You may have noticed there was no Club Tournament #3, I skipped Lake Koronis to spend the day with my wife on our 5th Wedding Anniversary.  So on to Green Lake….

When we arrived at the launch, that was my first look at Green Lake, no time to pre-fish and no prior history.  Always makes for an interesting tournament.  I did do a little research and talked to a few guys in the club to get an idea of what stage the smallmouth were in, as they are the predominant species and how most tournaments are won on this lake.  My partner Frank did get out one day on the lake, scouted out a few things but it was terribly windy that day.

We started on one of the main lake reefs in the middle of the wide open lake, the wind was already coming across pretty good.  Frank and I both started with assorted reaction baits, topwater, Ima Flit Jerkbait, etc.  Nothing doing on the reaction baits.  I then switched to dragging a Fork Craw on a Petey Rig, and was pretty quickly rewarded with a nice 2lb plus smallmouth.  We continued to work that area with soft plastic presentations and got no more bites.

We then both agreed to move to the calm side and look for some boulders or bedding smallies.  We looked at Frank’s GPS map and picked a likely area based on contours.  I pretty quickly found an isolated bed with a nice smallmouth on it.  It only took a single pitch with a Green Pumpkin Mizmo Tube to put a near 3lb smallie in the well.  Shortly after that I was rewarded with my big smallie of the day on a Bluegill Reaction Innovation Vixen topwater.  Things were looking good, as it was still in the 7am hour.  We tried to get some more topwater fish, but that did not pan out.

We then poked around in a little cut, where Frank was able to get 3 small largies on a jig and I was able to get 2 largemouth on a Mizmo Tube, one weighing 3.3lbs.  So that rounded out my limit, but the one largemouth was still pretty small.  We tried a few more things in that area, then went searching for more beds.  I then culled 2 more times with smallies off beds, both on Tubes rigged texas rigged with Tru-Tungsten 3/16oz weight, 6mm Force Bead & Smart Peg.

We kept fishing hard the rest of the day, I caught some more smallies on the Fork Craw and a nice largemouth on a 5″ BassTrix, but nothing that upgraded my limit.  Frank caught several more largemouth, but they were all short.  We really had all out fish before 10am.  We fished hard the rest of they day, but it did not work out.

Me with two nice fish and Sport Smith tallying my weight in the background
At the end of the day, i weighed 13.9lbs, but due to a livewell pump issue, I lost two fish, and set me back to 13.4lbs for 2nd place.  I also had big fish, with a 3.5lb smallmouth.  Cannot complain for first time on the lake.  I am anxious to get back there and chase smallies again when the opportunity presents itself.

Looking forward to doing some fishing on local lakes around the 4th, maybe Marion & Minnetonka
Rich
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I was going to write a preview blog entry for this event on Thursday or Friday last week, but never got around to it.  My buddy Ryan & I decided to fish this Bassmaster Weekend Series event on the Winneconne/Winnebago chain to help learn this system as we had never been there before.  So we drove over on Friday afternoon to make the pairings meeting.  I was paired with Justin Newkirk from the Milwaukee area.  We were boat #6 & he told me we were fishing Bago and chasing Smallies, which I was pretty excited about.  Ryan drew boat #22 and he was headed up the Wolf River.

It took us nearly an hour to get to our first area.  I started chucking reaction baits, Vixen, RedEye Shad, & Spinnerbait across this rocky gravel & grass flat without a bite.  I then switched to dragging soft plastics with a 3/16oz Tru-Tungsten sinker, about 15 minutes later I caught my first Smallmouth.  I caught quite a few smallies on this setup and then Justin finally caught his first on a small football jig with Chompers Skirted Grub.  We stayed out on the flat until around 10-11am, we then fished our way back up the river and towards the weigh-in Winneconne.  I was able to get one really nice largemouth flipping a 3/8oz Fall Craw Tru-Tungsten Jig to finish my bag on the way back to Winneconne. 

Justin ended up with only 2 smallies & 1 Largemouth, he ended up dumping his bag, I am guessing he had about 5.5-6lbs.  My 3 fish limit weighed 6.61lbs and was good enough for 5th place.  My big fish was a 2.3lb smallmouth.  I was pretty excited to get a check on a system I had never seen before we launched on Saturday morning.   It was also my first Weekend Series tourney as a non-boater, hard to get used to fishing out of the back of a boat after being in front so many times.  Kind of cool that makes 10 out of 13 Weekend Series events that I cashed a check in!!

Sorry no pictures   It was a long drive back to Lakeville.  Had a Gopher Bassmasters Jr. Tourney on Sunday on Lake O’dowd on Sunday, I will have pictures from then

Rich
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I was able to get out fishing on Friday before the tournament to get some practice in and put together a pattern.  I did not get on the water until 10am and the weather was brutal at best.  Sustained winds at 20-25mph with gusts up to 39mph, that mixed in with plenty of rain.  I started out by covering water, targeting mostly flats with a swim jig, SWL Spinnerbait, Sebile Flatt Shad and an Ima Shaker.  That water temp was around 59-60 degrees.  The more I fished, the more confident I was, that most of the fish were still pre-spawn.

The spinnerbait and swim jig yielded the most bites early on, they were keepers but nothing great.  I checked a few docks here and there with my trusty 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten jig and got some bites, some felt decent, I did not set on those fish.  Most of my deep areas were too tough to fish in the wind and there was not the usual weed growth present as in past years, probably due to a late ice out.

I was able to fish one inside turn and get a few good bites and caught probably my biggest fish of practice on a 6″ Aaron’s Magic RoboWorm on a drop shot.  Spent a lot of time scouting old areas with my graph and looking for weed growth.  Got off the lake around 3:30pm to get my tackle & rods ready for tomorrow.

I drew boat #26 out of 51 pro anglers.  My partner was Steve Broom, very nice guy!  As I approached the area I wanted to start in, there was a boat already there, so I went to another area.  I started in some old reeds with a swim jig, nothing happening.  I then switched between my jig & a spinnerbait and caught a couple keepers.  As the stretch of reeds dwindled, I flipped the adjacent docks and boated a few more keepers.  The last dock in that stretch gave up a 16.5″ largemouth on the jig.  That was my 4th keeper, but was the first fish that I was excited about.  We then worked the adjacent flat and weedline with reaction baits and we both boated a couple keepers.  I tried to slow down on a coontail point and get some large fish with soft plastics, but it was a no go.

We then went to the area where I wanted to start, over another patch of old reeds, I got one on a spinnerbait.  I then tried the adjacent docks and got two fish over 17″ on the jig.  The second fish reminded me how important good sunglasses can be.  As I reeled my jig back to the boat, I saw a bass trailing my jig, so I dropped my rod tip, she sucked it in and the 3.5lb fish was in the boat.  My JKruz Riptides definitely deserve the assist on that fish.

We then tried one more deep area, caught some keepers, but nothing I could upgrade with.  I then decided to focus on docks in Le Homme Dieu and Darling for the rest of the day.  Overall I am sure I caught more then 30 keeper bass, almost all of them on a 3/8oz Green Pumpkin/Brown Tru-Tungsten jig with either a watermelon or green pumpkin chunk.  I culled several times, but never did get anymore real good fish.

My partner weighed 3 fish for just under 4lbs and my 5 went 12.16lbs.  It was good enough for 8th place and a decent check to start the year.  My only regret was spending as much time fishing deep as I did, my better bites came early and I think if I would have fished more docks early, I could have gotten one more 3lb plus bite and improved my catch significantly.

On another note, I boated 3 fish over 17″ to help fill out my limit for the BP Bass Derby, little online tourney I am participating in, check it out!!!  You can probably join in, unless you are scared???

Tight Lines,
Rich
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Well my work travels for the week are over, finally back in town, spent some time getting my gear together, need to spend some more time tomorrow before I will be tournament ready.  I leave tomorrow morning to drive up to Alexandria to get my one day of practice in before my first Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament on Saturday.

My main goal tomorrow is to establish what the fish are doing.  Bases on what I have read on reports and water temps from the chain, I believe there will be fish in all 3 stages during our tourney.  Although, my sneaking suspicion is that most of the fish will still be pre-spawn, but we’ll find out tomorrow.  My secondary goal is to attempt to establish some areas or a pattern where I can get a few good fish in the boat.  One or two 3lb plus fish on this lake can make all the difference in the world and limits are bound to be plentiful.

We are having quite a bit of rain and turbulent weather leading into this event, which could make it a little tougher but the Le Homme Dieu chain always spits out loads of keeper bass, the trick is always breaking the 10lb barrier and anything in the teens will almost assure you a top 5 finish and have you in contention for the $5k first place prize.

One thing is for sure, I really want to put an emphasis in fishing for a win this year, so my plan is to roll the dice a little bit more early in the Weekend Series events and worry about getting limits in the afternoon this year.  Guess we will see how that works out!  I also intend to give a swimbait a try in each event this year.  Also I am going to try some big worms along with more jig fishing.

Well check back Sunday or Monday to see the results of my Friday practice and how the tournament goes.

Tight Lines,
Rich
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Going into Deer, I had a sneaking suspicion that things could be tougher.  My suspicions proved to be true for most of they field.  My partner, Matt Veech (Gopher Jr. Member) were last out, so we lingered around to fish some of the cabbage and shallow structure near the ramp.  I started out with a Matte Bluegill colored Ima Flit jerkbait, working the drop over where some cabbage tapered off from about 5 feet to 10ft.  Nothing happened there.  I then started flipping a 1/4oz Tru-Tungsten jig into some wood, I caught one that was so close to 14″ but not quite.  I then worked my way onto a flat and caught 3 short fish on a RedEye Shad in Metallic Tn Shad.

We then hopped to another area and Matt quickly caught several short fish drop shotting a baby brush hog.  I then tried my Baby Ring Fry with a 1/8oz Tru-Tungsten sinker pegged about 18″ up the line and caught several short fish right along side of him.  As the sun got higher, we started poking around the shallows.  I was tossing a Jackall Flick Shake worm on an 1/8oz Zappu Inchi Wacky Jig.  Caught a few short fish on that, the larger fish were far & few between and very weary.  I then spotted a fairly large musky up near a tree.  I flicked my Inchi Jig in front of his face and he quickly sucked it in.  I set the hook and the battle was on, he was giving me all I wanted with 8lb Vicious Fluoro, once I got him a little closer, I saw I had him hooked perfectly in the corner of his mouth.  I got him close to the boat several times, but my bass net was so tiny that it just did not work out.  After having him in net range 3 or 4 times he finally busted me off.  He was probably in the 35″ range.  It would have been nice to get my hands on her and get a picture for the blog

Well we continued to try different things all day, spent a lot of time on docks.  I caught several fish on texas rigged baby ring frys and 1/4oz TT Jigs.  Overall, I fished pretty sloppy, it seems every time I would hook a good fish, I would manage to drop them.  If they were short, I would then every time.  My JKruz Riptide Sunglasses allowed me to see a lot of decent fish around docks, but it was very frustrating as most of them were not interested in biting.  With about 15 minutes ago, I finally got one to the boat and it was a good fish.

At the weigh in, I weighed my one fish at 3.5lbs.  It put me in 7th place out of 22 guys, there were several zeros.  That fish was good for Big Bass money, which made me feel a little better about only boating one bass.  You can see the final standings here.  Hopefully, I have all these drops behind me before my first Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament on the Le Homme Dieu Chain on June 7th.   If there are any boaters that are fishing the MN Weekend Series and are looking for links, let me know as I have 3 non-boater buddies looking for links.

Rich
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This year I did not have time to practice for my first club tournaments nor did I have my gear prepared like I would have like to.   None the less I was excited to get out and do some open water bass fishing.  I had fished Bone previously about 4 years ago and I had done well in that tournament, so my plan was to fish the memories to start and then adapt from there.  Our club had decided to fish the tournament as a 4 fish limit with no culling to follow WI state rules.  Also my partner had to leave at 11:30am to go to his college graduation.

7am came & my partner Corey Brant & I were boat # 5 out of 11.  I was pretty sure if we could get into the boat canal on the north end of the lake, we could get some early bites in there.  One of the other first 4 boats also went there, so we let them get in there a ways and then fished behind them.  Corey & I each got two keepers and several short fish.  I caught my two fish on a green pumpkin baby ring fry with a 1/8oz Tru-Tungsten sinker pegged about 18″ up the line.  First fish was about 15″ and the other about 16″.  Corey got his two on a 3/8oz jig and they were both just over 14″ bass.  The other boat also caught several keepers.  The action tailed off, so we tried some other areas.

We then moved to some points & islands to look for staging fish.  I mainly threw a Matte Bluegill colored Ima Flit jerkabait and RedEye Shad in Metallic Tn Shad, which I think looks alot like a sunfish color.  Caught several fish on each, but none of which I kept.  Corey also caught a few short fish. 

I then decided we should try some docks, because past experiences on Bone I have noticed that the bass like to stage on the docks on this lake.  The first dock we fished, I caught a 14″ on a 1/4oz Tru-Tungsten jig, I chose not to keep it.  I then decided since Corey only had about 45 minutes left, that I would drive him around to the next few docks and I would throw a 3/16oz Secret Weapon Lure spinnerbait.  In about 6-8 docks, he got 3 keepers, couple of them were 2.5lb plus fish to fill out his limit.  We then packed up and headed back to the landing so that I could weigh him in.  He finished with 4 fish for 8.7lbs and 2.9lbs was his big fish.

So I spent the rest of the day fishing docks with 1/4oz & 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten jigs in natural Watermelon & Green Pumpkin color combinations.  I probably caught 10-15 more keepers and many more short fish.  I did not actually keep my last fish until 2:45pm, when I finally got a fish close to 18″.  It was really a blast, when you found the right stretch of docks, you could catch a bass on every dock and sometimes multiple fish.  One dock, I actually caught 5 keepers and a couple shorts.   My All-Charge unit was very important during this tournament as well.  I put a lot of strain on my trolling motor batteries as I would burn from dock to dock on high often.  On this day, more docks fished = more bass in the boat.  So it was nice that every time that I fired up my outboard to move areas, my All-Charge unit would freshen up my deep cycle batteries.

Made it back to the weigh-in with a couple minutes to spare, many others had come in early as well, because they had their 4 fish.  Overall the fishing was good for most.  I ended up taking first with 4 fish for 9.6lbs and my big bass was 2.9lbs.  Big bass weighed was 3.4lbs.  Most of the better bags were also caught shallow, either around vegetation or docks.  Overall I was pretty excited with the good start, even though I executed poorly and missed several fish and was hoping to duplicate on Deer lake Sunday, but I also knew that Deer can be much tougher.

Stop back to read about Deer, should have the post up soon!
Rich
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Well, its moving day.  I find myself in 157th place, top 50 get a check and top 25 fish tomorrow.  My partner Adam Bain from Alabama & I are out boat 108 or something like that.  We arrive at my chosen starting point and there is a nice breeze coming in on it, which I expect would only help.  We work the point hard for about 30 minutes, with cranks, jigs & spinnerbaits, etc.  Nothing happening.  I decide to try the adjacent pockets it the wind blowing on them, figuring there could be some fish pulled up in there.  I quickly caught a 2lb fish on a my Sebile Flatt Shad, not too much longer my partner gets a nicer fish on a spinnerbait, just under 3lbs.  We went back and forth on these two pockets once more each, no more bites.

We stop and fish a main lake shoal, looks good, but nothing.  We then fish some rip rap with the wind blowing on it near the HWY 47 bridge.  Finally we make our way into a pocket and I catch keeper #2 on the Flatt Shad.  The next pocket, my partner gets a 3lb + fish on his spinnerbait.  We fish a few more pockets, points and the Little River Marina with no bites.  We then come into a pocket and it has a road bed coming into the back of it.  I catch my 3rd keeper on the Sebile, just a little squeaker that likely does not even weigh a pound.

We hit a couple more pockets, nothing more.  We decide to go hit some weed flats that my partner caught fish off of in practice, after about 10 minutes I catch a nice 3lb fish on my flatt shad, he was kind of foul hooked, so it made me think that he did not take it well and I might want to change up baits.  After a bit more fishing there, we decide to refish the pockets that had produced fish.  As we come into the road bed pocket, I make a few cast with the lipless crank.  I think to myself, I need a good fish or two, and my partner has gotten quality bites on the spinnerbait.  As I bend down to reach for my spinnerbait, my partner gets a 3.5lb fish.  He now has a really solid 3 fish limit.  The next pocket I catch a short fish and a keeper on my SWL Quick Strike Blue Herring Spinnerbait to give me 5.  Adam also gets another keeper, that did not help him.  We hit the pockets where we started in the morning, nothing more.

I saved sometime to hit a pocket where I had caught a 5lb fish in practice flipping.  I started by rolling my spinnerbait down the edge of the grass and about 10 cast into it, my rod loaded up real good.  After a brief struggle, we netted a 4lb + fish.  I was pretty jacked at that point.  I got rid of a 13oz fish with a 4lb’r.  I worked the spinnerbait a little more, then went to flip a short stretch where I had caught the big one in practice.  On about my 20th drop, my rod tip loaded up…..   I set the hook, it felt good at first, but them a small keeper came popping out of the mat, was not big enough to cull.  Few more flips, fished the spinnerbait out towards the mouth of the pocket, then it was time to head back towards the ramp.  I mentally figured I had about 10-12lbs, and that is about what I figured I needed to make the $$$ cut.  I knew deep down, I needed one more 4lb class bite to have a shot at the Top 25. 
We found a nice looking little pocket near check in with the wind coming into it.  We worked it hard for about 10-12 minutes and it was time to check in.  We fished hard to the last cast, less then a minute left when we checked in.  My partners 3 fish weighed 9.5lbs, which vaulted him into 18th place from 189th place.  I was excited to see him do well & get to fish day 4.  My 5 fish weighed 11.47lbs, which was the 6th biggest bag out of 222 boaters on day 3.  That nice bag shot me up 111 places to 46th overall.  It also helped me win a side bet with my buddy Billy Harris, we will talk about this in detail in its own blog entry

I think the biggest keys for my day 3 improvement, were covering more water and the right kind of water.  Fishing the current conditions instead of trying to mine areas where I found fish in previous days.  Also, bait adjustment.  My buddy Billy had caught all his fish on a chrome blue lipless crank the first 2 days, so that prompted me to give the Sebile Lipless crank a more honest try.  Also, my Secret Weapon Lure Pro kit, allowed me to quick build and match the spinnerbait that my partner was having success with and fill my limit and get a kicker fish.  Felt good to cash that $1300 check, but at the same time angered me that I did not figure them out a day or two earlier, I could have been in the mix and fishing on day 4.  Oh well, I feel like I really learned a little about fishing in southern impoundments that will help me next time. 

I hope you all have a safe and fun Thanksgiving!!!

Rich
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Rich
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If you enjoy this Blog, consider making a PayPal donation to help keep it going. No Donation too small, Thanks!