Art Simms Bass Fishing

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I started bass fishing after watching all of the fishing shows on tv. A few years later I thought I was pretty good, until I entered a few tournaments. I quickly realized that I wasn't as good as I thought and was only donating my money. In 1997 I joined the Viking Bassmasters of the Minnesota Bass Federation to hone my skills with some guys more experienced than me. Since that time I have learned a lot and had some major success. I have been Viking Bassmasters Club Champion three times and won sixteen club tournaments. I was the Fishers of Men Minnesota East division champion in 2006, along with a few money tournament wins and numerous top tens.

Monday, August 3, 2009

FTO Outdoors - Forest Lake

The final stop of the Full Throttle Outdoors Z Series was on Forest Lake July 25th. We were sitting in fourth place going into this one and mathematically we were still in the points race, but being 15 points out of first, the odds were against us. Still, we hoped for a good finish to move us up maybe a couple more places and make the money.
We decided to start on a reed bed that normally holds good fish. Scott was flipping a MG Lures Rhino Craw and I was flipping a Mister Twister B-A-Hawg, both of us using Kisler HE76xhc flippin rods. After about an hour and a half the wind started blowing pretty good and with only a 12 & 13 incher in the livewell, we abandoned the reeds and ran to some docks. Scott continued flippin the craw but I switched to a Texas rigged black neon Comida with a 1/8 oz weight tied to a Kistler Helium 2 69 mh. After a few fishless docks I finally stuck a 17 incher, a couple docks later a 14 incher, then a 15 incher went into the boat. We now had a limit and figured out what kind of docks were holding fish, but we still had lots of culling to do.
We ran to the next set of docks that fit the pattern and pretty quickly culled the 12 with a 14 incher, then Scott stuck a 14 incher which culled the 13. Next I caught a 16 that culled our smallest 14. On the next row of docks I caught a 15 that got rid of another 14 and caught some smaller fish that didn't help.
At this point we had a decent bag but still had a 14 incher in the well. We figured it would take about 12 pounds to make the money and we needed to upgrade to have a chance. With about 45 minutes until weigh in we had enough time to run another row of docks, but ultimately never caught another fish that would help.
The winning weight for the tournament was a little over 14lbs, second was 13 lbs and 3rd was 12 lbs, the last money spot and 5th place was 11.03lbs and our weight was 10.63lbs, just missing the money.
As of yet we still don't know what place we finished because FTO Outdoors does not post the weights at the tournament and they are very slow at posting the results on their website.

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