Early September at the River

The Tri-County Bass Club hosted a buddy format tournament this past weekend out of Pool 10.  My buddy Brian Bowles and I had the weekend open, so we decided to give it a try.  We both knew it would be a challenge, as we didn't want to take any time off of work on Friday to go scout around.  This was a two-day event, so when we showed up at the river on Friday night, it was all about "gut feelings" on where the bass might be.
I knew the water temps were still high, and the current was not flowing into many backwater areas.  This told us to stay close to the main channel, and major backwater cuts that always have current.  This was a wise decision and we were able to catch 5 keepers on that first day.  We both knew that weight would put us in the hunt, depending on what we could do on Sunday.  We caught fish on crankbaits, swimjigs, spinnerbaits, topwater, Hot Rod Baits Tubes, and Big Craws, so the fish weren't acting fussy, it was just hard to locate a 14inch+ bass.

We knew we could probably duplicate another 5 fish on Sunday in Pool 10, but we decided to go for broke, we locked up to pool 9 after only hitting two areas in Pool 10 on Sunday.  The current was better in Pool 9, but the fishing was as tough.  We tried main channel rocks and current breaks with NO results.  I figured it was time to put our heads down and hit the weeds for the remainder of the day.  This was a good move, and we collected our 5 fish again for the weigh-in.  On this day though, Optimum Baits Furbit Frogs, and Hot Rod Baits Big Craws were the ticket.  One of us would work the heavy weeds with a frog, while the other would pitch the weed edge.  The action was slow, but when we were bit, it was normally a solid keeper.
We weighed in a 5-fish limit both days and had just under 20# for the two day event.  It was good enough for 2nd place.  The winners of the event; caught all their keepers after seeing some seagulls crashing the surface on shad, they followed over and caught limits both days in the same area.  Good for them for using all the clues of Mother Nature, bad for us as we weren't quite that fortunate to see such signals!
Another great weekend on the Mighty Mississippi River, sad to say, but the weekends are winding down, so every trip to the big river is cherished by me!

August Club Tournament

This past weekend it was time for the next club tournament out of Pool 10 on the Mississippi River.  Trent and I spent about 5 hours on Friday looking around Pool 10 and another 8 on Saturday.  We also went to Pool 11 for a couple hours late in the afternoon on Saturday.  We were not happy with what we saw in Pool 10, and knew we would need more than 10 pounds to do well in this tournament.  Pool 11 was a last ditch effort, but it was our saving grace in the end. 
Trent Beier and I hit some areas and saw some potential.  We did not hit an old-time favorite that night though, in an attempt to save it for the tournament day.  That was a wise decision. 
We caught 4 of our 5 bass that we weighed in at "the old standby" area in Pool 11.  A lot of current mixed with rocky bank and plenty of minnows created a feeding area for fish to gather.  Four nice fish fell to a Pop-R bait, three of them being nice smallmouth bass.  We filed our limit and culled a few times using slow baits, like tubes and big craws from Hot Rod Baits.
We had a great time fishing, although the river wasn't the nicest to us on this weekend, we once again made some good decisions and that led us to another top three finish...well actually another win on the season!  Our limit was 12.90#, besting second place by over a pound.
I got home late Sunday evening, but I am counting down the days until I can once again be on the Mighty Mississippi River!

July KID fun

Pretty simple blog this week:

 

Pond fishing with little friends, their faces say it all.

Revenge on the RIVER

The title says it all for the last two weekends of fishing for me.  The weekend of July 13/14th was a good weekend of fishing on Pools 9 and 10, but the tournament I was in left me and teammate Ken Lunsford in the middle of the pack.  We had some good things going in practice, but with the water dropping quickly, the bass quickly relocated.  We still found enough fish on Sunday to put together a limit of 6 bass and then some, but middle of the pack is not what we expected.  However, in the end on our 3-hour trip back home, we had many laughs about the fishing, and enjoyed our time on the water.
This weekend, the 20/21st of July was "revenge" time.  This time it was with partner Trent Beier, and the Cedar Valley Bass Club event.  I spent practice day with my mentor and long-time friend, Kevin Christensen.  It is always a privilege to fish with Kevin, as we don't get to very much.  Looking back, we probably tried to cover too much water when fishing on Saturday, but we were on a mission to locate some schools of fish in Pool 9.  We did find one good area, and then it was off to Pool 10 to look around. I did find a couple areas with a lot of current that the fish were using to feed in.  It was a start for the tournament on Sunday.
Sunday rolls around and with a game plan in mind for Trent and I.  We hit the two current areas, but after 10 or so minutes in each area, we both knew that it was not going to cut it.  We quickly decided to go to pool 9.  That was the best decision we made all day, as it turned out we didn't waste too much time on fish that were not cooperating.  Something that we tend to do from time to time. We hit some more main channel areas in Pool 9, but things were not what we expected, one keeper smallmouth is all we had after a couple hours into the 7.5 hour tournament.  Time to hit the scramble button.  We basically, "punted" and just went fishing that were easy to drive to quickly, and hit as much variety that the river had to offer.  In July, however, CURRENT was always in our conversations.  We knew we had to be close to it.  We decided to hit an area in Pool 9 around the middle of the pool.  This place offers current, weeds, and some logs to throw at.  We both knew the area well as we have been fishing there for years. 
As we entered the shoot off the main river, I spotted a few weeds, FROG time.  I picked it up and on my second cast, BOOM, a nice 2.5# keeper. Things were looking up, but we knew we had a long way to go.  We continued to follow the current and the weedlines.  This was another good decision we made.  It wasn't much longer and I picked up another good keeper on an Optimum Baits Furbit Frog.  Trent was working the edges with swimjigs, but as time went on, it was all about getting back into the plethora of weeds available.  We both were slinging the Furbit Frogs for the majority of the rest of the day.  A decision that once again turned the weekend around, and made for an awesome fishing day.  After securing a limit in this area, we decided to give some other water a look.  It was about 10 more miles north, but we were willing to spend the time to get to an area that was similar to the weedlines we were catching them on. 

Optimum Baits Furbit Frogs

This was another good decision we made on this day.  We hit a few more weed lines similar to the first area, and the action picked up once again, and again, it was all about the frog.  We moved quickly from one weed line to another.  The more weeds the better, and when we saw something that looked good, we stopped and fished it for awhile.  Things were going great, but time was running out, we were a long way from the weigh-in, and we had to go through a lock and dam too.  One more area and we had to go, well that turned out to be a good decision too, 3.10# in the last bit of weeds and we were on our way back to the weigh-in. What a way to finish the day!  We ended up with about 13.40# and got 3rd place. 
All our fish that were headed with us to the weigh-in were caught on Optimum Baits frogs.  As Trent brought up during this day, frog-fishing has a lot to do with your equipment, and that is so true.  A medium-heavy action 7-foot rod is perfect for this presentation, and a high speed reel with braided line completes the setup.  I was throwing a medium-heavy 7-foot Quantum Smoke rod, and a high speed Quantum Smoke reel with 60# braid. This is the perfect setup for slinging frogs all day and getting them out of that heavy weed cover. Tie on a Furbit Frog...the bass have no chance!
An awesome day on the water with a good friend, and in the end, that is what it is all about.

Good decisions and teamwork led to a great day

 of fishing and another Top 3 event

Just for FUN

Just one of the many 15 inch bass we caught

Saturday morning, friend Ken Lunsford and I headed toward Hawthorn Lake.  There was no upcoming tournament there, this trip was purely for fun.  The lake was recently renovated by the IOWA DNR.  Fish were stocked 4-5 years ago, and the fish are plentiful and numerous.
We knew going to the lake that we wouldn't catch any big bass, but again, this was simply a fun fishing trip. 
Ken and I were able to use multiple lures to catch bass throughout the day.  Crankbaits, swimjigs, and slower baits like plastics and jigs worked very well.  The weed growth in the lake is taking off, but we could not convince the bass to come up and hit frogs or swimbaits. 




Ken reeled in a rare feet, one cast,
one crankbait, 2 BASS!!!

There were a few key areas that held a lot of fish.  Windy points seemed to be great, as well as any bank that fell into about 10 feet of water.  On these areas, the coontail weed was starting to grow off-shore, and the fish were there.  Moving slower baits through and around this coontail certainly was a pattern we picked up on.  Every time we found this coontail growing off shore, we were able to catch a few bass off of it.  When this key area was on a windy bank...WOW, just hold on tight to your rod, because the fish were really piled up with both of these key features present.
It was a great day, we never caught any bass over 16 inches, but the number of bass we did catch topped the 100 mark for sure.  If you are looking for a little F-U-N, Hawthorn is the place to go!