Knife and West Rush

Today at about 2:30PM I headed out on a road trip. First stop was Reeds Sporting Goods to pick up a CRCX610MH, which is a Shimano Crucial 6'10" Medium Heavy X fast casting rod. I got one last year and liked it so much I decided to get one this year too. The rod is versatile and can fish jignpig, swim jigs, chatterjigs, Texas rigs, Super Flukes, Senko's, spinnerbaits, and buzzbaits.

From Reeds I headed off to the South end of Knife Lake to see what was up there. There were quite a few people fishing on the pier, a few on shore, and a few boats. I saw quite a few crappies being caught buy most of them appeared to be on the small side and were getting tossed back. I fished for a little bit, but with the wind in my face couldn't get my bobber out to where the fish were which was out towards the end of the pier. Around 3:30pm I hit the road for Rush.

Since the wind at Knife seemed to be out of the SE I decided to hit the Eastern shore of Fransen Park on the North End of West Rush Lake. I was pleased to be able to get a parking spot in the small parking lot and off I went. My first spot was not ideal with a tree branch hindering my back cast and a line of catails between me and the water. I managed to get a couple of 6 inch sunfish on a glow Cubby Mini-Mite. After about 1/2 an hour the guys just to the South of me started packing up. I had watched them bring in a couple of crappies. Naturally I moved into their spot which had a free backcast and no cattails. They said the crappies were biting as far out as they could cast. Even though I had an 8 foot rod, the Wing It Bobber is not a distance caster especially because the wind was inexplicably coming out of the South Southwest. One of the guys offered to sell me a Rocket Bobber for $3. He bought the bobber for $3 off a guy who was fishing there wacking the crappies while he was getting nothing. I didn't have any money so I declined the deal. It turns out I had that exact same bobber with me, though I didn't know it at the time.

I think I may have picked up a sunfish and missed a few bites but it was pretty slow for quite a while. The people to the South of me were casting out quite a bit farther than me and were getting an occasional fish. And old couple from Lakeville moved in just North of me. I was shocked they would come that far to fish, but it turns out they had been at the Hinckley Casino and had decided to try a little fishing on their way back. Around the time they came I reached in my bag to look at my bobbers and I saw the Rocket Bobber so I put it on.

Unfortunately I didn't know what I was doing with the bobber at first. The bobber lays flat on the water and when a fish takes it the bobber stands up. I watched the bobber stand up quite a few times expecting a fish to take the bobber down but that wasn't happening. Eventually I figured out that if you set the hook when the bobber stands up you might actually catch a fish. I missed a good crappie and then the old lady caught a nice crappie and the old guy caught a sunfish; That was all they caught. I had been tipping the glow Cubby with a minnow but that wasn't working so great so I just went to the plain Cubby and started getting bit. I caught a nice 8.5" Sunny then a 10" Crappie (picture at top of post) and I began to think that I might start to hammer them. The bite seemed to go in spurts and all I could catch were mostly Ok sized sunfish. I probably caught a dozen keeper sized sunnies, but I don't like to clean sunfish and so I threw them all back. As it got toward dusk the wind quit and so did the bite. When I left I went over to the West shore and talked to a couple of guys that had been fishing in the cut with the pier at it's mouth. They caught lots of sunnies and no crappies. They said pretty much nobody was fishing the cut that comes in from the NW bay.

Team Bass TOC Sauk and Knife

The Tournament of Champions lakes are kept secret until the day before the tournament, thus if you want to pre-fish you either have to hit a lot of lakes or guess. I was thinking about hitting Horseshoe and Sauk in addition to Platte/Sullivan but I didn't do either, I ended up regretting my sloth.

Saturday September 24th Sauk Lake
Conditions: It was overcast all day with a slight wind out of the south. Temps were probably in low to mid 60's.

I basically started this tournament on Sauk the way I started the tournament in August. I hit the same shoreline with a fluke. No luck. I then proceeded to hit some wood with jigs, no luck. Then some pads with the jig, no luck. Then weeds and pads, no luck except a bunch of pike on a slow rolled spinnerbait. I tried docks no luck except a couple more pike, one of which broke off a swim jig. Every once and a while I would bring out the storm swim bait trying to catch a monster. It just was not my day.

Finally in the last hour I missed a good fish 3-4lbfish and caught a 2lber. So basically my TOC was over on Day 1.

Saturday September 25th Knife Lake
Conditions: It was cloudy and cool turning into a light breeze and steady rain.

As that I was basically eliminated from the running, I was fishing for big fish. My heart was not in it. I did catch several fish including a smallie in the rice. The rain got to me so I gave up and released my fish. I went back to the car and listened to the Vikings game while waiting for the weigh in.

Last Place both days.

Team Bass Knife Lake

Report done 5/25/06

Pre-fish: I don't think I pre-fished this one due to having a GEM camp.

Tournament Day Conditions: Morning it was semi cloudy calm around 70. Afternoon the winds picked up out of the west and it was near 80 with sun then thickening cloud cover.

Started in the same spot as last year which is basically right across the lake on the western shore from the blast off point. I think I got one small one in the box right away and missed a good hit as I worked the shore south. I only went so far then headed back north eventually running along the Island as I was working that shore some old timer and his wife passed by me and parked up the shore line about 70 yards and out about a good casts distance. I kept working the shore line and when I got down by this guy he starts talking about how I have no manners even though it was he who parked right in my path but far enough out for there to be plenty of room for me to continue working the shore line. I was like "whatever!" I worked around the North Side of the Island and got nothing into the weeds.

Another tournament boat was just working it's way around a mini-point on to the run of docks just North of the Island. I decided I would hit the first dock and then I would blast out. I immediately got hit by a solid 17"er. I then caught two more small keepers out from that dock. I worked to the next dock and got another solid 16"keeper. The other boat and I passed each other. They were pitching jigs and I was throwing a topwater Zoom Horney Toad. They caught fish behind me and I caught fish behind them with me getting the better of it with a solid 18"er and I think my first cull out. I worked up and back on the run of docks getting one or two that didn't help me.

I then ran to the east shore farther North on the lake. There was a solid algea bloom in this area but it didn't matter because immediately I got another keeper from under a dock. I then proceeded to miss a good hit and then another. I went until the algea just got too thick and headed North a little farther than where I started before. I missed a good hit from a 3 to 4lb fish. That was several quality chances in a row gone. The wind started coming up and the eastern shore turned tough.

I then headed to the river inlet and got nothing. I went under the bridge and tried the far south end of the lake. I missed another solid blow up. The wind was coming in good now. I worked my way north with no luck. I then headed to the run of docks were I had done so well and got 1 more slight cull up. I then headed to the weigh in knowing I had blown a shot for a pretty good bag with missed fish. As it turns out I would probably have had a tough time breaking into the top 4 which all had 18lb bags.

I ended up in 7th place with a 13lb 6oz bag

Stats:Knife
TLA: 1.000
LCP: 1.000
FWA: 2.23lbs
BBP: .000
TDWA: 13.37lbs

Mistakes: I was worn out from the week of camp and I struggled to keep my focus. I outright missed fish because I didn't have my A or even B or C game. For the last few hours on this one I was a hurting unit.

After Thoughts: This tournament was very hard on me. I was just wiped out. At the end of the day I went back to the launch and took a nap on the deck of the boat before loading up the boat and going home. This one pretty much sealed my fate into not being able to break into the top 10 for the year but I kind of feel fortunate to have caught what I did. After all I got my best fish behind one of the clubs top boats and I did much better than last year.

Next Touranment: Platte/Sullivan