My trip to the Bob Rickard Memorial Classic started on Tuesday
morning. I arrived at the launch about 8:00 am. A friend of mine
met me to do some pre-fishing, and both of us decided to use Tuesday
as a smallmouth bass search day. We were fortunate enough to find
several small mouth that I felt would be available during the
tournament. Wednesday morning we decided to fish all largemouth
stuff up the river. We found a few stump fields that “seemed”
to have a really good population of largemouth and each stump field
I went to we were able to pull a legal off of before moving on.

Wednesday night was our dinner in downtown Rhinelander with everyone
for the pre-tournament meeting. It was filled with a lot of laughs
and some great food!

Thursday morning, the first day of the tournament came around, and
my partner for the first day was Doc. Doc was great, and very
patient with me and my equipment. I had trolling motor issues right
off the bat. The issue was when I would press the button to give
the trolling motor power it would work, but when I removed my foot,
and depressed it again it would not turn at all unless I picked up
the trolling motor out of the water and get the blade turning
manually, then it would work again. Needless to say you cannot fish
a shallow stump field with that much noise. I did manage to catch
one smallie off one of the spots I had found on Tuesday that went
2lbs. I also caught a largemouth in a stump field on a swim jig
that measured in the morning but when I went to weigh in, I bumped
it one more time and found it to be just short. So I had to release
it. Doc was a great sport, even when we had to go back to the dock
so that I could attempt to fix my trolling motor once again he
didn’t sweat it at all. Like he said, if he didn’t throw me in
the water, I must have been ok in his eyes .

Thursday night came and we got to go to the Hubers, where Gil made a
great roast, and I normally will not eat Venison, but this stuff was
great. Thanks again Janet and Steve for some great hospitality. We
sat there for quite a bit listening humor from just about everyone.
Randy I think wins for being the funniest person I may have ever
met, hands down. I can tell you this, I will never EVER place a bet
with Randy Lisk, in fear of losing that bet!

Next was the draw for Friday morning, and I had the choice of taking
my boat out with a damaged trolling motor and a push pole or go as a
Non-boater. I decided that I would take the chance in my boat and
try and put something together. All excuses aside, it wasn’t my
equipment that kept me from catching fish, It was my decision
making. I was able to use my trolling motor on Constant and just
fluctuate the speed in order to fish most of the areas. Thank you
Randy for giving me some tournament sticks and Frogs to use on the
final day!

So Friday morning, I was fishing alone and started fishing a few
areas straight across from the launch, and managed to get a couple
jigs cut off and land a few dinks that even a 4 year old would
probably have no use for. So I headed for Thunder Lake, I managed a
nice 3.5lbs largemouth off a wind blown stump on a craw. My next
legal came on a spinnerbait on a shallow weed line in the channel
between Boom and Thunder lake. Then my last legal (about a 2lbs
fish) came on one of Randy’s Frogs. Those baits are awesome, and
really “better” than the horny toads I had used in the past.
The legs on Randy’s cause much more commotion on the water, and I
think that draws more strikes.

So I finished the second day with 3 legal largemouth bass weighing
7.01, giving me a grand total of 9.01. It was a great tournament,
and despite my frustration with my equipment (which was my fault, it
has taken a beating over the last 3 or 4 years and needed to be
fixed before I even left for Rhinelander) I had a great time and
enjoyed some great company. I wish more of you guys could have made
it once again, thankfully there will be more.

Thanks again everyone involved for making it a memorable experience!

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Via: http://www.jumlers.com/rec.outdoors.fishing.bass/