In a previous class we talked about schooling fish/bass. Never really gave it much thought as an application for up North….fast forward to my tournament yesterday I learned something new. Smallmouth and Largemouth will swim with the white bass and chase bait in open water. Im talking in over 90ft of water. We all saw it the day of the tournment, fish busting the surface and birds going nuts. But only one guy had the thought to go throw a 3” minnow in the middle of it. Justin in our club had 19.5lbs by 7:30am because of doing that. Including a 6lber in his bag which is rare up here. Has my brain wheels turning…

Last club tournament of the year today. Sad to see the season end but looking forward to breaking down everything I learned this year. Took 3rd overall and almost won big bass today with a 5.17. Smallmoufth were being difficult so when in doubt hit the docks and catch a 5lber.

What are your thoughts? What is the real difference between all the Zman Chatterbait options? Is it just components? Does one option catch fish better than others? Do you just buy a jackhammer and forget the rest?

Got to spend a couple hours fishing Lake Mendota for smallies Friday evening. Fishing deep rocky ledges. It seemed like I would get these 10minutes flurries of bites on every cast and then nothing. Have you’ve had this happen to you?

Football season is back! These things are grouped up and feeding! You’re surprised the smallie is only 15-16 inches after you just spent 190 minutes fighting it. Every hook set I was calling out Biggin 5lber!

I’m a fan of the new kingpin. Got to try it out for a bit last night, some of my first observations is I like the fall rate compared to the Berkeley General which has been my staple for years. Where im throwing this bait under docks on my lakes I have about 2ft of depth. With the slower fall rate I like that it stays in the strike zone longer. I really like how well you can skip this! Skips like there is a rocket in its butt. Allows me to stay farther away from the docks. Looking forward to keep trying it out.

Man I can’t wait to try these out!

Coming for you Barde in the Northern Division

My niece just out fishing her two older brothers 3 days in a row.

Had a great learning experience fishing a tournment on Lake Winneconne yesterday. Had an experienced co-angler that was a college angler. Certainly learned a few things from him. We burned a chatterbait all day on docks. Lake is almost 16,000 acres with a max depth of 7ft. Water is muddy and reminded me of fishing in Georgia. Rained on us all day but still had fun.