My first trip to Green Lake in Spicer, MN didn't go as planned and left me with a lot of ground to make up in the points to make the Silverado Pro-Am Bass Tour T.O.C. Finishing a dismal 33rd out of a 49 boat field and them taking the top 14 guys in points I have some catching up to do. This was my first experience here and it is one heck of a smallmouth fishery though it is very small! I had to things to get over at this tournament, one is fishing in crowds and the other bed fishing which is not my thing. Not knowing the deep water bite has been the dominate winning pattern there I went with the perception this was going to be a bed fishing deal. Well come to find out the night before the tournament there are some guys finding quality fish and less beat up fish in some extremely deep water it was a little late to change my game plan so I stuck with what I found in practice. Spending 3 days scouring the shallows looking for those 6 big females that would put me over the top I marked over 150 beds around the lake except where I should have been. Drawing boat one for this tournament as I got to my spot I watched as a dozen boats headed for one flat on the lake I didn't prefish and a I got a little sick to my stomach when only two other boats started around me, that's when you know you are probably not on the right fish. During practice I tried not to stick to many fish and kept the trolling motor on high and looked for as many beds as possible and it became very apparent that was exactly what many others where doing also as I was always following someone or was being followed. I did manage to find some quality fish up but the majority seemed to be smallers males.

Tournament day I decided to start in an area that I had marked 3 good fish and being boat one felt good about having first shot at them. Well even the best layed plans do not work all the time. With a West wind for 3 straight days we wake up to rain and 25mph East wind for the tournament day with 50 degree temps. As we approached the first two beds they are both vacant but the third one still had a nice coal black smallie on it and with a quick pitch of a tube to her she is hooked for about 3 seconds as she jumped and threw it, not the start I was looking for! With the waves from the wind and rain beating down on the water it was very difficult to see the beds and many had been vacated either done spawning or moved off do to the weather. We did manage to get our limit by 9:30 and culled a couple of times using a drop shot and a mojo rig with 8lb GAMMA EDGE fluorocarbon and copolymer lines on a 7' MH Tactical Series rod couple with a Shimano Stradic spinning reel. The most disappointing thing was thinking we were having a good day and had good weight considering all our fish were over 17" which should be a 3lb fish. Thinking we had somewhere around 18lbs, not enough to win but maybe check, we felt good about our day. They scales at the weight in told a different story with our 6 fish limit only weighing 15.53lbs which was way of the pace of the 19lbs it took to take a check. So now it's time to buckle down and make up some ground at the next stop in Alexanderia and the Lake Le Homme Dieu chain of lakes. First though I will be back here in 2 weeks with Mary to fish the Fishers of Men tournament and you bet I've learned a little from this trip that I will be looking at then, until next time Tight Lines.