I had three tournaments over the past week. Last wed John Haynes and I headed out to Minnetonka to fish the Denny's Wednesday nighter. I have never fished this circuit so I was excited to see how they ran things and how many boats would be out there. I knew the competition would be pretty tough because a  few very good anglers were rumored to always win the events. I hadn't had the best practice for the event due to a recent cold snap so John and I just went fishing. I managed to catch 5 fish for 7 pounds fishing shallow but John struggled and couldn't help add to the weight. 18+ pounds won it so we didn't fair that well. It was a beautiful day on the water though and Denny runs a nice laid back tournament.

This past weekend was the Gopher bass tournaments over in Chisago City. Saturday we hit Big and Little Green. This is a fairly big body of water but the water is fairly low and the DNR recently sprayed the entire lake for weed control. That messed up a milfoil pattern I had found in practice and forced lots of anglers out to a single rock point at mid lake. At one point there were 7 tournament boats plus walleye anglers and a couple other bass boats out on this one point. The big lake fished pretty small. I managed a couple fish early flipping the dying milfoil with one of my hand tied jigs but couldn't boat another keeper after that. Finishing with 3 pounds put me in 20th place. My non boater never caught a fish. The winning bag came off the point early and totaled 16+ pounds. I was pretty down after this tournament. I even threatened to sell my boat and go buy a motorcycle. I wouldn't do that, but I was pretty upset about doing so poorly.

Sunday morning came early after fishing all day Saturday, running the weigh in and then driving home to retie and get the Skeeter ready for Sunday. I was fishing with Art on Chisago and Lindstrom that day. Art and I get along great and we even spend time in the fall chasing pheasants together. I was relaxed because of this and it may very well have helped me slow down and let the baits do the work. We started on a road bed that has scattered rock on it in about 9 feet of water. Chisago lake is also down a few feet so we weren't sure if the road bed would be holding fish. We manged a keeper each off the roadbed and recorded the lengths on our record sheets. This tournament was a paper tournament due to a catch and release only regulation on these lakes. Although this makes for a less dramatic weigh in, it does make for some lunker fish in the lake. It also means you need to snap a quick picture of good fish before you can throw that next cast.



We worked our way up the bank after giving up on the roadbed and managed the fish you see above on a ring worm off the inside weed line. Art got another fish as well before we fired the big motor and moved to the next spot. We tried a deep water area and couldn't get much going so we moved up shallow to look at some docks. That was it. We never fired the big motor again. We spent the rest of the day catching fish off docks and holes in the pond weed. The fish were chasing bluegills that were schooled up on beds. Some fish were still relating to beds as well. We could spot fish on beds, circle back and fish the area and usually catch one or two, In Minnesota we don't get a chance to bed fish much so that was pretty fun for me. After I had a decent bag put together I took a few casts with a swim bait in order to try to upgrade. Anytime I could see a large bluegill bed in the distance with fairly low weed growth, I would throw it. I did manage a small fish on the bait. My first ever on a swim bait. No lunkers though.




My hand tied jig with a Strike King Rage tail craw trailer did most of the work that day, catching probably 8 of the 12 legal fish I caught. Pretty much all 14" or better. I also caught a few on a Lake Fork Ring Fry. I finished the day in 6th place with 15.5 pounds. A much better day than the day before and a great confidence builder for my jig fishing. Considering Green is literally across the street from Chisago, it is amazing how different they fished. I guess that is why fisherman should fish different lakes when ever they get a chance.

I have a week off from tournaments so I will probably prefish once or twice and enjoy some time with the family. I will let you know how it all goes.

Sport