Practice-
My non boater for the Goose Lake tournament was Mark Nistler. We fish together all the time so I was really looking forward to it. We were pre fishing together and didn't even know we were paired up on Goose until we looked at the schedule. My pre fishing outings were pretty good. I was out there 3 times and felt like I had a good idea of what to do on tournament day. There weren't a lot of numbers, but there was definitely quality. I felt like if I got 5 bites all day, I would be in good shape.
My first trip out there was with Mark and I caught a 4 plus pounder pretty quick on a frog near the access. We caught a few here and there but mostly familiarized myself with the lake and scouted for areas to hit next time.
The next time out was by myself and I went to the far back lake to check things there.
It was pretty slow until I started throwing a frog. I didn't think it would be good because it was mid day and high sun. But it was pretty productive none the less.
While pre fishing with Ryan Kroth we had some misfortune. It took awhile to get our first fish. Finally Ryan hooked into one and it was a good one. We were both super stoked but then we heard a 'snap.' He broke his new Lamiglas Rod by lifting up the Rod that slid under the boat cleat. It was a $360 Rod. We went from jubilation to devastation in a matter of seconds. After that we destroyed em on frogs for about an hour until it shut off. I caught a couple nice walleye on a rat-l-trap and had a good meal. Then my trolling motor just completely lost power at the end of the night. (It ended up being the relay.)
Tournament-
I was planning on throwing a frog all day in order to catch 5 good ones based on practice. The weedline was at like 6 feet so I didn't think it would be a factor. We started on the shallow side and started frogging. I caught a short right away on the frog. That was strange because it was the smallest fish I've caught out there but also told me maybe they were active. We fished our prime area almost all the way to the other side with no action then finally caught a decent one on the frog. I was starting to rethink my decision to stick with the frog all day. We decided to head down the channel all the way to the other end. We hit a 'weedline' on the way and I caught a 12 incher. We got to the far end and they were spraying milfoil. Damn. That's twice now I've run into this while fishing tournaments. We didn't waste much time there made a quick few casts and left. We came out of the channel and around the corner and saw a spot that I liked from practice and no one was on it so we decided to hit it. While I felt there was plenty of water it did get crowded a couple times.
This is where the fun began.
We came out of the channel and around the corner. I decided to start there since I caught fish there in practice and no one was on it. I switched lures from a black/red Culprit Incredi-Craw to a black/blue Berkeley Craw Fatty. I had a 1oz tungsten weight and a size 4 Gamakatsu super line ewg hook. As soon as we settled in I got hit on like my 4th flip into the pads. It was a 4 pounder. Ok, here we go. Next flip, boom, another 3+. I think I caught good fish on like 4 of my first 10 flips near those pads. It was unbelievable! It illustrates how things can change so fast in fishing. If you pull an area and the timing is right you can load the boat quick. It confirms to me that you always have to remain focused and don't get too down because it can happen anytime.
Mark was trying to get the net on one of my fish and I just flipped it in the boat and he said 'the transaction between you and the fish happens so fast.' Quote of the day, I got a kick out of that.
Also in that same stretch my reel was getting loose and not sitting properly in the reel seat. Eventually I set the hook on a fish and the reel feel off. I had to hand line it into the net! Luckily I was prepared for it and still caught the fish.
I also had trolling motor issues and had to pull the prop off. At this point it was getting a little crowded so I just slid up into the weeds and made the repairs to 'block' out the productive stretch we were fishing. I saw Ryan Ploof and asked if they had hawgz and he said they did. Little did I know he had a fat sack including an almost 6 pounder. I fixed the trolling motor and the action slowed down. I went from 2 fish and less than 5lbs to a limit and over 15 lbs in less than a half hour. I culled the 12 incher from earlier and that was it, only culled once but had some quality fish.
After the action slowed and the trolling motor was fixed, true to form Mark had to poop so we had to go back to the access. Also on the way his hat flew off and into the lake so we had to turn around and get it. I think he was trying to sabotage me. I was hoping to hit the area by the access and find that kicker fish because even though I had a good bag I knew there were big fish in the lake and I didn't think I had quite enough. I worked that area hard but no one was home. We worked near the other access where the weigh in was to close out the day. It was a pretty uneventful day besides that one stretch. Mark was unable to boat a keeper and had a rough day. I thought I had an outside chance but ended up in third place with 16.32lbs. Ploof kicked ass with a 18.73lb bag anchored by a 5.92lb hog.
Overview-
I was thrilled to have a 3rd place finish. Slightly disappointed that I didn't win with over 16lbs but that's how it goes sometimes. It's a testament to the quality of fish in the lake and Ploof being able to capitalize on it. Looking back I would have abandoned the frog fishing a little earlier and not tried to force it, and spent more time flipping. Also running to the far lake was time consuming and unproductive. But who knew they would be spraying that day? It also seemed like a timing thing as other guys were working the same areas.
Water Temp = 74
It only got to 73 degrees and was sunny and virtually no wind.
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