I had the Wisconsin State tournament last weekend on my homewaters, Pool 8 of the Mississippi River. I put quite abit into my prefish..i wanted to weigh 15 lbs or better in a state tournament on my homewater...well this is a pretty tough time of year to do that, but i found the fish the monday before the tournament to do just that. basically i had them stacked in a hard-to-get to area that i knew would be risky on tournament day. I could catch a 2-1/2 lb fish on nearly every cast...and i had one over 4 lbs that was only 18" long- to give you an idea of the healthiness of those fish. Due to the risk involved of blasting over a 30 yard sand bar less than 1 foot deep, i knew i would need a lot more areas than just that if i wanted to win this tournament. I found some good fish on the main channel and knew i would start out with a topwater bite on a wing dam right away.

Saturday morning came and the fish i found on the wingdam were going strong. My first fish was the big bass of the tournament...not a monster but a 3.39 lb smallie that crushed a spook. I used the spook to catch most of my limit and alternated with a swim jig to fish the sporadic eel grass that made up the base of the wingdam. with 3 solid fish off this wingdam, i headed over to my second spot, a sand point with wood on it. In practice the fish were all over the tops of the wood because the shad were hanging in there. Fishing the spook tight to the wood produced some explosive strikes...some too explosive for me as i missed/lost 3 fish before finally boating a fish at this spot. I camped here for a long time and after the topwater shut down i shook out a 3+ lb largie from the wood with a tube. With 13 lbs in the boat early, i was extremely confident heading into my stacked "spend the whole day in here" spot...The only catch was that my boater had  the only walleye boat in the tournament. We tried idling through and that didn't work, and he did not feel comfortable running it. We stayed in the area where i upgraded a few ounces, and watched several bassboats and flat bottoms blast over the sand flat, hoping my boater would get confidence in it, but he wouldn't budge. that spot was my ticket to 15+ lbs, and my partner would have won his age group for sure. The end result was a 13.52 lb limit that gave me 1st by over a pound. My partner had 5-1/2 lbs for 3 fish, and it took i believe 5.74 or something to win..he had the opportunities, but like i said he could have had 10 lbs at the other area...

overall it was a happy day for me...

Next step is northern divisionals at Oshkosh, WI next weekend. I was out there early this summer for the bfl and it was tough fishing. Hopefully things will have turned over by next saturday...I do have to admit i was a little jealous of the kids weighing in at the JWC this weekend. If only BASS would have waited one more year before re-routing the juniors, I'd already be qualified for the JWC. oh well.

one more thing..went back to the "stacked" spot on Saturday and the fish were still there..A little stuborn but i didn't wait around to scrounge my limit. I did catch one about 4-1/2 lbs though :

Great job knocking them down, and nice looking fish.  Good luck at Oshkosh!

GREAT NEWS.... congrats... and hope you continue to whack them bad boys... Northern fishing can be tricky to say the least...

AL

Way to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep it up.

Great job, good luck at Oshkosh.

x2!

Great job on hammering 'em, keep it up and knock 'em out at Oshkosh!!!

;D ;D  CONGRATULATIONS!   ;D ;D

8-)