On September 7th the twins had their first qualifier tournament of Kansas Youth Team Series. Six teams showed up to fish a tough Hillsdale lake. The day before 35 High School teams fished, and it took 4 fish to win. So, I told the boys it will take about 3 fish to win. We decided to start in a marina pocket with all the standing trees. I figured the twins could pick off a couple of keepers. They only had one bite before the 10 a.m. break. About a hour in, I was thinking this area was probably fished hard by the high school team. We probably should have started somewhere else.
After the break, we moved to a different area of the lake. Twins were throwing square bills and flipping creature baits. Finally while fishing some riprap, the twins saw a good bass flapping shallow. It was not doing very good. I had heard the week before that Hillsdale had a Largemouth Bass Virus. This bass was probably in the 3 to 4 pound range. The twins were trying to catch the fish. Nick threw his creature bait up next to the laydown that the bass was next to dieing. Nick thought he was snagged, just then his line took off. After landing the keeper, the twins were pumped. They fished hard for the next two hours only catching two nonkeepers. The one keeper was able to take third place with 2.29 lb. First place was around 5.98 lbs and second place was 5.32 lbs. I heard that the first place team caught their fish early. I was very proud of the twins; it was a tough day. There were not very many fish caught by the six teams. Congrats to the winners and to all the kids that fished. Great job. It would have been a tough day for adults.