U of M Team Wins 2014 FLW College Fishing National Championship

Chris Burgan  (left), and Austin Felix

That's right, Golden Gophers traveled down to South Carolina and brought home the trophy's and entry into this summer's Forrest Wood Cup, which will also be held in South Carolina on Lake Murray.  Austin Felix of Eden Prairie will go as the Boater and Chris Burgan of Rhinelander, WI will go as a Co-Angler. Read the story at FLW here.

Way to Go Boys!!!

MN B.A.S.S. Nation Club Info

MN B.A.S.S. Nation Club Info

Good Article Over At AnglingAuthority.com on Harsh Winters And Bass

Effects of Harsh Winters On Bass

It talks about the possible repercussions of the past two winters here in the North Country.  I sure hope one of the effects isn't a partial winter-kill in Platte Lake this year.

Bait Monkey Bites On The Tackle Warehouse 25% Off Sale

I just couldn't resist the 25% sale Tackle Warehouse had for the Bassmaster Classic this year.  I actually got even more than 25% off because the Powerbait and Vicious line were already marked down some already.

I got:
4  KVD 1.0's
4 KVD 1.5's
11 bags of Powerbait Ripple Shads 4"
2 bags of Powerbait Ripple Shads 5"
Vicious Pro Elite Fluorocarbon 14lb Test 200 yards

Great Interview With Howell And Davy At The Ramp

This video of Davy Hite and Randy Howell coming off the lake is can't miss, but we all did thanks to the feed getting overloaded. Dave talks a bit in the beginning, then when he goes to talk with the people skip ahead to about the 9:53 minute mark for the interview with a cancer survivor and the interview starts at 11:13 or so.

Congratulations Randy Howell 2014 Bassmaster Classic Champion

It was exciting to see the guy with the loudest fans win the thing at Guntersville this week. Coming from 11th Place going into the day was unbelievable.  By all accounts Randy is a really nice guy and the work he does with King's Home is quite admirable.  Those kids really made ruckus cheering for him.

The GoPro footage they got to today is something to see if you haven't.  

Way to go Randy Congratulations!!!

Bassmaster Classic Who I'm Rooting For This Year: Team Walker

Bass Pundit Blogger Derby, Big Changes for 2014

This fish would now count.  Didn't last year because season wasn't open yet.

The New Rules are Here...

Basically I've made it into a Big Bass Derby, no more 5 fish bags.  Fish caught at anytime count, no more closed season restrictions.  No more minimum length/weight restrictions other than the fish has to be bigger than one already entered.  I didn't change it to give us a chance to beat Holmer; I just don't want to spend the time adding up 5 fish.

Cool Infographic On MN M&M Pro Jim Moynagh

I just love that M&M Jersey.

Blogging Note: My "About Me" is updated

See the tab on the blog header or click here to see it.

My Niece Devin's 1st Ever Bass

My 7 year old niece Devin caught her first ever bass last week down in Florida.  I think she got it on a Yum Dinger in the midst of a school that was busting on baitfish.  My brother told her to reel in while jerking it and it nailed the Dinger.  She wanted Dad's help, but he made her reel it in all by herself.  Good Job Devin!!!

FLW Fantasy Fishing Changes for 2014

Here is the Summery from BassFan:

My thoughts:  I'm happy, happy, happy, that they brought prizes back for all the events and went with lesser prizes, but more of them.  A+ FLW!!!

As for the new scoring system, I'm on the fence.  I thought it was hard enough to pick anglers under the old way of doing it and putting a salary cap on anglers will probably complicate the game more than is needed.  Sounds like a hassle, but we will just have to see how it works.

Bass Snatchers 2014 Tentative Tournament Schedule

The #1 thing I wanted to see on this years schedule was a tournament on Leech Lake.  It looks like that will happen.  I am least enthusiastic about having a blind tournament again this year.  I would much prefer to start at 7AM, rather than at 8AM which the having it be a blind tournament requires.

I am excited about fishing Woman Lake, which the Bass Snatchers haven't done since I joined the club.  I also like the Serpent Lake and Pelican picks, but would prefer Pelican and Whitefish get switched so the smallmouth in Whitefish could be in play.

What I Caught Fish On in 2013

2013 was the year of the swimbait for me.  The Havoc Grass Pig was the #1 bait, but I caught a lot of fish on 1 pack of Yum Money Minnows, a couple of sample Berkley Powerbait Ripple Shads, and what I had left over from a pack of  Gambler EZ's and Big Bite Baits Cane Thumpers.  All in all swim baits accounted for 427 fish and a few more caught on chatterjigs and jigs.  I only got 102 fish on Crawtubes this year after getting 221 on them the year before.

Stanley Phantom was my #1 topwater bait with 111 fish caught.

Here is the full list of what I caught fish on in 2013:

Holmer Won My MN Blogger Bass Derby Yet Again

5.81lbs

I thought that Andy's Bass Blog had managed to beat Holmer of Bass Utopia this year, but then I realized I missed one of Holmer's fish and sure enough the upgrade on the cull was enough to beat out Andy by a quarter of a pound.  That makes it the 5th straight year Holmer has won the Derby.  Overall the top weights were way down this year.  Holmers weight of 26.54lbs would have got him 3rd Place each of the two previous years.

This year we had 2 fish over 6lbs both caught by Carl Spande of BassMN.com.

6.50lbs

6.87lbs

2nd Place,  as I already mentioned, went to Andy's Bass Blog
3rd Place went to Jason Dudek Fishing with 26.09lbs

Congratulations Guys!!!

I'm mulling changing things up for 2014, we'll see.