DNR Officially Announces Bass Catch & Release Season for 2015

Yes, I have known about this for some time, but the official announcement was made today

From today's DNR press release:

Bass Snatchers 2015 Tournament Lakes

So my year of revenge it is.

May 30th Bay Lake
June 13th Farm Island Lake
July 18th Woman Lake
Aug. 15th Rush Lake (Ottertail)
Sept 19th Mission Lakes
Oct. 3rd Cedar

The only changes we made were to switch the Mission and Cedar lake tournament dates.  I really hope I get a boater who will take me with to pre-fish Woman and Rush Lakes.

2015 Bassmaster Classic Final Thoughts

I still believe the best coverage they have ever done at a Classic was the interviews when the guys got off the water last year with this years live coverage being a close second. I thought the live coverage on Saturday was a bit of a dud after the great stuff they got live on Friday with the late start. The live coverage picked up steam again today with more fish being caught and the drama of it being the last day.  I thought the highlight of today's live coverage was Randy Howell missing that fish at the bridge.   Hopefully this is the last Classic where they don't offer live on the water coverage from start to finish.  Their decision to leave the best times of the day for catching fish out of the coverage is baffling to me.  If they thought it would build drama,  I suppose it did a little bit, but once Casey's weight was on the scale all the drama was gone.   Personally I watched the Major League Fishing re-run instead of paying attention to most of the weigh in.

I was really impressed with Powroznik in the post tournament interviews.

Casey Ashley is definitely a heck of a fisherman, especially on those blueback herring lakes.  Him winning kept my Fanatsy Team from being super mediocre.   I should have kept Wheeler.  Oh well.

Congratulations Casey Ashley 2015 Bassmaster Classic Champion

2015 Bassmaster Classic My Thoughts Day 2

The novelty of the live coverage for me wore off.  Why are they not going live first thing in the morning and the last two hours when the fishing is supposed to be the best?  I don't get it.

Thanks to my Bass Snatchers meeting and shopping in Brainerd I ended up missing the weigh in.  My money is on Casey Ashley to pull it out today.

2015 Bassmaster Classic Thoughts Day 1

The Good:  David Walker getting a award for helping save a father of 4 kids life.

  The live on the water coverage was really good for the most part.  They picked the right anglers to follow on day 1.  It's to bad that Hack's feed didn't work.  It's a good thing the anglers they picked for the live on the water coverage were catching fish and keeping us entertained, otherwise the coverage would have sucked.

My switching out Morizo for Brett Hite.  Thank You Rich Lindgren.

The Bad:  BASS discontinuing the interviews as they come off the water that they did last year and ending the live on the water feeds 2-hours before the tournament day is over.  Also the on the water blog coverage didn't seem as good or comprehensive as last year.  The good live action that they were able to get really saved BASS's bacon.

I think they need to tell Mercer, Zona, and Sanders to resist the urge to be constant play by play announcers.  A lot of the time I felt less of them and more from the anglers on the water would have been better.  Zona and Mercer were definitely better at letting less be more than was Mercer.

The Ugly: Skeet Reese's Huk banana pants.

Breaking Bassmaster Classic News

My Bassmaster Classic Fantasy Line Up

I decided to pull the cocky kid Wheeler for Shin in Bucket E.  I didn't go with Andy Young because a rookie Pro just isn't a good bet in a tournament this big.  We do wish Andy the best however.

Update: Last minute substitute of Morizo out for B. Hite.  Rich Lindgren over at the Fantasy Fishing Insider Podcast had solid reasons to go with Hite.  My pick of Morizo was just a gut feeling with nothing to back it up.

So here is my final roster.

Why Close The Pike Season in MN North-Central Region?

An additional thought I had with the proposed changed to Northern Pike regulations in MN.  If the goal is harvesting more small pike, which clearly is the case in the north-central region, than why should pike season be closed in North-Central Region?

Wishful thinking on my part?  It wasn't even an option they considered.

MN DNR Proposing Radical Pike Regulation Change- Let's Go

One of the many many small pike I caught last year

The MN DNR's proposal for our lakes in the north-central zone:

The DNR’s proposal would eliminate the statewide northern bag limit of three fish, with one over 30 inches, and replace it with regulations that would differ depending on three new northern pike management zones: south, north-central and northeast. The biggest changes would occur in the north-central region — roughly north of Hwy. 55 and west of Hwy. 53 — where most of the lakes with an overabundance of small northerns are located.

There, the northern bag limit would be 10 fish under 22 inches, with two over 26 inches allowed in the 10-fish bag. All northerns 22 to 26 inches would have to be released

I am all for it making the 10 fish limit, but think the protected slot should go from 23 to 28 inches and be only one 1 fish allowed above that.

Platte/Sullivan had liberalized limits with some kind of protected slot for northern pike when we first bought a cabin on these lakes .  I believe the change started working slowly, but then they switched back to normal state regulations about 10 years ago and the lakes are now reverting back to a hammer handle factories.  I firmly believe we need to protect the bigger pike and cull out more of the smaller one's on many of the north-central lakes.

What I believe the 10 fish limit does is essentially turn small pike into panfish for the meat hunters.  It's true that some people will refuse to keep pike in the 22 and under range, but I think having the 10 fish limit for those who will keep them can more than make up for those who won't keep them.

Full Star-Trib Article on the proposed changes
MN DNR's PDF on the issue.

2015 FLW FantasyFishing.com Is Open For Business

Free to play at Fantasyfishing.com

Here are Prizes this year:

I would have to say FLW has taken back the mantel of the top fantasy bass fishing game to play with this prize structure.  I really should put more thoughts into my picks than I have in the past few years.  The only thing I don't like is they kept the $100 salary cap.  I would prefer to just pick the 10 anglers I want to have on my team for each tournament straight up.  It does look like they toned down how much the "Top Angler" will cost us to buy compared to last year, which was my biggest complaint with last years game.

B.A.S.S. Fantasy Bass Fishing is Open for Business

Here is the key info from the Bassmasterfantasy.com:

Fantasy Fishing begins each year in advance of the Bassmaster Classic. To play, fans simply choose an angler from each of the five “buckets” whom they think will outperform all the other anglers who are in the same bucket. The Fantasy Fishing player who performs best overall during the Classic wins a $2,500 gift card to Bass Pro Shops.

Play continues with the commencement of the Bassmaster Elite Series season, March 19. From then on through the rest of the season, the top player for each event wins a $2,500 gift card to Bass Pro Shops, and the player who accumulates the most points over the course of the season wins the grand prize, valued at $37,293 — a Triton 189TrX boat with a Yamaha VF150LA motor, a single-axle trailer, MotorGuide trolling motor and Lowrance Mark 5x.

So except for your groups it's first place or fuhgeddaboutit.

Here is my initial Bassmaster Classic roster, which is subject to change.

1st Bass of the Year on Wed.

17" on T.H.E. Jig and a waxie

3:30-8:00pm
32 degrees, light wind, cloudy, a bit of fog when I left.  Luckily I had put a waypoint down on my holes last week because I went the wrong direction when I left.  I went back to the waypoint, got my bearings and got off the lake.

I got back to Rock Lake thanks to getting the Expedition back.  Need the 4 wheel drive to get up the hill at the access.  I went and drilled holes slightly farther to the North of where I had been fishing.  I also drilled holes up closer to the reeds by where I got the perch and sunfish the last time I was out on Rock.  Sure enough that paid off with me getting two bass.

12.5"er took Go-Devil w/maggies

  I also got a bunch of perch on THE Jig, Demon and minnow, and the Go-Devil

I was not aware until this winter that perch were a significant baitfish in rock lake

As it approached the prime time crappie bit I hole hopped out to a deeper spot and pulled up a 9.5"er immediately.  I went and got the trap.  The fish were aggressive coming up but then would stop and look at THE Jig and waxie.  This resulted in dozens of missed hooksets.  I'm not sure if these fish were small crappies or sunfish; most probably a combination.

I went to a bobber and pulled a sunfish

Small crappie on the Demon and minnow

The fish continued to bite, so I continued to fish until 8pm

2 Largies
18 Perch
8 Crappies
1 Sunfish

What I Caught Largemouth & Smallmouth On In 2014

Fishing with Mike Carlson

3:30-6:00PM
Same as the past two days, slightly winder, slightly colder

Today I took out Mike Carlson, a former small group leader from my high school days at Hope Presbyterian Church, fishing.  Mike had never ice fished using a flasher before.  Turns out he really didn't care for "video game" fishing.  It started out kind of slow with Mike getting a couple of small perch and a sunfish.

Glow Demon w/spikes

I didn't get a picture of the sunfish because I was out hole hopping at the time looking for sunfish.  He caught a perch and a sunfish blind.  After I found out he got a sunfish I went in the house with him.  I caught 1 perch. Sometime close to 5PM I got the first crappie.

9"  Demon w/spikes

Pretty quickly after that Mike was bringing up his first on his rod with a minnow on a plain hook.

8" 

We caught fish pretty steadily over the next hour or so until we packed up around 6:00PM.  We fished out of three holes. Two with bobbers and minnows for Mike and me with the Vex with a Demon and maggies.  We had one double.

Some Thoughts at

It's past 5AM.  I tried to go to sleep around midnight, but couldn't.  I went fishing yesterday morning at Rock Lake hoping I might catch a bass along with some sunfish.  I caught 17 sunfish, 1 pike, and 1 perch.  The big thing was that I actually got to use my underwater camera to see fish for the first time in 7 years or so.  I was kind of an idiot and forgot I put a notch in the fin so I can do an almost straight down view.  I was a wee bit lazy and didn't bring the camera to multiple holes but just kept it in the one once I got it set to view the line in a second hole.  Oh well.

I spent a good part of my awake time this morning reading old blogs from when I ice fished before.  I really need to hit up Sullivan and try for tullibee along with a couple other idea's.

My First Fishing Derby Ever

I wrote this over at Bass Boat Central and thought it was worth sharing here:

My first ever tournament was a Boy Scout ice fishing derby on Beebe Lake around 1978 or so that was run by one of my Dad's best friends who was the Scout Master. I had not ice fished more than once or twice in my life prior; It may even have been the first time I was allowed to ice fish, but I don't think so. We didn't really have rods; we used a dowel with two pegs for wrapping the line on that had stiff fiberglass section with a rod tip. If you got a bite you just pulled the line in hand over hand the way people do with tip ups now. I don't think I had a bite that day. I remember being fascinated by a guy who had a small one man fish house and he was catching fish. All the fish houses I'd ever seen to that point were big one's for multiple people.

The Lakes Tentatively Are...

May- Bay Lake
June- Farm Island Lake (Platte/Sullivan lost out in a close vote)
July- Woman Lake
Aug.- Rush Lake (Ottertail)
Sept-  Cedar Lake (Aitkin)
Oct- Mission Lakes

I feel good about these lakes even though all the lakes but Bay haven't treated me so nicely in the past.

Farm Island Lake- Bottom 5 finish with 3 dead fish penalties
Woman Lake- Skunked while helping Jim Smith pre-fish last year
Rush Lake-  2nd to last place with 1 bass caught.
Cedar Lake- Bottom 5 finish with only 3 fish weighed
Mission Lakes-  3 tournaments fished with a 2nd to last place finish, bottom 5 finish, and didn't even get a limit in the Challenge Cup.

This could be my year of revenge

Bass Snatchers Meeting Tomorrow

The cold and wind have kept me off the ice this week.  We have our first Baxter Bass Snatcher meeting of the year tomorrow.  We will be putting together tentative lakes and dates for our 2015 tournaments.  I am hoping that Platte/Sullivan and Woman Lake are on the schedule this year.  I think there is a lot of regret over not going to Woman last year with the huge smallmouth bags it put out for other tournaments.  It's been 4 years since we were last at Platte/Sullivan so I'm thinking this year it's about due.  Speaking of being about due or should I say more like long over due are my re-cap's of the last four tournaments of last year.  I still plan on doing them.  I have almost started doing the Leech Lake Tournament a couple of times.  I can remember that suckfest the most vividly of all the tournaments I fished last year.  I am sure I will get around to doing the recap's sometime before ice goes off the lakes around here this Spring.