I love when a plan comes together

I love When a Plan Comes Together

By Chris Yogerst

                I recently fished a BFL tournament on the Winneconne/Wolf River chain here in Wisconsin.  I decided to jump into the event only a few days prior, so my practice time was limited.  In recent years I have done well there including a fourth place and big bass in last year’s BASS Weekend Series event. 

This system is made up of the Wolf River, Fox River, Lakes Poygan, Winneconne, Butte Des Mortes as well as Lake Winnebago.  What makes this chain so interesting is its diversity.  It is made of both rivers and lakes, and is usually drastically different year to year.  Local knowledge doesn’t help as much on this system, so you still have to put time in to figure them out. 

I gave myself two days to practice and decided to waste no time and only focus on two areas.  I checked areas that were good to me in the past, but there was almost no grass in areas that were usually chocked!  Like I said, every year is so different out there.  We had a late spring and fish were in between spawn and post spawn.

Small fish were guarding fry on beds in an area that I found, but the bigger females were packed into grass (If you could find some!).  Knowing that the fish needed some kind of cover, I adventured into very shallow water and finally found some grass.  There were about 6 good clumps and I shook fish off of every one.

When I practiced it was cloudy and windy and fish were not terribly tight to cover.  Tournament day was a different story, almost a smoldering 90 degrees and high bluebird skies.  I knew the bite would chance for sure, and it did.  Many guys I talked to at the weigh in had their fish move on them completely, most likely to deeper water if they didn’t have sufficient cover when that sun came out.

Knowing my good spot from last year was pretty much junk, I pulled up quick long enough to pull a good fish off of one lay down that usually holds a limit worth of fish.  I left there and spent the rest of the day in the shallow grass I found the day before. 

I had no bites on the first clump and began to worry.  After my third cast into the second clump I decided to let the bait sit there.  It sat, and sat….and sat, then I felt the famous bump…BUMP!  Two and a half pounder in the boat!  For the next few hours I fished those clumps, having the leave the bait sit 30 seconds or more to get bit. 

Since the bait was sitting so long, it got far down in the grass so the right tackle was needed.  I was using a 7’ medium heavy Roland Martin Tournament Grade rod with 20lb. fluorocarbon. 

It was important to stay focused while the bait sat so once the fish bit you could get him coming out of that grass before he went deeper into it.

The bite was tough, but I knew the fish were there.  Almost everyone I saw during that day was fishing extremely fast, a mistake I try not to make anymore.  I like to throw lighter weights on my worms as it helps me slow down.  I ended up with a solid 11-13 (good for this water), and landed 7^th out of 130 boats.  The key to my finish was really slowing down and not giving up.  If you know the fish are there, keep pounding on them and make them bite!