A recent post in Tournament Talk by @mattkenzer got me thinking about our upcoming weekend.  We are going out on Sunday evening.  Which lake would you fish and why would you pick that lake?  

 

Lake #1:  11,000 acre lake.  Water level is steady for this time of year but the water is muddy right now.  Overall current fishing report is "fair to good".  This lake is extremely popular for crappie and is well known for that species but we would be going for bass.  Bass rating for the lake is "fair".  It does host regular bass tournaments and there are two scheduled on Saturday but they are small for that lake (a 40 boat and a 20 boat).  

 

Lake #2:  730 acre lake.  Water level is steady and water is normal color.  Overall current fishing report is "fair".  This lake is known for bass and muskie.  There is a bass tournament on Sat morning (40 boat).  Current bass rating is "good".  

 

Water temp, depth, topography, and shore detail are similar for both lakes.  The smaller lake has more cover per square acre and a lot more docks as the larger lake has almost no docks.  

 

We are fishing Sunday afternoon/evening.  #2 is our favorite lake and we are leaning toward going to that lake and hitting the area around the tournament release site.  What do you think?  Too soon for the bass that were caught on Saturday? Is there other info or details that you would take into account?  I suspect I will learn a lot from your advice so thanks in advance.    

No brainer for this old guy: Lake #2.

 

1. Lake #2 has musky.  I'll assume that it has pike too.  Pike+Musky+Bass = 10x any lake without Pike and musky.
2. Sounds like you like lake 2 better....that's enough right there...

12 hours ago, Further North said:

No brainer for this old guy: Lake #2.

 

1. Lake #2 has musky.  I'll assume that it has pike too.  Pike+Musky+Bass = 10x any lake without Pike and musky.
2. Sounds like you like lake 2 better....that's enough right there...

I can see that logic!  Thank you

40 boats on 730 acres is a ton of pressure thrown in on top of regular weekend pressure. Go to lake #1!!

32 minutes ago, everythingthatswims said:

40 boats on 730 acres is a ton of pressure thrown in on top of regular weekend pressure. Go to lake #1!!

I agree it's a lot of pressure, but this lake gets these tournaments every weekend and I don't think they get near the 40 boat limit.  It's pretty consistent pressure on both lakes yet the smaller one keeps turning out bigger bass.  Does that make a difference?

My favorite Lake is 400 acres. it has a tournament every Wednesday evening. and a lot of pressure on the weekends.

can't count how many times I have fished it on Friday morning and caught some really nice fish.

I just slow down and finesse that lake.