Two Days on Tonka
This past weekend I fished Saturday and Sunday on Minnetonka with the Gopher crew. This was tournaments 5 and 6 for the season. Pressure was on me a little since I live so close to the lake. I do consider it my home water but after spending 30-40 days on it in 2006, I wasn't on it once in 2007. It hasn't been better this year with only about 8 hours prior to Saturday on the lake. I basically conceded to fishing old spots and hoping they held up or just winging it and trying new water.
Saturday We launched out of Maxwell bay on the north west side of the lake. I had formulated a plan that I hoped would get me a quick limit of fish and then allow me to go looking for bigger fish. We started on some bridge pilings. We were the fourth boat out so several of the competitors came by and commented on my starting spot. In the past I had found the pilings to hold fish although usually not real big ones. It only took a few minutes and I had a couple short fish on a drop shot. A few more minutes and I had a 13" fish in the boat. While trying to unhook him he broke my drop shot rig so I switched to a texas rigged Zoom Brush Hog. A few casts later a nice 2.5 pounder hit as I flipped to a large chunk of concrete under the bridge. The texas rig was my go to bait the rest of the weekend.
From the bridge we moved to some points and weed lines that I felt would hold fish. We moved in and out and found our best fish on the deep weed edge in 14-16 feet of water. I filled my well with 14 inch fish and kept working for a bigger bite. I managed to upgrade a little but never put the toad in the boat I wanted. After about 11:00 I don't think I caught another keeper. We went to some docks around noon to try to get my non-boater his limit fish and the plan worked out.
I finished the day with a little over 10 pounds and a sixth place finish. Not bad considering the minimal practice I had put in on a big body of water. 16.1 pounds won the day. The decent finish moved me up a spot on the year and into 4th place for the season.
Sunday I was a little concerned about how I would fish. I had used most of my water the day before so I decided to wing it early and hit some old spots later on. I started on a point that was real close to the best spot we fished the day before. We started out on the deep weed edge since that had worked before. After 10 minutes or so with out a bite I decided to move into the inside edge and see if the fish had moved up with the overcast conditions. They had and We started to catch fish immediately. The point formed a square edge about 100 yards long on the outer edge and 40 yards long on each side. Each pass along the outer edge and through the corners produced a couple fish. With each pass I would throw a different bait to change things up. This tactic worked great for me and I had a limit of 9 or 10 pounds and was culling by 7:30.
I had a member of our JR club (Jake) fishing with me and he was struggling a little so once the bite cooled down I moved to some nearby docks to see if we could get Jake a few fish and maybe get me an upgrade. The docks were pretty dead. I missed one and Jake caught a couple short fish. He also pulled a small walleye to the boat on a wacky rigged senko. I have never seen that before.
Much like Saturday, I struggled to catch fish all afternoon. With about an hour to go, we pulled up on a point that had produced a couple fish In the past and started to throw the texas rig on the deep edge. I was able to put one nice upgrade in the boat while a competitor boat watched from a long cast distance away.
I ended the day with a better bag than Saturday of 11.2 pounds but so did many other guys. A nice 18.5 pound bag won the day. I ended up in 8th place and slipped to 7th on the year.
All in all I was happy with how I did considering the limited time I had spent on the water prior to this tournament. I learned a few new spots and was happy with my on the water decisions. Next up Pokegama. I am probably not going to be prefishing this one either so if any of you have been out there and want to share, feel free. Thanks!!
Saturday We launched out of Maxwell bay on the north west side of the lake. I had formulated a plan that I hoped would get me a quick limit of fish and then allow me to go looking for bigger fish. We started on some bridge pilings. We were the fourth boat out so several of the competitors came by and commented on my starting spot. In the past I had found the pilings to hold fish although usually not real big ones. It only took a few minutes and I had a couple short fish on a drop shot. A few more minutes and I had a 13" fish in the boat. While trying to unhook him he broke my drop shot rig so I switched to a texas rigged Zoom Brush Hog. A few casts later a nice 2.5 pounder hit as I flipped to a large chunk of concrete under the bridge. The texas rig was my go to bait the rest of the weekend.
From the bridge we moved to some points and weed lines that I felt would hold fish. We moved in and out and found our best fish on the deep weed edge in 14-16 feet of water. I filled my well with 14 inch fish and kept working for a bigger bite. I managed to upgrade a little but never put the toad in the boat I wanted. After about 11:00 I don't think I caught another keeper. We went to some docks around noon to try to get my non-boater his limit fish and the plan worked out.
I finished the day with a little over 10 pounds and a sixth place finish. Not bad considering the minimal practice I had put in on a big body of water. 16.1 pounds won the day. The decent finish moved me up a spot on the year and into 4th place for the season.
Sunday I was a little concerned about how I would fish. I had used most of my water the day before so I decided to wing it early and hit some old spots later on. I started on a point that was real close to the best spot we fished the day before. We started out on the deep weed edge since that had worked before. After 10 minutes or so with out a bite I decided to move into the inside edge and see if the fish had moved up with the overcast conditions. They had and We started to catch fish immediately. The point formed a square edge about 100 yards long on the outer edge and 40 yards long on each side. Each pass along the outer edge and through the corners produced a couple fish. With each pass I would throw a different bait to change things up. This tactic worked great for me and I had a limit of 9 or 10 pounds and was culling by 7:30.
I had a member of our JR club (Jake) fishing with me and he was struggling a little so once the bite cooled down I moved to some nearby docks to see if we could get Jake a few fish and maybe get me an upgrade. The docks were pretty dead. I missed one and Jake caught a couple short fish. He also pulled a small walleye to the boat on a wacky rigged senko. I have never seen that before.
Much like Saturday, I struggled to catch fish all afternoon. With about an hour to go, we pulled up on a point that had produced a couple fish In the past and started to throw the texas rig on the deep edge. I was able to put one nice upgrade in the boat while a competitor boat watched from a long cast distance away.
I ended the day with a better bag than Saturday of 11.2 pounds but so did many other guys. A nice 18.5 pound bag won the day. I ended up in 8th place and slipped to 7th on the year.
All in all I was happy with how I did considering the limited time I had spent on the water prior to this tournament. I learned a few new spots and was happy with my on the water decisions. Next up Pokegama. I am probably not going to be prefishing this one either so if any of you have been out there and want to share, feel free. Thanks!!
I just had a club tournament at Pokegama. We were able to fill limits in the cabbage on the lake. We also did get a few hits in the reeds, but nothing big.
My two big fish came from the river near the power plant covering water on the outside of the weeds with a white Zoom Horny Toad. Conditions at that time were a light rain. I was lucky cause my partner for the day was in close to the weed edge pitching a jig which allowed me to cast parallel and close in to the vegitation.
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Thanks for the tips! I actually am going to get a chance to pre fish now so I will have to give these tips a try.
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