Not sure how many years I have fished the Pan-O-Prog bass tournament, but I started fishing it every year when I moved to Lakeville, so it must be 8 or 9 years now.  In the early years, I spent quite a bit of time practicing out on Lake Marion, but in recent years, I am lucky if I have 4-5 hours on the lake from one year to the next between tournaments.

This year was no different, I spent a little time scouting the Sunday before the event, bouncing around from shallow to deep looking for weed growth and potential schools of fish, I found little of either.  My partner Ryan Brant drew boat 16 out of 39 for us on tournament morning, so with little to go on, we started where most of the magic happened where we won last year.

We caught 4 or 5 fish pretty quick on soft plastics, but only two of them were decent fish, the rest were just keepers.  We then hit quite a dry spell and it wasn’t until about 9am that I caught #6 on a swim jig with Evolve Swimmer as a trailer.  After checking a few more spots we returned to our starting area and Ryan and I each got an upgrade on soft plastics, at least those fish got rid of our 12″ class fish.

3.7lb Largemouth

From there we ran a long stretch of docks, not a single bite until the last one, where I was able to make back to back culls skipping a 3/8oz BassTEK Tungsten Jig with craw trailer.  We noticed this dock had more weeds around it then the rest, so we took that as a clue to find areas with shallow grass.  We went into one of the little pad corners on the bigger part of the lake and I caught 3.7lb fish out of a pad clump which ended up being our biggest fish and last upgrade of the day.  We fished hard to the wire, hitting a couple new things and returning to our starting area, in the end our 6 fish weighed a modest 16.01lbs, but it was good enough for 4th place and a decent check for a tournament that is super close to home and I only had about $20 in gas money tied up in the event.  Also, we fished clean, no lost fish for us, we’ve finished 2-5th in the past and it was because of poor execution, this year, we just didn’t get around the right fish, we made the most of what we were on, you have to feel decent about that.

Ryan & I after the check.

As I write this, I am litterally packing to head down to La Crosse, WI to fish next Great Lakes Division event on the Mississippi River, got my Evolve Nervous Walker and Mad Mouse baits all packed and ready to do some serious Froggin’ this weekend!

Evolve Mad Mouse & Nervous Walker Frogs

Wolf River, Winneconne, Winnebago, whatever you call it, this was the site if of the 2nd BFL of the Great Lakes Division as it usually is.  This is a system that I have fished a few times in the last 5 years or so, but either way it is a solid 5 hour drive from my home, so I don’t get there often and you don’t run over for a quick prefish the weekend before.

With that being said, I left Wednesday afternoon in a driving rain that lasted pretty much the entire drive and I had to wait out a thunderstorm at the boat ramp until 7:30pm just so I could spend an hour or so on the water Wednesday night.   I caught a couple smallies in Lake Butte Morts on some rip rap, but nothing too promising.

Thursday was a new day, with a decent breeze and sunny skies.  I launched north of the river on Winnebago and began my search there.  My main focus was largemouth and I was bouncing around between shoreline cover and transitional areas hoping to find some concentrations of fish.  At first it was a fish here or there, but I finally ran into a large group of fish on a transitional area fishing soft plastics on the bottom and some on a swim jig using Evolve DarkStar swimmer as a trailer.  I was able to expand on the water and duplicate what I found for most of the day, eliminating some water and adding other.  By the end of the day, I would’ve had around 13lbs.

Kompak Craw & Tungsten Jika Rig

On Friday, I launched further south on Bago looking to repeat pattern and expand on water.  The wind was blowing a little more from the East in the morning, I got on quite a few short fish early firing square bills around shallow areas.  As the morning went one, the wind laid down and I was able to find a few more areas I felt good about, catching and pulling on what felt like quality fish.  Around 1pm, I trailered over to Rainbow Park to find some stuff I could fish on the way back to Winneconne ramp, just a few short fish.  So I called it a practice and got my stuff ready for the next day in the Walmart parking lot.  I drew boat 68 out of 125 which was middle of 3rd flight.  My partner co-angler that I drew seemed like a nice enough guy, so we had a quick discussion about my plan to fish Bago all day.

Tournament morning brought a light drizzly rain, light winds and overcast conditions, felt like one of those days that the fish would be crunching.  After the fairly long journey of slow wake zones out to Winnebago from Winneconne, the wind was a little stiffer then forecasted and straight out of the East.   There was a boat on the area I wanted to start on, so I pulled into a secondary area, where we both caught a few shorts.  We moved around a bit and ended up hitting my starting spot which was not as hot as I hoped it to be, producing just two shorts.  I decided even though the wind was hitting it pretty direct to try to some more main lake stuff I had.  It turned out to be a pretty good decision as I picked up two nice largemouth keepers on a 3/8oz BassTEK Tugsten flipping jig, having that tungsten really helped as the wind and waves made it difficult to keep my feel with my lure.

I then ran a short stretch of docks and put my 3rd keeper in the boat on a Kompak Craw on a 3/8oz tungsten Jika rig.   After running that stretch we returned to an area that was covered with boat early, shortly after I pulled in I hooked a good one on a Baby Ring Fry on a mojo rig, it ended up being my big fish at 3-10.  We worked this area hard for awhile, catching a few shorts and my partner losing a couple decent fish.  So that gave me 4 fish with one good one at 11’ish, so I thought if I was ever going to run south, now was the time.  I was actually feeling pretty good, as I thought I could catch 2lb fish pretty easy and getting one close to 4 would be the trick of they day.

We ran a bunch of water, it produced mostly shorts and areas that already had other boats on the spots I wanted to fish, but we each scraped one keeper by 1pm.  I had a decent limit, but largely because I had that bigger fish, and I knew if I could get a 2lbr or two to get rid of my 14.5″ fish, that would make a big difference.  So we returned to fish the area where I caught my biggest fish, which was also where I caught my biggest fish in practice.  We only had about 25 minutes to fish it.  I ended up getting one 15″ fish there, so that was a nice little upgrade.

My 3-10 Largie on Stage of Weigh-in

I ended the day with 11-10 which on a day that ended up being a bit of a tough bite, which left me tied for 20th and getting a check.  Always wish you can win or get a top 10, but a check is a check against these BFL guys, can’t complain about 2 for 2 cashing checks this season, which puts me 4th in the points for the year after two events.

Looks like my next tournament will be a little closer to home, the Pan-O-Prog bass tournament on Lake Marion, always a fun event, the guys at Gopher Bassmasters run a great tournament with pretty decent payback, plus I have to defend my title from last year!

With the late spring, the first Great Lakes Division BFL event out of La Crosse kind of snuck up on me quickly.  Due to some obligations on the home front, I really had a pretty limited practice.  I really got about 2 days in total spread over 3 days.  I really with I had more because although I fish and like the Mississippi River quite a bit, most of my time has been spent July thru October, not April & May.

The Saturday of the weekend before I had about 4 hours in the morning to fish, so I checked some areas that I scouted via maps on the top of pool 7.  I fished what I thought to be pretty good looking water for fish that were going to be spawning soon as water temps were already 53F and climbing.  A buddy of mine and I only manged short bass, a pike and one keeper smallmouth.  It was warm all week, so I knew water temps would have to be hovering above that magical 60 degree mark that kicks things into gear in the spring.

I was not able to get down to the river on Thursday until about 4pm, and the water I fished the week before was just intriguing enough to make me want to check it.  I intended to just check it quick and then head down to the Black River to look for fish around the tournament take-off area, but I ended up getting just enough bites from 15-16″ chunky largemouth to make we want to try to find a little more up there and I ended up being there until about dark.  I caught those largemouth on a custom painted 1.5 squarebill & flipping a beaver bait in the first area, but only shorts after that.  So after what amounted to be about 1 day of practice, I had one area a pool up and a long run with a few decent fish, so better then nothing but not ideal.

Friday, the day before the event, I had decided to trailer down to Stoddard and look at areas I was familiar with from past events in the summer.  My practice started slow in the morning in a steady drizzly rain, picking up short largemouth and pike on a swim jig paired with Evolve Dark Swimmer.  Expanding my search, I spotted some deeper water on my map chips that intrigued me, again I caught a big pike, but shortly afterwards, I caught a 3lb+ largemouth on a beaver, I kept fishing more of this area, got a dog fish, few more shorts and another 2lb largie.  Keeping on the move, trying to find something close I finally ran into a flurry of fish on my swim jig, short largemouth, keeper largies and pike all mixed in, but it was obvious this area had a lot of fish in it.  After closer inspection, I noticed some clear spots that looked like beds and on closer inspection, there were some nice smallmouth on these bare spots, now I was starting to feel a little better about things.  From there I back tracked and found a closing dam, I quickly started getting bit and caught several smallmouth to go with my bedding fish and largemouth.  I tried a few more things down in the Stoddard area, but found nothing else and had committed to trailering my rig back to Clinton Street at noon to look for backup stuff for the rest of the day.  I basically eliminated water up there, on stuff I wouldn’t be fishing if I ended back up near ramp at the end of the day.

I ended up boat 57 out of 139, which was first boat in the 3rd flight.  My plan was to start on my closing dam, put a limit in the boat, let the sun get up a little and then go after those bedding fish and then go fishing from there.  Well even with the 3rd flight boat draw, I was first boat into my area.  It only took about 5 casts to put a nice 2lb smallmouth in the boat, but that was it, so I worked across to the other end of the dam and it was on, I had my limit in about 10 casts and culled several times before 7am.  I stayed there until around 9am upgrading a few times, also thinking my co-angler would get a fish or two.

So I went to my bank where I had some smallies on bed, the first pair of fish I stopped on were pretty skittish, so I moved on to the next fish which was bigger, it only took 5 or 6 pitches with a white Damiki Hydra on a Jika Rig to hook her and put her in the boat, this was a 3.5lb class smallmouth.  I kept fishing around thinking I would catch them blindly or I would be able to see them better soon, but the water had gotten a little dirtier, some of the beds became abandoned and I only got 1 2lb largemouth just fishing and I caught another smallmouth off a bed, but it was a little too small to help, so back to the closing dam where I culled about 3 more times with smallies and my co-angler got 2 fish.  At about noon, I decided to go to the area where I had caught that bigger largemouth to try for an upgrade know my smallest fish was around 2-06 and the rest were around 3lbs or more.  I could probably get a ounces here or there by sticking it out on the closing dam, but I wanted to go a little bigger.

In the other area, I spent about 5 minutes to catch a largemouth off a bed, that I misjudged, cause it was a little too small to help.  There were a few nice 3-4lb cruisers that were just too spooky, finally I got to where I had caught the big largemouth in practice, I pitched in there  blindly and it bit on the first cast, but didn’t take the bait all the way.  On further inspection, she was on a bed, I pretty much spent the rest of the day working on that fish, leaving for a bit and coming back, but couldn’t get here to go, even to the very last minute she sat there, agitated, mad but wouldn’t eat the bait.  I tried about 6 different tricks in my bed fishing arsenal, but it just didn’t happen, we raced back to the ramp and made it with 2 minutes to spare.

A couple of my smallmouth ate my bait funny and got tongue hooked, and one ended up dieing on me.  So my total ended up being 6th out of 139, with 14-02 after a dead fish penalty, 14-06 would have tied me for 5th, oh well that is fishing.

All my fish came on soft plastics in the event, most of closing dam fish came on the plastics in the picture below (Lake Fork Baby Creature & Ring Fry, Evolve Kompak Craw) on a mojo rig and the bed fish came on the Hydra & Black Blue Big Bite 4″ Tube.  I also credit my Dobyns DX743C paired with 12lb Sunline Shooter Fluorocarbon, I think that setup was a big difference why I was able to feel and catch 30 plus fish off a closing dam where my co-angler struggled to get two keepers, even after I shared my baits and positioned him for casting angles.

Looking back, I think I spent too much time in the area with the bedding smallies, it was good that I went there and got my biggest fish, but I should of read the water and left earlier to spend more time on the closing dam or to look in other areas for upgrades, but overall very pleased with my finish for a May tourney on the river, although, with a few tweaks, I think I could have competed for the win.