Goose Lake Greenhorn Tour 8/3/14

Goose Lake is up near the top of the list of my favorite lakes.  It's mostly a shallow, weedy, dirty lake that will test your froggin and flippin skills to the max.  I was excited to hit it immediately after my win on N/S Center, as I would be doing pretty much the same type of fishing.  I hardly had to do any re rigging which was also a plus.

Practice

I decided to call in a half day to work and head out there during the week for a few hours.  Kyle joined me since he works mostly nights now.  We started near the small launch and tried some topwater.  Walking frogs, buzzbait, and buzz frogs.  After awhile with no action we headed to the opposite side of the lake.  It didn't take long for Kyle's frog to get inhaled and it was a beauty.  It was his first bass on a walking frog and he did a good job of waiting on the hook set and reeling it through the heavy cover.

A few flips later I boated a nice one of my own on a craw tube.  I also caught a few on a scatter rap but not nearly the size of the frog/flippin fish.  It was a good option nonetheless.  From my experience on this lake, you might not get many bites, but they will usually be good ones.  During the Renegade Bassers tournament last year I only culled once maybe twice and had 16 pounds.

 We decided to head to the other deeper basin and check some stuff over there.  I hit my main area to see if it was still holding fish and on the 2nd pass it produced a solid 3 pounder.  That's all I needed to see so we left. We worked a slop bay nearby and a little bit into the channel just eliminating water.

We moved to another area similar to the first two that produced and the result was similar, a nice 3+ lb fish on a craw fatty.  They were all hiding in the pads.  The weedline tops out at about 6 feet so fishing shallow is pretty much the only option.  I couldn't get any bites out of the reeds.  It didn't seem to matter if there was milfoil or reeds nearby, the pads seemed to be the ticket.

From there we made a quick check of a deeper area that looked good, then we finished out the morning near the access without any more bites.  My guess is we had about 14 pounds fishing until noon.  And we would pretty much leave the good areas after catching one or two fish.  I was glad I made it out to check it out, we just needed to do it again come Sunday.

Tournament

We arrived at the resort access at about 5:15 after an hour drive which made for an early morning.  We remained status quo by drawing boat #10.  If we had a top 3 draw we were going to head to the deeper basin but since we drew boat 10 we decided to start on the shallow side.  We hit the area where we got 2 good ones in practice and managed 2 small keepers on a buzzbait and senko.  We ran to the opposite bank and worked it for awhile with no luck.  We decided to give the starting spot one more quick check before we hit the other basin.  And this is where things got interesting.

I flipped a few feet into the pads and something wasn't right.  I didn't feel the bite but I saw a pad move and I wasn't moving the bait.  I set the hook anyway.  Good thing I did because a 4 pounder had grabbed it and I got him the boat.  I told Ron how the bite was and that all I knew was something felt strange.  A few  minutes later I heard Ron say 'something felt strange' as he set the hook and his rod was bowed over.  I got the net under it after a good battle and it was an exact replica of the fish I had just caught.  Now we were rolling.  We just had to stick with it and the big bites would come.  We milked this area for all it was worth and caught our limit plus culled a couple times.  We got another 3 pounder and two that were just under 3 that were our smallest.

After going awhile with no action we decided to let the area rest, and head to the other basin and try our luck there.  We headed to an area that I've done well on in the past and caught a couple fish but no upgrades.  Ron picked up his frog when he saw milfoil and said 'where there's milfoil, there's frog fish' and immediately caught one but it didn't help.  I think it was our only frog fish we landed for the day.

We ran to another area with pads and had some interesting things happen.  First Ron had a giant blow up on a frog but didn't get a hook in em.  He threw back there again and it blew up on it again.  But again it failed to hook up.  We threw senkos and craw's in the area but couldn't get it to bite.  Then a few minutes later I made a flip and felt a bite, set the hook, and my rod broke in half!  I couldn't believe it!  We landed the fish but it didn't help.  I don't understand, the fish wasn't that big, and the cover I pulled it from wasn't that heavy.  It was a 13 Fishing rod made for cabelas.  Heavy action swimbait / umbrella rig.  After I tied my punch rig on another rod I got my lure back in the water.  I immediately got a hard bite and set the hook and it didn't even move.  I thought we were in business.  And wouldn't you guess it was a freaking dogfish!  Unbelievable.  My third one this year.  Then Ron caught another one that didn't help and we were going to head back to the area where the frog blow up was and see if it was willing to bite.  We looked and there was a canoe fishing right on the spot.  We would have been pissed if they caught it.  We waited until they moved on, then circled in behind them for another pass.  While we were trying to get big momma to bite we heard the guys in the canoe hooting and hollering.  We looked over and they were holding a nice 4 pounder at least.  From the area we had just worked!  Things were starting to go in the wrong direction.

From there we headed back to our main area.  There was all kinds of activity fish and bait fish jumping all over.  After catching a big pike and working it for 30 minutes or so without a bass, we decided the area was taken over by other species and it was carp surfacing all over.

A front was moving in and I was hoping this would activate some fish.  It was not to be and we worked the north part of the lake hard before heading in.  The sky looked menacing and with about 10 minutes remaining a major wind gust encouraged us to head in.  The rain held off until I was pulling the boat out of the water.  I saw a few smaller bags but apparently missed the big ones.  I was pretty confident we had at least 16 pounds and should get us a check.

We ended up with 17.3lbs which was only good enough for 6th place.  The big guns of the tour both had 18 pounds bags and the winner blew everyone away with 19 pounds anchored with a 5.9 big bass.  Apparently they needed a last minute jump in order make it back.  We found out we were doing the right thing as all top 3 finishers were throwing heavy jigs/punch baits and white frogs.  It's a little frustrating when the same 2 teams are in the top 3 every tournament in what is supposed to be the 'Greenhorn' tour, but I think part of it is a little jealousy, and part of it is knowing that we can compete with them but we just aren't able to go out and execute like we are capable of.  Hats off to them!

Overview

We had the chances to finish in the top 3 but couldn't seal the deal.  I think we both either had one on, or missed a fish that would have gotten us the money.  We were just one bite away which is all you can really ask for, it just wasn't our time.  It was certainly our best finish weight wise by far, even though we finished 6th on Forest.

As far as what we could have done differently, a few things come to mind.  At the weigh in, one of the top 3 teams were saying they caught their fish on 1/2oz jigs.  We were mostly using 1oz slither rig and punch baits.  I actually thought about switching to something lighter and maybe they wanted a different fall speed, but never did.  I'm not sure how that would have worked since most of the cover we were fishing was pretty thick and we probably would have had to just flip the holes in the grass.  Something to keep in mind for next time.  Also maybe deadsticking a senko?  It seemed like they got very inactive after 11am, and although painful to do, might have produced.  Another thought I had was to run and gun and hit more areas instead of wasting too much time in unproductive water.

This is the 2nd event in a row where I haven't upgrades past 11am.  I've had good bags so it's not that easy when you need at least a 3 pounder to upgrade.  Do you stick with what got you there, or try something different?  These are decisions that I need to work on.

Our finish did qualify us for the greenhorn toc on Cross/Pokegama, so that was a bonus!  Off to Vermillion next week for the Renegade Bassers out of town tournament and practice for state BASS federation tournament in September.

Results

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North / South Center Lake Renegade Bassers 7/26/14

I was very excited when Center Lake was added to the schedule for this season.  I've been hearing that the lake has been on fire for the last couple years.  Of course we get it on the schedule after a really tough winter and a massive fish kill that happened mostly on North Center.  There was some question if we would be able to fish it, and we monitored weights reported from other events and decided it would be ok to proceed but weights have been down slightly from past years.  I have never been on the lake in the summer, I have only iced fish there a few times.  Not only was my boat in the shop getting the steering cable replaced, but I decided that I would go into this event blind, with no prefishing, and just go out and fish and have fun and see what would happen.  I have been struggling lately so maybe with no pressure and no preconceived ideas, I could finally get some big bites. 

Practice

None

Tournament

I was supposed to have my buddy Darin Sorenson with me as non-boater but unfortunately he wasn't able to make it.  All I knew was I was going to stay on South Center and start shallow.  With the lakes reputation for big fish, I was prepared to frog and flip heavy cover all day.  Most of us headed south and I settled into a small bay with lots of pads and milfoil.  I caught a small keeper pretty quick on a swim jig.  There were bait fish everywhere!  I was rotating through the frog, swim jig, and punch rig.  A few casts later I caught another keeper on the swim jig.  I flipped my punch rig into a milfoil patch and got a good bite.  I swung and missed!  I flipped into the same spot again, and he hit it again and I was ready and didn't miss again.  It was a nice 3 pounder with a big old head and skinny body. 

I continued working the area and had a couple blow ups on the frog but couldn't hook up.  I came to the other side of the bay and flipped into a heavy patch of milfoil and set the hook on another good one.  Another fish that was about 3.5 lbs, I was starting to like this lake.  It was about 7:30am and I already had more weight than any other previous tournament I've fished this year.  Got to keep it going and stay focused.  I caught my limit fish on the swimjig shortly after that but it seemed like all the swimjig fish were small and the flipping fish were much bigger.  No more swimjig for me today I thought.  

I kept throwing the frog because it looked so froggy and I needed another good fish.  I was just about to give up on it for the day (or at least awhile) when my frog was totally destroyed.  I set the hook and it was a toad.  I wrenched it through the slop and got the net under it.  It was a giant!  I was thinking 5lbs for sure but ended up being big bass of the tourney at 4.78lbs (close enough!).  I was jacked.  This was my biggest fish of the season by far.  I think the main difference between this year and last year is I haven't had many big bites.  And he inhaled the frog.  It's strange that they weren't hitting it more by the way he ate it, it was halfway down his gullet.  I carefully removed the hooks and put him in the box.  It was quite a cull as I released a 13 incher.  I'm getting excited just writing about it.  I had to take a minute to calm down.  

It was about 9:30am when I was debating on leaving the area.  I hadn't had a bite for awhile on the frog or flipping and I was wondering what to do next.  I said to myself I would make a few more flips and head somewhere else.  Immediately after that, boom!  Another solid 3 pounder flippin the slither rig.  At this point I decided that I would just ride out the rest of the day in this area.  1) I was clearly around quality fish, even though it was awhile between bites at this point.  2) I had the area basically to myself.  3) I didn't know where else to go.  I could go fish deep but I didn't know where to start.  I could also go to another shallow area and see what I could find.  

I decided to head out to some deeper water and recirculate the water in my livewell and take a pb & j break.  The area I was fishing was very shallow and dirty so I wanted to give my fish some clean water and keep them alive for the rest of the day.  It was getting pretty hot as well and I was concerned about having the dirty water in there.  I figured I had around 14 pounds (very conservative guess) and thought needed one more good one to have a shot at winning this thing.  It was about 10:15 and I decided I would quickly go try another shallow area and then head back to my main area.  

I was relaxed, had a full tummy, and my fish had clean water and some 'Fish Gatorade' to keep them going.  I headed off to another shallow spot with reeds and pads.  I worked the deep edges all the way up into the heavy reeds without a bite.  Back to the main area I went.

Once I got there, it was a different ball game.  Not much would happen for the rest of the day.  I got a couple good bites but couldn't connect on any of them.  It was so long between bites that I started to lose focus and wasn't ready when I did get a bite.  Either that or they just weren't hitting it as good as they were earlier in the day.  Probably a combination of both.  I did miss a couple bites where they knocked it pretty good.  

I did catch a huge snapping turtle.  I flipped into a patch of milfoil, went to bring my bait back, and it wouldn't move.  It felt like a had hooked a log even though I didn't set the hook.  Hmmmm.  I kept pulling gently and felt some movement.  I immediately thought it might be a giant bass just wrapped in some heavy weeds.  I started pulling a little quicker and saw a flash of white and for a second thought 'it is a huge fish' and went to grab the net.  My hopes were crushed when I saw that the flash of white was the huge claw of a snapping turtle.  I immediately grabbed for my scissors to cut the line.  I hesitated for a second when I thought of my slither rig with a 1 oz tungsten weight that I paid about 8 dollars for.  Once I realized that my fingers were more important than my weight, I cut the line and re-tied.  A couple boats were near me watching and I told them it was a big snapper and one guy said:  "Them's good eatin," I thought that was funny.

Time was winding down and I decided to try near the launch since I heard from someone that the tournaments were releasing their fish on North Center in order to try to replenish that area.  Who knows if the fish don't just swim back to the South lake or not.  But it was worth a shot.  Maybe I could catch a straggler from last weeks tournament.  I still thought I needed another good fish to be in the hunt.  No luck, time to head in and weigh em up.  

The buzz at the ramp was that most guys had limits but they weren't very big.  I might have a shot at this I thought.  I knew I would be in the hunt for big bass but I also knew the lake's potential for big fish so I didn't count my chickens before they hatched.  I ended up weighing an impressive 16.05lbs!  It's been awhile since I've weighed in over 15 pounds.  Which was good enough for 1st place by over 3 pounds.  My big bass was 4.78lbs. good enough for big bass.  I decided right then I was never prefishing again!  Ha!  I don't want to sound like I'm bragging but even I was impressed.  These wins are rare so you need to enjoy them while you can.  It is my 5th tournament win and couldn't have come at a better time.   I really needed this win.  My season has been mediocre at best and I needed to get some confidence back, and a win and big bass will certainly help in the confidence department.  Off to Goose next week for the final Greenhorn even of the season unless we make up the 4 points that we are trailing for the final TOC spot.  

Overview

It's hard to find much that I could have done differently when you win by 3 pounds.  One thing that keeps bugging me is the 3 hours I went in the afternoon without catching a fish.  I should have went and fished deep after going an hour without a bite in my main area.  I did miss a couple bites that may have made me think differently, but who knows.  I'm probably being ridiculous but I'm always looking for ways to improve and become a better angler.  I am satisfied with the win and I'll leave at that.  

Results

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