Memorial Day Weekend

A three-day weekend always gets my blood pumping, because it normally means extra time to fish.  This holiday weekend was no different.  I spent Saturday with good friend Ken Lunsford on Hawthorn Lake.  We were after as many bass as we could catch, and Hawthorn is a perfect lake to meet that goal.  We caught bass on just about every lure we threw.  Texas rigged plastics, drop shot, buzzait, several different crankbaits, jigs, jerkbait, swim jigs, swim baits, and an Optimum Frog.  It was a great day on the water, and a good way to get ready for the summer bass action.  It is fun to hone in on different rod/reel combinations and use different lures to fine tune your presentations.  It isn't quite June, but I have used a lot of different baits this spring and I feel I am ready for any bite that awaits me.  Time on the water will hopefully keep me catching a lot of bass throughout the season.












The evening that day took my family and I to a farm pond.  We were most excited to just get out in nature and enjoy the beautiful day. Temperatures were right around the 75-degree mark most of the day.  A quick trip to a farm pond was just the thing we all needed.  Bluegills and crappies were abundant, and kept us very busy as we took in the evening hours.  Hats off to land owners who share their precious ponds with friends, I know this family severely appreciates it!  These kids sure can CATCH them!

Decisions that worked: Club event #2

Timely decisions led to these two bass and a big
 move up the leader board to a top three finish

Things were tough...that about sums it up.

Only 10 guys in the club made the trip, and only 3 of them had limits the first day (2-day event).  All caught them on plastics and jigs on the West Lake docks.

I fished the canals most of the day (had the best bites there on Friday, but not a lot, and I couldn't get bit anywhere else).  Ended up with one keeper.

Sunday came around and I knew I had to fish all different stuff.  However, the weather was calling for gusts up to 30mph.  This can make fishing more difficult, but in the last two years I don't pay too much attention to the wind, all because of my trolling motor.  The Minn Kota Fortrex 101, which runs on three 12-volt batteries is as strong as it gets.  I could fish anywhere on the lake and still have the power to maneuver and fish where I needed to be.  I sure was glad that Minn Kota got it all fixed up and quickly so I didn't miss any time on the water.  I decided to try some main lake docks, rock reefs/points.  Nothing on those, so I decided to go up in East Lake.  I had never fished this part of the chain of lakes, and I figured I had nothing to lose.  I was going to strike out or hit a homerun.  I focused in on fishing some deeper docks up there and ended up with 2 keepers.  I felt that the decisions was a good one.  The 3 that had limits the first day never caught them in West on Sunday.  One of the guys blanked, another had 1 keeper, and the other scrambled around and caught another limit.  He was on that lake 11 days in a row...it would nice to be retired! 

All in all, I finished up 3rd place and had a good weekend, all because of one decision to try something new.  Water temps on West are 50-52.  No smallies were weighed in.  My partner caught two of them (the only two out of everyone) but were 10 and 13 inchers. 

The Okoboji lake system did not show its true colors this past weekend.  Normally this fishery is fantastic, but with the recent weather changes, the fish were not in a cooperative mood.