Rookie Reflections - by Travis Jacob
To start this off I'd like to thank Jake, Paul and the rest of the crew that keeps MN Made Outdoors up and running. You guys run a hell of a show.
So, coming from MN Pan and fishing tournaments for the past 5 or so years the anticipation of joining a new league was high. I knew the competition level in this league was a whole new beast. I also knew a bunch of the names/teams and how good they are because I’ve fished against them in the Frankie's tournaments and have seen these guys at the top of the leaderboard. Honestly, Jimmy and I didn’t change our strategy - we have always put in the work to be successful but knowing we have never fished 3 out of the 4 lakes it would take extra dedication just to break the top ten and that was our goal - four top tens and we would of called it a great season.
Tournament #1 Maple Lake
First tournament of the year and we are out pre-fishing not knowing another team. The first guy that rolls up is the one and only Paul Ghizoni. We obviously had no idea who he was but it turned into introductions, then into laughs and strategy. After 20 minutes or so we moved on laughing and saying what a awesome guy he was. Maybe an hour later, here comes Dale Luginbill and Joel Kottke, once again we had no idea who they were, but within 5 minutes I’m drilling holes with Joel’s 3” auger. From then on, the laughs with these two didn’t stop - all season. Next to greet us was Kevin Wildung. I could keep going on but what I’m getting at is this league is filled with the “right” guys/gals to keep it not only competitive but also fun as hell!
Summary of each lake and how we caught our fish.
Maple Lake - 2nd place
Crappie - 15’-18’ FOW fishing plastics 1’-4’ FOW below the ice.
Gills - 4’-7’ FOW 3mm jigs with waxies.
Waconia - 3rd place
Crappie and gills together on isolated weed patches in 12’ FOW Fishing plastics
West Rush - 7th place
Crappie 30’ FOW basin fishing plastics
Gills 8’ FOW in the weeds 5mm with waxies
Cross - 5th place
Crappie and gills together in 20’ FOW using plastics and waxies.
This was a dream season and hope we can even come close to doing it again. Once again I’d like to thank MN Made Outdoors for the warm welcome into the league and all the awesome guys/gals we met through the season. Next year will be a good one!
Travis