International Falls Bass Championship - 1ST PLACE!!!!

Scott Dingwall and I spent this past weekend in International Falls for the 7th annual IFBC and managed to catch some big smallmouth bass on route to winning the event for the third time and for the second year in a row.  We fished the Rainy River the first day and caught a decent limit that went 12.25 pounds.  We had a tough practice on the River so we were pumped up that we were able to salvage a decent limit.  We had high confidence that we could make up ground on the Lake.  We had our best tournament day ever in this event on the Lake and caught a limit that went 19.19 pounds for a two-day total of 31.44 pounds.  We set both the one-day record as well as the two-day total record for the tournament.  We won $10,000 for our efforts as well as a bonus $1,000 from Optima Batteries for running Optima's in my boat.  They are a little bit more expensive, but they are the BEST boat batteries on the market!!!  And to have the opportunity to win extra money in some tournaments just for using them is huge!  I can't kill them in day, we ran the trolling motor extremely hard on the river and it held us wherever we wanted to hold up.  

We caught our fish on the River on 1/2oz. Northland Reed-Runner Pro-Series Spinnerbaits.  We covered as much water as we could, fishing relatively fast. 

On the lake we caught fish on #8 X-Raps in the morning.  These baits have been key for me in several tournaments this year...this is the smaller size, we call it the "baby" X-Rap.  Once things warmed up, we moved shallow and caught fish on some of the new Northland Impulse soft plastic baits.  

Here is a shot of our big limit off the lake - it was sure a fun day!  We had high expectations, but obviously didn't expect to catch'em as well as we did.  My Lund 2010 Predator boat and Mercury Pro XS 225 motor came through huge like it has all year in getting us there and back every day!  It is a beauty to fish out of!  

Big thanks to all the volunteers that put on a GREAT event in International Falls every year!  It's one of the highlights of the year for us every summer.  www.ifallsbass.com