lbs I could make a run at the top 5.

Now the trick, would be to solve my boat issue for Day 2…..

Rich
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It would take too long to break down every day of practice in to a separate entry.  So I will bundle all the practice into one entry and then each tournament day will get their own entry.

Day 1:
I left my house in Lakeville at 5:30am and met fellow club member John Fairbanks in Lake City.  I figured I would start my practice on Lake Pepin since it was on the way to Wabasha and it would save a little time & gas.  We spent the early part of the day checking spots that I have had success on last September during the Weekend Series tournaments.  The water was quite a bit lower and the current way slower then last fall, so I was anxious to see how that affected the fish.  The first stop resulted in each of catching a nice largemouth and we pulled on a couple more bites.  The next stop produced just one keeper smallmouth bite, not so great.  The next smallmouth area produced a 15″, 18″ & 20″ smallmouth, time to leave there.  The next area gave up a 16″ largemouth and 17″ smallie, kept moving.  The rest of the day was a bit hit and miss, but I found some isolated cover in a couple areas that we caught some fish on and I felt it would make good back up stuff.  We got off the water around 5pm and headed for the AmericInn.

Day 2:
Day 2 I fished with club member Rick Brennhofer.  According to the weather forecast, that morning would be the last time the wind would be calm enough to run the lake without beating yourself to death.  We checked a few rocky areas on the MN side just north of Wabasha, caught one keeper smallmouth and a few short fish.  We then hit a couple isolated areas on the MN side on the way back and found two small areas with some keeper fish.  We spent the rest of the day working our way south in the river.  The first area we checked looked liked a promising eel grass line with lots of bait, but no bites.  The next area was a nice duck weed mat, Rick caught a nice keeper on a frog and we both pulled on a couple.  We spent quite a bit of time looking and idling some areas after that.  We found pad fish way down near Alma, but not many keeper bites.  Got off the water around 5pm as well, I was completely wiped physically as I had a terrible sinus infection and the heat just beat me down.

Day 3:
I practiced with Gopher teammate Josh Douglas as he was having his water pumped fixed.  First thing we fished a wing dam north of Wabasha, no fish at that time.  We then worked some wood in the back water and were able to catch some fish on Black Neon Chigger Craws, Tubes and White SWL Buzzbait.  We then went to find some more wood, caught one fish and pulled on another.  Fished some eel grass in Robinson, no bites.  Checked some pads and duckweed from last year on bottom of big lake, not too much happening there either.  Found some great looking wood further north, but no bites.  It was 1pm and time for Josh to go, I dropped him off, and went back out until 5pm.  I fished some different areas around Peterson Lake, but just caught a few shorts, got off the lake and headed home so that I could work Tuesday & Wednesday.

I gave up a day of practice to save a vacation day.  Overall I felt decent about my practice.  Some of my old stuff was clicking when I checked it other areas not so much, but I also found some new stuff.  My plan was to fish my Lake Pepin fish as much as the wind would allow and take it from there.  Based on my practice and the 4 fish limit and no culling, I figured 9-10lbs a day would be the target to shoot for to qualify in the top 12 and move on to divisionals.

Rich
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