MN BASS Federation TOC Lake Vermillion 9/4/14 & 9/5/14

Practice

Fishing was pretty tough compared to when we had our club tournament a few weeks ago.  Water temp has dropped 10 degrees and storms and rain have been passing through regularly.  It was pretty much a one here one there type deal.  Everyone was catching them on tubes, crankbaits, and senkos.  Topwater not a real factor.  There was no real pattern emerging and the fish seem to have scattered and pulled out.  But with all the crayfish, I didn't see where they can go.  When you did get bit, most of the time they would barely hit it and not commit, or just glom onto it and you weren't really sure if it was a bite or a rock. Maybe the cloudy weather was effecting it.  One more day of practice to go and come up with a real plan.  I think I have my area dialed in I just have to check some things and cover some new area.  My goal was to find spots relatively close together so I wouldn't be running all over the lake wasting fishing time.  Especially with my boat only having a 50hp motor it would be a key factor.  I also hoped my non-boaters would work with me and share the same view.

Tournament Day 1

Day one of the state tournament I drew Pat Corrigan from the old Golden Hook Bassers (I think he's in West Metro Bassers now). It was kind of cool and kind of awkward at the same time. Pat was the one who introduced me to club fishing at the Federation level. He brought me to my first tournament on Washington Lake. But then he had a falling out with some members from the club and they started their new club Renegade Bassers. I didn't really have any problem with Pat, but I was pretty new and wasn't going to join his club that only had four members. Normally Pat is a boater so I was surprised to see his name next to mine on the list as a non-boater.  He had not been up to practice so he basically let me run my spots the entire day which was great. We drew boat number 79 at the end of the fourth flight six boats from the last one.  The morning of the tournament the weather was horrible.  There was a two hour weather delay while we waited for the lightning and storm to pass.  While we were getting in line in the bay near the casino I was looking out at the main Lake and debating whether or not we could go across it.  The wind was howling and I had a treacherous trip across the main lake only a couple days earlier.  I didn't think there was anyway we could do it in the current conditions.  But once we emerged from the bay and blasted off it seemed fine and we made the run. 

We ran into my deep rock spot and threw a drop shot for a few minutes. I caught a dink pretty quickly and Pat quickly followed with a small keeper. I got nothing else there so we headed over towards Gold Island. We worked that area for a while but no keepers. It was tough fishing deep in the wind being blown all around. So we decided to head to a small bay where I caught some in practice. One thing I remember is when I was throwing my frog it must've landed on a fish and spooked it because it made a large splash, I went to real my frog in and pick up my Senko, and throw back in there but I looked over and Pat already threw to the same spot! I didn't think that was very cool because I am the one who spooked it in the first place. We worked the bay and I eventually got a nice keeper largemouth on a deadhead in the middle of the pads.  I was finally on the board with decent fish. Then we headed out to fish some reeds and got something going. We were working down the reeds and I threw my tube to the point of reeds a few feet towards deeper water and all of a sudden my line felt go tight. I thought it might be a rock but I set the hook anyways it was nice 3 pound Smallie. We continue down and the same thing happened again on the next reed point very soft bite boom another 3 pounds Smallie.  We worked our way around the reeds and I slowly picked up my limit. From there we ran to the north part of the lake and hit a point where I made a small upgrade. Then we ran even farther north east and hit some reeds where I had some nice fish in practice. No one was home so we started heading back towards the ramp. We stopped in little bay on the way back and Pat picked up his second fish under a dock. We worked the bay with no more fish. I wanted to make the run across the main lake with plenty of time to spare in case conditions were bad so we headed back in that direction. We got near the check in point with over a half hour to spare, so we fished near an island and then headed to weigh-in. 

Pat and the other Pat from my club thought I had around 14 pounds but I was pretty sure it was more like 12 ( I am always conservative). The scales ended up saying 12.42 pounds. Not bad for my first day as a boater in the state tournament. I wish I could've got one more upgrade but that's okay I was in a good position for day two. Pat only got two keepers and I felt bad for putting not putting him on better fish. But we both missed a few bites that ended up costing us so I wasn't really all my fault. At this stage I was a little nervous talking into the microphone luckily we were the last boat to weigh in and there wasn't many people around that point. I don't even remember what I said I was pretty tired from working the wind all day and fishing hard. I headed back to the resort and got ready for day two.

Tournament Day 2

For day 2 my non-boater was Adam Baumgartner from Metro Bassers. He zeroed on day one so he pretty much let me do my thing to since I was still in the running if I could put together a good finish. It was windy and raining again at the start of day two. We were boat 10 and we took off and headed up to the bay where I caught good fish the day before. We got nothing out of there in the first round except a couple missed fish. We ran to my deeper spots it was very difficult to fish in the 20+ mile-per-hour winds. I managed a small keeper on a drop shot near gold Island. We worked around Gold Island again for the second day in a row with nothing to show for it. Then we headed to the island that I did really well in practiced for our Renegade Bassers out-of-town tournament. It was unfishable with the wind blowing hard on it from all sides. 

So then we ran up to the bay again to check and see if the fish were biting up there yet. This time they showed some signs of life. We worked around the entire bay and I only pulled one small fish off the tree that I caught a good one on yesterday. We were working towards the point when I tied on a craw tube and heavy weight because of the wind. I threw my lure near a rock in the reeds and immediately got hammered he almost knocked the rod out of my hands. It was a good 16 inch smallie.  While it was dealing with him we got blown off the spot I told my partner we're gonna make another pass this time closer to the point and boom another Smallie same size. We might've been on the something rocks in the reeds seem to be the pattern. Then continued working down the reed line and we wouldn't get bit if we only threw on the edges. If you threw up to the bank where the rocks were in the reeds they would hammer your lure. We continued working down the bank for about an hour and that pattern was on fire. I got my limit and even made a couple small upgrades. I went from having two small fish to having over 10 pounds within an hour. It's amazing how quickly things can change in fishing. You have to tell yourself not to get discouraged because things can happen fast. We decided we are going to grind it out in this area for the rest of the day. I was trying to get my partner some fish but he missed a few bites as well as I did and we weren't able to get him any. And then to end the day we were working one side of the reeds and another boat was working down the other in the same direction. We are ready to head out when the other boat packed up and left. I asked my partner if they were working in the reeds very deep and he said they were only hitting the edges. We decided to go behind them and work the stretch where we had caught one one earlier. I threw up near the bank and immediately got hammered. I set the hook and a big Smallie jumped out of the air. I made a few cranks of my reel had him coming towards me I could see him on the top of the water. But then he hit a patch of reeds and turned his head down and that was it. I was trying to control the boat in the wind and keep us from smashing into the rocks, and also fight the fish at the same time. I made my way in there keeping the line tight and hoped he was hung around the reeds and I could scoop him out. But he was in an area where there was lots of rocks so I was nervous about pulling the boat in there. We finally got up to it and it was gone just my hook hanging on the reeds (funny, auto correct changed hook to 'hope', which was also gone at that point). I hate to complain about it but that fish cost me a top 20 finish. You have to expect that you're going to lose some fishing heavy cover like that where you have to drag the fish all the way through the reeds back to the boat. But I saw him come out of the water he was easily 3 pounds if not four. I was upset because I had broke off for times that day with 30 pound braid on a pretty heavy duty rod. I'm not sure if the reeds were fraying my line or if the line was wrapped around my hook when I made the hook set but something was off. The first one I thought was a pike even though breakoffs with pike on 30 pound braid are rare. But after the fourth one something must have been amiss. 


We had to get back to make the long run across the main lake. We stopped at a small island near where is the fish were being released with no more action. I felt pretty good but I didn't think I quite had what I had the day before, because I still had one small fish. I ended up weighing in 11.7 pounds just about a half a pound less than I had the day before. Since we are in the first flight all I could do was sit and wait and watch the results. Every time someone came in with a bag bigger than mine my hopes would diminish. I really wanted to make the top 20 and get a plaque take home. I didn't think I had enough to make the divisional team but I didn't think the top 20 was out of reach. Guy Knutson from our club went out and smacked a 15 pound bag and solidified his spot on the divisional team with a 10th place finish. This will be his second divisional appearance in 3 years. Way to go Guy! It was fun sitting around the weigh in watching everybody come in and talk about their catch. But it was also stressful knowing that each bag that was bigger than mine or the two day total that was more than mine would decrease my chances. I was also exhausted from a hard week of fishing and grinding it out in the wind every day.

Overview

Overall it was a pretty fun week of fishing on Lake Vermillion. The scenery is beautiful from rock islands to huge pine trees, bald eagles, loons, and muskies this is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. The weather was horrible all week windy and rainy every day. Monday when I made the run across the main lake it was pretty scary and the waves were pretty high. Usually when I talk about the scenery or the weather means that I didn't do very well. I'm satisfied with my finish 27th place out of 172 anglers is definitely nothing to be ashamed of. But when you're that close and you have the fish on that would've put you in the top 20 you expect to seal the deal. I just didn't execute well in that last stretch that would have given me a couple pound upgrade. But that's fishing!  Looking back I would've done a couple things differently. I would have tried to find some more deeper areas as it seems like that's where the bigger fish were located. I think I had a good plan finding spots close together so I didn't have to run all over the lake. I also feel like if I had a different boat I would've been able to hit a couple more areas each day and maybe a pound here and a pound there upgrade would've put me in the top 20. Overall it was a great week of fishing and goofing around with the guys from the club but I'm excited to get home and see my family.











Results

Weather

Greenhorn TOC Cross / Pokegama 8/24/14

We showed up, it rained, we launched, got struck by lightning, and left.  That was about it.

Seriously though, do you ever have those days on the water where nothing goes right?  Well we had one today and couldn't have picked a worse time for it.

We arrived at the ramp and a thunderstorm was coming through.  We waited it out and took off right on time.  We headed to our starting spot which was on the far side of cross.  We were fishing a point when the clouds started to look dark again.  I had just taken my raincoat off and decided to put it back on in case it started raining again.  The clouds were dark but nothing crazy.  All of the sudden there was a loud Crack!  A lightning bolt exploded somewhere close by.  It scared the crap out of us.  I almost dropped my rod in the water.  It was strange because it wasn't even raining and the sky wasn't that dark.  We thought about leaving but the weather was coming towards us and there was nowhere to go since we were on the far side of the lake.  We just had to stay close to shore and ride it out.  After taking a minute to calm down with what seemed like no immediate threat, we continued fishing.  Less than a minute later there was another loud Crack!  But closer this time.  My immediate reaction was to duck so I didn't really see it but I saw it out of the corner of my eye as I was hunched over.  It was really close and we felt it go through our bodies from our feet out through our hands.  Like a super strong static shock.  It was insane!  It must have hit the water close by and came up through the boat and out our bodies.  It scared the crap out of us and set the tone for the day.  We waited for at least 20 minutes before we started fishing again and even then we were keeping our rods down.

There's not much to say about the fishing.  We got 4 keeper bites all day!  We threw everything we had at them.  Moving baits, deadsticking, shallow, deep, and everything in between, you name it, but they weren't having it.

We ended up with four fish for 5.77 lbs.  But we weren't last!

I only had one day to practice because of the Vermillion out of towner, so I hit Pokegama and Ron hit Cross.  Me and Kyle found a few fish flipping but nothing of size (except this giant toothy critter) so we decided to ride it out on cross and maximize our fishing time and avoid the 30 minute no wake.
 In hindsight we should have ran over there since we only had two fish by 10am.  I wish I had more time to check the river because I had a feeling it would be good.  And sure enough the top two finishers were fishing the river.  Both lakes have very little structure and no weedlines so even if the river had a little current it would be something.  I wish I had more time to practice for such a big event especially since I've never fished there before.

It was a disappointing end to a disappointing season.  I think the biggest factor was I over extended fishing two tournament circuits and not having as much time needed for practice.  Most I'd these guys fish these lakes every year so that means we should put in even more time to dial them in.  Oh well, I'm not going to cry about it, I'm going fishing!

Congrats to the winners who kicked our butts all season long!

Results

Weather

Vermillion Lake Renegade Bassers 8/7/14 - 8/10/14

Our out of town tourney this year was on Lake Vermilion in northern Minnesota.  It was also an opportunity for us to practice for the MN BASS Federation State Tournament coming up in September.  I was excited to fish it, since I've never been there before.  I've heard nothing but good things about it as far as scenic beauty and it's quality smallmouth population.  The amount of water is staggering.  It's the 4th largest lake in Minnesota and is 27 miles long.  It would need to be broken down into sections and I would need to stay relatively close to the launch site.

Darin Sorenson would be driving up with me which was great since we both saved on gas and had some company during the 3 1/2 hour drive.  I meet him at his place at about 6pm on Thursday night and we hit the road.  Our plan was to get to the resort by 10 so we could get a full practice day in on Friday.  On the way we met Ryan Ploof for a quick bite and then continued on.  We were driving along and I was on the phone with my wife when Darin started saying 'car, car, car' louder and louder.  We were on a four lane divided highway with two lanes on each side.  I was in the left lane passing a slightly slower car, and another car was coming right at us!  It took me a second to realize what was happening.  I was on the phone, it was dark, and the last thing I expected was a car coming at me on the wrong side of the road.  In the few seconds that I had, I decided that the lesser of two evils was to hit the car next to us instead of crashing head on.  At the last second I jerked the wheel to the right and braced for impact.  Lucky for us the car that was there had slowed down and we missed the oncoming car by a few feet.  Holy crap my heart was pounding I thought we were in big trouble.  It was so close.  What the hell was he doing?

Once we calmed down, Darin called Ploof to warn him as he was about 20 minutes behind us.  We were thinking there was no way he would still be there by that point but just in case.  Sure enough Ploof called us about 20 minutes later and had luckily gotten off to get gas and saw him drive by, still driving down the wrong side of the highway.  He called 911 and they said they had already received many calls about him.  Hopefully he didn't hurt anyone.  What a way to start the weekend!  Onwards to the resort and we arrived safely a little past 10pm, unpacked, and went to bed.

Practice Day Friday

We got up around 5 am to hopefully be on the water by 6.  It was a little rough for some folks who had partied long into the night.  I was fishing with Mike on Saturday and he would be joining me today for some laughs and hopefully some Smallies!  Mike was having some trouble backing the trailer in because I think he was seeing two trailers.  We started out right near the launch at a little island.  It didn't take long to catch a nice smallie on a spinnerbait.  We then headed over to a bay that looked like largemouth territory with weeds and pads.  We were fishing along and I thought I saw a log in the water.  I casted my lure towards it and as we moved closer realized it was a giant musky.  One of many we would see over the next couple days.  There are lots of giant muskies in the lake.   We continued on and I got a decent largemouth on a frog.  Things were pretty slow so we made a nice long move to an island with some nice boulders and deep water nearby.  Rocks would be another theme for the weekend as they are everywhere and we would lose lots of tungsten over next three days.  We both hooked into some nice Smallies, marked it, and headed off in search of more areas like this one.  We ended up catching a ton of fish and quite a few nice ones during the day.  It did slow down quite a bit around noon but we still managed one here and one there.  Didn't get any giants but a few over 3lbs and some close to 4.  The best baits were Texas rigged tube, didn't seem to matter what color, rapala dt 10 in bluegill, and a few on a spinner bait.  Mikey was catching most of his on a fat ika tube.  You could fine pretty much any shoreline with rocks (which was everywhere) and catch them.  The best ones seemed to be near deep water with a sharp drop off near shore.  I tried like heck to get a topwater bite going but only managed a little dink on a pop-r.  I threw the spook quite a bit but nothing was interested.  Water temp was about 78 degrees during the middle of the day.

There were crayfish everywhere!  Every time you would catch one, they would be spitting them up near the boat, and in the boat.  They would even clamp onto our lures!  Mikey caught one and we thought it was the craziest thing until he caught many more and so did everyone else we found out later that night.  And if you'd look down in the water, you could see them scooting around everywhere.  I wonder if it's always like this or if they just had some sort of massive crayfish hatch.  I tried to match them since they were brown with little orange spots on their pincers but it didn't seem to matter they were eating the black and blue tubes just as good.  We were also wondering why they would even bother to eat our baits when they had so much live food available?  Maybe the crayfish were clamping onto our baits and then the Smallies were eating them along with our baits?

All in all it was a fun day and we found some decent spots for tomorrow.  We headed back to the resort around 4pm exhausted and ready for some food and rest.

Tournament Day 1 Saturday

We arrived to the launch on a beautiful morning.  This was going to be fun, since I've missed two tournaments already this year due to greenhorn events on the same days, I was out of the running for angler of the year.  I could just relax and fish with no pressure and use this as practice for the TOC.  Even though I'd still take a win.

We were boat number one at takeoff.  Yea, everyone gets to pass me as soon as we get up to speed.  We headed to our starting spot which was a little island about 10 minutes away.  Just as we were about to pull up, Brian comes flying by and pulls up to the same island.  Of all the 365 islands.  I couldn't believe it.  It wasn't Brian's fault, he beat my to the spot fair and square.  I was upset that I have such a slow boat and that of all the water available, we both had the same starting spot.  Now normally I would have just moved on to my next best spot but we caught two nice fish on it yesterday.  And they went away from our prime area, so we just went in the opposite direction around the other side of the island.  Anyway, after all that neither of us caught a keeper off that spot.

We moved on to our next area and realized things were much slower than they were yesterday.  I finally got a nice keeper off a point with a tube.  Mike was doing pretty well.  Every time he caught one, it was a good one.  And every time I caught one, it was a 12 incher.  We bounced around to most of the stuff we hit the day before.  It was mostly islands and rocky shorelines (surprise, surprise) and I did most of my damage with Texas rigged green pumpkin and black and blue Lena Lures ring tubes.

After we ran most of our smallie areas, we went back to check a bay with lots of weeds that looked like largemouth territory.  We worked our way around without much action, then I threw a senko to a tree sticking up out of the water, and the line went tight immediately.  I set the hook and a few seconds later a beautiful Smallie jumped about 2 feet out of water.  I finally got it in the boat and it was a 17 incher.  It really brightened my spirits after a grind of a morning.  I was slowly putting together a decent bag.  By this time I had my limit and Mike needed one more.  We ran down a reed line and both missed a few fish and Mikey had his limit fish half way to the boat and it came unbuttoned.  Off to the next area to try and pick up the limit fish.

We made a long run to another spot from yesterday.  Not much going on here..

We wanted to make it back in plenty of time for weigh in, and I wasn't sure how long it would take to get back so we headed that direction.  I spied a small bay that looked interesting so we decided to make a quick stop.  And lucky we did.  Mike got his limit fish and I culled my last 14 incher. There were fish all over in this bay.  It was too bad we had to get back and leave biting fish.

We made one more quick stop near the weigh in and headed in.

I ended up in 4th place with 13.88lbs and 2nd biggest bass at 3.83lbs.  I was pretty surprised with the result.  That last flurry really helped after what was sort of a grind of a day.  It was still a good day compared to city lakes, but it did not compare to the day before.  Not sure if it was due to the pressure or weather but it was still fun.  And Mike got his limit as well so I was satisfied.

We headed back to the resort for some grub and turned in pretty early after 2 long days on the water.

Tournament Day 2 Sunday
Today I was fishing with AJ Madison which I was looking forward to since we never fished together before.  My plan was to cover new water since I didn't really care how I finished, and I was looking ahead to the TOC.

We took off and stopped at the first interesting area to try some topwater.  Nothing doing so we made a quick run to a nearby point.

I gave up on the topwater and quickly caught a nice 15 on a tube.  We continued on around the point and I hooked a huge musky on my dt10.  I really wanted my crankbait back so I carefully played it to the boat.  After it dove under the boat a few times and almost broke my rod, AJ reached down and unhooked my crankbait for me.  I got some pretty good video of it to watch later.  I really have no idea but if I had to guess it was between 35-40 inches, and man was it thick.  After taking a minute to calm down, it was back to smallie hunting.

We worked some more shoreline with no luck.  We headed off to look for some largemouth.  We stopped at a nice looking bluff wall with no luck then we headed into a weedy bay.  No luck on the largies either.
We worked a nice looking island and I got another couple small keepers on the dt10 and the tube.  It was tough today trying to fish the rocks because we kept getting hung up.  AJ was a master at getting his lures out because he had so much practice the day before.  I finally lost my dt10 which not even the musky was able to break off.  Luckily I had another one.

Awhile later AJ hooked a solid 15 incher on topwater.  I followed up with another keeper 12 incher.  Off to fish some reeds.

I had a nice bite on my senko but was just a stupid pike.  I could tell AJ wasn't really into fishing reeds and looking for largies but I knew they had potential and could also hold Smallies.  I made another stop at some reeds with boulders near a point.  Good thing we stopped.  I threw my senko near the boulder and all the sudden my line was swimming towards the other side of the rock.  I set the hook and landed a nice 16 inch smallie.  We continued down the shoreline and hit the smallie jackpot.  After I made a nice cull with my big one, I let AJ control the boat and sat down to a peanut butter and jelly.  I casually threw out my senko and relaxed.  A minute later my line started swimming off and I put down my sammich and set the hook on another good one.  Maybe I was onto something.  We continued down the shoreline and AJ got another keeper on the only dock that was there.  We swung around so he could hit the dock again and he landed another keeper!  My work was done.  He said that it was my responsibility to get him 3 fish and I succeeded.  If he didn't get anymore than that it was the lakes fault.  We made another pass and I caught a pike off the same spot where I had caught my big smallie earlier and was exited that it was another toad until I saw it.  I think I upgraded once more and then we had to head back.  All day we had been working our way away from the ramp and I had no idea how long it would take to get back.  And for the second day in a row a late flurry helped us and we had to leave biting fish.

We arrived with plenty of time to spare and worked the bay near the ramp for the last 20 minutes with no bites.  I ended up with almost the exact same weight as the day before 13.48lbs and my big was 3.24lbs which was good enough for 3rd place.  I was extremely happy with the result, especially since we were basically pre fishing new water all day.  I think I like this no pressure fun fishing deal.  Hopefully I can keep it going during the TOC.  Congrats to Patrick Porter on the two day sweep, he had 15 pounds both days.

Overview

It was a ton of fun catching lots of Smallies and hanging with all the guys.  I had a blast fishing with Mike and getting to know AJ better even though he doesn't say much.  He is a top notch net man as well.  I'm satisfied with how I did and covered a lot of water in preparation for the toc.

Results

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