Fishing For Kids Law Enforcement Tourmament

[Bill Babler]

Got the day off today and man I need it.

The annual MSWP/Fishing for Kids tournamet went off yesterday and I can't tell you how much fun this charity event is. I love it.

I believe me and the Beckster, took 21st ir 22nd, don't know which. You know, we really didn't stink it up that bad either, just picked a crazy pattern and stuck with it all day.

2.5 lb. fish are out there everywhere and you can catch them at will. 3.5 and up are the problem. We made a plan, to either catch the big boys or maybe nothing. We had 13 keepers, and no short fish with the top at 3 lbs. and weighed in just under 13 lbs.

Can't tell you what we were doing, and you really probably don't want to know with that paultry total, but we were throwing a bait that was 10 inches long. I feel like I was shot-putting all day, with the big rod, and 1/4 lb. bait. Missed so many fish on it, you can't even discribe.

To my wonder, we cautht fish that totally swallowed the bait, including huge white bass. Beckster had fished it two days straight in the CP and got a third.

We saw the winners fishing throwing a blade in the Baxter area, saw them put two in the livewell, and said that won't work for long. Wrong!!!

Buster came in second, flipping the shallow bushes. It was a blast, can't wait till next year.

After the tournament, if you can believe it, Chris T. and I had guide trips from 6PM until dark. We both had clients catch bigger bags than either one of us had in the tournament, swimming grubs in the dam area, on windy points. My guys had at least 15 pounds of Sj's and Chris maybe a little better, as he had a K over 4.

They are still biting out there. Also heard there were 71 limits of fish weighed in at the derby, that is fantastic for these conditions.

good luck

[techo]

Hey Bill! Saw you there. We tried to go for big ones too. We only caught two really decent sized fish and many 14.5 inch fish. Maybe it was one fish following us around. We went back and released the two near where we caught them instead of entering them in the fish relocation program. I knew we were not in the running. We fished on a few points after the tourney near Mills and caught three right away that were eighteen inchers.

All of our good fish came off of main lake points. We caught one on a red fin early with no wind. Guess who taught me about red fins!