July 22^nd, Whitefish Chain

I drew Wayne Lindgren as a non-boater and we were to take off in the 3^rd flight out of 4, it was suppose to storm heavily today so I decided to start shallow and hope to heck I could pick up a real fast limit in case the weather really got bad we went in to Big Trout Lake and I started with a buzzbait and caught a keeper fairly quick and then another but no real size at all but they were biting I switched to a rattle trap so I could cover more water to fill out my limit and I did with about 7 lbs in the well and the rain started, I changed to a swim jig that I built from scratch something I do in the winter to stay busy, anyway it was in a bluegill pattern and I may have upgraded a bit but all million of the fish were pretty much identical, Wayne has his limit, non-boater limit is 3 fish and he is sitting pretty good with about 7-1/2 lbs caught on a parrot colored Rapala DT 6.

   We decided to move to a spot that Wayne has fished before on Whitefish it fit perfectly into my comfort zone it was a big deep main lake hump with some deep grass on top it had a very irregular weed line, I started throwing a deep diving crankbait and hooked up with a nice 2-1/2 lb largie, that let me upgrade about a pound and a half but that was it on the crankbait, by the way it is still raining pretty hard I really liked the look of this spot so I started to throw a I/2 oz. green pumpkin All Terrain grassmaster jig and I slam the jig into a fish thinking it is a really nice one but this bass just thought he was bigger than the 2 lb’s that he was I think he helped me upgrade about another pound so now I’m sitting around 9-1/2 lbs with half the day to upgrade feeling pretty good we then went and fished a windblown mainlake island and boy was the wind blowing now and still raining, I was throwing traps and lipped cranks around while Wayne threw a jig, he picked up a nice fish after awhile which bumped him up to about 8 lbs so he is doing great for 3 fish I caught a number of fish along the weedline edge but nothing helped me.      

 Off to the next spot which was another windblown mainlake weedline that Wayne had found earlier in the week that had some decent fish on it but he said the conditions were totally different than today I decided to throw my ALL TERRAIN jig hoping to catch some nicer fish with only a couple of hours left, Wayne and I are having a good time talking and joking around in the crappy weather, he say’s the reason he fishes the series is so his son Rich has a link to every tournament which is nice, by the way Rich is fairly young, mid-twenties or so and has been kicking ass in the weekend series and the federation  he has a bright long future in bass fishing.  wish I could have started earlier in my life but the opportunity wasn’t there hope my 16yr old cherishes his opportunity to start early, any way Wayne could easily fish as a boater and do well himself if he wanted. Wayne now is fishing this little fu fu rig it is a little tiny mojo weight about 18” above a small hook with a little senko type worm rigged wacky style(senko hooked thru the middle) and he starts hammering the fish but none help him yet, I hate fishing small finesse type lures but I switched to a bigger 5” Voodoo stick(senko) and rig that wacky and catch a fish that is no help, while I am releasing my fish Wayne set the hook on a big fish that took his gay little rig and put up a nice long fight and I scooped it into the net about a 4 lb’er and now he is really in good position to get a nice check, we have about ¾ of an hour left to fish so we moved to a spot close to the weigh in site and just got on a weedline and I was not going to do anything but throw my jig looking for a big fish well with about 10 min’s left I got a nice bite and swung hard and hooked up to a pig, while fighting it she just comes unbuttoned from the hook and she is gone, so I let out a nice loud F inhiemer and call it quits and go in to weigh our fish.

 The rain has finally quit and the sun has come out so it was nice for standing in line at the bump tanks waiting to weigh in, well it is are turn and I weigh in with 9.26 lb’s  and ended up in 35^th again two 35’s in a row, Wayne Lindgren weighed in with 9.29 lb’s with a 3 fish limit and wins the non-boater side and gets a check for $1,302.00.  Non-boaters are suppose to give some money ($20.00) for gas, well Wayne gave me $50.00 for guiding him to the win and I was very thankful.  A.J. caught his limit of three fish and weighed in with 3.31 lb’s for 55^th place his pro Bob Pauer weighed in 5 fish for 7.65 lb’s for 52^nd place and my buddy Brian Tonn came in with 10.69 lb’s  for 17^th place (way to go Brian) I owe you a buck and Wayne’s son Rich had 10.79 for 15^th, congrat’s to the winner Dean Capra who weighed in a nice limit of 17.86 lbs to beat out 2^nd place by more than 3 pounds.