Bass Pundit: 2021 Opener Recap: Tough/Disappointing

Bass Pundit: 2021 Opener Recap: Tough/Disappointing:   No Company at Midnight I was pleasantly surprised nobody else was at the Jetty at Midnight, and there were plenty of eyeballs in the Harbo...

Snatchers Gull Lake Tournament

 Conditions: 36-48℉, Cloudy in the morning turning PC around noon, Clouds returned the final couple of hours, 0-4mph

My Boater: Club President Tim Benson (2nd Tournament I've fished with him) 

Oopsie: As I started North on 25 toward Brainerd I remembered I didn't put my cull tags in my bag. 

The Day: Everbody was there early in the belief that there wouldn't be parking spaces due to a big walleye tournament, but that wasn't the case. I was the last guy to arrive. I got my stuff in the boat and Tim had four extra cull tags. We blasted off a little before 7:30AM and we headed right to the reeds on the West side of  Round Lake. It wasn't long and I flipped up my big bass of the day 2/15 on a Texas Rigged junebug craw tube.  Tim got 2 or 3 keepers on our first pass along the outside edge in maybe a 60-yard stretch. We then worked our way back inside the reeds but not too far from the edge. I missed a bite on a Hack Attack Jig and caught a pike around the same area where I got my bass. As we started back on a second pass Tim got a nice one. I think he was culling by the time I got another bass. I did lose a fish that broke me off. Tim threw a chatter jig to a small reed island and had a good one jump all over it. I cast my craw tube to the area and was immediately hit by my second biggest bass of the day. We thought maybe we found a school, but nope. So after checking the area out resumed fishing down the reed line. Not too far down Tim got another good one on the chatterjig. I caught a 12.5" just outside of the reed line on a Hack Attack Jig. Then I got on the reed line on a tilapia craw tube. The sun had come out prompting me to go to a lighter color. I got my fifth fish on a D & M Baits junebug Piranha 2 Swim Jig (chatter). I got my limit fish around noon on the craw tube. We then worked our way back with me missing or losing several bites.

We then tried a small reed bed and Tim got a couple of upgrades. At that point, we decided to leave Round. We went to reed bed on the North end of Gull. I got one upgrade on a junebug craw tube and caught a dink on a LiveTarget Baitball Popper. It wasn't happening. We spent the final hour and a half on the South end not catching anything.

The Results: My fish weighed 12/13oz putting me in 7th Place. Tim had 18/9 putting him in 4th. Keith Tuma won with 20/6 and got Lunker with a 4/7 fish  Second went to Smitty with 19even and Al Steinbauer got third edging Benson by 6ozs. The Co-Angler Challenge was won by Beau again.

My Thoughts: I am satisfied with my day. It took me a couple hours to relax and get comfortable and in tune with pitching the reeds. We were the only boat in Round and because of that fact we probably should have stayed there the whole day.  

This Tournament guaranteed I will finish 5th or 6th in AOY.

Fish With Steve and Brett

44° Water And Still Hitting Topwater On F Flat

17" Pop Max

3:30-5:30PM Juice in the Trophy/F Flat
Conditions: 51-45℉, Partly Cloudy, Calm, Water Temp: 44℉.

Where the Sun was at after I got the first fish

When I first arrived there was a slight NE wind blowing.  I started out fishing with a Tomato Jerk Shad, but didn't get anything on that.  After about 20 minutes it got calm and I switched to the LiveTarget BaitBall Popper.  There was a boil up by shore, so I went in Shallow.  I got a 15.5" bass on the BaitBall in the shallow cabbage.  It just sucked it in.

 The camera was on the Fritz/not warmed up, so I didn't get a picture of the fish.  I took a picture of the BaitBall and the two pictures above that one pretty much immediately after releasing the fish when the camera started working.

I moved to the East of the Flag and got a pike on the Pop Max.

20.5" Megabass Pop Max

Where the Sun was at after I got the pike.

I moved back West of the Flag out in in a little deeper water.  This was what I was looking at.  Spectacular!!!

I then got the 17 incher on the Pop Max.

17" Pop Max (same as fish at the top of blog) 

Where the sun was fight after the 17"

There were very few busting fish tonight, but there was a seagull flying around and landing.  I busted off one of the front treble's in the mouth of the 17 incher, right in the lower lip.  That didn't stop me from catching my last bite of the night.

15.75" Pop Max

Where the sun was at when I got that fish

 I was moving in toward shore and I backlashed.  After getting the backlash out in my haste to get the lure back out there I FUBAR'd my line in the reel.

Trying to get that situation straightened out pretty much ended my night.  I broke the line at the reel while trying to get it out at the Lake Place thus losing about 15 feet of line.  The line was still stuck in the reel.  I had to bring the reel home and take the handle and star drag off to free the line.

If only I had the camera to take this shot of the moon, the view was amazing

Looks like I've got two more days to fish before I pull the boat out.  Wind forecast doesn't look favorable for topwater, we'll see. 

OK Morning At the GOMH & Mille Lacs

18.5" Whopper Plopper Bone/Red

5:15-6:15AM GOMH NE
6:30-8:00AM Mille Lacs
Conditions: Mid to to low 60's, Partly Cloudy to mostly, Calm with a NNE light wind coming up after I got the chunk smallie after 7AM.

When I arrived this morning

The experience with mosquito's on Thurs. morning didn't have me rushing out the door this morning.  I arrived at about 5:15 and a truck was there.  Same guy who was there last weekend and I think he had the guy who got the bullheads this week with him.  They hadn't gotten anything yet.

I went down on the NE side and couldn't get anything to take the LiveTarget Popper.  I then grabbed the Poison and quickly caught a 15" and then a 16" jumpin' bullhead.

15" Poison w/Swim Fluke Jr. White

16" same Poison

I might have had one more hit in the tube.  By 6, it was clear I had caught what I could.  I did briefly try a frog on the SE side.

Glass calm when I arrived

 Since no one was on the Jetty I took the North Jetty.  I started out with the Whopper Plopper.  Nothing in front of Center Jetty.  The big one hit in the same area as I got the 20.5".  The Mojo Crankster really handles those Smallmouth well.  I landed it in the same place I landed the 20.5".

1st picture I took

 The camera ran out of juice after I took the second shot.  I thought I had clipped the tail in that one and I did.

I slowly worked my way North, should have gone quicker, because by the time I got back to the N harbor mouth the wind had started up.  I picked up the LiveTarget and managed to get a small smallie to hit it even though I had a cross wind.  The fish ran toward me full speed and I couldn't really keep up.  When I did catch up to it, it jumped and got off.  It was 12" class fish.

I went through a few lures and got a pike on the Crackle Jerk Shad.  I tried a couple more lures than called it a morning.

Didn't Get Skunked

15.75" LiveTarget Popper

8-9:30PM
Conditions: 65 degrees, Post-storms, cloudiness all over the place, same with light winds.

Didn't get out in the morning because I went to bed.  Didn't get out tonight in the Trophy because we had thunderstorms move through and I procrastinated to much in getting ready after they passed.  I decided that my best shot to avoid a skunk tonight was to hit the GOMH first.  Fortunately no one was there fishing.  I went down the SW side.  I threw the LiveTarget Popper under the bridge and had a 13" class fish take it, but it jumped and got off.  On the very next cast the fish in the cast silently slurped the Popper, the fish was just on and put up a good fight.  I thought I had a pike miss the Crackle Jerk Shad.

On the NE side I think I had a hit in the tube on the white POison and something took a shot at the Spro as I was bringing it over the rice.  That was it.

Only Jumpers This Morning, Well Kind of.

15.25" Chigger Craw

4:45-7:15AM GOMH NE SE
Conditions: 58 degrees, Cloudy, Quite Windy out of the ENE

It's pretty light out now at 4:45 so I should have left earlier.  I had a 15" of so jumper that I think was snagged under the jaw jump and get off about 10 minutes in.  It was a bite from the Lake not the tube.  I did hear a couple things get hit in the tube, but I couldn't get them to bite. I was thinking about going to the other side, but a car showed up at about 5:05.  I put on the LiveTarget Popper and had a fish hit it, but I couldn't tell it got it and I missed the hook set.  After not getting anything for the next twenty minutes I went down to the SE side.

It was a couple on the SW side catching a kind of bullhead that I haven't seen in weeks and man were they catching them.  Fastest bite I've seen all year.  I thought out my casting angle problem a little better and stood down on the rocks, as close to the tunnel as I could get.  It worked for me and there was a school of jumpers in the tube.  I landed 4 of them on the Chigger on missed and missed about as many.  They started with the 15.25 and progressively got smaller.  I put on a small X-Rap to see if I might get what they were catching but I was unable to cast well enough.  I went up on the bridge to cast the Chigger Craw and got bit off.

I went back to the NE side and got a 12" jumper on the LiveTarget Popper and a 14" on the Chigger Craw.

I did go to the Culvert and Inlet, but didn't get anything.