Sugar Lake Renegade Bassers 6/1/13

The first tourney of the year is always special and much anticipated. Especially here in Minnesota where this year was an especially long winter.  I was fishing by myself and anxious to get the bad taste of last years 10th place finish out of my mouth. I made two practice visits to the lake and caught a ton of pre-spawn fish but was worried about finding size.  They were eating everything I threw but knew that would be the same for everyone.  I had to find fish that were slightly bigger and every ounce would count. 

I started near the access and got a decent fish right away on a chatter bait near some reeds.  Then it would be awhile before I caught another keeper.  I tried a few areas from practice but nothing was working. 

Finally I headed to a popular area and started out on the deeper edge of some pads.  Nothing going so I moved shallow.  I started by throwing a senko near a dock and caught another keeper.  I decided to throw the buzzbait even though I thought it may be a little cool.  Immediately a fish blew up on it.  It didn't hook up but I threw my senko to that spot and caught the fish, another decent keeper.  I picked up the buzzbait again and did the same thing.  Followed up with the senko and caught another keeper.  Ok, this seemed like a pattern.  I'm not sure if they were just sluggish, or if they were possibly protecting nests, but it sure seemed like they were just trying to kill the buzzbait and not really eat it.  I ran this pattern until I had my limit and until this other boat decided it was a good idea to come right up in the tiny bay where I was fishing and threw out their bobbers right in front of where I was casting.  That was ok the bite pretty much stopped in there anyway. 

I moved back out to the edge and started flipping a chigger craw to some pad stems since I couldn't get any bigger ones on a swim jig.  Fish were coming regularly but I was only upgrading ounces at a time.   I wondered more than once if I should be balance beaming all these fish but I knew every ounce would count.  

Time was going by quickly and I only had about an hour left.  I probably only had 8lbs or so and knew I needed more.  I went back to where I spotted a good fish earlier but couldn't get it to bite.  I made a few blind casts to where I saw it earlier but no luck.  I moved closer but couldn't locate it.   I kept working down the shoreline and started to see more activity the shallower I went.  I worked back into a really shallow little cut and saw some good fish.  I caught one that would help on a senko.  And lots of smaller ones on the buzzbait and senko.  There was so many fish back here I didn't know what to do.  I saw a giant dogfish, a big musky, and lots of bass.  Time was really winding down and I had to get myself out of this ultra shallow water.  I had about 10 minutes to get back so I headed towards deeper water.  On the way I was throwing the buzzbait and bam!  A good one exploded on it.  It was my big bass of the day which ended up weighing 2.86lbs and would definitely help.  I was jacked and had to get back asap or I'd be late for weigh-in.  I pulled out into deeper water just in time as everyone came flying into the access. 

I ended up in 2nd place with 9.74lbs.  I thought for a second that I might have it won until Dave McCrone who was the last one to weigh in kicked everyone's butts by almost 2lbs.  I really need to stop weighing in so early and having to sweat out the rest of the club.  Good job Dave!   2nd -16th place was only separated by 2.5lbs!  I knew it would come down to ounces.  Talk about cookie cutters.  It was a blast catching all those fish.  Sugar Lake would be out of control good if it only had some big fish.  I wonder if harvesting more of the smaller fish would help?  

Overview-

Looking back now I would have stayed ultra shallow the entire time.  I pretty much knew the weedline bite wouldn't be a factor but I was surprised that the fish were as shallow as they were.  Almost all my fish came in a foot or two of water.  I think as the day went on and the temperature moved up, the fish were really getting ready to spawn or at least looking for places to make their beds.  I wish I would have spent more time just looking around for beds and bigger fish as well.  It was kind of a fun challenge knowing that it would be so close and trying to just find subtle differences that would pay off in the end.  Now to keep it rolling I started out last season taking 2nd in the first tournament, and it ended horribly.  New season, new outlook. 

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