Bass Snatchers Last Tournament of the Year Tomorrow

Well this year has gone a lot like last year for me in the fishing department of my life.  I got preoccupied with other things and I haven't done any fishing in the month of September.  That will change on Sunday morning when I will be fishing at the Whitefish Chain for the last Bass Snatcher Tournament of the season.  Obviously I didn't get to pre-fish with my boater, long time club member Herman W..  I fished my very first tournament in the Snatchers Club with Herman back in 2008 at Farm Island Lake.  He is quite a character and I'm sure I will have a good time whether or not we catch fish.

I need a motivation shot, because right now I could care less about doing well in the tournament.  I just want to catch a few fish, whether they be bass or pike it doesn't matter to me I'll be happy.

Update: I found my motivation.  This fish crushed it.

16.5" Jumpin Bullhead.

GOMH Throws Me A Curve and Stupid Boaters

19.5"

8:30-11:15PM
Conditions:  It was warm enough for short sleeves, partly cloudy, and very little wind on a day that got to 77°F, the warmest day of the year I believe.

The plan was simple, Go and confirm where I should put myself for Bass Opener in the morning.  I wouldn't even fish if it was really crowded.  There were a lot of people on the SW side, couple on the NE side, and nobody on the SE side so I grabbed two rods and went down there.  I started throwing the Piranha, but the fish weren't having that so I switched up to chucking rattlebaits way out. Nothing.

Blog reader Mike B. was out in his boat today and stopped by to talk as he was on his way home.  I don't remember if I had caught anything yet at that point.  We had a good talk and then he left.

Boats started leaving and people started leaving.  I got a toothy and a jumper on the Spro Aruku Shad in "Cell Mate" color.  One of the boats that left trolled through on his trolling motor, not  a problem.  They must have gotten a golden because they came back through not alerting the bullhead fisherman (the guy WAS fishing for bullheads) up on the bridge and he ended up hooking one of the ladies in the boats rods.  That's a problem.  He was able to get it off quick and the guy on the bridge didn't say anything.  After the guy turned around and went through again, another boat decided to troll through, again not a problem.  The 1st boat came back through again, this time I warned the guy to pull up his line.  I made a remark to the bullhead fisherman that continuing to troll through an area where people are fishing from shore is pretty bush league.  I don't know if the people in the boat heard me or not.  They turned around and went back through.  Then the 2nd boat came through catching a nice golden right in front of us and immediately went to turn around.  I said something to the guy, which he didn't appreciate.  He told me there was no law against him trolling under the bridge like that.  It's to bad Willard or Bud  wasn't there to go off on him because that would have been fun to hear..  However, he didn't put his lines back in and headed under the bridge again to leave.  He said something to the other boat as they were coming back through.  This time I cast across the channel and happened to hook his line.  A battle I would win seeing as how I was using 40lb  Power Pro, but the lines unhooked.

I asked the bullhead fisherman if the people who had been fishing on the other side were gone, and he said he thought they were, so I went to the NE side.  It wasn't long before I had a my first golden bullhead of the evening, a small keeper which I gave to the bullhead fisherman.  I ended up giving them 4 golden's.  As the boat came through on one of the passes they asked me how many I caught and I told them.  On their way back through the next time I asked them how many that had gotten and he said they were getting close to their limits (3 people in the boat).  I asked them if they had gotten any bass and they said not one.  So every fish I heard them catch was a golden bullhead if they weren't lying to me.  I did get one nice toothy which I snagged under his jaw.  She was released.  Toothies that size help keep the small one's in check.

33" or so toothy bullhead

After the bullhead fishermen left on a pass from S to N they caught a young guys lighted bobber.  One of the young guys came across the road yelling for them to stop which they did and turned around bringing the bobber in the boat.  The guy kind of lost control of the trolling motor and ended up going under the bridge and I think he scraped his boat a little bit.  Ah justice.  They left not long after that.  I ended up getting my limit golden for the day and left.

Black & Decker Tackle Wrecker Strikes Again

I was pre-fishing for my next tournament on Rush Lake near Ottertail when I had a big dogfish hit my Aruku Shad.  Can you tell?  Can't say I've ever caught a bowfin on a rattlebait before.  It was raining so I didn't get a picture of the fish.  I would say it was about 26.5 inches long.  It put up a tremendous fight and got all tangled in the net.

It was raining so I didn't get a picture.

My Lucky Night! (A Good True Fish Story)

But it didn't look that way to start out with. I arrived at the GOMH at about 8:30PM and started casting my white Stanley Phantom just to the left of "the juice."  The "juice" is now plugged up with weeds. On about my third cast a fish was hitting my lure and I jerked.  My Phantom came off of the Norman Speed Clip.  I must not have put it on correctly because that has never ever happened to me with a topwater lure;  Spinnerbaits more times than I care to think about, a couple of times with diving plugs, but never a topwater.  Anyway I hadn't hooked the fish, so I could see it floating out there. I immediately grabbed the chartreuse firetiger Phantom and started casting for it. On about the 3rd attempt a jumpin bullhead jumped all over the chartreuse Phantom. Keep in mind I was not working the bait, just trying to catch my lure.  I quickly reeled it in the discover it was a 19" Derby Fish.

 I got the fish back in the lake.  The current was not pulling from the area my Phantom was sitting, so I re-spotted  it and tried in vain to hook it.  But after about 10 minutes of that a boat came through the channel and agreed to try and get it for me.  Being that it's such a big bait he spotted it no problem when I cast to show him where it was.  I got my Phantom back!  I do have one more in that color, but all the same I don't want to ever lose any of them.  I may never be able to find another one of any color.

My hero driving away

gSince he went through the "new juice" I cast a Spro Poppin' Frog off to the East and got a 15.5" on that.  I went back to throwing the chartreuse Phantom and got four more jumpers from 13" to 15.5" before the mosquito's chased me out at around 9:35PM.

Good Morning and Evening at the GOMH

Sunrise at the Grumpy Old Man Hole

This morning I got up a little earlier than normal to try and hit the GOMH for some crappies.  That didn't work out so at 5:00AM I was fishing for gold.  I managed to get two on a Grass Pig.

17"

17.5"

I had an 18" jumpin bullhead just choke my Spro 25 Crank

I got one toothy bullhead.

I did get a couple of small silver bullheads as well.

In the evening I got a late start due to the fact I left without my rods in the car.  I think I got to the GOMH around 9:30PM.  I managed to get 4 golden bullhead and several jumpin bullheads including one 18 to 19 inch sow on a swamp gas Grass Pig.  I got fish from both sides of the bridge in the evening, while it was mostly the North side in the morning.  I didn't have the camera with, so I got these picks of the golden bullheads after I got home.

Golden Bullheads at the GOMH

This morning I got to the GOMH at 5AM in search of some gold.  I started on the NE side and it wasn't long and I was bringing in my first golden bullhead on a Berkley Powerbait Ripple Shad.

18.5"

 I missed another one and got a couple of jumpin bullheads.  I then went to try the SE side, but only got jumpin bullheads there.  Because it was cloudy and windy blowing into the N side I went back and scored my second golden bullhead of the day.  Here's both of them from this morning.

I did get a couple of toothy bullheads, including one that had a jig in it's mouth.  Here is the one that didn't have the jig.

Here is my biggest jumper of the morning.

17.75

I lost several other really nice jumpin bullheads and a couple that I don't know what they were.

For the evening trip I didn't arrive until 8:30PM and I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of people and within 20 minutes of me being there all but my friend Joe's buddies were gone.  I started on the NE side and only got a couple of jumpin bullheads.  I then tried the SE side for a while and once again only got jumpin bullheads.  I switched back to the North side and immediately got a golden bullhead on a Spro 25 crank in parrot.

I got my last 2 golden bullheads on the night on a Powerbait Ripple Shad.

16"

17"

I think I missed one or two more.  I gave the fish to Joe's friend and he gave me some minnows.  John W. showed up. He had something big on, probably a pike he said.  I left a little before 10:30PM

Smith Mountain Day Final & Platte/Sullivan Report

Congratulations to rookie Casey Ashley on his victory at Smith Mountain Lake!

BassFan Story...

BassFan Big Stick John Murray...

Fantasy Bass Fishing Notes: Well John Crews managed to move up to 8th which helped out BP 1 considerably. This tournament hopefully will be the low point of the season for the BP boys. Thanks Morris ya shmuck.

BPboys Score 193, overall place 4201 drop of 1,267places!! In MN Fantasy Bass league dropped from 10th to 18th.

BP1: Score 297, overall place 377 drop of 36 places. MN Fantasy Bass League still #1.


My Sunday Morning on Platte/Sullivan: Not the biggest guy in the world but I decided to take his picture anyway.
Once again my big fish of the day is a 17incher

The Story: I got up at 4:40am and was on the water by 5:20. I forgot to tie the rope off on the trailer, so I sent the boat off into the lake. I ended up wading in to get it, thankfully the area around this access is shallow and sandy. If it would have come to it there was a boat putting in after me. It was a sunny and clear morning with a light SE breeze, but mostly it was perfectly calm.

I first hit the Crossroads reed point, didn't get a bite. Next stop was the PRO river mouth. I got a 16", 15", and 12" (picture 1) on the Spro Bronze Eye Frog. Instead of following the river in, I decided to run to Platte. My first stop was just North of the GOMH fishing the Western shore. I managed to pick up a 15" there, then headed on to the North shore of Platte. The North end of Platte looked extremely fishy but all I caught were the 17" and a 11". Around 8am I headed back to the launch.

Had the GPS out in the boat today and the trophy did manage to hit 20mph, but mostly top end was 19mph.

Trophy In The Water

We finished the transom repairs yesterday and so today was the inaugural voyage of the Trophy for 2007. The motor didn't start on the first pull but it did start and soon I was off for a couple of hours fishing at Rock lake.

16incher takes on Kermit.

Fishing Report 6/5/2007: I arrived at the landing sometime after 7PM and put the motor through it's paces. Had a little issue with the fuel line becoming unbuttoned at the motor, but eventually got that fixed. Once I was satisfied with the condition of the motor I headed to the Rock lake Platte River Outlet (PRO). The entrance to the bay was already significantly weeded up with Rice and other weeds so the motor got bogged down pretty quick. I started at the Eastern edge of the pads and worked my way west. I was set to throw a Spro Bronze Eye, a Zoom Horny Toad, and a swim jig; I never did get around to throwing the swim jig. I fished from about 7:30 to 9:30 getting about 8-10 bass from 13" to 16". All but 1 of the bass came on the Bronze Eye (pictured), the other one came on the White Horny Toad.

During a cast, I had the reel handle come off the reel I was throwing the Bronze Eye with. Fortunately the handle landed in the boat, but I could not find the nut
I decided to do a rod and reel switch and kept right on fishing, although my distance was significantly cut back on the replacement reel.

The action on the fish was spread out with the action improving as it got darker out. I fished a fair distance West, but about 120 yards short of the beaver dam. There was a big beaver swimming around.

Hellabass hits the St. Croix...

Don't forget those fantasy line ups for BASS Smith Mountain!!!

SPRO Stuff:

Here is what I won in the Spro Monthly online prize drawing.

Two Spro Visors
A Black Spro Polar Fleece Pull Over
Roland Martin Signiture Aruku Shad 75 Blue Shiner
Roland Martin Signiture Aruku Shad 75 Red Craw
Roland Martin Signiture Spro Dawg 100 Silver Black
Roland Martin Signiture Spro Dawg 100 Chart.
Charlie Ingram Special Fat Crank 20 Firetiger
Charlie Ingram Special Fat Crank 20 Shad
Charlie Ingram Special Crank 25 Baby Bass
Charlie Ingram Special Crank 25 Parrot

So far I'm quite impressed with the quality of the baits, although I have not caught any dogfish with them. I like the Spro Dawg better than the Lucky Craft Sammy of similiar size. The Spro Dawg throws a country mile. The Aruku's look like they will be fish catchers. The Fat Cranks are super shallow runners like Mann's Minus 1's and the Crank 25's are a unique bait that is shaped just like a small sunfish or perch. When bass season opens these baits should get serious consideration. Unfortunatly I did not get any of those new Dean Rojas Bronze Eye Frog's, but beggars can't be choosers.

It's that time of year again, so once and for all.
BP's Philosophy of MN Closed Bass Season over at Bass Pundit Preach

Hellabass on Wrapped Boats

Dottie and I Won Something

Big Cali Bass:

BassFan Coverage, ESPN, Hellabass, Ohio BassFishing Blog , Ezods, Fishing Jones,

BP's Thoughts: I don't think a snagged fish, whether intentional or not, should merit consideration as a world record. They did the right thing and let it go, so maybe it will be caught again. Big Bass gotta feed.

The Weather: We have gone into a slightly below normal weather pattern, which is frustrating as all get out to me. At this time of year every day of below normal temps means another day of Ice cover on the lakes. With this years mild winter we were on track for an earlier ice out than the last couple of years but that eventuality is slowly slipping away. When is it gonna be 50 again?

I won something! I just got an email from Bigfishtools and Spro, to let me know I won the Spro monthly lure give away. Hopefully it includes a Bronze Eye Frog or two. Yeah!