Bassin' For Bucks - 2nd place again!!!

My good friend Mike Reid and I have fished the annual Bassin' For Bucks tournament on Lake of the Woods together every year since it started in 1996.  That first year we were 14 years old and used a 14 foot Lund boat with a 25 horsepower motor and a cooler for a livewell.  The tournament takes place every year in Sioux Narrows, Ontario on the second weekend in September.  We have had good tournaments and tough tournaments over the years but we have been unable to seal the deal and win this tournament despite finishing 2nd three times!  www.bassinforbucks.com 

The weather was incredible all week for not only the practice period but for the tournament itself as well, which is usually not the case this time of year in Sunset Country.  We stayed at Crawford's Camp for the entire week and have a huge thanks to throw out to Matt Rydberg and Violet Longe for all the great hospitality, we really had a great time!  www.crawfordscamp.com  

I was throwing this new Rapala Crankin' Rap for largemouths during prefish and actually hooked a small largemouth that this pike attacked.  Eventually the largemouth got away and the pike got hooked so I had to get a picture, it was pretty interesting.  

Mike with a nice largemouth he caught during practice on a Northland Impulse Dip-Stick Worm

This was a picture I had to take on the way out in the morning on day two- talk about beautiful weather or what!  This was probably the best day of bass fishing I had all summer - our five fish weight was over 21 pounds.  

Here is a quick shot of our 21.15 pound catch on day two at Bassin' For Bucks - 3 smallmouths and 2 largemouths.  We caught a lot of big fish that day, it was a blast.  

Caught fish on a variety of baits over the course of the weekend - #8 Rapala X-Raps, Northland Impulse Dip-Sticks, Trigger-X Flutter Sticks and Minnows and Northland Pro-Series Spinnerbaits.  With the Senko-style baits, we were using YELLOW PowerPro braid and it made a huge difference in seeing bites because the line is very easy to see and it would jump when we got a bite while the bait was falling.  

Thanks to Barb Salvador and Debbie Ducharme for making the event happen for another year, as well as all the excellent volunteers!  This is one of the best bass tournaments in Canada, all the anglers have a great time!