July 18,19^th 2008         WHITEFISH CHAIN      

Bass Weekend Series

          My son A.J. and his friend Andrew and I got to the landing at the Whitefish Chain about 6:00am and launched the Ranger boat, this year my plan is to really work hard and find some new areas and expand on them because I really have not placed all that well in previous tournaments here.   The first spot I went to was a big underwater point on the main lake of upper Whitefish, the morning was started out partly cloudy and next to know wind so I started throwing a Heddon Zarra Spook which is a topwater lure that sways back and forth called walking the dog. A.J. was throwing a rattle trap and Andrew threw a Leena Lures white spinnerbait, a little bit into the morning I noticed some nice fish breaking the surface out in about 15ft of water so I threw my spook out there and worked it almost all the way back to the boat and a real nice bass slapped at the spook and missed it, which is ideal when your pre fishing for a tournament. A short time later I had another nice bass rise up at my bait and then A.J. caught a small keeper on his rattle trap.  I decided to move to some other areas and every spot we stopped at we caught a bunch of fish, only problem was they were all small. 

          It’s now approximately 3:00pm and both boys are really tired because they stayed up late last night. Boys will be boys I guess, anyways I was a little upset with them because I really needed to put some more time in and find some bigger fish. As we were coming out of one lake through the channel and into the main lake I looked over and my son A.J. is out cold sleeping, I was planning on making a long run away from the boat landing we used but figured we were done now with him sleeping. We were flying back across the main lake and I decided to check a spot I found last year, which is about a mile from the landing and while we were approaching it I ran out of gas, (stupid gas gauges never read correctly)! So now we fished rapidly through the area knowing we had to use the Minn Kota trolling motor to get back to the landing, good thing my son fell asleep and changed my mind about the long run.

          It’s the morning of the tournament and my co-angler is a young guy from Nisswa, MN his name is Justin Ohotto he is a local which may help if need be. We started on the main lake underwater point I had found yesterday morning and I started throwing the spook as we came up on one of my waypoints a fish jumped completely over my bait and I could not get him to go again, I threw an All-Terrain jig, a finesse worm and I got nothing. As we worked the area for awhile I was thinking about making a move as it was obvious the fish I found yesterday were not cooperating right now, and sure enough Justin sets the hook on a decent fish and I net it for him, it’s a nice 2lb fish he caught it on a Texas rigged creature bait. So now instead of moving we stayed and worked the point a lot longer then we should have, I kept hoping for more fish to bite instead of just coming back later and trying again. I finally made a move to another main lake weeded I had located that had a little better than average fish on it and all I managed was two small keepers. Earlier I told Justin if he had any ideas to let me know and we can try them. Well he had a suggestion of a spot nearby and we went, and we caught fish we worked a narrow long weed bed out from the shore Justin was throwing a soft stickbait, wacky style with a neat little trick to it which made a big difference and I was throwing my All-Terrain jig

hoping for quality bites, Justin was schooling me, I did manage a nice keeper on the jig but I did switch to Justin’s neat little finesse tactic and started to catch more fish.

          Time was running short we had a couple hours left and the weather was turning to crap as we were fishing this new spot Justin turned and threw out to the break and immediately set the hook on a huge smallmouth bass and he fought it great turned out to be a four pounder, I turned and threw out there and set they hook on a nice fish also and he netted a 3 ¼ pound smallmouth for me and a short time later I set the hook on a giant fish and had it on for a short time and them nothing my line went slack and it was gone and that was it the fun was over just like that. We made our way back to the weigh-in and figured Justin had a chance at winning the co-angler division, Justin ended up 4^th place that is awesome and I had a great time with him he is a outstanding angler and will be kicking ass soon as a pro so look out everybody. I unfortunately came in 36^th place and in the middle of the pack again and I lost a dollar to my buddy Brian Tonn who came in 34^th place A.j. was 31^st in the co-angler side and Andrew was 39^th.