Charlie Wedes and Caleb Robey battled hard all day to finish in 9th place on Mille Lacs, while participating in the Minnesota High School TBF/SAF State Fishing Championship.
Conditions on Mille Lacs were good early, but high winds pushed them off of the main lake into protected bays in order to stay sheltered from chop coming across the main lake, as afternoon winds picked up.
Charlie Wedes caught the big fish of the tournament early, boating a huge 6.1 lb smallie on a wacky rigged Senko just 15 minutes into the tourney. After that first fish, the smallmouth were few and far between. They didn’t catch their next fish until Wedes caught a 2.5 pounder almost three hours in. At that point, the team had to switch strategies.
With the main lake getting beat up by big rollers, Robey and Wedes made the decision to head off of the main lake and head for cover. The strategy paid off as Robey pounded two big largemouth bass with less than two hours to go.
In the end, they would fall from 7th place down to 9th place as they took a 1/2 pound penalty because the big smallmouth they caught early, had died in the livewell just prior to weigh in. The top 7 finishers qualified for the regional tournament on the Ohio River in September.
The team battled through very tough conditions and did exceptionally well for their first trip to the State Tournament, with a four fish limit their final bag weight was 15.72 lb’s.