Another Win For Mantz on Missouri River

Beaver bay was a tough tournament it was the first time for the club having a tournament at this location it is a large body of water with a lot of structure to figure out! Prior to the tournament I had went down there one day with Jeff and Janine and we fished most of a day pretty hard and did not manage to catch anything but some northerns, A few days later I took another trip down there with Matt and we made immediate plans to head south to try fins fish down there we fished pretty hard also and managed to catch a couple smallies but nothing special.

 

  Tournament day rolled around and mother nature once again decided to make our day special! winds were out of the Northeast at around 15 mph in the morning when we arrrived at the location lots of people that had camped the night before were up and roaming around and getting ready for the day of fishing,  having fished there twice and not catching anything in the launch area I knew where Matt and I were headed regardless of the wind.

 

  Launch time rolled around and off we went plowing throught the waves at a good pace we were headed south way south to the Pollock area where we knew there was at least a few fish, I looked over and Matt had two hands on the steering wheel and a look of concentration on his face as he navigated the rough water on our way down there there wasn't much I could do except hold on and prepare for the next slam of a wave! I gotta say I have new found appreciation for a Bass boat to handle rough water Matt's Triton performed magnificently!

 

  Arriving at the Pollock area we fished hard time flew by I caught 2 smallies there but sadly neither one was a keeper I looked at my watch it was 1130 time was running out and I looked over too see Matt plugging away at the GPS he looks at me and says Mobridge is only 17 miles away!  i didn't say anything I was busy checking the skies to see what the wind was doing cause it had been blowing pretty hard all morning.  Before ya know it off we went and soon enough we arrived in the area we had one hour to fish there before we had to head back to the dock area! we fished a point by a bridge and down the rocks and that produced several follows and several fish but again little dinks.

 

  clock was ticking and the pressure was on he asked me what did I want to do? answer was simple I thought we needed to hit the deep water on the point again and just out from that was bridge pilings that's when I had a Mike ichonelli moment ever fishing show I watch of his he goes bonkers when he gets around bridge pilings so I followed suit and i tossed a tube out in the deep blue yonder and it was met with a solid thud about 5 seconds later, well that's all it took and we instantly switched gears and put it to em in the short amount of time we had, I had my three fish within minutes and Matt was having a hard time catching any? I made a few cast caught and released a couple more than asked him what size his jig was? it was lighter than mine so the fall rate was different and they didn't want it, a quick switch to the size I was using and he boated his 3 in short order.

  

  Sometimes it's the little things that make a difference in a day pay attention to how your lure is reacting in the water and if your boat partner is catching a lot more fish than you than maybe you should take 2 minutes to figure out why! It was a tough tough day on the water with big waves and lots of wind making fishing very difficult.

 

  Top angler of the day was Marty Mantz of Center with 3 smallies and 8.93 pounds also the biggest bass at 3.36 pounds.  Second place was Matt Sullivan of Bismarck with 3 fish and 5.98 pounds.  The rest of the field  did not manage to boat any keeper bass but there was some pretty nice walleyes caught!  pics can be seen on the website!  Thanks Geo and Mike for the great food afterwards those MMB sure taste good after a rough day on the water.

 

  next tourney will be at Lake Tschida! I am sure that Paul will be licking his lips for this one as it is one of his favorite lakes, that being said i am sure there will be lots of other anglers that will try and take him down!  I think Bob is gonna put up a mighty battle and be hard to beat! I got skunked there last year so my goal is to catch 3 fish this year! see ya on the water.

  Marty