Our Bass club held our first tournament of the yaer on Bone Lake on Sunday. Unfortunatly I didn’t know until Saturday that I would be able to fish. With no prefishing I planned to cast crankbaits like a Bomber Fat A on outside weed edges, trying to key on coontail beds outside of spawing areas. If the water was warm enough I figured we would find fish on beds or cruising the inside weedlines. When we got to the ramp we were greeted with northeast winds, temps barely getting out of the 40’s, and nonstop rain.
We started on reed a spot my partner for the day knew of. On our way there I noticed we ran over a hump about 100 yards out from the reeds. We worked the wind blown reeds with a spinnerbait and an Outkast Stickworm. We managed one small bass that fell short of the 14" minimum length limit. As we headed to an out of the wind area, I drove back over the hump and gps’ed the spot to try later. Our second spot we tried was a weedy bay that produced a pike on a crankbait and that was it. While there we moved u to try some docks as well as a small cut. We managed 3 or 4 more short fish. With picking up some fish on docks we decided to try another stretch of docks on the main lake. Yet again we got more short fish. As we got to the point, there was a bouyed hump off the point and I noticed there seemed to be a saddle between to two areas. We worked this area and picked up 2 keepers that were 3+ lbs each. We kept working the area with only a coulpe more shorties.
We decided to leave the saddle and go try the hump we found earlier. The wind was blowing right into this area and it was pretty tough to hold on. On my first cast, again on a spinnerbait, we landed another 3lb fish. While we caught more short fish the rest of the day, we couldn’t manage another keeper. Fortunatly our 3 fish were just enough, by 1oz., to win on a tough day. Thanks to John for a great day on the water.
The second place team had 5 fish they caught on crankbaits on outside weed edges. The third place team caught 4 legal fish all on docks on stick worms and ring frys.
Nice report Mike. It sounds like my tourneys so far. THe bites from the keepers are few and far between but when you get them they’re worth it. What was the water emps that you were seeing?
With your club, do you guys determine the winner byt the boat’s overall weight or is it all individual?
A
Thanks for the report. I like to fish this area and was looking at doing a little bassing this weekend. From your observations, where are the bass in the spawning cyle?
Thanks
alphid,
Water temps were right around 55. There was a small channel that I hoped would be warmer, be with the cold rain it was acually only 51 at the end of the day. For our club each guy fishes for his own 5 fish. The non-boaters do have the right to run the boat for 4 hours, but rarly do they take the time. I usually have to “force” my partner for the day to run the boat. We also do a draw for partners. The only difference is the first tournament of the year we have 2 people per boat we fish that one as a team.
Fred,
The males were in the shallows, waiting for the feamles to come up. Every female we caught was full of eggs with no spawning marks on her body or tail. A couple nice days and watch out!!
Thanks Mike-
That basically how we do our club’s tourneys also. One thing that we have done and have seen it to be pretty successful is to have everyone chip in a couple bucks and the boat with the most weight get’s the pot. We see this as a way to help everyone in catching fish and brings a little more shared learning in the boat.
Where you heading for opener?
We’ve done the same calcuuta as well for the last 3 years. That was one of the first things I added when they voted me in as TD. I’ll be splitting my time between Tonka and Prior as I have 3 tournaments the following weekend.
hi Mike,
have always heard that Bone had very descent Bass, but have never tried it. did you see any Muskies while there, do you know if that fishing is descent enough to try a trip. thanks Jack.
No one caught a muskie, but we saw one and I know of 2 others that were seen. I heard that both Bonne and nearby Deer both have good muskies, with Deer having more but smaller fish. The guys that prefished bass on nice days did real well on 3lb plus fish. Had it been a warm sunny day, most believe it would have taken close to 15+lbs to be near the top.
You da man Mike.Great job in the tourney.
Ryan Hale