2024 Champions Tour Championship - LK Minnewaska - Final Wrap On Strategy And Outcome - 23rd/32 - 👎

hi everyone welcome to the channel this is MOA bass fishes I am Jim MOA professional bass fisherman in this video we are going to discuss my strategies for the 20124 champions tour championship tournament held yesterday on Lake mini waska because it's was and it's in the past this would be in the Glenwood Starbuck area of Minnesota it's a lake that's shaped like a pickle and it's got a ton of large mouth and it's got a handful of small mouth and this is a tournament style where you catch it you wait in the boat with a Marshall and a boat or a boat official and then you release it right there and every fish one pound or greater counts towards your total so I ended up scoring 39 bass in this tournament there's 30 okay first of all there's 32 competitors in this Championship I scored 39 bass that weighed like 61 LBS or so right in there and that was good for 23rd Place out of 32 it was guys were catching them left and right and Center Middle up down they were catching them like mad so here's how and my strategy I had a good strategy I really did um and I'll just tell you what my strategy was I knew I knew that to finish in the top five and Poss and win this tournament I knew I was going to have to find one of these big schools of bass Largemouth that that are there there's always a few big schools of large wealth in this Lake somewhere where they are exactly changes but the that's what I had to find I'd only been to this Lake one other time that was for a Champions Tour regular season tournament in fact it was my very first Champions Tour Tournament I ever fished and and this the only time I've been there but practicing for that tournament I found one of these Mega schools and unfortunately there was another tournament the same day and they went out an hour before us this still pain is painful they went an hour before us and when I got to my spot the the gentleman there say to me oh mo you should have been been here an hour ago cuz we've caught 50 so I so I'm like great and I asked them well can I fish here a little bit and they're like sure you can fish here and I still caught like six or seven um but so I knew I mean that told me that I mean that's that's what I knew I had to find I had to find and not only that the the winner of that tournament was Seth fighter that year and he got on one of these big schools so I knew that was the whole key for winning this tournament it was it's not a five biggest fish tournament it's just get on one of these giant schools catch them all and freaking just freaking watch the register just just go nuts so anyways so I first we get one day of practice where we can fish we can fish from 7il 4: and I hadn't been on this Lake since you know seven eight years ago when I had that tournament and so we can fish from 7 to 4 and then the second day of practice we don't get the fish we can't have rods on the deck we can just so run our sonar so anyways the first place I pull up to is a place that I regret not fishing from seven years ago because I remember finding fish there and then never got to it in the tournament so I go there it's right away it's you know it's the first place I check out I drop my Mota ultrex into the water well I don't drop it I I ease it into the water and my laurance active Target starts sending me signals and instantly I'm like and I'm I'm kind of on the outer Fringe of the weeds and instantly I'm like well God I think that's a fish right there I pick up my jig my alterrain tackle jig at jig flip it over to this fish I see like like in a little there's weed here there's some weeds clumps here weed clear here and I see this this fish signal about 5T off the bottom I flip it over there and this large mouth mauls my jig and I land it and I'm like I mean first flip I'm like like well that's pretty cool so I unhook it and I and it's relatively calm and I just kind of rotate the motor around and I see another image and I flip over there nothing nothing rotate it around see another image flip to it catch that one it was like the first one was like a pound and a half this one was the same thing so I'm like oh my God well this is obviously this is a good spot so then I fish around another bit and and I've dropped a a wayo on my Lance obviously and I'm fishing around a little bit not much more happening until about 10 minutes later now I'm about 30 yards from my initial Waypoint and I see some more fish signals like multiple throw it on there shake them off then I spin the unit a little bit oh there's more signals pitch over there shake shake the biters off then I move a little bit and all a sudden I see one signal drop drop your jig down and this is a jig that's with the hook cut off CU by now I'm fishing you know the first two I caught now I'm fishing with a jig with no hook because I I don't I don't want to hurt these fish I want to I want to be as fresh as possible for tournament time so I drop it down on this one fish and he's kind of being reluctant all a sudden like a whole herd whole herd of fish like ease out of this weed Clump and one muls my Jake and I shake that one off so so now I'm like all right I got so I put down that jig I pick up one with a hook cuz I just have to see what the hell this h is all about and I drop it down there instantly one muls it reel it in it's a 2 and a half pound large mouth so now I'm like and then I then I scope then I rotate the scope around and I'm seeing fish over here I'm seeing fish over there and honest to God this is exactly what I have in mind of trying to find and I'm like Jack and now it's just and now so now I got a depth I've got a depth because I'm going to I'm going to look everywhere in the rest of this Lake that I can at that depth and try to find what I just found because here's one school I know there's going to be more groups like this in this lake so that's what I did all the rest of the day spent all my time in uh and that was that particular school was in 16 ft so I spent a lot of time in 15 to 17 ft all the rest of the day trying to connect with a school like that and I never did I'd find single fish here you know maybe two there um but I never found that big school so going into the so that was the first day of fishing so now the second day of practice 7 till noon we can just sonar all day so what I did is I just put my laurance active Target to work and was just hoping to try to fine fish with it and I I put down some dots put down some marks of uh what you know of fish that I saw the problem is I don't know if they're bass I don't know if they're big crappies I don't know they're Walley I mean with with certainty I don't I should have brought my Aqua View Camera this was this was the perfect situation for aqua View Camera because if you can't fish at least you can drop a camera down and maybe see you know maybe can confirm or deny what kind of species I'm looking at so not having my Aqua View Camera was a major mistake um and it was just it was in my camper unsure that's I mean I could have I mean I had every intention to bring it it and I just forgot and I decided that I wasn't going to take the you know take the time to run all the way back to the to uh the bolt landing and then go then and it was about a 5 minute walk to my camper in my Campground so it would have been like a lost a half hour lost easily you know at least a half hour so I decided not to do it still might have been I still it's might have been worth it to do it and I didn't even with the lost time so anyhow so now come tournament day you know there's a lake split you fish one half in the morning you fish the other half in the afternoon of course I'm all full of anxiety and just uncertainty you know wondering if somebody's going to pull up on that spot before I get there tournament morning but sure enough I go there nobody nobody's there when I get there nobody's comes to want to join me fishing there I have this school all to myself and I'm jacked I'm just like so excited I dropped the laurance or the alrix Mota alrix into the water the and we can't line we can't start fishing till 7 and it's probably like 6:55 so and my Lance active Target starts sending me the signals and I'm scanning around and I and I pulled up Shy of the the Waypoint cuz I knew I had five minutes so I was going to just kind of ease my way with the and use the lancec of Target to kind of just scan what was going on I never scanned one fish and so I was like well maybe they're just buried in the weed clumps we did have a big storm the after the evening before and then another Storm come through at about 4:00 a.m. so I was thinking well maybe this has got them just glued to the bottom or something or they're just buried up in these weeds that and you just can't see them 700 a.m. hits and I can start casting and I'm not casting at any fish signals because I'm not seeing any so I just start casting that weed clumps and I'm you know I'm all over the Waypoint and I'm coming up with nothing and and you know at a certain point you realize these fish aren't here so I'm like I'm like okay I'm not going to give up on this school cuz obviously you know they didn't swim across the lake they didn't swim who knows where they at so I really so then I dug in and just started fishing moving in shallower into the heavier weeds cuz where I found these fish were out into kind of the intermediate the sparse weeds that's where they were in practice but up inside was a lot heavier coontail and stuff so I spent my time moving in and out moving laterally down the weed line each way in and out and like a half hour gone by and I still hadn't had a fish i' watched some guys off in the distance you know you can tell when he catches one cuz you know cuz the the Marshall stands up and you can you know you can see you know what it looks like when somebody's weighing a fish so I'm just like you got to be kidding me and as it turns out I never did I never could relocate this school um so that whole morning session what what I did find was when I did go really shallow you know in this area where the school was when I went shallower as far all the way up to like 10 ft that's where I could start catching some but it was it was not like a big school of fish it was like one here one there and they ran small I mean I'm I'm catching like 14 ooun to one and a half pounders and it's not easy is what other guys are experiencing it's not easy as sitting on a school making one cast over and over again to a school and by the end of the first period the first half um and I and I and periodically I'd B I'd bounce back out to the deep edge um that and and just check and look you know and it just it just wasn't happening so by the end of the first session the morning session I was in 27th Place I think I had about I don't know 17 or 18 bass something like that disappointing so disappointing but there's an afternoon session and I know I can still make a check at least and and by the way the leader had 90 lbs they caught like 60 fish or something ridiculous ridiculous like that all out of one school of course um so I mean I'm disappointed I'm at I'm I'm sitting there at lunch break they give us free lunch thank you by the way uh and oh gosh the place we the place that hosted us was called The Waters Edge what a I really like that place it's right on the lake and we had our banquet there the night before they made these ribs that were so good some of the best ribs some of the best ribs I've ever had and I and I went to RibFest at Mystic Lake Casino in Shaka earlier this year to sample some of the best ribs around and these ribs were so good up there at Water's Edge and and the Fried Chicken was really good um baked potato well it was just it was a baked potato just like any other baked potato and uh but anyhow um back to the fishing we had lunch there at the water's edge it was uh um well whatever it was it was decent lunch but those ribs man I want those ribs again anyhow enough for the rib talk so I'm sitting there at lunch and I'm eating alone because I'm pissed I'm frustrated and I'm just I'm just like I ain't going to let this happen to me I'm going to get out there and just smash him the second half because I'm mad I'm pissed this ain't I'm not going to let this happen and I knew to get back into a good money spot I knew I had to land on one of these big schools of fish so the strategy was um there was one place I wanted to check where I did catch some fish during the practice day where we could fish I wanted to go there and then it was a matter of going to check a bunch of the way points that I dropped during our sonar only day so that's what I did so the first place I went to is where a place where I caught some fish and it actually was producing fish but it wasn't wasn't aough type of place where you could just hold your boat and make one cast here I'd catch one here move the boat a little bit catch one there move the boat a little bit catch one there maybe catch two there in fact I caught three I caught three without moving the boat at one point but I was starting to make the climb I was starting to reel in um and I got to a point where I moved up to 19th but the problem was that area I I taxed out that area I wasn't I was start I was like the area where I caught the three without moving the boat that was like the juice and then as I moved around that area and away from it it was getting to be more of a one here one there 15 minutes goes by catch another one so now I wasn't holding now I was I wasn't gaining any more ground I moved up to 19th I wasn't getting any more ground I I think I pulled in with like N9 lbs of the last money spot but I but it just I I hit the wall so then I then I'm like okay I'll start I'll start running some of these waypoints I dropped from my Sonar session and the first place I go to I catch one didn't take too long but then it was you know fish fish fish and then oh I caught another one and then fish and fish and fish and fish and then catch another one but I wasn't making up on any ground because I wasn't catching them faster than the other guys I wasn't Landing I wasn't finding that group of fish where I could hold the boat and make a certain cast and catch multiple fish and that's pretty much how the rest of the afternoon played out um just hitting little droughts of non-activity and then catching a single fish and um that's that's how the that's how the day played out right so I ended up 23rd Place out of 32 very disappointed I I had the right strategy because the guys that did well found these schools and the guy that won the tournament interesting enough congratulations Kyle Shuda interesting enough the school he found in practice moved he said it he said he had to go down the weed line uh 100 yard I don't know did he say 100 yards it was a ways and then he finally reconnected with the school and that's how he weighed 90 lbs in the first first half so um and then other guys that did extremely well you know they had spots where they could hold their boat and catch fish in one you hold their boat in one place and catch fish after fish after fish it's not how it worked for me I knew that's what had to be done I had the right I mean my baits caught fish I like I like the baits and it came down to two baits for me um I'll show you what they are again it's this uh this is this is the same jig I used at Leech Lake it's an all train tackle at jig and here's what I'll say um at Leech Lake and at mini waska I never lost a f any fish I hooked on this jig I never lost now I trim the weed guard thinner when I'm fishing weeds that's pretty thin okay it's a lot thinner um so I trim that down so it flexes easier I don't like when I practice fishing I'll use it with a fold weed guard because it's less likely to snake especially if I'm practicing Woody cover but in weed cover you can really thin you can really thin it down and that's part of part of the key but I you know I probably at Leech Lake I probably caught um I don't know a dozen fish out of the two days while when I was Largemouth fishing a dozen you know that's including Keepers and nonke Keepers probably c a dozen or so on that didn't lose one and then the good thing about mini Wasa was I never lost I never lost a fish I scored N I scored 39 bass not one came off the hook every every bass I set the hook on and was hooked after I set the hook and that was pretty much all of them there was like maybe two bites during the day where I felt like a little thump and I pull back and the The Jig trailer would be pulled off or whatever but it was just awesome that kind of a hooking percentage is what I dream of I mean 39 freaking hookups and not one comes off that's just uh and and half the fish I weighed at least were on this bait right here and that's the Billy rub flut craw Billy rubs comes in that package the L Trin tackle uh packages look like this um this jig skirt is an aftermarket jig skirt that I really like so that's that then the other bait that I used out there mini Wasa was a a drop shot rig that is a billy rubs tricky D which is my go-to Straight worm they uh um that worked really well my leader length what is that you know I didn't play around with lader length that's about a third I don't know 12 13 inch maybe 14 at the most lader length two a hook I fish it on this rig right here it's not a finesse cuz I'm flipping it in in heavier weeds than that so it's not a finesse uh type drop shot the main line on that is like 16 16 lb Flor carbon and the leader is 12 lb fluorocarbon and I do then here's something I do I tie a little swivel in there that prevent because when you're flipping especially straight tail worms a lot of cases when you're flipping that it'll a lot of times the straight tail worm might spin like this as it goes down and that'll twist the heck out of your line so that's why I throw that swivel in there and that eliminates that line twist so I'll do that on that rig or even some of my finesse uh rigs if I'm if I'm Tex and that's when you're Texas rigging when you Texas Rig uh which I was doing when you Texas but Texas rigging means you know it's rigged basically like that um um that's when that spinning can is more apt to happen now if you just do a nose hook you don't get that spin so much so you don't have to worry about that swivel but if I'm Texas rigging that's seems when that swivels needs to be necessary okay all right well that is my mini Wasa report just not what I was after when you make those champion ships man you want to freaking hit that pay dirt and I didn't not even close strategy was intact good strategy just just didn't find them that school that school that left me the only the only the one regret I have is I should have went farther down the weed line the One Direction went quite a ways one way and just a little bit ways the other way um and by that I mean like 50 yards I should have just I should have just freaking just well I don't know what I should have done it's all hindsight yeah in hindsight I know what I should I should have just just dropped the trolling M and fish until the end of the period off off that deep weed Edge until I found them but see they can suck into that heavier vegetation too that's the other thing they can do they can pull in um because it wasn't much of a depth change the outer Spar stuff was like 16 17 then to get into the little bit thicker stuff you're only go only going shallower by about a foot that's nothing so all right over and out