Sunday the 22nd I fished in my third club tournament of the season.  I did not have time to pre-fish for this tournament so I was reliant on my partner for spots to fish.  I was gone on a work trip right up until tournament time.  I drove 7 hours straight to get to the tournament so by the time I hit the water I was pretty whipped mentally and physically.  Not in the best place to get my head in the game but I decided not to let that bother me and truly I don't think it did.  I fished hard the entire time.  Having missed the tournament the day before and blanking on the 2nd club tournament put me low in the standings and to have any chance at a decent end of season finish in the club I needed to come in with at least five decent fish.  I figured 10lbs would at least keep me in the running for making the State team for 09 since I was already in for 08.

We started on a spot where my partner had caught some pretty good size smallies.  He picked up one keeper there but it didn't seem very active so we moved to another spot.  We saw some fish on beds so we targeted rocks and some grass clumps.   I pulled all three of my keepers from the same area, though nothing spectacular weight wise.  I caught one on the texas rigged Zoom baby brushhog in green pumpkin and the other two came off a drop shot with a Gulp wacky crawler rigged wacky.  So I finished the day with only 3 fish 2 shy of a limit and not much size to them.  You can check out my homepage for all my tournament results. 

So with 4 tournaments left I really have to have a strong finish.  To stay in the running to make State for next year I will need to average about 12 lbs per tournament.  The good thing is we are going to Lake Minnetonka and Pokegama which are both capable of producing 20 lb bags for five fish.  I will need to really take some time and pre-fish both lakes and have a strong game plan ready for tournament day.

I am excited to start fishing the Five Alive Bass Tournaments on July 1st.  This is a team tournament format and I am splitting fishing the tournaments with Sport Smith and Dave Larson.  They have fished two events so far, so I am excited to participate in my first event on Clearwater Lake.  I will be pre-fishing this week with Sport and then I am headed up to the Minnesota Jr Bass State Tournament of Champions on Serpent Lake in Crosby, MN Thursday and Friday this week. 

So look for my pre-fishing reports from Clearwater and also my post Jr State TOC report later this week.

Have a great day on the Lake
http://www.johnhaynesbassangler.com