The thermometer in the truck read 45 degrees as I headed for the lake. It was August and I was about to fish two tournaments on Lake Minnetonka over the next two days. I hadn't caught a lot of fish in practice but I had found areas that I felt would hold fish. The weather however was not going to help matters.
My bass club had decided to split the big lake into two halves. We would fish the west side on Saturday and the east side on Sunday. Since I spend most of my time fishing the east side, I had spent some timing practicing on the west side. Dave Cindrich and I decided to start on a point that had held fish for me in practice we would then move to a weedy bay that we had fished together in practice.
We got out before sunrise and made a quick run to our starting point. As we came off plane I noticed a fisherman in waders standing waist deep just feet from the best spot on the spot. He was casting a big topwater in all directions and did so for at least an hour while we worked the weed line out of his casting range. I have had boats on my starting water before but never a guy in waders standing right on my spot. The bite was slow (as we expected) but we did manage a few fish by hunkering down and fishing painfully slow. Dave was throwing a Berkley Chigger Craw and I went into junk fishing mode throwing a drop shot, jig, wacky worm and several other baits trying to find something the fish might like. We both managed a couple keepers before heading into black water bay. We worked some lily pads and I managed a solid keeper on a buzz frog. We got a couple other blow ups but couldn't get the fish to commit so we headed to a row of docks. I filled my limit skipping my hand tied jig and dave managed a solid keeper on a weightless ring fry. I wasn't able to upgrade after that although we did try several other areas. 7.98 pounds was only good enough for 10th place. The bite was tough for many and only half the field brought in a limit. Although I had hoped to do better, the 10th place finish did help my angler of the year status a little.

Sunday morning temps were about the same. I was prepared though and was optimistic since we were fishing the side of the lake I am most familiar with. To make matters better, dock talk hinted to the fact that many guys had struggled to put anything together on that side of the lake.
Steve Brumer was fishing with me that day. We had gotten out and looked at a few areas and decided to start on an inside weed edge that always produces for me. By late august, the quality fish have usually moved deep on Tonka and are often caught on deep rock piles. This year however the fish seem to have stayed shallower and were not being caught on the deep hard bottom. At least thats what practice had taught me. Of course nothing but small fish were on my first two spots but we finally located a school of fish working an inside turn in about 12-15 feet of water. Steve and I both manged a few good keepers off the spot before we ran a few more spots. I managed most of my fish throwing texas rigged plastics and upgraded a couple times using my drop shot. Not what you might expect as a typical tactic but hey, it worked. As the sun got higher and temps rose, Steve wanted to pitch some heavy cover. As it turned out it was a good idea. We worked a large milfoil mat and both managed a couple solid upgrades.
10.37 was good enough for 5th place. A solid finish to close out the club season. My sight were now firmly fixed on the BASS State Tournament.

Sorry for the lack of pictures but such are the joys of running the weigh in.