The Westonka Bass Club held its 5th tournament of the year on Shileds Lake. This tournament was our Suprise Tournament with only the tournament director knowing the lake until that morning. It was fortunate for me since it worked out that I had at least been on the lake fishing before, even if it wasn’t for bass, but had a pretty good layout of the lake in my memory. When we got to the access there was a pretty strong southerly wind that blew most of the day. We also noticed right away that there was a heavy algea bloom going on as well as the water on the north shore was thick and green. We started the day by fishing the north side of the island tight to the shoreline and my partner and I each managed to boat a keeper bass. All our bass this day came on Texas rigged Stickworms from Outkast Tackle or Ring Fries from Lakefork. After we worked the shallow we tried moving out deeper in the same area to see if we could find some green wedd to crankbait but found none. In fact, we didn’t find what I would consider any quality green weed anywhere in the lake.
We next moved to the middle of the east shore and worked the docks south. There my partner got 1 fish while I managed to pick up 3 more fish, including my big fish, by working the docks. We worked south until we ran out of docks and than began casting to the edges of the reeds. Once we reached the reeds Doug and I each got another keeper. The neat thing was we actually saw each of these fish boil before we were in casting distance, and once in range were able to hook them. We tried a few other areas with no luck other than maybe a few small fish. At about noon we hit another stretch of docks on the east shore and Doug was able to get his big fish at over 5lbs. The docks by the access yielded me one more fish allowing me to cull one that was just barely legal.
Congrats goes out to Dave for winning with a big bag. He was able to get a 3lb fish early and than later in the day happened to drive over an area that read as a real hard bottom on his depth finder. In 4 casts he was able to catch 4 fish on the rocks he had found. 2 of the fish were over 5lbs, including big fish at 5lb 10oz, and weighed in all 5 for over 19lbs. Great job. Just goes to prove that you need to pay attention to your electronics at all times.
Excellent report Mike! Your reading kept me glued the entire report.
Care to share how Dave caught those deep rock fish?
Great report Mike, sounds like some nice fish. So explain how you are informed about the surprise lake? Do you all meet somewhere then get the name of lake? Sounds like a very interesting format!! Congrats on your 3rd place finish.
Steve,
I believe he was using a skirted twintail grub on a football jig. It is typically a big fis bait that we use quite a bit on lakes like Tonka and Prior when looking for the big girls.
Waterfowler,
We all meet somewhere for breakfast that morning and the tournament director tells us then where we are going. Its fun to throw 1 in each year. Last year when I was the TD I did 2, 1 in the summer and another in the fall and both were a blast.
Great report Mike. Really nice to get such a great report from a southern lake so close to home so to speak. Just goes to show that there is good fishing in lakes that aren’t well known bass lakes.
Thanks, Bill
GOOD REPORT Mike,
nice to see some quality fish showing up this early Fall. it is fun to hit a new lake and get some solid fish. have a good Fall.
Jack..