BASS TOURNAMENT

I have a bass tournament on the lake on May 21st. I have never been on the lake and I was wondering if someone could give me some ideas of what the fish are doing on the lake at that time. I heard that you should target smallmouth, not to many largemouth in the lake…. Don’t know if that is true… Ummm I also heard mixed reports on runninng up the river some people said that you could run it find but other peolpe told me that you can easilly take a lower unit off up the river. Any advice would be nice!
Thanks much, DAVID

Check your PM

Kizew
If you figured out the lake
You da man

never mind

Last time I fished a tournament on Menomin in 1990 (it’s been a while), we tried the smallies for 3 hours and only had two at 16″. Went off in search of largemouth and ended up with 4 from 15-18″ for the remaining 3 hours. A few others had a couple smallies, but no one else had largemouth.

I haven’t been back since as it was rather slow fishing.

As for running the river section, there’s a nice shelf on the sides of the river if I remember correctly. Just don’t get too close to the shore.

Good luck on your tournament.

I would target largemouth if looking to win or place in the money. Weeds and shorelines would be the areas to target.
There are a few areas that could possibly take out a lower unit but generally it is pretty safe. Running up river just stay pretty much in the center of the channel. Around the the first bend, it would be wise to slow down. There is a shallow weed flat that could cause some problem. After that stay just left of center until you see the rapids. Once you see the rapids i would proceed with caution. Give me a holler and I can give you some specifics.

Thanks for all the good info.

From my experience there are many more largemouths on the lake than smallies. The only smallies i have caught on the main lake are small. If you go up the river, which is easy to do, I have found better smallies that way, some of which are decent size. The main lake has some good largemouth bass fishing to be had. The key is fishing the slop.

A lot of the shoreline on the south end of the lake has rocky bottom and trees hanging over the water. A little tough for casting but the fish like hiding under them. A long canepole with some heavier line that you can reach in there and drop it right in front of them works.
Steve

They wont be spawning on those trees will they?

End of may is when the tournament is. They might be on those trees I have never fished the lake before.