Nicks Bass Blog
http://blog.crankituppro.com
Nicks Bass Blog
Mississippi pool 2
POOL 2
May 5th,2012
I headed to the Mississippi river pool 2 with the Ranger boat in-tow, today my guest is Ryan Ploof, he is a young guy that I work with and who just joined the bass club I belong too, the Renegade Bassers. We got the river early and launched the boat and made our trek south and pulled way back into some backwaters where I had caught some largemouth bass pretty good not to long ago. We finally got to where I wanted to start and I made the comment of we might be only ones back here, because we 4x4'ed it quite a ways and no sooner a boat comes around the bend and then another I notice fishing far off. I guess us bass guys are pretty diehard, well it didn't take long and I caught a small 12" largemouth and then another about the same size so I made the remark to Ryan that I'm on hawgs
The weather is starting to get pretty gloomy out, but the forecast was just for maybe some spotty showers and the weathermen are never wrong.
A boat came around the bend and asked if we had radar because a big system was due to hit in about 1/2 hour, we decided to continue fishing and just like that I felt a bite and set the hook into a decent fish and flipped her into the boat after a good tussle.
Shortly after landing this fish it started to rain and we heard some thunder of in the distance so we both threw on our raingear and started to fish our way back towards the main river, it started raining so hard and long that my auto bilge kept kicking on to pump the water back out of the boat. We fished hard for a couple of hours in this stormy weather with know more fish to show, by now I am soaked and yes my raingear sucks I defiantly need some new stuff. Well the persistence paid off cause I whacked this nice fish on a Berkley Havoc Smash Tube in black and blue.
And that was the last fish of the day, we did run back towards the launch and try another spot but the wind was roaring down the cut we were in and blowing a reverse bend in my M/H heavy rod so I would never know if I had a bite or not so we said screw it and went home.
May 5th,2012
I headed to the Mississippi river pool 2 with the Ranger boat in-tow, today my guest is Ryan Ploof, he is a young guy that I work with and who just joined the bass club I belong too, the Renegade Bassers. We got the river early and launched the boat and made our trek south and pulled way back into some backwaters where I had caught some largemouth bass pretty good not to long ago. We finally got to where I wanted to start and I made the comment of we might be only ones back here, because we 4x4'ed it quite a ways and no sooner a boat comes around the bend and then another I notice fishing far off. I guess us bass guys are pretty diehard, well it didn't take long and I caught a small 12" largemouth and then another about the same size so I made the remark to Ryan that I'm on hawgs
The weather is starting to get pretty gloomy out, but the forecast was just for maybe some spotty showers and the weathermen are never wrong.
A boat came around the bend and asked if we had radar because a big system was due to hit in about 1/2 hour, we decided to continue fishing and just like that I felt a bite and set the hook into a decent fish and flipped her into the boat after a good tussle.
Shortly after landing this fish it started to rain and we heard some thunder of in the distance so we both threw on our raingear and started to fish our way back towards the main river, it started raining so hard and long that my auto bilge kept kicking on to pump the water back out of the boat. We fished hard for a couple of hours in this stormy weather with know more fish to show, by now I am soaked and yes my raingear sucks I defiantly need some new stuff. Well the persistence paid off cause I whacked this nice fish on a Berkley Havoc Smash Tube in black and blue.
And that was the last fish of the day, we did run back towards the launch and try another spot but the wind was roaring down the cut we were in and blowing a reverse bend in my M/H heavy rod so I would never know if I had a bite or not so we said screw it and went home.
Pool 2 Mississippi
I got out fishing last Sat. April 14th down on pool 2 on the Mississippi which is catch and release year round. My buddy Mike and I meet 5 other guys(4 boats including mine) from the Renegade Bassers. We all took off with intentions of meeting back at the landing at 3pm and recapping the day. As Mike and I flew to our starting spot and began fishing in a chute off the main river channel we noticed Darin and Ryan slide up a another chute that lead to the same area and we both worked our way through fishing each side of the back channel and after a bit Darin caught the first fish a small largemouth on a jig, almost immediately after Mike whispers to me that he just had a bite and it came off, he wanted badly to land it to get back at Darin for catching one right next to use . Well we worked a ways farther and didn't have anymore action so we just kept going then Mike caught a big Crappie on a beetlespin so we worked around some more to see if he could pick up some more but that was it, not knowing this area of the river we kept going forward which showed a large backwater lake. By the time I figured out that it the whole thing was super shallow it was too late to turn around so about an hour later of idling along and hitting every damn submerged tree back there(busted my trolling motor transducer completely off :/ ) we finally were able to cut over to the main channel.
It is finally warming up so we shed our layers and were now in t-shirt, shorts and flip flops and we are now way back in a slough fishing and I set the hook on a big fish along a riprap wall and a big walleye of 7-8lb's rolls on the surface and comes off, stupid fish bit a Reaction Innovations Kinky Beaver in my favorite color Dirty Sanchez(LOL). We kept hearing an Eagle screech and then noticed we were near a nest.
. Well we worked a ways farther and didn't have anymore action so we just kept going then Mike caught a big Crappie on a beetlespin so we worked around some more to see if he could pick up some more but that was it, not knowing this area of the river we kept going forward which showed a large backwater lake. By the time I figured out that it the whole thing was super shallow it was too late to turn around so about an hour later of idling along and hitting every damn submerged tree back there(busted my trolling motor transducer completely off :/ ) we finally were able to cut over to the main channel.It is finally warming up so we shed our layers and were now in t-shirt, shorts and flip flops and we are now way back in a slough fishing and I set the hook on a big fish along a riprap wall and a big walleye of 7-8lb's rolls on the surface and comes off, stupid fish bit a Reaction Innovations Kinky Beaver in my favorite color Dirty Sanchez(LOL). We kept hearing an Eagle screech and then noticed we were near a nest.
After we came out of the bay I noticed I missed a phone call and had a message, It was from one of the guys and apparently we missed meeting back at the landing as it was now 3:30 and we were a good hour away "OOPS" so we continued to plow forward and keep fishing since we finally started to catch some fish. As we came to an outside bend where the water dropped off we must have whacked 20 fish on texas rigged plastics most in the 1 to 2-1/2lb range and we both lost a fish over 3. Instead of searching farther on I decided to make another pass through the bend but only picked up maybe 2 more, all in all it turned out to be a good day on the river.
Renegade Bassers Coon Lake 2011
COON LAKE 2011 Renegade Bassers
09/11/11
It's now early Sunday morning and had a whole one day off to rest after the long state tournament week and now back at it. One plus is were on Coon Lake and its close to home and I know the lake well, so it's not that big of a deal that I got no practice time in. I was fishing alone today so if things start to go bad I have know one else's spot's to fall back on, which normally I like but with some pre-fishing involved I started in an area that holds some really big fish on it at times, I fished through it pretty thoroughly and only managed one small keeper. I then moved father into the deep bay and started to throw a Swamp Donkey(hollowbelly frog) way up into the sloppy shallows and after a bit I had gotten a "Gynormous" blow up, but the fish missed it completely as I was shaking I quickly picked up a heavy jig and fired it right to the toilet flush and instantly my Secret Lures MVP jig got smoked and I hammered back hard. I thought I had giant on, this fish was heavy and throwing water,weeds and algae all over the place and when I finally got to the boat and say it my heart sank. It was a big 8lb Pike that caused all that, man what a let down but I unhooked the pike and thought about moving and trying something else but I stayed and on the 3rd or 4th cast had another blow-up and horsed a 3lb pound largemouth into the Ranger boat. Glad I stayed because I boxed an ok limit of fish there and then relaxed and started running my other spots that tend to produce at times looking for some really big fish. I had one about 4 to 4-1/2 and the 3lb'er with a couple of 2's and that first little one.
I fished my butt off the rest of the day but could not really upgrade my catch, I did have a good fish come unbuttoned from a tube up under a pontoon so that one ended up costing me a nice cull. I did manage to cull the dink but did not gain much weight at all so that was a little disappointing and now it is time to go back to the launch and see how everyone did. I ended up weighing 5 fish for 11.40lb's and came in 4th place and my good friend and fellow Leena Lures co-hort Chris Asbeck won the tournament with 16.13lb's "awesome dude" this was actually his third win of the year and he crushed everyone for Angler Of the Year.
09/11/11
It's now early Sunday morning and had a whole one day off to rest after the long state tournament week and now back at it. One plus is were on Coon Lake and its close to home and I know the lake well, so it's not that big of a deal that I got no practice time in. I was fishing alone today so if things start to go bad I have know one else's spot's to fall back on, which normally I like but with some pre-fishing involved
I started in an area that holds some really big fish on it at times, I fished through it pretty thoroughly and only managed one small keeper. I then moved father into the deep bay and started to throw a Swamp Donkey(hollowbelly frog) way up into the sloppy shallows and after a bit I had gotten a "Gynormous" blow up, but the fish missed it completely as I was shaking I quickly picked up a heavy jig and fired it right to the toilet flush and instantly my Secret Lures MVP jig got smoked and I hammered back hard. I thought I had giant on, this fish was heavy and throwing water,weeds and algae all over the place and when I finally got to the boat and say it my heart sank. It was a big 8lb Pike that caused all that, man what a let down but I unhooked the pike and thought about moving and trying something else but I stayed and on the 3rd or 4th cast had another blow-up and horsed a 3lb pound largemouth into the Ranger boat. Glad I stayed because I boxed an ok limit of fish there and then relaxed and started running my other spots that tend to produce at times looking for some really big fish. I had one about 4 to 4-1/2 and the 3lb'er with a couple of 2's and that first little one.I fished my butt off the rest of the day but could not really upgrade my catch, I did have a good fish come unbuttoned from a tube up under a pontoon so that one ended up costing me a nice cull. I did manage to cull the dink but did not gain much weight at all so that was a little disappointing and now it is time to go back to the launch and see how everyone did. I ended up weighing 5 fish for 11.40lb's and came in 4th place and my good friend and fellow Leena Lures co-hort Chris Asbeck won the tournament with 16.13lb's "awesome dude" this was actually his third win of the year and he crushed everyone for Angler Of the Year.
2011 MN STATE BASS TOURNAMENT
2012 State TOC
Whitefish Chain
Sept.3-9th 2011
Well it's that time again the tournament of champions for the MN State B.A.S.S. Federation Nation, this year the is a total of 160 anglers that have qualified to fish this year through their club tourneys. I am pretty excited for this one as I have fished quite a bit up here on Whitefish this year and feel like I got a good feel for what needs to be done for a good finish. My practice was decent and am ready for the next two days of competition. It's Thursday morning and the Renegade Bassers(my club) got to the landing extra early and launched our boats and hung out under the stars for about an hour before any other competitors started to show up at this boat ramp. we all took off and made the run to Moonlight Bay where the take-off and weigh-in are being held.
Justin Goss from Brainerd Lakes was fishing out of my Ranger boat today and we hit it off right away, which is always good makes for a enjoyable day even if the catching part doesn't go as planned. We mixed up fishing both of our best areas through out the day and both caught some average sized fish, Justin did manage to catch a real nice smallmouth bass that really helped him since somehow he couldn't catch his 5th keeper. We had a great time fishing together but neither one of us finished the day were we wanted to. I weighed in 5 fish for 8.74lb's and was sitting in 75th place while Justin weighed 4 fish for 7.69lb's and was in 91st. The only hope the Renegade Bassers had going were Guy Knudson was sitting in 6th place with 13.41lb's and John Pozarski was in 9th with 12.76lb's which is awesome.
Day 2 and we arrived early again and made our way over too Moonlight Bay and tied up the boats. Today I was paired up with Jerry Hawke from the Bass Wranglers club he had more weight than I did after day one which usually means I would be fishing out of his boat but he was his clubs guaranteed non-boater so we were using my boat. We started the day on one of Jerry's spots that he said held some big Largemouth's in practice, they must of moved because we caught nothing. We then fished around and I started to catch some fish on a Reaction Innovations Swamp Donkey and a jig, Jerry made a comment that it was too hard for him to fish effectively behind me as I was kind of vacuuming up any fish willing to bite. I didn't know what else to do because I surely was not front ending him in anyway(I wouldn't do that because I hate when that happens) the only thing I can think of was that I was fishing fast and very efficiently hitting as many good looking spots that presented itself. Well him saying that really flustered me and I lost any mojo I had going, we ended up moving and it got very slow catching wise and I tried to let his comment go and have a decent rest of the day which we did but it was still in the back of my head. We started running to a bunch of my spots trying to pick up some bigger fish but I couldn't upgrade at all and I think Jerry only had 1 or 2 small fish. I mad a decision to camp on a big breakline I found in practice out on the mainlake of middle Whitefish and in no time we both hooked up with a double but of coarse mine was a pike and Jerry caught a nice Largemouth, over the next 3 hours Jerry put three real nice fish in the boat and I might have made one small cull. It is the end of the day and we had a long ride back to the weigh-in so we left a little early to make sure we had enough time. Jerry ended up weighing in 12.01lb's and came in 18th out of 160 for the tournament. I weighed in 7.69lb's and finished in 85th. Oh well thats what happens when people catch the bigger fish off your spots.
Guy Knudson ended up finishing in 19th place and John Pozarski came in 22nd great job guys and for the rest of the Renegade Bassers better step it up next year
Whitefish Chain
Sept.3-9th 2011
Well it's that time again the tournament of champions for the MN State B.A.S.S. Federation Nation, this year the is a total of 160 anglers that have qualified to fish this year through their club tourneys. I am pretty excited for this one as I have fished quite a bit up here on Whitefish this year and feel like I got a good feel for what needs to be done for a good finish. My practice was decent and am ready for the next two days of competition. It's Thursday morning and the Renegade Bassers(my club) got to the landing extra early and launched our boats and hung out under the stars for about an hour before any other competitors started to show up at this boat ramp. we all took off and made the run to Moonlight Bay where the take-off and weigh-in are being held.
Justin Goss from Brainerd Lakes was fishing out of my Ranger boat today and we hit it off right away, which is always good makes for a enjoyable day even if the catching part doesn't go as planned. We mixed up fishing both of our best areas through out the day and both caught some average sized fish, Justin did manage to catch a real nice smallmouth bass that really helped him since somehow he couldn't catch his 5th keeper. We had a great time fishing together but neither one of us finished the day were we wanted to. I weighed in 5 fish for 8.74lb's and was sitting in 75th place while Justin weighed 4 fish for 7.69lb's and was in 91st. The only hope the Renegade Bassers had going were Guy Knudson was sitting in 6th place with 13.41lb's and John Pozarski was in 9th with 12.76lb's which is awesome.
Day 2 and we arrived early again and made our way over too Moonlight Bay and tied up the boats. Today I was paired up with Jerry Hawke from the Bass Wranglers club he had more weight than I did after day one which usually means I would be fishing out of his boat but he was his clubs guaranteed non-boater so we were using my boat. We started the day on one of Jerry's spots that he said held some big Largemouth's in practice, they must of moved because we caught nothing. We then fished around and I started to catch some fish on a Reaction Innovations Swamp Donkey and a jig, Jerry made a comment that it was too hard for him to fish effectively behind me as I was kind of vacuuming up any fish willing to bite. I didn't know what else to do because I surely was not front ending him in anyway(I wouldn't do that because I hate when that happens) the only thing I can think of was that I was fishing fast and very efficiently hitting as many good looking spots that presented itself. Well him saying that really flustered me and I lost any mojo I had going, we ended up moving and it got very slow catching wise and I tried to let his comment go and have a decent rest of the day which we did but it was still in the back of my head. We started running to a bunch of my spots trying to pick up some bigger fish but I couldn't upgrade at all and I think Jerry only had 1 or 2 small fish. I mad a decision to camp on a big breakline I found in practice out on the mainlake of middle Whitefish and in no time we both hooked up with a double but of coarse mine was a pike and Jerry caught a nice Largemouth, over the next 3 hours Jerry put three real nice fish in the boat and I might have made one small cull. It is the end of the day and we had a long ride back to the weigh-in so we left a little early to make sure we had enough time. Jerry ended up weighing in 12.01lb's and came in 18th out of 160 for the tournament. I weighed in 7.69lb's and finished in 85th. Oh well thats what happens when people catch the bigger fish off your spots.
Guy Knudson ended up finishing in 19th place and John Pozarski came in 22nd great job guys and for the rest of the Renegade Bassers better step it up next year
Amateur Bass Series Lake Koronis/Rice
Amateur Bass Series Lake Koronis/Rice
8/28/11
It is Friday night and Jerry Fist(hahaha) I mean Jenny Fisk I drove up to her dad's cabin on Lake Koronis, Tagging along on this trip is Spud and Nigel her awesome Pitbulls. We got settled in and crashed in hopes of getting an early start to our only day of prefishing, this didn't happen and when we made it to the landing it was full of trailers as there was a multi-species tournament going on, and the DNR was there and stopped and talked to Jen and I for about 10 minutes, what a cool nice guy. He told us about another small ramp on the other side of the lake and we went there and put in, I ran to a spot a fellow club member told me to try as he had won a tourney their before, we fished the heck out of this area to no avail and then I started running some of my areas after that to try and get a feel for what the fish might be doing. My first area we hit was not hopping either so we expanded farther down while Jen was throwing a Leena Lures buzzbait over the weedtops and as the weedline started to swing in close to shore out of nowhere I heard a huge splash and I turned my head to see Jen's rod doubled over and then a big smallmouth launched out of the water and when she finally got it close to the boat the fish jumped again and dang near landed in the back of the boat but I quickly slid the net underit lifted in a nice 3-1/4'lb smallmouth bass, as she lifted it out of the net a group of onlookers all started clapping and cheering for her, if you guys could have seen the smile on her face at that moment(priceless) thats what it's all about. Today's practice has been really tough going other than Jen's smallmouth and some small largemouth I caught, we were running out of time quickly so I decided to try some topwater frog fishing in the slop and right away I caught a fish of about 2'lb's or so and a bit later Jen had a huge boil on her frog, thats good though by not hooking it for the tournament. At the end of the slop I was caught off guard daydreaming or something and I had a fish blowup on my frog and I tried not to set the hook in hopes of the fish spitting it back out for tomorrow but it hooked itself and I reeled in a 3'lb bass and released it. Knowing this might be what we have to do tomorrow I got out of their and went to one more spot that has held some nice smallies in previous trips. After Jen caught a small largemouth on a spinnerbait I finally got a bite on a texas rigged tube and hammered the rod back and fought a nice 3+ lb smallmouth into the boat.
It is now tournament day and I am going to make this short, we did not have a good day compared to most of the other anglers. We tried everything we had and couldn't get but a couple of small largemouth and we spent allot of time doing it, I finally ended up doing something I don't like too do but when I need some fish quick I will go and fish docks, this is my own downfall since lots of guys will only fish docks and do great often. Anyways I started whacking fish left and right and we filled our limit of 6 fish and was even culling a bunch of times and Jen even caught a couple of the docks but they were small and didn't help. Time to go weigh-in and just as we got back to the launch it started to rain so we had to bundle up in the raingear for the weigh-in. I bagged up all of our fish, so I thought and brought them up to weigh and ended up only grabbing 5 of the 6 fish, most limits are 5 so it didn't even click until after I weighed them. Jen and I weighed a measly 11.44 pounds for 5 fish and 1st place had 24.48'lb's and their was a number of bags over 18lb's our 6th fish would not have mattered I did find out that all of the big bags came out of Rice lake, never even gave that an option oops. I was pissed with my performance and strapped down the boat and hurried up out of there to get back to the cabin. As I pulled onto the highway I immediately got pulled over by guess who? yep the same DNR officer and his partner, I was so upset with my day that I didn't make sure all of the weeds were cleaned of the trailer and I also forgot to pull my plug two big NO-NO's and as the officer was sternly talking to me and pointing out weeds to take off I noticed I also didn't open up my livewell valve to drain them. I sneakily turned the valve and more water started to come out the back of the boat and this guys partner asked me if I just drained my livewell and I said WHAT no thats from pulling my plug and the main officer told him the same thing(hehehe I'm so sneaky). Anyways they thankfully just wrote me up with warnings and let us go. Thank You to the DNR lesson learned and a big THANK YOU to Jen's dad for letting us use the cabin for the weekend I owe you a day of fishing if you want it.
8/28/11
It is Friday night and Jerry Fist(hahaha) I mean Jenny Fisk I drove up to her dad's cabin on Lake Koronis, Tagging along on this trip is Spud and Nigel her awesome Pitbulls. We got settled in and crashed in hopes of getting an early start to our only day of prefishing, this didn't happen and when we made it to the landing it was full of trailers as there was a multi-species tournament going on, and the DNR was there and stopped and talked to Jen and I for about 10 minutes, what a cool nice guy. He told us about another small ramp on the other side of the lake and we went there and put in, I ran to a spot a fellow club member told me to try as he had won a tourney their before, we fished the heck out of this area to no avail and then I started running some of my areas after that to try and get a feel for what the fish might be doing. My first area we hit was not hopping either so we expanded farther down while Jen was throwing a Leena Lures buzzbait over the weedtops and as the weedline started to swing in close to shore out of nowhere I heard a huge splash and I turned my head to see Jen's rod doubled over and then a big smallmouth launched out of the water and when she finally got it close to the boat the fish jumped again and dang near landed in the back of the boat but I quickly slid the net underit lifted in a nice 3-1/4'lb smallmouth bass, as she lifted it out of the net a group of onlookers all started clapping and cheering for her, if you guys could have seen the smile on her face at that moment(priceless) thats what it's all about. Today's practice has been really tough going other than Jen's smallmouth and some small largemouth I caught, we were running out of time quickly so I decided to try some topwater frog fishing in the slop and right away I caught a fish of about 2'lb's or so and a bit later Jen had a huge boil on her frog, thats good though by not hooking it for the tournament. At the end of the slop I was caught off guard daydreaming or something and I had a fish blowup on my frog and I tried not to set the hook in hopes of the fish spitting it back out for tomorrow but it hooked itself and I reeled in a 3'lb bass and released it. Knowing this might be what we have to do tomorrow I got out of their and went to one more spot that has held some nice smallies in previous trips. After Jen caught a small largemouth on a spinnerbait I finally got a bite on a texas rigged tube and hammered the rod back and fought a nice 3+ lb smallmouth into the boat.
It is now tournament day and I am going to make this short, we did not have a good day compared to most of the other anglers. We tried everything we had and couldn't get but a couple of small largemouth and we spent allot of time doing it, I finally ended up doing something I don't like too do but when I need some fish quick I will go and fish docks, this is my own downfall since lots of guys will only fish docks and do great often. Anyways I started whacking fish left and right and we filled our limit of 6 fish and was even culling a bunch of times and Jen even caught a couple of the docks but they were small and didn't help. Time to go weigh-in and just as we got back to the launch it started to rain so we had to bundle up in the raingear for the weigh-in. I bagged up all of our fish, so I thought and brought them up to weigh and ended up only grabbing 5 of the 6 fish, most limits are 5 so it didn't even click until after I weighed them. Jen and I weighed a measly 11.44 pounds for 5 fish and 1st place had 24.48'lb's and their was a number of bags over 18lb's our 6th fish would not have mattered I did find out that all of the big bags came out of Rice lake, never even gave that an option oops. I was pissed with my performance and strapped down the boat and hurried up out of there to get back to the cabin. As I pulled onto the highway I immediately got pulled over by guess who? yep the same DNR officer and his partner, I was so upset with my day that I didn't make sure all of the weeds were cleaned of the trailer and I also forgot to pull my plug two big NO-NO's and as the officer was sternly talking to me and pointing out weeds to take off I noticed I also didn't open up my livewell valve to drain them. I sneakily turned the valve and more water started to come out the back of the boat and this guys partner asked me if I just drained my livewell and I said WHAT no thats from pulling my plug and the main officer told him the same thing(hehehe I'm so sneaky). Anyways they thankfully just wrote me up with warnings and let us go. Thank You to the DNR lesson learned and a big THANK YOU to Jen's dad for letting us use the cabin for the weekend I owe you a day of fishing if you want it.
Renegade Bassers Pokegama Lake
Renegade Bassers
Pokegama Lake 8/20/2012
Our club the Renegade Bassers normally has one out of town tournament that we fish two days on, we already had ours this year but everybody loves Pokegama Lake that we decided too fish this lake again this year so we are having two out of towners this year. I drove up Fri. morning and hit the lake at sunrise and began my practice. It was pretty dang windy out already, my first spot I hit was a deep weedline and I did manage to get a nice follow by a big smallmouth but that was it here so I moved up to a big point and started working that with a tube and with the wind I could barely feel a thing and then directly under the boat I got bit and reeled in a 3'lb smallmouth and decided to try and work this better but couldn't due too the wind. I then picked up my Leena Lures spinnerbait and worked the small bay on the frontside of the point that the wind was crashing into and proceeded to catch numerous 2-3'lb largemouths I moved around alot after that and caught fish here and there but nothing over the 2-1/2'lb size. This wind has beat the crap out of me so I gave up and went to check in at the resort.
It's Saturday morning and I am fishing with my good friend Mike Juskiewics today, I made a long run to were I caught those smallmouth yesterday in hopes of there being more since they were my bigger fish I saw/caught. We made cast after cast and caught nothing there today, so we moved up to were the largemouth were and I caught a couple but they were pretty small compared to yesterday here, so now I am in run and gun mood until we hit something worth staying for. Mike and I had to work pretty hard to catch the fish we had only one spot really held any numbers of fish but they were only decent at best. Well it's time to head in weigh our fish, Mike brought his limit up and weighed 10.09'lbs for a 10th place finish and I weighed in 5 that went 12.08'lb's for 8th place while Daryl Larson won with 5 for 17.32'lb's of largemouth way too go Daryl.
It is now Sunday morning and I am fishing with Darin Sorenson who I got too join the bass club this year, I was going to start were Mike and I caught the majority of our fish in hopes of getting a quick limit so than if need be search for some bigger fish. I did get a quick limit of largemouth and Darin caught a couple here but it was time to start moving around as this area was pretty beat up now. I kept on the move hitting spots and if we didn't catch more than one or two we were off to the next one, and then I hit another school of fish and worked them over pretty good between a 1/2oz Secret Lures MVP HD flipping jig and a texas rigged tube and made a few decent culls to my limit. I stayed here long enough for Darin to catch his limit and after it slowed down we went hawg hunting we did not catch a single hawg the rest of the day and now we are back for the weigh in and Darin weighed a limit of fish for 8.72'lb's for 12th place and my limit went exactly the same as yesterday 12.08'lb's what are the odds of that "LOL" but I did move up a spot to finish in 7th today and that damn Daryl Larson won again this time with 15.98'lb's of largemouth so congrats again to him. In conclusion to the weekend I wish I could have placed better in each tournament but I did have allot of fun both days.
Pokegama Lake 8/20/2012
Our club the Renegade Bassers normally has one out of town tournament that we fish two days on, we already had ours this year but everybody loves Pokegama Lake that we decided too fish this lake again this year so we are having two out of towners this year. I drove up Fri. morning and hit the lake at sunrise and began my practice. It was pretty dang windy out already, my first spot I hit was a deep weedline and I did manage to get a nice follow by a big smallmouth but that was it here so I moved up to a big point and started working that with a tube and with the wind I could barely feel a thing and then directly under the boat I got bit and reeled in a 3'lb smallmouth and decided to try and work this better but couldn't due too the wind. I then picked up my Leena Lures spinnerbait and worked the small bay on the frontside of the point that the wind was crashing into and proceeded to catch numerous 2-3'lb largemouths I moved around alot after that and caught fish here and there but nothing over the 2-1/2'lb size. This wind has beat the crap out of me so I gave up and went to check in at the resort.
It's Saturday morning and I am fishing with my good friend Mike Juskiewics today, I made a long run to were I caught those smallmouth yesterday in hopes of there being more since they were my bigger fish I saw/caught. We made cast after cast and caught nothing there today, so we moved up to were the largemouth were and I caught a couple but they were pretty small compared to yesterday here, so now I am in run and gun mood until we hit something worth staying for. Mike and I had to work pretty hard to catch the fish we had only one spot really held any numbers of fish but they were only decent at best. Well it's time to head in weigh our fish, Mike brought his limit up and weighed 10.09'lbs for a 10th place finish and I weighed in 5 that went 12.08'lb's for 8th place while Daryl Larson won with 5 for 17.32'lb's of largemouth way too go Daryl.
It is now Sunday morning and I am fishing with Darin Sorenson who I got too join the bass club this year, I was going to start were Mike and I caught the majority of our fish in hopes of getting a quick limit so than if need be search for some bigger fish. I did get a quick limit of largemouth and Darin caught a couple here but it was time to start moving around as this area was pretty beat up now. I kept on the move hitting spots and if we didn't catch more than one or two we were off to the next one, and then I hit another school of fish and worked them over pretty good between a 1/2oz Secret Lures MVP HD flipping jig and a texas rigged tube and made a few decent culls to my limit. I stayed here long enough for Darin to catch his limit and after it slowed down we went hawg hunting
we did not catch a single hawg the rest of the day and now we are back for the weigh in and Darin weighed a limit of fish for 8.72'lb's for 12th place and my limit went exactly the same as yesterday 12.08'lb's what are the odds of that "LOL" but I did move up a spot to finish in 7th today and that damn Daryl Larson won again this time with 15.98'lb's of largemouth so congrats again to him. In conclusion to the weekend I wish I could have placed better in each tournament but I did have allot of fun both days.
Whitefish Chain Fishers Of Men
Whitefish Chain
Fishers Of Men
08/06/2012
Well I got my boat back from the shop (brand new lower unit) just in time to hook up and head back up to the Whithefish Chain for the Fishers of Men tournament. Daryl and I have put in quite a bit of time up here in the last month so I'm hoping we get some good results. We had a decent practice on Fri. and cant wait to get going, we had a middle of the pack take-off number and how the did it was we had to get inline and idle through a channel and then take-off into the big lake of lower Whitefish, are plan was to start in the lake we idled through so we got to see how many others ahead of us had the same idea and luckily only a few boats had the same idea so I turned and we headed right back through the channel and the flew to our starting spot.
The morning started out sunny with a storm rolling in over the tree tops it was really kinda weird hearing lots of loud thunder nearby but it was bright and calm out for the time being. We were fishing a sharp drop that swung in fairly close to some shallow reeds and Daryl sets the hook and fights a 2'lb largemouth into the net, a short time later I felt the telltale thump of a bite on the other end of my line and slam my rod back and a nice 3-1/4'lb Smallmouth came screaming up from 20+ feet of water and jumped and then stayed down until Daryl got the net under it and lifted it into the boat. We farted around out in 20 - 30 feet of water in hopes of picking some more smallies up but that didn't workout so we moved back in closer and we both caught a decent largemouth in quick succession, as we were working back and forth trying to expand on the area we picked up a few smaller fish and then I fired a cast way out and let my texasrigged tube settle to the bottom and as I made my first small hop with it something crushed the shit out of it and I set the hook and new instantly whatever it was it was nice and about that time a pig of a Smallmouth leapt 3 feet out of the water and was going nuts diving and coming up and the whole time I am trying to keep tension on her, as Daryl raced to get the net he stumbled and fell but recovered in time to slide the net under the fish. We thought she was all of 6'lbs and stuffed her in the livewell with big smiles on our faces. We probably stayed and worked here way to long after that fish cause we only caught one more largemouth that was barely going to help us and as Daryl put it into the well he check on the pig smallie and noticed she was about dead, I don't know what the hell happened she wasn't hooked deep or anything. Daryl and I ran around and fished some of our other spots and the storm finally hit as we got to one of Daryls better ones so we raingeared up and fished on, D finally hooked up with a largemouth slow rolling a spinnerbait out deep in the weeds but it only helped out a little. It is now time to make our way back to the weigh in and see how things shake out. After about 10 minutes of Daryl trying to get a bag I walked up and asked for one and checked the board to see what big fish was at and saw it was only in the mid 4'lb range. We bagged up the fish and walked up to the bump tanks to weigh our fish which weighed 13.99'lbs but 13.74 after our dead fish penalty, and the smallie weighed in at 5.35'lbs for big bass of the tournament. Overall we had a good tournament with an 8th place finish out of 40 we cashed a check for that and also a check for big bass and a plaque.
Fishers Of Men
08/06/2012
Well I got my boat back from the shop (brand new lower unit) just in time to hook up and head back up to the Whithefish Chain for the Fishers of Men tournament. Daryl and I have put in quite a bit of time up here in the last month so I'm hoping we get some good results. We had a decent practice on Fri. and cant wait to get going, we had a middle of the pack take-off number and how the did it was we had to get inline and idle through a channel and then take-off into the big lake of lower Whitefish, are plan was to start in the lake we idled through so we got to see how many others ahead of us had the same idea and luckily only a few boats had the same idea so I turned and we headed right back through the channel and the flew to our starting spot.
The morning started out sunny with a storm rolling in over the tree tops it was really kinda weird hearing lots of loud thunder nearby but it was bright and calm out for the time being. We were fishing a sharp drop that swung in fairly close to some shallow reeds and Daryl sets the hook and fights a 2'lb largemouth into the net, a short time later I felt the telltale thump of a bite on the other end of my line and slam my rod back and a nice 3-1/4'lb Smallmouth came screaming up from 20+ feet of water and jumped and then stayed down until Daryl got the net under it and lifted it into the boat. We farted around out in 20 - 30 feet of water in hopes of picking some more smallies up but that didn't workout so we moved back in closer and we both caught a decent largemouth in quick succession, as we were working back and forth trying to expand on the area we picked up a few smaller fish and then I fired a cast way out and let my texasrigged tube settle to the bottom and as I made my first small hop with it something crushed the shit out of it and I set the hook and new instantly whatever it was it was nice and about that time a pig of a Smallmouth leapt 3 feet out of the water and was going nuts diving and coming up and the whole time I am trying to keep tension on her, as Daryl raced to get the net he stumbled and fell but recovered in time to slide the net under the fish. We thought she was all of 6'lbs and stuffed her in the livewell with big smiles on our faces. We probably stayed and worked here way to long after that fish cause we only caught one more largemouth that was barely going to help us and as Daryl put it into the well he check on the pig smallie and noticed she was about dead, I don't know what the hell happened she wasn't hooked deep or anything. Daryl and I ran around and fished some of our other spots and the storm finally hit as we got to one of Daryls better ones so we raingeared up and fished on, D finally hooked up with a largemouth slow rolling a spinnerbait out deep in the weeds but it only helped out a little. It is now time to make our way back to the weigh in and see how things shake out. After about 10 minutes of Daryl trying to get a bag I walked up and asked for one and checked the board to see what big fish was at and saw it was only in the mid 4'lb range. We bagged up the fish and walked up to the bump tanks to weigh our fish which weighed 13.99'lbs but 13.74 after our dead fish penalty, and the smallie weighed in at 5.35'lbs for big bass of the tournament. Overall we had a good tournament with an 8th place finish out of 40 we cashed a check for that and also a check for big bass and a plaque.
Renegade Bassers Whitefish Weekend Day 2
Renegade Bassers
Whitefish Chain Weekend Day 2
July 24,2011
I'm fishing with my buddy Guy Knudson today, and we took off and went to his starting spot which was a big weedflat next to some deepwater, it looked really promising. guy was telling me he caught a number of 2 to 3lb fish here on Friday during practice, a short time in Guy set the hook and caught a small keeper bass and this was the only bite we could muster here so we left and hit another area of his that was a short distance away. All we caught here were pike and man were they aggressive, I must been bit off like 4-5 times plus the numerous one we caught. We left here before I ran out of tungsten weights and made a run to another lake and started fishing a deep point and I managed to pick up a 14" largemouth out deep on a tube. We saw what looked to be a big smallie chasing something up shallow so we both threw up there but could not get it to go, but it gave Guy an idea to pull out another rod with a fluke rigged up and after a short while of working it pretty quickly out of know where a school of nice largemouth followed his bait all the way back to the boat but would not take it, he did get them to follow one more time but neither of us caught one(man I wonder what an Alabama Rig would have done there). We moved and hit a couple more spots then settled in on one of my spots, and we both filled out our limits but they were all small keepers at that, the weird thing about this area was I think I was catching 3-4 to every 1 of Guy's and we narrowed our presentation down to the same tube same hook same line the only thing different was I had a black tungsten weight to his silver tungsten weight. We caught a lot of fish here but we had to try and find some bigger ones if either one of us were to challenge today. We hit numerous other spots but could not get a big bite, oh well time to weigh in after a great day on the water with a good friend. I ended up with 8.42lb's for 7th place and Guy had 7.37lb's for 10th place not impressive by any means but what was is that Chris Asbeck took 1st place again and with more weight than yesterday he had 12.91lb's today.
Whitefish Chain Weekend Day 2
July 24,2011
I'm fishing with my buddy Guy Knudson today, and we took off and went to his starting spot which was a big weedflat next to some deepwater, it looked really promising. guy was telling me he caught a number of 2 to 3lb fish here on Friday during practice, a short time in Guy set the hook and caught a small keeper bass and this was the only bite we could muster here so we left and hit another area of his that was a short distance away. All we caught here were pike and man were they aggressive, I must been bit off like 4-5 times plus the numerous one we caught. We left here before I ran out of tungsten weights
and made a run to another lake and started fishing a deep point and I managed to pick up a 14" largemouth out deep on a tube. We saw what looked to be a big smallie chasing something up shallow so we both threw up there but could not get it to go, but it gave Guy an idea to pull out another rod with a fluke rigged up and after a short while of working it pretty quickly out of know where a school of nice largemouth followed his bait all the way back to the boat but would not take it, he did get them to follow one more time but neither of us caught one(man I wonder what an Alabama Rig would have done there). We moved and hit a couple more spots then settled in on one of my spots, and we both filled out our limits but they were all small keepers at that, the weird thing about this area was I think I was catching 3-4 to every 1 of Guy's and we narrowed our presentation down to the same tube same hook same line the only thing different was I had a black tungsten weight to his silver tungsten weight. We caught a lot of fish here but we had to try and find some bigger ones if either one of us were to challenge today. We hit numerous other spots but could not get a big bite, oh well time to weigh in after a great day on the water with a good friend. I ended up with 8.42lb's for 7th place and Guy had 7.37lb's for 10th place not impressive by any means but what was is that Chris Asbeck took 1st place again and with more weight than yesterday he had 12.91lb's today.Renegade Bassers "Whitefish Chain Weekend
Whitefish Chain
Renegade Bassers
July 22nd,2011
Heading up to the Whitefish Chain for our club two day weekend tourney's, my buddy Darin is riding up with me as he is a non-boater in the club. We get to the landing early Friday morning and launch the boat in hopes of finding some good productive spots for the upcoming two days, it's about 4 hours into the morning and I have caught fish at all the spots I stopped at, most were caught on a Yum Money Craw Texas rigged or a Texas rigged ring tube from Leena Lures. The majority of fish were in the 1 - 2-1/4lb range, so I decided it was time too make a big move and try and locate some better quality fish. I fired up the Mercury and began our journey and after about 10 minutes into the run out in the middle of the lower Whitefish out of nowhere there is a sicking sound of metal on metal and it was like brakes were slammed on, as I turned and looked back all I saw was a huge roostertail of water and the motor was stuck in gear but we were not moving anymore. End result was there was a huge crack where the gears in my lower unit tried to jump out of the casing and all the fluid was leaking out. Only thing I could do was put the trolling motor down and start the long haul back to the landing, about 1/2 way back I called my buddy Chris Asbeck and he was nice enough to come back out and tow us the rest of the way back.
Since I am now a non-boater for the rest of the weekend I will be fishing with Steve Walker out of his Skeeter boat today and my buddy Guy Knudson tomorrow. So day one morning we wake up to severe weather warnings and have to postpone our tournament till the weather passes, it was about an 1-1/2 delay but we are finally off and running to our first spot which we were going to start with topwaters, zara spooks to be exact and we caught the snot out of largemouth that storm didn't phase these fish. We worked back and forth from the shallow flat out to the sharp break in 20ft of water, I picked up my better fish out deep at one point Steve and I were working our spooks back to the boat fairly close together and a big fish blew up right between our lures all we could do was laugh. After fishing this area for along time we moved to a spot of mine and I caught a couple of fish on the Texas rigged tube that helped alittle and a bit farther down the stretch I sent the tube out to even deeper water about 24ft and ended up catching my biggest bass of the day it was a 3-3/4lb'er. We ended up hitting afew more spots but couldn't upgrade anymore before we hade to head in for the weigh-in. Final results for the day were Chris Asbeck won with 11.69 pounds and I took 2nd with 11.65 lb's that son of a bitch did it too me again beating just barely Steve Came in 10th place with 7.10lb's.
Renegade Bassers
July 22nd,2011
Heading up to the Whitefish Chain for our club two day weekend tourney's, my buddy Darin is riding up with me as he is a non-boater in the club. We get to the landing early Friday morning and launch the boat in hopes of finding some good productive spots for the upcoming two days, it's about 4 hours into the morning and I have caught fish at all the spots I stopped at, most were caught on a Yum Money Craw Texas rigged or a Texas rigged ring tube from Leena Lures. The majority of fish were in the 1 - 2-1/4lb range, so I decided it was time too make a big move and try and locate some better quality fish. I fired up the Mercury and began our journey and after about 10 minutes into the run out in the middle of the lower Whitefish out of nowhere there is a sicking sound of metal on metal and it was like brakes were slammed on, as I turned and looked back all I saw was a huge roostertail of water and the motor was stuck in gear but we were not moving anymore. End result was there was a huge crack where the gears in my lower unit tried to jump out of the casing and all the fluid was leaking out. Only thing I could do was put the trolling motor down and start the long haul back to the landing, about 1/2 way back I called my buddy Chris Asbeck and he was nice enough to come back out and tow us the rest of the way back.
Since I am now a non-boater for the rest of the weekend I will be fishing with Steve Walker out of his Skeeter boat today and my buddy Guy Knudson tomorrow. So day one morning we wake up to severe weather warnings and have to postpone our tournament till the weather passes, it was about an 1-1/2 delay but we are finally off and running to our first spot which we were going to start with topwaters, zara spooks to be exact and we caught the snot out of largemouth that storm didn't phase these fish. We worked back and forth from the shallow flat out to the sharp break in 20ft of water, I picked up my better fish out deep at one point Steve and I were working our spooks back to the boat fairly close together and a big fish blew up right between our lures all we could do was laugh. After fishing this area for along time we moved to a spot of mine and I caught a couple of fish on the Texas rigged tube that helped alittle and a bit farther down the stretch I sent the tube out to even deeper water about 24ft and ended up catching my biggest bass of the day it was a 3-3/4lb'er. We ended up hitting afew more spots but couldn't upgrade anymore before we hade to head in for the weigh-in. Final results for the day were Chris Asbeck won with 11.69 pounds and I took 2nd with 11.65 lb's that son of a bitch did it too me again beating just barely
Steve Came in 10th place with 7.10lb's.
Amateur Bass Series, Maple Lake
Amateur Bass Series
July 9th,2011 Maple Lake
This blog is on the second tournament of the Amateur Bass Series and the second tournament with my new favorite partner Jenny Fisk, Maple Lake is located between Buffalo and Annandale,MN. I fish Maple alot and feel confident about or chances to do well. Jen and I got out the Monday before the tourney to do little scouting around and at the same time it was the 4th of July so we wanted to also relax on the water and enjoy our day off. So my thinking is to cover as mush water as possible early before the the pleasure boaters get out so we started throwing reaction baits which cover a lot of water quickly, Jen was throwing a Leena Lures spinnerbait while threw a Rapala clackin rap. We caught some fish but nothing of much size so we moved out to fish the weedlines with a slower approach and found some better fish but they were not grouped up at all it was a one here one there kind of deal. The lake was now filled with people enjoying the nice holiday weather so we put are rods down and just kinda idled around and enjoyed the weather for a bit and then headed back to the launch to load the boat and go hangout and chill.
Well it is now tournament morning and Jenny and I both really pumped up and ready to get started. I decided we would start on a deep mainlake point, as we were flying across the lake towards the point there were 2-3 other boats ahead of us and I was worried at least one of them would stop there since it is an obvious spot. We got lucky they all passed the point and I turned the boat and came off plane and idled up to the point and killed the Mercury and jumped up and dropped the trolling motor in all in one swift motion. I picked up my jig rod and fired out a 1/2oz. Secret Lures MVP HD jig and Jenny picked up a spinning rod and started fishing her new favorite technique which is dropshotting and this was a good looking area for that. On about my 5th cast I felt the telltale thump of an aggressive bass inhaling my jig so I quickly slammed back my rod and started fighting the fish back to the boat, Jen netted the nice 3'lb largemouth and high fived me. As I was putting the fish into the well I noticed it had started to rain so we both put on our gear and proceeded to fish the point but could not pick up any other fish here. The wind is now blowing pretty good and we had moved out onto the mainlake to try a weedline that the wind was blowing into and what happens next is complete chaos, as we get set up on the weedline I fired out my jig and just as it hit the water I my line pulls tight and I set the hook and call for the net but Jen was in the middle of making her first cast so by the time she grabbed the net I already had the fish by the boat and made the decision to just flip it in seeing it was only about 1-1/2'lb's, I put or 2nd fish in the box and quickly repositioned the boat and made another cast to the same spot and got bit before the jig hit the bottom and reared back on another fish and flipped him in the boat and put it in the well, it looked too be identical to the last one. As I picked up my jig and straightened the trailer on it I jokingly told Jen to set her rod down and get the net ready as made my third cast out, she just laughed and continued fishing as I set the hook into another fish and lifted it into the boat and another 1-1/2'lb fish and tossed my jig out and caught two more twins on consecutive casts to round out or 6 fish limit. by the time the chaos ended I think I caught 10 fish in a row all along fighting the waves and culling fish to get our best 6.
As this school of fish we found stopped biting we started to move around and try to upgrade our catch but couldn't end up doing so, Jenny did end up catching a couple of bass but they weren't quite big enough to help out. It is now time to go in and weigh our fish, I am not feeling good about our chances as normally you need like a three pound average or better to do well. We ended up weighing 6 fish for 10.50 and came in 9th place out of 17 teams, 1st place only weighed 14.76lb's so all in all it was a tough day for all, but I had a great time fishing with Jen even though she was bummed out cause she didn't contribute to to cause today, but I told her that this is how team fishing usually goes and next tournament she may be the one with the hot stick.
July 9th,2011 Maple Lake
This blog is on the second tournament of the Amateur Bass Series and the second tournament with my new favorite partner Jenny Fisk, Maple Lake is located between Buffalo and Annandale,MN. I fish Maple alot and feel confident about or chances to do well. Jen and I got out the Monday before the tourney to do little scouting around and at the same time it was the 4th of July so we wanted to also relax on the water and enjoy our day off. So my thinking is to cover as mush water as possible early before the the pleasure boaters get out so we started throwing reaction baits which cover a lot of water quickly, Jen was throwing a Leena Lures spinnerbait while threw a Rapala clackin rap. We caught some fish but nothing of much size so we moved out to fish the weedlines with a slower approach and found some better fish but they were not grouped up at all it was a one here one there kind of deal. The lake was now filled with people enjoying the nice holiday weather so we put are rods down and just kinda idled around and enjoyed the weather for a bit and then headed back to the launch to load the boat and go hangout and chill.
Well it is now tournament morning and Jenny and I both really pumped up and ready to get started. I decided we would start on a deep mainlake point, as we were flying across the lake towards the point there were 2-3 other boats ahead of us and I was worried at least one of them would stop there since it is an obvious spot. We got lucky they all passed the point and I turned the boat and came off plane and idled up to the point and killed the Mercury and jumped up and dropped the trolling motor in all in one swift motion. I picked up my jig rod and fired out a 1/2oz. Secret Lures MVP HD jig and Jenny picked up a spinning rod and started fishing her new favorite technique which is dropshotting and this was a good looking area for that. On about my 5th cast I felt the telltale thump of an aggressive bass inhaling my jig so I quickly slammed back my rod and started fighting the fish back to the boat, Jen netted the nice 3'lb largemouth and high fived me. As I was putting the fish into the well I noticed it had started to rain so we both put on our gear and proceeded to fish the point but could not pick up any other fish here. The wind is now blowing pretty good and we had moved out onto the mainlake to try a weedline that the wind was blowing into and what happens next is complete chaos, as we get set up on the weedline I fired out my jig and just as it hit the water I my line pulls tight and I set the hook and call for the net but Jen was in the middle of making her first cast so by the time she grabbed the net I already had the fish by the boat and made the decision to just flip it in seeing it was only about 1-1/2'lb's, I put or 2nd fish in the box and quickly repositioned the boat and made another cast to the same spot and got bit before the jig hit the bottom and reared back on another fish and flipped him in the boat and put it in the well, it looked too be identical to the last one. As I picked up my jig and straightened the trailer on it I jokingly told Jen to set her rod down and get the net ready as made my third cast out, she just laughed and continued fishing as I set the hook into another fish and lifted it into the boat and another 1-1/2'lb fish and tossed my jig out and caught two more twins on consecutive casts to round out or 6 fish limit. by the time the chaos ended I think I caught 10 fish in a row all along fighting the waves and culling fish to get our best 6.
As this school of fish we found stopped biting we started to move around and try to upgrade our catch but couldn't end up doing so, Jenny did end up catching a couple of bass but they weren't quite big enough to help out. It is now time to go in and weigh our fish, I am not feeling good about our chances as normally you need like a three pound average or better to do well. We ended up weighing 6 fish for 10.50 and came in 9th place out of 17 teams, 1st place only weighed 14.76lb's so all in all it was a tough day for all, but I had a great time fishing with Jen even though she was bummed out cause she didn't contribute to to cause today, but I told her that this is how team fishing usually goes and next tournament she may be the one with the hot stick.