#TBT My 1st Tournament Out of the Trophy???

It's amazing how doing Throwback Thursdays can jog one's memories. I had been trying to remember for the longest time, exactly when I first came into possession of my boat, formerly Cyberfish's boat, the Trophy. I know from doing # TBTs that I had it for the Spring of 2005 when this picture was taken. However, I was trying to remember if I had it in 2004. But then I was tracking down my various #TBT for Facebook today when I remembered fishing at the Excel Bass Tournament on July 17th of 2004 on the Whitefish Chain. I'm now absolutely positive I fished that tournament out of the Trophy. Was it the first tournament I fished out of the Trophy? I'm not 100% positive on that, as I might have fished a Team Bass tournament out of it on July 10th, and there was a Fishers of Men Club Tournament around that time as well. But I do remember fishing the Excel Tournament out of the Trophy; I am sure of it.

Interestingly, I didn't fish out of the Trophy for a memorable tournament on Koronis Lake on July 31st with Team Bass, where my 6-fish limit weighed 20.44 lbs. I know for a fact that I fished that out of MT's old tin boat, the same one I fished the first two Excel Bass Tournaments out of that year. No wonder I had such a hard time remembering when I got to use the Trophy. I only had it sometimes, depending on the needs of GEM Camps. I wish I had started the blog earlier in 2004.

GEM Camp

This week I will be volunteering with Great Expectations Ministries at one of their summer camps. This will be the first ever camp that GEM has done at The Land of Promise retreat center on Beebe Lake near St. Michael Minnesocold. I have no clue how the week is gonna go. We will be sleeping outside in tents (oh boy, sigh) and I am unsure about how meals will go other than the fact that we have to do the cooking and the cleaning (oh boy, sigh). Even in my younger days I was not much fond of roughing it, but they needed my help, I was available, and if it wasn't for GEM I wouldn't have a nice boat.

I don't know what lakes we will fish other than Beebe. I suspect we will fish Beebe on Monday and Tuesday and other lakes on Wed. and Thur.. I have caught some monster bass out of Beebe in the past. I hope getting kids into fish won't be that difficult but we are bound to be fishing waters that see a high amount of angling pressure and that has me a little concerned.

Hopefully all will go well.

GEM blog here...

Bass Pundit News

Prayer Request:I just learned that my brother Todd has applied to be the MN Teen Challenge Dean of Men, so if you could pray for him and the organization while they are in the process I would appreciate that. My brother was a Youth Pastor for several years and just earned a Masters Degree from Bethel University and as you might already know my darling niece Isabelle is their daughter (Scroll down).

The Bass Hole (Ex-pat bass fisherman in Korea) Spring Fling.

Be sure to register those FLW Fishing Challenge Teams for Beaver Lake this week before Wednesday. The Pundit Picks Staff and Pro's Picks are up.

Have you heard of any Bass or fishing blogs?
If you have than tell me there URL's by leaving a comment. Or if you just wanna say hello Click on comments or write something in the guest book.

Thanks to Gregg over at My Bass and I I should have this website a little more streamlined in a few days.

Once again thanks to my brother and sister-in-law, Jeff and Erin Sutter-Maas I'll be fishing Team Bass Tournament Circut/Club this summer.

Also again this summer I will be volunteering to help with G.E.M. Camp. With the high gas prices the operational cost of getting to camp and running the boats will be higher than it's ever been, so if any Bass Pundit readers are feeling generous and want to make a monetary donation, a donation of quality usable tackle, or a donation of something else you think might be beneficial to a fishing Camp for Teens than email me at basspundit@hotmail.com or Contact Camp Director Dave Lindmark by email dlindmark@usa.net or phone (952-882-1711).
Great Expectations Ministries is a 501(c)3 non profit organization; all donations and contributions to it are tax deductible.

In addition to helping with GEM Camps, I will be out with them for the annual Rush Lake Crappie/Panfish Outing on April 30th, this will be my 6th or 7th straight year. I also plan on helping with the GEM Minnesota Fishing Opener Trip to St. Louis River near Duluth. I went on that GEM outing last year and it was a ball, I even caught a limit of walleyes (of coarse the limit on the St. Louis is 2).

In other BP fishing news I will be attending the 2005 Fishers of Men Club(Twin Cities)/ Teen Challenge Spring out May 7-10 at Camp Wapogasset near Amery WI. I will be helping guide for some of the Teen Challenge program participants and staff. If the warm weather holds than the fishing should be phenomenal. MN Teen Challenge is another organization that the BP considers worthy of donations.

I've already mentioned and linked The Fishers of Men Club (Twin Cities). If you went or go to the link you will see that our meeting place has changed but not the night, first Thursday of the Month from 7-9PM. Also note that the webpage is a different URL.

The first MN open water reports are in and to keep tabs with MN fishing information go to Catch-N, FishingMinnesota, and LSF Bulletin Boards.

Be sure to check out what is up with the Fishers of Men Tournament Trail (MN & WI Divisions)

The MN Ice out range is moving up.