Well, the launch went smooth and it was slightly overcast with a mild wind.  The wind was blowing into my reeds, so I had to go check to see if bigger fish had moved up to feed.  I started there and caught a few dinks real quick and moved around to some adjacent patches and I managed 3 small keepers on a weightless LFT Watermelon Candy Ring Fry and my partner got a nice keeper on a Yum Buzz Frog .

After wasting almost an hour in the reeds we went out to my deep spot, which is a deep edge off a flat on Le Homme Deu.  My partner each caught a few on crankbaits, I caught them on a DT6 Parrot and my partner was throwing a white SPRO crankbait of sorts.  It then slowed and I switched to a mojo rigged Fork Secret Baby Ring Fry and I caught my big fish of the tournament (2-12).  The flat was 6-8ft and broke to 12-18ft in the area I was fishing.  I caught one more keeper on the mojo rig to cull a reed fish.  I tried a 8″ LFT Worm on a jig worm and got zero bites.  I then tried my chartreuse craw 1/2oz Rat-L-Trap and had one on but it came off.   Reluctantly, I finally pulled my drop shot out, which consisted of a 3″ Watermelon Red Flake Fluke rigged on a Reaction Innovations D.S. Creature.  On my 3rd cast I put a keeper in the boat that culled a fish. I probably caught a bass on 20 of my next 50 casts on the drop shot, and my partner probably caught 2 or 3 fish.  I absolutely crushed them on the drop shot, but I did not get any real big bites, but I did cull several times.  My partner did round out his limit on a texas-rigged watermelon Berkley Gulp Turtle Back Worm .  The bite finally slowed so we moved to another weedline.  I caught several fish on the drop-shot, but did not improve and I tried the reeds one more time, hit a stretch of docks and a weed flat near the weigh in with a Swim Jig and only caught one more small keeper that did not help my limit.

I kept feeling I needed one more good keeper, I just never got the bite.  I felt that I wasted my time in the reeds as I am pretty positive I culled all three of those runts out.  THe other thing that bugs me was that the fish were really on when I first pulled up on the first weedline and another boat was culling shortly after I got there.  I believe if I went to start on that weedline, I would have had about 11-12lbs or more instead of 10-05.   Well it turns out 10-05 was good enough for 10th place.  Not too bad, not real great.  Dean Capra won it with 15lbs.  My dad got his money back on the non-boater side, so it was a good start to the season and we are both in good shape for points for staying close on AOY and making the regional on Patoka Lake in October.

Got a couple local club tournaments in Lakeville and then the Pan-O-Prog tournament on Marion.  Then the 2nd weekend series tourney on Whitefish Chain.  See Full Tournament Schedule

Tight Lines,
Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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My dad & I fished the chain on Friday from about 6:30am until 5pm and looked at Le Homme Deu, Darling & Geneva.  We spent most of the day shallow looking at reeds, docks and shallow cabbage lines.  We caught tons of fish, but just small keepers.  Reeds and cabbage held plenty of fish, but I did not even manage one keeper of a dock.  The best baits seem to be LFT Ring Frys in natural colors, Swim Jig (brown/purple), and other natural plastics.  We also caught fish on RC1.5 crank (chart/blue), devils horse, DT6 (parrot) and other lures.  Towards the end of day we started sampling some deeper weedlines in 10-14ft where we catch our summer fish.  We started to find better fish.  At this time it seemed my thought of junk fishing shallow was not going to work out.

Day 2 Ryan from our bass club joined us on the lake and we checked some reeds in the morning and then headed deep to expand upon yesterday afternoons finds.  We caught tons of fish on all the weedlines that produced last September where I took 2nd at the MNBF TOC.  The best baits were, Jig Worms , DT6 (Parrot), Lucky Craft Flat CB DR (chart – light blue), drop shot, and a Baby Ring Frys  on a mojo rig.  Fish also caught on Swim Jigs, chart/white Cyclone Lightning Blade , XCalibur xr50 Rattle Bait  and a chart/white Spinnerbait,.  I felt pretty good as I had several spots where we found better than average keeper fish, but no kicker fish.  We checked more spots on Le Homme Deu and Geneva and then poked around Victoria and Jessie, but I did not see anything much that peeked my interest, but I did try out my new Spro Bronzeye Frog in Jessie’s pads, very nice!  We were off the lake by 3pm to get ready for the tournament and our meeting.

At the pairings meeting, I drew boat #20 out of 66 (2nd flight) and my partner was a local guy (Kevin) who had never fished a tournament before.  I told him we should catch plenty of fish, just a matter of catching some bigger ones.  So my game plan for the tournament was to check my best reed patch early hoping to that some better fish had moved in and then head to my #1 deep spot and work it over with several baits.  Because Ryan & my father had such good luck on a drop shot, I bought some 8lb Vanish to spool up a spinning rod for a drop shot rig.   As I was digging for a drop shot hook, I came across a Reaction Innovation D.S. Creature (D.S. = Drop Shot) that I had bought at Sportsman’s Warehouse in San Antonio, so I decided I would use that for my drop shot rig.  The key thing here, is that I have probably only caught about 4-5 fish on a drop shot ever and do not have much confidence in the system, so that rod started the day in my rod box.  All there was left to do was to get some sleep.

Check back for tournament story tomorrow….
Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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I spent all last night prepping rods, tackle, and stringing on new line, so I would have more time to practice one I got up to Alexandria.  I am trying to get everything together so I can get out the door soon, its already almost 7pm.  Yikes.  Well I will have two full days to prefish with my dad who is fishing as a non-boater.  Sounds like the water temps are in the low 70’s and the spawn is pretty much done, although there could be a few stragglers sneaking up this weekend with the moon phase, but I would not bank on sight fishing.  I will have a rod ready in case I stumble on one or two.  I expect the fish to be scattered in a post-spawn, probably a bit of a tough bite.  I will most likely concentrate on mid-shallow water.  Flats, docks, reeds and inside weedlines.  Probably junk fishing, just keep moving trying different areas and picking up fish here and there.  I do not expect it to be difficult to get a limit, finding the quality fish will be the trick.  Well I am pretty PSYCHED to fish this tournament, its a lake I like a lot and I like this time of year.  I also bought  some Lake Fork Tackle Flippers today that I anxious to test.  Look for results to be blogged early next week along with a practice reports

Tight Lines,
Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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After stewing about my disappointing finish at Deer Lake, I was fired up to get revenge on the fish and the rest of the club.  I knew from prefishing that Wapogasset would be a few degrees warmer and a little farther along in the seasonal pattern.  I had a plan to start fishing staging fish in some cabbage that was 3-8ft deep that was just outside of some spawning flats, but in the back of my mind I thought shallow fish could still play a big role.  The previous Sunday we caught several keepers on lipless cranks and spinnerbaits in this cabbage area.

Chong & I arrived first in this area only to have another boat shut down just a little ways down the cabbage line.  I started out with a Rayburn Red Xcalibur Xr50 Lipless Crankbait and Chong with his lucky chartreuse spinnerbait.  We had no luck, so I tried a Husky Jerk , Spinnerbait, & a Parrot DT4 with no luck.  The other boat had no action either and they even tried bouncing plastics on the bottom.  So I started easing up into the shallow flat and noticed several male bass cruising and actually positioned on beds.  I tried fishing them for a little while with a Baby Ring Fry , but only had one small pick-up and I do not think many of these fish would make the 14″ minimum.  So I decided to head to the north end of the lake where there is a bit more color to the water and the water is a little warmer.

We fished the cabbage line into the cove and only picked up one 12″ bass on a spinnerbait.  We started poking around the docks and the inside cabbage line with soft plastics.  I was throwing a weightless green-pumpkin Lake Fork Baby Ring Fry with a spinning rod with 10# Gamma Edge Flourocarbon and Chong has 4″ Black Senko .  I quickly spotted a few bass on beds and caught 1 keeper and a short, after the previous day I put that 14.25″ keeper right in the livewell.  We continued through these docks and sandy inside areas and I got two more keepers and we each missed a nice keeper that we had on.  As we fished down the docks, we met another club boat and he had one fish, so we turned around and fished back and I got a 15″ fish that I put in the livewell.  At this time I decided to switch to the full size Lake Fork Ring Fry on a baitcaster to try to get a bigger bite, because I only could keep one more fish and it was a no cull tournament.

I then caught a 15.75″ keeper that I reluctantly threw back at 11:10am, cause I had visions of getting a kicker at some point.  Shortly after that, I caught and threw back another 14″ and Chong got a nice keeper under a dock.  We decided to let this area rest and return in the afternoon.  We hit a set of docks across the way where I had nice fish that I missed because I did not realize the slack I had in my line as the fish swam through the weeds, probably around 3lbs.  I though I had missed my kicker opportunity.  We then hit other docks on the east side of the lake, things had slowed and we each caught a few short fish.

Finally we started coming up the docks that we had met the other boat on and I hooked a nice fish under a pontoon that was on a lift with a tail weighted Ring Fry, it was 4.5lbs and that finished out my limit.  I spent the rest of the time driving Chong around the docks and shallows trying to get him fish.  I spotted a few keepers on beds that he hooked, but they managed to get off.  Final weight was 11.4lbs, 1st place & big fish, could have been better if not for no cull rule as I threw back a nice fish to get the 4.5 and I stopped fishing 1.5 hrs early.  Only one other limit was brought to the scales, but nobody was skunked.  Unfortunately the other limit came from my father who took first on Deer.  So I sit in 2nd by about 3.2 after 2 tournaments with 6 to go, very manageable.

Now I need to concentrate on Le Homme Deu for the first Bassmasters Weekend Series Tournament…..
Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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Well, I did get off work and get out on the water for a couple hours the evening before the tournament.  That may have been my biggest mistake.  I got there at 3:30pm and it was warm & sunny and the shallows were crawling with life and nice bass all the way around the lake.  I threw around some docks and pulled on a few fish and two of them hooked themselves.  One on a Baby Ring Fry and the other on a white wacky rigged Zoom Trick Worm .  I also spotted several nice fish in a tree that I saw nice fish hanging around last weekend when I was prefishing.  So my thinking was, I would start at that tree and then work shallow areas during the tournament, figuring that even though things may be slow during the morning, as the sun rose and everything warmed, things would pick up.  It would just be a waiting game of sorts.

Well John & started at the tree, fish around the perimeter and worked our way in making long casts, with no bites.  After 20 minutes we slowly trolled up to the tree and there they were, several quality 2-4lb bass just milling around.  Never could get them to bite.  So we decided we would revisit these fish again later.  We then hit a small weed flat with reaction type baits (chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, jerkbaits & lipless cranks) only 1 small bass.  We then started to hit pockets of shoreline & docks that I had success yesterday, but all we could manage was a handful of short bass.  It was pretty apparent that fish may have pulled back a bit and clouds straited to roll in and wind picked up.  So I decided to head for the far east end where there is a small shallow boat channel, the evening before I noticed several nice bass in there.  I decided to start on the docks just outside of the channel, figuring the fish may have pulled out on to that structure overnight.  We whacked the bass on those docks, on average 2-3 bas per dock, but the largest we landed was about 13 7/8″, and I broke off on one that felt like a quality fish.  We then moved into the channel itself while the sun was still shining, and there were no quality biting fish to be found.  We then continued to hit wood & docks the rest of the day, bouncing around, we managed one keeper fish each.  John got a nice fish on a green-pumpkin Jiggerbait (chatterbait knock-off found on eBay) around some submerged wood and I managed a small keeper off a dock with Fork Secret Lake Fork Baby Ring Fry , I also broke off 2 more times on docks.  We hit some wind swept points and cabbage, with no luck.

We then decided to hit that large tree one last time.  I made a long cast with a LFT Ring Fry and had a good pick-up and I reared back and the fish bit my worm in half.  So I quick re-rigged and tossed back in there, I lifted, felt good weight and broke off on 17lb Gamma.  I could not believe it, I had just retied about 10 casts ago.  This just was not my day.  I rigged up again, fished around the tree, had another good bite and somehow missed that one too.  John that got a nice 2.3lb fish  on a green pumpkin tube.  We only had a few minutes left so we eased up to the tree and sure enough there was still 2-3 nice fish swimming around that we could not get too bite.

It turns out that one guy got 3 keepers fishing a watermelon red flake Fluke on a drop-shot and John was the only other guy to have more than 1 keeper.  3 out of 12 guys came in with zilch.  Everyone caught a ton of fish from 1ft to 14ft, but very few keeper bites.  I really think if I had not been there the night before, I would have not got hung up on fishing shallow and probably would have finessed some baits though the deep cabbage and probably done a little better.  That being said, I believe I had the bites to win, I just did not convert.

On that note, Congrats to Peter T. on his Bassmasters Memorial Major victory and check back tomorrow to see how I got revenge on Wapogasset.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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After last weekends outing on Deer & Wapogasset, I feel like I have a pretty good idea of what to do for the staging pre-spawn fish.  My plan is to try to get out of work early and head over to Deer Lake to cruise around the shallows and get a feel for how far the fish have progressed since last weekend. 

Because we are fishing these two tournaments “No Cull”, it changes how I may go about things.  I feel pretty confident I could start out with Jerkbaits & lipless cranks and get a limit in the morning.  If I do that and females make themselves easy pickings in the afternoon, then I am hosed because I am stuck with a livewell full and I cannot cull them out.  So if the water looks right, I may just start the morning looking for bigger fish.

Although traditionally our May club tournaments are pretty stingy, so I may put the first few keepers in the box regardless of size.  I have been burned before by throwing keepers back.  I feel there is a pretty solid chance there will be some fish ready to spawn by tomorrow afternoon.  I think it got warm enough 2 weeks ago that they are itching to get’r done.  Plus I think the water actually may be a coulple feet down then our surface temp’s are telling us.

Check back early next week for results & details as I will not have internet to doing any Blogging this weekend.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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