Full Lake Minnewawa Tournament Report

1st Place my boater Keith Tuma 19lbs 11ozs

The Plan:  Hope that the rice fish were going and that we wouldn't have too much company.

The Day: We blasted off right around 7:30AM and Keith beelined for the SW rice bay.  He was shocked that we were the only boat to come into the bay.  Several boats stopped in the cane and rice outside of the bay.  Keith wondered if we had missed something.  Seeing how nobody else came into the bay, we didn't head right to Breanne's Secret Spot.  We started on a point with arrowhead pads just inside the bay.  Keith had a good bass in the boat in less than 5 minutes of fishing out of the arrowheads.  I had a fish strike at my new just out of the package Bluegrass Mad Maxx and not get it.  Keith put the Power Poles down.  The fish struck at me again but didn't get it.  Several more casts with nothing and the Power Poles came up.  I made a couple casts back and finally the fish committed and it was a solid 2lber (2.62lbs).  We then didn't get a hit for about 20 minutes.  We went in by a dock and Keith got a couple of dinks.  I had a fish hit me in the rice, but not get it.  On about the fourth try the fish nailed Maxx and stole it. Damn pike.

Ooops!

I don't think we got another bite for about half an hour.  As we were in that lull I went to make a cast, but my line got caught in the hook keeper and I slammed Maxx straight down resulting in a catastrophic overrun.  I decided to just switch Maxx onto my X-Heavy Frog Rod, not switch rods and reels.   We came into an area that really held some big fish on Keith's first-day pre-fishing.  The wind made presenting frogs difficult, but Keith got himself a good one.  After he brought that fish in he decided to switch out reel handles on the Revo Rocket.  We then got to an area where we had access to the bank.  Keith got a couple of small bass and I had a couple of fish hit, but not get the frog.  We then got into an area with a little more rice.  I got a couple of dinks on a Yum Dinger, before getting a 1.47lber on Maxx.  I also missed some hits on the Dinger.  We came up to another big bank of rice and Keith got himself another quality fish.  Unfortunately, that was the only one we could raise.  I tried pitching a craw tube and got a couple of pike.

Right around noon, we got to Breanne's Spot.  It wasn't but one or two casts and Keith is bringing in a good one.  It jumped and I'm thinking 5lber.  I got it in the net and we high fived.  A couple minutes later and Keith make a good cull.  I missed a couple of hits from fish that didn't get the frog.  Keith got a couple that didn't help.  I ended up getting a line burner, a few shorts, dropping a decent one that got me in the arrowheads and missing another one in the arrowheads in Breanne's Spot.  I should of had my limit when we left.  We headed back to the first big fish area.  Keith got a couple that didn't help and I got a pike or two.  We were working our way out of the bay when I got another line burner out of the rice on the Frog.  With about 2 Hours left, we left the Rice Bay for some slop on the eastern side of the lake.  Keith got a couple of dinks on docks.

For the last 45 minutes or so we worked docks in the public access bay.  I got lucky and got my big fish (3/11) on a bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke off of a dock.  I got a couple pike as well.  And then time ran out.

Results: My 5 bass weighed 10lbs and put me in 6th Place.  Keith blew everyone away with 19lb 11oz, putting him 5/11 over Nate Steinbauer in 2nd Place.  Keith's big bass went 4/14.  The club really struggled in this one and only 4 limits were brought in.  I'm pretty sure

My Thoughts:  I kind of blew it.  I had the ideal partner for getting a top 3 finish and was on water that held big fish and I just couldn't make it happen.  I didn't even get a limit for goodness sakes.  If only it was a little warmer and the wind was half of what it was I'm pretty sure I would have had a pretty good sack.  The tournament was a day late for that to happen as the weather was ideal on Saturday.  Me deciding not to switch a working reel onto my favorite frog rod was a mistake.

Well, on to the Lake Edward.