Fishers of Men - Horseshoe Chain

My partner Shawn and I pre-fished a week ago and found the fishing tough, but did manage enough bites to feel confident. We pre-fished again on Friday and located an area holding a lot of fish that hopefully would still be biting the next day.
Our plan was to hit some of my 1-2 fish spots along the way to our larger fish holding area we found Friday.
Tournament morning started out a cool 65 degrees with 10-15 mph SW winds. We drew boat #17 and when our number was called we raced to our first spot, a tree overhanging the shore on a point. We shook off a bite here pre-fishing and hoped we could pick up a quick fish. After about 10 minutes and no bites it was time to go. Our next stop was a shoreline with a mix of docks and wood. On about the third dock I caught a 13 incher on a Mister Twister Comida in watermelon candy. After fishing the rest of the shore with no success we left.
The next spot was a small bay rimmed with lily pads and wood, and a "magical" tree which always produces a good fish. We started on a shoreline pitching B-A-Hawgs and FlaMinn Lures Jigs to the pads and wood. About half way down I connected with another 13 incher. We next headed over to the "Magic" tree where I stuck a 17 incher on the B-A-Hawg. We continued down the shoreline and were rewarded with two 14 inchers from pads - giving us a limit.
With our plan working and having a limit at 9:30 it was time to go to our best spot. This was a large bay filled with lily pads but only one particular area was holding fish. On about my 3rd cast with a white Snag Proof frog I hauled in a 16 incher which culled a 13. We took our time working the area but didn't get another bite so we decided to work through it again. About half way down the shore in the pads was a long dock which I skipped the first time through with no success. This time I was walking the frog parallel to the dock when the frog just disappeared. After a short battle about a 15 1/2 incher was netted, culling another 13 incher. We continued working the area for quite a while but the bite had slowed so we made a call to go to another shoreline that looked similar.
We flipped and frogged the pads and wood with no takers until we reached an open pocket behind the pads and between two trees. After casting the frog to the pocket and twitching it a couple times a fish boiled but missed the frog. After a couple more twitches the fish came back and ate it. When the nerve wracked fight was over, Shawn netted about a 4 1/2 pounder which made about a three pound cull.
At this point I figured we had about 12 lbs but we knew we had to cull our last 14 incher to have a chance for the money. We figured our best bet would be the pad area that had the most fish, so we spent the last hour there where Shawn was able to cull up a couple ounces with a fish a little over 14 inches.
A few teams had already weighed when our fish were put on the scale. We took the lead and although we had a couple scares we never relinquished it. We ended up in first place with 12.73lbs and second big bass at 4.49lbs for a healthy payday.

Fishing again!

After about three weeks of being busy, lousy weather and not feeling well, I finally managed to get out fishing a couple times this week.
On Sunday I went to The Horseshoe Chain to do some pre-fishing for an upcoming tournament. The Chain is fishing tough right now but we caught a few fish with my biggest being about three pounds and found some potential water for tournament day.
On Wednesday I just wanted to whack some fish, so my brother Scott and I decided to head to Rush lake. Again it was tough fishing, mainly due to the strong winds. The bite was pretty slow but we still caught plenty of fish, most were in the 14 - 16 inch range but I did manage one 17 incher.
It felt good to get out fishing again and I'm looking forward to this weekend. I'll be pre-fishing again Friday and fishing the tournament Saturday.
Watch for a blog next week about the tournament.

Full Throttle - Forest Lake

My Brother Scott and I arrived at Forest Lake Saturday to a beautiful sunny, calm morning. The forecast called for sun and light winds but strong storms for the afternoon.
We had put together a pattern pre-fishing Friday and were confident in our plan for the day.
Our first spot was a reed bed that normally produced better quality fish. Armed with our Kistler Helium Flipping rods we went to work. Scott was pitching a 1/2 oz Black/blue FlaMinn Lures jig while I started with A Mister Twister B-A-Hawg in black neon. By the time we left the spot we had four fish in the well that were all 14-15 inches. Not the size we hoped for but a pretty good start.
Our next spot was another reed bed that we shook off numerous bites in on Friday, but after working them thoroughly we had nothing for our efforts.
We decided to run to some docks that produced bigger fish in the past, which turned out to be a good choice, the first dock produced a 16 1/2 incher which filled our limit. On the next set of docks a 15 1/2 incher culled one of the 14's. We ran some other docks but never had another bite on any of them.
With about two hours left we decided to kill the remainder of the tournament on the reeds we started on in hopes of culling the last two 14 inchers. After pitching for about 10 minutes I stuck a 17 incher that replaced one of the 14's.
With about 45 minutes remaining, the storms started rolling in with lots of lightning all around, so we headed in to fish around the weigh in site but did not get another bite.
At the weigh in we ended up with 11.42 lbs with our big fish being 3.11 - which was good for 4th place and a check. 1st place weighed a little over 14 lbs.

Canada pics

A few pics from our recent Canadian fishing trip.

Annual Canada trip

We are back from our annual Canadian fishing trip and what a great time I had with my 9 year old grandson Triston and my wife Monica. The weather could not have been more perfect with temps in the low 70's, light winds and partly cloudy skies all week.
With water temps in the low 60's the fishing was awesome. Fishing slip bobbers and jig/leech combos in 4-8 feet of water in the bays we were catching 30-50 walleye a day and numerous smallmouth of various sizes. We also managed to catch 3 northern pike in the 36" range, along with many smaller ones.
This was the 3rd time Triston went with us and although he had fun the last 2 years, the fishing and weather was terrible and we caught very few fish. This year he saw how good the fishing really is and caught many walleyes, bass and pike, and even caught a few jumbo perch on a bumblebee pattern spinner bait he picked out himself at the sportshow. I'll post some pics in the next couple of days.
Well for now it's back into bass fishing mode, but I'm already looking forward to next years trip.

Boat problems!

I had planned on fishing the Fishers of Men tournament on Clearwater lake Saturday, but due to boat problems I couldn't make it.
Last time I used the boat I noticed the steering was slipping - not a good situation at 60+ mph. Knowing I had a tournament coming up and a fishing trip to Canada next Saturday I had to get it fixed.
After doing some inspecting, I located a leak at one of the hydraulic fittings, which I was able to tighten. The problem began when I attemptd to fill and bleed the system. When I opened one of the bleeder screws the threads came out with it. I scrambled all day Friday to get it fixed, but turns out the only option was to have the steering cylinder replaced. So I called the tournament director and got a refund on my entry fee and then dropped the boat off at Bethel Marine for repair. Hopefully I'll have the boat back Tuesday or Wednesday.

Full Throttle - Balsam Lake

Well, the 2010 Full Throttle Balsam Lake tournament is in the books and I kind of have mixed feelings about the outcome. Traditionally, a limit in this tournament will put you in the money - not this time. Although a limit of 14+ inchers can be tough to get on Balsam this time of year, we managed to fill ours, but so did a lot of other teams, leaving us in 15th place.

Pre-fishing Friday we found water temps in the mid to upper sixties, so we started looking in the shallows to get a feeling for what the fish were doing. We saw lots of small bass cruising but only saw one small male protecting a bed. My feeling was they were, for the most part, done with the spawn. We checked some deep spots to try to locate some post spawn fish but caught nothing but dinks.

Tournament day started partly cloudy with air temps in the low sixties and a light SE breeze. Our plan was to do as we did last year and hit all the docks in spawning areas, confidant some of the post spawn fish moved under them.

Our first spot was a small bay that we caught 3 good keepers from last year. I started throwing a weightless Mister Twister Comida in watermelon candy, while my partner Scott was throwing various moving baits. After working all the way around the bay, fishing the docks and in between them, I finally connected with a 14 incher on the inside edge of some pads.

We then ran to a larger shallow bay where I caught another 14 incher near a dock. A few docks down the line I managed to stick a 15 incher. On the other side of the bay, my partner Scott hooked into a 14 incher, and a short while later I caught another 15. It was now about 10:30 and with a limit in the well we still had over 4 hours to upgrade.

We then ran into East Balsam and fished a few similar areas with no success. It was now raining and a front was pushing through with very strong winds and thunder. We spent about an hour in a small protected bay and again, no keepers.

The front had passed and with about two hours left we decided to fish through the same areas where we had caught our keepers earlier, but after almost 2 hours and no upgrades we headed to weigh in.

We ended up with 8.18lbs. I was thrilled to have a limit, we fished clean all day and caught the fish we were fishing for, unfortunately, we simply were fishing for the wrong size fish.