A Night of Two Giants

When living in the Marshalltown area I started the Wednesday Night Fishing League.  We would travel to local lakes and have a friendly competition amongst friends to see who could catch the largest three bass in a span of 3-4 hours.  It was fun and always a challenge to get those three keeper bites in that short of time.  That league grew to having 20 or so boats at each event at its busiest times and many memories and friends were made throughout the years.  For the past 3+ years of living here in Independence I have often thought of that league and how fun it was to see my fishing friends throughout the week after work...I missed those times. 

The first bite of the night!

The past few weeks this feeling was rekindled a bit by fishing the Lake Delhi Weeknight Bass Shootouts.  These take place every other Tuesday and have fished the past two events with Keith Donnelly.  A few key things; first it is nice to just show up and fish a tournament, not having to "run the show", secondly no matter how long the event is I still get "that feeling" when chasing bass, and thirdly, I will be fishing more of these events next year.  It is a good break in the week to go and chase some bass.  Delhi is a great location as you can cover a lot of ground in the boat, and it has a good population of bass of all sizes.  A limit isn't a guarantee, and size always matters on this lake. 
A couple weeks ago we made it our first Delhi Weeknight Shootout and came in with a decent limit of just under six pounds.  I knew this would put us in the mix, and it did as we ended up 3rd place out of 18 teams with a nice cash prize.  While that night was great to get back in the swing of things, this past Tuesday night will be one that I won't forget for a long time. 
Lake Delhi is known for a couple of things here in NE Iowa, huge beautiful lake homes and it being a really busy lake.  However, the fishing has always been pretty good too, before the huge flood and now after the dam has been repaired it remains good.  I have fished tournaments on lake Delhi for many years before the tragic flood of July, 2010.  Many of the same areas that bass loved before the flood, the bass still love almost a decade later.  While some things have changed, the lake is back to its full magic of being a busy lake for jet skies and water skiers, and a good place to do some bass fishing. 
Onto the tournament...this particular night we had from 5pm-7:45pm to fish.  The goal each time is to get 3 keeper bass at least 12 inches in length...the bigger the better.  Keith and I had a good plan, similar to our first event there a few weeks ago, but it included a plan B also.  In each of the tournaments I have ever fished on this lake it always comes down to getting that one big bite.  It isn't easy on this lake as it is a river system and bass just don't live as long on river systems as they do in lakes.  If you don't have that one big bite, then you better have all your keepers be around that 1.75#-2.00# mark to be around the top of the leaderboard.  The first twenty minutes were a struggle, Keith caught a couple really small bass, then BOOM, my first bite of the night, a 4.25# largemouth.  In all my times of fishing here, this was my best ever on the lake, I was amazed by this specimen.  In the livewell she went and we kept looking.  We picked up a couple more fish and had our limit of three keeper bass by the time the event was half over.  We kept fishing hard, using Hot Rod Baits tube baits and Wig's Jigs and chunks around rocks, wood and docks.  Pitching to this heavy cover is no easy task, however the QuantumPT Heavy, 7'6" Signature Series Rod and AccuristPT high speed reel made things much easier.  We were able to upgrade on these baits, as well as a swimjig.  With about 30 minutes remaining the great night of fishing turned into the unforgettable night with one bite.  My line made a slight movement to the right...that was all it was, and I laid back into the hookset.  The fish came out of about 10 feet of water and flashed just below the surface before diving back down into the deeper water.  We both saw it and knew it was yet another big bass.  Keith dipped the net into the water and we had our second huge bass of the night...we were both shocked to see it.  A quick picture of this one, which I knew was bigger than the previous bass, and into the livewell it went.  We kept fishing and headed to the weigh-in as confident as I have ever been going to a weigh-in.  What a beautiful lake, beautiful fish and a night to always remember.  As an added bonus we did win the tournament with 11.02# and the biggest fish weighed 4.90# on the scale, this sent us home with nice payday after our workday.

A big shoutout to all my sponsors for 2019: The Iowa Sportsman Magazine/Website, Bill's Pizza, Vexilar, Optimum Baits, Hot Rod Baits, Quantum Rods/Reels and Cliff Keen Athletic Wear.

A 4.30# and a 4.90# caught in a 3-hour weeknight tournament.