Misc Notes

Heading to Florida for Christmas today-so I may not have blog access for awhile. If not
Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Happy Birthday Kristen!

Happy Birthday Jeff!

Happy Birthday Spud!

Happy Birthday Me!



I will be adding a blog to the franchise in the new year. Oh Boy!

I did go Ice fishing on Bulldog Lake on 12/9. I got a bunch of little Crappies.

Pet Adoption

As can be seen in the sidebar, I've decided to dedicate blog space to Petfinder.com 's adopt a pet program. Thanks to the blog of The Patriette, I found out about the banner program and thought it would be a good edition to my blog. I have a soft spot in my heart for dogs whether neglected or not and thought it would also be a fitting tribute to Soren who passed away just about a year ago.

For the New Year I'm thinking about trying to help with Elkhound rescue in MN and possible other volunteer work with critters.

If you have the means and the stability of lifestyle than the right dog is about the best gift a person can give themselves and the little (or big) ball o fur.

For my Belated Blogirthday

A Lambert Sweep!
Vikes 20 - Pack 17

It's back

Actually the ice arrived yesterday on the 17th. The snow came in a bit to quick and so we didn't get "safe ice" when it got cold again last night. If you will recall, things are a bit ahead of last years schedule.

Program Note: Only 2 Days until the BP Blogirthday or is that Blogiversity?

Matisyahu @ The Cabooze

WWW.MATISYAHU.ORG
WWW.HASIDICREGGAE.COM
WWW.ORMUSIC.COM
WWW.JDUBRECORDS.ORG

A BP first: Concert Review

Never heard of Matisyahu or Hasidic Reggae before, neither had I until a Twin Cities Station, Drive 105, played his song "King without a Crown." It is a cool track, the lyrics are solid spiritually, and the Drive 105 DJ's spoke well of the guy. When I heard Matisyahu was coming to town I asked my older bro Jeff if he wanted to go and he said OK. The only thing that really needs to be said is that Matisyahu and his band seriously rock most of the time. BRAVO!

The show opened up with underground Xtian rapper Pigeon John. The Pigeon is high energy and brought better than average original hip hop with both humor and a message. I only like hip hop these days if it is unique and non-gansta and the Pigeon is unique and more joker than gangsta. He did get a laugh out of me a couple of times and I thought he was better than average warm up material. Highlight was his song Hello Everybody and the last song which has a title that alludes me. I'll just call it "Fearfully and Wonderfully Made."

The Matisyahu set: I didn't really know what to expect coming into the concert with only a slight familiarity with a single song and a little knowledge about the guy from Googling a bit. However, reggae is easy to get into the groove with sight unheard. I was more than pleasantly surprised to find this fusion mix of reggae, rock, jazz, hip-hop, prayer/chant, and solid musicianship all working together. I just wish I knew some songs in advance, that would sure help my review. It seemed like there was a lot of experimentation and fair amount of spontaneity/improv to the performance which at times was rocky, but usually managed to satisfy.

I thought the group was at it's best in when it went into a raw psychedelic rock/jazz/reggae romp. When they put it all together they had the right musical synergy of spirituality, energy, and emotion to blow roof off. It seemed obvious to me that the band, Aaron Dugan (guitar), Josh Werner (bass), and Jonah David (drums) was made up of individually accomplished musicians. They all had extended solo's including Matisyahu with a mindblowing human beat box. I thought the beatbox and the drum solo's were particularly impressive.

Besides King without a Crown, other songs that stood out were Warrior, Chop'em Down, Exaltation, and a couple others who's titles I don't know.

What I appreciated about the show was both the commitment to spirituality and innovative musicianship. Here is his upcoming concert schedule, it you have a chance Matisyahu is worth a look.

Something for fun

Numenorean


To which race of Middle Earth do you belong?
brought to you by Quizilla

The Fishing Lesson

This is a fishing story from the blog Running on Coffee: (Click on title or go to Bass Pundit Preach for the whole story)

The Fishing Lesson
My grandfather fought in two wars in his time in the Army, WW2 and Korea. He was wounded 5 times between the two wars. He held the Purple Heart and the Bronze Star. I want to share something my sister wrote shortly after our grandfather passed away last year. With Veteran's Day approaching, I thought it appropriate.

The Fishing Lesson:
I could never figure out as a child why my grandfather loved fishing so much. It was fun to go with him as a kid every now and then, but I could never understand why he went day after day. It wasnt until I went fishing with him last April that I finally knew...

I have no muse

therefore I bloggeth not. Sorry if you are one of the few that are regulars.

I will be with you again
U2 New Years Day

Vikes Win Vikes Win!

Viking Record Breaking 56 yard fieldgoal kicks Packers where it counts, when the count hits 0!

Also my favorite player #30 Mewelde Moore scored his first NFL TD!

PS Pastor Cheesehead I need your email, phone, and address. I've been wanting to get hold of you but nothing I've tried has worked.

Last Night's Low Lights

Well sometimes you get em N sometimes you don't. Last night I didn't.

I took the "Slop Slip" out on Platte from about 4:30 to Dusk on a gorgeous fall night, but the bass were not hitting but the Pike were swirling. I saw stuff including my Sizmic Toad getting whacked at, but those Pike were just trying to scare that Toad; I never did catch a pike and I didn't lose a hook either (a few legs off the Toad's yes, but hooks no thank goodness). I did get one 14/15" bass, I missed another that size when my hookset sent him rolling, and I think I had a shot at a big one that promptly buried me in "the straw and hay."

I then went to Eddies on Mille Lacs to meet the guys coming in on the 6-10PM launch. It was very slow and only Capt. Shrink Wrap caught anything among the guys and gal with FOM. They had 19 people on the launch and only 8 or 9 were caught in the 4 hours. The later launch had better success by the sound of it. The Jetti was a dud, but it sure was nice out and I stayed until after 1AM. Some guys gave me some leaches and I talked to a guy who was out the night before and got into em.

It looked to me like IP was going with a perfect W SW wind and bright moon.

Tonight it looks like Cyb and I will be getting out.

Biggest Bass of Year

Actually this:

...Is my biggest bass of the last couple years. She measured in at 21.5 and I would guess was in the high 5's; She hit a Sizmic Toad fairly close to the boat. It is the second biggest I've caught out of Platte. I caught a 21.5"er that was much thicker and probably went mid-6's two years ago.


This bass was one of those fish that fools you. I thought I had a little pike swirling at the frog in a tease. Fortunatly I decided not to pull it away and kept baiting it. I did this for a good 30feet, before it finally sucked it in; all the while I thought it was just a slimer. It was about 10 feet from the boat when it took the frog and I set the hook, all I saw was head and mouth of a big bass. I was using heavy tackle in fairly heavy but dying cover and so I horsed it right to my awaiting hand.

As long as I'm on big fish Here's two I caught on Platte the night after this years September Tournament debacle on Platte/Sullivan:


The big fish was only 19.75 but weighted 5lbs4ozs. The smaller fish is a regular sized mid 3lb 18" Larry. I got the big one under a dock that I just hammered to no avail on the previous tournament day; Got her on a SnagProof Bobby's Perfect Frog on one serious swirl. Sometimes you know they are big and sometimes you don't.

Ohh yeah...

I'm gonna try Eddy's Jetty for a time tonight.

Update, didn't get there until 10:30. The wind had come up nicely out of the SE, but the clouds were cutting out the 1/2 moon. I only got one that was under 14", one of the few small guys I've ever got off the Jetti.

Fishing Report

It was a long day out at the "New House" which is actually now after long last on the property. I video taped the thing. Watching a modular home get put on it's foundation is interesting and I am sure my commentary and videography skills made it even more so. My one regret is that I didn't interview "the guys." A little Leno'esk "Dave Walking" would have been cool.

Anyway I headed out at dusk on this perfect mid fall day and slammed 5 topwater bass, but none were pigs. I had several pike blow ups and one was from a huge'n. But it missed the Sizmic Frog. Oh to be out all day on a day like this, the fish were shallow and ultra aggressive; another day that you could pop a state record.

Living the Dream

There is a new blog that I encourage everyone to visit: Living the Dream by Master Outdoorsman Spike Miller. Spike was my department manager at Gander Mountain in Maple Grove a couple of years ago and is probably the most knowledgeable and versitile fisherman and outdoorsman I've ever met. Spike is also a "natural" comedian and story teller. Well I haven't had time to read the blog, I have little doubt that it will evolve into a classic, if Spike sticks with it.

If he can just translate his story telling prowess, and this guy has stories upon stories, into a written form than we may have the bloggosphere's best writing pioneer on outdoor subjects. PUT THAT BLOG IN YOUR FAORITES AND READ OFTEN.

As for Spike, I will get up to Red this winter to fish those Wall, um I mean Crappies this winter. Expect a phone call sometime soon.

BP is BACK!

Dang Spam Bots!

I have been busy beating them back in the comments section. Looks like I need to find that Blogger code to stop em and start running the Frachise Empire again.

I have an Apology and Wrap Up of 2005 over at The BP Fantasy Bass Fishing HQ

The Tournament Report is up for the Team Bass Horsehoe Chain of July 9th and I do plan to give reports for the rest of the season as I have time. I also hope to update the Fishing Log Blog some from 2005 as well as Bass Pundit Preach and B.P. vs. Cyberfish. We didn't face off much this summer and our last outing we both got skunked. Before that Cyb shived me at Mille Lacs during the Sept. full moon. He was ON FIRE that nite reeling in the piggies, thanks to my boat control and that Firetiger HJ.

Anyway, soon I should be blogging again on a regular basis.

Coming Soon... a pic of a real Toad I caught in September.

Note: Even though the weather has been great in October, I've had issues, which I will get into in another post, that have kept me off the water this month, and when I have been out it has been whiff city even though the weather has been about ideal.

New MN State Record

The weather has been unseasonably warm for about 2 weeks and a lake finaly gave up a ghost! (We have had perfect weather for this to happen.)

Here she is:

While the pic makes it look 10plus; the Certified weight will be 8lbs15ozs, which will break the old record by a couple of ounces. Still no 10er for the Mud Ducks! It was caught out of Auburn Lake, a small west metro lake of 261Acres; I'm not sure if it was caught out of the West or East Lake. That lake will probably get pounded by idiots now. I don't think I've ever fished that lake, but I've fished a few that are close by as that there are a good number of sleepers in that vicinity. It is close to Victoria and is just the SW of Lake Minnetonka.

The fish was caught by one of the big guns of MN Bass tournament fishing, Mark Raveling. He got it on a big ole buzzbait. A lure I've had zero success with this year.

Star Trib Story here.

9/11 Remembered

This is my favorite piece written in the aftermath of 9/11/01

Leonard Pitts, Jr. - Miami Herald

They pay me to tease the shades of meaning from social and cultural issues, to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering: You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard. What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed. Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause. Did you want to make us afraid? You just steeled our resolve. Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.

Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family bent by racial, cultural, political, and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop culture minutiae: a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the readily availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain bit of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though-peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God. Some people, you perhaps, think that any or all of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.

Yes, we're in pain now. We are in morning and we are in shock. We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that isn't a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel. Both in terms of the awful scope of it's ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, indeed, the history of the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before. But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to it's bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us to such and monumental pain. When aroused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.

I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future. In days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined. You see, there is steel beneath this velvet. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, as Americans we will rise in defense of all we cherish.

Still, I keep wondering what it was you hoped to teach us. It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange: You don't know my people. You don't know what we're about. You don't know what you just started. But you're about to learn.

But on this, only the 4th anniversary, since that day I am beginning to have questions about the resolve, commitment, and integrity of many in this country. I haven't forgotten, have you?

Hot and Humid Weather

has resulted in the BP going into summer hibernation. Maybe I'll have enough energy to blog next week.

Bassmasters Classic Week

Get your complete coverage at BassFan, Bassmaster.com, BassZone, and ProBassAnglers.com.

My goal is to have the Fantasy Bass Fishing Bass Pundit Championship updated by the end of the classic. We will see.

Tournament Reports

I am getting my Team Bass tournament reports updated at the BP Tournament HQ.

Lobster Lake June 25th

Horseshoe Chain July 9th doesn't have a permalink yet as that it was written today.

FYI- Got no pics cause the BP digital camera ain't working so good. Should have pics for the Sylvia/Twin Tournament Report as that my sponsor and tournament partner Erin Sutter-Maas had a camera and took pictures. Team Sutter-Maas managed to get 2nd Place at Sylvia/Twin. We probably would have won had Erin not missed a monster bass just before we had to go in.

Congrats to Jack and Mary Kiffe for besting us. Jack and Mary won the Chris Schneider Memorial Bass Tournament on Maple Lake the week before with a monster 6 fish bag of 22lbs+.