Practice
I didn't have much time to practice for this event since I was out of town the previous week and the Medicine Lake tournament was the day before. I had only fished the lake one other time as a non boater a couple years prior. But I wanted to get out there once for sure and at least take a look around and get comfortable navigating the lake. I decided to go through the channel and start on the opposite side and work my way back. I started near a reed island and worked around the bay with some decent success with swim jigs and senkos. The water was gin clear. I caught plenty of fish but most of them were small. I explored the other basin for a couple hours and headed out. I wasn't completely confident but at least I had some ideas.
Tournament
I was lucky enough to fish this tournament with Mike Juskiewicz, one of the best guys in the club. It's always a fun day on the water with Mikey no matter how the fishing is, and today would be no exception. We had a blast fishing Big Marine last year and I was looking forward to fishing with him again.
We went straight to the reed island in the far lake and saw Nick Madison fishing nearby and debated going to a different area. He was fishing off the island a little deeper so we decided to give it a shot anyway and if he moved in towards the reeds we would leave. We worked the back side of the island and close to where Nick was fishing with no bites. By this time Nick had moved closer to the reeds and was setting the hook on a fish every time I looked at him. We didn't want to encroach on his area, plus we weren't getting any bites so we headed to a small bay nearby.
We worked the shallow stuff with no action until we came to the point which dropped off fast. Man the water was clear! You could see every thing from the boat to the back from 100 yards away. I finally got my first keeper on the point on a drop shot. We caught a couple shorts, then moved over to another bay.
This far bay was my best area, as I saw a lot of activity in there in practice. We stayed back and worked the edges with no luck, then moved in shallower into the slop. It was a lot tougher than it was in practice and I was thinking of how to adjust. Did we need to fish deeper? Shallower? Docks? I was just heading out of the slop to deeper water when I saw a nice bass swimming by the boat. I grabbed my senko thinking 'This fish is never going to eat this when he's this close to the boat.' I dropped my senko down and he ate it immediately! It was a 2 1/2 pounder. I felt a little better and we worked the area a while longer with no success. I think Mike had 4 fish by this point and I needed to catch up.
From there we went to the opposite shoreline to work some docks. I was up front working the trolling motor and saw Mikey set the hook on a fish and bring it in the boat. I was focused on trying to get my next fish and not really paying attention when I heard a 'splash.' I turned around to see Mikey with his hand up looking into the water. The fish came off and jumped back into the lake! I tried not to laugh but it was hilarious! He was just shaking his head. It wasn't a giant but pretty sure it would have been his limit fish. From there we headed through the channel back to the other basin where we would spend the rest of the day.
We moved back and forth between a few weedline spots and I scraped together two more fish. Nothing was working that I found in practice. I was switching baits often and trying deep as well as shallow. I thought this lake would be similar to the Sugar Lake tournament in that there would be plenty of fish but not many big ones. Apparently the fish didn't get that memo as it wasn't working that way for me. I caught a couple short fish but not many. Mikey ended up getting his limit somewhere along the line and and I don't think the fish he lost came into play. He was making small upgrades as well.
I had another bay spot similar to the one in the other basin that I was sure I could get my 5th fish from but just ended up catching shorts on a frog and senko. Time was winding down and I didn't even have a limit. We ran back to a spot where I thought I could get another one on a weedline and finally, with not more than a half hour to go, I caught my 5th keeper on a jig.
Back at weigh in things weren't looking so bad. Other guys were having similar issues and my 2.45 pounder really helped. I finished in 7th place with 7.57lbs. Congrats to Chris on 1st place with 11 lbs and Jesse for big bass at 3.74lbs! It was really tight again as 3rd - 13th place was separated by less than 2lbs. Also everyone caught their limits.
Overview
Wow, things did not turn out like I thought. Which can easily happen in fishing. I certainly didn't think it would be that difficult to get my limit. I was very happy with 7th place the way my day went. My big fish saved me. I should have spent more time sight fishing since the water was so clear and that's how I caught my biggest fish. They didn't seem very shy. I also wish I had more practice time to look for more deep spots. I think I also wasn't completely focused coming off the 3rd place finish the day before. Overall, I lived to fish another day.
Results
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