Prior Lake

Day 3 of the Pro/Am was held on Prior Lake. The top 20 Pros and Ams took off from Captain Jacks at 7am. Even though Prior is a good size lake, it can fish rather small. Since my partner and I were boat #19, I figured I wouldn’t get to start on my prime spot. This in fact proved to be the case. There were 3 boats in the general area I wanted to start, so off to plan "B". We next moved to a weed point that was boatless. I started by pitching jigs in the milfoil with no success. Off the end of the point there was some rocks that led out to sand saddle. We worked this area with a Touchdown Jig, but again nothing.

Once we reached the other end of the saddle we finally got our first fish, a good solid 3lber. This fish came on a carolina rig in 14′ of water that had a gravel bottom. So did the next one, and so on, and so on. By 10am we we had a 6 fish limit that weighed just over 17lbs. The #1 bait was a 4" Orange Craw Stickworm worked with a Carolina Rig. We also used flourocarbon leaders which I think made a big difference. The bites were very light. It was actually difficult to tell the difference between a bass and a bluegill. Over the next few hours we managed to slowly upgrade our fish. In fact we never left the spot. By days end we weighed 6 fish at 20.27lbs and managed a sith place finish.

I need to say a big thanks to Mike Dahl, owner of Outkast Tackle. He fishes Prior quite a bit, and gave me 4 gps spots to check out. Before the tournament on Saturday I hadn’t been on Prior since the opening day of the bass season this year. You have to go back 4 years to my previous visit. Without his help there is no way I could have done it.