Illinois Boys

Jeff and his father Ken from Illinois came up and fished a day with me on Lake Minnetonka.  We managed to track down lots of bites and the boys were able to put some dandies in the boat.  The weather was nice and so was the day on the lake.  Thanks guys!     

Mille Lacs Giants!

The nice weather last week made for some great bass fishing on the big pond.  Lake Mille Lacs is home of some giant fish.  Gunner and I experienced the power of Mille Lacs.  The first fish of the day was a 5 pounder!  The fish were just getting up on their beds.

I apologize for the quality of these photos, they were taken with my cell phone.  My camera was dead.  Gunner did get a bunch of photos on his camera which I will be posting as soon as I get them.  

Stay tuned for more info and pictures.  I am going to be on the water a ton, and I apologize for not getting updates up at the pace you have all come accustom to.  There is some exciting news coming to fishwithmatt.com!  I will be disclosing more details soon. 

Update on Sunday, June 7, 2009 at 11:51PM by Matt Peters

                         Here are a few more pictures from our great day on Mille Lacs.  Gunner and I caught many nice fish.  This gives you a pretty good idea of the quality of the fish on the big pond. 

 

 

Off to a good start

The first tournament of the year is in the books and I would have to say it was a success.  No Chris and I didn't take the first place prize but we did finish 16th out of 72 teams of the best fisherman.  When you look at the guys fishing the river you quickly realize they are the best fisherman because they know how to adjust and understand what the fish are doing, that is the only way to be successful on the river.  During practice the water dropped 10 degrees over night.  Think that changed the fish and the bite?  The river anglers are able to adjust and find where they go and how to get them to bite.  Being that I am not a die hard river guy I had to stay open minded and pay utmost attention to detail. If I caught a fish I had to figure out why they were there, what they were doing there, and how to catch more of them.  The current comes into play, the water temps, the bait, and lastly the depth.  The fish are getting ready to spawn so they were looking for areas that were warm. 

On the first day of competetion Chris and I weighed 16 1/2 pounds, on the second day we sacked a big bag and weighed 21 1/4 pounds.  When all the dust cleared we had finished 3/10ths of a pound out of the last place money (15th).  Tough to swallow but a fun few days of fishing by all standards. 

As a whole group, all 72 teams; we raised over $130,000 for St. Judes Childrens Hospital.  It was amazing considering we are in a recession. 

I want to say thank you to all of you that supported this great cause in my name.  I can reassure you I have never fished so hard in my entire life. 

Now onto this weekend, it is finally fishing opener here in MN!  Stay here for all the early season updates.  It is lining up to be a great opener.         

Practice....

Many people laugh when they hear I refer to fishing as "practice," or better known as pre-fishing by many touring anglers. They only laugh because they simply do not understand the amount of time and energy it takes to stay dialed in on the fish. It is not a bad thing to laugh or not understand. Here is a small glimpse into what practice means to a pro-fisherman:

This "practice" is the period of time we spend locating and attempting to catch bass on a specific body of water shortly before the tournament. Sometimes we will pre-fish for 2-3 weeks leading up to an event. In this case that body of water happens to be the mighty Mississippi River pools 4 and 5. The event I am fishing is the St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital Tournament next weekend.

The pre-fishing gives me the chance to try and build a pattern as to what the fish are doing. Once I gauge what they are doing I am able to start pinpointing the areas they are. All of this would not be possible without being on the water. So what it really comes down to is fishing as much as possible;especially on the River. Every corner you go around brings a new adventure and tons more water. Last night we shared dinner with a few of our competitors/friends who made a statement that hits close to home for us all: "There is so much good looking water down here, but none of it produces."  

So this weekend we spent time trying to eliminate water that the fish are not using and key in on the areas they are using. Gunner and I fished through some of the nastiest weather conditions over the past two days but had decent success finding both largemouth and smallmouth.   

Practice also allows me a chance to knock the rust off my casting and flipping after a long MN winter. A good flip is the difference between getting a bite or just wishing they would bite. Needless to say, practice is a very important part of tournament fishing.   

Some of the fish we caught today were holding so tight to stumps that you had to place your bait perfectly with a good flip. 

I am still looking to raise more pledges for this great event. For those of you that have already made a pledge I much appreciate it. For information on pledging to this great cause please contact me either by email or phone. I promise to not let any of you down, I am going to fish my butt off for the next six days for this great cause, no matter how tough the conditions might get.