I have to say I’m having a perfect fishing season.Everytime I go it seems to storm on us! This week-end was no exception as Cole and I had a bass tourney on the Okoboji chain of water.This would be my first tourney with the FOM’s group.I really enjoyed the rules meeting and the friendly anglers who are part of FOM.This was also my oldest boy Cole’s first "big" tourney.
I don’t consider myself a very good bass angler as I’m a walleye guy at heart.It’s actually funny watching me pitching docks and cover.I rarely ever hit where I try to put the offering.The day started with rain,lighting,and strong winds.Send off was delayed by over a hour.Once we got on the water Cole and I had decided to try for some smallies.We dropped the camera down on a rocky point and found a nice school of smallies.After 2 hours of trying to get these fish to bite we finally gave up on them.It was hard to set on these fish for that long but I thought I could get them to go.Cole and I both agreed to leave these fish and go try to find some largemouth. We started to work docks and Cole put the first 3 bass of the day in the boat.We had a mini pattern working for us but the wind really started to blow and we could not fish the docks as well as we wanted to.
After we got out of the wind we started to catch many bass and even put 2 legal fish in the boat.We also had 4 more that were within a 1/4" of making that 15" mark.Very close to a limit!!! Cole and I were wacky worm rigging 6" Gulp! nightcrawlers and the bass were all over them.Many of these bass had a mouth full of minnows when we caught them.
Over all it was a great day on the water.Cole had to fish in some terrible conditions and he was a great tourney partner.I’m very proud of him-way to go Cole!!!! We finished in 8th place out of 21 teams.Cole said that wasn’t too bad for a couple of walleye guys!Here is Cole with our 2 legal fish.
Way to go you two sounds like you had a good time! Cole one of these days you will have to let the ol man catch a few keepers.
I suppose the new boat in a year or two will be a Ranger instead of another Alumacraft.
Again good work for you first tourney together!!
Glad to hear you guys had a good time. Everything I have heard about FOM Tourneys and about the group has been very positive.
Thanks, Bill
Good job Ryan an Cole
Forget the Ranger,if you wanna get bit ya need a Skeeter 
Way to go Cole and Ryan
you done good, I mean really good. I arrived in Spirt Lake a little after the time you finished the tourney, and having driven nearly 5 hours in the kind of wind and rain and … that you had to put up with, you done good 
It had to feel good to get off the water on Saturday.
P.S. You wouldn’t belive how calm the water got around midnight. We fished about 4 hours, and it was beautiful, now if I can just learn to catch fish. At least others I was with hooked a few. Hope to catch up with you guys sometime this summer.
dave
I didn’t get an e-mail so I came looking to see how you did. I’m glad to see you two had a good time. I thought about you when I rolled over at 7:00 and went back to sleep during the thunder storm.