2020 Challenge Cup Borden Lake

 It was a windy cloudy cool day on Borden Lake for the 2020 Challenge Cup. The Snatchers were a lost cause without Chuck Steinbauer to lead the team. We came in Last. Tim Benson did leave with 2nd Place Money though. All of the Snatcher Co's only caught 2 keepers apiece. My fish being the lightest of the bunch. The fishing was more difficult than it should have been. I expected the fish to really be snapping, but they weren't. Which led me to become discouraged, disinterested, and bored. After a long dry stretch, my boater finally started getting some fish and I perked up for the final couple of hours.  I caught my second keeper with about 5 minutes left to go. My boater Jason Schmitt ended up being just shy of the money. He got his fish on the chatter and swim jig with a swimbait trailer. His boat was sweet.

  

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.