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The second bass battle of 2016 is in the books! This contest took place on Marsh-Miller Lake. It's a 441 acre impoundment located in Chippewa County Wisconsin. The lake features a maximum depth of 14' and averages somewhere in the 5-7' range. Other things to note about this lake is the bottom composition that consists of 90% muck, and that this lake is absolutely full of wood. Literally the only area that doesn't have stumps of some kind is the narrow channel that runs through the lake. There is both submergent and emergent wood and there's so much that you might as well only idle because if you don't you'll hit something planing out or coming off pad. The water color in this lake is pretty stained with a lot of suspended particulates. Bass species present are largemouth only. With a pretty sever thunderstorm passing through the area the night before the battle, I was a little curious how the bite was going to be. There was another front set to come through the day of the battle though, so I figured things would work out alright, although thunder and lightning on a shallow lake seems to mess with the fish more. The general consensus was that fishing was tougher than expected. After cycling through many baits in my arsenal to only find nothing working. Things were looking pretty bleak for me as it was after halftime before I even had my first bite. It gave me plenty of hope as it wasn't really a hit, but rather a violent almost rip the rod out of your hand type strike. Unfortunately that was the last one of those I had. I only managed to boat one more small fish and had two other bites that I missed. It was almost as grueling of a day for dad. Had it not been for finding 4 bass on one laydown, he only caught one small bass and a northern elsewhere. A few other fishermen we talked to said it was very slow for them as well. At the end of the day, dad had caught almost all his fish on a 5" red shad Yum Dinger with a rattle inserted. My fish came on a 3/8 oz jig with a Berkley Chigger Craw in Electric Blue. Bass Battle Round 2 Results Dad - 3 fish for 7 lbs 11 oz Me - 1 fish for 2 lbs 10 oz Series Score Me 1 Dad 1 If you missed out on what's going on, check out the first post below

A few years ago, after watching Denny Brauer and his son Chad's tv show "Ardent Bass Battles" my dad and I both got the idea to do the same thing with one another for fun. For those not familiar with the show, Denny and his son Chad would fish against one another for a given amount of time. At the end they would weigh in what they caught just like a normal tournament. Their show was sponsored by Ardent because they were both sponored by them. Since my dad and I both run Ranger's we decided to give ours and official title of the Ranger Bass Battles. We're always fishing with one another, so it's nice to fish against one another every once in a while. We did make a few changes to the original format. We made it into a small tournament series where we go head to head the best out of 5. The amount of time we fish in each battle isn't always equal as we just try to fit them in after our regular tournament season. The rules stay the same though as we each try to search out a 5 bass limit in our allotted amount of time. Round one took place on Miller Dam, a 2366 acre impoundment located in Taylor county WI. In it's hay day during the mid 90's it was regarded as one of the best bass lakes in Wisconsin. Unfortunately, due to it's shallow nature, our harsh Wisconsin winter, the introduction of invasive species, and bass loosing importance with the WI DNR it has suffered greatly. After a huge winter kill in the spring of 2012 it hit an all-time low, but it has slowly been making a comeback. Our family cabin is located on this lake, which has given us both a ton of experience on this lake so we are pretty evenly matched. When all was said and done, dad had landed 8 bass and two northerns and I had only put 5 in the boat 3 of which were keepers. As it turns out none of dad's made it into the livewell. The winning pattern was fishing cribs in 8-14' with a jig. I had made a quick pass through with a crankbait as you can usually pick off one or two with that even on a slow day, but that particular evening you had to physically bump the cribs with a jig and then hop it slightly. It produced some nice quality fish. I wish there were a few more cribs to try, but in the end it was enough to get the job done. Bass Battle Round 1 Results Dad - 0 fish for 0 lbs Me - 3 fish for 9 lbs 3 oz Not the greatest picture, my 91 year old grandma doesn't have the greatest cell phone photography skills but I give her credit for giving it a shot!