Tom Logue and his guest Todd Consbruck; winner of the 2010 ProPattern’s fantasy fishing event enjoyed an exclusive South Dakota pheasant hunt with the ProPatterns’ Pro Team staff; Me, Jami Fralick, and Matt (dead-eye) Reed.

In conjunction with my win at the Toyota Texas Bass Classic, ProPatterns’ is offering a chance to win a guided fishing trip with me on Table Rock Lake here in Mo.. All new members; joining ProPatterns by year end are eligible and automatically become eligible to compete for the 2011 South Dakota pheasant hunt.

Below is the account from this years winner. We had a great time and didn’t shoot each other; another plus!

—————————————————————————————————–
Someone pinch me. I think I was dreaming. I hope you guys will indulge me. I’m just so excited and I wanted thank these guys publicly for the hunt of a lifetime.

Tom Logue, a long-time friend of mine asked me to go on a pheasant hunt he won near Gregory, SD. He won it through http://www.ProPatterns.com in their fantasy fishing contest. I got to hunt with Tom, BASS Elite Pro’s Brian Snowden, Matt Reed and Jami Fralick.

We saw over a 1,000 wild pheasants in two days, I got to spend time with good friends, and made new ones.

Chad Ekroth, the ProPatterns owner is from Gregory, SD and we hunted on his family land and over at his good friends land – http://www.dakota-skies.com.

Tom and I met the guys Thursday night and after a fun night we had a big breakfast and had a hunt “huddle” with Joe from Dakota Skies. Joe was leading the hunt. He did a great job with outlining how we’d hunt – walkers and blockers, and all safety aspects like only shooting from “10 to 2″ – in other words never shoot low, don’t take any risky shots and so on. I’ve been pheasant hunting for over 30 years but I really appreciated they took the time to make sure everyone was on the same page saftey wise.

Like the rest of us though, Joe is still not sure what a “Peezunt” is. That’s what Matt Reed thought we were hunting. Matt is about the funniest guy alive. Not to mention the pics of the 14 lb bass he was showing us from Lake Falcon, one of the places he guides (Toledo and Rayburn too).

Off we went at 10 am, when shooting hours start. “Dead-eye” Reed dropped a double on the first 2 red “peezunts” he’d ever seen with 3 shells.

Joe did a great job with everything and had 3 great chocolate labs, we lost 1 shot bird (a runner) in 2 days, that’s amazing in that type of habitat and winds.

Chad and Joe

Joe with one of the many pheasants his dogs retrieved. Tom is behind and Jami is in the hoodie

.

Matt showing Brian one of his "double"

Brian and Jami in a "sea of grass"

Jami, Chad and Joe

End of Day 1

NO MAS!

A Pile of Birds!

After we all pitched in cleaning our limit of birds we relaxed and hung out for the afternoon, ate a great supper in town and went back to the lodge. I loved hearing a lot of stories from their fishing careers and Matt kept everyone rolling.

Saturday morning dawned like the artic circle according to the bass fisherman (I’m from Nebraska so it was definitely long sleeve shirt weather. It was a brisk 11 degrees and windy.

Friday we hunted within a mile of the Ekroth’s house at all times. Saturday we headed to Joe’s place. He has his entire family farm managed for pheasants, his habitat and the Ekroth’s is breathtaking.

The wind and clothing affected the boys shooting a little bit on day two. Those pheasants were leaving con trails going downwind.

The end of Day 2 (Just the pheasants from that habitat strip behind us)

Actually, it was so cold my camera battery’s quit. So I didn’t get many pictures. Over 2 days of hunting we saw well over 1,000 pheasants on 1,000-1500 acres of ground. It was jaw dropping. ALL of these pheasant were wild, no “preserve” birds. We saw some huge deer and the spectacle of waterfowl in full migration. All the guys were great and I can’t thank Tom, Chad and Joe enough.

Jami, Matt and Brian are all great guys. Root for them if you follow the tour. Brian is on FoxSportsNet tonight winning the PAA in Texas.

THANKS GUYS! This was awesome!!! If you want to go to pheasant heaven, I’ve been there. It’s Gregory, SD.

Jami, Brian and Matt are some of the nicest guys alive. I’m sure going to root hard for them on the tour. They were all extremely genuine, nice and likeable guys.

All I can say is wow. I was told they are planning a hunt or fishing trip for a lucky winner every year for any of you guys as pheasant or fishing crazy as me – which I assume is about all of you!

The first day of the tournament the water temperature was around 70 degrees and clear.  The air temperature was in the 70s with a sunny sky and slight north wind of 10 mph.  I started the day throwing a Bass Pro Shops Tender Tube on shallow gravel points.  I threw the small tube on a St. Croix Legend Tournament 7’ M spinning rod with a Johnny Morris Signature Series Spinning Reel.  I was using 8 pound XPS Fluorocarbon Line.  I spent about an hour on these types of points, but they only produced small fish.  I then switched to a ½ oz. War Eagle blue herring spinner bait.  I still had no success.  I pulled out my drop shot and went to try and catch my limit.  It took two hours to put five keepers in the boat.  After the fifth one was in I switched tactics to try and catch some bigger largemouth.  This produced nice largemouth with one weighing 4.73 lbs. and the other one almost 3 lbs..  I finished the day with 14.12 lbs. and was in fifth place.  The second day of the event started off a little better with two nice smallmouth on a football jig, and I also had two nice chunky bass on a spoon.  I then switched to the spinner bait and caught four nice largemouth that were keepers.  I was in third place after day two.  Well, I was in a good position to win back-to-back tournaments, so I put away the sissy stuff and went for fifteen pounds.  Unfortunately the spinner bait bite was not on.  So, without a fish at 12:30 I thought I better do something a little different.  I picked up a War Eagle heavy finesse jig and put three fish in the boat that weighed 9.16 lbs..  I just wish I would have made this decision sooner, because I felt that I would have caught two more fish if I would have had another hour.  I finished the event in fifth place.

The first day of the event went well.  I caught the majority of my fish on the Carolina rig black trick worm.  I was casting the rig on a St. Croix Legend Elite 7’ MH rod.  I had it rigged with a Johnny Morris Signature Series Reel.  The main line was 17 lb. XPS Fluorocarbon Line with 14 lb. Excel Line as the leader.  I finished the day in 2nd place with 19.4 pounds.  The second day started out quick with the same rig.  I moved into the lead catching a limit that weighed 17.4 lbs., and I had a 3.8 lb. lead over second place.  I was excited for the start of the final day, but unfortunately, the fish were going to make it tough on me.  I had fished several of my primary areas with only short fish being taken.  At 11:18 I caught my first 3.4 lb. fish and nine minutes later caught my biggest fish of the day, a four pounder.  These both came on structure spots with the Carolina rig.  After an hour of this with no success I switched to the boat docks catching a 3.4 pound fish off of the very first dock.  I caught another 1.8 pound fish sealing the victory.

Unfortunately most of the pros found the same pattern, and it made the lake fish very small.  The first day I had an opportunity to have a good limit, but I had one pull off and another break me off while fishing the shallow docks.  I did try the frog in several different areas, but I was only able to manage one keeper bite.  The second day of the event I started with the frog in the lily pads with no success.  I then switched to the boat docks with a jig and broke off the first bite of the day on a ladder.  This fish was about five pounds!  I then proceeded to catch and land one keeper and had another pull off.  It was just one of those days when nothing seemed to go right.

The competition started out well.  I had four fish on the prop bait and lost one other nice fish on the same bait.  I was unable to get any keeper bites from the docks with the jig.  I finished the day with just over 8 pounds and was in the top 30.  The second day proved to be more difficult.  I caught two fish and lost three on the way to the net while using the prop bait.  This poor execution dropped me out of the top 30.

Baxter, Campbell Point, Dam Area, & Kimberling City

Table Rock has been fishing very well over the last month.  A lot of the fish have been taken on a football jig.  Look for long, gravel points with scattered brush piles.  I have been making long casts with a St. Croix Legend Elite 7’ medium heavy rod.  My Johnny Morris Elite Series Reel has been spooled with 14 pound XPS Fluorocarbon Line.  Keep the boat in 35 feet of water working the bait slowly along the bottom from 20-30 feet.  The best jig colors seem to be anything that is green pumpkin with a little bit of purple.  If the bass are reluctant to hit the jig try slowing down with a drop shot rig in 28-30 feet of water.  A Zoom Finesse Worm in watermelon candy or green pumpkin seems to be the trick.

I started the tournament fishing a topwater bait, and I was only able to catch a few short fish in the morning.  I switched to flipping the willow trees and had several bites, and again they were all short.  I proceeded to the docks catching one nice keeper and a few short fish.  I ended the first day of the event with one fish weighing 2.93 lbs..  On the second day I decided to go for broke.  I fished new areas with the topwater bait and was able to catch one keeper off of the topwater.  I headed to the docks and caught two more keepers and lost one.  I ended the tournament with just over 7 lbs. and finished in 58th place.

The first day of the tournament didn’t go as expected.  The bass seemed to be stingy around the docks.  I would flip my ½ oz. brown jig with a Zoom root beer Fat Albert Twintail around the docks and swim it one to two feet under the surface.  This produced only two keepers by noon.  I scrambled around with a crankbait, but I only managed one more keeper.  I dug myself into a hole ending the first day in 87th place.  I knew I would have to catch a good stringer of fish to make the money cut and keep my position in the top twelve for the AOY race.  The second day I began fishing all new water throwing the shallow running RC 2.5 in chartreuse and black toward shallow, rocky points.  This produced a limit by 9 o’clock.  I then switched back to the jig and boat docks to try and upgrade my catch.  I proceeded to cull three times with the jig, but unfortunately the fish were not quite big enough.  I finished the event with 20 pounds, and this only moved me up to 80th place.  I ended the year in 13th place, just one position out of the post-season.  We are still Classic bond!

So during the tournament this is the area that I concentrated on.  I caught my largest fish using an XPS Professional Series Deep Crankbait in bone XXX or AYU shad.  I threw the crankbait on a St. Croix Legend Tournament Magnum Crankbait Rod with a Johnnny Morris Signature Series Reel spooled with 12 lb. XPS Fluorocarbon Line.  The crankbait worked well in the morning, but then I would have to switch to a ¾ oz. football jig in green pumpkin with a Zoom green pumpkin/purple flake Fat Albert Twintail.  I worked the jig in 10-20 feet of water along the ledge breaks with scattered rocks and shells.  I threw the jig on a 7 ft. MH St. Croix Legend Elite Rod with a Johnny Morris Elite Series Reel spooled with either 14 or 17 lb. XPS Fluorocarbon Line.  The first day I did lose a couple of 4 ½ pound fish but made up for it the next two days with over 20 pounds.  I ended up making the top 12 and finished the event in 9th place.

Baxter, Campbell Point, Dam Area, & Kimberling City

With the hot days of summer here to stay the fish have been moving out deeper and deeper each day.  In this area the drop shot seems to be the most consistent.  I have been drop shotting with a 3/8 oz. weight and a 1/0 XPS worm hook with a Zoom finesse worm.  The best colors for the worm have been watermelon candy, sand, or smoke with purple flake.  Rig your drop shot on a 7 ft. M St. Croix Legend Tournament Spinning Rod with a Johnny Morris Signature Series Spinning Reel.  I spool the reel with either 6 or 8 lb. XPS Fluorocarbon Line.  Work the drop shot in 30-40 feet of water on long, gravel points next to the main river channel or bluffends with submerged timber.  If drop shotting is not your cup of tea work the long, gravel points with a ¾ oz. football jig or Carolina rig.  The best jig colors seem to be the green pumpkin colors with a Zoom green pumpkin Fat Albert Twintail.  On the Carolina rig use a Zoom Baby Brush Hog or a Zoom Double Ringer in watermelon red or watermelon candy.  I rig both of these baits on a 7 ft. MH St. Croix Legend Elite Rod with a Johnny Morris Elite Series Baitcasting Reel.  I spool the reel with 12-14 lb. XPS Fluorocarbon Line.