This past Sunday, Jon and I fished an open bass tournament together at Lake Wilhelm. The tournament was set to start at 6 am and end at 2 pm. Although the open event was held at what I consider the second best lake in the state it was a low turn out. Even though the turn out was low, some of the best fishermen in the area came out that day to compete.
The tournament started and we ran to an area that was holding a good number of fish. We started the tournament relatively slow. Each of us boated only 1 keeper on our normal lures in the first hour and a half of the tournament. We didn’t switch spots, but I switched tactics. I switch to a crankbait and boated 6 fish in the next hour and a half including a 3+ and a 2+. Finally, a couple decent fish. The next hours was dead as we ran spot to spot looking for more fish. Finally, we decided to make a longer run to a couple spots which we have history with. It was a good move. By 12:00 we caught 3 more good fish. One was over 4lbs and the others were 3+ and 2+ respectfully. Even though we had a decent bag of fish we knew we needed more. We moved around an hit more spots and some spots twice with no results.
When we got to the launch we had discovered that we weren’t the only boat that had struggled. Most boats had between 10 and 12 pounds with or without a limit. Jon and I managed to bring in a 5 fish bag that weighed 15.06lbs. It was good enough to finish 5th place I believe. That may seem like a great day, but typically at Lake wilhelm you are going to need 20+ pounds to contend. The tournament was won with a total weight of 17.80 pounds. The weather played a role in the out come of the tournament, and a great adjustment was made by the team that won the event. Congrats to them. Thanks to the club which put the event on. I look forward to fishing it next year.
