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The second tournament of the year featured 34 degrees on Saturday morning causing frozen rod locker lids for the 2 anglers that didn't cover their boats after a heavy Friday rain. The majority of the club camped at Streeters resort which was a bit wet because of the rain prior to the tournament and had locked restrooms with only a port a potty. Saturday morning dawned with 24 club members and 5 guests using 19 boats enduring 34 degree temperatures. Saturday was mostly overcast with water temperatures reported at around 56 - 58 degrees and mild winds during the day. Temperatures reached the mid 50's for the 3:30 weigh in. Only 1 limit was brought to the scales on Saturday and none on Sunday. Although several club members witnessed Larry Guck losing a 3+ pound fish out of his weigh in bag on Sunday as he tried to hold his fish and tie up his partners boat. That would have been the only limit on Sunday and also would have given the tournament victory to Larry. He may be a lock for Klutz of the Year with his Sunday dexterity. There were 5 or 6 fish weighed in with tails that looked like they had just begun the spawning process, but most fish were in pre spawn patterns. Several techniques worked on day 1 but not on day 2. Beavers, Senkos, jigs and spinner baits seemed the most productive techniques reported as working. Sunday saw 46 degree morning temperatures witd mild winds until a cold front came through at 10:00 am and the winds kicked up to 10 + MPH. Temperatures were in the mid 50's at the 1:30 pm Sunday weigh ins. Only Matt and Mike Peters produced similar results over the 2 days. Other anglers seemed to do well one day and not the other. When the tournament was over several people thought they should have won the tournament if they had just caught one more fish. Generally the weights were down from the last two years, which may have been caused by the cold weather, tournament pressure from the prior weekend and changing fishing patterns.
Winning the tournament with 13.11 pounds was Matt Peters. Matt was fishing as a guest with his brother Mike. Mike said, " We deviated quite a bit from the usual pattern of "flipping the red bushes". We located an area in the lake with water that was a bit clearer and the fish appeared to be a bit more active. We discovered quickly these fish spooked easily so we had to pull back off of the bank and "finesse" them with texas rigged weightless beavers and dead stick them in the pads. We lost 3 limits while fighting fish on Saturday. Chris Ferry helped us out and gave us some different hooks which made a world of difference. We didn't hook into nearly as many fish on Sunday but were able to land all but 4 of our fish. "
Finishing second with 12.02 pounds
was Jaymee Strasbaugh. Jaymee said, "I
caught all of my fish
flipping a Hematoma Sweat Beaver rigged with a glass bead and brass worm
weight with 20 lb. flourocarbon. I was flipping into very tight
cover on Saturday and Sunday I caught 2 fish flipping into the lilly
pads that had celery close by. Some fish hit it right when it hit
the water and others were called in by the bead and weight. I
threw a fog on Saturday and missed a fish that came out of the water
about 2 feet with the lure. This fish went about 3.5 lbs. and was
holding on a log. The fog bite will be on fire soon!".
Finishing in third place with 11.22 pounds anchored by a 5.75 pound
fish on day 1 was Joe Scheperle. He said, "I
caught all my keeper fish pitching a Guy Eakins jig [brown with black
] with a Paca craw trailer. They all came off of wood in about 2
feet of water on 15lb. test Fluorocarbon line."
Rounding out the top 5 was Gerald Dunn with 10.97 pounds. On Day 1
he caught fish on a texas rigged Beaver off of a dock, one fish on a
whire chatter bait and his fourth fish was on a Senko. He also
lost 2 more fish on Beavers. On Sunday he was only able to boat
one fish on a Beaver and lost 4 more out of heavy cover , lily pads or
docks.
Doug Jorgensen caught the big fish of the tournament day on Sunday, a 6.10 pound
fish caught a Reaction Innovations Beaver in the Pads. |
In
third place with 11.40 pounds was Chris Ferry. Chris caught the
only limit of the tournament on Saturday, but was unable to find keeper
fish on Sunday. Chris said, " I caught all of my fish on day one
on a Black and Blue jig with a black plastic trailer. No one area
was better than another. We covered lots of water with the
trolling motor and made lots of pitches into heavy cover. I
only caught 5 keepers that day and 3 short fish. My last keeper
was at around 2:15. The second day I fished the same types of stuff with
no success with the exception of 7 short fish on a senko."
