Edwin Evers Ebay Auction for Charity

I don't know if there are any super wealthy BP readers out there who might be interested in this Ebay auction, but I thought I would put it out there because it looks like a heck of a good cause.

Bass Elite Pro, Edwin Evers is auctioning off a special fishing trip package to someone (maybe you) on a scenic private lake in Oklahoma. The exciting trip will not only be fun for the winner and one of their favorite fishing partners, but it will also help a huge number of folks in need. Evers, a 9-Time Bassmaster Classic Qualifier, will be donating all of the proceeds from this auction directly to a charity he is heavily involved with called "Standing in the Gap". Standing in the Gap is a Christian charity in Oklahoma that helps to provide groceries and basic life necessities on an on-going basis to people in need who can't afford to buy them. The greatest need inevitably occurs around the Holidays, but given the current tough economic times in America with more people out of work, the need has increased greatly. (To learn more about Standing in the Gap visit: www.sitgowasso.org) The Standing in the Gap Fishing Package includes: (Total value for special fishing package estimated at @ $5000) 1) A day on a private lake near Ardmore, OK spent fishing with Evers (winner may bring one fishing partner) 2) A tackle box with more than $700 worth of tackle, personally put together by Evers 3) Two brand new Bass Pro Shops Pro Qualifier rod-and-reel combos 4) One autographed Evers tournament jersey A few important notes: Winning bidder is responsible for their own travel expenses Winning bidder and Edwin Evers will determine date of fishing trip This package will be auctioned off as 1 total unit, items will not divided and / or bid on separately. So not only can you have a once-in-a lifetime experience spending a day fishing with Bass Pro Edwin Evers if you have the winning bid, but you'll also help to feed many hungry families and make a difference to folks in need.


I sure hope they can get at least $5000 out of it.

Update: The auction went for less than $2,500 which I think is a little disappointing. There are plenty of guys out there that don't think twice about putting nearly a $1000 into just one Daiwa Steez rod and reel combo. I am kind of guessing the auction didn't get the plublicity that it could have because right now is the off season for the Pro Bass Tours and so not very many people saw the write up in BassFan.

Bummer

I watched Da Bears/Saints game tonight and it really looked for a minute like the Saints were going to do the Queens a huge favor, but it wasn't to be. The Saints pretty much dominated the game but in the end they couldn't hold on. Of coarse the Saints choked vs. the Vikes too, so whataya gonna do?

At this point I would say the Vikes are probably going to have to win at least 1 game to make the playoffs, but it is possible that even 9-7 won't be enough cause the Bears could easily win out and be 10-6.

But does it really matter? Either the Vikes or the Bears are going to be the worst team in the playoffs in the NFC. Still if you make the playoffs there is always a chance.

FLW FBF News

WITH

IS NOW OPEN FOR REGISTRATION Click Here!

Welcome to the 2009 FLW Fantasy Fishing season
More money, better navigation in 2009

World’s richest fantasy game just got richer
FLW Fantasy Fishing increasing winners’ prize pool to $10 million in cash, prizes in 2009; players can earn thousands of dollars through referral program
Hat tip: Rich Lindgren's Bassin Blog

If you are gonna play and get Players Advantage than you might as well use Dave "BP" Maas as the one who referred you which you can do by registering here.

FYI- If you played FBF with FLW last year, all you have to do to register is hit the "Log-In" tab and enter your email and password from last year and then you have to approve the rules and terms of use and your in. You will be automatically entered into the leagues you participated in last year and will even be given a team of anglers for the first event, of coarse you can edit that team to get the anglers ou want.

BP Commentary-They are going down 430 places with prizes this year as opposed to 639 last year and the scoring is the same lame system from last year with those bonus points for Top 10 picks and super bonus points for a Top 10 pick exacta. I suppose the change in prizes and the lack of change in the scoring are hardly surprising. I can't say I am that disappointed with the change in the amount of prizes because this game is so exceedingly generous it's almost preposterous even with the changes. $100,000 for 1st place and they could stop with the prizes right there and I would think they were nuts.

I am not really happy that they kept the same exact scoring system from last year because I think it just brings luck into the equation more than it has to be. I can see giving a big exacta bonus for getting the winning angler right but to have smaller but crucial exacta bonuses in the 9 remaining spaces of the Top 10 rewards blind luck over the skillful picks of a strong team inside and outside of the Top 10 where I think the Fantasy Bass Fishing points should rightfully be decided.

Herb's Dilly

Several years ago I read on article in Bassmaster Magazine where one of the pro's said his favorite lure to use in lily pads and certain other slop applications was a thing called a Herb's Dilly. The Herb's Dilly is a lure that has been around a long time, in fact some say it was the first buzzbait ever made.  It was most recently made by Luhr Jensen, but as far as I know they have been out of production for a number of years. As you can see from the picture a Herb's Dilly is part buzzbait, part spoon, part inline spinner. Not long after reading the Bassmaster article I was shopping at Trail's End Bass Pro and I happened to spy a lone Luhr Jensen Herb's Dilly on the wall. Since the pro was so high on the bait I thought I would buy it. I am glad I did because this buzzbait was slick when it came to fishing certain types of cover situations where just a few reaction baits excel. One day at a tournament I was throwing it on lighter line than I should have been and ended up losing it to some vegetation that I snagged. Normally the Dilly is quite snag resistant coming through vegetation, but it was super windy on this day and my line got bowed which caused it to snag up.

That was several years ago and I have been keeping my eye open for a Luhr Jensen Herb's Dilly ever since. This lure:

The Nemire Spoon Buzzer is quite similar to the Dilly and is a lure in production that I can find in stores and I picked up a few, but I don't think it works quite as well as the Herb's Dilly, so the search continued. Nemire Spoon Buzzer's sell for more than 6 bucks per lure.

Probably the best place in the world to have a shot at picking up a favorite discontinued lure is Ebay. Herb's Dilly's are auctioned on a fairly regular basis, but every time I have checked the one's being sold were antiques that didn't have the modern buzzbait blade that you find on the Luhr Jensen Herb's Dilly that I lost and wanted to acquire. Just by chance after not having looked in a long time I did a Ebay Herb's Dilly search a few nights back and low and behold there was a lot of 6 Luhr Jensen Herb's Dilly's with the modern buzzbait blade up for auction. I jumped at the chance and was the only bidder so I picked them up at what I consider to be a pretty good bargain at under 3 bucks per lure shipped and insured (Yea!).

This lure is a perfect match for the Rock Platte River Outlet.

New Look

Bass Pundit's Tourny HQ has a new look. The picture is from a Team Bass tournament at Koronis Lake.

Bass Pundit's Fishing Log Blog has a new look. The picture is of the GOMH (Grumpy Old Man Hole) and the 3 main Grumpy Old Men: Willard, Lee Ander, and Lewis.

The only major disadvantage to me not switching over to the new blogger Layout style here at the flagship BP site is that it isn't easy for me to put a picture in my header and that is why I don't have one.

Blogging Around

So today was the day I finally decided to experiment and see what would happen when I converted a Bass Pundit Blog Franchise Empire blog from the old Blogger Template style to the new Blogger Layout style. Fortunately I have the little used Bass Pundit Fantasy Bass Fishing HQ blog on which to do the experimenting before I would do anything I might regret here at the flagship. These two blogs shared the same layout and had a lot of common side bar information.

The results were mixed to negative. Since I don't have to I won't be converting this Blog to the Layout style anytime soon. I may however switch over some of the smaller blogs in the franchise because I don't think it will make that big of a difference with them.

Frustrating

I was in the process of trying to add something new to my blogs. I was going to try it first in the Derby Blog because that blog has the new and easier "Layout" format rather than the old way of doing everything through an html template. Anyway I get to my Layout Page Elements page and the thing is screwed up. The "Add a Gadget" feature that is supposed to be there, isn't there. Therefore, I can do nothing. Hopefully this is just a short term glitch in Blogger.

Frustrating

Updated immediately: So anyway I closed the Derby Blog window, but I forgot something so I clicked on my Derby Blog link here at the flagship and up comes the derby blog. Just for ships and giggles I clicked on New Post then Layout and low and behold there is my Layout page with the "Add a Gadget" feature right where it is supposed to be. Screwy!

Fishers of Men Club Twin Cities New Webpage

The Url is the same http://fishersofmenclub.org as the old one but different from the older www.fishfair.com which no longer works. The Fishersofmenclub.org site is still a pretty run of the mill web page but we do have a blog now. It is a Wordpress blog which frustrates me a little bit because I don't know about the capabilities of a Wordpress blog. Unfortunately Cyberfish was kept out of the loop when the webpage was put together. The plan was to have Cyberfish start a Blogger Blog and link that at the webpage, but somehow that step got missed and we have the Wordpress instead. Maybe things will work out or maybe they will be changed. I will keep you updated just in case anyone cares.

Hopefully I will find out how to Blog at that blog and me and Cyberfish can add a little life to the site.

Updated: I have been doing a little research on Wordpress and it sure seems like it does have a lot of features and you can do all of the usual blog fair, but how user friendly will it be? Blogger is user friendly and fairly intuitive. Something interesting about blogging with wordpress is that you can have different levels of users on a multiple contributer blog.

Fishers of Men Banquet-Last night we had our annual December Fishers of Men Fishing Club Banquet at Old Country Buffet in Friendly Fridley. We had a very good turn out and it was a pretty good time. I got a few lures and a Big Mouth Billy Bass that I am going to re-gift to my 2 year old niece Mallory as she seems to dig these kind of things. I also won a couple of ice fishing reels that I gave to Dave Lindmark for GEM. Pete showed up and brought his duck boat for me to take North. Cyberfish filled me in on some up comming ice fishing he is doing, I am thinking about joining him.

On the way there we stopped at Vados and I got maggots and at Thorne Brothers so I can get that rod repaired.

Reel Deals

I like Team Daiwa X & S 103 or 100 fishing reels, the S is a less expensive version of the X. I like how they feel in my hand and I like the way they cast. Two years ago the Team Daiwa S reels went out of production and Team Daiwa X reels, which were the Daiwa flagship reel for a long time, went out of production this year. Since they are now both out of production I figure now is the best chance I will have to be able to get my hands on them. For the past 2 months I have bought up a number of new and used S and X reels on Ebay because I have found the bidding being done on reels at this time to be quite light, thus I have gotten good deals. It seems like the reels have been selling anywhere from $20 to $50 off of what they were going for last Spring. I think because it has been mid to late fall has a lot to do with the lack of interest in buying the reels right now; yet because it is the end of the season there has been a fairly high number of reels being put up for auction. I don't know how much longer the buyers market will last but I am at the saturation point with reels and now I am only making bargin basement offers. Because the reels are out of production I don't think I could ever have to many in reserve.

In addition to the X's and S's, I snapped up a great deal on an almost new Team Daiwa Sol

The rod I'm going to put the Sol on is a 5'6" Loomis G3 that needs several guides replaced and because of that I haven't used the rod in several years. I figure the combo will make a perfect match for small jerkbaits. Then later in the year I may swap out rods to use the Sol for Frenzy Poppers.

Note of Interest: I have won 3 TDX reels on Ebay from BASS Elite Series Angler James Niggemeyer. One reel was new and the other two have cosmetic defects but they don't appear to be reels that saw heavy use and are smooth and perfect mechanically. Apparently he is going to be selling a few more reels.

Yikes! the Vikes are in 1st
I am almost in shock, the Chili led Minnesocold Vikings beat Da Bears 34-14 to take sole possesion of first place in the NFC North with only 4 games to go. Once again Adrian "All Day" Peterson was a beast pushing himself to the front of the pack among all NFL Running Backs. Frerotte threw one rotten pick, but he also set a team record with a impressive 99 yards TD pass to former Bear Bernard Berrien. The Vikes D was impressive vs. Da Bears especially with a game changing 4 down goal line stand. Chester Taylor was also very impressive when he got the chance to play.

Even with this great victory my expectations are tempered. Da Bears have a much easier schedule in the final 4 games than do the Vikes who will face 3 teams that will most likely be in the playoffs this year, including the most impressive looking team in the NFL, the New York Big Blue Giants. After the way the Giants ran to the Super Bowl last year I think there is no way the Giants coach is going to take it easy in the final game even if they do have home field advantage for the playoffs locked up.

Will the Vikes make the playoffs? We may not know till after Christmas. But if the D plays the way they did against Da Bears, than there is at least a fair chance.

This is our dog Patti Lou who appears to be all better from the surgery she had to remove the infected fatty deposit from her neck.

Thanks sickening

This year was a Thanksgiving to forget. I woke up feeling quite nauseated. I laid in bed for a couple of more hours and started feeling better around 11am. I took the dogs outside and when I was playing with Patti I threw up 3 or 4 times. After that I did feel better again. So I went in to watch the end of the Macy's Parade, the Lions game, and the National Dog Show. While I was sitting there I started to get a headache and not feel so well. Todd and the girls had not arrived yet, but I knew there wasn't going to be Thanksgiving Dinner for me, so I went back to bed. Whatever I had wasn't the nastiest of bugs but I still didn't feel very well and I slept for most of the day. My neices Isabelle and Mallory kept there distance but did come in to visit their sick uncle. I got a card with a drawing/scribbling from Isabelle. It sounded like the girls were having a good time. I am not really sure what time they left.

I eventually had some soup and that went OK so now I have even had a little turkey, mash potatoes, stuffing, and corn to eat. Hopefully I will feel much better tommorrow.

My 4th Blogirthday...

...has passed and I failed to take note of it. So this is a belated blog about it. My blog is only slighty younger than my neice Isabelle who I will be spending Thanksgiving Day tomorrow with. Hopefully I will get a few pics of the girls.

Click to view the BP's first post evah...

ICE NEWS:
I believe Platte is totally ice covered and is probably safe for foot travel provided you don't go out to far from shore. I bet I could safely catch fish.

Will I ice fish this winter? At this point I think I will, but I don't have my stuff together like it needs to be. I am kind of hungry for some fresh Crappie. I will buy some maggots at Vados when I go in for Fishers of Men Meeting in December provided that there is not a snow storm that day.


In the Mail:
So yesterday I get a package in the mail that is in a big zip lock bag and looks like it got beat up at the post office. Upon closer inspection the package reeked of beer and said "Get Blastered" on the front of the box. In the address Bass Pundit was given under my name. Hmmm yet another product somebody must want the BP to check out and sure enough it was.

What is the Beer Blaster you ask? Basically it is a squirt gun for shooting beer or any other carbonated beverage. The package had a Pabst Blue Ribbon that got a pin prick leak and so that was where the beer smell came from. I am a little puzzled on why someone would think the BP is worthy of this gift. Because of my medications I don't drink any beer and it's not like Bass Pundit blog is dedicated to anything having to do with a brewski. Maybe they thought it would be cool if I added the moniker The Blaster Pastor.

Find out all about the Beer Blaster at Beer-Blaster.com

I haven't actually used the thing yet. I think we will try it out when the family is here for Thanksgiving tommorrow. Luckly I have a bunch of beers that Pete left. Maybe my neice Isabelle will think it's cool, although for her it would be the Root-Beer Blaster.

BassFan has an article about Al Lindners son Troy who has put together a health and fitness manuel for tournament anglers.

Here are some tips excepted from the manual on tournament day nutrition with my impressions on the advice:

Rules of thumb:

Don't let your blood sugar crash, and thus lose energy. (Sounds good)

Bottled water or pure fruit juice is better than sugary pop or even sports-type drinks. (I go with a Coke and a gallon of water so I'm half way there)

Try to eat foods that are easy to eat and easy to keep in hot/warm/or cold weather. (Okie Dokie)

Eat food that doesn't require forks, knives or spoons. (Duh! Although that sandwich Herman made for me on Farm Island might have required a utensil to make, I forget)

Unsalted trail mixes with almonds or cashews and dried fruits are good – however, it's best to lose the chocolate. ("lose the chocolate" SACRILIDGE!)

Fruit-nut bars, like Kellogg's, are among my favorites. (Whatever floats your boat, I'm keeping my Kit Kats, Reeses, and Hershey Bars)

Fresh fruit like apples, peaches, pears, etc. are all good. (I don't think I'll be taking this advice anytime soon.)

Food that takes a lot of processing usually isn't all that good. (So what your saying is the bologna or sliced ham and processed cheese have to go, No way Jose!)

The fewer steps between nature and stomach, the better. (Not on my watch)

Of coarse I am competing for a couple of ugly plaques, not my livelihood over 4 days.

Hellabass has blogged about the 2009 Bassmaster Classic field...

I don't know who is going to be on my Fantasy Team at this point, but Kim Bain probably won't make my cut.

Cyber Sippi Smallies

Mike "Cyberfish" Thompson of the blog MT Bucket got out and rocked some big smallmouths in the Mississippi River on Sunday...

Had Sunday been the 15th instead of the 16th, Cyberfish would have pulled ahead of me in the Derby but as it stands he is a day late and a dollar short.

Ikeslayer wins Bass Pundit Minnesocold Bass Derby 2008!!!

He caught the biggest bass.

He caught the biggest 5 fish stringer, so he is the WINNER!

4.47lbs
4.68lbs
5.62lbs
5.50lbs
5.06lbs

Total 25.33lbs

Although there really is no honorable mention for anyone beneath 1st. I did manage to beat out rivals Cyberfish and Duffman despite the fact that I really didn't catch any really big fish.

Vikes Blogging

Well the Vikes managed to get beat by Tampa Bay today 19-13. I knew going in this would probably be a tough one for the Vikes to win because the Bucs are a pretty good team and they were at home. Still I hoped that the Vikes just might be a better team then I give them credit for.

The first half was played pretty even and the Vikes went into half-time with a 13-6 lead. Adrian Peterson had something like 70 yards in the first half. The second half was dominated by the Bucs offense.

The Vikes just did not have an answer for the scrambling Jeff Garcia who made play after play with his feet. If the Bucs would have had an immobile QB like Ferotte, they probably would have gotten beat. I think the key play of the game for the Bucs was a 2nd and 25 where Garcia threw a perfect pass to his Tight End for 31 yards and a first and goal on the 1. It had to be a perfectly thrown ball or else the pass would have been broken up or intercepted by Darrin Sharper. This perfect pass set up the Bucs only TD.

I think there were a few key plays by the Vikes that cost them the game. The first was in the 3rd Quarter when the Vikes were at mid-field and went for it on 4th and 1. They tried a pass where Frerotte nearly got sacked, but he got away only to throw an incomplete pass to Adrian Peterson. I think had Frerotte thrown a better ball with a little air under it that AP probably would have scored a TD because he was behind the defence.

Another key play was what I considered to be a bad play call at the end of the 3rd Quarter. On first down AP was hit in the backfield for a 3 yard loss. No big deal I figured give the ball back to AP cause he will most likely get at least 5 yards if not more. AP had some big runs in the first half, but it turned out the 3 yard loss was to be the last rush of the game for AP. Instead of handing off to AP Childress went with the more predictable play of a pass and Frerotte got sacked by Chris fricking Hovan of all people. I believe it was Hovan's first sack of the year. Frerotte then got sacked again on 3rd down.

The last key play came in the 4th quarter with under 4 minutes to play and the Vikes needing to make a 80 yard drive for a touchdown. The Vikes had two timeouts left so there was plenty of time on the clock for running the football. The Vikes were in a similar position last week and AP took the game over. On first down Frerotte threw an 8 yard pass to Bobby Wade. At this point you need to be thinking first downs rather than big plays, so I would have run AP on 2nd down because that would most likely move the chains. Instead of a run it was 3 straight incomplete passes.

Amazingly enough the Vikes got one more shot when the Bucs missed the 36yard field goal attempt. However Bobby Wade got a pass interference penalty. What in the world was Frerotte thinking throwing a jump ball up to little Bobby Wade? Sidney Rice or Bernard Berrien are our jump ball guys. Then Frerotte got sacked and Chester Taylor fumbled and the 2nd half Buc domination was complete.

I am not very optimistic about our chances next week vs Jacksonville even though they probably are not as good as the Bucs. At the dome I think the Vikes win, in sunny Florida, not so much.

I just noticed that Chad Greenway had 16 tackles. WOW!

Smallmouth Trip

Cancelled due to snow. When I got up to go this morning there was a couple of inches of snow on the ground with accumulation on the paved road and it was still lightly snowing. I didn't think the risk of putting the truck in the ditch was worth more than my desire to catch fish so I wimped out and went back to bed.

I am sure Cyberfish will have a report posted tonight.

The Last Day.

Today is the last day of the Bass Pundit Minnesocold Bass Derby 2008 . Cyberfish tried to get me to add an extention because there are still big river smallies to be caught in open water, in fact Cyb and I are going to fish the Sippi tomorrow. However, the fact that I am leading Cyberfish at this point and that the Nov 15th cut off date has been in the rules since day 1 closes the door on the prospect of the Derby going on longer. I don't think anyone has a shot at catching Ikeslayer even if I left the Derby open until Dec 31st.

I really hope that I get into the smallmouth tommorrow. I like the thought of having an open water option for Winter days that are in the 40's. If I catch fish than there is a good chance I'll try and go back if we get a warm day here and there.

FLW Fantasy Bass Fishing News

I got an email from FLW about the 2009 Fantasy Game and much to my surprise they are apparently not cutting the prizes way back but are expanding them for 2009. Unbelievable!!!

Also Players Advantage feature is only going to be $10 instead of whatever it cost last year. For those who don't know, Players Advantage allows one to easily gather information about the anglers fishing the tournament, thus helps you make a more educated guess. I had it this year and totally bombed out anyways.

Vikes Beat Packer Crackers


It's been a while since I football blogged and probably even a longer time since the Vikes beat the Pack. Today for the first time in Coach "Chilly" Childress' era the Vikes beat our #1 rival. It didn't look good even though the Vikes outplayed the Packers by a pretty wide margin. It wasn't decided until the final minute when the Packers kicker missed a long field goal.

All Day AP Adrian Peterson had 192yards rushing and the go ahead touchdown on a 29 yard run and he now leads the league in rushing. Our other Running Back Chester Taylor made a great move on a pass reception and went 47yards for a score. Our QB Frerotte and punt coverage special teams did their level best to give the game away and the D got 2 saftey's which was key in the 1pt win.

Skoal Vikes!!!

This team might actually be pretty good if they can just cut down on the bad bounces and key mistakes.

The Titans beat the Bears and so now we are tied for the division lead at 5-4. Next week the Bears are at the Packers and we have a tough game in Tampa Bay, who had a bye this week. At this point Chicago has the easier schedule but that is also a team that could meltdown. The Packer schedule is also easier than that of the Vikes which makes absolutely no sense in light of the Packers great record last season. The division may very well come down to who can beat .500. If Frerotte doesn't improve his play than the Vikings probably won't make it.

Election Day Shore Bassaction

The weather was once again unseasonably warm and so I wanted to get out and do some fishing. I had to go to Onamia to pick up pills so I was going to try Mille Lacs, but there was stuff parked where I wanted to park at Eddy's and there was a guy blocking the road in the Cemetary Jetti. This worked out for me just as well.

Bulldog- A small pike followed the spinnerbait in on my first cast but I couldn't get it to hit and so it was on to Rock.

Rock 1- As I pulled up at the ramp a boat was coming in. They were running around in my casting area so I nixed Rock until later.

Jenny's- I had a fish swirl at my bait and miss. I couldn't get it to hit again.

Lake Place- It was thundering and threatening rain when I arrived at our lake place on Platte. I was working the "lost jig" through the weeds and had a miss, I worked the area hard but couldn't get a follow up. As I worked a little more West I got a strike from a 14.5" bass right next to shore. I cast over the same water and had a miss. I kept working the spot and was rewarded with a 13" bass. It started to rain hard and I went up to the car to wait it out. After the rain I brought down a white Outkast swim jig, a pumpkin Terminator JigNpig, and the "lost jig."

I started off throwing the white swim jig and was rewarded with a 14" bass. On the very next cast over the exact same spot I had another bass annihilate the swim jig. This bass put up quite a fight and measured in at 19." All of these bass came within 10 feet of shore. I worked the white swim jig with no more luck, so I switched up to the jig and pig and had a fish bite off one of the legs in the area the last two bass came from. I started working the white swim jig again and got the attention of a small pike. After repeated casts I caught it. The pike bit off the tip of the grub tail, but there was still plenty of tail and it had good action.

I started working my way towards Jim's and was rewarded with another 14" bass on the white swim jig. Then I caught a pike. I started throwing the "lost jig" and got a 15" bass quite a ways farther out than any I had caught yet. I switched back to the white swim jig and got another northern.

I moved over to Jim's dock and got a 12" bass out from under it on the white swim jig. I then got the biggest northern of the day to the West of Jim's dock. I threw a bunch of casts from Jim's dock and did miss a bite casting towards our place. That was it, 7 bass and 4 pike.

Rock- I got a small pike on a black spinnerbait.

Shore Fishing Report

Trophy Away and Bonus Bass...

Shore Fishing Report

I caught some today...

Review: Rapala Fishing Frenzy Video Game for the Wii

It's that time of the year again where the weather is turning more and more hostile towards getting out fishing; Soon the ice will be covering Minnesocold lakes. What does one do to scratch that fishing itch?

One thing that I found that works is playing fishing video games and that is where the Rapala Fishing Frenzy video game for Wii comes in to play.

The Rapala Fishing Frenzy video game for Wii was designed by Activision in consultation with the people at Rapala to provide a enjoyable angling experience when you can't be on the water or a fun substitute for actual fishing for gamers. As you see in the picture above the game comes with a special Wii controller and nunchuck holder that simulates using an actual fishing rod. You can play the game with or without the fishing rod holder. Using the rod is OK and adds something to the game, but I think it is easier to play the game without the fishing rod holder.

I have found that the game is quite challenging and is good for many hours of video angling enjoyment. The game is centered around the pursuit of various types of gamefish. You can practice your skills in an "Open" mode and also fish in challenges/tournaments where you are trying to reach a goal in a set amount of time. One thing I like about the game is that you are awarded for a progression of achievement. By catching fish you get stuff added to a "Anglers Den."
By achieving challenges you get bonuses such as a wider selection of lures or getting the option of fishing more lakes.

Learning to cast is a bit tricky so here is the secret: The toggle on the nunchuck needs to be pushed towards the top of the nunchuck, then you simply lift and "throw" the wii controllers like you were using an actual fishing rod. It is important to master the skill of long casts because the longer the cast the more likely you will be able to "set the hook" into a fish.

One good thing about the game is that when a fish bites you use the controllers to "set the hook" just like you do in reel fishing. In addition to that as you are reeling in the fish you can and need to perform maneuvers and "combo's" with the controllers that will help you in the game. I was surprised by how active you have to be to play this fishing game well.

Being that the game is tied in with Rapala, you have a wide assortment of Rapala lures to choose from to fool the fish. I was surprised that they included Rapala Jigging Raps in the lure selection because I consider it to be an ice fishing lure. One thing that could have made the game better would have been realistic sound effects for the Rapala Skitter Pop and Rapala Skitter Prop. For surface lures they also offer the Rapala Skitter Walk.

As you can see from this still shot the graphics are pretty good.

The one thing that really bugged me about the game is that fish lengths and weights don't match up to reality. The fish weights are much heavier than a fish of a given length would ever be.

I would rate the Rapala Fishing Frenzy video game for Wii as a 4 out of 5 stars.

Minnesocold BassNBloggers Round UP

Minnesocold BassNbloggers finished 1-2 at a late season tournament on Big Marine.

Art Simms went to his honey hole once again...

Carl Spande and Team Bassakwards close out in the money...

Also Minnesocold BassNblogger Josh Douglas runs into some bad luck fishing the BASS Weekend Series Regional at Kentucky Lake....

Sport has been out and about...

Minnesota Bass Fishing has a great blog about Fall Bass fishing here in the North country...

4 Shore

BP Fishing Log Blog...

New Leader in the BP Bass Fishing Derby...

BP Fishing Reports at the BP Fishing Log Blog

Shore 10/18/2008...

The Trophy at Rock...

New York Times covers Illinois High School Bass Tournaments

Illinois, the first state to organize tournament bass fishing at the high school level, has set state finals for May 2009. Teenagers like Bathon, a junior at Pinckneyville Community High School in the seat of Perry County, have started joining teams to fish in the inaugural season of formal statewide competition. Classified as an activity alongside chess, debate, journalism, music and spirit, bass fishing has drawn interest from coaches and administrators across the state.

“We were looking at other activities we could offer students in our schools to hit a different student instead of just the typical athlete,” said Dave Gannaway, the assistant executive director of the Illinois High School Association. “It gives them something to look forward to.”

Read the whole thing (Even an all girls school is signed up)...

BP Fishing Report

Mille Lacs Fall Trolling 10/14 into 15 with Pete...

Bass Snatchers Mission Lakes Oct 4th

I had one goal going into this tournament and that was to catch my 6 fish limit, so I would have caught a limit in all 6 tournaments on the schedule. Accomplishing this goal would be a mark of distinction especially fishing from the back of the boat. Up until this year in the 31 year history of the Baxter Bass Snatcher Club a total of only 7 different anglers had ever caught a limit in every tournament in a season and those 7 did it only 16 times. I was pretty hungry to achieve this goal and at 1pm with only 2 keepers in the well I began to feel the pressure. Did I rally or fall flat? Full Story at the BP Tourny HQ...

New Minnesocold BassNblog and more

Aj Rods & Tackle Blog: This blog is mostly being done by Isaac "Ikeslayer" Karow who is in the BP Derby and a regular at FishingMinnesota.com Bass Forum. The blog looks really good so far.

The Wired Angler: I found this blog thanks to Hellabass and it's a good one if you are into swimbaits. At first glance it looks like this blog is a lot about tackle and fish catching technology. This post (1st post) will get you up to speed.

A Couple BP fishing reports

Shore Again 10/7/08

Out in the Trophy on Rock

Shore Action

I got a solid 34inch Pike and more, check out my report Shore Nuff at the BP Fishing Log Blog.

Boat Conversations with FLW Tour BP Fishing Pro Jim Moynagh

In case you did not know, I went fishing with BP (fuel) Fishing Pro Jim Moynagh from Carver MN. We fished lake Minnewashta for about 5 hours. This blog is about the conversation we had on the boat, which was basically me asking questions about things I was curious about. Here is some of what we discussed:

FLW $1.7 million plus Fantasy Bass Fishing Game:
Jim thought it was just fantastic and thought it will probably help the anglers out down the line. He thought the payoff would probably come in the next few years. He did not have any knowledge as to whether the prize structure will be significantly reduced in 2009.

The 2009 FLW Tour Schedule:
The 2009 FLW Tour features 3 bodies of water (Norman, Kentucky Lake, Champlain), half the tour schedule, that Jim has a history of success on. I wanted to know if Jim was especially looking forward to 2009. He took a measured approach saying he really does not get excited anymore about having certain lakes on the schedule. He has had enough tournaments that he was really looking forward to and then bombed out on to get over confident or excited about anything.

FLW Field Size Cut for 2009
Jim was not super enthusiastic about the cut in field size, like you might think he would be. He is really concerned about the entry fees going up and the prize money staying level or even going backward a bit. It seemed to me that he would not mind 200 boat fields if the purses were increased.

Training Regime
I think it really helps a professional bass fisherman to be in good physical and fishing condition. Jim does work out on a regular basis, sometimes even during a tournament if he can swing it, doing a combination of strength training and cardio. He believes that there is no substitute for time on the water for being on top of your game. Jim absolutely loves to fish and said he is known for being a guy that puts in long days.

Tournament Formatting FLW Tour vs. FLW Series
Jim says he likes to get a guaranteed 3 days to fish which is what the FLW Series offers. As far as weights being set to zero, it doesn't really matter to him.

Alliances, Rivals, Respect:
Jim is kind of a loan ranger and does not team up and collaborate with any of the other competitors on tour. He said he really does not have a nemesis on tour and has the utmost respect for all the anglers that he fishes against.

Co-Anglers:
Jim said he thought all Bass Pro's including himself would prefer to be the only fisherman in the boat during a tournament. However he thought that Co-Anglers were a big help to keep the integrity of the sport intact. He brought up a article by BassFan with Rick Clunn and said he basically agrees with everything Clunn said. He said most Co-anglers are great to fish with and has had only a few that caused problems.

Jim had a story about a co-angler that made a cast that connected with a Canadian goose as 3 of them were flying bye. The Co was fishing with a Chatterbait, at the height of the Chatterbait craze when they were scarce, and it was his only one. Jim said the hooked flying Goose broke the line without even breaking stride and boy was that Co-angler mad to loose his Chatterbait.

The Bubblegum Super Fluke:
Jim asked me about the type of fishing that I prefer to do and one of the things I brought up was that I have a lot of confidence in a bubblegum colored Zoom Super Fluke. This remark brought a smile to Jim's face. He said he doesn't usually fish with flukes, but he did absolutely get schooled by a Co-angler on Lake Champlain that was using a bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke.

Favorite Kind of Fishing:
Jim's favorite fish is the smallmouth bass and he is a happy camper if he can get away with fishing them on topwater or with jerkbaits.

Favorite Body of Water:
Jim said his favorite kind of fishing is successful at Rainy Lake and he has had a lot of tournament success on Rainy with the big smallies, so that is the lake he likes best.

Secret to the Fort Francis Canadian Bass Championship:
The Fort Francis Canadian Bass Championship is a 100+ boat field tournament on Rainy Lake that Jim has won 4 times (08,07,99,98) placed 2nd twice (00,97) and 3rd once (02). Jim said he wishes he knew what the secret was and could bottle it for other lakes. He said it just seems like at times on Rainy it seems like he can do no wrong, his decisions just always seem to be the right ones.

This year an off year for him on the Minnesocold tournament scene:
Jim said he has fished fewer tournaments in Minnesota this year than he ever has since he began tournament fishing when he turned 18 years old. He didn't really have a reason why that I can remember.

He said he hasn't even been on Lake Minnetonka once this year.

His future in the sport:
Jim wants to continue tournament fishing on the professional level for the forseeable future. He is very concerned about the rising costs that professional fishing is experiencing. I got the impression that as long as he is successful and remains competitive that he will continue to fish, but that he fears the rising costs and a couple of bad years could end up forcing him out.

We did talk about more than this but this is all I am going to blog about. Jim is a genuine and humble guy that is a credit to the sport.

Launch Trips now blogged

A couple of Eddy's Launch trips with Dad that I haven't blogged about until now...

A Day on the Lake with BP Bass Pro Jim Moynagh

On Thursday October 2nd I got to spend a few hours on Lake Minnewashta in SW metro fishing with BP (fuel) Fishing Pro Jim Moynagh. Jim Moynagh has won over a million dollars as a professional bass fisherman and is the most successful bass fisherman Minnesocold has ever produced on the elite levels of bass fishing tours.

Our day fishing:
We met at the Lake Miniwashta Regional Park a little before 10am and were on the water and fishing by 10:30am. We took a short boat ride down the shoreline so we could start fishing the deep edge of a milfoil covered weed flat. Jim chose to throw a Salmo Boxer Crankbait in a color that looked to be sort of bright orange.

The Boxer is a buoyant fairly large and fat crankbait and the one Jim was using dived to about 5-7' and had a straight rather than the bended lip. Jim is sponsored by Salmo.
It was just a few casts for Jim and it was "fish on." He landed a healthy 3lb plus bass. A great way to start the day. I started off using a black single Colorado blade spinnerbait with a rattle. I believe I caught the 2nd and 3rd fish but they turned out to be hammer handle pike. The wind was blowing straight onto the flat we were fishing and Jim got the 2nd bass of the day on the Salmo, it was another solid 3lb fish.

I had some items that I wanted to ask Jim about and I was more concerned about hearing the answers than fishing and that is my excuse for missing about 3 or 4 solid bites on the spinnerbait. I will do a separate blog on the topics that Jim and I spoke about while on the boat.

The fishing wasn't fast and it wasn't real slow. As we approached a point that comes off of the flat Jim tied into a solid fish, which turned out to be this 4lb bass:

Sorry about the Picture quality, it was a camera phone picture.

Jim managed to land a second bass off this point off the flat and I was getting nothing on the spinnerbait so I switched to a jignpig and did get a hit on that, but I missed it. Jim also switched up to a jigNpig missed a bite then connected with a pike. There were a lot of baitfish on this point and Jim had high hopes we would hit a good school but all we got were those two bass and a pike. Eventually we kept heading down the flat towards the access we launched at. Jim resumed throwing the Salmo Boxer. I think he landed a pike or two and I switched up to a Strike King Red Eye shad without any luck, than switched to a rattletrap that was similar in color to the Salmo Boxer that Jim was throwing. We were just about straight out from the access when I got a hit and landed a solid 2lb bass. As I was reeling in Jim hooked into another bass that was close to if not over 3lbs. I got my fish out from the boat and Jim got his close into the boat. Jim remarked that this goes to show that the fish are scattered and not bunched up in schools. We worked this area thoroughly but didn't get another fish. As we worked our way North, I think Jim got one or two more nice bass on the boxer and a pike, but I wasn't getting anything.

We tried retracing our steps and went back south, but we didn't have much action except for maybe Jim catching a pike. At this point we had about an hour and a half before I wanted to be off the water, so Jim suggested we try some pads and docks on the South end of the lake. It was pretty sunny and Jim thought the fish might want so shade.

I started throwing Snagproof frog and Zoom Horny Toad over the pads. I had a pike jump over the Horny Toad, had a small fish strike at the Snagproof frog, and had another small fish hit at the Horny Toad but not hook up. I mostly was leaving the docks we came across to Jim. He was throwing a wacky rigged All-Terrain Tackle Terrain Stick; I am unsure of the color.


We were seeing a lot of sunfish up shallow but almost no bass to speak of until Jim spotted a good fish that was just sitting out in the open in a hole in the weeds quite a ways out from the closest dock. The fish didn't even look at the Terrain Stick, but when I put the Horny Toad down there it inhaled the white toad. I set the hook and came up with absolutely nothing. Jim threw the Terrain stick back at it and this time the fish quickly inhaled it and Jim had yet another 3lb bass.

We kept working our way down the bank and Jim started pulling a few 12" to 14" bass off the docks. I started throwing a bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke at the docks and missed my first pick up. I think I had one more shot at a fish underneath a boat lift, but I got hung up and had to break off. We came to the end of the bays docks and it was time to head in.

I think Jim out-fished me on bass about 10 to 1. Regardless of my lack of luck, it was a fun day on the water.

Bass Snatchers Mission Lake Preview

Tomorrow is the last Baxter Bass Snatcher Club tournament of the year and it is on Upper and Lower Mission Lakes just North of Brainerd. For the 6th time this season the tournament is on a lake on which I have no prior experience. The lakes are suppose to be pretty decent for quantity and quality bass. My partner Dennis is currently in the lead to be the Anger of the Year of club "Mr. Bass." Dennis has achieved this honor 3 other times (97,03,06). He prefished the lake 2 times and is generally optimistic about things and believes we should both be able to catch a limit.

My one and only goal for this tournament is to get my 6 fish limit. If I do that than I will be one of 8 anglers that have ever achieved this goal in the 31 year history of the Baxter Bass Snatcher Club. In those 31 years a person catching a limit in all 6 tournaments during a season has been achieved only 16 times. There are 5 of us who have a shot at this achievement going into Mission and the other 4 guys have done it at least once.

Mission Lake apparently is a diverse fishery where the bass hang out in the slop, extensive reeds, weed flats, weed lines, and docks. From what I understand the Upper Mission Lake has more water clarity than the lower lake, but generally they are both fairly clear. Dennis says we will probably spend most of our time on the deep weed edge and on the flats. He doesn't want to go into the reeds or slop and at this time of the year the dock fishing opportunities will be limited. I plan on throwing a spinnerbait a lot, a jigNpig some, maybe a buzzbait, and rattlebaits. I am really hoping that the fish will be active and the horizontal presentations will rule.

It is supposed to be a cool but sunny morning with temps rising to 60 or so with light 5 to 10mph SE winds. Wish me luck.

Opportunity Knocked

Last week I got an email from Ashley Moss who is the person that handles the FLW BP (fuel) Fishing Team. She had read my blog and was aware that I have talked about Minnesocold FLW BP (fuel) Pro Angler Jim Moynagh. She wanted to know if I would be interested in fishing with Jim and then blogging about it. How could I refuse this chance? Jim Moynagh is the most successful Pro Bass Angler Minnesocold has ever produced.

We are going fishing tommorrow at Lake Miniwashta in the West Metro.

To learn more about BP Pro Angler Jim Moynagh check out this Profile done by Futurebass.com a couple of years ago.

Here is a You Tube of Jim talking about Flashers:


To find out about FLW sponsor BP Fuel click here.

Fishers of Men Fishing Club Fall Outing

Full fishing report at the BP Fishing Log Blog...

Coming Soon...

Fishers of Men Fall Outing- How the BP captured Fally Walleye!!!

BP's Day on the lake with BP(Fuel) Pro Bass Angler Jim Moynagh.

Shake up in the BP Bass Derby

Preview and Tournament Report from the last Bass Snatchers tournament of the year at Upper and Lower Mission Lake.

Activision's Rapala Fishing Frenzy‏

Activision's Rapala Fishing Frenzy‏ is a new fishing video game coming out. I was contacted by PR firm Sandbox Strategies and they want to send me the game so I can review it here at the blog. Hey if people want to send me stuff, who am I to say no.

Check this out:

Rapala Fishing Frenzy (Sept)

Publisher: Activision

Platforms: Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Bait your hook this summer to catch “Rapala Fishing Frenzy,” the newest edition of the popular angling game from Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI). Developed by Fun Labs in close collaboration with Rapala, the world's largest manufacturer of fishing lures and #1 fishing brand in the world, the title will supply heart-pounding fishing action in over 20 tournament events.

Downloads
HD Trailer: www.sandboxstrat.com/Rapala_FF_Trailer.zip (183 MB)

Screenshots, Wii peripheral photo, box art: www.sandboxstrat.com/Rapala_Fishing_Frenzy_assets.zip (8MB)

Fishers of Men Fishing Club Twin Cities Fall Outing

Once again it is time for the Fishers of Men Fishing Club Fall Outing not that any of my blog readers would know because I have not blogged about it in years past. This is an event that I have participated in for the last 10 years. It actually seems like I have been to more than 10 of them. It was at my second Fall Outing that I was given the nickname Basspastor. This year we will be going back to Lutherdell Bible Camp on Boy lake North of Longville for the first time in 3 years. Last year we went to Camp Shamineau on Shamineau Lake and the year before that we went to Broadwater Lodge on Woman Lake all the years before that were at Luther Dell.

It used to be that the big draw was walleye fishing on Leech Lake, but in the last few years since walleye fishing has been poor on Leech no one has been fishing it and last year we were West of Brainerd. Since the walleye fishing has come back strong on Leech I suspect that a lot of the guys will be going there. I really do enjoy that Fall Leech lake jig and minnow fishing, but I am probably going to hit Mule Lake for the bass and Town Line Lake for bass and pike. We have a pretty good sized group coming up this year and so they need me to bring the Trophy so I can take someone out.

In years past we have had Ron Lindner, Vikings great the late Wally Hilgenberg, Cass Lake Guide Merv Heischmidt, and famous Leech Lake Guide Chip Leer as speakers. Once upon a time even I was the featured speaker. I have many great memories from the Fall Outing and hopefully this year will be no different.

Bass Snatchers Serpent Lake 9/20/2008

When I arrived at Serpent Lake just after 7AM my partner Mark already has his boat in the water. I loaded up my gear and then we waited for the 8am blast off. When I was at the dock Bill Ludenia told me bass were on the flats biting on jig and pigs. When I was in the boat with Mark he talked about throwing spinnerbaits on the flats. I asked him if he was considering throwing a buzzbait at all and he showed me that he had one tied on. On the West end of the lake by the public access, there was just a light breeze blowing and there was a slight haze, but not enough to call it overcast.

At blast off we were boat #11 out of 12 and when it was our turn we headed East down the lake as fast as the boat would go and that was pretty fast. We ended up stopping on the Eastern Edge of a weed flat on the North side of the lake where Mark had gotten a big bass once upon a time, as we were getting into position another Bass Snatcher boat came into the same general area.

I started off throwing a pumpkinseed swim jig with a Zoom Speed Craw trailer and I was quickly rewarded with a fish on. It turned out to be the first of many pikes that I would catch this day. Mark started out with a spinnerbait but quickly put that down for a buzzbait in the calm conditions we were in. It didn't take long until Mark was rewarded with a nice bass. I switched to a white single spin Colorado blade spinnerbait and caught a rock bass, then a pike, then a 11 inch bass. As we worked our way west on the flat Mark caught another nice bass on the buzzbait. That was enough to convince me to go to topwater and I put on a Purple Berkley Frenzy Popper. I think Mark got another nice bass and shortly after that, I caught my first keeper of the day which was a solid 16" fish. Conditions just seemed to be perfect for topwater and anticipation of a strike was high. Mark caught a couple of more fish on the buzzbait to my nothing, so I was thinking maybe they wanted a more active bait, so I switched to a white spook. The fish did seem to like the spook better than the popper. I had a pike launch itself after the spook and miss it. Then a couple of casts later something hit at the spook and missed, then hit at it again and missed, I paused the bait then started it up again and this time the fish got it and I was rewarded with another 16" bass. Mark caught a couple of more bass on the buzzbait and reached his 6 fish limit. I caught a couple of short basses which was a bit frustrating cause a spook is supposed to be a big fish bait. After much walking the dog I did get a 14" keeper.

The wind came up and the surface bite died. Mark started throwing a white spinnerbait and started getting a few bass and pike. I tried the swim jig and the white spinnerbait. I backlashed and broke my line at the spool sending the white spinnerbait into the distance. Easy come, easy Go! I tied on another white single Colorado blade spinnerbait and got back after it. That was not getting any hits so I decided to tie on a black spinnerbait with a much bigger Colorado blade. I caught a pike very quickly on that.

We headed back across the flat to our starting spot and I nailed a couple more pike on the black spinnerbait and also had a couple of hits that did not hook up. We were working the middle of the flat and I was throwing out to deeper water when I got a solid hook up which turned out to be a nice 16" bass. A little while later doing the same thing I nailed yet another nice 16" largemouth. Things seemed to shut down after that and I was not even getting bit by pike anymore. Still, the good fish I got on the black spinnerbait gave me a lot of confidence to keep throwing it and persistence paid off as I landed my limit fish sometime around 11am. My limit fish was just a 13 incher. It was really nice to have a limit since my partner Mark's expectations coming in were quite low.

Things stayed kind of slow on another pass across the flat. Mark switched up to a jig and pig and got a bass on that. I think I landed a pike or two and then switched up to a jig and pig to give my back a break from the relentless casting and retrieving. I had a solid pick up on the jig and landed a 14" inch fish so I culled up a little. Not long after catching that fish Mark suggested that we hit some docks in search of a kicker.

We started off on some of the docks on the flat that we had been fishing all morning. As we were moving along we came to a short wooden single dock that looked like nothing. Mark cast at the dock and got a strike but didn't hook up. I made a cast at the front of the dock and saw the bass that Mark missed swim away from the dock then start to circle back in the direction of my Super Fluke. While I couldn't tell completely it looked like the fish picked up the Fluke and so I set the hook and sure enough, the rod doubled up. I didn't realize it when I saw it swimming, but as soon as I hooked up it became apparent this was a bigger fish. It put up a good fight and didn't go into the net easy, but I did land the 4lb 2oz beauty which turned out to be the tournament big bass by an ounce. Sometimes you just get a bit lucky and things go your way. This success motivated us to run the lake and hit docks for a while.

We got a few keepers and several shorts on docks, but nothing that would help. Eventually, we moved to the South side of the lake and started hitting docks there. The Southside docks were pretty dead and we eventually headed out over a flat. I got a small pike, then tied into a good fish that I was hoping was a bass. It was a bass but not as big a fish as the fight it put up. The fish was 15.25 and I ended up throwing it back, which was a mistake because I still had a 14" fish in the well but I could not find it thanks to the fact that I got mixed up when a couple of my clip-on cull tags came off of the fish. Mark has a walleye boat with one main non-divided livewell, so with 11 fish in there it was easy for me to not come up with the 14 incher after a bit of a search. I figured I had just measured wrong but at the end of the day sorting it was pretty obvious I had a 14" fish.

We headed back to the flat we started on and I caught yet another 15" bass that would have helped, but once again I did not find that 14" fish and so I let a bigger fish go. We worked the flat and caught a few more pikes. With about 30 minutes left we headed back to the launch area and tried a weedy point but didn't get anything. We headed in about 10 minutes early.

Results:
Mark thought I had his bag beat by 2-4lbs, but it turned out that he beat me by 10ozs, so I ended up in 3rd place overall at 14lbs 6ozs. First place was 17lbs 6ozs. I got plaques for Lunker and 3rd Place. It's hard to say whether or not my culling screw up cost me 2nd place or not, Mark figured it probably did. Oh well, one place is no big deal, I am just glad it was me that got the big one.

The other rookie in the club this year did not fish for his second tournament in a row, so I locked up rookie of the year honors by just showing up.

Our last tournament is Oct 4th on Upper and Lower Mission lakes in Crow Wing County. Mark says they are great bass fisheries.

Bass Snatchers Serpent Lake Preview

Unlike most MN Bass clubs, we at the Baxter Bass Snatchers have 2 tournaments yet to fish. Tommorrow we tackle Serpent Lake at Crosby in Crow Wing County. Once again I will be fishing a lake that I have never been on and I did not get out for a pre-fish. My partner Mark does not have a good track record on the lake and he told me flat out that he "does not like the lake very much." He did get out to pre-fish at least once and didn't find much of anything. He may have gotten out for a second shot at it. From the past club tournaments it is hard to get a read on how things might go because they fished it in 2004, 2001, and 1997. The 2004 tournament by far had the most fish caught, but that was in June. In 2001 it was fished Sept. 29th and there were only 5 limits for 21 anglers, but who knows what the weather was like.

I don't know how clear the water is thanks to the MN DNR website being down tonight. The weather had been fairly cool for a couple of weeks until a couple of days ago where it has warmed up quite a bit. Hopefully this weather will put the fish on the feed. I am bringing 8 rods, which is the most I have brought to a tournament all year. Mark has a big Ranger so space should not be an issue.

I think the main plan is to fish spinnerbaits and swimjigs over weed flats which can be a pretty solid pattern at this time of year. I believe Serpent has smallmouth so I also will be loaded up with topwater, X-Raps, and tubes. Once again my goal is to get a limit and land in the top 50% for the day.

Maybe one of these days I'll get around to posting about the Church Launch Trip I took with Dad last month. I got 3 eyes (1 keep) and a few perch. I think dad may have caught a perch. There were lots of missed bites.

Bass Snatchers North Long 8/23/08

Just a bit of frustration is starting to sink in.

It was still pretty dark when I arrived at the public access a little before 6AM. It was cloudy, cool but not cold, and quite windy, which had everyone a bit put off. I brought a raincoat but didn't have a bib. I was surprised that my partner Chuck's boat is one of the smaller tiller model Rangers. I had just assumed being the hardcore bass fisherman that this guy is that he would have a pretty good sized rocket ship. The boat has a non-divided main live well and a bait well, so it is actually more of a walleye rig. When we got out on the water we discovered his aerator pump wasn't working, so he kept his fish in the bait well and I had to continuously scoop fresh water into the main livewell where my fish were throughout the day. It worked out as all my fish were alive at weigh in. The tournament blast off was at 7AM and we headed for the big water in the middle basin of North Long. North Long runs pretty much East to West and has 3 pretty round bays and is not small with almost 6000 acres of water. The way the wind was blowing I thought it would be much rougher once we got into the middle basin but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

We started on a mid-lake hump where my partner had found a school of big fish. Neither of us got a bite. We then moved to another hump close by that already had a boat on it. We saw them land one fish as they were drifting their way slowly with the anchor down. We didn't get anything but weeds.

Next, we headed to a fairly protected shoreline to try some reeds. Almost right away I lost a small fish on a swim jig and that was all we got there. Next, we moved out to the weedline and on our second stop started getting some action with the noise of Brainerd International Raceway in the background. I got my first fish on a pumpkinseed Monsoor swim jig with Zoom Speed Craw Trailer. I think I next caught one or two shorts. My partner was landing keepers on a Texas rigged craw tube and I made the switch to a black/blue JigNpig. I caught two nice keepers on my first two casts. After that, the fish seemed to shut off. The wind seemed to increase while we were on that weedline. I would say it was gusting over 30.

We then hit a couple of weedline spots on the North End of the middle basin. My partner filled out his limit and I got two more keepers plus about 4 shorts on the swim jig.

Next, we headed out to the humps we started on. The clouds had started to break up and the wind came down to about 15mph instead of 20-30mph. My partner landed his best fish of the day on the first hump, but that was it. Eventually, I filled my limit and got my first cull. We then ran back to the weedline where we had caught the bulk of our fish but didn't get anything except one short for me. I don't remember where we went next, but we got nothing there. We then headed to a cabbage weed bed on the southern part of the middle basin. I caught a couple of shorts on the swim jig and Chuck got his craw tube bit off by a pike.

With about an hour left with the sun completely out and the wind died down we tried a nice looking steep break on the North end of the middle basin without any luck. Next, we headed into Merrifield Bay (the east basin) and went dock fishing. My partner was skipping a jigNpig under the docks with a baitcaster and he was sure good at it with extremely accurate casts. Meanwhile, I was struggling to get accustomed to my new St. Croix Avid Spinning rod rigged with a bass tube jig. Chuck managed to cull up slightly a couple of times and caught a couple of fish that would have helped me. On one of the docks, I made a bad cast got hung up and broke off. This allowed me to switch up to a bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke which I am much more comfortable throwing around docks because the hook is not exposed. Chuck let me get the first crack at a likely looking spot and I caught yet another short. We kept moving around hitting docks. We came to a spot where there was a boat lift about 35 feet out from the end of a dock. Chuck had a fish pick up his bait and spit it, while I was casting into the shadow made by the lift. After a couple of jerks of the Fluke, I had on a 16.5" which was my big fish of the day. It was also the last fish of the day for us.

My partner weighed a respectable 13-7 which was only good enough for 7th. My partner had won the two previous club tournaments at North Long in 2006 and 2004 with weights in the 14's. The winning weight on this day was 15-11 with 2 other bags in the 15's and 2 bags in the high 14's.

Results:
I was pleasantly surprised to hear 11lbs 01oz with a big fish of 2lbs 9ozs. I thought I had somewhere just under 10lbs. From past history, I figured that 11lbs would get me a solid finish in the middle of the pack, instead on this day it was only good enough for 17th out of 24.

My Thoughts:
As I said before this is starting to get a little bit frustrating. I am catching fish from the back of the boat, but the size of fish I am catching just isn't cutting it compared to everyone else. This tournament I caught all but 1 fish on a bass jig which is known to be a bigger fish bait, but I caught my big fish of the day on a Super Fluke.

I now have a 15th, 16th, 17th, and 23rd place finishes. This tournament moved me ahead of the other club rookie, who didn't fish North Long. I am currently in 17th place and well back of 16th place and that is out of 22 people that have fished a minimum of 3 out of the 4 tournaments. (Place is figured out with the lowest score thrown out so only 3 tournaments at this point count for a person's points.)

Our 5th tournament is not until September 20th at Serpent Lake and the last tournament of the year is October 4 at Mission.

North Long Bass Snatchers Preview

Tomorrow is my 4th Bass Club tournament of the year and it is being held on North Long Lake just North of Brainerd. Once again this season I have never fished the lake before tournament day. Unfortunatly I did not get out with my partner on Tuesday morning when he went pre-fishing. My partner for this tournament is Chuck Steinbauer. Chuck is probably one of the most experienced and best bass fisherman in all of Minnesota. I think he has been to the BASS Federation National representing MN 3 different times. No doubt Chuck knows North Long well.

The fishing is probably going to be a lot of deep weedline stuff and a pretty good cold front is moving through. I have 6 rods rigged but don't expect to use the topwater or Froggin rod. I've got 2 rods for JigNpigs and 2 spinning rods for plastics. Fishing might be kind of tough, but I don't really know what to expect. Hopefully I will bring in a limit.

Minnesota's Mike Thompson Wins Fantasy Bass Million

Unfortunatly it isn't Mike "Cyberfish" Thompson.

BassNblog Found

Once again thanks to Hellabass, I was made aware of another BassNblog.
On the Water I believe this blog is about the Ohio Bass Federation Nation.

Federation Nation Northern Divisional

This past weekend the BASS Federation Nation held it's Northern Divisional Tournament at Lake Winnebago, Oshkosh Wisc. The Divisional determines each state's Federation Nation qualifier for the Federation Nation National Championship that determines which Federation anglers make it to the Bassmasters Classic.

Bill Ludenia, my Bass Snatcher partner at Pokegama Lake came in 5th place at the Divisional. Unfortunatly an angler from Rochester Minnesocold came in 4th place and will be the MN representative at the Federation Nation National Championship. Bill was 1lb 2oz short. In the 3 day tournament he caught 14 out of a possible 15 keepers, so basically he was 1 keeper shy of the Championship. WI has a no cull rule, so it's possible that Bill threw back that 1 keeper in the hopes of getting a larger fish.

Also fishing the Divisional were BassNblogger Rich "Hellabass" Lindgren and the Baxter Bass Snatcher who will be my tournament partner next Saturday on North Long Lake, Chuck Steinbauer. Hellabass came in a very respectable 7th just 1lb 11ozs from being the Minnesocold top stick. Chuck came in 47th in the field of 96.

I am sure Hellabass will have his tournament blogged soon.

Bummer

BassNblog Getting Reel is shutting down. Hopefully Don will start a new blog.

Fantasy Bass Fishing Last Hurrah

This weeks Forrest Wood Cup brings the 2008 Fantasy Bass Fishing year to a close. As per usual I am really into it in the Winter and Spring and then my interest falls off in the summer. Once again this year I forgot about the BASS Elite Series Super 6 Pick'em on a number of occasions and I also forgot to put in rosters for the new in 2008 Evinrude Fantasy Fishing Game that had prizes far surpassing what BASS/ESPN were doing.

In the BASS/ESPN Game I had a pretty good year, qualifying for a prize once, but I didn't find out about it until it was too late to get it. In the FutureBass.com league I ended up finishing 8th out of 70 which is a bit disappointing because I was at or near 1st at the half way point. Bass Pundit 1 didn't fair so well and finished 39th in the league.

The FLW Fantasy Fishing Challenge didn't go nearly so well. I will salvage something if Jay Yelas manages to win the the FLW Cup, but the season as a whole hasn't gone that well. I really do not care for the changes they made in the scoring in the FLW game not that it made that much of a difference, but I think my Dad probably would have been in the prizes once under the old system and overall our teams would have faired better. I will be shocked if they have the same kind of prize structure next year.

Anyway GO JAY!

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...

New BassNblog

It is simply called Bass Blog: Not a whole lot of info is available at the site about the blog owner but he seems to be someone in the Bass Fishing industry. For some reason the Bass Blog has caused my Internet Explorer to close twice.

BTW almost all the Minnesocold BassNblogs have been really active this summer. Go to the Blogroll-O-BassNblog and check them out.

In other BassNblog news: The Brushpile is now Ted Anderson's Fish-Wrap... I'm not changing the blog roll.

David Gnewikow has a great story at Fishing the Trail I really like this BassNblog.

Fishing w/Pete Sullivan Lake

Today I was the putz holding things up. It was a bit on the warm side and I didn't want to head out in the heat. We ended up waiting till after dinner and we did not get on Sullivan Lake until after 7PM. Conditions were ideal. It was calm and overcast and things had cooled down into the high 70's.

I started us off on a reed bank that has been productive for Pike and Bass in the past. It was dead (Pete might have missed one hit and I had a weak surface strike on the black/yellow head Snagproof Bobby's Perfect Frog) although we really didn't get to fish some of the prime stuff because Pete was not really able to fish the heavier cover.

The sun was starting to get low so we headed over to the GOMH and I got a look at the bridge construction for the 1st time. It looked like they dammed up the channel and it also looked like there was a lot of work to be done. The rumor is that they are supposed to finish the project in late August. I have never seen so many lilly pads in the SW GOMH bay. I fished the frog and Pete fished a buzzbait and skitter pop. He was having major casting accuracy problems with the skitter pop. I managed to get a 14" Larry back in the slop and I missed one real good hit. Once again this was an area that used to be a consistant producer of more action than we saw. With the Sun basically down we headed to the PRO river mouth. The River doesn't seem to be flowing as strong as usual and the area has more vegitation than I remember it having in the past. My plan was to let Pete have things all to himself, but Pete's casting problems were keeping him from working the water so I decided to fish. I hit the prime stuff at the river mouth and didn't get any blow ups. I did get a 13.5" in some more marginal water. Pete decided to switch to a frog and we worked our way inside the river. I missed one blow up and that was it. Much to my astonishment the river mouth was a dud too.

We motored out of the river mouth and stopped at a good looking area about 50 yards out from the PRO river mouth. Pete had a blow up that didn't hook up while I was busy doing boat control as the wind had kicked up pretty good out of the SE. It was a wet ride back in.

Site Meter Trouble

If you are having trouble getting to the blog it apparently is Site Meters Fault.

I can view my stuff just fine,but my Site Meter widget is gone. Also I cannot view MT Bucket which I think is due to the Site Meter glitch. I am going to see if things are different under Mozilla because Tigerhawk says it's a SiteMeter/Internet Explorer problem.

Well I can view MT Bucket with Mozilla and he has a Site Meter. My Site Meter widget is not visible under Mozilla either, hmmm.

Fishing w/Pete Rock Lake

Tonight was the annual Immanuel Luthern Corn Boil. I went to that with Dad and we got home around 6pm. At the Corn Boil dad found out that Jenny had something wrong with her water flow at the house and so this was the plan: I would hook the Trophy up to the Explorer and go to Jenny's and drop off dad. I would then go and see whether Pete wanted to hook the boat up to his car or leave it on the Explorer and let dad take Pete's car home. By the time I got my gear squared away and everything in order it was after 9:30pm.

Pete was sound asleep when I got to the "Lake Place" and it took about half an hour for him to get up. Once he did, he decided that we would put the Trophy on his car and I would bring the Explorer to Dad and Pete also wanted to organize and put a bunch of stuff away in his car and the garage. As I drove to Jenny's Dad was walking back on the road and was almost to the Lake Place. I gave Dad the Explorer and walked back to the Lake Place. I grabbed my frog rod out of the boat and went down front to throw a few casts. No luck.

I headed back up and not to suprizingly Pete was not ready to go for about another half an hour. It was after 8PM when we arrived at the Rock Lake public access. Much to our surprize when we were getting the boat ready to go in the water another boat showed up wanting to put in. This made sure we got the boat off the trailer about 10 minutes quicker than we would have other wise.

Once we were on the water the plan was to use the trolling motor and fish starting at the access and go North. Unfortunatly the trolling motor didn't run. The battery meter in the trolling motor wasn't getting any juice. We tried to clean off the contacts but that didn't do any good. It was as if the battery had completely died. While Pete was working on the battery I fired up the gas motor and we decided to go out and fish without a trolling motor.

Near the access I caught a 14.5" Larry on a black/yellow head Snagproof Bobby's Perfect Frog. As the sun went down we hit several good looking area's North of the access. Pete missed a couple of hits on a Chart/red Skitter Pop. It got dark in a hurry and we headed in. We maybe got to fish for 25 minutes.