So the first Weekend Series Tournament is over for the Minnesota Division.  I was unable to pre-fish for this tournament though I had fished the lake previously.  I knew the lake would fish differently in terms of the past two years because the deep weed lines had not really developed as fully as they had in the past at this time of the year.  Fishing as a co-angler pretty much means I will go where they go and fish where they fish.  I was confident going in that I would do well in this tournament.  I had three techniques that I thought would work in most places we were going on any of the lakes on the Le Homme Dieu Chain.  I was planning to throw a lipless crankbait, texas rigged soft plastics, and a jerkbait, with a spinnerbait and mojo rig as back-ups.

We drew the 11th spot out of 47 boats that day.  We ran to Lake Carlos and started on some reeds in shallow water.  We were both able to pick up our first small keepers along that shoreline.  There was flowage into the lake and this seemed to be where the fish were mainly concentrated, however they were only 12 or 13 inchers which we knew was not going to be the size we needed.  So we moved back into a channel but nothing there.  Coming out of the channel we noticed what looked like a decent flat with some pencil reed growth.  Within about 10 casts we both had a limit in the live well including what I thought was about a 3 pounder and one 2 pounder but I still had the 12 incher I needed to cull, it was a three fish limit for co-anglers.  We spent quite a bit of time on this flat since it was producing fish and we had our limits in the boat by 9:30am.  When we began fishing the area it was cloudy and then not more than 30 minutes later the sun began to come out and the bite shut down.  So we spent the rest of the day moving around to different areas and had some luck on another flat on the main lake but I was still unable to catch another fish larger than the 12 inch fish I had in the live well. 

I had predicted that it would take 6 pounds to be in the money on the co-angler side and sure enough I was right.  They paid down 9 spots on the co-angler side.  I weighed in a total for three fish of 5.93 lbs with my biggest fish weighing 2.79 lbs.  I ultimately finished in 10th place and missed a check by a few ounces, 9th place weighed in 6.06lbs.  I knew that small fish would come back to haunt me and it did.  However on the bright side I have started the series strong with a top 10 finish on the co-angler side, because in addition to cashing a check at each tournament my other goal for this series is to make the regional tournament on Kentucky Lake in the Fall.

So all in all I feel like I had a successful outing and now I am looking forward to my upcoming club tournament on Green Lake on June 22 and then on to The Whitfish Chain for the Weekend Series on July 19th and in between those times I will start fishing the Five Alive Bass Tournament on Tuesdays and the Pan O Prog on July 13th.  So the fun and busyness of the tournament season is upon me.  You can keep up with all my tournament progress at my website www.johnhaynesbassangler.com

Have a Great day on the Lake
john@johnhaynesbassangler.com
myforum.johnhaynesbassangler.com