Day 2 started with clear skies and a light SW wind.  I ended up fishing out of Dave’s boat, he had a lot more practice, so I figured it would not hurt.  I told him that I had about 1.5 hrs worth of stuff that I wanted to fish first.  A fairly important tournament for everyone, as it was there last chance to cement a spot for next year’s state team.  I also found myself pitted against Ryan in the final day of the Match Championship.

We started on a Reed and Canegrass point of mine and Dave caught a nice keeper immediately on a jig.  I then caught 3 keepers, only one being a quality fish.  They all came on a my 3/8oz Sunfish Colored Tru-Tungsten Jig, tipped with a Crawdad colored Yum Craw Papi.  We then quickly hopped to a small isolated Cattail patch that I got another small keeper on the jig.  That made it 4-1 over Dave.
Click Jig for Details
 
We then spent about an hour fishing a rice and bog island where I caught a really big fish in practice, but the only action we had was two swirls on Dave’s Black Zoom Horny Toad.  We decided that we should revisit the bog section of this island later.  It was time to check some of Dave’s spots.  We hit a small reed patch without a bite and then hit a large rice island.  I got one more small keeper on a jig, giving me a small limit.  Dave was frustrated, so I suggested with the high sun and light wind, we hit the docks across the bay.  We each got two keepers, giving Dave 3 fish and I got to cull twice, both fish came on a weightless Green Pumpkin Lake Fork Ring Fry.  Again I loosely pegged a couple Tru-Tungsten Force Beads for weight on the Ring Fry.  Right when we got to the point, there was one more dock mixed in between some reeds & rice, I almost decided not fish it, but we did.  I pitched the outside edges of it all over and then made one pitch in over the chain and sure enough a big one grabbed it.  I had it one for about 10 seconds before it fell off.  What a bummer!  It sucks losing fish in the 4lb class.

We then spent about 2 hours working over some of Dave’s reed beds, Dave lost one and I had one follow my jig.  Either the wind was not right or we needed some more cloud cover, but those fish just did not go.  We then went back to my starting reed point and I got  decent keeper to cull for the 3rd time, now I really only had one small fish left.  We then revisited the bog area and I got my big fish (3.2 lbs) on my sunfish jig, but now tipped with a Watermelon Red Flake Zoom Ultravibe Speed Craw.  I was feeling like that lost fish was going to kill me and I needed one more good bite to make up for it.  Sure enough, as we went back through the bog I got one more bite.  She must of just nipped the jig as I only had her for a split second before she was gone.

Time was running out, so we hit another windy reed area and then flipped the cover in the Kabekona narrows before time was out, no more bites.  I was last to weigh in and Ryan weighed 13.7 lbs for 5 fish.  I knew it would be close, I ended up with 13.2 which was good for 2nd place.  So Congrats to Ryan on his Match Championship Victory. I needed to convert one of those two good ones that I missed.  In the end, I ended up increasing my lead over 2nd place for the year and coasted to ‘Club Stick’.  Sounds like many of the good fish came off of docks, so it sounds like we should have stayed with that.

In review, I learned a ton about Leech this past weekend and makes me look forward to next years state tournament.  Well tonight I am off to Tonka after work to get some more early practice for the Weekend Series final event.

Rich
RichLindgren.com 
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Blog

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

We launched out of the Sugar Pt landing on Boy Bay, I was fishing alone.  I was last out, so I just got my rods ready and put some scent on my jigs while everyone took off.  I was not in a hurry, because I did not no where I was going.  I knew that I had caught fish in the reeds on the west side and that there is supposed to be some good bog in Boy Bay and then there is plenty of Wild Rice to fish.  My plan was to head towards the back of Boy bay where the river connects and watch for something that caught my eye.

Very quickly I spotted a small rice island on my right, I pulled in and pitched my jig around for about 5 minutes, decided this is not what I wanted and left.  I then headed straight across where it looked like some rice faded into bog and it was calm so I could work a topwater.  On my 3rd cast with a Black Bronzeye I caught a keeper, probably 2lbs.  Then a few cast later I got a 2nd, just tossing into the pockets and edges of the rice.  I then started alternating between the Bronzeye and black Gambler Cane Toad.  I rigged the Cane Toad on a 4/0 Wide Gap and then used a 1/16oz Tru-Tungsten T-rig weight in the nose.  I quickly lost the cane toad to a muskie and went back to the Bronzeye.  I then got one more on the frog, then missed one.  Shortly there after, I converted a missed frog fish with a weightless Green Pumpkin Lake Fork Ring Fry, I used two 8mm Tru-Tungsten Force Beads as weight loosely held in place with a bobber stop.

I tried fishing some 3/4oz and 1oz jigs in the shallow rice, but they were to heavy for this area, so I tied on a 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Jig in a Sunfish Pattern and tipped it with an Alabama Craw colored NetBait Paca Chunk.  On my 2nd pitch I missed one and a few pitches later bagged my 5th keeper.  I probably had right around 10lbs, so I started moving quicker and hopping around and I wanted to look for bigger fish.  I caught one small keeper off a log with the Ring Fry, tried some reeds, bog & rice, not much luck.

Click Jig for Details
I then hopped down to a point with a little wind blowing into it and there looked to be some mats in the middle of it.  I started flipping my Sunfish Jig and caught a couple that culled.  I then sat down and retied the Black Cane Toad and started fan casting the sparser areas of rice.  Within 10 casts, I boated 3 nice keepers and 2 of them culled fish.  Too make a long story short, I slowly worked this island the rest of the entire day, which was about 5 hrs and boated 20+ keepers on jigs and cane toads.  I believe that 3 of my keepers were on the jig, including the biggest fish (4.5lbs) and two resulted from the Cane Toads crawled like a buzzbait though the rice.  They were really eating the frogs, I bet I kooked 8-9 out of 10 on topwater frogs, what a great ratio.

Another boat joined me for about 3.5 hours and they each showed up with 2 keepers each and they ended up with 16.6 and 16, including the years big fish at 6lbs.  My total for the day was 19.4 lbs and was the winning bag.  It gave me a very comfortable lead going into the last tournament of the year which was the next day on the west side of Leech Lake.  I also advance to the final day of Match Championship.  Obviously I was very happy with the day, and it was better than I could have hoped for not practicing that side at all and not have been there for 11 years.  I said afterward, I would be happy if it was half that good tomorrow .  All 10 guys brought in 5 bass limits, with the smallest being 10.2lb.  Great Tournament!

Rich
RichLindgren.com 
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Blog

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

Hey all, sitting here watching the clock, heading up to Leech Lake shortly.  I only had about 2.5hrs of practice, that is not much time on a 112,000+ acre lake that we will split in half for two days.  I only fished the half we will fish on day 2.  In practice, I found fish on the reeds and bog on the west side using jigs, I feel that I should be able to duplicate that in Boy Bay on the east side.

Last night I set up my equipment like I was hunting bear.  I got all baitcasters with 17-25 lb mono or 50 lb Braid.  I got 3 jigs tied up, ranging from 3/4oz to 1oz in Brown/Blk, Green Pumpkin and Blk/Bl/Purple.  I got a Black Gambler Cane Toad to use as a buzzbait, spoon and frog combo.  I got a black Bronzeye on 7’10” with braid.  I have TX rig with a heavy Tru-Tungsten Sinker tied up with a snell knot for flipping and then I got a  Secret Weapon Spinnerbait in case the fish are hanging on the edges.  Should be fun!

These are the last two tournaments of the year, and I am hanging onto a slim 1.2 lb lead over my dad, for ‘Club Stick’ who has been up practicing for the whole week.  It is also down to the Final 4 for the Match fishing tournament.  There is also a good chance, big bass of the year for the club could fall this weekend.  It would be great to wrap up all three!  Check back Monday for results!

Rich
RichLindgren.com 
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Blog

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

I spent Saturday this past weekend painting in the house.  Sunday I wanted to get out on Tonka to start getting prepared for my last Weekend Series event that is in about 5 weeks away.  The reason to start so early is two-fold, I am not very strong on Tonka as I have not fished it much and that I will be tied up for two weeks straight with the MN Bass Federation Nation TOC on Gull and the BASS Federation Nation Northern Divisional on Le Homme Deu.

I want to do well, as I have a shot at the points title, since I am currently 2nd……  The big catch is that I am behind Dean Capra who practically lives on Minnetonka in the Summer.  I launched out of Gray’s bay around 7am.  I went to an area that I had caught big fish before and did not have a bump on my big 1oz jig.  I then ran to a calmer bay where I could try my topwater.  There was a lot of bluegill activity, but I could not get any bites on my Vixen.  I tried to wake a Bomber Long A, no luck.  I pitched my Bronzeye frog around a dock and a 3lb smallie annihilated it, that was the highlight of the day!  Too bad smallies will be out of season for my tournament
I moved back out the the deep weed edge and threw a 1/8oz Tru-Tungsten Ikey Head Jig with a Reaction Innovations Flirt Worm, I caught a few peanuts doing that.

Then I backed out into 18-20 ft and looked for some hard bottom areas and dragged an AT Football head with a Lake Fork Craw Tube, nothing on that.

I then moved to a milfoil point and started chucking a Bluegill DT10, I caught several keepers, but the biggest being only 2lbs.  This about the time the sky started to light up like the 4th of July with electricity.  I went and sat under the Gray’s Bay bridge for abotut 2 hrs, until the lightning passed.

After that I went back out for about 2-3 hrs and fished a bunch of differnt baits and patterns without a single keeper.  I had a few good bites on a big jig in the milfoil but missed them, I think the storm kind of screwed things up a bit.  Looking at my calender, I only have two days left between now and the tournament to get out.  I may try to get out a few evenings on top of that.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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

To save time I will skim my practice and get into the actual tournament blog.  My dad & I fished for about 6 hours on Saturday.  We checked a few areas and tried a few new things, we caught some fish in the new areas and pulled on fish in other areas we checked.  We also just plain stayed away from our key areas.  From the few fish we caught, our patterns and baits seem to be holding strong and I was feeling optimistic for tomorrow’s tournament.  At the pairings meeting, we found out it was another 7am start and I drew boat #53 out of 70.  I told my non-boater (Nick) not to worry about the draw, being in 4th flight gives us another 45 minutes of culling.

The big decision on Pokegama is wheter or not to head up the river or stay on the main lake.  I am partial to the main lake.  The day started with clear skies and a building wind.  Due to the late draw, I decided to start on a small reed point where I got a good fish in previous practice.  The logic was it was a small spot and if someone was going to be on my spot, they would probably be there regardless.  I got one keeper (1.75lbs) and my partner got two small keeper on jigs in 15 minutes off the reed point, no big bites.  We quickly shifted over to my weed point and turn where there is historically big smallies and some largemouth.  I got a keeper on a Yellow Magic popper and my partner limited out on a drop shot Zoom Finesse Worm (Grn Pumpkin Red)  It seemed obvious the big smallies were not cooperating, so I decided to run a stretch of docks that was nearby, they had good fish last weekend.

I started skipping and pitching my 3/8oz. Grn Pumpkin Brown Tru-Tungsten Jig paired with a Green Pumpkin Zoom Super Chunk.  I got 4 fish off these docks to fill my limit, one of them was close to 3lbs.  Even though I had my limit by 8:30am, in my mind I only had one keeper that I wanted.  Since there was good action on docks, I decided to hit a dock that I got a 5lb’r last weekend.  I pulled up a few docks down and caught another good keeper and another big fish followed that one out.  While I was culling, Nick threw in under the dock and broke off on one.  I fished the next few docks, no more bites.
Click on Jig for more info & to get your hands on some!

I made the run down the lake to a deep area with rocks and grass out to 18-19 ft and in about 5 pitches with my jig I put two fish between 3 & 4lbs in the boat.  Things were finally starting to look pretty good.  We fished the area for another 45 minutes, I caught 3 more fish that I could not use on jigs and a Baby Fork Creature fished mojo style with a 3/16oz Tru-Tungsten sinker pegged 20″ up the line from my hook.   Nick culled twice on his drop shot rig.  I decided it was getting kind of windy on another stretch of docks, so I headed over and switched to a 1/2oz Tru-Tungsten jig in the same patterns and culled with another solid keeper.  It was obvious the wind was not going to let up, so I thought I would try to hold on a main lake hump that produced big smallies and largemouth in practice.  It wind was very high, I smacked a small keeper as soon as we pulled up on my GPS spot.  We continued to fish and my partner got several short fish and rock bass on his drop shot.  I then decided to slide over to the wind side of the hump.  Very shortly there after I hooked a lost a really nice smallmouth on my baby creature.  I did not get a good look at it, but it was in the 3-4 lb class. 

I then ran back to the docks where I had the follow when I caught a fish.  I pitched in next to a boat lift and the wind took my line into a crack and a fish immediately grabbed it and pulled the line tight, there was nothing I could do.  Hard to tell how big, but every fish off that dock had been 3 lb plus.  Just like the next one as I pitched the jig up by the shallow tires and smacked another 4lb fish on my jig.  I ran down into the Sherry arm to a set of docks that produced a kicker fish in practice.  As we got there, another boat started on the other end towards us, as we got close to meeting, the other boat’s non-boater got a really nice fish.  We hit an area with big smallies across the bay and did not get a bite.  We decided to head back to the deep rock and weed area on more time.  After working the area for awhile, we each got a nice 3lb plus cull fish, I got mine on a 1/2oz TT Jig and Nick got his on a Texas Rigged Craw Tube.

For the rest of the tournament, we ran shallow docks and trees looking for one more kicker bite.  I got one good bite of a tree in Jay Gould Lake, it ended up being just a tad smaller than my small fish on my balance beam.  I really never got that really big 5lb bite that I was hoping for, I was slightly disappointed at the time.  I thought I had about 15-16lbs, I was just hoping to make another Top 10 at that point.

As it turned out, my bag weighed 17lbs 9oz and it was good enough for 2nd place out of 70 boats.  My non-boater had 3 fish for 8-06 and took top honors in the non-boater division.  This finish pushed me from 5th to 2nd in points for the series.  I trailed the leader by more than 80pts, now it is only 21 points with one event to go.

The key to my success was a good practice and keeping my jig wet, it was the 3/8oz Green Pumpkin/Brown Tru-Tungsten Jig early and often.  I also mixed in 1/2oz versions in Grn/Pumpkin Brown & Blk/Blu on occasion.  I fished my jig on a G. Loomis 844 IMX Casting Rod, Shimano Castaic SF spooled with 20lb Cajun Red Line.   

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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

Thankfully it was not as hot in Grand Rapids as it was down in the Metro.  I got two solid days of practice in, split between the main lake, Jay Gould and the river section.  I felt the bite was very good on Pokegama this past weekend and plenty of quality fish biting.  We caught them deep, shallow and everywhere in between.  The majority of my fish came on Tru-Tungsten jigs or soft plastics.  I also caught quite a few fish on a 9/16oz Chart/White Secret Weapon Spinnerbait with painted blades.  Most of the fish are a mixed bag with the majority being largemouth, but I have some areas where there is potential kicker smallmouth.

My best 5 on Saturday would have been about 16-17 lbs and 19-20 lbs on Sunday.  That was with keeping the boat moving and not beating on fish.  Unless something changes, I feel like it will take Sunday’s type weight to be in contention for the tournament.  I feel like 10-12lbs will be very common and that I should be able to get 14-15 lbs on a couple of my patterns.  The key will be getting a couple big bites to get me into 17-20 lb+ range.  Sorry there is not a ton of details for this practice, running low on blogging time this week.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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

This weekend I am headed up to Pokegama for a full weekend of practice for the third tournament that is coming up next Sunday – Aug 6th.  As it stands, I will get 3 full days of practice, which should be great.  I feel Lake Pokegama is probably my best chance for a really high finish and to make surge towards the top of AOY standings.

Pokegama is a really dynamic fishery as it has great populations of big Largemouth and Smallmouth.  I will spend time looking for both this weekend and hopefully I can narrow it down and then refine next Saturday.  This tournament could be won with either, and I think it could possibly take close to 20lbs or more depending on the bite.

On a side note, has anyone checked out the photo galleries from the Bassmasters American?  The fish look pretty skinny and ugly   If you have not been paying attention, KVD is leading the field after one day.   Tune into Bassmaster.com for live video weigh in.  3PM CST.

Have a good weekend!
Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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

Coming into the day, I knew this was my best chance to put my self in a position to win club stick.  My plan was simple, target shallow heavy cover and docks and stick with it.  I knew I would get a limit doing this and was my best option for putting together a winning bag with no practice on the lake.  So the night before, I rigged up two Tru-Tungsten Jigs, 2 Heavy TX rigs, weightless Ring Fry, Bronzeye, Vixen and SWL Spinnerbait.

We started in the pads on the far east side of the lake. I had one small fish try to take my Vixen and then we moved right into the pads.  My partner Dave was throwing a Bronzeye and I started flipping pockets with my 3/8 Green Pumpkin/BRown Tru-Tungsten Jig paired with a Grn Pumpkin Zoom Super Chunk.  On my 5th pitch, I got a nice fish over 3lbs.  We fished the rest of the cove, I got two more on jigs and one on a Chart/White SWL Spinnerbait.  The last 3 were nothing special, just keepers.  I hit 2 docks near a point just outside of this cove and then slid off the weed edge and banged another solid keeper on the jig.  It felt good to have my limit with 15 minute left in the first hole.  We decided to spend the remaining minutes on a cattail point that split the holes.

Dave missed on as we transitioned into the end hole on a jig.  I culled a one of my small keepers off a boat lift with my jig.  The docks were not really producing, so we ran across and pulled up on some other cattails.  My first pitch in with a 1/2oz Blk/Bl Tru-Tungsten Jig produced my big fish of the day, a 3.4lb largemouth.  The trailer of choice was a Blackberry Speed Craw.  Dave also missed two fish in this patch.

We continued to work docks, pads, reeds, bog, & cattails for the rest of the day.  I switched back and forth between my two jigs.  Favoring the 3/8oz around docks and sparser cover, and then using my 1/2oz jig in heavier & deeper cover situations.  I culled several more times and my partner managed 4 nice fish, and missed several opportunities including not letting me net a keeper that came off.

Click on Jigs for more product info!
My final weight was 14.4 lbs and 2nd place was 11.9lbs.  It also vaulted me into first place for the year and easily advanced me to the “final four” in the Gopher Match Tournament.  See Full Results

Two tournaments to go on Leech Lake and I am looking to hang on to my scant 1.2lb lead over 2nd place.  Next weekend, my focus switches back to practicing for the Weekend Series tournament on Pokegama.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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