Victory Is Achieved At Platte/Sullivan

  

4 and a 5

Got Wood Again, Finally

What my scale said

Conditions: 54-72℉, Partly Cloudy to Cloudy, 0-4mph S

The Day:

Darren was kind enough to give me control of the boat for the day. I elected to start in Sullivan at the Intersection. I had Darren set us down a little short of the juice. A decision I almost regretted as Snatcher Ludenia and Nate set down in the general area but fortunately didn't get a bite to slow them down. Darren had something big boil on his frog on about his fifth cast. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to get it to strike again. I got us up to the juice and had a fish suck under my frog in a spot where my vision was a bit obscured by reeds. I ended up getting a less than optimal hookset, and the fish quickly got off. A couple minutes later, I had a fish suck my frog under, but this time I was ready and got the day off to a good start with a fish close to 3lbs. I began to work to the East when a boat not in the tournament fished through where I was heading. They caught one small fish, and that was it. I ended up fishing the Intersection instead. It just wasn't happening, and the wind was staying still, so we fished the GOMH on the Sullivan side and then headed into Platte for the rest of the day. 

We spent the next few hours on the North end of Platte in Inlet Bay. I started by fishing the rice line from East to West. I got a small keeper on a Terminator Frog. I think Darren got his first keeper shortly after that. It just wasn't happening on top, so I started throwing a Magnum Super Fluke. We were at the Cookie Jar, and I was just about to pull us off of the rice line when the 4lber bit the Fluke. That kept us on the rice line longer, but we didn't get any more bites. The wind came up a bit, so I pulled us out onto the flat. I got a small keeper and a bunch of pike on the Jackhammer and a craw tube as I worked our way back to where we started. It got calm again. I got my feet set and threw the Terminator Frog way back in the rice line, and 5lber slammed a couple seconds after it landed. I could have sworn I locked the weight at 4.93lbs, but apparently not. I wasn't surprised that my scale weighed it light. We worked the rice corner, then turned around, went deeper into the junk, and I worked our way South. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the slop in Center Inlet. As we made our way into South Inlet, I cast to the coontail mat, and a 3lber took the Terminator Frog about 10 feet out from the mat. A couple minutes later, Darren had a good fish boil on his frog, but unfortunately, his line snapped on the hookset. Darren did get a keeper there in South Inlet. We ended up working our way back to the north with Darren missing several opportunities and me getting pike on a buzzbait. The sun came out, and we got back on the rice line. I got a quality cull, and Darren got his last fish of the day.

As we were coming to the end of the rice, I noticed the front flasher was flickering on and off. Turns out his starting battery was out of juice. I headed us in the direction of the public access, and Smitty came by to see what was up. Smitty has a lithium jumper pack, which got us back in the game for the final hour and a half.  We made a couple of more stops with me getting a few pike, no bass. Just couldn't get one more Platte Lake Special to put my weight for the day over 20lbs.

Results: I won my first Snatcher Tournament with a weight of 19/12, and I also got wood and $ for the 5/2 Lunker.  Smitty came in 2nd with 17/9, and Nate got 3rd with 16/13. 

The win also allowed me to reach my goal of finishing in the club's Top 10 for the year in 10th Place.

My Thoughts: I am so grateful to have drawn Snatcher Darren as a boater and that I fished clean for the most part. I thought I had screwed my chances catching a twenty-pound bag on Wednesday when I didn't know we would be fishing my home lake; Thankfully there were still some melon heads up North. Winning on a lake that has disappointed me so many times made my first win so much sweeter. With the way my season had gone, I seriously doubted I was ever going to reach my number one goal, but I did it. Victory Was Achieved on August 26th, 2021!

Skunked At Eddy's Tonight

 Since I can't fish Platte/Sullivan due to it being off-limits for the Snatchers, I thought I'd give Eddy's a try tonight. A lot of High School students around, no fish. There were a few small baitfish at the harbor mouth, but I didn't shine any eyeballs. Water is about 10-inches down from last year. Eddy's grounds crew didn't really tend the jetty, so there is a lot of weeds around. Discovered that I lost Jamar's number with the new phone; I was going to text him and let him know about my trip. Hopefully, he will come back up in Oct and I'll bump into him.  Looks like we have warm weather for another week. Probably won't hit Eddy's again for at least a couple of weeks.

DNF

 Rainy windy day. Wanted to fish, but it was really blowing out of the NW and never let up even though the rain did for a time. We got maybe an inch of rain. Lake levels up a touch after the last two spots of rain. May get out in the morning

DNF

 It was a warm, windy Sunday. I decided to watch the Vikings game live rather than go fishing.  I was a little worn out after yesterday's tournament on Leech. Vikes ended up losing on a missed field goal on the last play of the game. That QB Murray is sneaky good. Very entertaining game.

Leech Lake Snatcher Tournament

 

Conditions: 47-74℉, Mostly Sunny, clouded up in the final hour, 8-25mph S

My Day: We started on the South End of Bear Island, where Bruce caught a couple while pre-fishing. I had a pike steal my Dinger about 20-minutes into the day. We then went around Partridge Point. From there, we went to the North end of Bear Island in the reeds. I thought we might get a bite there with the wind blowing on it, but we didn't. We then went to the East end of Center Rice. We started by drifting along the edge.  Thought for sure I would get a bite there as it looked great, but nope. Then we went on the lee side, and I frogged it, trying to make a perfect cast to get a reaction bite. When we met Snatcher Ludenia and Al, they confirmed that it was a tough bite. We then made the run back west to Uram Bay and finished the day there. Bruce missed a bite, and I got the muskie in the final 15-minutes. So we both ended the day skunked for bass.

Results: Goose egg buys a goose egg as good as DNF or DQ'ed. Snatcher Nate came in first with 21-8. Snatcher Chuck got 2nd with 17-8, and Smitty came in 3rd with 15-1. Snatcher Chuck and Bacon tied with a 4-9 Lunkers.  Only 4 limits were caught, and we had 6 guys skunk. So half the Co-Anglers blanked and one boater (My boater).

My Thoughts:  The bite was off, and wind conditions were not favorable. We fished too fast most of the time. I'm not going to beat myself up over this one. Dennis only put two keepers in the boat, and Hammer, who was fishing with Chuck, only caught 3 keepers. Nate's non-boater got skunked as well. I am just glad it warmed up, and I was able to listen to tunes while we were making our long runs through the waves.

 

DNF Today

 It was really windy out of the South today. I was going to head out around 5PM, but then thunderstorms showed up so I aborted that idea. May head out for a few hours in the morning. I have to pick up a couple of rods for Saturday's tournament on Leech.

Pre-fishing Leech With Snatcher Bruce

 I arrived at the resort Bruce was staying at just after 9AM, just as the wind started to blow. We were off by 9:45 headed to Boy Bay. Didn't find anything along the shoreline but one pike. Found one spot that looked good, but there were no signs of life. Bruce's Ultrex shut off, presumably because I had blown a fuse running it on 10 while it had some weeds. Bruce didn't remember where the fuse box was and couldn't find it. We called his mechanic, who wasn't sure where it was either, but he gave us some tips. We still didn't find anything. So we were just going to scout with the big motor, but then Bruce discovered the troller had power. We then surmised there is a kill switch in the motor if it gets too hot. We then went over by the Boy River. Too shallow and too much crap weed. We went and checked Center Rice, which looked good to me. We then headed to the reed bed on the N or Bear Island. Don't think we will stop here. Tried to find the rice patch that I fished with Ruff the last time. We turned away because the water was too shallow. Went to look at a spot Bruce found the day before and checked one other spot. The sky got dark, and the wind really started humming, so we called it a day.

It is a bummer that Leech is so low. So much water that would typically hold fish is dry or almost so. We don't have much of a clue about where on the East side of Bear Island is safe to run, so I am not sure if we will even go to the best water we scouted. It looks like it is going to be windy again on Saturday, oh for joy.

Got my new iPhone squared away at the Apple store on my way home. That is something positive.