Well I am finally ready to give a report. I had 3 days cancelled last week due weather, wind rain and more wind. I did fish two days before the tourney and one was soo windy we were very limited to where we could fish. I fished areas I haven’t fished all year and found a few fish for the box. More slot fish were being caught then box fish, but decent fishing. Friday was out and the mission was to go east and fish some rocks for the first time this year. Its a typical movement for me this time of year.. My quests were interested in locating a few spots for them to fish the weekend which was nice as I could pre-fish for the weekend. We had a good wind for the first spot and the fish were there. In a couple hours or less we put 3 in the box and had several slot fish. I went to 4 more off shore rock reefs without catching a fish, I must have hit 8 waypoints and nothing. So I headed north and had just over an hour to fish. I went to a sand break/rock transition area I have fished in the past. Lucky for me there were fish on the sand and wee caught a couple more box fish and some dinks. My first and last spots were active so I had hope for the weekend tourney.
Saturday morning started out with wind and I had a 1/2 hour ride to my fist spot. I had caught some “just under” fish on a sand flat Wednesday with the same wind so I though I would fish it for an hour before heading to the rocks. It was an hour wasted. We headed for the rocks, got there and not a boat in site. I was pumped!! Ive got maybe 10 way points on this reef and I we started were I had got fish on Friday morning. The bite started slow or atleast it seemed like it. We caught at least 5 or 6 slot fish before putting the first weigh fish in the box at 10am !! I was a little worried. But by 1pm we had our 5 unders in the box with 4 of them just under 18 and would have 2 1/2 hours to find an “over” fish.
I went to a spot where I we got a “over” last year and I have several other times aswell. I get to my waypoint and my locator starts flashing depth and Im losing bottom. Cant mark fish or bottom in over 20ft. I was bummed and only fished it for 1/2 hour. headed to a spot where I could fish 18ft with a break near by. Right away I get a big fish on a crawler, Im thinking this is the one!! well it wasn’t,,just 25. We pull two other slot fish and we are down to less then 30 minutes. Last drift over the break and the crawler gets picked up,,,I feed,,,, I set,,,,16 incher. Made or 6th fish and we headed in to the scale.
Sunday started just like Saturday on the rocks. Fish had moved from Saturday and I had to relocate them witch I was able to do after my partner (son in-law) hooks a big fish (we are jigging the rocks shallow) his rod bends like I haven’t seen it bend all weekend. We quickly see its a muskie and the jig is in the corner of the mouth. It was exciting. My guest from Friday were fishing next to us and saw the fight as the 40+inch fish jumped out of the water a couple times next to the boat. We net it, picture it and let it go. I only had 33 inches on the Judge but we figure a little over 40 inches of fat strong fish. Will post pick later. We get our 5 for the box by noon after going thru allot of slot fish. The problem was not one was over 17 like Saturday. Anyway we had 3 1/2 hours to find a “over” fish. I thought I would try off the break of the reef we were fishing for awhile. We grabbed the rig rods and put out a leech and crawler. The leech got picked up right away and we knew it was a good fish, but it came up short just barely touching the 26 mark. That would be our largest fish of the weekend but we fished that spot for 3 hours and caught a dozen nice slot fish. Was a good bite with crawlers doing the best.
We finished in 30th place with no big fish. I felt ok about it as we tried hard and caught allot of fish thru the tourney, just not the right ones. Turns out if we just could of matched first days height we could have got a check. But that’s how it goes. Was still lots of fun!! We jigged our under fish in the rocks from 8 to 10ft and we got lots of slot fish on rigs and leeches or crawlers from 16 to 20ft. Crawlers did the best,,,,,,,,,,time to go get a flat!!
Today 6/6/11 I had a full day trip. As lget to the lake I see it is flat and already getting warm. I picked up quests at a resort near where I had fished the weekend so off we went. We started out where the slot fish were Sunday and they were still there and would take a crawler. We managed 4 maybe 5 slot fish and I thought maybe I could jig up some box fish up shallow. Sometimes the fish will hold in the rocks when the lake goes flat if the rocks are big enough. I back trolled circles around boulders ripping the jigs,,,we managed 3 good box fish doing this. At noon we went in for lunch ( I never do that but they wanted to) and the client wants to take his boat out so he can punch in waypoints fished inthe morning. He has no Idea how to work his GPS so I agree and we go for a boat ride and I give him a few extra spots to fish thru the week. We did drop rigs down in a spot and managed to catch a couple dinks and a slot. It was very hot out today and was miserable on the water, flat calm and heat,,,not the most fun but we got some fish!
in that order