Snatchers Tourny At Pelican Lake

 

Smitty's Bigs

Smitty's Fin

DJ's Bigs

DJ, Arnie, Smitty

2/9

Conditions: 62-82℉, Mostly Sunny, 0-2mph Wind

The Day:

We headed NW to a bay up there with a bunch of slop. Smitty had a bass in the boat in about 5 casts out of the pads. I had something follow my frog but not hit it. Smitty got another bass. I think I had something hit my jig back where the fish followed my frog too. We then came across some docks and Smitty would get a bite or two of off each one it would seem like. His 3rd or 4th fish in the boat was a 4lber. I got the skunk out of the boat with my biggest bass of the day (2.53) on a Livetartget Frog next to some cattails. We fished more slop and docks, with Smitty getting fish off of both. We ended up returning to where we started and I missed a bit in the pads and think Smitty culled with a 2lber. He had 3 quality fish off of the docks I think. Next. we headed NE to another slop bay where there was a lot of activity. I got a 24-inch dogfish on a Mag Fluke. Smitty had a big bass miss his frog. I think He caught one as well. I'm not sure if he culled. I got my second bass on Bobby's Perfect Frog. We fished farther East into another slop bay then fished our way back to the area where there was activity. I got my smallest keeper (1.36) that I was never able to cull on the LiveTarget frog. Smitty got a big dogfish. Next, we fished Smitty's favorite docks and they were productive for him. Smitty had mercy on me and offered me the craw tube he was getting them. I think he added two culls while I was getting my rod rigged with the proper weight while I was getting heckled by a guy on shore for not having my act together while my partner caught fish left and right.. Unfortunately, the best dock was occupied. I got a 1.82lb bass on the craw tube out of some reeds. Smitty got a few that didn't help. We ran South to one of Smitty's favorite holes, but there were not really fish around except on the last dock, where Smitty bird dogged me one (1.69) that I got on the craw tube. We then went North again to more reeds and Smitty pulled a 5lber out of the Cane. I missed a bite in the Cane because I set the hook too quick. Smitty wasn't going to fish until I got my limit. I got a short out of some reeds/pads. Finally, I got a keeper in the boat off of a dock (2.11). We went back to the dogfish bay. I had three bites on my frog, but didn't land any of them; Two never got the frog and I rolled the one that did get it on the pads on the hookset.  I ran out of energy shortly after my last bite on the frog. As we headed out Smitty had motor issues, so we went to the bay where we had the weigh-in and fished the final hour there, not getting any bites.

Results: 

My results, meh! But at least I got a limit. Congrats to Smitty for putting himself in the Snatcher record books with that outstanding bag of fish. Also congrats to Arnie and DJ. Dj was top Co-Angler. 

My Thoughts:  With that 2.50lber in the boat on a frog about 20 minutes in I thought it might be my day. But then Smitty put on a clinic above average size fish in the boat with a craw tube on docks. I tried switching to a popper after some activity in open water. Then we got to more docks and Smitty got more above average size fish and my jig wasn't getting bit. We got to an area with pads and I couldn't get bit on a frog or Jig, but Smitty continued to catch fish. It just seemed like all my choices were wrong in the first spot. I got two keepers in the boat at the second spot, but I don't think it held the numbers and size of bass to produce a great frog bite. When we got back to docks. It became clear the crawtube was the deal. So when Smitty offered what he was using I rigged up my dock fishing rod with a light Texas Rig. I was way too anxious fishing that crawtube. I needed to let it sit and give the fish a chance to eat it instead of immediately pulling the trigger. It was unfortunate our run South wasn't really holding a good school of fish or had already been hit by somebody else. Not getting any of those final frog fish in the boat sucked, but that is frog fishing. Catching one of them would have probably moved me up at least a couple of places.

Watching Smitty wreck 'em is the highlight of my year so far.

Grade: C+

BP's Top Bass Snatcher of 2022

 

In early July, a poster in the In-Depth Outdoors bass forum wrote about his success on a Z-Man GOAT Toadz. My ears perked up, seeing that he was talking about topwater explosions. I did some investigating. There are 4 different GOAT baits made by Z-Man. Three of them are different-sized grubs (Baby GOAT, The GOAT, Billy GOAT), and the fourth is the Toadz, which made its debut in 2022; they released the Grubs a year or two earlier. All I could get my hands on at first was The GOAT size. Immediately, fish were all over it, so I quickly placed an order at Tackle Warehouse because they had baits in stock, hoping to get some Toadz and Billy GOATs in time for a tournament on the Crow Wing River. Unfortunately, they got delayed in shipping and didn't make it. The Billy GOAT and Toadz were straight-fire for me until it finally got too cold for topwater. The Billy Goat was my #1 bass catcher in 2022, and the Toadz finished #2. Not counted are a significant number of fish that got off in the reeds or heavy slop. Also not figured into the numbers is that I used the Billy GOAT as a Chatterbait, Spinnerbait, Swim Jig Trailer, and the Toadz on buzzbaits. With this bait concept, Z-Man hit a home run; it draws strikes like a champion. 

Here are my Top 10 Bass Lures for 2022, by the numbers:

The Craw Tube's total put it into 3rd Place overall.
The Brovarney Jig caught an additional 26 largies putting it in 5th Place.

The eBay Chatterjig also caught 7 largies making it my 6th most productive bass lure of 2022.
    

Slop Slip First Trip (A Bit of a Trainwreck)

4:00-6:00PM Rock Lake RPRO
58-℉, PC, 0-6mph NE
Water level low.

I got the lettering put on the Slop Slip, and because the winds were light, I thought I would give her a trial run. It could have gone better. I elected to go with the 55lb of thrust Min Kota. I think that is overkill, and it doesn't tighten itself to the boat easily. I found that out when I pushed the boat into the water, and it fell in the lake. Good thing I had the batter terminals attached. I fished it right out, and it worked fine. On the way to the RPRO, I didn't have the troller adjusted right with it being too low in the water. I ran into the log on the bottom at full speed. I was lucky nothing broke.    I then didn't follow my plan of making my way to the beaver dam but drifted/fished my way there. The first thing that happened was a fish swirled on my orange Rocket Bobber; That happened at least a half dozen times.    Shortly after that, I caught the 13 inches. The water level is low. I didn't see much baitfish activity and kept having to pick off weeds. I landed one bass on THE JIg, One on a craw tube, and one on the Poison. I also got a pike on the Poison. Missed a bunch of bites. I never found any concentration of pannies and lost the one for sure sunfish I did have on. The water was pretty clear. It would be really nice if the water level came up 6-inches. Because I was struggling to find the pannies, I turned in at 6PM.

Bass Pundit's Lure Of The Decade: The Craw Tube

When I joined the Baxter Bass Snatcher back in 2008 I noticed that a lot of the guys were into the Lake Fork Craw Tube, a lure with which I was personally unfamiliar.  Me being the hardheaded knucklehead that I am didn't try using them myself until 2010 when Guy Henkensiefken was kicking my butt with them during a tournament on Rabbit Lake and insisted I use one of his baits.  He also gave me a lesson on how he fishes them.  After that tournament, I bought some for myself and have been using them ever since.  They have without a doubt been my most consistent producer this decade and that is why I am naming it Lure of the Decade.  Guy saved Lake Fork Craw Tubes for tournament day and generics for fun fishing.  Lake Fork discontinued making craw tubes sometime mid-decade.

1st Runner Up: Tru-Tungsten Mad Maxx Frog

Tru-Tungsten went out of business in 2011, which is really too bad because they were a company that made a quality product.  I scored a bunch of their Mad Maxx Frogs when they were closed out by an online retailer.  I wish I had bought more because I am almost out of them now thanks to toothy critters.  They do come up occasionally on eBay, but usually, for a price I won't pay.

Honorable Mentions:

The Berkley Havoc Grass Pig: Caught my personal best largemouth on this lure in 2014 and really really caught the fire out of them on it in 2013 when the GOMH was loaded with fish form Opener well into June:  It was my top producer in 2013.

   The Stanley Phantom:  Caught the fire out them on this lure in 2013.

Chatterjigs: D & M Baits Piranha's, Pure Poison's, and assorted other chatterjigs have been among my most consistent producers this decade.

BOOM! Had a 100 Fish Day

19" at the Dam in the morning

19" at the GOMH in the Evening

13-inch Crappie on the Junebug Craw Tube

No giants, but a solid 6 fish bag

Morning Trip in the Trophy:
56 Bass (Meeting my 50 bass in a day goal) 
9 Pike
10.8 Fish Caught Per Hour

Evening at the GOMH:
35 Bass
3 Pike
1 Crappie
13 Fish Caught Per Hour

104 Fish Caught for the Day
91 Bass Caught for the Day

One of the crazy things.  3 guys from Arizona were there most of the afternoon busting them there as well.  If it wasn't for the rain I would have been at the GOMH earlier.  This day is what can happen when the lake is really on pre-spawn.  Just didn't get any giants.  I think the big ones I got in the evening were males.

MN Fishing Opener Round 1: Eddy's Jetty, GOMH, Bulldog

Eddy's Jetty at 10 to midnight

12:00-2:40AM Eddy's Jetty
4:45-5:45AM GOMH
6:00-6:30AM Bulldog

Conditions- Clear sky, windy out of the NE perfect for fishing at Eddy's, Cool temps in the low 40's to Upper 30's.

I arrived at Eddy's Jetty a little early because I didn't know what I would find or if I could even fish there.  They had no trespassing signs up when we stopped by on Tuesday and there was still a lot of work that needed to be done.  I talked to someone who works there on the phone who said it would be open, but I wasn't so sure.  Well the no trespassing signs were down, but the piles of docks were still in the same place.  I walked out on the North Jetty all the way to the harbor mouth and decided I would start on the center jetty's North dock.  It's a good thing I brought my long net because I would need it if I caught fish off of that dock.  I got my stuff out and started casting a Havoc Grass Pig, then I realized it wasn't midnight yet, so I held up for the last 3 minutes.  I cast the Pig for 20 minutes with no hits, so I decided to throw a 1/2 oz firetiger Rippin Rap because it would throw into the wind well.  I was just thinking to myself what perfect conditions I had when I ripped the rap and a fish nailed it.

22.5" Firetiger Rippin Rap

  I decided it  looked small enough, so I just grabbed my line and lifted it in.  When it was flopping around on the dock the hook came out.  Lucky I landed it.  I took the pictures then released it back to the lake because it was in the protected slot.  We can only keep one walleye in Mille Lacs this year and it has to be between 19 and 21 inches.

I resumed throwing the rap ripping it back.  After about 10 minutes with noting I decided to just do a straight retrieve and one immediately jumped on it.

24.5"

It was a bigger fish so I netted it.  After I released it I had another one on within two minutes using the same retrieve.

This dude went 25.5 and was the biggest of the night.

While I was getting the fish released a boat came into the South harbor with 4 guys in it.  I guess the lake was a little to rough for them.  The forecast said light winds until about 3AM.  But it was blowing pretty good when I got there and was steadily increasing.  The moon had come up now and I tried a few different baits.  Also a couple of those guys went on the North jetty to the harbor mouth, so my casting area shrunk.  It took about 40 minutes for me to hit on something a walleye wanted.

23" X-Rap Shad Shallow

I just lifted this one up as well.  I ended up switching back to the firetiger Rippin Rap and had another eye grab it on a straight retrieve.  I had one of the guys that was working on his boat take a picture for me.

24" Rippin Rap

My last fish of the night just crushed the Shad Shallow when I paused it.

23" X-Rap Shad Shallow

I caught that fish at 2:10AM.  I made the call to wrap it up at 2:40AM.  I think the guys with the boat caught 1 cigar.  I was satisfied with the six I got.  Six hits, six fish landed; It doesn't usually happen that way.

I went home Facebooked and put a report on In Depth Outdoors Forums.

I headed out the door to hit the Grumpy Old Man Hole at about 4:10AM.  The Expedition didn't want to start.  I jumped it off of my boat starting battery.  I was at the GOMH by 4:30.  There were two trucks there and 3 people fishing on the SW side.  They said they had only been there a little while and hadn't gotten anything.  I decided to take the NE side.  Nothing was happening and no activity in the tunnel.  At about 5AM I decided that cold wind blowing in put me in danger of a skunk, so I moved to the SE side.   I had been there about 5 minutes when a guy brought in a keeper golden bullhead.  They then got a couple jumpers.  Three guys came down and crowded me pretty good.  I did get a bite and landed it.

14.5" black/blue craw tube

I decided to pull the plug just as the sunrise was happening.

    I headed to Bulldog and managed to get a hammer handle and a bass.

19" craw tube

14.75" breen Chigger Craw

I headed to Rock Lake at 6:30, but there was one trailer there already and another boat was putting in.  I decided to call it a morning at that point.

Snatcher Pelican Lake Tourny from 8/2/14

Waiting to Blast Off

Note:  This being written more than half a year later so the details may be a bit sketchy.

Conditions: Cool in the morning (54 degrees) getting to 82 degrees, very little wind, and hazy sunshine for most of the day.

I think my sleep schedule was messed up for this tournament.  I either woke up super early or didn't get any sleep at all.  I ended up arriving at the ramp in Jones Bay at least an hour before sunrise.  I was the first one there, but not by as much as I thought I would be.  My boater for this one was Roger Ubl who has many years of experience on Pelican Lake.  Unfortunately I was unable to get out to pre-fish with him.  He told me he wasn't getting a lot of bites, but the one's he were getting were nice one's.

The Day:  I brought my Ipod to wear during the run, set to my Tournament Playlist I had been listing to all morning.  As the picture shows it was a beautiful morning.  We blasted off at around 6:50am.  The run North listening to tunes as the guys raced up the lake was one of my highlights of the year.  We went to a hump or maybe humps quite a ways off the SE of Gooseberry Island.

On the way North I saw fish breaking on top and conditions were perfect for topwater, so I started by throwing a Strike King KVD Sexy Dawg in chrome sexy shad.  Sure enough within my first 10 casts I had a quality fish come up and blast it.  Unfortunately, after being hooked briefly it jumped way out of the water and flipped me off.  I'd say it was at least 18 inches.  A few casts later I hooked and caught a 14.75" largie.  Unfortunately that was it for my topwater bites for the day despite the fact we were around fish busting on the surface for most of the morning and for the last hour of the day as well.  I think Roger got a couple on some kind of plastic and I got a 16.5" on a Blue Bruiser Lake Fork Craw Tube.  Roger was really disappointed with the size of the fish we got here.

After about an hour to hour and a half we left and went off the western tip of Gooseberry Is.  Dang breaking fish that were either out of range or wouldn't hit what I was throwing.  Roger managed a few on the worm he was throwing.  I managed to get a small hammer handle on small Bomber Fat-Free Shad and a 17.25" bass on a breen Chigger Craw.  We went to a weedline off the SW side of Gooseberry and I got another 17.25" on the Chigger Craw.  That was it for my fish for the day.

We ended up going and fishing some cabbage beds, going back to our starting spot, and some deep weedlines.  I tried every rod in the boat including a Carolina Rig, which is something I rarely throw.  I had some bites from sunfish but that was it.  Roger managed to get a respectable limit by the end of the day.

Results:  My 4 fish weighed 10lbs 1oz, which put me in 21st Place out of 26 anglers.  My lunker went 3lbs even.   Rogers 6 weighed just under 14lbs, which only put him in 15th Place; I guess the  quality fish were snapping this day.  The winner was Chuck Steinbauer with 19/1 and his son Nate got "Lunker" at 4/10.

My Thoughts:   Getting that first bass in the boat would have been nice.  I was really wiped out by the end of this one, but I didn't really let it effect my fishing.  I felt like I fished strong for most of the day.  I just don't think we ever found a good school of fish.  The weights were way up from the tournament we had back in 2009 when I took 4th Place with 14lbs even.  If I had it to do over again I wouldn't have thrown a Carolina Rig and a lot less topwater.  Fishing with Roger and hearing his stories is always enjoyable.  

I Caught Some Fish Tonight

Inlet Sullivan Lake

3:15-6:45PM
Cool and windy out of the SE

After the MN Gophers victory in Football over Northwestern I decided to get my gear organized and go fishing.  First stop was at the Sullivan Inlet, nothing.  Then the Platte River Culvert, nothing.  I missed a hit that was probably a toothy bullhead at the GOMH on a bluegill Pure Poison.  I went by Bulldog, but somebody was there so I headed to the Rock.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the dock was still in the Lake.  On my very first cast out into the lake a bass just hammered the Poison.

16.25"

The weeds were kind of a problem for working the Poison, so  I went to a black/blue Craw Tube.  I missed what felt like a good fish because my drag wasn't tight enough.  I tightened the drag.  I was throwing what was going to be my last cast when this chub bit me.

18"

I might of had a hit on the Chigger Craw as well.  I left just in time to see the sun setting over Platte Lake.

24"

Last stop was a Jenny's where I got this pike on a Horny Toad and I missed a pretty good swirl as well.

With the weather warming up  I plan to get out a few times this week.

Bass Snatcher Serpent Lake Tournament Report June 22nd

My Boater Dave Branum from the Morning We Pre-fished

Conditions: Cloudy in the morning turning sunny then partly cloudy.  Wind from almost calm to about 10mph out of the S SE.  It did sprinkle for a little while.  I could have used less wind.

My Plan- I was really hoping the wind would stay low enough to allow me to fish topwater all day.  After the pre-fish I figured it was a plan that had a chance of winning the tournament.  Honestly, I usually don't fish thinking I am going to win a tournament, but that was my mind set on this one.

The Day- I believe we blasted off around 6:40AM and we got our starting spot.  Well one caveat to that statement.  We got our starting spot, which was a fairly big area, but there was a non-competitors boat fishing right in the middle of it.  We did get to start on the spot where we got the double and I got 2 smallies.  It took about 10 to 15 minutes, but I got a 15" largie on a Paycheck Baits Repo Man.  I think I missed a hit and noticed on a couple of casts I had fish following but not hitting.  So I took the Repo Man off and went to the KVD Dawg.  I got a 14.25" and a 15.25" on that.  Dave got 1 or two fish.  The other boat landed a few as well.  Eventually we moved on the other side of the other boat.  I had a nice pike blow up on the KVD.  Then it got calm for a little while.  I started throwing a gold Frenzy Popper and I got 13.75" and a 12.5" on that.  The other boat left and the wind came up.  We weren't getting bites so we left.

Our next spot was a weedline where we got a few pre-fishing including 1 nice smallie.  The wind was blowing here pretty good.  I started out throwing the KVD Dawg, then a Kelly J, then a Strike King Spinnerbait.  I got a hit right away on the spinnerbait, but it was a slimmer.  I did get a 10 bass and 13.25" bass on the Kelly J.

We moved to a sunken island with weeds and rocks.  I culled out my 2 smallest with a 15.25" and a 14" on the Repo Man.  Dave got himself a nice smallie (2-10) and lost a another better largemouth as he was bring it to the boat.  I decided to throw a Lake Fork Craw Tube for a little bit and was quickly rewarded with a 16.25" largie (1-15).  I started catching a bunch of rock bass as well.

Next we headed to our starting area.  The wind was blowing pretty good there.  I started experimenting with lipless cranks.  I was on my 4th one, a 3/4oz chart/red Red Eye Shad, when  I had a 15 to 16 inch largemouth hit it. It only had one hook and got off.  I then caught a hammer handle.  Then I got the fish I was looking for, a good smallmouth.  It hit on the end of a long cast and shot up out of the water trying to throw my bait.  It then swam towards the boat.  Reeling as fast as I could I was able to keep up with it.  I had it about 4 feet from the net when it tail walked and came off.  I would say it was 17" inch 3lb class fish.  I ended up catching a rock bass and a perch on the Red Eye as well.

We moved to a weedline that was protected from the wind.  I started throwing the Repo Man.  A 17" or so smallie jumped on it about 12 feet out from the boat.  It missed the bait and must have seen me because it didn't come back for it.  Dave got a largemouth, which helped him and then he dropped one that had to be at least 3 1/2 lbs, probably a bit more.

We went back to the island where Dave got the smallmouth. I don't remember if he caught anything but rock bass.  I got a couple of rock bass on the Red Eye.  We finished up on our starting spot.  I got a couple of rock bass on the craw tube.

Results-   My 6 fish weighed 9lbs 8ozs which put me in 24th Place with 26 anglers fishing. Dave's fish went 10lbs 15ozs and put him in 11th Place.  The winner was Darren Kiefer with 14lbs 5ozs and Lunker went to Bill Ludenia with a 4-1 largemouth, at least I think it was a largemouth.  Bill came in 2nd with 13-14.  Everyone got a limit.  Fishing was tougher than expected.

Thoughts-  I'm disappointed.  Like I said in quick report  I had the bites to do well, Top 10 for sure, and my boater had the fish on to contend for the win, but our execution left something to be desired.  Part of my execution problem stems from the rod I was throwing the Red Eye Shad on.  The rod is a Lamiglas Excel 735.  Great for throwing a long cast, but not forgiving enough for playing the fish.  It's great a rod for frogs and dipper style swimbaits, but treble hook lures not so much..  On a softer rod I may have gotten both of the one's I lost.

I can't really do anything about a fish that misses my topwater lure.  I played that fish perfect, letting the topwater sit before starting it up again and then throwing a follow up lure.  That fish saw me and was gone.  The wind was such that I didn't get to throw topwater as much as I wanted too.

Next Tournament Leech Lake July 19th.

Bass Snatcher Tournament Lake Alexander June 7th

My Boater Chuck Johansen, 1991 MN B.A.S.S. Nation T.O.C. Winner 

The Weather- Calm, cool/cold and overcast in the morning, turning sunny with some wind out of the NW in the afternoon.

The Day- Thankfully, the rain had stopped by the time we blasted off around 6:45AM because we made a long run up to the NE corner of the lake to fish some reed beds, floating bogs, and docks.  The reeds hadn't started coming out of the water yet.  As we worked our way East I started out throwing a Pure Poison, but in the calm conditions quickly switched to the chart/firetiger Stanley Phantom.  I had what I'm 90% sure was a muskie come up and wake behind that.  Eventually I switched to a gold Frenzy Popper.  I made a long cast out to some reeds.  I'm not sure if I had a little over run that I started taking out or what, but a fish hit the Popper.  I quickly, set the hook but I couldn't reel in because the line was caught on my reel.  It felt like a good fish, but by the time I got my line out of the reel handle it had come off.   I managed to catch a 9" dink on the Popper and missed another one that swirled on it.  We went into some docks and passed by a decent smallmouth that was on a bed.  Next I got a rock bass on a Yabbie and another 9" dink on a bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke.  Then Chuck got  the first keepers along the dock. We had to be at least an hour into the tournament when Chuck got the first keeper.  I finally got a 12" squeaker and we both got some that didn't measure and more rock bass as we worked our way along the bogs and docks on Flukes and the Yabbies.  Chuck got a couple of small keepers and  I got a 13.5" and a 13" off the docks, then we ran back to approximately where we started.  When we got close to the area where we had seen the smallmouth bed I threw my Fluke into the general vicinity and the fish crushed it.

15"

  That was pretty much all we got on our 2nd pass except for a few dinks and rock bass.  We ended up hopscotching with a couple of boats on the docks on the East side of the lake.  We got down to the SE corner and there was a prime looking area of an old reed bed.  I took a 14.5" on the Fluke and then I missed a good fish that may or may not have been a bass up by shore.  Chuck thought maybe it was a dogfish.  We ended up pulling a double much to the dismay of Chuck Steinbauer who was fishing towards us.  Mine was a 15.75" largie.  Steinbauer left and we worked the water he had been fishing.  Then we made the call to go back over the area again.  I tied on a Zoom Horny Toad with a purple head and chart. legs.  I caught a 24 or so inch pike on that.  The wind came up more than it had been and the sun came out.  Chuck thought we should move, but I suggested we fish down to a pontoon boat.  My suggestion paid off for Chuck when he landed a quality fish just on the other side of the pontoon.  We decided to keep going and I think Chuck got another good fish off of a bog point that had the wind blowing on it and I missed what felt like a good fish on a green pumpkin Lake Fork Craw Tube.  I got a couple of rock bass and missed a couple of bites on the Craw Tube before connecting with a 14" fish that culled out my 12".  I think Chuck got another keeper as well.

Next we went a little to the West of the area we started in and headed West.  I culled a 13" for a 13" and caught some that didn't help as we worked our way through the reed stubble.  We started working some docks and we both got some that didn't help and some rock bass.  I had a good smallmouth follow my Fluke out from a dock.  I let the fluke drop when I saw her. It turned to swim away. I jigged the Fluke again, the fish whipped around, eyed it for a couple of seconds than took it.  I set the hook and landed my biggest fish of the day 16"/ 2lbs 3ozs and final keeper bite.  Got several more that didn't help including one on a Gambler Ninja Spin as well as several rock bass on the Craw Tube.  I think I missed 1 that would have helped at least a little bit on a Craw Tube.  Chuck got one last quality cull off of a dock.

The Results- My 6 fish weighed in at 10lbs 1ozs and put me in 19th Place out of 26 fishing.  Chuck's fish went 12lbs 4ozs and put him in 8th place.  Jim Smith won easily with 16lbs 5ozs, more than 2lbs over Guy who got 2nd Place.  Big Bass only weighed 3-8 and was caught by Dave Branum; I think it was a largemouth.  Only 1 guy failed to catch a limit and weights were up an average of around 2lbs per person over the last two tournaments on Alexander (6-25-06, 9-22-12)

My Thoughts-   Other than the first hour which was fairly slow, it was a fun day on the water with a lot of setting the hook.  Had I got all my bites I guess I would have had around 12lbs as well.  For neither of us getting to pre-fish I thought the day went pretty well.  Chuck was a great guy to fish with, very considerate, and asking for my input from time to time.

Next Tournament- Serpent Lake June 22nd

What I Caught Fish On in 2013

2013 was the year of the swimbait for me.  The Havoc Grass Pig was the #1 bait, but I caught a lot of fish on 1 pack of Yum Money Minnows, a couple of sample Berkley Powerbait Ripple Shads, and what I had left over from a pack of  Gambler EZ's and Big Bite Baits Cane Thumpers.  All in all swim baits accounted for 427 fish and a few more caught on chatterjigs and jigs.  I only got 102 fish on Crawtubes this year after getting 221 on them the year before.

Stanley Phantom was my #1 topwater bait with 111 fish caught.

Here is the full list of what I caught fish on in 2013:

Aug 17th Bass Snatchers Blind Tournament at The Cullen Chain

With our last tournament of the year being tomorrow I figured I better get this done.

We met at a parking lot in Brainerd at around 6:15AM on August 17th and found out we would be fishing the Cullen Chain.  I was alright with that as I like the lakes and my boater Guy won the last tournament there.  The weather promised to be warm, mostly sunny and breezy out of the SW.  We launched out of the middle lakes access around quarter to 8AM.  We were first boat out.  Guy didn't want to run the risk of getting caught in the Culvert going to the Upper Lake so we went to a sunken island on the middle lake.  There was a guy fishing topwater there already.  We came in to the SW of him and about 3 of our boats also came in on this spot.  I had what I'm pretty sure was a pike hit at my Stanley Phantom and other than that we got nothing.

We moved to a point off of some reeds and guy got two good quality fish right away.  I got a pike on a black/blue Chigger Craw.  Not wanting to retie I switched to a craw tube.  I got a 12.5" bass on that as well as a rock bass.  I think Guy landed a couple more small keepers.   We then went to another point off of some reeds.  I had tied on another Chigger Craw by then and was quickly rewarded with my best fish of the day a 15.5" largie.

We then fished some reeds and some slop.  Guy got a nice dogfish.  Guy made the call to head to the Lower Lake.  We had to get out and push but made it.  We started on a weedline spot just out from the channel and I was immediately rewarded with a 14" bass.  We then moved around a bunch of places not getting anything.  The wind had come up pretty good by now and there was a reed bed getting nailed by the wind.  Guy caught a a keeper than two quality fish the first 15 minutes we were in the reeds.  One of the fish was the 4/3 Lunker of the tournament.  I broke off my Texas Rigged craw tube with 3/4oz Tungsten Sinker twice getting caught on the reeds, so I switch to a Strike King Hack Attack jig. We stayed in the reeds and I managed to get one that was just short of 14" and two 14.5" bass out of them on the Jig.  I got my limit and I was happy.  I didn't fish the rest of the day very well only getting a rock bass out of some pads missing a few other hits.  Guy put together a pretty good pattern in the middle lake hitting pad and reed edges with the wind blowing in on them and picked up a few culls.  We quit about 15 minutes early.

Results:  My 6 fish went for 8/12 and put me in 20th place.  Guy managed to win the thing  by over 3lbs with 18lbs 2ozs

My thoughts:  My head just wasn't in this one, especially after I caught my limit.  I did enjoy watching Guy put on a show.  This tournament sealed my fate of not going anywhere in the club point standings this year. Oh well.

My New Stanley's Jigs Phantom's Catch Fish

Here are two of my 3 new Stanley Phantom's that I won on Ebay.  The other one is bone color, which I already have one of, so I left it in it's package and put it with my extra's in the Tackle Warehouse.  I didn't have to wait long and I was pulling in a bullhead, toothy bullhead that is.

I switched to the purple/yellow one and threw it under the bridge.  I missed the first fish that hit it, but on the same cast I  had this fish crush it.

16.5"

I also got a 16" and 12" under the bridge on a Tonka Tackle Craw Tube.  I got a 15" bass on a black Horny Toad at the Culvert.

I fished from 6:15AM to 8:15AM.  I did miss a couple hits on the Craw Tube at the GOMH as well.