This past week I fished pretty much 7 days straight. If that sounds rough it kind of was. My hands are torn to shreds my nose is a little sunburned and my left side has a silver dollar sized bruise from setting the hook with my jig rod but I wouldn't rather be doing anything else.

Monday last week I headed up north with my parents to pre fish for the tournament taking place Friday and Saturday. Dad would fish the three practice days with me and grandma was going to watch the baby (Thanks Grandma!). The weather was nice Monday and the fish were turned on. My very first cast, the one you lob out while you are setting your depth finder the way you want it and adjusting your pedestal seat, produced a nice 18.25" smallmouth. He came off a 1/4 ounce football head jig with my own hand tied skirt and hand poured claw trailer. There is nothing better than catching a big fish on tackle you have made yourself. The rest of the day we found fish deep and shallow the sun was out for the most part and the wind wasn't too bad. That really changed over the next two days however.
Tuesday the bite had slowed but we still managed to catch fish deep including a 19.5 inch smallie pictured below. She came on a drop shot using a 4" Robo worm in 20 feet of water. We hit the WPT button and moved on to find similar water. Wed it turned really bad. water temps had dropped back to the upper 50's and the wind and rain were pouring it on. We ended up only fishing about 2 hours before we got off the water. The lightning is what really forced us off along with many of the other guys that were out trying to get a little practice in.
Thursday was an off limits day so my dad and I headed to a little no name lake near where we were staying to straighten the lines on my spinning rods and just spend a little time in the boat not getting blown around. Of course it was calm and sunny that morning. After a couple hours of not catching anything, we headed into Little Falls and played tourist. There is lots to see and do in this central Minnesota town including Charles Lindbergh's Childhood home and a fishing museum loaded with old fishing paraphernalia.

Friday I fished with a member of my bass club Chong Vang. The wind was brutal and made it tough to fish the mid lake structure. We both caught limits but we did have to work for them. I hit many of the spots I had found in practice and was able to pull two good smallies into the boat (2 pounds plus) off a mid lake hump. One took a grub the other a dropshot and Robo Worm. Large mouth filled out my other three fish for a total weight of 9.94. That put me in twelfth place after day one just .01 from the eleventh place angler. Everyone caught limits and the weights were all close. One big fish on the second day could mean a trip to Lake St Claire. 

As it turned out I didn't get that one big fish I needed. I had a limit the second day in under two hours but was never able to upgrade by more than a few ounces. I finished in 18th place with 18.6 pounds for two days. the cut for St Claire was at 19.5 and it took 22.5 for the win. All in all I had a good time fishing the tournament. I felt it was run pretty well and look forward to fishing with the TBF again next year. I really look forward to fishing Alexander again. It is a great lake with big Smallies, Largemouth and Muskies. Below are a few shots from the past week.