Snatcher Cedar Lake Tournament Oct 4th

 

If I never see Cedar Lake again it will be too soon. We started out with a slow-motion start in heavy fog that was lifting by the time we arrived at our starting spot in Sunrise Bay. The fish were inactive.  So we started covering water. I got a couple pike. I think Nate connected with his first fish around 10:30AM in some pads on a swim jig with a Kalin's Mogambo Grub, He missed a bite and then caught one off a dock. We then tried the North end of Sunrise and he missed a couple there. We briefly tried the Slop Hole. That wasn't happening so we quickly left. Just outside of the Slop Hole Nate got a nice keeper and had a couple other good ones boil on his jig. He gave me a Mombo and I got my keeper that was 12.25". We then left Sunrise and worked in the mid-section of the Lake. We were fishing pads with reeds and about to leave when Nate caught a good fish. That bite clued us into a pattern, but we couldn't land out bites and I got a pike.  I did lose a small keeper that hung me up on the pads. We went back to the place in Sunrise where Nate had the boils. I had a feeling one of us was going to get smoked and it was me first. I got too excited and jerked the jig out of the fishes mouth. Nate caught his limit shortly after that. We went back to our starting spot and didn't get anything. Then we went and worked the area across from where I missed the blow-up. I missed a blow-up in the reeds there as well. We went back to where Nate got his first fish and I got a pike. We spent the last 15-minutes by the access. Nate got his biggest fish of the day there and I got another pike. Fricken Cedar Lake.

Results: My fish weighed 1lb and put me in 12th Place. Nate won the tournament with 16/3. Tim Benson caught the 3/12 Lunker and Placed 3rd making him the 2020 Bass Snatcher Mr. Bass. Theo won the final Co-Angler Challenge of the Year out of Tim's boat.

My Thoughts: It was a tough bite and even if I had caught that other bass I had on I don't think it would have moved me up any. Who knows if my other bites were even bass or not. I finished in the Club Super 6, so I do get Wood for this year. I set new personal bests for Total Points, One Out Points, and Average place of finish. I wasn't because I fished that great, I didn't. We just didn't have our full complement of guys this year.  

 

Tough Tournament on Cedar Lake on Oct 3rd

Congratulations Guy!!!

My Boater Guy came in 3rd Place and sealed Club Mr. Bass/AOY Honors

Conditions: Mostly sunny, wind out of the ESE 5 to 15mph, temps from the low 40's getting to low 60's.  About 4-5 foot of visibility in some of the bays less in others.

The Day:  We headed up to the North end of the eastern most bay.  It's a slop area where we got bites in pre-fish.  Guy was punching and I was throwing a frog and toad.  Guy missed one or two hits, before we left after about trying for half an hour.  We went to the southern end of the same bay where there is some slop and reeds.  I broke off my Horny Toad when I got hung up on a reed.  I think guy got his first bass and a pike out on the weedline.  I got a pike on a Craw Fatty just before we left to fish some docks.

Guy got one out of a dock and I missed one.  Next we went to a weed hump up in the area by where we started.  I think Guy got a bass and I got a 16" and a 15.75" on the Craw Fatty.  Next we went back to where we started and Guy caught a good one immediately punching.  I think he ended up getting his limit and culling once before we left.  We went back to the spot where I broke off the Horny Toad and I spotted it, so I got it back. We tried a bunch of spots and didn't get anything but break offs.  We ended up going back to the area with the reeds where I caught my pike and I got another one, could have been the same fish.  Then we went back up to where we started with about an hour and a half left.  Guy got a cull and I got a 13" on the Horny Toad.  I think getting that fish in amped me up a little to much an I sailed my next cast onto a beaver dam where I got hung up and had to break off.  We tried some other spots, I did had one hit on the Horny Toad in some pads but it didn't hook up and then the day was done.

Results:  My 3 bass weighed 5lbs 6oz, which garnered me 11th Place out of a field of 14.  First Place went to Bill Ludenia with 15-10 and Lunker was caught by Chuck Johansen with a 4-10 fish.  Guy's 3rd Place limit went 13-7, just an ounce shy of Johansen.  It was a tough day with only 6 guys getting a limit. Well at least I beat my 3 fish limit I got here in 2009, which was 4-2.  If we never fish Cedar Lake again, I'll be fine with that.

My Thoughts on the 2015 season:  I didn't get my revenge on any lake, but Farm Island.  It was the second time I missed two tournaments in a year;  The other time was in 2012 with back issues.  Missing the tournament at Woman Lake really sucked.  Missing what would have been a hot, humid, and miserable day on Rush Lake not so much.  It was my worst year for number of fish weighed (16), weight (28.31lbs), and points accumulated (101), which was down 9 places from 2012.  However, I finished 16th out of 41 guys in the Club this year, which was better than 2012 when I finished in 18th Place.

It was a tough year for fishing in the Club as a whole.  For the first time since I've been in the Club we didn't have a single Snatcher go 6 for 36 getting a limit in each tournament.  In the final four tournaments of the year Woman, Rush, Mission, and Cedar more than half the field failed to come in with a limit. Hopefully the poor fishing in the last two thirds of the season is a fluke of the lakes chosen and days fished and not a trend. Participation was down with Cedar Lake being the smallest field I've fished against.

        

Fishing was tough yet again for me on tournament day.

Guy, my boater for this tournament, kicked my butt again;  It's the third year in a row I've drawn him with the same result.  A lot of guys struggled.  I only weighed in 3 bass today, same as the only other tournament I fished on Cedar Lake.  I think I had more weight this time, but I'm not sure.   I also caught two small pike.  Guy got 3rd Place and sealed up club Mr. Bass/Angler of the Year.  I probably had the bites to get a limit, but my Texas rigging skills on a weed line aren't what they used to be.  I had fun, just wish the wind would have been half as strong.

BP Tournament Report Cedar Lake (Aitken)

Originally this tournament day was slated for Gull Lake, but due to the Minnesota Teen Challenge Tournament, they switched to Cedar Lake West of Aiken. I wasn't at the meeting when they made the switch and when everything was out on the table I was not happy about the switch. All that was left was to make the best of it and I didn't.

Going in our plan was to fish cabbage weedlines/weed beds and hit lots of docks. The forecast called for it to be sunny and mild but with 20-30mph winds out of the NW. A front came through the night before tournament day, so it was high pressure, post-frontal conditions. The tournament was from 7AM to 3PM For the 1st hour of the morning the winds were manageable and we were able to effectively fish a weedline/weedbed that was in the wind. I started out throwing a salt and pepper Zoom Trick Worm and got the first fish of the day for our boat, unfortunately it was a rock bass. Actually my partner Adam had the first bite of the day, it was a pike or muskie that bit him off on the strike. I got the second fish of the day and it was a small Northern Pike. I got the 3rd fish of the day and it was an 11.75" in largemouth bass. The minimum size is 12" so back in the lake it went. My partner Adam then got on the board with a solid keeper. On this weedline I would land 3 more largies that were just a little bit short of 12". We basically worked through the area one and a half times and stopped getting bit so we went to some wind protected docks. I believe Adam landed 1 good keeper off the docks. Next we went to some docks that were in the wind, but the wind wasn't terrible yet, and didn't get anything. Next we fished a cabbage weed point and Adam got a couple more keepers and I landed a couple more that were just under 12", I also had a bite that stripped the Zoom Speed Craw off my Brovarney Swim Jig. The wind really started whipping when we fished this spot.

Next we went to a point/cabbage weedline/weedbed that was in the wind. The spot looked great but to fish it effectively in the strong wind it called for horizontal presentations and the fish if they were there were having none of it. I don't think we even got a bite on this excellent looking area. Next we hit some more docks that were pretty much wind protected and I picked up 2 keepers on a bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke. I felt really fortunate to get the fish because by now I had learned that Adam is excellent at skipping jigs at docks with a baitcaster, very accurate and efficient.

We went to fish some more semi-wind protected docks and Adam picked up fish so he started culling. I got on the trolling motor while Adam was culling. I was coming around the end of a boat lift when I made an errant cast and got hung up. Not wanting to disturb the spot I broke off. Before I knew Adam was back fishing again he had a nice bass in the boat that just nailed his jig when he fished it in the spot that my Fluke should have been. Basically blowing this great opportunity to add a 3rd solid keeper would really cost me because for the next couple of hours things got really slow for me. Meanwhile Adam was catching an occasional keeper and also got a 30+ inch Muskie on a dock. At one point I believe Adam was culling so I was on the trolling motor and I got a bite on the Fluke and pulled in a 12 inch rock bass.

We were running wind blown docks in some serious waves when Adam added a nice bass in between docks. While he was culling I got a fish on brown Strike King Pure Poison Chatterjig and thought for sure I had a keeper bass, but it was a pike. A couple of minutes later Adam tied into a 40 inch class Muskie which we did land and Adam took pictures of me holding, which he hopefully will email me.


We were on a stretch of semi wave protected docks when Adam got a couple more keeper fish not under the docks but near them, meanwhile I landed a fish that was just short of 12" at around 11 7/8ths. Adam told me to clip it and hoped that it might grow a little in the livewell as he had seen that happen to fish before.

Basically we re-ran a bunch of water we had already fished for most of the rest of the day. I missed one good opportunity with the Fluke and I think Adam maybe picked up one more key fish and got 2 or 3 keepers that didn't help. While we were re-running a bunch of docks in the wind and waves I got my 3rd keeper and best fish on the Pure Poison chatterjig on the last dock in the line.

In the last hour we fished a new wind protected inside weedline with cabbage. I landed yet another 11.75 fish. A little later on my Fluke disappeared and when I set the hook, I thought the line had broke but actually the Fluke just got stripped off the hook. Adam got a keeper that didn't help him under a dock that had just been fished by another tournament boat.

In the last 20 minutes we fished a the wave protected spot that we had some bites off earlier. Once again Adam got a bass that didn't help. Our last stop was on a wave protected shoreline that I don't remember hitting. I got a solid hook up on the Pure Poison but it turned out to be a 25 inch pike and that was basically it.

For the day I got 3 keepers for 4lbs 2ozs which put me in 23rd out of 26 anglers. I landed 8 bass that were over 11" but short of 12" and a couple that were under 10", 3 pike, and 2 rock bass, so it wasn't like I wasn't catching any fish. My partner Adam got 2nd Place with 13lbs 10ozs.

Other than the fact that the fishing wasn't so great for me, I had a good time on the water with Adam who is a really good guy and excellent fisherman. My choice to not to take the front of the boat other than when my partner is culling probably more than anything cost me a shot at a limit, but it also had to be a factor in Adam getting 2nd place. He has come very close to being club Mr. Bass/Angler of the Year for the past couple of years. I hope he can show the old timers how it's done this season.