Bone Lake and Deer Lake Tournaments
Posted by Bass Fishing in the Midwest at 5/19/2008 11:02 AM and is filed under Wisconsin,Bone Lake,Bass,Fishing,Tournaments,Deer Lake 
Bone Lake Tournament-Wisconsin - Saturday 5/17/08
So this week it began, another season of tournament bass fishing. Saturday morning as we launched the boats for the tournament the weather was much nicer than we had during pre-fish. Water temperature was around 51-53 degrees in most spots and it was partly cloudy with the sun coming out from time to time and some scattered showers later in the day. The temperature ended up being around mid 50's most of the day. My partner and I started on a weed line in about 8-10 feet of water where we had caught some keepers in pre-fish. We each caught some small fish, the minimum length for this tournament was 14". The wind was whipping pretty good as the day went along so I abandoned my finesse worm technique and started cranking with a DT-6 Rapala in Parrot color which had also produced some fish in practice. No keepers came on that choice so my partner and I decided to move to check shallower water. There was some grass in about about 2-5 feet of water and we started there. I was throwing a texas rigged Zoom Super Hog and my partner was throwing a texas rigged Lake Fork 4" Ring Fry. Both in green pumpkin with a little chartreuse on the tails. The second shallow spot we went to was the spot where all of our keepers were caught for the day. Wisonsin is no-cull, so for this tournament we were weighing our best 4 fish which allowed us to have some wiggle room with our fifth keeper. I changed over to a Ring Fry once I saw that keeper fish were not biting on the Super Hog. So I ended up weighing 4 fish for 6.8 pounds and finishing 12th and though I would like to have had bigger fish I was glad to have weighed a limit.
Deer Lake Tournament - Wisconsin - Sunday 5/18/08
So day 2 and the weather was much colder than the day before. Mostly cloudy with water temps around 50. The air temp was around 37 when we took off at 7am and got up to high 40's as the day went on. Mainly the wind made it cold for us and it was whipping around pretty good which made boat conrol out in open water a little bit of a challenge. My partner and I started near the launch on a grass flat and threw spinnerbaits and a Mojo Rig. I was throwing a small profile Secret Weapon perch colored spinnerbait with double colorado blades silver and gold. A few small fish came from that and then I moved to the Mojo Rig with a Zoom Super Hog Between my partner Josh and I we caught around 40 bass off this second weed line we went to. Unfortunately they were all 12-13 3/4 inches long and as I mentioned above the minimum length was 14". We started fishing docks and Josh ended up getting a 2 1/2 pounder off the corner of a dock. I was unable to put a keeper fish in the boat all day and was frustrated with the number of shorter fish I caught and not one that kept. This tends to be the norm for our first tournaments in Wisconsin. So given a zero for Sunday I ended up 14th over all for the club and only 9 pounds out of first place.
So onto June....The Bassmaster Toyota Tundra Weekend Series begins Saturday June 7th and more club tournaments on Saturday and Sunday June 21st and 22nd.
Another podcast will be posted soon so check back and don't foget you can subscribe to this blog to get updates. Want to discuss a topic just go to my forum.
Website
So this week it began, another season of tournament bass fishing. Saturday morning as we launched the boats for the tournament the weather was much nicer than we had during pre-fish. Water temperature was around 51-53 degrees in most spots and it was partly cloudy with the sun coming out from time to time and some scattered showers later in the day. The temperature ended up being around mid 50's most of the day. My partner and I started on a weed line in about 8-10 feet of water where we had caught some keepers in pre-fish. We each caught some small fish, the minimum length for this tournament was 14". The wind was whipping pretty good as the day went along so I abandoned my finesse worm technique and started cranking with a DT-6 Rapala in Parrot color which had also produced some fish in practice. No keepers came on that choice so my partner and I decided to move to check shallower water. There was some grass in about about 2-5 feet of water and we started there. I was throwing a texas rigged Zoom Super Hog and my partner was throwing a texas rigged Lake Fork 4" Ring Fry. Both in green pumpkin with a little chartreuse on the tails. The second shallow spot we went to was the spot where all of our keepers were caught for the day. Wisonsin is no-cull, so for this tournament we were weighing our best 4 fish which allowed us to have some wiggle room with our fifth keeper. I changed over to a Ring Fry once I saw that keeper fish were not biting on the Super Hog. So I ended up weighing 4 fish for 6.8 pounds and finishing 12th and though I would like to have had bigger fish I was glad to have weighed a limit.
Deer Lake Tournament - Wisconsin - Sunday 5/18/08
So day 2 and the weather was much colder than the day before. Mostly cloudy with water temps around 50. The air temp was around 37 when we took off at 7am and got up to high 40's as the day went on. Mainly the wind made it cold for us and it was whipping around pretty good which made boat conrol out in open water a little bit of a challenge. My partner and I started near the launch on a grass flat and threw spinnerbaits and a Mojo Rig. I was throwing a small profile Secret Weapon perch colored spinnerbait with double colorado blades silver and gold. A few small fish came from that and then I moved to the Mojo Rig with a Zoom Super Hog Between my partner Josh and I we caught around 40 bass off this second weed line we went to. Unfortunately they were all 12-13 3/4 inches long and as I mentioned above the minimum length was 14". We started fishing docks and Josh ended up getting a 2 1/2 pounder off the corner of a dock. I was unable to put a keeper fish in the boat all day and was frustrated with the number of shorter fish I caught and not one that kept. This tends to be the norm for our first tournaments in Wisconsin. So given a zero for Sunday I ended up 14th over all for the club and only 9 pounds out of first place.
So onto June....The Bassmaster Toyota Tundra Weekend Series begins Saturday June 7th and more club tournaments on Saturday and Sunday June 21st and 22nd.
Another podcast will be posted soon so check back and don't foget you can subscribe to this blog to get updates. Want to discuss a topic just go to my forum.
Website
Looking back, what do you wish you would have done different after hearing how other fish were caught both days?
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Deer Lake sucks, unless you want to catch muskies. I suppose it could have been worse at Deer, at least you caught fish.
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I would have probably started on docks and look for some more shallow water to focus on and abandon the weed line where we were catching smaller fish. I think I hoped that there were keepers there but a number of fish proved that was not true.
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