Bass Snatchers Whitefish Chain July 15th

We fished from about 7AM to 3PM.   It was sunny for the first couple of hours, then got cloudy until about the last hour when the sun came out again.

My boater Dave Branum and I were second boat out and we headed to the North East corner of Big Trout Lake.  I decided to start throwing a Paycheck Baits Repo Man and was rewarded on about my 3rd cast with a bass, but it jumped off just before it got to the net.  A few casts later I had another one on that got off half way back to the boat.  Dave then landed the first fish of the day.  Shortly after that I got a 12" squeaker and then I got another 12" squeaker.  About 15 minutes later I landed a quality 15.5" fish also on the Repo Man.  After that the topwater bite died and Dave was getting a few on a jig, so I switched up to a Strike King Ocho on a mushroom head jig.  I got a 13.25" and 12.75" on that.  


We moved to a sunken hump in the middle North part of Big Trout were I missed a good feeling bite on the Ocho.  We then moved to a close by weedline and I got 14.75", 13.25", and another 14.75"on a Blue Bruiser Crawtube and a couple that didn't help. We moved West to another weedline spot where we found rock bass.  Eventually we headed back to our starting spot as it sprinkled a bit.  I got a couple of shorts on the Repo Man, so I switched up to a gold Berkley Frenzy Popper and got a couple that didn't help, then I landed 16".  We moved back to the weedline in the middle North and I got a 16.25" and a 14 on the Frenzy Popper.  Caught a few more that didn't help on the Frenzy and Crawtube.  With an hour left, we headed into Middle Whitefish, then to Upper Whirefish where I caught a rock bass and a pike.  Then it was time to head in.


I ended up with 12/8 but one of my fish died so I dropped to 12/6 which put me in 12th Place.  My boater Dave only got 9/10, which put him in 25th out of 30.  The weights were up again this tournament with 12lb bags to 15th Place and 10lb bags to 24th place.  Last time we were on Whitefish two years ago in early June, my bag would have been good for 5th Place and the time before that in 2006 also in early June it would have been good for 6th Place.  Guys are catching them this year.   The winner was Dennis Lothspeich with 16/15 with an ounce more than Chuck Steinbauer.


My Thoughts:  I was a bit disappointed we didn't get any smallmouth, which I would have thought would have happened with those topwater fish up in Big Trout.  I think we might have actually seen a lake trout that came up to the surface and then swim right by us.