I was #1 on the waiting list all week to get in and did not get in until after the meeting when I got my pairing text and had to dash down to La Crosse from Lakeville.  My day 1 partner was Cary Bever from Rhinelander, WI.  The area we started in was a shallow grassy area with some current towards the bottom half of Pool 8.  We both started working the area with frogs as well as the other two boats that started in the area as well.  There was quite a bit of activity for all the boats in the area, but many small fish.  I did manage to get a limit of 3 fish before we left and Carey had two fish.  I got my all my fish by casting my frog  further then my boater in the morning.

On our next spot, I got the first fish and a nice upgrade.  Cary asked if I had anymore frogs like I was throwing, I did and he quickly filled his limit and started getting upgrades in the next couple areas. The frog in question was a Bluegrass Mad Maxx frog.   I also got a nice upgrade on a 1/4oz Swim Jig with Tilapia Big Bites Cane Thumper as my trailer.  The next main area was mat specific, meaning I was easily boxed out of the best areas.  I did have one good opportunity, foiled by a loose drag on a buzz frog rod, something I should have checked, but did not think about as I usually keep my baitcasters pretty well locked down.

We ended up finishing in a cut bank area up towards Goose Island, we were running low on juice so boat control was a bit loose, so I had some good chances at water.  I got one good bite, set the hook but the fish got caught up in the overhanging bank grass that I punched my chigger craw through and the fish got off.  Cary did get one last upgrade in this area before we weighed in.  My 3 fish were 7lbs 3oz and we both were 21st out of 125 after day 1 in our respective divisions.

I really give the nod to my Dobyns 736C Champion rod that I used pretty much all tournament long, I consistently casted further to fish my boaters could not reach and when the fish ate it on the ends of long casts, I boated everyone of them.  If you need a frog rod that can really reach out and touch those fish, check it out!

In other news, our third outing in the NABC series was just as bad as the first two.  We scraped a paltry 9.93lb Gull Lake limit together.  Once again we practiced in a top 5 area, did not spend enough time there and made bad decisions.  Now we must decide if I will fish Leech alone to qualify for championship. 

Still deciding if I am going to sneak in the TBF Southern Open qualifier in Winona next weekend or just lay low until the TBF Northern Divisional in early September.  Plan to do some family fun fishing down on Lake Jefferson near Mankato this weekend.

Well the stars aligned this year and the BFL slipped back one weekend and I had an open weekend to fish the event out of Alma.  Although I did not have the amount of practice I’d of liked to have, though I would go for it anyways.  I was able to fish the Sunday before the event and the day before on Friday.  The water fell over a foot between Sunday and Friday, so that made much of my Sunday practice irrelevant.

Friday practice was mixed results, I actually got plenty of bites, while pulling on most, the few that I hooked did not show promise of the 3lb plus class fish that would be needed for this event.  Most of my success was coming flipping current banks with a Okeechobee Craw Pit Boss on a 1/2oz weight.  I tried plenty of grass but never seem to find the right stretches.  I did have one main river rock area where I got a couple of quality smallmouth bites, including the 19″ fish on an A-rig.

I drew boat 59, and my co-angler seemed like a pretty good guy.  I started on a small grass/gravel point, it only produced on small 14″ largemouth on a Yellow Magic popper.  My co-angler did get a nice largemouth on a frog as we fish down the grass a bit farther, we got several bites in the area, but I think many were pike.  I then whipped into an area up river that seemed to look right.  I missed a couple smallmouth there, but they were probably just keepers.  The next area, was where I had gotten some bigger smallmouth in practice, current was super strong in this area.  My partner got a smallmouth close to 3lbs on a jig and I caught a 2lb smallmouth on an A-rig.  We made several more passes here with no more fish.

I then went and fished several areas in Indian Slough, I was able to get my 3rd fish and upgrade a couple times flipping a Pit Boss on banks with wood, rock & grass.  My partner also got a squeaker largie on a beaver to fill his limit.  He also missed a few nice bites on a frog.

We then returned to my rock area, we each got a smallmouth that culled for us, but then again no more bites.  I then hit some more flipping water on the MN side and culled on more fish flipping.  Time was running out, we hit a few things on the way back to Alma, but no more upgrades.

I ended up 62 out of 100 with 3 fish for 7lb 3oz, my partner who had fewer bites had slightly better quality and got 18th and a small check on the co-angler side.  Not sure I could have done much different in the tournament, other then I should have probably covered more water and found better areas in practice.

Onward and upward to the next tournament, can’t win them all.  On another note, I am glad I fished this BFL, as I was very impressed with how they ran their tournaments!

I only spent a few hours looking at the lake on two different mornings the week of the tournament for practice.  Lake Marion is not a big lake, so I feel like I just need to locate a few fish to start on and get a feel for what the fish are doing each year.  The Saturday before the event, the first spot I checked, I caught a 3.5lbr and my buddy Bill got 2 keepers on our first 3 casts.  As tough as Marion has been lately, I knew this would be our starting deal if we could get a good draw & be first boat there.

I was fortunate enough to draw boat #7 and we were able to get to our desired area first.  It was not lights out when we got there, it took awhile to get bit and a few casts more before Ryan got our first keeper in the boat on a flick shake.  Ryan was able to get another keeper before we doubled up and that gave us 4 fish, with three of them being pretty small.  Finally Ryan got a 3lb fish hooked up and in to the net, things were looking up.

Sunday I practiced for the Alma BFL, as I hope to keep this momentum rolling!

I only caught one keeper in practice, saw a few more and pulled on some better bites, but Josh was pulling on tons of bites and getting quality when he did lean back on one.  Check his report for the details.

We got to our best stretch and had it to ourselves, less wind and sun then in practice, but we gave it a go and got a few bites.  The bites were fairly steady throughout the day, but they never materialized into fish in the box.  Most results in torn baits with missing appendages or short fish.  It was honestly baffling to have less then a 10% hook up rate even letting the fish swim off with  your bait.

We only managed 3 fish for 7lbs and change, in retrospect, we probably should have tried finessing them off the edges, but the practice was so strong just the afternoon before and the bites were still there.  The only way to really deal with these two sub-par tourneys is to take a lesson and move on.