Maple Lake is one of my favorites for many reasons. First off I won the last RB event here two years ago and secured angler of the year in the process. I remember it like it was yesterday it was an awesome feeling. I also fished my first tourney as a boater on this lake and I remember how nervous I was just to get a limit, and how I wasn't really sure how to work my live wells. I did manage a small limit that day by the way. It's also the lake we 'adopted' as part of the MN DNR Adopt-a-river program in which we clean up the shorelines around both accesses in the Spring. We even put up our sign this Spring to make it official. We also just mounted our 're-baits' box at the landing where anglers can recycle their used soft plastics which get melted down and reused. So this lake is somewhat special to me.
Practice
We headed out the previous week to see what we could figure out. We started I the shallow bay near the launch and immediately starting hooking up with decent fish on frogs. The action was intense for about 45 minutes then it was like someone flipped a switch and the frog bite was dead. I knew being the last boat out, I probably wouldn't be able to get in there anyways but it was still fun. We found a few other decent fogging areas to check during the tourney but the frog bite was officially done.
We headed to some weedline areas and immediately started to hook up here as well. We tried some other new spots too without much luck. I felt pretty good about our day and it was getting hot and busy on the lake so we headed in.
Tournament
On tournament morning my non boater had overslept and I offered to come back and pick him up at the dock when he arrived. Not the most ideal way to start the tourney but I figured it could happen to anyone.
I ran down to the channel looking for a frog bite early. On like my 3rd cast a good one exploded on my zoom horny toad and I got him in the net. No sooner than I got him in the box when Travis called and said he was at the dock. While I didn't mind going to get him I wasn't expecting him for at least another 30 minutes and the frog fish were biting. I worked my way back through the no wake area and went to get him from the dock.
We headed back to the same area and the action was slow. I think Travis finally picked up a keeper on the frog before we headed deep.
On our way to my main weedline area I noticed at least 4 boats up and down my most productive areas. I have a tendency to get irritated when this happens as it seems like every tourney this year has been like this. I know it's part of the game and something I need to work on. You come out and put in practice time and everyone else finds the same areas. My instinct is not to fight for fish I'd rather just find a different area or wait for them to leave. Again, something to work on.
We squeezed in between boats and caught a few small keepers. Not much size but we needed limits before we could cull. I decided to head shallow to the bay near the landing. If we had caught fish there on frogs, they didn't all leave, we'd just have to drop a jig on their head and make them bite. After a few minutes of dealing with the scum and muck, it was time to bail. On our way out I noticed a shady spot on one of the mats with deep, clean, water on one side. This was worth a look. We came around the corner and there was a prefect looking spot. Nice little opening at the point of some thick weeds, the kind of spot where you say 'yep, there's gotta be one there.' I focused all my attention on my cast and carefully flipped in there. Boom! There was one there! It headed toward deeper water and as soon as I tried to turn it's momentum toward the boat it came off. It wasn't a giant but would have helped. I immediately thought it would reload and I would check again later. I think I got another small keeper off of that spot before we headed back to the weedline.
Out on the weedline my heart just wasn't in it. I didn't think the winning fish were out here and I didn't like the amount of pressure we were dealing with. We headed back shallow to flip for awhile. After a long stretch with no bites we headed back to check on the spot I mentioned earlier.
I decided to quietly work my way around up to the spot. On my first flip I immediately got hammered. It was way up in the weeds splashing around, I was pumped. It had to be at least a five pounder. But then I got it closer and was a freaking dogfish. Ughh! Again. Once I finally got the nasty thing unhooked, we continued towards my spot. Travis picked up a decent one to fill out his limit. Approaching the spot I again got ultra focused and made the perfect flip right where the previous one bit. Boom! Right where it was supposed to be. 3 pounder, and much bigger than the one I lost earlier. And this time I got it into the net and made a huge cull with a 12 incher.
I was feeling decent at this point, I figured I had at least 10 pounds. I knew it wasn't enough to win but the afternoon bite was a grind, and figured I had enough for a decent finish. It was getting close to the end of the day so we poked around near the launch and closed out the rest of the day. Travis had his limit and I had at least 10 pounds so it was a decent day. Nothing special but did what we needed to do to stay in the hunt.
We headed out the previous week to see what we could figure out. We started I the shallow bay near the launch and immediately starting hooking up with decent fish on frogs. The action was intense for about 45 minutes then it was like someone flipped a switch and the frog bite was dead. I knew being the last boat out, I probably wouldn't be able to get in there anyways but it was still fun. We found a few other decent fogging areas to check during the tourney but the frog bite was officially done.
On tournament morning my non boater had overslept and I offered to come back and pick him up at the dock when he arrived. Not the most ideal way to start the tourney but I figured it could happen to anyone.
I ended up in 6th place with 12.37lbs, I'll take it! Not the win I was after but still a solid finish. I feel like for the 2nd event this year I didn't weigh my biggest bass for big bass. I had one that weighed 3.7 on my hand scale, and I know that my hand scale is off from the official scale, but when I caught the second one of similar size I never kept them separate or even weighed the 2nd one. Then when I was at the scale I just assumed that someone would catch one over 4 and just sort of picked one of the two. Well, big bass ended up being only 3.46lbs. So I'll never know but lesson learned, always weigh and keep track of my biggest fish because you never know. Same sort of deal happened on Green Lake where I had some fish of similar size and just sort of guessed which one was biggest and ended up being like .10oz short. Lesson learned again! Lots of lessons from this event.
Results
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Results
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