Thanks for throwing some of your insights toward us weekend fishermen. Even though it is my home water I have been stuggling and I think I get stuck in a rut of “what was working last week” . It’s good to know that there are nice fish to be had. I’ve never seen the fishery better and each of the last 4 or 5 years have been increasingly the best I’ve had . Thanks again for letting us know what worked for you and good job .

Either of you care to share a little of how your bite went(of course not locations)? I’m struggling now and blaming it on all of the baitfish available to the bass . Did you both lock up or stay aroung PdC?

BTW my father-in-law has his pontoon at the weigh-in site and has seen about a dozen dead bass the last two days. Did they release some in the slough this year?

Fill us in on how you do. We’re going up on the 28th for a week. In the past I have done well fishing near the bottom for big bluegills and crappies using leaches. Sometimes drifting over submerged vegetation. Most of my bass seem to relate heavily to some type of sturcture or cover.

I have several Curados and like them a lot, but don’t like the new price tag on them. I also have two Basspro Rick Clunn reels that I really like and a Johnny Morris that I like. I use the newer Rick Clunn almost 1/2 of the time. I see they have a new model for this year. I bought my son a Cabela’s Prodigy last spring on sale and he had good luck with it. It is a very smooth reel for the $. The Podigy and Clunn’s are less than $100 and IMHO well worth looking at.

Put me in, coach!!!

Go north on hwy 35/18 through two stop lights and turn left on Washington St. Go over the bridge past the marina and turn right to go to the landing. They still charge for using the landing.

Went out for a few hours on Sunday morning. Pretty slow. Tried working crankbaits and plasics on some nice main channel side current areas, but the wind was howling pretty good. Did manage a couple of decent keepers. It was cold! Went into a usually productive running slough with currentand wood and only got a couple of dinks. The main channel has a lot of flow(especially for this time of year) and lots of grass. It’s hard to keep the green stuff off your line and lure. Good luck. Post how you end up doing. I think the afternoon bite could be pretty strong. I’m planning on going out later in the day on Sunday.

Fishing was tough, but 16 and 17 pound sacks are nothing to sneeze at. I caught two keepers and ended up right behind Slopbass at 32nd. My brother-in-law made the cut with 3 bass at 7lbs 5oz and fished with Jeff Ritter on day two. He then only caught one more keeper, but moved up to 15th. I did catch a lot of short fish and a few huge strippers . Had a fun time and saw a few of the regulars from the site as well.

I’m there as a non-boater too.

I agree with the other posts. Very few takers and not much size in the slop (all on frogs or poppers in sparse weeds). I wonder if the heavy fish fly hatch has anything to do with it. Fished Sunday morning and most of today. Best fish came off rocks with current, almost all largemouths both days. There is some nice weed growth, but definitley not as much as some years.

I couldn’t agree more!

I went for the first time last year and we did really well with crawlers in a worm harness with a 1/8 ounce walking weight and 2-3 foot leader. Where are you going? We went to Lake of the Woods near Souix Narrows. Want to go back badly, but my kids would miss too many ball games.

Thanks Dave. Going to get out this weekend.

My biggest concren on the water is safety. Why is it illegal to run the rollers? How unsafe is it? Last year at a BFL as we locked up stream and the lock started to close a boat snuck in and the lockmaster went beserk . He wrote down the tags and I’m sure a huge fine was handed out.

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.

Good job and good post, CRBasser! I can’t blame you at all on the locking back down. There’s nothing worse than having a good limit and being locked out.

JC, Let us know how it turns out when you can. I talked to several of the participants yesterday at The Barn, pretty mixed results. Either they were on fish or they weren’t. I heard of a couple very big smallies one of which is in Cabela’s tank now.

I’m looking for a boater too.

I’ll be fishing both LaCrosse tournaments and the Prairie one. I don’t have a confirmation on the first LaCrosse on yet though

I’m a pool 9er.

I’m not sure about the night bite, but this morning was not good for me. We went up around 7 and there were only 2 other boats and a handful of people on the float. I marked fish on the depth finder and had a couple of missed hits, but we only caught one small smallie. Made about 5 controlled drifts near and below the float. The other guys fished the same areas and then tucked in close to the dam by the east wall, I don’t know how they fared there. The water was pretty clean and the temp was from 45 to 47 degrees.

Here is another article on Tom Monsoor. http://www.insideline.net/articles/monsoor2.htm. Once again it is pretty infomative. When I have swam jigs it has been mostly around heavy cover up in the water column and the fish have hammered it. I have mostly just swept the rod and cranked steadily and have not missed very many if I was paying attention, which isn’t always the case . Why is it they seem to know when I’m resetting the speed on the trolling motor or helping net a fish?

If anyone with a boat needs a partner for this shoot me a PM. Basspack

Did anyone see the interview with Monsoor in BassDozer’s newsletter? I just got it yesterday. I just started swimming jigs over lilly pads last summer, it can be exposive. I went into a back slough south of Prairie that I had to hold my trolling motor up to get into and the bass hammer the jig cast after cast. A couple of weeks later all I got in there was doggies

I agree great conversation. A year and a half ago I went to Bass University in Chicago (it was really good) and several guys from the Chicago area talked about how they had put guys on fish at the Classic there. It sounded like the pros that had “help” really relied on these guys. They even poked fun at one of the guys that didn’t help the pro that asked him for help. Now I’m not condemning the practice, but I think it would make for more interesting and competitive tournaments.

I work at the Barn for bigger events and weddings and worked at the banquet that night. As the night went on the loft did get VERY smokey. I kept telling everyone that something wasn’t right and had the manager call the owner. He thought it was just not getting a good draft. I even went outside to see if smoke was going up the chimney and it seemed to be. After we sent everyone down stairs I put the fire out in the fireplace and the smoke was getting really bad. I went outside again and flames were shooting out of the wood that covers the chimney! We ran back in and told everyone to get out and called the fire dept. Then we ran a hose out there and I played junior fireman to the cheers of the walleye guys . It was an interesting night to say the least. The fireman is ok, just felt faint. Luckily we caught it before there was major damage and most of the water went into the fireplace well in the lower level. They were open that week and I worked last weekend. I felt terrible for how hot it got at the banquet and for them having to go outside. I hope you all enjoyed your stay a PdC. It sure sounded like a tough overall bite that week.

I went out Saturday morning on pool 10 for about an hour and a half (soccer games ) and hit a few decent bass between 13 and 17 inches. Still working the crankbaits in down timber. Had something HUGE hit next to a log in a running slough and it literally pulled the boat around without me being able to turn it at all. I pounded back a couple of times to try to set the hooks well, but it worked toward another down tree and got off . I never even got a glimpse of what it was . Big northern?, sheepie?, huge bass? That’s what keeps me pounding the water!

I won’t be able to make it . Too many other things going on in the AM and I have to work at 4:00. Have a good time and hammer some big ones for me. I plan on getting out for a couple of hours out of Prairie right in the morning though. Make sure you post how everyone does.

I’m in. Thanks for the giveaways

I’d like to be in it. I’ll have to check my schedule when I get home. I know I have to work my second job that night, but I can’t remember what time. I’d also miss my kids soccer games, but I deserve a day off, cause I’ve been good . I’d need to hook up with a partner if I can.