Bass Snatch Blind Tournament at Cullen Chain

We met at a parking lot in Brainerd at around 6:15AM and found out we would be fishing the Cullen Chain.  I was alright with that as I like the lakes and my boater Guy won the last tournament there.  The weather promised to be warm, mostly sunny and breezy out of the SW.  We launched out of the middle lakes access around quarter to 8AM.  We were first boat out.  Guy didn't want to run the risk of getting caught in the Culvert going to the Upper Lake so we went to a sunken island on the middle lake.  There was a guy fishing topwater there already.  We came in to the SW of him and about 3 of our boats also came in on this spot.  I had what I'm pretty sure was a pike hit at my Stanley Phantom and other than that we got nothing.

We moved to a point off of some reeds and guy got two good quality fish right away.  I got a pike on a black/blue Chigger Craw.  Not wanting to retie I switched to a craw tube.  I got a 12.5" bass on that as well as a rock bass.  I think Guy landed a couple more small keepers.   We then went to another point off of some reeds.  I had tied on another Chigger Craw by then and was quickly rewarded with my best fish of the day a 15.5" largie.

We then fished some reeds and some slop.  Guy got a nice dogfish.  Guy made the call to head to the Lower Lake.  We had to get out and push but made it.  We started on a weedline spot just out from the channel and I was immediately rewarded with a 14" bass.  We then moved around a bunch of places not getting anything.  The wind had come up pretty good by now and there was a reed bed getting nailed by the wind.  Guy caught a a keeper than two quality fish the first 15 minutes we were in the reeds.  One of the fish was the 4/3 Lunker of the tournament.  I broke off my Texas Rigged craw tube with 3/4oz Tungsten Sinker twice getting caught on the reeds, so I switch to a Strike King Hack Attack jig. We stayed in the reeds and I managed to get one that was just short of 14" and two 14.5" bass out of them on the Jig.  I got my limit and I was happy.  I didn't fish the rest of the day very well only getting a rock bass out of some pads missing a few other hits.  Guy put together a pretty good pattern in the middle lake hitting pad and reed edges with the wind blowing in on them and picked up a few culls.  We quit about 15 minutes early.

Results:  My 6 fish went for 8/12 and put me in 20th place.  Guy managed to win the thing  by over 3lbs with 18lbs 2ozs

My thoughts:  My head just wasn't in this one, especially after I caught my limit.  I did enjoy watching Guy put on a show.  This tournament sealed my fate of not going anywhere in the club point standings this year. Oh well.

Got To The GOMH This Morning

Today is the last day I can fish Platte/Sullivan just in case it is our "Blind Tournament" lake this week.  I hit the GOMH at 6AM and promptly missed the first couple of bites I had on my new Strike King KVD Sexy Dawg.  The second fish jumped off right in front of me.  It might have been a smallmouth, but I'm not totally sure on that.  I switched to the Zoom Super Fluke and missed a good hit right away, but it might have been a toothy.  I fished under the bridge and got this 13" jumpin' bullhead which I kept to give to Jenny.  I also got a 11.75" for her on the Fluke as well.  I had toothy's go after my KVD Sexy Dawg Jr's a couple of times but they didn't hit it.  They also tried for the Fluke and missed it as well.  I quit trying at 7:40AM.

Bass Snatchers Rabbit Lake

Weather: The day went back and forth between partly and mostly cloudy.  Wind was light in the morning building to about 10 MPH out of  the NW in the afternoon. Temps went up quickly from a cool morning into the low 70's.

The Day:  We started right around 7AM thanks to my boater Art showing up a bit late.  We got our starting spot, a reed point with boulders on the West lake, despite going out 9th.  The point didn't give us anything but about 15 minutes in as we headed back to the East I got 14.5" on a yellow Zoom Horny Toad out of the reeds.  I was awfully glad to have it, because I came into the tournament awfully pessimistic.  About 10 minutes later I caught one that was to small on the Horny Toad.  Eventually we pulled off of the reeds and slop and I got another dink that didn't measure on a black/blue Berkley Powerbait Crazy Legs Chigger Craw texas rigged with a 3/16oz tungsten weight.  Nothing else happened out there so we moved.

We went to the mouth of a slop bay and worked our way in.  In the pads I got a 15" fish on a Yellow Spro Frog.  I think that was the only fish we had hit in the slop.As we came out of the bay I think that is were Art got his first fish of the day.  Next we headed to a hump that Guy and I fished in my last tournament on Rabbit Lake.  Art just got done telling me "this didn't seem to be the deal" when I hooked into a quality 16.5" bass on the Chigger Craw.  Next at my suggestion we went to a weedline off of some docks that Guy showed me at the previous tournament. I cast into a clump of cabbage weeds that were on the edge of a weed point with the Chigger Craw.  I thought I was caught on some weeds but then my pole kept bending, so I set the hook.  It immediately jumped showing me it was a bass and it was a good one.  When I got it in I estimated it at 19.25".  I had to estimate it because Art ruler was only 17.5" in length.  Art guessed it was close to 5lbs and I said it was a 4 for sure.  It turned out to be 4lbs 4ozs and won me the Lunker/ Big Bass "wood".  Needless to say I was feeling much more positive about the day at this point.

As we worked our way East I spotted a stick in the cabbage on a reed edge and pulled a 15.25" off of it on the Chigger Craw.  Art got a fish off of some  pads with the wind blowing into them.  I missed a good bite in the reeds with wind blowing into them on a craw tube near our starting spot.  We ended up going to the far West end of the lake.  Art lost a good fish right away on a frog, then he caught a dink that was too small.  We worked around the bay.  I did have one hit in the slop, but it may have been a pike.  As we came to the mouth of the bay Art got one in the pads on a frog.  As we worked our way East I got my limit fish, a 14", on a Hack Attack Jig with a Chigger Craw trailer out of a pad edge that had wind blowing on it.  We got back to Guy's docks and I pulled a 13 incher that didn't help me off of a boat lift on the Hack Jig.  On the next dock I culled out the 14" with a 15" with the Hack Jig.  That was my last bite of the day.  We fished some more slop and Art missed some hits.

Results:  The guys really sacked them in this one.  My 14lbs 6ozs bag was only good enough for 13th Place.  Chuck Steinbauer won his 3rd tournament of the year and second in a row with 18/05.

Thoughts:  Huge thank you to Guy Henkensiefken for showing me the area/ spot where the big bass came out of.

We didn't fish in the East Lake at all.

Turns out Guy is my boater for the next tournament, which is a "blind" tournament where we won't find out what lake it's at until that morning.

Rabbit Lake Pre-Fish, Whitefish Culvert, & the GOMH

Yesterday I got out to pre-fish Rabbit Lake with my boater Art for about 3 hours.  We got 1 bass between us.  I had a couple of bites I think were bass and caught and I got a perch on my Ninja Spin.

I hit the Whitefish Culvert on the way back and got 14" there on a Horny Toad.  I also got a jumpin bullhead at the GOMH on the Horny Toad.