Had to Have It!

Today, I went up to Brainerd to pick up a few things at Fleet Farm that were on sale.  I also stopped at the new Dick's Sporting Goods Store to check it out.  This Dick's doesn't have the biggest fishing section I've ever been in, but it did have a decent enough selection of bass lures.  When I saw the Plopper Trailer I just had to get me a pack.  The ones I've seen online usually have one Plopper and one rattle but as you can see it was the two Plopper pack.  In case you haven't figured it out these are made to be put on a double frog hook to make a frog into a Plopper.  I suspect it won't be the most weedless thing in the world, but will probably work great in reed beds. We'll see.  I put one on a Snagproof and one is going on a Spro.

SnagProof Kicker Frog minus the legs 

Bait Monkey Unhappy!

Academy put the new Booyah Toadrunner on this weeks add and apparently sold out.  Tackle Warehouse has them listed as in stock at $9.99 same price that Academy was selling them for.

While writing this post I made the executive decision to buy off of eBay for $10.95 per frog shipped.  Don't want to take the chance of there being a shortage and prices going through the roof like what happened with the Sprinker.

Bait Monkey Happy Now!

Bait Monkey Needed Fed

I got an email last week from Outlet Bait And Tackle advertising a special they were having on a Salmo Maas Marauder for $3.19.  Maas is my last name and I have wanted one since I first found out about them in 2008, but I wasn't willing to shell out $20 to get a lure I'll probably never throw.  I had to jump on the deal.

Of coarse the monkey wouldn't let me buy just that when they were having a $1.99 sale on stuff I wanted, but don't really need.

I wish I would have bought a few more of the Reaction Strike hollow belly swimbaits.

Update 12/19/15:  The only baits here to see the water this year was the frogs and I don't think I caught anything on them.  Oh well.

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

101 Bass On the Stanley Phantom This Year!!!

106 fish total when you count the pike.  Most of them came on this color, but I've got a few on the white one and bone color as well.  I've been watching for them on Ebay, but none have come up.  I wish I would have put them on my saved searches years ago.  I've been keeping an eye on Spooks and  I think I may have found them under another companies name that sold them for the saltwater market.  That would explain the saltwater hooks. I think that company changed the way they made them, then went out of business.

BAM! I just did an Ebay search under Stanley Jigs and it turned up 3 of them.  Two in colors I've never seen.  The Bait Monkey was all over it.

2013 Bass Pro Shops Catalog Day!!!

Photo From BassFan.com

I believe she arrived a little early this year, but that may be because of the way Christmas sat in other years.  Well I can't say I'm to impressed with the catalog this year.  I don't like how they got away from providing a quick look at reel spec's with the order numbers.  Also didn't care for referring us to the website for most fishing rods.  And is it just me or have fishing rods been getting uglier looking for the most part.  Didn't see any lures that peeked my interest.

Mid-Summer Bait Monkey Report

For Fathers Day Sales I went with Tackle Warehouse and the 20% discount they had on Berkley Havoc Baits and I picked up a bunch more Lane Grass Pigs.

For the 4th of the July I just couldn't resist the temptation of $4 Mad Maxx frogs. How is it that BTD has any left at that price? They must have bought everything Tru-Tungsten had when they went out of business. Maybe people just don't like those 4 colors.

With the money I saved I bought another Drag Stripper Repo Man, they didn't have either of my first two color choices. I guess I'll just keep the new one in it's package until #1 is gone or the paint totally gets stripped off.

Who Else Can Do This?

From the PAA recap of the Table Rock tournament:
Biffle burned a lot of gas and a lot of baits to amass his 45.26 pound total catch.

“I’d go up and fish one tree, then run two to three miles or up to ten miles to the next one,” Biffle said. “You’ve got to be fortunate to get the big bites and then when you get them you have to be lucky to get them out of the bushes. I probably went through 200 to 300 Biffle Bugs in the past three days.”
At Tackle Warehouse Biffle Bugs are $5 for an 8 pack or .625 cents a bait. 200 of them is a bill of $125 and 300 comes to $187.50. Wow! It's nice to be sponsored. I'm guessing he was using one bait or less per fish, something a paying angler would never do intentionally.

Sweet Mother of Ebayt Monkey!

53 handtied swimjigs
- Top quality heads (the vast majority are Brovarney heads)
- Top quality hooks
- Hand tied skirts in various colors
- 27 3/8oz & 26 1/4oz jigs
I got this lot for $21 shipped.

Looks like I'm gonna need a 3rd swim jig box. Also at this price I can forego messing with wire leader on at least 1 swim jig rod.

SCORE!!!

In The Mail- Bait Monkey Edition

UPS Man!!!

So I waited and waited for Tackle Warehouse to have a 20% off sale, but the best they were going to give was 10% off on their Tax Rebate/Easter Sale. I know Bass Tackle Depot was at 15% off, but they don't carry any of my must haves so Tackle Warehouse it was. Here is the Bait Monkey's Packing list:
Think Tank Triggerfish Silver Shad
Think Tank Triggerfish Baby Bass (Backordered) I Have wanted the Triggerfish for several years now, but it simply has not been available until this year. I just hope it works right as that seems to be a problem with some of the baits being sold.
Lucky Craft Kelly J Jr. Ghost Baby Bluegill
Lucky Craft Kelly J Jr. Baby Bluegill (Backordered) I didn't realise until the package was on it's way that I was getting the Jr. and not the full size Kelly J. Hopefully the Jr. will cast well. It weighs 5/16th which is the same as a Berkley Frenzy Popper, but the Frenzy Popper doesn't have two propellers to slow it down.
10 Packs Berkley Havoc Lane's Grass Pig in various colors
2 Packs Big Bite Baits Cane Thumper
Gambler EZ Swimmer

Can you tell which style of lure I'm adding to my arsenal this year? It's nice that Bassmaster Magazine has an article on fishing the RI Skinny Dipper this month.

Update "Easy Come Easy Go!": Actually this package arrived yesterday on Tuesday. So when I went out fishing last night I took the Triggerfish with me to play with it. I was able to make it perform all it's tricks. I was just about ready to put it away when I caught some brush on my back cast which caused me to backlash and the line snapped sending the lure quite a ways into the lake. There was a strong wind blowing out into the lake. I quickly rushed up to the car and got an outfit to try and cast to get it, but by the time I got back to the water I couldn't make out where it was with the chop on the water. That Sucks!!! Well as I say: Easy Come Easy Go! At least I ordered 2.

I think I am going to have to re-evaluate my topwater line because I have a number of lures that weigh a 1/2oz or more, which might be a bit to much for 14lb Fireline if the line suddenly stops on a hard cast.

Weapons of Bass Destruction by Rhett Akins

This song is pretty good. "Bill Dance won't leave me the hell alone"
He even mentions bubblegum Zoom Flukes

Bait Monkey's Got That Look In The Eye...

Update: My monkey's high bid wasn't high enough, there was one monkey who was willing to pay more. The rod was a discontinued Avid 7'3"MH telescopic. I already have 2 of them; They are my #1 hollow body frog rod and my #1 buzz toad rod. Did I really need another?

2011 Bass Pro Shops Catalog Day

Today was the day the 2011 Bass Pro Shops Master Catalog 2011 arrived at my door.

I can still remember the wonder I had in receiving my first Bass Pro Shops Catalog back in the early 80's. On one of the fishing shows I watched there was a 1-800 number given to order the catalog and after seeing the add many times I finally called. I think I was in 5th or 6th grade at the time and it took me a while but I finally called and when the catalog arrived boy was I glad I did. Back in those days tackle stores, at least in MN, were much smaller than they are now. The Bass Pro Shops Catalog had hundred's of fishing items I'd never seen before. It was all so wonderful, the gateway drug to my tackle addiction.

Another thing I also love about Bass Pro Shops Catalogs is their historical value as through the years each catalog documents the evolution, and fads and fashions that take place with bass fishing tackle. From time to time I look through my collection of catalogs past to go back and remember the way things were.

Thank You Bass Pro Shops!!!

Ebayt Monkey Goes Banana's for Topwater

I basically bid on this lot of lures for the Spro Frogs and the Jackall Dagored which is the jointed minnow with the propeller. I am not sure what kind of popper that is, maybe when I get it I will be able to figure it out.

I think I will probably be donating some of these lures to GEM. If you have any extra lures that you don't use and would be willing to give to a good cause, Great Expectations Ministries (GEM) is a great organization that gets kids on the water.

Update: Arrived in the mail 12/22. The seller included a bonus bag of 3" Powerbait Hollow Belly Split Tails, which look like they would be a good dropshot bait or maybe put on a jig for GOMH bullheads. Have no clue what kind of popper I got and I'm not impressed with it's shallow spitting cup. I got a good deal on the stuff, so I'm happy.

In the Mail: Berkley Frenzy Poppers

When these came up for auction on Ebay, I couldn't help myself and put in a bid. Much to my surprise my bid held, but just barely. What I really wanted was the rainbow trout one as that I don't have that one in my collection yet. Now that I have two clown's and two shad, I will put one of each in my tackle box.

In the Mail

AC70HF, Line Weight: 14-25 lbs. Lure Weight: 3/8-1 1/2oz. Fast Action. Great for pitching jigs and plastics around grass and thick cover and spider jigs in deep water. Throw heavy spinnerbaits and even light swimbaits and set the hook with authority.

I won this St. Croix Avid on Ebay. It isn't an IPC rod, so it is at least 3 years old. I got the rod specifically for fishing craw tubes.


CRC-C70MH, Line Weight: 10-20 lbs. Lure Weight: 3/8-1oz Moderate/Fast Action. This rod will excel at throwing medium to heavy crankbaits up to 1 ounce.

File this one under oops. I did not realize until I was writing this blog post that this rod I got from Ebay is a CRC-C70MH and not a CRC-70MH. That extra C is for crankbait and somehow I missed catching that on the Ebay listing. Originally I had gotten this rod thinking craw tubes, but then a few days later I won the above Avid, so I figured I'd make this one into a jig rod. Well that is totally out the window. I think this rod will probably work better than anything I have for heavier topwaters like Deps Buzzjet and Buzzjet Jr's, Megabass Pop Max's, and Paycheck Baits Repo Man's. Guess I won't know until next Spring.

Bait Monkey Monday

So is everybody stocking up Online today?

I will be putting in an order with Tackle Warehouse because they are the only one's with bluegill color Lucky Craft Kelly J topwaters. I think I will get a couple of those and another Paycheck Baits Repo Man. I will have to get at least 1 more thing to get me over $50 for free shipping.

Bass Pundit 6 Year Blogirthday!!!/Blogiversery

Back on Saturday November 20th 2004 I wrote the 1st Bass Pundit blog Post: Welcome from the BP to the Bass Pundit Blog. Since then this blog has spit out 1744 posts.

For the Blogirthday the infamous Ebayt Monkey has gotten me a

Shimano Crucial Rod model CRC-C70MH (That's a 7' Medium Heavy Fast Action Rod)
And put in bids
On a St.Croix Avid
A St. Croix Pro Glass
And another Shimano Crucial along with a lot of Zoom Super Flukes.

Update: Won the Zoom Super Fluke auction as the only bidder, that's always nice. Came to $1.70 per 10 pack, 5 packs of Glow/Chart Back.
The Pro Glass auction is up Monday
The Avid auction is up Tuesday
The 2nd Crucial auction is up Wednesday (doubt I will get this one, but you never know. Sometimes other people don't bid and it is a busy holiday week.)

Update: Yep was out bid on the 2nd Crucial.

Ebayt Monkey Crawtube Shootdown

This week on Ebay 3 lots (6packs, 6packs, 8packs) of Lake Fork Craw Tube's came up for auction. When I became aware of the auction 1 lot had a bid on it and the other two did not. I decided to bid on the two that didn't have any bids and then I was going to wait and see what happened with the other auction and probably bid on that. When I bid on one of the lots with 6 packs I made the mistake of including the shipping charge in my max bid, so I bid $6 more than I wanted too. I kind of figured I was a shoe in to win that one as you can get LFCT's on sale
for about the price I bid in that auction.

Today the auction came do and I slept through being able to bid for that 3rd auction. When I went to check and find out what happened I didn't win anything.

The 6 pack I bid on went for $15.68 + $6.00 shipping
The 8 pack I bid on went for $16.78 + $6.00 shipping to a different bidder
The 6 pack that I failed to bid on went for $7.00 + $6.00 shipping to a different bidder than the 1st two.

Seriously, is that how it goes down?

I guess I can't get to bent out of shape as I didn't end up paying significantly more for a lot than I wanted too. I believe I can buy quality knock offs for quite a bit less than the 2 lots I bid on's final price. The person who got 6 packs for $13 made out like a bandit.

DNF

Have elected not to fish today. The weather is a little cool, but pretty nice today. However after a full tournament day I could use the break. The weather looks to be awesome this week, so I should be getting out a lot.

Yesterday I got my 21 (modern) Herb's Dilly Buzzbaits in the mail. With shipping I paid $1.44 per lure. I have seen (modern) Herb's Dilly's with competitive Ebay auctions sell for over $10 per lure. The seller really screwed up by selling all of them in 2 big lots and then I got lucky that the auctions flew under the radar. By far my best deal on Ebay ever. Now it's no big deal that I have lost 2 Dilly's in the past two years.