Pre-Fishing Little Boy/Wabedo with Snatcher Chuck

28" Dark Sleeper (Haze)

 

Snatcher Chuck 

He gave me a tutorial on boat flipping a 4lber

58-78℉, Sunny, 2-10mph WNW

Water Temp: High 60's low 70's

Nate's report to Chuck had us pretty jazzed up to get on 'em, but fishing was tough for us. We started in Little Boy looking for smallies. Chuck caught one little keeper and a rock bass on a Ned. We then went to Wabedo. I had a small pike follow on the Dangerous Swimbait . Chuck got a good keeper largemouth in some pads and a small larry on a point on a Senko. We didn't see much life in Wabedo, so we went back to Little Boy. Chuck got a couple of Larry's in the reeds with cabbage. He then raised a couple of good ones and we saw another on docks.  We then fished on a weed flat in the wind as it was building and I got the big walleye as Chuck had just said I needed to catch something so we could get out of the wind. We went to the Western shore and I had a pretty good blow-up on a frog, no hooks; That was the only blow-up I got.  We tried a couple other places and didn't get anything, so we called it a day. It was a nice day to be on the water even if the fish were stingy.

Me: 1Eye

Chuck: 1SMB, 8LMB, 1Rocky

Fishing with Lois & Chuck & Steve Again

 

Dropped off Steve and went mapping. Didn't pay attention to the weather and got soaked. Oops!

Mini-Bucks With Beau Bacon On North Long

Beau's Big Ba$$

 

Pre-Fishing Gull/ Finishing In the Trophy

Pre-Fishing Cedar With Nate

Good Morning Topwater Bite/Slow Evening Finished Well

3.17lbs/17" Bobby's Perfect (Sparrow)

3.19lbs/17" Sparrow

17" Sparrow

6:00AM-12:30PM SPBI, Intersection, N & S SPRO, Channel Inn Bay
70-57℉, Cloudy to Mostly Cloudy, 3-6mph NW N NE
71-74℉ Low rising

Started at three of the four points only getting a 9-inch bass on the Rat-Ta-Tat Plopper at SPBI. Nothing at the GOMH. I had a pike miss the frog off of the Intersection NE Point. I then motored toward the River Mouth Stopping at the last boat lane and proceeded with the Troller to the NW. The first bass of the morning was a 3lber on the Sparrow Bobby's Perfect. I proceeded to whack them until about 10AM when the bite slowed. I did pull a few fish out of the Intersection Juice on the craw tube. I worked my way back along the SW rice line getting a few more, but mostly missing the bites.  The troller was giving me issues, so I packed up and went to Channel Inn Bay where I got 1 good bass on the Sprinker, but it was mostly a clown show on my part.  I finally got out of there around 12:30 or so.

25 Bass
10 Pike
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3.52/17.5" Bobby's Perfect (Sparrow)

6:30-9:30PM East Of Jenny's, Dock Across, Intersection
68-70℉, Mostly Sunny, 0-4MPH
72℉ Low

I started at the rice edge East of Jenny's. The rice there isn't nearly as thick as last year.  I had one fish take a swipe and miss. Couldn't get anything on the follow-up. I had something small attack the Horny Toad at the dock and not hook up.  It clearly wasn't happening so I went to "The Dock" across, nothing. I did get a small pike on a jig on the other dock. Nothing out of the slop. I then headed to Sullivan starting towards the River Mouth working towards the Intersection along the North rice.  I didn't get the first bass in the boat until 8:40PM, geez. I ended up landing 4 for the night catching the biggest of the day (17.5) out of the boat line reeds where I got the 18-incher the other night. I also had a good fish come up short of the frog a couple of times along the backside of the reeds on the NE point.

3 Pike
4 Bass

Tough Evening Trip

OK Evening On Both Lakes

1st Fish and the only picture I took tonight

6:15-9:15PM "THe dock", Rice E of GOMH, Intersection, NW Reeds
78-86℉, Mostly Cloudy, 2-5mph SW
80℉ Low

Tried out front to Jenny's Reeds missing one hit (Pike???) Then East of Jenny's down the lane getting nothing. I went across to the dock and got a dink and a 14-incher there. Not impressed I headed East of GOMH. Had one pike strike on the Sprinker and left for the Intersection. Had some bites where the school was and further down on the R/R line. I then went and tried the NW reeds and didn't get a hit, so I went back to the Intersection. I got a couple pike and bass on the NE R/R Line.  I just ran out of energy after the bites stopped at 9PM and headed in early.

Fishin' With Jaimen

Double

1st Fish of the morning on a jignpig

3/1 17.5" Craw Tube (b/b)

6:00-7:30AM SPSI, East of GOMH
71℉, Cloudy some light rain, 5-10mph SW
69℉ Very LOw

I picked up Jaimen at his dock around 5:50AM and headed to the SPSI. Jaimen was throwing a jig and quickly had a bass in the boat.  Unfortunately, his rod broke when he was landing the fish. I got a pike on the Poison. Then we doubled up with a couple of bass with both fish jumping multiple times.  We both got a couple more bass a piece before the action slowed. I got bit off once and Jaimen caught the clam. We went and tried the rice for a while.  Jaimen had a few blow-ups and got 1 pike.  I didn't get a single hit. The rain was approaching so I dropped Jaimen off and headed home.  Before I got to the small island the motor bogged down. I ended up limping the boat home at 3 to 4 mph.  Should have started with fresh gas in the tank.  Water probably got in the tank.

(Bass Opener) Todd Rough Morning Trip Until.../ I Pulled it Out In the Evening As Well

5:30-9:30AM F Flat to Green Dock, Big Bass Point/Todd's Pond to Double Cane, Dock
64℉, Cloudy, 0-4mph ESE
61-62℉ Low falling

Spent way too long trying to make the juice on F Flat pop after a couple "just bass" got us started.  Got a few scattered bites on the way to the Green Pontoon Lift;  There was a dead tree out from there that both Todd and I lost a good bite off of.  Then we went to Todd's Pond/Big Bass Point.  I broke off at the spool with the SBKO to start things out. AGGGGGH.  Got a few Platte Lake Specials, but it really wasn't happening at BBP.  Todd was pretty much missing every bite he got. I worked us around the shallow pads getting some pike and then up to Double Cane where we ran into a dispersed school of Platte Lake Specials of which Todd caught several.  I think it started to sprinkle so we headed in.

I caught the crappie and 5 quick sunnies off the dock.

15 Bass
19 Pike
1 Crappie
5 Sunfish
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3-8oz 18.25" Bass Jig/Craw Fatty

3-2oz 18" Poison/Swim Fluke Jr.

6:30-9:00PM Access Across, Green Pontoon, F Flat
60-67℉, PC, 0-5mph E
62℉ Low

I fished the reeds across from the access to around the maidencane.  Got one bass in the reeds around Todd's toad spot. Then nothing until I got to the cattails.  Mostly pike there.  I didn't have the guts to stick things out trying to find a needle in the haystack of where the bass might be out there.  I went to go find the tree we fished this morning, but it was gone.  I did manage to stick a toad out from under the Green Pontoon Dock and at F Flat.  There were wave runners and people all over the place tonight.  Including fisherman on "the dock.
8 Bass
6 Pike

Pre-fishing with Tuma and Pete

3/4, 17.33" Poison/Fluke Jr (Bluegill)

9:00AM-2:00PM Sullivan and Platte
52-36℉, Partly Cloudy, 10-20mph SE
Water Level Very High

Pete didn't have a headache this morning so he got up and came with.  Tuma took us down to the South end of Sullivan and we worked our way up along the protected eastern shoreline.  Tuma got the first bass in the boat;  He got it on a jig next to shore and some wood.  It was a 2lber.  Tuma got a couple more bass and a pike or two.  Pete got a pike and bass on the spinnerbait.  I missed some bites on the craw tube. Pete had a pike choke a crankbait he was throwing.  He swung it in and the fish hit the deck, so Pete kicked it back into the lake, not realizing the line had broke and the crank was still in the fishes mouth.  We had a good laugh over that.  Tuma got a couple fish off of one of his spots on consecutive casts in the wind.  We got back to a protected shoreline and Pete and I both got a quality sized bass.  I got mine on the Poison.

We then went to Platte.  Keith talked with one of the Brainerd Lakes guys who was getting some fish.  Then we went to my bay.  We didn't get anything and talked with Chuck and Lois.  We then headed to the Big Island.  I got a 13-incher on the craw tube and got a 3lber to end the day on the Poison, right after Tuma got a pound and a half fish. 

Snatcher Gull Lake

The Weather: It was a sunny day in the low 80's with light wind in the morning picking up to about 10MPH out of the South in the afternoon.

Here is a couple of Snatchers (Darren and Owen) waiting for blast off:

On the phone, my boater Art sounded confident we would get fish but before blast off he informed me that he thought he would be lucky to get a limit under the expected weather conditions.

We blasted off a little before 8AM from the Government Point Public Access and we headed SW to Wilson Bay where we stopped on a weed flat on the Southside of Hunters Point. There was a light ripple on the water and I started off throwing a buzzbait, but eventually switched to a purple Berkley Frenzy Popper. After about 7 minutes I put a 12.5 incher in the boat. That fish was followed by a 13.5", 12.75", 13.75" that totally went airborne when it hit, and 13.10" that started bleeding pretty good so I threw it back. We got off the flat and as we were making our way back on I threw a smoke tube along the deep weedline and got a 13". I started throwing the Popper again and got a 12.5" and a couple of shorts. At this point, we were about an hour into the tournament. My partner Art had two fish at this point. The wind died and so did the action on top. I think I got a couple of fish that did not help on the tube.

Around 10:30AM we made a move to Green Lake which is a small round bay ringed by slop and docks. I pulled a 15.75" on a black blue jignpig on the edge of pads and slop. I got a couple that didn't help on a bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke off the docks and slop. Eventually, I started throwing the smoke tube out into deeper water and I culled up to a 13" and got a few more that didn't help. Once we fished around the bay, we made a run to a spot on the South end of Wilson that had rice and pads near deeper water. Art had a fish miss his topwater frog. He had me throw in with a jig and I pulled out another 12.5" that didn't help. As we made our way down the rice I had a good fish swirl on my jignpig as I was swimming it but it didn't get hooked. Eventually, we moved to a weed flat where I had a fish rise to but not hit the Frenzy Popper and Art got a couple of keepers.

We probably spent the last 3 hours back at our starting spot. On the first pass, I threw a black spinnerbait because the wind was blowing pretty good and I got a small pike, a rock bass, a short and a 12.5 plus I lost one that was most likely a 12 incher. On the next pass, I tried a chatter jig without any luck. Art pulled out to the deep weed edge and started catching fish, so I went back to the smoke tube and started catching fish; some short, some keepers that didn't help, and my final cull with a 13.5. I caught quite a few fish in the last 3 hours. Art filled his limit and culled a couple of times fishing with a red jigworm.

At around 20 to 4PM we headed into Ernie's where we would have the weigh-in. We tied the boat up on the dock and Art took this picture of my biggest fish which cut off my head.

Art went to the bar to get a drink and I decided to throw a cast out towards a dock with some boat lifts that were within casting range with the tube. I had a fish nail the tube but I didn't hook up. I couldn't get a re-strike as our tournament boats started coming in.

My 6 fish ended up weighing 8lbs 7ozs which put me in 12th place out of 24 guys. My boater Art had 7lbs 9ozs, so this is the 3rd time out of 12 Bass Snatcher tournaments where I "back seated" my boater. The tournament was won with 13lbs 4ozs caught by 2009 Baxter Bass Snatchers Mr. Bass Dennis Lothspeich which made this his 3rd win of the year. I back seated Dennis at Pelican this year.