MN Bass Opener. We started off heading to Stella to try to find some smallies but no luck. Three hours without a bite. Kyle finally caught a small largie on a dock. We decided to had back to Washington and try to figure out something else. It was pretty windy so we decided to hit the windy shore, caught one dink on a spinnerbait. Finally we had to get out of the wind and we ducked into a protected bay. Finally we saw some activity. We saw some beds and quickly realized we had been fishing too deep. I rigged up a frog just to see if I could get them to show themselves. I caught one fairly quickly on the frog. Then caught a decent one on the senko. We scouted for beds and looked for other similar areas and had some pretty good success. We checked some deeper areas without a bite. I decided to give up on Stella in hopes of finding a decent limit of largies in the productive areas before they get beat up.
We'll see how it works out...
With Kyle Rodriguez. Water Temp 64-69. Fish caught 7 or 8. Krod=1. Frog, senko, swimjig, spinnerbait.
Tournament Day
We have had very warm temperatures all week and I knew things would be different and the fish would be on beds or already done spawning. Water temp My plan was to hit my primary areas on Washington and if I had 10 pounds or more I would go searching for brown bass in Stella. We launched from the south access on Washington Lake at 6 am. I was second to last boat and turned out last boater couldn't make it so I had the pleasure of directing everyone at take off. On my way to my starting spot I immediately saw a bunch of vegetation that wasn't there during practice. I got to my area and was slightly surprised that no one was there. I started throwing rebel pop r and immediately got bit before I even twitched it. It was a decent fish so I was pretty pumped. I continued to fill out my limit within the next 30 minutes with the pop r, swim jig, and senko. I moved on to my second area after the bite slowed and working the same pattern I had around 10lbs by 7:30 or so. When I went to make a move to my next area, someone was already heading in there. It was pretty obvious there was plenty of fish in the 16-17 inch class and finding a 4-5 pounder might be challenging. I figured my best bet was to go Smallie hunting so I headed over to Stella.
I caught a small one fairly quickly but nothing else. I made a move and saw a few other boats fishing close to the shore. I decided to try something in the 6-8 foot range. I finally hooked into a decent Smallie on a tube. It was about a 3 pounder. It was good to finally catch one but it would be the only one. I saw a few more but couldn't get them to bite. I worked the area for quite awhile without another keeper and the sky was looking pretty bad. I decided to had back to Washington and look for some more largies. I didn't really want to be stuck in Stella if a bad storm came and it's not like I was crushing em anyway.
When I got back to Washington it started down pouring right when I pulled up on my spot. I fished some docks during the rain with no luck and once the rain stopped I headed to a small bay that I wanted to check earlier. I caught one on a swim jig that was a small upgrade. I had been catching fish at pretty much every spot but they were all the same size! The sky looked pretty bad again and I wanted to hit an area by the launch before others got there.
I hit a quick lay down on my way in that I had caught a decent one on earlier, but no one was home. I headed back to fish some reeds by the ramp. I drove right through them because they weren't up yet when we were there last weekend. Right when I put the trolling motor down the rain came again. This time there was thunder and lightning. I caught probably 5 more fish all the same size with one small upgrade. Eventually there were 5 or 6 boats fishing in the same area and I was waiting for someone to make the move so I could go in I didn't want to be the 1st one. It was about 1:30 by this point and I didn't feel like a was going to find that kicker during this downpour anyway. Finally a loud thunder clap and close lightning sent most of us in a few minutes early.
At the weigh in I could tell right away taking to people that I was in trouble. I heard rumblings of 15lb bags. I thought I did fairly well and that maybe my 3lb smallie would help propel me to a decent finish. I was hoping that everyone struggled and was having the same problem with the same size fish. I knew someone would smoke them, they usually do. And you can never be sure until the fish are weighed. I knew I had at least 10 pounds maybe 11 or 12 at the most. I ended up weighing just over 13 pounds and had 1 dead fish good enough for 10th place. Wow, I think the days of catching 10 pounds for a decent finish are over. 13 pounds gets me 10th place. We sure have a good group of sticks. And some of our top guys didn't even finish well. It's not horrible but since I'm not fishing all the tourneys this year, it puts me in a tough spot. Time to step up my game I guess. Congrats to Ozzy on the win and big bass with 17 pounds and a 4 pound smallie!
Overview
Well, I caught plenty of fish. It was a blast. Any day besides tournament day and I would have been extremely happy. I should have concentrated more on finding more Smallies. I didn't spend enough time out there to realize there were not many 3+ pound largemouth. I had a feeling that Smallies were going to take it but I let the comfort of a limit blind me to stick with what I knew it would take to win. Also I assumed most of the guys were going to go after Smallies and sometimes I just want to do something different because I don't want to fight for spots. Live and learn!
Results
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