Woman Lake and Leech Lake Pre-fish with "Smitty"

Woman Lake: 7:00-9:00AM
Conditions- Calm, sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy

I got to fish today with my boater Jim "Smitty" Smith for the Bass Snatchers Leech Lake Tournament next week.  Jim is well known in MN bass tournament fishing community because he's been very successful and as I came to find out a really nice guy.  We hit Woman Lake first, checking it out for a tournament he's going to fish out there next Sunday.  We found some really nice smallmouth, but they didn't want to bite.  Jim caught 3 dinks and I didn't even get a bite.  I kind of had a brain freeze and forgot I had a rod with a Yabbie on it

Smitty with a quality Leech Lake largie

Leech Lake: 9:00AM-6:00PM
Conditions- Wind from light to fairly moderate out of the the SW alternating between cloudy and sunny with more sun late.

We put in at an area of the Lake I'd never been to before.  I got the first bite of the day out of some reeds on my brand new Snagproof Ish's Poppin' Phattie in black and yellow (Cali).

17" or so 

I missed one more good bite, then we switched area's.  In the new area I missed the first bite.  We went a little while and then Jim got two nice one's  in close proximity to one another out of the slop.  We got into an area with bullrushes, reeds, and pads and I got a 15" on a white Horny Toad.  Jim set the hook on a fish and his line broke.  I cast my toad into the area and ended up hooking his line with the fish still on it.  Jim grabbed the line and brought the fish in.  It was a quality 3lber.  In a tournament, who's fish would that be?

Jim was getting an occasional rock bass and I missed a couple of bites on a craw tube.  Jim lost a good one and I caught one that might have been 4lbs on the Horny toad.  We fished a lot of rice without getting any bites.  We pulled the boat out of the water and went to a different area of the lake.  Jim got a couple of nice one's including one on his last cast of the day and I got a 14" on a craw tube.

Over all Jim was disappointed we didn't get more fish.  I don't know why we didn't get more bites, conditions seemed to be perfect.  It was fun riding around in Smitty's sports car, a 19' Stratos with a 200hp motor.  Wind conditions will dictate what we do and where we go on tournament day.

Serpent Lake Pre-fish from June 13th

A double to start the morning

Conditions: Calm to a light wind, basically perfect topwater conditions.  Sunny with clouds moving in.

My boater Dave Branum and I were on the water and fishing by 7AM.  I had a fish hit my KVD Sexy Dawg on the 2nd cast, but it got off.  On my next cast, I had a fish hit it and not hook up.  I let the lure sit then started retrieving again and the fish either came back or another one hit it, but this time it stayed buttoned.  Dave brought in a largemouth at the same time.

My fish was a 15.5" smallie.  A couple of casts later I got a 17.5" smallie.  Next I got 15.5" and 16" largemouths and I switched to a Stanley Phantom.  I got a couple of small largies and a 14" on that, then I switched up to a KVD Dawg Jr.  I got  15.25, 10", and 14.25" largies on that.  Dave was catching fish in the same general size range as me as well, but he was fishing subsurface.  I got a 15.5 largie on a MegaBass Popmax.  We then switched locations and I got an 18.33 smallie on the same KVD Dawg as earlier.

 She either hadn't spawned yet or had a full belly.  I got two more 15" largemouth's on the Dawg, then I put it away.   The wind came up a little bit and  I got a couple of largies on a Lucky Craft Kelly J. I got a 17.75 smallie on a Rapala X-Rap Prop, along with a couple of small keeper largies.  I did throw a craw tube eventually and got a couple of pike on that and one bite off, along with a 14.75 largie.  Dave got the biggest bass of the day, a 19" plus largemouth.  I also had at least half a dozen other  fish that missed my topwater baits or got off.

We both would have had 15 more pounds or more, needless to say why we were both feeling good about things.

Bass Opener Day 3

South Long Pre-fish:

15.75" my second biggest fish of the day

I got out for a few hours today with my boater Owen to pre-fish for next Saturday's Tournament on South Long.  The lake seems to be a bit behind Platte Lake at this point.  The warmest water we found was 55°F and it was pretty much 54°F everywhere.  The wind was blowing out of the E SE yet again for the 3rd or 4th straight day.  I guess the air temp got to 61°F today and there was no sun.  We basically didn't catch very many fish.  I got 5 but two of them were quality keepers at or a bit over 2lbs.  We got everything on moving baits.  Depending on the weather improving a bit this week, we have confidence in a couple of spots.  Thankfully they both are fairly large areas.  Being boat #1 should help.

The GOMH:
I arrived at the GOMH around 5PM and started on "the juice".  All I got was one toothy bullhead on the Grass Pig.  Eventually I moved to the SW side and there I started getting fish on the huckleberry Christopherson's Craw Tube.  My 10th fish was this Toad Bullhead.

I'm not sure of the exact length because I didn't have my ruler along, but I'm calling it 19.5" for the Derby.  She was definitely close to 5lbs full of eggs. I caught a total of 11 bass at the GOMH.  I left at 9PM

Fish for the Day
Bass: 16
Pike: 1

Fish Total for Bass Opener
Bass: 73
Pike: 11
Walleye: 1

Bay Lake Pre-Fish

I got from 7AM to almost 5PM to fish with Roger Ubl my boater for Saturday's Bay Lake Tournament.  It was a fun day on the water as we caught a ton of fish.  The rap on Bay is that it is a peanut factory and that was pretty much the case as we didn't get a single 3lb bass.  However we did land several quality 2lb fish, which will be gold on tournament day.

I'm not really sure where the fish are in regards to the spawn.  Several of the fish were chunky, but several had raw anal fins but they were still chunky.  One thing is clear, we are gonna catch a lot of pike.  I got 32 pike to my 25 bass and Roger caught about the exact same numbers as me.  I hope the fish are as active on tournament day.

Birch (Hackensack) Pre-fish Report

I got up to Birch Lake in Hackensack with my boater Owen on Saturday Sept 24th. We arrived at the Lake a bit before 8AM. It was a cool morning with heavy fog. Because of the fog we weren't gonna run anywhere, so we just picked a direction and went. We started off on docks, but that was a bust. I started throwing a topwater out into the lake and I was rewarded when this 16.5" busted on my lure.
That fish kind of clued us in to work on the weedflat and about 10 minutes later I got a very similar fish. At that point I switched to a buzzbait. Owen got a couple of bites on a subsurface bait. I pulled a nice bass on the buzzbait, then a small pike. I had a couple of other fish slap at the buzzbait and not get it. The fog lifted as we had pretty much worked our way across that flat. We tried some reeds for a while and I got a hit on a dipper and it bit my tail off, so it was probably a pike. One of the guys from the Bass Snatchers came by to say hello and then took off. We worked some shallow pads, reeds, and docks but nothing was going so we headed out to see if we could re-find some good weeds with a little more depth and we did. We basically drifted in the wind a long way across a weedflat. Not much happened until we started getting pushed towards a certain shore line. I pulled a small pike on a black spinnerbait. A little bit after that I threw up by some reeds and I got another hit. I could tell right away it was a good fish. It turned out to be this pike.

I went to net it and when I got it's head in the net my spinnerbait broke in two. You can see the hook end in the pike's mouth. The blade got caught in the net, so I didn't lose that which was nice.

It was cloudy at this point and wind was blowing in on this shoreline. Owen tried docks, while I casted out. That wasn't doing anything, so we shot out onto the weed flat. After about 10 minutes of that with nothing. We decided to head to the Western basin. When we got into the other lake, there was another Snatcher boat up the way, so we stopped to talk to them. They said they had gotten one good fish. We took off and went to a spot Owen thought looked good. It produced a giant.
It measured 21". I felt really bad Owen got this fish in pre-fish and not the tournament. We worked the area and didn't get any more bites.

Next we moved up shallow into some pads and reeds. We got a couple of biters but the fish were smaller than what we had been getting. After we were done in that area we did a little cruising to look around. We stopped at a spot I thought might be good. I had something hit my spinnerbait but it didn't hook up. There were weeds and a weedline so I started throwing a crawtube and something thumped it. I thought for sure it would be a pike, but it was a 17.75" largie. We worked the area but couldn't get any more bites. Owen got a call about a family emergency and so we had to leave around 2PM.

My impressions: It would be nice if topwater played on tournament day, but conditions will determine if that will go. What we found was pretty sporadic, so I don't really know what to think about it. Owen may get out to pre-fish one more day and I think that will be very helpful if he does. I half wish the pre-fish was tournament day as I was putting together what I believe would be a competitive bag. Hopefully weather will be favorable tournament day as I think the lake could fish really well under the right conditions.

Birch Pre-Fish Tease

This is my boater Owen and the fish was 21".

Details on the pre-fish coming soon.

Bass Snatchers Fish Hook Pre-fish(short)

I got out on Thursday August 18th with my boater Chuck Steinbauer to pre-fish Fish Hook Lake in Park Rapids in anticipation of our August 27th Tournament. We hit the water about 7AM, which is an hour before tournament start time. The weather was cloudy and calm in the morning. About 9AM the wind really came up and we had periods of sun and clouds. We went right to Chuck's best spot and he had a bass on in no time but it wasn't that big and on this lake you need size. Chuck was disappointed that the cabbage weed on this spot seemed. We bounced a few spots before getting on something at gave up a few fish. On this spot one of the bass had a crawfish in it's gullet, so I got to see at least one of the crawfish colors. The rest of the day we bounced around and tried a few different things catching a few fish here and there. We didn't really find any good concentrations. Size wasn't bad and these fish are well fed chunks. I caught a total of 11 bass and 1 pike. Only 1 of the bass was under 14 inches. Chuck caught a few more than me, but our best 6 were pretty similar. We got off the water after 4PM, so it was a long day on the water. There is a small chance I will get out and pre-fish one more time, but Chuck almost certainly will.

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.

Cullen Chain Pre-Fish And More From Shore

Next Sunday is my 2nd Baxter Bass Snatcher tournament of the year being held on the Cullen Chain near Nisswa MN. I had the good fortune to draw Bill Bailey for my boater as he has a good history with these lakes. Bill was kind enough to agree to take me out for a day of fishing, so I could get a feel for these lakes that I had never seen before. I am extremely glad Bill took me out, because in a lot of ways it wasn't what I expected.

The Cullen Chain has pretty good to excellent water clarity and has diverse aquatic vegetation, but seemingly none of the troublesome invasive weeds. I really like the Chain as it has elements of Sylvia/Twin and Platte/Sullivan. Bill has a smaller boat so we are able to fish in all 3 lakes. I don't think guys with bigger boats can get into the upper most lake because of a narrow culvert with little headroom. Getting out of the lower most lake where we will launch is also a challenge. Bill had to get out of the boat this morning because we didn't take the right approach into the boat channel and ran aground.

I was pleasantly surprised by the fish size we discovered, although my first fish of the day didn't show it.

Shortly after this fish, I watched a 3lb+ largie engulf my lure. I couldn't make up my mind if I wanted to set the hook or not because I got such a good look at the fish as did Bill. I think the fish kind of stuck itself and I had it on for a few seconds before it got off. I got another good take shortly after that.

Next we went to a weedline and I experimented with a bait, but that was a bust. After that we ran to the Upper Lake, which turned into a pike fest for me. Bill had a follow from a big dogfish. I tried to catch it, but just spooked it. A little later on we were getting close to one of the clubs more mercurial club members and we saw him catch a fish. I thought it was a nice bass, but he told us it was a dogfish. I'm not sure I believe that.

Anyway we found some productive water and ended our time in the upper lake with a quality double. This was my fish (I think it was probably 16).


Next we went back to the middle lake. It was cloudy with a light breeze and I thought in that clear water topwater might go, so I started throwing a Paycheck Baits Repo Man. We fished some good looking stuff without so much as a sniff for either us, but I just kept chucking the topwater. Eventually I was rewarded with this 18"+ pig that just annihilated the Repo Man.

It was awesome. I knew it was a big fish immediately because it tail walked then jumped a couple of times. I was worried it was going to bury me in the weeds and get off, but it was hooked well and I was able to pull it out of the salad. Man I was jacked after this fish.

We fished a little while longer and I added one more quality bass to my day on something that not get any play on tournament day, but the color will.

Overall it was a very successful pre-fish. I was impressed with the size we discovered and it's a fun lake to fish with lots of options. My boater Bill is probably going to get out for one more trip.

I made a few stops on my way home. I jacked this 14.25" fish at Bulldog Lake.

And I jacked this 13" fish at Jenny's on Platte.

I had one more really good bite at Jenny's but I choked.

I did try the GOMH, but was blanked. John W. was there and told me he caught a very big jumpin bullhead from under the bridge the other day. Maybe I need to get a clue and start throwing stuff under the bridge like John does.

Platte/Sullivan Pre-Fish Video

Rabbit Lake Pre-fish

Today was my best day on the water as a Baxter Bass Snatcher. Too bad for me it wasn't tournament day because I would most likely have been a contender for the win. I am pretty sure I had 16lbs+ anchored by the fat 19.25" in the picture (thank goodness my boater had a camera phone as I left my camera in the car).

My boater Guy was fun to fish with and he knows the lake well. I think it was a productive pre-fish, but you never really know until tournament day. We found multiple patterns and locations. Guy was telling me there is an old club saying that "it's fun to catch fish, but it's even funner catching fish in the tournament." Meaning, what you do in pre-fish doesn't mean squat if you burn your fish. Hopefully we didn't do that too bad as we tried to lay off them once located. As for my part I took advantage of conditions, and found something nice size fish were on today; Whether that pattern holds for tournament day will most likely be dictated by weather conditions.

Ida Tournament last minute thoughts

I have been contemplating that I think my partners frog pattern will probably hold up, but maybe not enough for 2 people. As I was contemplating my situation I remembered back a few years when I caught some bass in thick reeds on a jig with a texas rigged tube. The jig is basically a bullet weight attached to an offset hook with a spring plastic keeper. I also have some jigs that don't have the a spring plastic keeper. This is a lure I think could be effective behind my boater. I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

I talked with my boater tonight and he sounded a little rattled by the weather which has been unseasonably cool and windy for 3 straight days. It very well may be that the fish will not be very active tomorrow. Hopefully Ida is such a good lake that we will catch them in spite of the conditions.

Bass Snatchers Ida Pre-fish

We will start this report at the end of the day. My boater Joe and I were headed home between Parkers Prairie and Eagle Bend when the truck shuddered and the next thing I knew a wheel was passing by the drivers side door. It was one of Joe's boat trailer tires. The tire went into the ditch and then into the woods quite a ways in front of where we stopped the truck. Luckily Joe was able to find the tire. Putting the tire back on was easy, getting the lug nuts tight was another story that I won't get into.

After about an hour and a half we were back on the road.

Weather: Yesterday it rained and stormed and the days forecast called for temps in the high 60's to low 70's with strong West winds and sun. When we got to the lake around 9:30AM it was quite overcast and windy. The sun eventually came out around 1PM.

The Fishing:Joe had been out on Ida on Saturday and found some fish shallow. Basically the day was dedicated to the search for shallow area's and fish. Joe loves to throw a Snagproof Frog and Ida has a fair amount of pads and reeds to explore and that is what we did for most of the day with mixed results. At times it was impossible to fish in the reeds due to the wind. The reeds tend to be tall and thick at this point of the year so about the only bait you can fish in that tangle is slop frogs like Snagproofs and Spro's. We did find a few fish and the bite seemed to be better when the sun was out. Here is Joe with his best fish of the day.


I didn't catch a single fish on a slop frog, but I didn't throw it most of the time like Joe. I did have a few bites on the surface, but I really wasn't trying to catch these fish only to get them to show themselves so we would know productive area's. Basically the bass I did catch came on a tube on weedlines and they were not very big with the exception of this 2lber.

We didn't really look for this type of water and I only threw the tube in a couple of spots but when the water looked right I got bit. I also got a few bites and caught 1 keeper bass on swim jigs.

Outlook: I am a little concerned about this tournament because I think it might be tough to catch fish behind Joe if we stay shallow for the day. From today's results it just didn't seem like there were good numbers of fish up shallow and where we did get fish seemed to favor the front of the boat although if there is less wind on Saturday that should open up some water. I think for me this lake is going to fish quite similar to what I did at the last tournament at South Long with heavy doses of the Zoom Horny Toad and Zoom Super Fluke. I will probably be throwing a slop frog more and a swim jig less. If I can catch 10lbs and a limit I'll be thrilled. I don't have high expectations.

Pre-fishing Ida near Alexandria Today

Today I will be pre-fishing Lake Ida. I've never been on the lake but my boater Joe has been on it a few different times including this past Saturday when he caught some decent fish. Apparently he has also swiped a few way points from his father-in-law who is also in the club. The forecast is for it to be post front (it rained and thundered for most of today) sunny but cool and breezy. Not exactly ideal fishing conditions.

I think Joe leans toward being a shallow water guy and his true specialty is actually Mississippi River smallmouths. Tomorrows wind may limit our search in deeper water and off shore. From my research I've learned that it seems to be considered a fairly good bass lake, but I doesn't look like it's is a hawg factory and anything over a 2lb average should garner a good place of finish.

Minnesota Bass Circuit Big Bass Bonanza just had a 33 boat tournament and it took 21.33 on 8 fish to win and they won by a pound and a half. 4 teams were over 19lbs and 4 teams were over 18lbs. Big Bass was 4.06 out of 263 bass weighed. A good sign is that all the teams but 1 got a limit and the team that didn't get a limit was just 1 fish short.

MBO Round 3 Cedar Lake Pre-fish

(The only picture I got was when we were off the lake, so you can see the rig I will be fishing tournament day.)

Today I prefished Cedar lake West of Aiken in Aiken County for my Baxter Bass Snatchers with my boater for the tournament Adam. Cedar is a lake with lots of bays, plenty of undeveloped shoreline and varying water clarity. Most of Cedar is deep water and medium depth weed flats are seemed to be almost non-existent. Most of the time we were either in fairly shallow water or on a steep break near shore. I think we are hitting this lake a little too early because of it's depth the grass is late blooming and so cover right now is pretty scarce or last years growth.

We covered a lot of water and saw more fish than we caught which isn't saying much. We saw quite a few crappies which looked like they were bedding, but very little bass bedding activity but there were some. The sunfish seemed to be scattered and not very abundant. I also saw quite a few pike and 1 muskie.

I caught 3 small keepers and 1 dink and 2 pike. I missed several strikes on the Zoom Super Fluke which I assume probably were pike because they were swirling on it and not hooking up which is rare for bass but common for pike. I caught all the keepers on a swim jig.

Assessment: If it is a good bass lake it didn't show it today, maybe if the grass was farther along that would make a big difference as there would be some good pad and reed area's and even a little rice. We did talk to a boat that was bass fishing that said the fishing on the lake was much better yesterday, so maybe the cold night pushed em back.

For the tournament their will be heavy doses of jigs, Zoom Super Flukes, and Zoom Horny Toads. I eliminated hard jerkbaits and hard topwaters because there really won't be good water for these things. I don't anticipate using spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, or chatterjigs unless there is significant wind. There wasn't much wind today and there is a very good chance you are fishing at least semi protected water because of the many bays.

Since I got 3 keepers when we were covering and eliminating water I think there is a good chance I will get a limit, but size is a real concern.