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I'd like to tell you all that I've been hitting the lakes with the same consistency as the past few years, but then I would be telling a lie.

Weddings, holidays, family reunions ... we're in the thick of summer. 

But that doesn't mean I'm not thinking about fishing all the time. Lately I've been thinking about a big bass I let off the hook last Friday. Fishing a scumfrog — I'm continuing to hone my skills with this lure — I missed a modest strike, then casted back out to the same spot and hooked into a big one.

The strike reminded me of a shark attack out of the movie Jaws. One second, my frog is resting on top of the water. And then, with a quick, if-you-blink-your-gonna-miss-it move, something came from beneath the frog, snapped it, and the frog was gone.

I've been working the scumfrog a lot lately, mostly to work on my timing. With all topwater lures, the key to a good hook set is getting the slack out of your line. The frog is no different, except that the wait to get your line tense can seem like minutes, not seconds.

This is sort of what happened when that Jaws-like attack on my frog took place. A reader suggested I count to two before setting the hook whenever I fish with the frog. So earlier in the day, with other strikes,  I did count to two, which improved my hook set dramatically.

But when that lunker snatched up my frog, I forgot the essence of counting because everything happened so fast. The normal violent, hungry strike was gone, replaced by the quick unseen.

Perhaps I didn't quiet set my hook on that lunker's lip. Perhaps I didn't even really give a good tug for the hook set at all. I'm not really sure. But that hawg stayed low with a lot of pull, driving the end of my pole into my ribs as it ripped through the water.

And then it shot its body up and out of the water, gave that signature bass shake, and poof, my frog was gliding, almost floating, 15 feet above my head, the line falling slack onto my shoulders as the frog dropped behind the boat.

It's been a while since I've seen a bass that big. Even I had to sit down for a second and just stare in awe.

A friend once asked me if it makes me mad when I lose a big fish like that. I suppose. I'm sure it makes most anglers mad, if even for only a little bit.

But truthfully, whenever I lose a good-sized fish like that, I spend a good part of that day, and the next few days, thinking about the one that got away.

After all, it's the memory of the one that got away that drives us back to the lake, back to the hunt, and maybe, just maybe, another shot at the one that got away.

What's that stink?!

Some people may think the stink coming from Big Jefferson is the blue-green algae that has dominated the lake.

But after Tuesday's walleye tournament on the eastern half of the Jefferson Lakes chain, the smell might actually be attributed to the skunk the anglers left behind.

That's right. Not a single walleye was caught during last Tuesday's tournament, something that hasn't happened in some time.

"I think we've gone two years without catching anything," Tim Hobbs said. "It does make it interesting though because it basically double the pot for German Lake."

Basically, Hobbs said the tournament money paid in for Big Jeff carries over to German Lake, where a variety of things could happen. If only one team is lucky enough to catch fish and win the German Lake tournament, that team would win all of the money carried over from Big Jeff plus first place in the German tournament. The second and third place prizes from German would then carry over.

No matter what, the money from Jeff will be paid out provided someone catches fish at German. Even if multiple teams catch fish, that money will be paid accordingly from the first tournament.

Stu McKee and Roger Kramer lead the Tuesday Nite Walleye Tourneys for top team. Unofficially, they have registered 30 points. Bill Holland and Dan Griep, week 1 winners, trail McKee and Kramer by a point and are situated at 29 points.

There are four tournaments left in the season before the year-end tournament. With a return to Washington, I think the top prize is still pretty wide open. McKee and Kramer took in four walleyes at Washington, one less than Holland and Griep, but their total weight was nearly 2 pounds more than Holland and Griep.

I imagine Washington, unless something drastic happens on German, will be where this season's top team is decided. But still, four tournaments are a lot, and anything can happen.

Weed control

Hobbs said, surprisingly, that a lot of the weed cover at Big Jefferson has either died off or been cut down. He said weeds weren't the issue with the anglers this past Tuesday, but he couldn't place a finger on what attributed to the slow bite.

Having not seen the lake in nearly two weeks, I'm not sure what to think. Generally in July we see a lot of area lakes start to shed some of the weeds that give us trouble in late spring and early summer, so Hobbs comment that the weeds weren't bad shouldn't be too surprising.

But the mass of weeds I saw on that lake has me surprised that the die-off is happening so quickly. And I'm a little unsure about the weeds being cut, because as I've stated before, if we were in 13 feet of water, we were in 13 feet of weeds. Who's out in the deeper stuff cutting the weeds?

I wouldn't be, that' for sure. But I know near shore, several property owners have been cutting and raking weeds, which must be a pain in the you know what. Weeds will always be a part of fishing, good, bad or otherwise. 

But those weeds ... well that's not right.

Waiting for word

I'm still waiting to hear back from Tim Hobbs on the Tuesday Nite Walleye Tourney at East Jefferson.

I'm a little nervous for the participants, because after what I saw on that lake, the fishing had to have been tough.

Weeds, weeds and more weeds.

Of course, a good majority of the guys fishing these tournaments know a thing or two about walleye fishing. I'm sure at least one of the teams in the top 5 caught fish, but I won't know that until I talk to Tim.

On another note, I took my son fishing yesterday. These outings offer little time for me to fish, but they are fun for him — well, sort of.

About two weeks ago we couldn't get him to fish with worms, which we all know will allow him to catch something, even if that something is a carp or a bullhead.

Tyler wanted to fish like Daddy, so he kept reeling in his bobber set-up and casting it out. Then he'd reel it back in again.

"Like Daddy."

So I threw on a beetle spin for him because I figure that's just an easy lure to catch fish with. Well, in the two outings since switching to the beetle spin, he's been skunked (though my wife lost something yesterday that Tyler surely would have been able to reel in, had she set the hook).

When we left he was mad because, "I just want to catch a big fish!"

Of course, explaining to him patience is a failed experiment. He's a month shy of 3. But the fact that he can cast his little Spider-Man pole, and cast the beetle spin for distance, well that's worth every minute of being out there for ol' dad.

We can't predict what our children will grow up to be or what interests they will have. We can't push our children into the things we want them to love either; history has shown us this is a blueprint for failure.

But we can show our children the things we love with hopes that someday, they grow their own love for those things. Tyler may not be catching fish hand over hand, but he definitely shows an interest.

For that, I'm thankful.

One heck of a grand prize

I'm not much into scratch-off games. The Powerball either, although I waste a few dollars every time the money gets outrageous.

I like gambling, occasionally, but when I first came to Mankato, I learned a lot about gambling and why not to.

I sold pull tabs, which at the time had a 6 percent chance of payout. I'm not sure if those odds are the same, but I'm sure it is close. Those are horrible odds when you consider if you buy 100 tickets, you may only walk away with six $1 winners, provided you landed in that 6 percent range.

But scratch-off games likely do have better odds. I could look those up for all of you, but I think you get where I'm going with this. I like to add skill to the things I compete in. I like to think. That's why I like games like Texas Hold 'em, or why I'm drawn to fishing.

So when Rapala and the Minnesota State Lottery teamed up for Fishin' for Fortune, I really didn't have an interest in playing. But many did, and many lost. Yet five of those first-time losers landed bigger payouts when they actually followed through and sent in their losing tickets for second-chance winnings.

Last Tuesday, June 23, five people from across Minnesota got a chance to compete in a shopping spree at the Rapala wharehouse in Eagan. Two of those winners walked away with $5,000 in Rapala gear.

Unreal. Just think of all the tackles and accessories a person could stock up on if they won. Basically, to win, the contestants had to fill up their carts with Rapala products, and the closest one to $1,000 won the five grand in merchandise.

The grand-prize winners were Gene Provost of Alexandria and Glenn Henrikson of Moorhead. Three other finalists each won a $500 Visa gift card.

Well, I might not like the odds here either, considering the five finalists were picked out of a draw of more than 10,000 losing tickets, but I definitely like the prizes they walked away with.

Scumdidlyumcious

I haven't been out fishing all that much since my trip to Big Jefferson. But something about that scum frog just made me get back out on a lake and test its worthiness.

What I've found is that I've ignored this tasty lure way to long. My first outing after the Jeff trip, I caught two bass, lost four that were on, and missed another five bites at least.

The action was fun, intense and also provided me with an on-the-go learning experience. Like all topwater baits, the scum frog needs a little touch when it comes to setting the hook.

I found out early on, and probably because the bite was just so violent, that you have to reel up the slack in your line or let the fish take the lure long enough to pull out the slack before you set the hook.

This is critical.

A slacked line ends in a poor hookset, which ends in a 2 for 6 performance. In baseball, a hitter can be happy with a .333 average. In fishing, this only causes heartache.

The two bass I did catch were more than enough to satisfy my curiosity about the frog. On those two catches, I tossed the scum frog on top of, well, scum that hugs the edges of my honey hole.

With the frog on the scum, I hopped and twitched the little lure slightly to the edge of the scum where I let it sit a second. And, like clockwork, I twitched the frog at the edge to let the bass know where the was, but before I could twitch the frog into the water, the bass would shoot through the scum and take both it and the lure in its mouth.

Wow. Fishing topwater is always a visual treat, but watching bass smack through muck and scum to get to my lure, that was truly something else.

So I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you haven't tried a scum frog, do so. If you need a new experience and lure to add to your fishing arsenal, this little baby will more than seal the deal.

McKee, Kramer repeat

After a strong showing on Lake Washington in which three-time defending champs Stu McKee and Roger Kramer posted a four-fish weigh-in over 13 pounds, the duo followed up with a two fish, 13 pound 3.8 ounce showing at Madison Lake.

The duo also won the big-fish prize for Madison, pulling in a walleye topping the scale at 8 pounds, 4.3 ounces. The top billing pushes the duo into first place, ahead of Dan Griep and Bill Holland, who didn't boat a fish at Madison Lake.

Second place went to Chris Roemhildt and Dan Bunde, who netted two fish for a 3-pound, 6.6-ounce stringer. Third place went to Lloyd Tru and Ron Patterson, who weighed one fish at 3 pounds, 2.9 ounces.

Tim Hobbs, who helps organize the tournaments, said 21 boats registered for Tuesday's Madison Lake tournament with 38 anglers participating, a good number considering the rainy weather.

"After the first 45 minutes, it wasn't too bad," Hobbs said.

Next up, the walleye tourney heads to Lake Jefferson, which brings me to my next thought.

Big Jefferson
Went out fishing Thursday with my brother-in-law, Dave. We really wanted to mix things up and try a lake we don't normally fish, so we headed out to Big Jefferson (East Jeff for those of you still confused).

I'd heard the rumors of overgrown weeds and the difficulty the weeds were causing anglers, but until I saw it, there was no way to really understand how bad it has gotten.

If we were in 5 feet of water, there would be 6 feet-plus of weeds. Thirteen feet of water, 13 feet of weeds. In close, out deep, the weeds were everywhere.

We spent the first three hours battling the weeds and finding pockets to fish through. Dave, being a master of the mimic minnow (he contends there is a special skill for using this lure that involves twitching and jerking, something a straight retrieve can't mimic), hooked into a couple of stripers before catching a small walleye.

For me, nothing but a bullhead. Needless to say, the frustration level was high, so much so that even I tied on a mimic minnow, which led to my first largemouth of the outing.

The struggle got so bad that I'd contemplated calling it a day, and anyone who knows me knows I hate to leave a lake. With little hope for the lake and with a big list of complaints growing in my head (something I intended to vent about here in this blog), I suggested to Dave it was time to throw on a scum frog.

"Well, you better do it soon, cause we're running out of daylight," Dave said.

With the invitation, I tied on the old scum frog, more so because I just wanted to throw a lure that I wasn't going to pick weeds out of.

Within a minute I lost a bass. Within five minutes I had two bass on. During those last waning moments of daylight, I managed to pull in five bass, all pretty decent in size and all very violent on the bite.

What went from a horrible outing on Big Jeff turned into a pretty tasty day on the lake. I just wonder if we would have caught bass all day had we switched to that presentation earlier.

Waiting for word ...

I was trying to wait to do a blog post until I talked with Tim Hobbs to see how the third Tuesday Nite Walleye Tourney turned out.

Unfortunately, between our schedules, we haven't talked yet. So hang in there, I'm sure I will have an update at some point tonight or early tomorrow.

Until then, I briefly went fishing at a new spot today. This rather unique body of water has a lot to offer, I think. I hooked into a 2 1/2 pound bass within my first few casts.

I'm trying to track down some official information on this spot before I give you a more in-depth analysis. And perhaps, just maybe, I'll let you all know where it is.

I'm hearing the water temps are rising quickly. Free Press photographer John Cross was out on Lake Washington this past weekend, and he said it was easy to catch a limit of crappie. Makes sense, considering the water temps in 8 to 10 feet were 65 degrees.

As I discussed in my last post, the crappie spawn begins to cap off around 65 degrees, and the sunfish spawn should be in full mode. So go catch some panfish while the catchin' is good.

Lastly, I'll try to give a little update on Big Jefferson. Oh, excuse me, that's East Jeff for those of you who prefer directional names as opposed to sized names.

I've heard the weeds are pretty thick, but I've also heard the bass action is picking up. We'll see.