2020 Team of the Year - by Leif Nereson

Preparation, execution, and ounces of luck? 

What the hell just happened?  That’s what I’ve been asking myself the past few days.  It is such an honor to named 2020 Team of Year among so many great anglers.  Was it Preparation, Execution, luck, teamwork, faith?  After reflecting, all were a vital part of this season success. 

Preparation, practice, pre-fish, warm-up..  What ever you call it, it’s essential and comforting on game day.  I find that 1 day on lake is a minimum, 2 ideal, and 3 you’re so damn sick of fishing it.  Nick and I drop several pins before even stepping foot on a lake.  Exchange notes and cross off the many pins that didn’t work out.  This year I picked up my own ATV, which allowed us to separate more often to try out these pins.  Then would reconvene to talk about what we learned and apply that to similar structure.  It’s really hard not to fish during this phase.  Mostly camera-ing, but still need to fish some to see what works.  And this can be different on every lake - Jig size, color, presentation, plastics, meat, plastics + meat, line color/weight dependencies, aggressive jigging vs. dead stick. The list goes on.  After the days on the ice, preparation doesn’t end there.  Before each event I like to retie all my jigs and get them set based on findings from the lake, delete bogus pins, get a smoothie and cooler full of snacks ready the night before.  Also, key to have backup snacks if you partner is sluggish. 

Execution, game day, the MAIN event..  Still get butterflies when I pull into the landing.  Nick and I meet to discuss if any plan of attack has changed.  Seems like its always a game day decision on what spot to go to first.  Nick typically gets out more to prefish than me, so I usually go along with what he recommends 😊.  After takeoff, it’s all business at first until we get a few in the bag to feel comfortable.  We try to avoid the crowds and keep noise at a minimum drilling only a few holes at first.  We move often, even if only 5 feet and try not to linger in one spot for too long only catching dinks.  When the chosen pins are not working out, you are forced to think outside the box.  Can’t keep fishing same structure on different parts of the lake.  Was it time of day, sun, clouds, temp, noise?  This is where frustration really sets in.  Need to have the faith and expectancy that quantity and quality fish will come your way.  This gives you the drive to keep pushing yourself. 

Mazaska..  What a drive, but wow was it fun catching those tanks!  Nick found a gem of a bluegill spot holding several 10” gills the afternoon before, but would they bite in the morning?  So, at takeoff we rolled the dice on gills, when everyone else was heading north for crappies.  After about ~1.5 hours I think, we had 7 gills - couple 10’s and others at least 8.5”.  The tiny Kenders 3mm jig + waxie seemed to do the trick for me but took forever to get to the bottom.  After the 7^th gill, we decided to move to get our crappies before the window closed.  Shortly after we arrived at our crappie spot, Nick hammered a 13.25” crappie!  After that we would catch the occasional dink.  After moving around the area, we managed to cull another gill and catch some decent crappies, but no giants.  Getting concerned about our crappies, we joined the group in the community spot to hopefully fill a bag.  Got some more gills and a couple more crappies.  Once we couldn’t get them to go anymore and was only dinks, we left that area to think outside the box.  We went back to our first crappie spot, but a now a little deeper.  Bam!  Couple more 12” crappies and 9” gill.  Nick had the revelation; we seem to be catching them near the snowbanks.  Then said, “They like those snowbanks. Drill holes in those snowbanks” 😊  So not sure if coincidence or pure brilliance, but we always seemed to find the school under the snowbank and would be able to cull a few as the day went on.  At weigh-in, crappies were 13.25”, 12.75”, rest ~12”.  Bluegills were 3 true 10” gills, many 9.75”, and smallest 9”.  This managed to break the league record at 12.6 lbs.!  Just insane!  

Many thanks go out to my partner, Nick.  You are the most determined and committed angler I know.  I’ll loosen you up one of these years.  Paul and Jake, thank you so much for putting together such a fun league with a great group of men and now women.  The sticks in this group are amazingly good.  And the community you have started and giving back through the Hometown hero’s event will have a huge impact on people’s lives going forward.  You should feel so proud and honored.  And finally, thanks to the league sponsors, specifically Clam, Kenders, Thorne Bros, and Amped batteries.  Looking forward to next season and getting to know more people in this amazing league.

Leif Nereson