Saturday, July 25 was the 3rd stop in the East Division of the Wisconsin Team Circuit. A full field of 48 boats in 2 flights fished in this event.
My team tournament partner Steve Crotteau and I had a very good practice prior to the cutoff on Sunday July 19th. We had drawn boat # 26 which was the 2nd boat in the 2nd flight. We have both fished this lake several times a year and combined had well over 40 waypoints from the past, but due to a late boat draw, we spent our practice time searching out less than obvious new spots so we would have somewhere to fish when our flight took off.
There is something to be said for original thought. In pre-fishing we found 6 or more new areas/spots that ranged from 9' to 18' deep that we felt for all practical purposes, would be untapped resources. We had enough 3.5 to 4.5 lb class fish going in practice, that it was hard to not get fired up for this tournament. In practice I caught my personal best smallmouth that was 6 lbs 4 ounces and all that did was get me more excited. I felt that it could have taken as much as 20 lbs to win this tournament based of the quality fish that I observed.
Fast forward to July 25th and another cold front on tournament day. The first flight left Birch Lakes Resort at 6:30 am and was due back at 2:30 pm and the 2nd flight took off at 7 am and was to be back at 3 pm. Besides the 48 boats from our WTC tournament, there was a 9+ boat club tournament that took off at 6:30 am.
Fortunately, when we got to our first spot that was nobody on or near it. In the first 30 minutes we caught 3 keepers of which 2 were solid fish. At 7:45 am the wind picked up from 9mph to 15 mph and was out of the west, which really turned spot number 1 off. We hung tough on that spot until 9am and left it with 4 keepers (1 fish short of the tournament limit).
From 9 am until 2:45 pm we cycled through our remaining 5 waypoints, hitting some spots 2 times. When we brought our fish to the scale, our 5 bass limit weighed 13.33 lbs. Much less that what we excpected, but given the conditions it was respectable. When it was all said and done, we finished in 3rd place. The 1st place team brought in 13.83 lbs on 5 fish, and I believe 2nd place was 13.45 lbs.
Full tournament results will be available soon by clicking Here.
Our bait choices for this tournament were:
1/2 ounce Super K K-Plunk Jigs
A variety of Carolina rigged soft plastics
A special thanks to all of our sponsors!!
Grafe Auction Company
Props Sports Bar and Grill
Hauck Power Sports
Skeeter Boat Center
Crotteau Chiropractic
Super K Jigs
A&J Landscape and Maintenance
Miller Lite
Humminbird/MinnKota
Quantum