Earlier this month I headed up to Grand Rapids to start prefishing for the BASS Federation Minnesota Tournament of Champions. 4 days of practice would be followed by a day of off limits and then two days of tournament angling. I had high hopes for this tournament and managed to get up to Pokegama for a couple days prior to the off limits period earlier this summer. The lake fishes to my strengths with big smallmouths and clear water. I did well in club tournaments up there last year and was looking to redeem myself after a disappointing day two at last years TOC.
Day one practice was nothing short of amazing. I managed good fish everywhere I went. I located several schools of fish and was able to narrow down baits that they seemed to prefer. A texas rigged Berkley Chigger Craw worked through healthy weeds and inside turns produced 2 to 3 pound large mouths.

I found a few rock piles in 8-14 feet of water and was able to catch a few nice (3 pound plus) small mouth on my drop shot. I was excited but a little nervous too. I have never had a TOC practice day that good. Surely everyone else would find fish too. Back at the resort I found that many of the other guys in the club had not done as well. That made me feel a little better as I passed on what pattern tips I could to the other Gopher members.
Day two was not as good. I tried to go out and replicate the pattern I had figured out  day one on new water. I think I was over confident and working too fast because I only caught a few small fish. I did look at lots of new water though and figured I could always go to that water if I struggled during the tournament.
Day three I decided to check out the river. Just in case my partner dragged me up there at some point. It was a beautiful ride for 15 -20 miles up the river. The sun was out and there wasn't a ripple on the water. The fishing on the other hand wasn't anywhere near as nice. I had two blow ups on a cane toad in about 5 hours of messing around. No current and no wind probably had the fish scattered in the wild rice and made for a poor bite. In the afternoon I pulled my boat and trailered back to the lake and set out to camera a few areas I had found during my trip up earlier in the summer.
Working an under water camera by yourself is not real easy but I managed to setup a nice little rig that allowed me to use my trolling motor, keep an eye on my graph and an eye on the camera.



I found a few fish doing this and decided I would use the camera all day on the fourth and final day of practice. Wayne Lindgren and I headed out together on the final day of practice so I didnt need my fancy tie down rig. Wayne ran the trolling motor and I watched as we verified the number and size of fish on both of our spots. At one point we came upon a school of walleyes so numerous that I quickly lost count of how many we had seen. The occasional smallmouth was mixed in with them as we cruised our boat over 25 feet of water. Doing this the day before a tournament was a fantastic way to see how the fish were positioned on the cover/structure and gave me a ton of confidence in the water I planned to fish. Now it was just a matter of making the fish bite.

Stay tuned for the tournament recap.