Metro LETS Waconia Results

[Dennis Steele]

1)Rob/Lance 23.7
2)Jighead 19.1
3)Walleye Wackers 18.7
4)Balsam Lake Bandits 18.5
5)Bill/Marty 17.7
6)Trouble Hooks 17.5
7)Team Hogg 7.7
8)Neises 7.4
9)Carpsnaggers 6.8
10)Lucky Fish 6.7
11)Dennis/Sam 5.1
12)Scott

BIG FISH
Lance/Rob 5lb largemouth bass!

Overall Standings
1)Walleye Wackers 58
2)Bill/Marty 56 (54 lbs)
3)Rob/Lance 56 (46.7 lbs)
4)Jighead 56 (45.1)lbs
5)Trouble Hooks 51
6)fishhead/Canopy Sam 50
7)Balsam Lake Bandits 47
8)Scott 42
9)Carpsnaggers 36 (24.3 lbs)
10)Neises 36 (19.6 lbs)
11)Lucky Fish 25
12)Team Hogg 18

Congratulations to all the wininng teams.

I will post season standings this evening.

[This message has been edited by Dennis Steele (edited 07-21-2003).]

[mrclean]

we had a great time yesterday. A special thanks to canopy sam and the mrs. for the bbq. The food was great.We will see you on the croix

p.s to whom took my picture my email is [email protected] that was 2 5lbers caught hehehehe

[This message has been edited by mrclean (edited 07-21-2003).]

[Guest]

Great job Rob and Lance, that was a monster basket... Two 5 pounders in a day is tough to beat...

Thanks Canopy Sam for the great food (and those who helped out with the grilling and preparation, your wife, WWG, etc.)..

[Lunker]

All I have to say is that has been the best tourney so far. Most of the day wasn't too hot(we caught most of our fish in the rain), and there was a good bite. The two 5 pounders really killed the competition, but besides that, a lot of teams were within a pound or so of each other.

Okay every body, for those who want to see the results besides weights, what'd every one bring in and how? We had a limit of bass and 17 sunnies. All our bass came during the a.m. in shallow along docks in wagners bay, and the little patches of reeds between docks and over by the landing. One came off a rocky point also. Caught about a dozen bass in the morning, three of ours were 2-3 lbs so that helped. Little green senkos and other plastic jigs were key. All bass under 4ft of water. Sunnies came afternoon in 13 ft deep weedline on a hump while my brother fished for northerns. Northerns were impossible to find(good job dennis, u had the only one), i had one run on a sucker, but it turned out to be a sheepshead! Fun day, thanks to sam for the food, and waconia for the fish. See you all at the croix.

[Dennis Steele]

I think Waconia turned out to be the best event so far.A delayed start due to lightning and rain most of the morning didn't dampen the fun.We saw some nice bags of fish come in and most pleasure boaters stayed home due to the weather so the fishing was better.

Sam and I had our worst showing however only weighing one pike.With the weather Sam thought it might be a good time to try for a prize fish so for the mojority of the day we searched for a musky.Sam hooked one that wrecked the gears in his reel and we had to hand line the 35 or 36" fish.If only a few more inches!
Part of the day we tried for pike with suckers under a bobber and could only manage to find a couple monster sheephead.One I bet went 8lbs.Why can't we weigh these things!?
We had a fun day anyway and of course its always good to see what every one else did.
Congratulations to Rob and Lance with not one but two monster 5lb bass!Now there is two very nice fish!

[Aquaman01]

Man! Those were nice bass, ya'll! Thanks for the location/presentation Lunker & Dennis!

Carpsnagger's final showing was nothing to write home about, but the morning crappie limit was a blast and I learned more about slip-bobbering with a wee little jig. When crawlers ran low (1" chunk by 1" chunk) 1" white Power Grubs got 'em. Most of 'em were in 3'-7' of water hiding under floating veggie mats.

It was my first time out with a 10' ultralight crappie rod, and I love that thing! Plenty of radius swing for fast hook-sets and it didn't balk at the ugliest, blackest 2 lb. bullhead I've ever seen! I'm gonna take that noodle out slinging minnows for smallies.

Mistermom had a nice aerial show from a muskie that I didn't see.

------------------
Aquaman
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Peace and Fishes

[Jonesin4eyes]

I agree this one was best so far. I wish that I would have read the posts about the BBQ - definitely would have stuck around for that.

We focused on Bass in the morning using spinnerbaits and worms, and had our limit before 10:00 so we moved on to sunfish. Found them in 14ft of water off Red's reef and caught nine that we could keep before the morning wieght in using slip bobbers and 1/16th ounce jig tipped with a peice of leach. After lunch we finished our limit of sunnies and moved on to try for pike. We trolled spoons and shallow cranks over the weeds and along the weedline on the north side for two hours with zero action. Tried for crappies since the pike were not cooperating and caught six or so off Keg's reef using the same jig but tipped with a crappie minnow. They all were about 8 3/4 inches and we got impatient so we spent the remaining time trying to improve on the two bass we didn't weight at lunch, with no luck.

Team Jighead

[This message has been edited by Jonesin4eyes (edited 07-22-2003).]

[LuckyFish]

I'd be interested in doing a little prefishing with ya wounded minnow. I've never fished these waters and would like to check them out before the St Croix event. Just let me know when. If interested email [email protected].
Lucky

[Dennis Steele]

Here are a couple pics that Marty took at Waconia.

Nice bass Mr Clean!

The morning weigh in.

[LuckyFish]

Yup nice bass. Hey where did my boat go I know it's in the picture cuz I can see the top of the motor! LOL Thanks Canopy Sam, your wife and whoever else put on the bbq. The food was delicious!
Lucky

[wounded minnow]

I agree we must all have become better fisherman. We tried trolling for toothy critters all morning. They didn't seem to be willing to cooperate. At the noon weigh-in we only had one fish in the live well. (that's why we opted not to weigh). During the afternoon we threw senkos near the shoreline docks. The bass were hitting really lightly for us. You really had to be alert for the hookset. We ended up with five decent bass, but nothing like those monsters that were weighed in. My trolling motor worked great, and didn't fall off, so that was a plus. Looking forward to the Croix. If anyone wants to prefish, I'm game.

[This message has been edited by wounded minnow (edited 07-22-2003).]

[CANOPY SAM]

It's true. I felt, based on the weather that morning, we'd be foolish not to try for a nice muskie. Of course all of the other species in the lake were responding to the rain favorably as well. But those conditions just screamed muskies, and hey, one fish and the game is in the bag! As it turned out, we could have had 1st + big fish had my muskie been only a few inches longer. It was a big gamble, and it almost paid off.

It was funny today at work when I was telling a female cooworker about the event and how I could have been in the money with only three or four more inches. She responded casually by saying, "That's what all of you guys are always after. Just a couple more inches!" Not exactly what I was refering to, but a pretty accurate observation just the same.

It was my pleasure to provide supper for you folks. Honestly, this tournament series is reminding me why I don't fish tournaments anymore. My heart isn't really into competing at outdoor sporting activities anymore. That, and the fact that I'm not as good a fisherman as I was when I was younger. It's funny cause I went into this with the idea that I really wanted to win. It didn't take long to realize I really only want to have fun and meet other friends who enjoy fishing. I hope that our group can develop long lasting friendships out of these events, and create memorable fishing trips for many years to come.

Of course, this doesn't mean that I'm giving up. We'll see what happens at the St. Croix. It'll be good to be back on a river again.

[Guest]

We ended up getting our 6 bass, 4 gills, and a crappie to weigh. Luckily most of the bass we landed were decent. We missed one that was a little better that we got a good look at that would have been up there near big fish. It just happened to be in the same spot I landed a 6 pounder a couple weeks ago... We got 2 keepers along with that missed fish within a 10 yard diameter area. The bass seem to be schooling up pretty good. We had another bass follow a hooked one in to the boat, that has happened the last two times and both have been nice fish.

Plastics and shallow for us was the ticket. We had better luck in the afternoon over the morning. We worked a bit slower once the wind died down and started to do a little better.

We spent a fair amount of time looking for pike and/or walleye with zero luck. Only sheepies, bluegills, and perch. The majority of the gills we got were 6.5-6.75". We were only able to weigh 4 gills that were over 7" (probably 1 in 7 was a keeper). Most of these we picked up walleye fishing. We got one crappie while flip'n for bass that went 9" as well.-WalleyeWackers

[walleyefanatic]

Since the Waconia tourney Scott has placed a note on the windshield of his boat stating "weigh in at 11am, not 12pm". Oh well, had a great time none the less. I did ok on the bass and caught 5 in the first 25 minutes I was on the water, then I changed baits because a blade fell off my spinnerbait (darn terminators). It was pretty much down hill from there. After changing colors I couldn't buy a bite so I switched blades and went back to the original bait, nothing. My partner decided to show-up around 9 and that turned out to be the kiss of death. Between 9 and 4 we boated an 11.5" bass and a sunfish that hit a Fatrap. Go figure. The lack of fish was mostly due to my unwillingness to fish the docks for bass and being too proud to fish panfish. I don't like fishing for anything near the bottom of a lakes foodchain. Around 3 we had a follow by a 'sky tossing bucktails. It was probably about 55" but we'll never know will we. On to the Croix. I'm heading out Saturday to try and located some kitties. I feel confident about my ability to locate 'eyes but I learned my lesson after the first tourney on the 'sippi. Who'd a thunk a catfish was a gamefish? Anyone wants to join me I plan on being at the launch by 7am. Email me at [email protected] and we can get 4 lines in the water.