Snuggling up to Mother Nature

Got out on the lake about 5:50 a.m. Wednesday morning. According to my Durango, the temperature was a cool 44 degrees on the drive out to the honey hole.

As I load the boat, I watch the fog roll and shift off the top of the water. With the exception of the chill in the air, the conditions are ripe for chasing bass.

Without getting too far off point, still mornings on the lake make for easier days for me — for now, I row. Soon I will motor to my spots, but for now, Dear Friends, I row.

I make the decision to row to the farthest point, which just also happens to be on the northwest edge of the lake. The trees that surround this little bay-like hideaway provide ample shade on a clear, sunny day, but Wednesday morning, the bay is cold.

Even as the fog on the rest of the lake gives way to sunlight, this bay still rolls that dreamy white.

I settle into the eastern curve of the north end of the bay. The timber and overhang is thick, and a new-this-year beaver dam along the way has my attention. But I ignore it for that northern most end of the bay.

I cast with a blue fleck, Texas-rigged worm and manage to pull out a quick, 16-inch bass. This passes the Milt test, so aptly named for a reader who suggested I only count bass 12 inches or longer for my season total.

As I work my Texas rig, getting caught up from time to time on branches and who knows what, I contemplate a change to the buzzbait. This has been my go-to lure, but I figure the water has to be too cold this morning.

Then I hear a sploosh, the kind of noise that whips your head around on a swivel looking for the big splash, the big fish. But, despite my hopes a bass smacked the top of the water, the noise comes from a pair of beavers.

I watch as both go under then reappear, their heads popping to look back at me.

I continue to fish as they head toward the beaver dam.

About 20 minutes later, a deer across the bay on the western shoreline splashes down into the water and runs south along the shoreline. Soon a second deer comes out of the treeline and follows the first deer, except this one stays parallel on land. When the two of them come to the mouth of the bay, each pause, turn and head back the way they came.

Here I am, just a small player in this morning of Mother Nature.

Just as I'm about to give up on this area of the bay and head to the beaver dam, I hear a rustling in the trees in front of me.

I know something big is tramping around in the trees, so I continue to watch deep within the leaves.

More broken branches, more rustling leaves, and then, head high, staring back through the dark shadows of the tree, another deer staring back at me.

I guess sometimes a good morning of fishing isn't always about watch we catch.

McKee, Kramer take Lake Washington

The wind swept in quickly and moved out almost as quickly Tuesday night, providing the right cover for a couple of anglers of the Tuesday Nite Walleye Tourneys series.

Stu McKee and Roger Kramer (McKee is at right, Kramer left in pic) teamed up for a first place finish, boating four walleyes for a total weight of 13.03 pounds. McKee and Kramer also took the big-fish prize, bringing in two walleyes over four pounds (4.57 and 4.35).

McKee said the winning presentation was artificial, namely crankbaits. He said his years of experience with hatcheries led him to believe throwing cranks was the right way to go.

"Most of the fish are staying shallow," McKee said. "So that's why I fish 'em that way."

Coming in second was the team of Dan Griep and Bill Holland. Griep and Holland boated one fish during the opening tournament May 26 at Lake Elysian, but they came in with the biggest fish, thus taking first place.

Griep and Holland (Holland at left, Griep at right in pic) boated five fish at Lake Washington Tuesday, but they weren't able to overcome the two big fish by McKee and Kramer, finishing second with a weight of 11.31 pounds.

Like the first place team, Griep and Holland concentrated on artificial baits.

"We kind of watched the water temperatures a little," Griep said. "When the water switches over to 62 degrees, I like to throw something more aggressive."

The team of Troy Bessman and Steve Wolfe finished third with a stringer of 4.67 pounds.

In all, 14 walleye came out of Lake Washington Tuesday, with cranks and artificial presentations proving the best option. The tourney now shifts to Madison Lake June 16.

The following are some pictures from Tuesday's tournament. The first picture is tournament organizer Tim Hobbs weighing in one of the big fish from Kramer and McKee's stringer. The other are just more general pictures. Enjoy.

Watchin' for walleyes

I'm planning on heading out to Lake Washington Tuesday night for the Tuesday Nite Walleye Tourney weigh-in. Should be interesting. I'm hoping the guys have a good night with lots of fish to weigh in.

I was reading Jason Sealock's blog the other day (he's an FLW Outdoor's edtior based in Kentucky), and he writes about an experience with a pro angler where he didn't realize the pro was giving him a helpful hint, and he just blew him off and continued to fish his way.

Basically, Sealock suggests there is always something to learn from other fisherman, which I find to be very true. And learning something new doesn't have to come from a pro fisherman. Nope, it just involves your willingness to learn something different and to ask questions when you see someone do something so different, you think they aren't in their right mind.

Walleye, bass, northern, muskie, it really doesn't matter. Sealock's sentiments transfer over to all types of fishing, because it's about the chase. Happy hunting.

Small fish in a big pond

I have to step back every now and then and reassess my take on bass fishing in Minnesota. First and foremost, I'm probably viewed as the equivalent of a traitor in my home state because I don't hunt walleye spring through fall each year, and then onto the icy lakes in the winter.

Nope, that's not for this guy. But I don't find anything wrong with catching a walleye here or there, and I definitely don't have a problem with eating them. Walleye are good eats.

But if I'm not casting, I get pretty bored. I suppose this comes from fishing creeks near my home town of Emmons, Minn., as a child. We fished pike in these narrow creeks, a chain that snaked around the rural country side, giving us kids a chance to hop on our bikes in the summer and pedal out to whichever creek we thought would be holding the northerns.

You learned to be a precision caster on those creeks. If you didn't, you lost your lure. We fished mainly with Dardevles or other spoons, and most summers we did all right fishing in those creeks.

Twice I pulled in eight-pound notherns, which isn't half bad considering these creeks couldn't have been more than 8 or 10 feet deep in their deepest spots.

A lot of what I learned there transferred over to bass fishing. And I still have soft spot for fishing from shore whenever I get out fishing.

But fishing from shore doesn't usually afford you the ability to catch large quantities of bass. And for the third year, I will calculate my bass total, which has grown each year as I've moved away from shore fishing.

The first year, with little boat time, I came in at 77 bass. Now, I'm aware some anglers, especially those in bass-rich lakes or reservoirs in the south and the west, catch hundreds of bass in one outing, to which I can only say, "You stink and I'm jealous."

The chances of that happening in and around the Mankato area are slim, and I can't afford myself the time to make it happen.

Last year, fishing mostly from a boat, my total climbed to 190. My best day came with my brother-in-law, Dave, on Gull Lake in Brainerd, Minn. There we pulled in 39 bass and three pike in a little under two hours.

So the potential for a big day is available. This year, I've tallied only 20 in-season bass, though I did catch 11 out of season. A reader suggested to me that I do as he does and only count those bass over 12 inches.

Well, an unofficial count of the 20 in-season bass at 12 inches or longer would probably be 15. Of the 31 I've caught in 2009, that total would probably fall between 20 and 25.

So the bite hasn't been what I'd like, but the fish have been decent considering I haven't come across any fat females. Good thing the season's just begun.

Slow but fun

The bass action has been good at times, great at times, and very slow at times. Almost a week into the bass opener and I can't complain.

I've had a few readers tell me about their openers, their honey holes, and a few places in between. Getting schooled on Sunday of opener weekend has made me go back to the basics — slow presentations, plenty of jigs and Texas rigs, and a whole lot of switching lures.

The past two days I've pulled in eight ... not good, not bad. But of the eight, five have come in at 14 inches or bigger. I'm still having luck with a white, Strike King buzzbait, and the ChatterFrog has been almost nonexistent.

The worm, well, that's been really hot at times, and not-so-impressive at other times. Perhaps my biggest problem is my love for the strike of a bass on a buzzbait. And seeing how I've had so much luck with the spring buzzies, I tend to get locked into that lure way too much.

Perhaps next time I will try something different. Perhaps I will continue to get a feel for my new Jitterbug. Perhaps I will switch over to the ChatterFrog again, or maybe I will go simple and throw a spinner bait.

Either way, it's definitely time to change it up.

Slow tourney; big money

The first Tuesday Nite Walleye Tourney took place last night on Lake Eylsian. I talked with one of the tournament organizers, Tim Hobbs, who said the bite was slow.

He said the winning walleye for the first tournament came in at 17 inches and the second place walleye was 15 1/2 inches.

The light catch made for an easy weigh-in as the tournament officials didn't even bother to break out the scale. Hobbs said he expects the June 2 tournament on Lake Washington to be a little more productive.

Aside from the slow catch, the big fish pot will carry over to Washington. Hobbs said the Elysian tournament had 14 boats with 26 anglers. Ten of those boats paid the $10 qualifier to be eligible to win the big fish prize.

The catch, however, is that the big fish must weight 4 pounds or more. Neither the 17 incher or the 15 1/2 incher came close to 4 pounds, hence the reason tournament officials didn't even bother to break out the scale.

Hobbs said that the big fish carry over for Lake Washington could come in somewhere around $200 to $250. Anyone fishing the Washington tournament is eligible to pay the $10 buy in to qualify for the carry over pot.

And if you're really curious, if no one wins the Washington big fish prize, the Madison tournament could see a big fish pot of $300 to $350. Take on a first-place showing and that could be a nice little pot.

Some days are tougher than others

You ever have one of those days where no matter how hard you try, or no matter what you throw, you just can't land fish?

I had one of those days Sunday. Free Press staff writer Tanner Kent and I went out to Little Jefferson for some morning bass fishing.

Within minutes of our first stop, Tanner pulled in a small, yet feisty bass. After a second fish by Tanner, I pulled in my first bass to make it 2-1. But after that initial bass, I watched my longtime friend and fishing buddy reel off nine bass to my one.

We finished the day with me trailing him by nine, which is a big deal because each year we track a running tally of our catches to declare the winner of the Kent-Monson classic.

Trailing by three or four fish can be a daunting task, trailing by nine, well that's a whole different story. The craziest thing about the outing was that after refusing to switch over to what Tanner was fishing, I finally did and still watched him catch the fish.

I lost a couple of nice bass that would have helped lessen the pain; I guess it was just one of those days. Next time, I'll have to take him to my honey hole and hopefully narrow the gap.

Hot lure: Culprit plastic worm, voodoo colored, Texas-rigged.