A 5th place finish at the Silverado TOC!!

In April, I moved to the land of 10,000 lakes from the Dairy State and with this move was the opportunity to fish the top pro/am bass tournament trail, the Minnesota Silverado Pro Am Bass Tour. This circuit has 50 of the top bass anglers from Minnesota competing for big cash prizes. But with this new opportunity, came challenges and many learning experiences. My whole life, I’ve been a bass fisherman, but my bass fishing has revolved around current and the “Muddy Miss.” Yes, I am a Mississippi River Rat and my strengths as an angler revolve around shallow water. 

Follow me to each of my five stops on the 2009 Silverado Tournament Trail to see how I was able to overcome the differences of fishing techniques and in experience on the tournament waters, while I highlight these learning experiences and shed light on the event as a whole.

Green Lake, June 6^th
Going into my first Silverado event of the year, I was eager and excited to meet my pro for the event and wet a line! I had heard that this event on Green Lake was primarily going to be an event dominated by sight fishing for smallmouth. This was the first learning experience that I would have, because having fished on the Mississippi River; sight fishing was not a regular option.

I met my pro, Buckley Smith on Friday morning to get a day of pre fishing in and we were greeted with a beautiful sunny June day. We started by fishing some flats and community holes, just to get a feel of what the fish were doing. Buckley had already spent several days’ pre fishing and had numerous beds marked on the GPS, but the weather forecast for tournament was not looking conducive to sight fishing. High winds, rain and cold temps were what we were going to be faced with come take off.

Buckley and I’s next plan was to look for some bass that were holding in deep water. This was the second learning experience of the year for me. Deep water to me had been eight feet usually. Now, we were fishing 10 to 15 feet of water, all I can say is thank goodness for practice days! One of our first areas I hooked up with a beautiful 4 lb. smallie that absolutely hammered my Picasso Fantasy Football Jig tipped with a spider grub.  After checking out a few more deep water spots and marking a few more beds, Buckley and were off the water and felt confident that we could get a limit fairly quick, but getting the better quality fish was going to be the task at hand.

Strong, cold winds and rain is what woke me up tournament morning, not the alarm clock. So on went the cold weather gear and rain suit and I was off to meet my pro at the ramp. Because of the direction of the wind, the ramp location was moved to safer one, so after putting the boat in and running across the lake to the takeoff, we already had a good feel of what the day was going to hold for us.

The day got started well, in short amount of time Buckley and I had our limit in the boat by using drop shots for sight fishing and I was picking up fish out of the back of the boat on an RC Tackle spinnerbait. Even though we had a limit, it was not at the quality we needed, so “Buck” and I went searching for some bigger bass in deeper water. Throughout the day we made a few small upgrades, but nothing of significance. Despite the nasty winds and my numb fingers, I was able to keep a constant feel of my lure because of the sensitivity of my Seaguar Inviz X fluorocarbon line. This paid off with only 30 minutes to go until check in, I connected with a nice smallie that helped us cull out a small keeper from before.

Heading to the weigh in, Buckley and I weren’t quite sure of our weight, but as the scales finally settled our weight of 15.6 lb. for six fish put us in 32^nd place. This was not exactly the start that I had hoped for, but Buckley and I both had error free days. 

Overall I had a blast at my first Silverado, but I was glad to be off the water and in my warm truck on the way home already thinking about the next stop on the Alexandria Chain of Lakes.

Once I was able to snake my way out of the Twin Cities traffic, I was finally on my way to beautiful Alexandria to fish the chain of lakes there. From what I heard that catching bass would not be an issue, the issue would be catching a bass that was more than 14 inches. The good news was that I already knew who my pro partner was, John Roundsley. John was friends and travel partners with my pro at the first event, Buckley.

I once again had the rain gear and warm clothing on when I met John at the ramp on Friday morning. So far this year looked like it was going to be the year of rain gear for the Silverado angler.

Anglers fishing the Alexandria Chain of Lakes can wet their line on a total of four or five lakes and they can also fish to their strengths whether it is shallow or deep water. To my advantage John had been doing a lot of his pre fishing shallow and this is where we would be starting our day on Friday. We quickly checked a shallow water flat that had a mixture of weeds, boat docks and sand pockets that were holding quality bass. This was going to be our starting spot come tournament day, but John and I wanted to quick check some deep water spots to be sure nothing was eluding us.

After spending the rest of the day checking deep water areas with no promising action, John and I got off the water and I headed back to the Super 8 hotel to get my reels spooled up with fresh Seaguar Inviz X and get my rods all rigged up for tournament day.

Tournament day started very well for John and me by targeting that shallow water area. We quickly got three keepers in the boat on buzz baits, but then we had to switch gears and slow down our presentations. John flipped a beaver style bait, while I swam a ¼ oz. RC Tackle swim jig. This one-two punch combination worked very well for us as we quickly assembled our limit and made continuous upgrades to it throughout the day.

Having heard how this chain of lakes fishes, I felt confident that John and I had a decent limit of fish that would hopeful put us in the top 10, but at least help me earn some valuable points to move up in the year end point standings. 

Regardless of how we finished I had a great day with John and it was another tournament that both my pro partner and I executed perfectly and in tournament fishing if you can do this, you have had a good day on the water. Our limit of bass weighed in at 11.36 lb., normally this would not get a tournament angler too excited, but this weight on the Alexandria Chain wasn’t too shabby and in the end we finished in 19^th place. The points I earned helped me bump up in the point’s standings a little.

Driving back to the Twin Cities and again my mind was starting to wander about the next event on Lake Minnewaska and the question in my head was, would I get to fish a Silverado event not in my rain gear?

Arriving in beautiful Starbuck I was very anxious to get on the water Friday to pre fish with Dennis Fiedler my pro. Dennis had several productive days pre fishing already, so we had only a few areas to check out.

I started off the day throwing a 3/8 oz. RC Tackle swim jig on a rock flat with scattered vegetation. This quickly produced a nice largemouth that was in the 3.5 to 4 lb. range. The main plan of attack for tournament day was to fish a deep break that had vegetation on it, so again I being a rookie at the deep water attack, Dennis and I sought out more areas where I could get some practice at fishing a 3/8 to ½ oz. Tru Tungsten weighted Texas-rig or a drop shot rig in the 12 to 17 foot of water range.

It didn’t take long for me to get the feel and knack for deep water fishing again. I hooked up with a 2.5 to 3 lb. largie on my Texas-rigged RC Beaver. As the day progressed I relied more and more on drop shoting small plastics to get bites along deep weedlines and breaks. I felt very confident in my both my abilities and the areas that Dennis and I had pre fished on Friday would pan out on Saturday.

Finally a tournament morning, where I didn’t have to wear rain gear! Well at least it lasted for two hours or so and then the rain gear went back on. Dennis and I got a quick start to the morning with Dennis throwing a topwater and me going behind him with my drop shot rig. We were quickly on our way to filling out our limit. After having fished our starting spot for two hours or so, Dennis and I made our way back to the flat where I caught the nice largemouth on Friday. In roughly the same spot from Friday, I got a bite on my big RC Swim Jig and both of us thought that I had just got the kicker fish we needed.  Well after a good hard fight, the fish finally came to the surface and instead of a brute bass; it was wall mountable 29 in. plus walleye, who says that bass lures don’t catch eyes!

After having put a lot of pressure on our starting spot right away in the morning, Dennis decided to hit some other key spots that he had found pre fishing. I was throwing a Rapala DT-10 crankbait and was able to give us a quality upgrade.   Shortly thereafter Dennis caught our big fish of the day on a drop shot.   Following this spurt of action, the bite seemed to tail off as we could only get small bass or keepers that did us no good.

Having not been to this lake before and not hearing much from other anglers after pre fishing or during the day we were not sure on how our limit of bass would stack up against the other 48 teams. While waiting in the weigh in line, I had several thoughts going through my mind. First, what a great day of fishing I had with Dennis that was again error free. I had several good learning experiences which included, fishing deep weedlines with a Texas rig and drop shot, also how I was able to manipulate my swimming jig technique that is a staple for me on the river to the deep water flats we were fishing. Secondly, would the fish care penalty hurt us?

With the fish care penalty included our Minnewaska limit weighed 14.01 lb.’s and when it was all said and done with we were in 9^th place. Not only did this finish earn me a check, but it also helped me make a big jump in the year end standings. The fish care penalty cost us one spot, but that is nothing that we had control over.

Once again I was back in the cab of my Silverado driving back home and happy that I had cashed a check, moved up in the standings and now my attention could turn to the nationally known Lake Minnetonka!

Going into the final regular season event on Lake Minnetonka, I had many good things going for me. I was sitting in 15^th in the year end standings, which would put me in the Tournament of Champions. I was fishing a lake that was close to home, so I could sleep in my own bed the night before and I was paired with Michael Frisch, who was leading the point standings on the pro side.

My pre fishing day with Mike went very well, we located a group of 3 to 3.5 lb. largemouth hitting jigs and Texas Rigs. My Texas rig consisted of a pegged ½ oz. Tru Tungsten weight, a 5/0 heavy wire Eagle Claw extra wide gap hook and a RC Beaver. Mike had some other patterns that he wanted to check out, but nothing seemed to pan out as good as the weedline bite in 10 to 13 foot of water.

As soon as tournament days started, it seemed like it was over just as quick. Mike and I had an error free day, when it comes to missing or losing fish, but we just couldn’t muster a quality bass. The deep water bite we had going was non-existent and the shallow water bay Mike had done so well in the year before only yielded one keeper bass. To get our limit I went back to my trusty ¼ oz. RC Tackle Swim Jig, I was able to work this jig around boat docks to put together the last four fish for our limit. 

In the weigh in line, I knew that our limit of fish would do us no good and that I would most likely drop out of the Tournament of Champions. Our limit weighed 7.91 lb.’s and put us near last. Frustration and disappoint was running rampant in my mind, but all of a sudden a jolt of excitement hit me when they announced my name as one of the wild card entrants to fish the Tournament of Champions the next Saturday back on Minnetonka!

My partner for the TOC was Earl Sharpe and after talking things out with, we agreed that since we were fortunate enough to get in as wild card team we were going to go for the win. I started pre fishing with Earl on the Wednesday before the tournament and our goal was to locate areas that we could catch bass in the 3 lb. plus range. Our goal for the tournament was to catch a limit of 3 lb. bass and hope that in that mix we would tangle up with a true Minnetonka monster bass.

Pre fishing went well, not only did we locate productive areas, but I also caught my first big musky, which was around 40 some inches. This was caught on my swim jig again, so this bait not only produced tournament creel bass for me, but a trophy walleye and musky!

Having my Texas rig bite blow up in my face the week before, I turned to a jig. Flipping a ½ oz. black and blue jig with craw trailer was going to be my lure of choice. I was ready to go come tournament day with my Quantum Tour Edition reel spooled with 50 lb. Power Pro braid. It wasn’t long before Earl and I started going through our spots and each spot we were catching fish and getting at least one good 3 plus lb. bass. 

My last learning experience of the year was flipping a jig on a deep weedline. The feeling of letting your jig sink, then just when you start to pick it up, it feels like a bowling ball attached to your line. Then the fight is on to get the bass safely out of the heavy cover.

Six good bass, is what Earl and I were going after and we came close to accomplishing our goal. Our final limit consisted of five good bass and one we just couldn’t upgrade, with a total weight of 16.03 lb.’s, which put us in 5^th place. Earl and I stuck to our game plan and it paid off with a paycheck!

I felt a great sense of accomplishment, not only did I end up finishing 22^nd in the year end point standings, but I took the great opportunity of fishing the TOC and turned it into a top five finish! The amount of knowledge and skills that I learned as an angler is irreplaceable and the friends I made were good ones. The Silverado Tournament Trail is truly one of the premier tournament organizations available.

We’ll see you on the water in 2010 and be sure to check out www.fishglenn.com to follow me in my 2010 tournaments and to see videos and pictures of my latest fishing trips.