BFL/Lacross

Saturday 167 boats waited through a three hour fog delay to get started. When the fog lifted it gave way to clear skies and absolutely not a breath of wind to be found. What a difference from pre-fishing when we had rain and wind every single day in practice!

I personaly was not able to adapt to the cahnging conditions and came in with 2 fish for 5-15. The fish I had found were on weed flats with depths ranging from 1-3 feet and green coontail. This from the sounds of it was not going to be the winning pattern anyway

A lot of guys were able to find bedding fish and those fish who were locked on the beds did very well. I am still amazed by the river on a daily basis. I see posts in this forum on a daily basis of all the bass you guys are sticking and also how frustrating it is to get 18-19lbs for 5 fish for themselves as well. I personally would like to invite you all to fish the BFL if fishing is so easy for you on the river. I know this sounds bitter but I never have seen anyone be able to consistently catch fish in tournaments in this division like you guys claim to be doing.

Hooking three popunder after three pounder and then complaining that you couldn’t seem to come up with a four pound average and you could only be in ” the money” Well there are guys out there putting their a@$ on the line just trying to get five bites! Obviously myself included.

Finding fish on the river alone has been a constant battle for me. I fish for three days and sometimes can only come up with 4 or 5 keepers a day! This three pound average has been escaping me for he past year and a half and not being able to cash a check for that time as well has been frustrating

I did not write this post thinkng that I would get sympathy from one of you river rats, and then want someone to come out and show me fish before every tournament. What i would like to know is this…….

Will anyone who has had success in tournaments be willing to talk with me and even possibly go out fishing on any pool just so I have the chance to learn some things about locating fish and also how to disect water down into a managable amount to fish? PM me if you would like to honestly help someone with these aspects of fishing. Sorry to complain and whine about this but I am sick and tired of being sick and tired of the river.

Skeets-You may not be looking for sympathy, but you got it from me. I also want to learn the river. I have tried in the past, but always found reasons to not fish the river. This year, after fishing with guys from this site, the river is so much more fun. What helped me was I got the same frustrated pissed off attitude at how everyone else says they catch fish and I couldn’t. Now, I force myself to go out to the river. I am taking baby steps, fishing small areas at a time. Eventually, I will expand my knowledge of the area. I know there are 4# ave. fish out there. Every tournament I have been in this year proves it. The big question is where and how. That is the thrill of bass fishing, figuring this out. I am sure the more knowledgeable guys will reply and give you some better advice soon. All I can say is take the negative attitude and turn it into a determination attitude and you will be fine.

Skeets, I feel your pain. I sat and waited too. When we left for fishing my boater opted to sick to his plan and lock down to 9. Bad choice. The fish he had in shallow water during the week were gone due to bright skies and the water dropping a few inches. He stuck one keeper off a laydown and I hit about 8 shorts all after 1:00. I am really frustrated too.
My initial advice to you is to maybe go into the BFL as a co-angler. I’ve been doing it for the last three years and it has changed my outlook on the whole tournament thing. I am glad that I have given it a try, have fished with some very nice guys, learned a several methods I hadn’t tried and gotten sick of not making the decisions right or wrong. I have fished with people that have won the tournament (Felderman) and guys that came in blank. You sound like fishing as a co-angler might help get you more focused. Something that also helped me when I started to fish for mostly bass was to go with friends that fished for them. Another option would be to hire a guide for a couple of days (which I have done mostly at new waters) Just seeing some different methods and picking their brain can be great. One of those experiences was bad the other two were great. Ecnook on the site is a nice guy and Mountain Man has a ton of experience. I wouldn’t recomend putting all of your eggs in one basket either by booking just one day. The weather or river levels can be fickle. I’m no expert, but would show you around pool 10 sometime if you would show me around where you live also.

Skeets… Your pain is something many of us feel… myself included. I remember my first post a couple years back (I think)… wondering where all the big ones are… no one really shared exept to say “time on the water” should help… I can catch a limit with the best of them, but the big ones that win tournies escape me… So, I have since modified the saying to: “QUALITY time on the water”.

So, how do I gain the quality time? I have found a tight group of about 15 guys that we all fish and share our secrets… which helps us all understand the water, the river, the ecosystem, the fish, and how they all inter-relate better. Now, I do attend weigh-ins for big tourney days (like this weekend) to see how I’d stack up. What I typically find is: I would generally be on the board… but never in the “top 5”. These individuals on tourney days have certainly some special talent… coupled with just a wee-bit of, shall I dare sat it… “luck.”

My conclusions have been that if you want to **WIN**, you should be able to go out on a practice day and disect the river and find some 3’s… that’s right, work to find them, and if you do, then fishing tournaments might be wise. But, add the pressures of the tourney day and 100 other boats that may be on your spots, the results can often differ.

Me? I enter a few tourneies a year so I can learn and grow in the sport. I do this to see how I stack up… And, quite honestly, its exciting, fun, enjoyable, and I love the competition.

Meanwhile, until I have the confidence that I can go head-to-head with the “big guys” consistently, I will save my entry fees for my son’s education.

Oh, and just for fun, I thought I’d share my 3+ prize I caught Saturday…

Any results on the BFL? I went to the website and couldnt find anything on it, the other regions had the results from yesterday but nothing on the Great Lakes region. Just curious.

it’ll prolly be posted tomorrow!!

Skeets I know we talked about fishing tourneys together earlier in the year, and fortunately or unfortunately we will see, my wife and I have decided to fish a few together.

If you read my last two posts you will see two things. On Sat. “Time on the water’ was everything. I would not have found the Bass up the shore away from the wingdams, #1 If I hadn’t fished through those areas for the last week and seen the fish gradually moving up the shore, #2 If there had not been such unbelievable fishing pressure to drive them off the rocks.

On Sunday although altogether we probably only fished for bass about 2 hours, my “time on the water” didn’t help as the Bass just didn’t want to repond. Yes my wife hasn’t picked up a pole more than twice since last year and I spent most of the time trying to help her get back into the swing , but even then obviously the fish didn’t respond. The clock was ticking and the move to beds was a sure thing, but I hung on to the easy fish apparently one day to long.

Regarding not giving exact details on location and presentation…. frankly I’m not sure how I could say more with out taking someone by the hand and saying cast this right there and do that, and guide customers pay me to do that. I fish almost everyday and if you had any idea what a toll it inflicts; financially , personally and physically … you wouldn’t want to be me. Personally I think I’m nuts to do it.

Why??? Because some guys can go out everyday,at every tourney and do just what you said …catch 3# average day after day in tournaments. I certainly don’t at this time anyway. Look how bad I got spanked on Sunday by many TS teams.. My guide customers will tell you that most days we come close, but I can also name five trips last year that we didn’t even get 6 fish???

So all I can say Bud is keep working, (as I will), at it and remember it’s only fishing………. But more than anything I just realized from your post that “I” take fishing way to seriously.

And while I’m at if you really want to feel sick think how I feel about not fishing the BFL…. try a $4300.. painful one. Not taking anything away from those that did, just saying I made one big serious mistake, just because I’m too cheap to by a bigger boat.

The other side of the coin is that my wife and I fully intended to fish Team Supreme on Sunday until the Memorial tourney came up that I knew would be more fun and less pressure for Nancy. Not fishing that was a great call since even if we had fished Bass all day long we still would have got crushed.

So you win some and you lose some.

Skeets,

I wasn’t exactly sure how to take your post . While I didn’t fish the BFL on Saturday. I was up at 5a.m. and was on the water w/MOSS BOSS by 6:45ish. We also experienced the same FOG delay as you guys did. We launched from F.Island, but couldn’t go anywhere as we couldn’t see anything. We were thinking about you guys though. MossBoss had a few spots he wanted to try and so once the fog lifted, we headed that way.

By 2p.m. we had 5 keepers all weighing in the 2.3-2.5lb range. Even though BFL is individual competition, it would’ve put us at just @ 12.5lbs. While we were on good fish, we also couldn’t get those “kicker” fish or anything over 3lb’s for that matter.

All our fish were post spawn as you could see their tails had taken a beating and some were bloody. We were fishing tubes/plastics — pitching and flipping them in a backwater sloughs w/lots of fallen timber. I would say this slough was untouched by anglers seeing as we had to jump 2 logs to get into it. Not easy to do and my knee took a banging.

Back to your post….I try to be on the water 4-5 days a week if possible. I’m fortunate enought to be done w/work everyday around 3p.m. and have that time to head out and try to establish patterns. While I’m trying to start my way into the Tourney scene, I have also been unable to put everything together on a tourney day. I know this may be almost cliche’ish, but I always seem to catch my 3 and 4 lb’ers on any day BUT tourney day. And these are my home waters!!

I’d take you out, but you’d probably teach me a thing or two. We should have pics as soon as MB downloads them.

Don’t be discouraged….Just like anything you do/participate in, things will come together!!

Maybe JC /Champman and you other Established tourney guys can give some insight on somethings you maybe things they did to put themselve’s above the rest of the pack??

Here are the results.

BFL – LaCrosse Results

Skeets,

The river is dynamic! It is forever changing so even some of us guys with lots of experience get frustrated. On Friday I fished pool 4 in preparation for Denny’s on Sunday. In the cold, wind and rain I had 3 schools of smallies and a backup run and gun pattern. Based on what I saw I was expecting a 3lb average. On Sunday I get to my starting spot with no one around and I’m thinking “life is good”. Boy was that a mistake, couldn’t buy a bass bite. Hit all three spots and the fish were gone. What bothers me is I can’t figure out where these fish move too!
Went to the scramble pattern and had to work you’re a– off to get a bite. My partner is from Western MN and this is the only tournament we get to fish together. We won it last year and were trying to repeat. He was telling me about a spot that I miss-understood. I thought I looked at in practice but it was the wrong spot. We went there with just a few minutes to go and it was loaded. We finished the limit and had to go. We ended up well off the pace, about 2 lbs from a check. I have to admit I was mentally and physically beat and not making good decisions. Being rested is very important.

Skeets,

What I had started to do was take small areas of the river and fish them. I didn’t fish the entire shore line, but I did look for some areas that began to become obvious.

What does that mean? It means I looked for areas off the main river that had deeper water for bass to spawn in, bass to stage in and simply a good weed & food supply. I also called people.

I’ve spoke with champman & JC. I’d go fish an area, call’em and tell’em how I did. They’d say, “ah, that area has small fish,” or, “yeah, work that a bit harder & look for such & such.”

Look at Samo or Clausen… How’d they do? They’ve won before; so I’d like to say that if you’re winning, you’re getting kicker fish -or know where to consistenly get kicker fish.

The Great Lakes Division are two bodies of water: The Mississippi & Winneconnie. If you’re fishin’ the BFL & want to win, know those two bodies of water. I know that latter sentence oversimplifies the process, but nonetheless, that’s the deal.

Call people, gather the info, hire Champman, hire JC hire other guides or competetors fishin’ those bodies of water. Learn to see what they see.

I’m not writing this from the stand point of I’ve done all that and now am smoking a cigar while living in complete understand of the bass-lotus. No. No, no; rather from the stand point of that’s how I’ve approached learning those waters, or any given body of water.

Thanks,

OnTheWater

There are some good fishermen on that list with a big goose egg.

I wonder how much the delayed start had to do with guys scrapping their gameplans for plan b or c?

I tell ya what… I spent the first 2 hours or so on my best fish. After failing to make them bite I had to scramble to try to catch a few. With under 3 hours to do it in, I only had one keeper on and somehow he came un-buttoned and that was it. Not a keeper, and one very broken, disapointed, and one very PO’d fisherman.

Well, I appreciate all the advice/information. This has been the best response to a post that I have had since I have been on this website. I guess I a little frustrated with getting my teeth kicked in on the BFL

However, bring a non-boater or fishing less tournaments is not an option for me. I can’t set back and watch these guys I got to get in there and try! I know I will struggle more as I go but I guess that is the price I will have to pay to be ” good “. Whatever that means If anyone is interested in going out on the river anytime anywhere give me a shout and I will do my best to go. Thanks

Hey Skeets. If you are who I think you are, I was weighing-in right in front of you at the BFL. I was admiring your nearly 4 lb’er as I showed you my nearly 5 lbs worth of smallies (only 2 ). From my pre-fish, I thought that I could weigh-in around 14 lbs. When I got to my best spot that was averaging 3 lb’ers after drawing boat # 150 and saw that there was noone there, I instantly got goosebumps (don’t read into the “goose” part too much) thinking that I’m getting a check! After 20 minutes without a bit, I started to get a little worried. To make a long story short, I chased my tail ALL day (ok, only half a day thanks to the fog) just to squeak out what I did. I was pretty dissapointed too. This has been 2 weeks in a row that mother nature has turned my fish off. My goal is to learn what high pressure after a front has come through does to my fish! When I figure that out, maybe I’ll stop getting grey hairs.

– d-nort

Hey D-nort i am who you think I am and I was suprised I even made the top 50!! Where are you from anyhow?

B.C.
Funny boy

I could tell by the weights that your 2 fish would do ok. I did think that your largemouth would go a little heavier than it did though . I am from Burlington. Long way from Apple Valley! I’ll look you up at Clinton.

antbody lookin twoard clinton?

JHall