Event Number Two - Pelican Lake 6/7/2018

First off, sorry for the delay in getting this done. It was a combination of being busy, plus I had to make some changes to my spreadsheet. Since we are using half points, I needed to make a line item for those half point fish on my sheet. You won't see any difference on the detail that's posted, but it is less confusing for me since I made those changes.

Right before putting in, Sam walked up to me and asked if we were on the right lake since it wasn't blowing like a sum bitch. For the most part, it was very calm for Pelican, and we didn't have to beat ourselves up getting to our favorite spots. Most everyone else's spots in the league are better than Jim and I's spots, because there were several fish caught, which again is different for Pelican. Troy and Ryan took top honors with 32.5 points. Joey and Austin are still atop the overall leader board with 56 points for the year, but Troy and Ryan are close behind with 53. Also, for the second straight week, the biggest fish of the night was caught by the team with the most points when they measured a 30.25 inch Pike.

This is the first time since I don't know when, that we started on Gull and moved Pelican back two weeks. As a result it means we're fishing three weeks in a row, but it paid off fish wise. Last year we had two more boats in the league, but this year we are catching more/bigger fish. Last year on Gull, we had a combined 180 points; this year we had 204.5. On Pelican last year, we had 174 points; this year we had 183. Both lakes seem in pretty good shape, but we've noticed less weeds in some areas, and more in others. The shallow areas seem to have more, but the deeper weed line seems to be less defined. Maybe it's a result of late ice out, or something more sinister...only time will tell.

Next week (tomorrow as I write this) we're on Edward. It's been pounded pretty hard this week, so we'll see what happens.

For the even detail click HERE.
For the standings, click HERE.

Event Number One…Gull Lake Chain 5/31/18

I held up on doing the notes this week, waiting on a reply to a text from me to Chris, Ben & Brent, about their participation in the league this year. Since none of them can bother to take all of five seconds and say yes or no, I’ll assume by their frustrating silence, that they are not fishing. I only wanted to know so I could figure out what we’d be handing out money wise to those of us who have decided to get off our assess and hit the water in search of all important points. More on the money later.

First off, it was great seeing everyone again, as well as meeting a couple of newbies. The weather on Gull Lake was amazing, and the fish were cooperating as well. There were a lot of Bass caught. Word has it that most came from under or around docks in fairly shallow water. I have to report this because there were no Bass in our livewell, so I have no first hand knowledge if this is indeed true. I would trust the guys I’m fishing with to pull me out of the water if I fell in and was drowning, but telling the truth about where or how they caught fish is an entirely different story. I also have no first hand knowledge of where or how two boats managed to catch a Walleye apiece. I have a feeling it was by accident while casting or trolling a weed edge for Bass or Pike in about 12 feet of water, but that is only a guess.

Pike, on the other hand, is a fish I have first hand knowledge about. Before I get into how and where, there were lot of Pike caught, so the DNR should be happy with us. We took a total of 28 Pike under 22 inches out of the lake. Yay for us! There were also several in the slot that were photographed and released, as well as a few over 26 that were measured and released. I thought our new Pike procedure went well, as it certainly cut down on handling them at the measuring trough. For us, ours came while trolling just above the weeds in 8 to 12 feet of water while dragging a spinner bait. Others caught theirs while casing as well as trolling spinner baits or plugs, but the one thing we all had in common, was the weed line. That’s where they were hanging out, and if everyone does their part, in a few years those under 22’s will be few and far between while larger toothy critters roam the deep.

You may be wondering why I haven’t said anything smart ass like about my partner so far. Well, it’s because he actually caught fish. He still doesn’t like touching them, but he did catch them, and I only had to stop the trolling run once and grab the net for a big glob of weeds rather than a fish that was bending his rod and mysteriously taking out drag. But again, he caught fish and no docks; God is good.

So, Joey and Austin were the big winners on Thursday with 28.5 points. You no doubt noticed the half point. I was originally going to round up to the nearest point, but my spreadsheet makes it easy to handle half points, so that’s how we’ll do it. It should cut down on ties at the very least. Anyway, in addition to their night leading 28.5 points, they also came away with the biggest fish of the night hauling in a 27.5 inch Pike. Bonus points wise, they also had the biggest Walleye and a tri-fecta, so it was a good night for those boys. Congrats!

Now for the money. We have 11 teams in and paid, for a total pot of $1,650. I like even numbers when handing out money, so just like in years past, we’ll do $50 a night for big fish, so subtract $500 and we have $1,150. Subtract from that $50 for expenses, and we’re at $1,100. In keeping with even numbers, we’ll pay out $200 at year end for first and second place. $125 for first, and $75 for second. That leaves us with an even $900 or $90 for the nightly winners. Nice and tidy. Bada boom, bada bing.

So that’s the report for Gull Lake this year. Next week we’re on Pelican putting in on Stewart’s Bay and fishing from 6:00 to 9:30. State regs apply for Pike on Pelican as well, so follow the same script next week. As always, if you see something funky with the scoring, let me know. By the way, last year we had 13 boats fish Gull scoring 180 points. This year we had 11 boats and we scored 197 points.

For the standings, click HERE.

For the event detail, click HERE.