Aug 3rd Bass Snatchers Rabbit Lakes Tournament

Weather: The day went back and forth between partly and mostly cloudy.  Wind was light in the morning building to about 10 MPH out of  the NW in the afternoon. Temps went up quickly from a cool morning into the low 70's.

The Day:  We started right around 7AM thanks to my boater Art showing up a bit late.  We got our starting spot, a reed point with boulders on the West lake, despite going out 9th.  The point didn't give us anything but about 15 minutes in as we headed back to the East I got 14.5" on a yellow Zoom Horny Toad out of the reeds.  I was awfully glad to have it, because I came into the tournament awfully pessimistic.  About 10 minutes later I caught one that was to small on the Horny Toad.  Eventually we pulled off of the reeds and slop and I got another dink that didn't measure on a black/blue Berkley Powerbait Crazy Legs Chigger Craw texas rigged with a 3/16oz tungsten weight.  Nothing else happened out there so we moved.

We went to the mouth of a slop bay and worked our way in.  In the pads I got a 15" fish on a Yellow Spro Frog.  I think that was the only fish we had hit in the slop.As we came out of the bay I think that is were Art got his first fish of the day.  Next we headed to a hump that Guy and I fished in my last tournament on Rabbit Lake.  Art just got done telling me "this didn't seem to be the deal" when I hooked into a quality 16.5" bass on the Chigger Craw.  Next at my suggestion we went to a weedline off of some docks that Guy showed me at the previous tournament. I cast into a clump of cabbage weeds that were on the edge of a weed point with the Chigger Craw.  I thought I was caught on some weeds but then my pole kept bending, so I set the hook.  It immediately jumped showing me it was a bass and it was a good one.  When I got it in I estimated it at 19.25".  I had to estimate it because Art ruler was only 17.5" in length.  Art guessed it was close to 5lbs and I said it was a 4 for sure.  It turned out to be 4lbs 4ozs and won me the Lunker/ Big Bass "wood".  Needless to say I was feeling much more positive about the day at this point.

As we worked our way East I spotted a stick in the cabbage on a reed edge and pulled a 15.25" off of it on the Chigger Craw.  Art got a fish off of some  pads with the wind blowing into them.  I missed a good bite in the reeds with wind blowing into them on a craw tube near our starting spot.  We ended up going to the far West end of the lake.  Art lost a good fish right away on a frog, then he caught a dink that was too small.  We worked around the bay.  I did have one hit in the slop, but it may have been a pike.  As we came to the mouth of the bay Art got one in the pads on a frog.  As we worked our way East I got my limit fish, a 14", on a Hack Attack Jig with a Chigger Craw trailer out of a pad edge that had wind blowing on it.  We got back to Guy's docks and I pulled a 13 incher that didn't help me off of a boat lift on the Hack Jig.  On the next dock I culled out the 14" with a 15" with the Hack Jig.  That was my last bite of the day.  We fished some more slop and Art missed some hits.

Results:  The guys really sacked them in this one.  My 14lbs 6ozs bag was only good enough for 13th Place.  Chuck Steinbauer won his 3rd tournament of the year and second in a row with 18/05.

Thoughts:  Huge thank you to Guy Henkensiefken for showing me the area/ spot where the big bass came out of.

We didn't fish in the East Lake at all.

Turns out Guy is my boater for the next tournament, which is a "blind" tournament where we won't find out what lake it's at until that morning.

Bass Snatcher Mississippi River(Lum Park) Pre-fish(Long)

We pre-fished on Wed July 27th

I met my boater Paul at the Lum Park a little after 7AM. He showed a bit late and I took a few casts from the park beach. I did get a bite on the Crawtube, but I didn't hook into anything. Paul has the only Triton in the Baxter Bass Snatchers, almost all the other boats are Rangers.

Anyway Paul said we would start off by taking a tour and we ran up river a long way to Little Rabbit Lake. I was surprised by the clear water in Little Rabbit. We just looked and didn't do any fishing. We saw baitfish activity as the channel from the river entered Little Rabbit. As we were on our way out Paul wanted to take a side channel, but it was filled in with weeds, so we went back out to the river and entered the side channel from a different spot. It was a backwater with rice and pads that went back to a few docks and this is where we started fishing. Nothing.

Next we went back to the river and went to another back channel on the North side of the river. This channel had rice, pads, and a lot of duckweed. Paul pulled a nice bass out of the duckweed on a frog, but that was it. I was throwing a Strike King Rage Toad.

We went back out to the river and drove down aways to another backwater on the North side that's entrance was choked by rice. This was a long backwater with rice, pads, and duckweed. Paul missed a blow up on the frog. I was throwing the Rage Toad and a bubblegum Berkley Havoc Grass Pig. I had what I'm pretty sure was a pike swirl on the pig a couple of times. Paul tried to get it to hit his frog, but it wouldn't. After fishing quite aways in we went out under power of the big motor.

Next we started fishing by drifting along the rice on the main channel on the North shore. After drifting for a while Paul pulled a good bass that just smacked his Crawtube. Ron Lindner advised that I fish with cut off hooks, so I had put tubing over the hooks on some of my lures. I was fishing with a black/chart Terminator Jig with a green pumkin/chart Berkley Havoc Craw Fatty with the tubing on the hook. I thought it wouldn't hurt to stick a fish doing what we were doing because it would be unlikely to come across the same fish doing this in the tournament, so I took the tubing off. Well I got a bite and set into this 19.25" slobberknocker.

With this fish, Paul thought we should try the same thing on the South side of the river, but this time using the trolling motor to move up current. Almost right away Paul pulled a small keeper bass. I started pitching a junebug Crawtube. I did get a couple of bites, but they would only nibble a couple of times and let go. Paul had the same thing happen.

Eventually we moved into a backwater on the South side of the river. Once again it had rice, pads, and lots of duckweed. It looked phenomenal for bass and dogfish. I cycled through a few different things and I put on a gold Strike King Rage Shad. I was really digging working that bait. On one of my casts I got nailed by what I thought was a nice bass, I saw the fish hit. It was holding onto the bait, so I asked Paul if I should hit it and he said yes. Much to my surprise when I brought it in, I found a chunky 24" pike on the end of my line. We fished into this great looking backwater quite aways, but that was the only hit.

Next we moved out and went to a backwater on the North of the river. This one looked a bit different than the other backwaters we had been in. The water was clearer, there was good submergent vegetation, the rice had a good mix from thick to sparse with pads, no duckweed. We also saw quite a bit of baitfish activity. It looked like awesome dipper water, so I threw the Havoc Grass Pig in a couple of different colors. Paul missed a blow up on the frog. I was hauling water with the Grass Pig. A little later Paul pulled in a nice keeper bass on the frog. I decided to throw a spook that didn't have any hooks. The spook got hammered by a fish and we decided we had seen enough for the day and headed in around 1PM. It had been overcast the whole morning and only started to get hot and muggy around noon.

All in all it was a pretty productive pre-fish.

Bass Snatcher Mississippi River(Lum Park) Pre-fish

This is all I'm going to say for now.

FOM Club E&W Sylvia Bass Tounament July 9th

I couldn't resist the call of the lake that taught me to fish, so I signed up to fish the Fishers of Men Fishing Club (Twin Cities) Bass Tournament on East & West Sylvia in Wright County. My partner for the day would be Michael "Cyberfish" Thompson. I found out at the landing on tournament morning that Cyb hadn't paid his Club dues, so would be ineligible in the Club Tournament. Cyberfish didn't really care and was there to fish for fun anyway.

Tournament Rules: 3 biggest bass measured by half inches, with most total length winning. The Fishers of Men Club does "paper tournaments" so all fish are immediately released.

Conditions: Light Rain for the first 20 minutes or so with a pretty good breeze all day starting from the S SE switching to the S SW. It obviously was overcast early turning mostly cloudy around 10:30PM. It was a warm morning in the 70's and it got up to about 80 and it was pretty humid. The water on these lakes is very clear and the water was about as high as I've ever seen.

With the forecast calling for that South wind to be blowing by the time the tournament was underway I decided to start on a shallow rock reef on the back side of the island in West Sylvia. We ended up fishing West Sylvia all day. Mike caught a small bass right away, maybe on his first cast, on a slug. I think he got another small one and then I got a small one on a Herb's Dilly buzzbait. Mike caught 1 or 2 more smaller fish before we made a 2nd pass. The second pass was pretty much fruitless so we started drifting across the weed flat. Mike picked up a 15 on the slug. I was throwing a white Death Shimmer 2 spinnerbait and getting a few hits but nothing was hooking up. I know at least one of those bites was from a small pike as it came all the way to the boat. We drifted to a bullrush point and fished down the West side of that. I got a small pike on the Death Shimmer. Eventually we got into some pads and I got a 12.75" Larry on a bubblegum Berkley Havoc Lane's Grass Pig. We ended up fishing West along the shoreline where there were docks and some wood in the water. It looked awesome but all I got was a Sylvia Special (12") next to a dock. We rounded "Dink Point" and I got a 15.5" on the Grass Pig where there was trees overhanging and into the water. As you work the shoreline to the North a small point comes out before the lake opens to the main/biggest bay on West Sylvia. With the South wind this point was getting hit pretty good with the wind. I cast a black/blue Crawtube along the dropoff on the South side of the point (it drops pretty quick and I think there is a little zone of weeds there). I got hit and brought up a 15". I immediately checked the boat back into the wind to keep from blowing over the point as I thought there was a real possibility the fish might be stacked up here. Mike asked me what I was using and I showed him I was fishing a weighted Texas Rig, so he switched up to a green pumpkin jig. I think I just got done telling Mike all I needed was 1 really good fish and I would win the tournament, when Mike swung on that fish. Here it is:

It wasn't the fattest fish in the world, but it was 19" long which is an extremely good fish for Sylvia. I think I pulled a 12.75" on the Crawtube and Mike had a fish rip off the jig skirt and trailer on the hookset. That was all we would get so we headed North to the shoreline where my family's lake place used to be. Basically we worked an inside turn and then off the end of the point which was windblown. I caught a sunfish on the Death Shimmer 2 spinnerbait and had another bump or two. Eventually we worked ourselves in around the point where it was calm and there is a bunch of pads. This is an area I call the "Back Bay" as there is a man made boat channel that was on the back side of our old lake place. It was interesting to see that there is no longer an open boat lane and the Back Bay is overgrown with pads as nobody keeps a boat back there anymore. While fishing the mouth of the Back Bay I got a small bass on the Horny Toad and had another really good swirl close to the boat, but it didn't get the Toad. We worked a little ways into the Back Bay before it got too weed choked, but nothing was in there.

Next we headed to the NE corner of West Sylvia. It was interesting to see that a reedbed there had shrunk in size but cattails had grown close to shore. We fished the wind blown reeds/cattails and I missed a good hit on the Grass Pig, but it got into the reeds immediately. We got to "My Island" which used to feature an open spot behind reeds and rice. The rice is almost all gone and it's just reeds and cattails. I got a bite there from what was most likely a sunfish on a bed (I saw the sunny on the bed as we passed by). I pulled a Sylvia Special on a craw tube off the end of My Island point. We then fished into Turtle Bay. I told Mike that sometimes as you get here is "peanuts"/Sylvia Specials but sometimes there can be good fish too. We did get several peanuts, me on the Horny Toad, but I also did get a 15.5" on the Toad. It used to be that by late June Turtle Bay would be to weed choked so you couldn't fish into it very far, but now there are two docks with boats at the far back of the bay and there is a pretty good boat channel there. Combine that with the high water and I figured fish could be anywhere in the bay. The slop looked beautiful, but all we got were peanuts close to the boat channels, couldn't get anything deeper into the pads. As we worked our way back out it was dead and I got a bit frustrated as this water tends to be pretty good as you come back out of the Bay on the North side. We were almost out of the slop when I got a Sylvia Special out of the Cattails up by shore on the Grass Pig. We went out and worked a cabbage bed that was as in the wind as you can get and we didn't get a bite. We worked down "McGregor's" shore to the 2 docks. I missed a small bass in between 2 docks.

Next we moved to the "Sunkin Island" but we didn't get anything there, so we headed to "Lighthouse Point" with would be another wind blown point with a good drop off and weeds. I'm not sure I even had the trolling motor in the water yet and Mike was hooked up with a big fish and we knew it was a big bass because it jumped. He got it in and it was this nice 19.5" fish.

Needless to say we worked the point pretty good after that and we caught some fish but they were all Sylvia specials.

Next we moved into Flannery's Bay to the hump that I never knew existed until I got my Lakemaster Map. I pulled this 14.25" from there on a Crawtube, but that is all we would get.


Next we worked an inside turn and weedline in Flannery's and I picked up a few more fish on the Crawtube. I also missed several bites. There was about an hour left so we headed back to fish slop/pads in the Public Access Bay. By this time it was partly cloudy so there was quite a bit of sun. Right away I scored a 15.25" on the black Horny Toad. I caught several more Sylvia Specials including this one.

The tournament ended at 2PM. Mike's 53.5" destroyed everybody, but as that he was ineligible my 46" won the tournament. It was typical Sylvia in that everybody reported catching quite a few fish, but everything was small.

Analysis: What can I say but I love Sylvia/Twin and I know spots that have the potential to kick out better than your cookie cutter Sylvia Specials. I am a little surprised that I never made it to the channel between the lakes, but with the way the slop was going in Turtle Bay, I made the call to hit Lighthouse Point first and after that I didn't want to make the run across the big water in that wind. If you want to catch bigger than average fish in Sylvia, you might want to consider using a green/pumpkin bass jig.

All Terrain Tackle Skip-N-Jig

Now this is a good idea.

I will probably buy a few if Gander or Reeds carries them.

Bass Snatcher Win!!! The 2010 Challenge Cup@ Sylvan Lake

The Challenge Cup is an annual bass tournament that pits 6 guys (3 boater, 3 non-boaters) from my bass club the Baxter Bass Snatchers vs. 6 guys the Range Bassmasters. I think the Brainerd Lakes Bassmasters have also fished in it in years past. Last year was the first time I got to fish it. This year it was held on Sylvan Lake which is just South of Gull Lake West of Brainerd, MN. This year I fished with Emmet Smith who was also my boater last year. Before blast off he was talking up what a great lake Sylvan is, but it really didn't show it on this day.

Conditions were phenomenal for October with air temps in the high 70's and a fairly light wind out of the East. Water temps were in the low to mid 60's.

Here's the run down:
Bass Snatchers 52lbs 3ozs
Range Bassmasters 47lbs 14oz

Tounament Winners
1st In-Fisherman's Steve Quinn with 10lbs ??? Range Bassmasters
2nd Place and 4lb 10oz Big Bass Dennis Lothspeich Bass Snatchers
3rd Chuck Steinbauer Bass Snatchers

Everyone caught a 5 fish limit.

My weight was 6lbs 12ozs and Emmet weighed 7lbs 6ozs, so we were pretty close. Last year he destroyed me. I was actually 11th out of the 12 anglers, but I beat 1 Range guy, so I pulled my weight sort of. I caught at least 9 keepers, culling 4 times and my big fish was a 14.5". It was my last fish of the day and it was caught on a blue shiner Berkley Frenzy Popper. I did catch several small bass at or below 12 inches that I didn't bother to measure.

I caught keepers on:
white single white Colorado blade spinnerbait
Bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke
blue/black jigNpig
blue shiner Berkley Frenzy Popper

We caught fish all day long and almost everywhere we went, Emmet and I just couldn't buy a quality bite, even our pike were small. We fished inside and outside weedlines, flats, and docks. Slop was totally unproductive.

After the tournament I went to Gander Mountain in search of the magic spinnerbait that Chuck and Dennis were using. I didn't find them, but bought something awefully close. The spinnerbait is kind of ugly but it suppose to be a killer color in the Fall.

Twenty +

Ahh finally one of them Platte/Sullivan toads decided to eat my lure. I got it off a dock in Platte. The Docks were not really going all that well. I fished a bunch of docks and got the "Twenty" yes but beyond that I only got two 15's and missed one nice fish at the boat (17-19er). Also had a 5lb pike eat my jig and got a couple of other hammerhandles.

As it got dark I tried some slop and got a 17" a couple of pike and had a few misses.

It was a beautiful day. I didn't get out until after 4PM and then I had to come back when Lilah fell in the water and while fishing her out my line caught on the trolling motor. Would have been a great day to chase smallies on Mille Lacs , oh well.

Here's the Twenty next to a 17" which is a low 3lb fish.