After a night of adult refreshments around a camp fire, the 4:30 alarm came all too quickly. My truck thermometer read 44 degrees as I waited for it to warm up. Not what you would expect for a mid July morning. A quick stop at the local gas station and a line of bass boats headed down the back roads on way to Knife lake.

Expectations were high as stories of 21 inch fish and 5 or 6 pounders caught in practice stirred around. I myself was cautiously optimistic after catching a lunker in practice (see a past entry). The cold front would be a wild card and it was also rumored the lake had an algae bloom going on. Many still felt it would take 18 or 19 pounds to win the day. The lake had proven that any cast could produce a Minnesota trophy

My partner (Clay) and I started in the area where we had caught the 5 pounder in practice. As we came up to the area we noticed a pan fisherman was sitting right on it so we started nearby and worked an adjacent stretch of pads. It only took a couple casts and Clay had a small keeper in the boat. A couple more casts and Clay was hollering for the net. As I turned to see what he had on I could see something that didn't look right. Clay noticed it to and said "what the ...". A 19" walleye had taking his pig and jig in the middle of the pads we were flipping. A little known walleye pattern apparently.

The pan fisherman said hello as he moved down the shore so we turned the boat and headed back towards the "honey hole", A family of otters barked and huffed at us as we fished. Popping up and down in the water like wet furry Jack in the boxes, they stayed a safe distance and kept an eye on us. This is one of the neatest things you can see during a calm morning on the water. I have seen otters do this a couple other times but it is still fascinating to me.

As we worked down the bank I flipped into a bush tight to the bank. As soon as my jig hit the water the whole bush shook. Something big wanted the black and blue jig. A few seconds later Clay was netting a nice 3 1/4 pound bass for me. We continued to work shallow wood and pads until about 8:00 when we moved to a row of docks that had produced good numbers in practice. About 30 minutes later I managed my fifth fish. It was a nice 2 pound fish and was especially fun to catch because a competitor boat was within ear shot as I hooked, landed and boxed the fish. They had not yet caught a limit and promptly pulled their trolling motor and sped off. Clay too was a couple fish short of a limit so he took over the front of the boat.

It began to rain and the bite slowed. As the sun came out later in the day, the bite picked back up a little. For Clay at least. He started to cull a few of his smaller fish as I started to diminish my jig supplies. I had tied three jigs specifically for this event and had a couple already in my box. As northerns took a few and I straightened a couple horsing fish out of thick cover, I found myself out of the color and size that had produced for me in the morning. I decided to make a change to brown and orange. I was almost immediately rewarded with two nice culls. We ran around a little more but all the areas we moved to had turned to pea soup. The algae bloom we had heard about was in full swing and we didnt manage a single fish, of any size, in that green water.

Lots of guys were saying they had a couple nice ones while we pulled the boats for weigh in. Once on the scale however most fish seemed to shrink. Only one fish was brought in over 4 pounds. There was plenty of 3 pounders though with 15 guys weighing a big fish at or above 3.  My 12.26 was only good enough for 9th place. A little over 2 pounds from the 1st place bag. Two solid finishes over the weekend did help me in the yearly standings though, moving me to 9th overall with two tournaments to go. Minnetonka will be the next two and I have been able to get out there a few times this year. We will see if I can move up a few more spots by years end.

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