FM Bass Fishing Event Announcement

[ocf]

sounds like it was close.... i cant wait to see the results ray puts up

[Slyster]

Great tournament! Was a lot of fun! Look for more pictures coming soon.

Group Shot:

Click HERE for the large version.

The Champions!

[Ray Esboldt]

Sly,

Can you send me the picture of all the participants? That turned out great!

[Slyster]

Hey Ray! See the "HERE" link in that photo post.. just right click it and "save as" to your desktop. It's the full high res version. Great pic.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Thanks for the pict sly.. look at all the happy faces!!!!!

[Ray Esboldt]

Results of the first FishingMinnesota.com/HotSpotOutdoors Bass Event

Team- # of Fish- Weight- Big Fish

Bob Downey (st.croixfishin) and Sam Rada - 6- 14.74- 3.66

Ray Esboldt and Steve Esboldt - 6- 12.7

Jeff Audette (Jeffrey) and partner- 6- 12.3- 3.82

Ron Hinrichs (beeflover) and Adam Berg- 5- 11.9- 2.56

Deitz Dittrich and Chris Wosika- 6- 11.82

Brad Hansen (Forestlaker - aka Ringer) and Princesa VanBuren- 6- 10.76

Mike Anderson (Bullwinkle) and Chad Stowbridge- 6- 9.54

Shawn Backman (Shawnny and Pat Scott- 6- 9.04

Bob Bennett (eyelander) and Todd Kottke- 6- 8.96

Jim Nordlund (2fish) and partner- 5- 8.64- 3.18

Isaac Karow (ikeslayer) and partner- 4- 6.44

Will Titus (fishin4life) and Pete Fuglestad (Slyster)- 4- 5.42

Chris Neises and partner- 3- 3.88

Matt Johnson and Tom Johnson- 3- 3.66

Chad Griggs (Griggs) and partner- no show!

[Ray Esboldt]

Guys and Gal,

Thanks for coming out. That was quite possibly the most enjoyable tournament I have ever fished in. A big thanks to Deitz and Matt for showing up early and helping out in the organization of this event. Sly, thanks for providing a camera to get that photo of the whole group at the end of the day. And, a huge thanks to Timm's Marina for hosting us.

Like I told you all after the weigh-in, I hope we can do at least two and maybe four next year. If everyone cooperates and enjoys themselves as much as they did today, it would be my pleasure to organize the events next year.

Oh, and a big congratulations to Bob Downey and Sam Rada, our 1st place team. You're all not aware of this, but these guys are both 18 years old! There were some very experienced fishermen there today, and they put a whoopin' on the field. I expect both of them to go far in the world of bass fishing.

[Deitz Dittrich]

Ray - the only reason we had so much fun today was the pre work tha tyou did to make sure every thing ran so smooth.. if you couldhave kept that darn Fire boat quiet and the wind down it would have made the day even better... LOL..and maybe next time you can let me win.. LMAO!

Thanks again everyone!

[Mr. Pike1]

Looks like a great time had by all. I hope to participate in future events. Just need to get my partners schedule matched up.

[Ray Esboldt]

OK, one last post and I'll sign off for the evening. I have a club tournament tomorrow morning, and I'm a little starved for sleep.

The top 4 teams need to fess up to what they did to catch their fish. Steve and I stayed away from the bank. We had a great morning boating between 25 and 30 keeper fish. However, the size of these fish was a bit to be desired. We culled our way to our 12.70 pounds throwing jig-n-pig, jigworm, and a jig and a Comida. The harder the wind blew, the more a Comida became a key. The shear fact that it is heavy allowed for long casts into the wind and good bottom contact in the wind. Unfortunately for us, our off-shore bite died about 10:00 AM. We kept digging for deeper fish, knowing that one 4 pounder would make the second half good, but it just didn't work that way.

And, Deitz. It was my pleasure. I want to know how much it costs to ride on that crazy airboat.

[st.crioxfishin]

Hahaha, I love it Deitz, I'll have to cherish it while it lasts

An article for the tournament, here goes...

PRACTICE DAY 1:

We began prefishing last weekend. Never being on the lake before we didn't quite know what to expect. I like to start out with any visible cover on a new lake so we began the day shallow in the first reed (pencil reeds) bed we saw that morning. I was throwing a rojas frog and sam was using a jig. The reeds were in 3FOW had a nice clean bottom and the water was dirty. Right away sam got one on jig, a nice 2.5-3lb fish. We fished the spot a little longer with no bites. We then began piching and throwing frogs to deeper pads, sam had a nice blow-up from a quality fish that came all the way out of the water, but didn't hook up. Kept fishing the pads but again no more bites. Time to move . I had located some cattails the week before on "google earth" a free satelite program, very cool!. I had them marked on the map and we went to go check them out. The first 2 or 3 cattail beds were to shallow for my liking, all around .5ft to 1ft deep. We finally pulled up to the last one I had marked, I thought we had found that magic spot. It was deeper, clean bottom, so many good looking holes, and you could hear some fish surfacing way back in there. I love fishing cattails that are 3ft or deeper with jigs and it fit my style. We pulled one nice one out, then didn't get any more bites, I was questionable about the spot. We hit a few more reed beds, that had clearer water and other weeds within them in about 2-3FOW. We got some smaller fish, but still keepers, all on jigs. Once the sun came out during midday we worked some docks with nothing to show for it. After the 1st practice day I was feeling that we had some spots, but the fish by no means we stacked in one certain area. One good thing I took from it is that we eliminated a lot of bad water.

PRACTICE DAY 2:

Still not feeling quite sure about a strong pattern I headed up to the lake one day after work during the week. I mainly cruised around looking for other reed beds, that could possibly be new spots for the tournament. I only found one more bed that I liked, it had a bunch of other junk weeds within it. You name it, it was there...pads, uprooted matted weeds, milfoil,"string weed". It was just a junk filled area with a lot of good looking holes to pitch to. I Began pitching my jig and eventually got a decent sized fish. I quit fishing that area right after that fish, and went back to the cattails that I had found on the other practice day. Quickly I pulled out a decent fish from the cattails on a jig and that solidified my decision on what to do during the tournamnet. I left the area and headed home.

TOURNAMENT DAY:

The day had arrived and I was getting pretty excited. I thought Sam and I had a decent pattern to work with. The plan was to start in the cattails pitching jigs and maybe throw a spinnerbait or two around the outside. After 20-30 minutes of fishing the area we hadn't got one bite and there didn't seem to be much activity on the surface in the cattails like in practice. We decided to move to the reed bed with the junk. First pitch I pulled one out. We kept moving along the edge and Sam ended up getting two more. We worked the spot over again, no bites. 3 fish in the livewell. We moved to another reed bed where we had gotten the little ones in practice. Sam pulled out another one on a jig, about 15 inches. Good thing he was along, he was carrying the team at this point. 4 fish in the livewell. We fished the area for about an hour, sometimes right in the middle of the thick bed. After not getting anythin else for awhile we moved to the reed bed where we fist pulled up to on Practice Day 1. The one with 3FOW, clean bottom, and dirty water. On about my 5 pitch to the cover I saw the reeds next to my jig move, felt the bite and set the hook. It was nice 3.5lb fish. 5 fish in the livewell. Finally we felt that we were onto something. Sam was switching between a spinnerbait and jig. I was only throwing a jig. We moved to the next patch of reeds. First pitch to a thick clump and I nailed another 3.5lb fish. 6 fish in. I told Sam to put that spinnerbait away and pull out your jig for the rest of the day. We had our limit by about 9:45-10:00. About 15 minutes after the two nice ones, the sun came out and didn't go away, this really put a damper on the shallow bite for us. For the next few hours We hit a few more clean reed beds with only 13 inchers to show for it. With the sun out we went back to the "junk" reed bed where there was a little more shade than the clean reed beds. Sam pulled out a nice 15 incher, an we gained 8oz on the cull. With a 1/2 hour left we went back to the cattails to see if we couldn't get another nice one. We were throwing our jigs way back in there in hope of a kicker fish. No bites and it was time to head in. We felt that we had a good bag, but we knew we were up against some stiff competition and didn't know if it would be enough. We ended up with 14lbs and some change and luckily it held up.

FINAL PATTERN:

Black/Blue 3/8oz jigs worked in the reeds that were anywhere from 2-4FOW. Dirty or clear water, junk or clean bottom, did not make a whole lot of a difference. 7'MH rods with 50 braid.

All in all it was a great experience and it was good to meet some of the faces of FM. Thanks again for the people who help got this thing going ang set it up. It was a great turnout. I'm looking forward to many more future outings!

Heres our two big ones for the day:

You'd think I would be happy after winning, I don't know why Im not quite smiling in this one

[Captain B.R.K]

Great job to everyone and thanks for the wonderful report on how you won this championship st.crioxfishin!

Feel good about this one because now you can say you upped one on Dietz and Ray for the year.......that's saying a lot because those guys know their stuff!

[ocf]

jeez i wish i had a boat

[Fishin4Life]

Great event. Lots of fun, hope we can have more of these! Congrats St Criox! some nice fish you pulled out of that lake!

It was great to meet all of you guys.

[Eye-lander]

First of all congrats to Bob and Sam on their win. I was well past my 18th birthday before I even fished my first tournament, and even past my 30th before I won my first. Job well done.

Second of all, it was enjoyable meeting all of you. What a great day, The wind blew hard, which I was hopeing for, but the big fish didn't cooperate. We had located a good school of fish off a point. The same area where the winners started, and where Dietz caught his crankbait fish. But the big fish were not there today, The muskie that I caught may have contributed to that. But we ended up scraping up our limit, and culling to 9 lbs. A tough, but enjoyable day.

Lastly, I would like to thank Matt, Dietz, Mr. Twister for the great giveawayws, and Ray for organizing a great tournament. I came away a winner even with a small bag. We do have more fun.

I have to get to bed now so I can beat Ray tomorrow.

[Eye-lander]

Bob, thanks for putting those two fish in my livewell which is on the left of your picture with the 2 big fish. They will come in handy tomorrow!

[Slyster]

More pix from the tournament:

Low res slideshow HERE

(To download all these photos in FULL resolution... click HERE.)

[Deitz Dittrich]

Fun Slide show Sly!!!... love it!

[beeflover]

That was a fun day and a great group of people. Friendliest tournament I ever was part of, much like a club get together. I was real impressed with the guys that won. They are only 18 and really good sticks!

I'm sure surprized at Matt Johnson's bag though. I figured him for a good showing. I did hear that he caught 4 rockbass over 3 lbs on slip bobber rigs under docks, but he only found out at weighin they don't count.

I FM will have another get together I'll go. I'm makin notes to remember the limit is 6 fish, not just the 5 fish I weighed. Dumb! Of course I started the day with the plug out of the boat; Adam Berg who rode with me musta thought the boat was a real dog when it wouldn't go on plane; so I guess I started dumb and ended dumber. I guess I can say I was consistant

Trick sticks and docks was the pattern for Adam and myself.

Glad to meet all you guys and gal.

If ya see my bright red Nitro on the water make sure you say hi.

[Matt Johnson]

Quote:

---

I'm sure surprized at Matt Johnson's bag though. I figured him for a good showing. I did hear that he caught 4 rockbass over 3 lbs on slip bobber rigs under docks, but he only found out at weighin they don't count.

---

I would have been happy to even catch a rock bass yesterday Our spots from earlier this week sure didn't pan out. We go from a 25-fish day with 5 over 2 pounds (last weekend pre-fishing) to a 6-fish day with only 3 over 12-inches (yesterday). Um yeah... we got our butts kicked!

On a side note Ron, I have your two chairs. You left them there yesterday...

[Matt Johnson]

Here's a few more pics from yesterday...

Morning before take-off

Another shot of the morning before take-off

Ray Esboldt, our weigh-master and event director

And some weigh-in shots...

[Fishin4Life]

Great pictures everyone. Thanks for posting them all.

[Mr. Pike1]

Hey Matt even the great ones can have an off day. That again is why the call it "fishing" and not "catching" my friend.

I think we all have pre-fished with excellent results only to find at game time that the pattern has changed.

It looks like everyone had a blast. I am going to everything in my power to attend the next event. If I could have fished solo I would have joined in as my partner was not available. Hopefully there is one more before the ice season or if not maybe at least a little get together somewhere.

[beeflover]

I have another comment. The fish were handled very well. Only two dead fish out of a couple hundred caught. The weigh-in went very quickly and no fish were in bags more than a few minutes.

I'm a proponent of going to "paper" tourneys and not holding fish in livewells or bags at all. Simply measure the fish, record the length then release the fish right back where they were caught.

So maybe we could consider a next event on Chisago, a great underfished bass lake. Since it's catch and release only we would use paper.

This would not work as a team contest (no impartial witness) but we could go with a boater/non-boater draw to have a witness in each boat. I guess we could verify catch with a digital photo of each fish stretched out on a rule too.

Opening up to non-boaters would allow some other people to get involved too.

[Deitz Dittrich]

I'm with you on that one Beef, I too like paper tournaments, However, I insist that paper tournaments not be for money. Too many variables, in how people measure fish.