Viking Tournament on Lake Minnetonka

On Sunday, October 4th, Team BassAckwards fished Lake Minnetonka in the Viking Invitational Bass Tournament. Tim and Carl fished as a team, and Buzz fished with an up-and-coming bass angler named Jeff. Both teams fished well and we have the photos to prove it.

Tim and I had prefished a few spots last Wednesday and we put together a gameplan. Basically, it was to drop shot a stretch of water and catch a nice limit. We found an area of water that held some fish in deeper water on a deep weed line. We had caught fish in water from 20 feet to 14 feet. Our prefishing was immediately after a cold front and when we found these active fish, I was confident we could get some to bite no matter what the weather was like come Sunday. We didn't want to waste time by traveling the lake so our spot was within ten minutes of our take off at Maynard's. On tournament day, we stuck to our plan and caught 4 nice fish for 9.09 lbs. We each caught two bass on a slow and tedious day, drop shotting for 7 hours for those four fish. Trophies were given down to tenth place, with the tenth place weight being around 10.3 lbs and first place just over 13 lbs. I truly believe that we could of had a trophy in our hands had we caught at least one more fish for our limit. Our fish were of quality size and I think we were in the right area and just couldn't get one more.

Buzz and Jeff caught a nice limit for 9.38 lbs. They caught fish throwing spinnerbaits around shallow vegetation. They also caught some fish using a rattletrap. Jeff hooked into a 12 lbs Musky and landed that beast on a tube around docks. Hopefully I can get that picture from them and throw it up here. It is a nice photo and a cool fish.Overall, the tournament was a lot of fun and the Viking Bassmasters did a great job hosting this event. They have put on this event for over 30 years and they do a good job making this charity event fun. The weights overall were not very large so anyone had a shot at taking home some hardware. A few guys from our bassmasters club, Lakes Area, were there and it was fun to see them. I am looking forward to this tournament next year and I think I have had my fill of drop shotting for a while!

Thanks for reading!

Carl "Skip" Spande