Snatchers Crush It At The 2023 Bass Club Clash

 

2023 Snatcher's Team, Victory Achieved!

 

The Brainerd Area Bass Club Clash is an annual tournament for bragging rights among the three Brainerd Area bass clubs; The Baxter Bass Snatchers, The Range Bassmasters, and Brainerd Lakes Bassmasters.

Bass Snatchers Won With 83-8 

Brainerd Lakes 70-12 

Range  63-13.  

Snatcher Dennis with the Challenge Cup

3-13lbs Bunker Hawg (blk/blue)

My Boater Ranger Smude

Conditions: Low 40's to mid 50's, Sunny to Cloudy, 0-5mph NE the wind couldn't make up its mind

My Day:

I drew Brian Smude who I fished with two years ago at the Bass Club Clash at Serpent Lake. I was determined to fish better than that poor performance and did. Brian has a history of success on the lake, but this hasn't been his year, and he wasn't able to pre-fish. He also hadn't been sleeping well due to sciatica. We were boat 2 and headed to the NE. I got a small keeper pretty quickly on a Texas rigged black/blue Powerbait Bunker Hawg and added two more small ones to the well in short order. I then got my big bass of the day, which weighed in at 3-13 which had me flabbergasted because my scale had the fish at under 3lbs. I've never had such a mismatch in weights. I had my 5 and culled once before we left for Smude's Juice.

He got two fish there and I didn't get a bite until we were making our second pass. I think it was a pike and then shortly after that I got a 2lber. They both bit on a Powerbait Craw Fatty.  We then worked our way West along the South reeds. I missed two bites on the Poppin Frog before I stuck a good 2lber. I thought it was going to be AWWWWWN, but that was the last bite in the reeds. We then went back to the starting spot and Brian put on a jigworm and filled his limit. I hit a mid-day wall with my energy levels when the fish just weren't biting on anything I tried. We went and worked the cabbage flat behind the reeds as it clouded up and I finally started getting some action again on a spinnerbait, but they were either pike or bass that didn't help. I was bending my spinnerbait wire and it broke. I put on a bluegill Big Blade Chatterbait as we made our way back toward the starting spot. After fishing fruitlessly for about 5 minutes I made the change to blue/black with a FireCraw Big Blade Chatter. It wasn't long and I caught a couple of pike. I culled 2 or 3 times with the Big Blade, but never got that kicker bite I needed.

Results: My fish weighed 13/7, which put me in 8th out of 20 anglers. Smude only had 10/4. I thought he was much closer to me than that. I ended up beating all but two Rangers and two of the Brainerd Club. I think I may have been the top non-boater. The tournament was won by Ranger Arnie who beat out Snatcher Dennis on the tiebreaker but Arnie wasn't actually on the Rangers Clash Team, so Dennis won the Challenge Cup. Jim Eide of Brainerd Lakes took 3rd. 

Snatcher Hammer and Arnie tied for big bass with a 4/15 fish a piece. Arnie originally weighed the wrong bass and wasn't going to reweigh because he didn't think it was going to beat Dennis's fish, but was goaded into it by fellow Rangers. Arnie was also the Weigh Master for his own fish. Not sure how Snatcher Chuck and Dennis let him get away with that, but it's water under the bridge now.

The score sheet

What my scale said I had.

Snatcher Darren left me a selfie
or
two

Snatcher Goofball

Range Bassmasters and Steve Quinn Win 2020 Challenge Cup

 It was a windy cloudy cool day on Borden Lake for the 2020 Challenge Cup. The Snatchers were a lost cause without Chuck Steinbauer to lead the team. We came in Last. Tim Benson did leave with 2nd Place Money though. All of the Snatcher Co's only caught 2 keepers apiece. My fish being the lightest of the bunch. The fishing was more difficult than it should have been. I expected the fish to really be snapping, but they weren't. Which led me to become discouraged, disinterested, and bored. After a long dry stretch, my boater finally started getting some fish and I perked up for the final couple of hours.  I caught my second keeper with about 5 minutes left to go. My boater Jason Schmitt ended up being just shy of the money. He got his fish on the chatter and swim jig with a swimbait trailer. His boat was sweet.

 

Challenge Cup Farm Island Quick Report

3lber caught on craw tube (B/B) in the closing minutes

I'm exhausted.  Range won the Cup this year, but it wasn't by much.  Snatcher Tuma had the top weight of the day.  I had a really fun time fishing with Snatcher Smitty brother Range Emmett.  That last late cull for me allowed me to edge out Emmett who also had a good upgrade just prior to me catching that last fish.   

Snatchers Reign Victorious at the 2017 Challenge Cup!!!

It was a very good day on South Long Lake for me and my bass club, the Baxter Bass Snatchers.  Our team won.  I am pretty sure I had the top weight as a non-boater.  And Snatcher Keith Tuma caught a 20+ lb bag for the win and the trophy.  My boater Range Bassmasters Bill Bongs got 2nd and Snatcher Chuck Steinbauer got 3rd Place.   I'll have a full report on the day sometime later this week.

Our Team was made up of Keith Tuma, Charles Steinbauer, and Tim Benson as boaters and myself, Bill Bailey, and Alan Steinbauer as non-boaters.

Snatchers Won the 2016 Challenge Cup At Mission Lakes

Bill, Dwight, Darren, Dennis, Bill, Chuck

Darren took the Win and Big Bass

Dennis took 3rd

Range Bassmasters At Platte/Sullivan Today

Well my camera went on the Fritz today, so my photo's suck.

Here is the Big Bass and Tournament Winner Ron.

She went 4/11 and was caught under a tree on Platte Lake on a jig I think.  He must be a new guy in the club, as that they don't have his full name on their website yet.  His winning bag went 15/1.

Second Place went to Emmet Smith at 14lbs and 3rd Place went to Emmet's partner Marty, who also must be new to the club this year as his full name doesn't appear on the website either; His bag was 12/14.  It sounded like all the winners fish came from Platte Lake.

I think there was just one other fish over 4lbs.  They had 8 boats fishing

Range Wins the 2012 Challenge Cup

Well the Bass Snatchers streak had to end sometime and this was the year.  The Tournament involving my Club the Bass Snatchers, The Range Bassmasters, and Brainerd Lakes Bassmasters for the Challenge Cup took place on Saturday on Borden Lake out of Garrison, MN.  Apparently we only had 4 Snatchers that could make it and all but 1 wasn't even in our top 10 for the year.  Had I known I could have fished, oh well

We apparently got crushed by the Range, not sure how bad Brainerd beat us as well.

Maybe I'll have the final results and a picture at some point, but that depends on what the Range Club gets to me.

Updated:

Bass Snatcher Win!!! The 2011 Challenge Cup@ Fishtrap Lake

(Bill Ludenia, Mark Munson, Dennis Lothspeich, Charles Steinbauer, and me. (Missing is Tony Bauer)

Well Team Baxter Bass Snatchers has done it again and won the Challenge Cup Tournament that pits the Brainerd area bass fishing clubs against one another. I fished the Challenge Cup Tournament in 2009 on Mission Lakes and 2010 on Sylvan Lake, and we won the Cup those years as well. Previously when I fished it was only the Snatchers and Range Bassmasters fishing against one another, but this year the Brainerd Lakes Bassmasters showed up to fish. The Brainerd Lakes Bassmasters had the Challenge Cup Trophy so I had never seen it before; As you can see in the picture, it's quite large.

Here is how it went down:
Baxter Bass Snatchers 66-5
Range Bassmasters 60-8
Brainerd Lakes Bassmasters 53-12

Normally each club provides 6 anglers to fish and the Challenge Cup winner is decided by the the best total team weight, but one of the other clubs was a person short; Because of that only the 5 best weights for a team counted towards each teams weight total this year. We went by the Range Bassmaster Club's rules this year and that meant a 5 fish limit. I had the Bass Snatchers worst bag, so my limit didn't count towards our winning total.

1st Place was taken by Snatcher Chuck Steinbauer with 14-14
2nd Place was Ranger Kevin Tengwall with 14-12
3rd Place was Snatcher Dennis Lothspeich with 14-8

Big Bass was 4-9.5 and caught by Ranger Mandy Uhrich who was in Brainerd Lakes Jim Eide's boat. She caught the fish around 9:30am on these Chompers Tubes:Mandy bought the tubes the day before at Gander Mountain just for this tournament. She had never used these tubes before but thought they looked good. I don't know if it was her instincts or training as a biologist but she obviously made the right call.

My Day:
The forecast was for clouds, showers and possible thunderstorms with 10-15mph winds out of the SE and temps starting in the mid-50's and getting above 70. Temps were on the money, and we had showers and clouds in the morning but around 11:30am the sun came out and never left. Wind speeds were about right, but out of the NE for most of the day.

I was suppose to be paired with Ranger Boater Brian Smude, but he dropped out so I fished with Ranger Jeremy Bjorgaard in his boat. While his boat wasn't much to look at it was actually really nice to fish out of as a non-boater. Jeremy was a really good guy and he went out of his way to try and make sure I caught fish. Still he kicked my butt pretty good with a black/blue Lake Fork Crawtube.

Jeremy had pre-fished and was pretty confident we would be on quality and numbers. Our first spot, actually the very same first spot I fished the only other time I had been on Fishtrap Lake in the Fall of 2007, was a bullrush Island on the South end of the lake. We went around the whole thing keeping our distance and Jeremy got the first keeper in the boat on a spinnerbait. After we got around the whole thing once we moved in closer so we could pitch with a vertical presentation. Jeremy confessed that he thought we would both have a limit after one pass. I started throwing a green pumpkin jig with a orange crawdad Yum Wooly Bug trailer and was rewarded with a nice 15.25 fish. That was the last fish we got on the bullrush Island. Next we went to a reed bed off the end of a point. Jeremy caught a small keeper on a blue/black crawtube which he immediately threw back. I had my green pumpkin crawtube get bit off by a pike.

Next we went to some reeds that were around an Island. I got a 14.5" bass on the jig with Wooly Bug. I missed a hit on a Herb's Dilly Buzzbait and Jeremy got a nice bass on the back side of the Island on a spinnerbait.

Next we went to another Island to an inside turn that went to a reed point. Jeremy proceeded to whack the fish, while all I could muster was a dink and 12.25" swimmer. It was kind of ugly as Jeremy must have gotten 10 good fish to my 2 and we were both throwing black/blue crawtubes.

Next we went to a weedline where Jeremy had gotten a couple of good fish in pre-fish. We were working our way up the side of a point where I told Jeremy we had caught fish the last time I was on the lake. Just about a minute later I had a hit on my spinnerbait and brought in a 12.5" swimmer. Jeremy said I pretty much called my shot.

Next we went back to our starting spot. I finished off my limit with a 14.5" on a spinnerbait and I had my green pumpkin jig bit off by a pike. I suggested we work the near by weed flat with the wind blowing on it. We were throwing spinnerbaits and I starting catching pike including a nice one we both thought was a bass at first. Jeremy got the first bass and then a couple of minutes later I got a 15.75", which was my big fish of the day. We worked up to another tournament boat and they said they hadn't gotten any bass on blades. At that point the sun came out and we headed to a weedline where Jeremy got quality fish in his pre-fish. It was dead.

We went to another weedline on the North end and that was pretty dead until we got to an inside turn and Jeremy pulled two fish in quick succession, but then that was it.

Next we headed to a saddle with a reed island. The wind was blowing in on it and it just looked prime. I got a 14.75 on a spinnerbait and I was very glad to have the 12 inchers out of the boat. On the back side of the reed island Jeremy pulled his big fish of the day on the crawtube. We worked along the back side of the saddle but nothing was home.

We went to another weedline where I missed a couple of bites on the crawtube.

Our last stop was the inside turn where Jeremy whacked them earlier in the day. I missed a bite that hit almost the second the crawtube hit the water. I decided to throw the Repo Man and I had a fish smack it, but not hook up. I threw back with a crawtube and got bit but I pooched it and that was it for the day. I think I had 9-12 or 9-14, which was on the small side for this day. Jeremy beat me by a little over 3 pounds.

As I said my weight got tossed and we won, so it's all good.

Brutal on Platte/Sullivan for the Range Bassmasters

Last Saturday the Range Bassmasters Bass Club had their last club tournament of the year on Platte and Sullivan. I would have gone to the weigh in, but I was taking the dock out with Dad. I did see 3 of their tournament boats including In-Fisherman's Steve Quinn. The results are now online and they had a tough go of it.

They had 14 people fishing and 7 of them came in skunked. The winning bag was 3 fish for 7lbs even. They had 2 two fish bags and 4 one's. The big bass was 3lbs 5ozs. Emmet Smith who I fished with at the Challenge Cup caught 1 that was just over 3lbs. Can't say I would have done any better, those lakes have been known to be cruel to me at times.

Bass Snatchers Win Challenge Cup 2009

Today was the Challenge Cup which is a longstanding contest between the Baxter Bass Snatcher Bass Club and the Range Bassmasters. By virtue of the fact that other more highly seeded Bass Snatchers didn't want to fish I was allowed to be on this years 6 man team. There were 3 Snatcher boaters with 3 Range non-boaters and vise versa. My boater was Range Bassmaster Emmet Smith.

Going into the tournament the scuttlebutt on Emmet was that he was going to take me into the shallow junk all day and that I should use my allotted 4 hours in the front of the boat to hit weedlines. That isn't how it worked out.

The weather: From the low 40's in the morning to the low 50's in the afternoon. It was cloudy with a couple short rounds of light sprinkles. Wind was out of the North around 10mph.

Emmit started us off on a weedline spot on the West end of the upper lake. In the first hour Emmet managed 2 keeper bass around 2 pounds and a 10lb pike. I had a couple of hits on my black spinnerbait but they didn't hook up. One of those bites felt big. After about 45 minutes with no action we ran to the NE end of Upper Mission to a weedline spot I had fished before. I caught a pike and had my spinnerbait get bumped a couple of more times.

Next we headed to Lower Mission to try some docks, that was a bust, so we tried some reeds and that was a bust so we tried some weedlines and that too was a bust. We headed back to Upper Mission to our starting spot.

We spent a couple of hours flogging our starting spot and Emmit got a 12 incher and a pike, while I had a pike bite off and that was it. Totally perplexed we went right to a spot that I wanted to fish, even though I didn't mention the area to Emmet. We were fishing down a weedline towards Range boater and In-Fisherman Bass Guru Steve Quinn. We watched as Snatcher Bill Ludenia caught a small keeper. They were struggling like we were struggling and word was that the bite was very tough for everybody except Snatcher Chuck Steinbauer. We passed the Quinn boat and I got a bite on my tube, but it was a pike. Shortly after the pike Emmet caught 2 keeper bass on a jigworm off of the used water. We worked the weedline up the side of a point with no action so we decided to head back over the water where Emmit got the last 2 fish.

I was throwing my black spinnerbait and I hooked up, but once again it was a pike. Emmet caught a short, then Emmit got the idea that we should move a bit shallower. He was rewarded with his biggest bass of the day on a spinnerbait in the little reedbed up by shore. We kept working shallow into a slop bay. I thought I might have had a fish on for a second on a Strike King Pure Poison chatterjig when the next thing I knew Emmet was hauling in a 2lb bass. I picked up a Herb's Dilly Buzzbait and finally was rewarded with a bass just a little under 3lbs, at this point there was just an hour and a half left to fish; I was mighty relieved to have the skunk out of the boat with a good fish. We worked from the North side of the slop bay around to the South side of the slop bay where Emmit caught another 2lber on a craw tube pitching into the pads. Emmet had to cull, so I took the front of the boat and worked the rest of the South shore of the slop bay then I headed us quickly back to the North side. On the North side Emmet caught another 3lber on the craw tube and I got a pound and 3 quarter bass on the Herb's Dilly. Those would be our last fish although we would both miss bites in the reeds on our way back to the landing.

I don't and probably won't have the official numbers but I can report that 4 out of the 6 snatchers won in their boats. Chuck Steinbauer won with about 18lbs and Lunker that was right about 5lbs. I think Snatcher Dennis Lothspeich got 2nd and Emmet got 3rd. I think our Snatcher Club won total weight by around 4lbs.

Bass Tournament on Platte/Sullivan

Today the Range Bassmasters MN BASS Federation club had a tournament at Platte/Sullivan and of coarse I had to make it to the weigh in to see how they fared. Originally I was gonna "mock" fish against them but I was too tired from Koronis and slept in.

The Range Bassmasters is a Brainerd Area Club and has Steve Quinn of In-Fisherman as member. Other notables in the club are Bill Bongs, Brian Brown and I recognized a couple of other guys, but don't know their names. It was nice to see a few teens in the club and even a woman or two. It looked like there were about 10-12 boats.

The tournament was won by Emmet Smith who had a 5 fish 16lb+ bag and many of the bags were 12lb+.

This was Big Bass:

caught by Tyler Malloy. I believe the bass was 4lb13oz???

Brandon Jedlenski with another 4lber.


Here's a couple of more Platte/Sullivan Specials:
Perry Alfords with a fish that had to be a 4lber.

A typical P/S 3lber. Lots of those were weighed in.

BP's Notes: Surprisingly, not a single 5lber came in and I've yet to catch one since opener. Where are the Super Toads? I did get a couple before the bass opener and some guys reported losing large fish in the thick stuff. Maybe it's post-spawn and the fish just didn't have the feedbag on yet. All in all lots of 17-18inch Platte/Sullivan specials. The post weigh-in environment reflected a tournament where people caught fish and had a lot of fun on the water. The top sack of 16lbs is very impressive when you consider it is 2 people fishing out of the same boat for 5 fish limit separate weights.

I didn't hear much talk about "the rice," which is a bit of a surprise because their are some good beds forming this year. But then again I haven't found em there either.

If anyone from Range or who knows these guys wants to let me know names or wants to tell about the tournament than leave a comment.