I started the tournament in the bottom of Fleming Creek through the bridge.  I worked the area over with white spinnerbait, black buzzbait, crankbait and Zoom Speed Craw on a Tungsten texas rig.  No bites, I did notice that the water was a couple degrees cooler then on the other side of the bridge, I think that was a bad sign.  We worked back out on the lake side and onto a week flat, the area looked good but several boats had been through there.

We than ran up to the dam where I started cranking a deep weed point with a Spatter Back Lucky Craft Flat Mini DR Crankbait, it was not long before I caught a 12″ bass and my partner spooked some shad with his spinnerbait on the other side of the point, I threw back in there and caught a 14″ bass.  We worked this area for several hours and all at once I caught a fish that was right at 15″ and one over 17″ on the crankbait.  I ended up letting the one go, because I thought he may be short.  Hopped around the rest of they day, caught a 13″ bass on my Secret Weapon Lure Spinnerbait near the weigh-in.  After day 1, I was in 40th place with 1 fish for 2lbs-13oz, if I had weighed that other fish, I would have been right on the cut bubble with just under 5lbs.  Overall it was my best day on the water with 2 keepers and 4 short fish.

Day 2, I started near the dam where I caught two keepers and two shorts the day before.  We worked it with all kinds of lures and I only got one really short fish.  We hopped around the rest of the day, running areas that I thought had good potential and new banks throwing swim jigs, cranks, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and never got another fish.  Tough, tough day for our boat.  Not weighing a fish dropped me to 64th, the fish that I almost weigh became irrelevant.  I was very disappointed in my performance.

I never really found the fish in 3 days of practice, I largely attribute that to being very unprepared for the tournament.  I did not do nearly enough map study and preparation before we got there.  I also believe I had the wrong mind set going in when it came to seasonal patterns, I think I was trying to find a later fall pattern then what most of the quality fish were in.  It was good for me to get knocked around by this lake, it will help me to focus and prepare better in the future.  Congrats to the 5 guys from MN that are going to Nationals at Lake Guntersville: Bradley Leifermann, Dean Capra, Thomas Borkowski, John Schlee & Brian Brown!    

Rich
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I fished Patoka for 3 full days of practice, plus 1.5 hours one morning and another hour 1 evening.  In total, I caught 2 keepers and 4 short bass.  My two keepers both came of rip rap banks with weeds.  One on a white Secret Weapon Spinnerbait and one on a Lucky Craft Flat Mini DR Crankbait in a Spatter Back pattern. 

I tried a bunch of different things and did not find much to go on.  I fished deep weeds, channel drops, channel banks, bluff walls, wood, backs of coves, the list goes on.  My plan for day 1 of the tournament was to hit all the areas that were similar to the ones where I caught my two keepers.  I figured two keepers a day would be pretty good in this tournament.  I felt pretty confident if I grinded it out in these areas I could get the bites I needed.

At the meeting I got boat number 130 out of 134, which was fine because I really did not have any really good area to start on anyways.  Its been awhile since I fished a tournament that I had practiced for and had so little to go on.

Rich
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Working remotely today and had a chance to put together a quick update.  Fishing has been brutally tough.  Fished a fairly full day on Saturday and a long day on Sunday and managed to boat one keeper bass on a SWL Spinnerbait.  Also had one fish that would have been close to a keeper up to the boat on a drop shot.  Any my practice partners have only managed to get one very short fish up to the boat. 

We have tried a bunch of different locations, types of structure and baits.  1ft – 19ft in depths, fished bluffs, bridges, grass clumps, weedlines, timber, channel banks, creek ledges and combinations of the for mentioned.  Baits that we have tried, drop shots, spinnerbaits, shakey heads, jig worms, texas rig, jigs, topwater, crankbaits, carolina rig and the list goes on.  We had a severe drop in temperature, with lows in the 30’s and day time highs are about 20F lower than average.  Fishing has been tough on the local tournaments as well.  Two tournaments that I was aware of, 75 total teams for two days, only 6 limits :0

I hope to get out for about an hour this evening after my last phone call for work, temps have stabilized and it will slowly get warmer through the rest of the week, its not going to get warm, but at least the weather has stabilized.  I got one full day of practice to put together my game plan.  On a positive note, I think I have located some good areas and see a lot of the lake, so if I find a pattern, I think I will be able to duplicate it and run it during the tournament.

Rich
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I have spent quite a bit of time on the computer the past few days getting ready for the Bassmasters Series Regional that I fishing in about two weeks.  I purchased maps of the internet, started looking for background information on the lake as well as restocking my supply of Secret Weapon Lure Baits and Tru-Tungsten Jigs.  I will continue to dig on the net as we get close to leaving for practice for lake reports and tournament results from other tournaments.  I can honestly say I am getting a little pumped for this tournament.

P.S. if anyone has some good info that they want to share about Patoka, drop me an email or post it
Rich
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We decided to have the take-off at 8am, as the fall can often be more of an afternoon bite.  It was a small Gopher club tournament with 5 boats fishing as two man teams.  John and I made a quick pass through the reeds while I scraped the corrosion of my battery terminals.  No bites in the reeds and I finally got the main motor started.

We headed to a hump in the south end of the lake, we fished around looking for good weeds, found some, fished with jigs, soft plastics and spinnerbaits, no bites.  We then headed over to some docks, on about my 5 pitch to a small patch of milfoil, I set the hook on a 2lb bass, got it up to the surface and it came unbuttoned.  Tough loss, but it was early.  I figured if I kept fishing my jig, we would get a solid limit by the end of the day.  John then missed a bite right after that, so I figured we were on a good pattern.  About 15 docks later I got a small 12.25″ fish on a 3/8oz Sunfish Tru-Tungsten Jig.

We hopped around docks and pads about halfway around the lake, I then got a good bite on a dock and broke off right away, I must have had a bad spot from fishing around docks and lifts, it was stupid not to check the line more often.  Very avoidable mistake!!!  It was a long time before the next bite, I felt a solid thump and I reared back and hauled water.  I quickly pitched back into the lift, let it sit in there and she picked it back up, it was a 4lb’r, what a huge bite.  Now its 11:30am and we got two fish, plenty of time, if the bite starts to pick up.  We then hopped around the point into a little cover with some pads and docks.  We came up to a great looking pontoon, I pitched in and nothing.  I thought to myself, it just looks to good, so I pitched back into the pontoon and just let the jig sit in there.  Sure enough it started to slide off to the side and I reared back, a solid 3 lb plus keeper.  Things are definitely starting to look up, with just under 3 hours to go, we just need three more bites to have a nice limit.  We keeping hopping docks, I get a bite where the fish was swimming with my jig and just had the tails and then another fish followed my jig out, could not get either one to take a follow up presentation.

Time was running out, so we hit the sail boat marine next to the access.  On my first pitch I get bit and haul water, pitch right back in and rear back, got a nice keeper coming to the boat and try to swing it in, it falls off just short of the boat.  What a bad break, probably should have just called for the net, but usually the 2 lb and under fish I just swing in on the jig.  I then checked my hook point and it was bent over, somewhere along the line I must have hooked a boat lift and flattened it out, again another thing that could have been avoided.  That was the last bite we got.  All my bites came on a 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Jig.

We weighed 3 fish for 8.4 lbs, which was easily good for 1st and the 4.0 was big bass.  Even though, we won, I did not feel good about the tournament.  I think I would have felt better about landing all my bites, having a limit and known I maximized the pattern that I was on and finished down further in the standings.

On the bright side, hopefully this will be a good lesson to remember to check my line and hooks at Patoka, plus being a tough bite, will help to mentally prepare for what could be a very tough tournament in Indiana.  The next morning, John and I planned to go to Crystal Lake to rinse the bad taste out of our mouths and try to catch a hog.

Tight Lines,
Rich
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Tomorrow is the last event of our club season.  The standings are final for the year, but we have this as a fun tournament to end the year.  It differs from the rest of our tournaments as it is our only team event and does not count for AOY standings or towards our state team qualification.

We are fishing Medicine Lake tomorrow.  This tournament is also unique in the fact that we just found out yesterday this was the lake we were going to be fishing and it is a no practice tournament.  Tomorrow looks like we will have sun and a warmer day, so I look forward to a tournament with quite a few fish caught and a few big ones.  

My game plan is to hit one or two deep spots and maybe some pads early then probably run docks and pads the rest of the day.  My partner and I will fish as a team, we will throw different baits until we dial into what they want and then focus in on them and try to come up with a nice 6 fish sack.

Check back Monday for results…..

Rich
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