Fear & Loathing on the Tournament Trail: Weslemkoon Lake

So when you enter a series of tournaments you would think that the lake you are the most familiar with would be your strongest performance, right? not the case with Weslemkoon

(Our ride for the day)

My partner has had a place on Weslemkoon for 20 years and fishes it every chance he gets, I personally make a few trips to the "koon" and have good success, usually walking away with at-least 1 fish over 4lbs and more often the not, it is over 5lbs. But alas it was not our day..

The day started off poorly as my partner woke up with flu like symptoms, he had chest congestion, aches pains and a wicked head ache, he actually spent part of the day laying on the deck of the boat working the trolling motor by hand.. but he would not call it day

(Loading up the boat)

we drew number 23 out of 30 boats and knew we had to make a fast run if we were going to beat the guys to our spot. When we arrived at spot #1 one I broke out the flipping stick and started to work the area as my partner through top water. after about 40 minutes neither of us had any hits, and it was time to move on.

Spot #2 was a back bay with sporadic cover and stumps, we worked a wacky worm along the cover and open spots. This area produced three fish, only one worth mentioning (2.9lbs). the fish were obviously on the move and we had a hell of a time finding them.

Spot #3 was similar to spot number #2 but the focus was more on stumps. we pitched in and around the stumps adding a fish or two to the live well.. again not much worth mentioning.

As the sun got high and the temps rose up to the high 90's for you americans in the bunch and 40 for the Canadians, we turned our attention to some boats houses that had proven success in the past. After hitting the first group, a family on the sore yelled out to ask how the fishing was, when we said "could be better" they responded by stating we were the third boat to hit those boat houses in the last 30 minutes. needless to say we pulled up the trolling motor and moved on.

late in the day we worked some shadowed shorelines as well as a few brush piles that usually hold fish.. but today was not our day. One hidden brush pile I love to fish on the "koon" was our last stop of the day.. as I pulled up I noticed we were beaten to the punch by a father and his young son that were floating bobbers over my beloved tree.. oh well, those are the breaks.

We hit weigh-in a few minutes early and noticed we were not the only one there. We weighed in a whopping 9.45lbs good for 11 placed (damn, just missed that top 10 finish)  and now sit 14th in the overall standings.

(the days catch)

The winning team came in with a series record 23+ lbs, they had the three biggest fish caught that day, the largest being 6.10lbs. they could have thrown that fish back and still placed first.. what a bag.. congrats to them for a job well done..

Weapons of Choice:

Dobyns DX706SF w/ Shimano Stradic - Wacky Worm rig
Dobyns DX795     w/ Shimano Curado - Zoom BrushHawg
Dobyns 735C        w/ Diawa Viento     - Live Target Frog (now retired)
Dobyns SS693SF  w/ Shimano Stradic - Tube/erie darter