Lura Lake Lunker Bass!

Nothing like getting on the water for the first time ever on a new lake for tournament day and weighing in over a 3-pound average!

That’s exactly what happened when I decided to try out Lura Lake this weekend. Located just south of Mankato and about 40 minutes northwest of Albert Lea, it’s a shallow, fertile lake of over 1,200 acres. It’s deepest spot is just nine feet, but the big bass love it!

The first two photos are of me and my high school buddy, Daryl Joens, after two tournament days at Lura. It was the first time I had ever been to the lake and just the second trip for Daryl. We finished fourth place on Saturday in the Ultimate Bass tournament with five fish weighing just under 18 lbs and followed that up on Sunday with a first place finish in the Midwest Sportsmen tournament with five fishing weighing 18.5 lbs.

We started our days catching a big fish both mornings throwing buzzbaits and once the sun came out and the wind picked up, we finished out our limits throwing Team Supreme swim jigs and 5-inch TS subworms. The water is very stained, so darker colors seemed to work best. The lake doesn’t have much depth and only about ten docks on the entire shoreline, but plenty of great wood and weeds in the water. We found most of our fish very shallow, only in 2 feet or less.

Every bass, including the 12-inchers, are extremely healthy… fat as footballs and eager to bite. Lura Lake doesn’t see much fishing pressure because it’s out in the middle of nowhere with mainly farmland along its shores.

I was surprised to see, despite 76 degree water temps, a few bass were still bedding in the sand. We couldn’t get them to bite, but heard of several anglers who did get bass off of beds. Hard to believe this late in the year and with such a warm spring.

Also a lesson on the “Ike” motto of “never give up”… we caught our biggest fish on Sunday with just ten minutes to spare before weigh-in. I caught a 4.5 lber, our biggest of the weekend, on nearly the last cast! It was in an area that we’d been pounding back and forth all day. Just goes to show.. Ike was right, Never Give Up!

Needless to say, I’ve found another new lake in southern minnesota that I love. I’ll be back again very soon!!!!!!!!!!!!