Super Sunday Prediction

Even though I've been a Steeler fan for all of my life and will be rooting for them today, I'm picking Seahawks in an upset 27-17.

FYI- I've decided to make sunday's, at least this one, a light blogging day thus no Pro Site ING's or Bassdozer articles.

BP Super Bowl Post Script: Neither team played all that well and the officiating was atrocious.
Offensive Pass interference call taking away Seahawk Touchdown-Joke!
Replay saying "Big Ben" crossed the goal line with the ball- Joke!
Overall I thought the Seahawks played better and were hammered by several key blown calls of the officials.

BP's Best Commercial: Budweiser's Baby Clydesdale.

BP's Worst Commercial: So lame that I can't recall what it was even for. In the absense of remembering that one. I'll say Jessica Simpson and the Pop Bites Pizza Hut. However there were others just as lame as this one. Aleve at the Star Trek Convension and MGD in the Grocery Store being among the stinkers that I remember.

Daily Pro Site-ING=
This is 16year old pro John Billheimer Jr of California. He just made the cut and took the day 3 lead at the Havasu Western Stren.

Update: The kid wins by almost 4lbs. That's 10K + a brand new Ranger, guess the kid can fish.

Daily Bass dozer Article: Winter Bass - What They Do

BP Fishing Report: Fishers of Men Ice 1

445 is the current number of anglers ranked in the BassFan World Rankings.
445 Michael Yawgel Cromwell CT 0.063 The Worst of the best.

"This Way To The Lake"
At the Fishers of Men meeting last night our speaker was Dutch Deick of Crystal-Pierz Marine. He did an excellent job telling us about changes in the Marine/Boating industry in the last few years.

Don't forget that the Next FLW Fantasy Fishing Challenge deadline is next week.

Daily Pro Site-ING=
Veteran FLW Pro Alvin Shaw who could be a force at Lake Murray. Previous places at Murry in FLW 72nd, 32nd, 15th and he is a Carolina pro.

Note: Yesterday's Daily Pro Site Ing Aaron Coleman leads the Havasu Western Stren after Day 2.

Daily Bassdozer Article= Cold Water Rat-L-Trap Fishingby Lake Fork Guide Jim Reaneau

From humor from Ohio Bass Fishing Blog:

BUBBA’S PET FISH

Bubba was stopped by the fish and game warden in South Carolina recently with two ice chests full of fish. He was leaving a small lake well known for its fishing.

The game warden asked the man, “Do you have a license to catch those fish?”

“Naw, sir, I ain’t got none of them there licenses, no. You must understand that these here are my pet fish.”

“Pet fish?” asked the warden.

“Ya. Every night I take these here fish down to da lake and let them swim ’round for a while. Then I whistle and they jump rat back into dis here ice chest and I take dem home agin.”

“That’s a bunch of hooey! Fish can’t do that!” says the game warden.

Bubba looked at the game warden for a moment and then he said, “By golly, tats the way tis Mr. Government man, I’ll show you. It really works.”

“Okay”, said the game warden, “I’ve GOT to see this!”

Bubba poured the fish into the lake and stood and waited. After several minutes, the game warden turned to him and said, “Well?”

“Well, what?” said Bubba.

The warden said, “When are you going to call them back?”

Bubba said, “Call who back?”
“The FISH!” replied the warden.
“What fish?” answered Bubba.
Now, we in the South might not be as smart as some of dem city slickers, but we ain’t as dumb as some government employees neither….

Trout Fishing Report from Pete at Fishing Jones

My local trout stream opened for business yesterday, on a catch-and-release
basis. With today projected to be in the 40s and sunny, I took a personal day
and dug the waders out of the garage...

Massive shark hooked on ice-fishing jaunt hat tip Daily Bag Limit

KVD interview at BassFan today. Is it just me or does every Bass Pro hunt something in the off season?

Daily Pro Site-ING= West Coast Pro Aaron Coleman
BP Note: Never heard of the guy but at least he's a bass pro with a website.

Daily Bassdozer Article= After Ice Out by Russ Bassdozer
BP Note: I consider BassDozer Library of Articles to be a "go to" spot to read about all things bass fishing. Need to learn something, Bassdozer probably has an article about it.

1. Classic Patterns - When it comes to patterns & techniques, I probably get more from this show then all others combined.

HellaBass favorite Bass TV Show, here is his Top 10 List

Then I'm walking in Memphis
Walking with my feet ten feet off of Beale
Walking in Memphis
But do I really feel the way I feel

Moldy Chum reports Snakeheads Walking in Memphis

BP's Agenda: Fishers of Men Club & Board Meeting Today. Gonna see about adding a group blog to the FOM website among other things.

NEWS: Apparently, the city of New York does not like the idea of people pretending to fly fish in the subways. I'm not sure why--with a little innovation and practice, you could probably entice a strike or two from the subway hamsters.

For other Fishy happenings be sure to check in regularly with Fishing Jones: News for Angling Addicts.

BP's Revenge vs. Cyberfish (many months later)


Are You O.C.F.?

Daily Pro Site-ING= "Spin" gotta love the rolling surf sound effect with gulls. I think I'm gonna take a nap.

New Stuff:
Cool Looking Baits

But will they catch fish? I bet they will. I'll probably buy a couple if I ever find some loose change in my pocket this spring.

Note: Checked in Bass Pro Shops, these baits are selling for $12.99 a piece. OUCH! Maybe I won't be buying any. Rapala Husky Jerks and X-Raps are fish catchers for half the price.

BP Newswire:BassFan changes the Bass Professional World Rankings Formula.

State Farm is no longer the title sponsor of the BassFan World Rankings

I suppose it had to be done with all the changes going on in the world of Professional Bass Fishing right now. In case you are not aware there have been many major changes made between 2005 and 2006. BassFan recognized this and has acted accordingly. Under the new ranking formula here are the Top 10 Bass Fisherman in the World by performace over the last two years.

1. Kevin VanDam 228.590
2. Greg Hackney 216.084
3. Edwin Evers 195.297
4. Michael Iaconelli 194.939
5. Takahiro Omori 193.054
6. Skeet Reese 188.520
7. Anthony Gagliardi 186.264
8. Terry Scroggins 185.585
9. Marty Stone 185.188
10. Davy Hite 184.825

Full rankings here.

Of the Top 10 I don't have websites for 6 of them. What does that say?

Site Construction- Puting together a new Side-Bar Roll called Bass Pro Site-ING which will seek to be a conprehensive as possible listing of the Web Sites of Bass Pro's. You would think that almost every bass Pro from the Major to Minor Leagues would use the web as a venue to promote themselves and their sponsors, but I would say only about 20-30% of the pro's take advantage of the WWW in any way shape or form at all, at least that I can find.

Ohh well back to work.

A Day of Rest

Yesterday, I rested instead of fishing.

Blogrolling
I did do some work on the blog however. If you will notice to the right on the side-bar I have added many a new Blogroll-O-FishNblog. One of the cool things about a blog can be it's blogroll which are links to other blogs. I would really like to keep on top of all the blogs devoted to Fishing and Bass Fishing in particular. Most of the new additions came from the blogrolls of other blogs.

It is a challenge to stay on top of this because it takes a concentrated effort to look for new blogs and than add to your template. Of coarse you also end up reading a little something from the blogs before blogrolling them which adds to the time consumption.

At this point I am disappointed that there are not more dedicated or partially dedicated Bass Fishing Blogs. Maybe they are out there and I just can't find them.

Speaking of Bassin Blogs here are some tips for Cabin Fever from Rich's Bass Tournament Fishing Blog.

For something funny goto Moldy Chum

This Day

Last night I could not sleep and my mind wandered into thinking about the Bass Pundit Blog Franchise Empire and how I have lost the plot. The model for the main BP blog was supposed to be Instapundit; quick commentary with links farmed out to the various franchise blogs. Instead of that the BP blog is catching almost everything and the franchise blogs are whithering on the vine. For instance, many of my last few posts could have been farmed out to The Fishing Log Blog via link. Getting into the habit of that, in theory, should make the whole Blog Empire run easier.

So now I'm gonna try to get on the right track and breathe some inspiration into the B.P.B.F.E..

Today there was a Slab Slowdown in my fishing.

Avid Update: I actually did a respecable job of repairing the St. Croix Avid Ice Rod that got a wee too close to the propane lantern last night. I made something like a splint from a broken graphite rod blank and super glued it in place. Worked like a charm to fix the thing. BP is happy now.

Notables from the BASS Okeechobee Southern Tour
Bobby Lane's baby brother Chis won.
Terry Scroggins was 2nd
Takahiro Omori was 20th

Currently Reading:

Spiritual Depression: Its Causes and Cure (Paperback)
by David Martyn Lloyd-Jones Good Book.

New Franchise Blog Coming Soon!

South Korean Winter Combat Fishing via The Bass Hole

Hard Luck Slabberday

The Aitkin Jaycees Ice Fishing Contest was a bust for me. I couldn't even bring up a little perch. I had two quality bites on minnows and whiffed on both hooksets, should have let them have it longer. Pout were 3 out of the top 4 places with a walleye in 3rd. I think there was 1 tulibee in the top 10, one other walleye in the top 20 and the rest were perch, including a couple that bested a pound.

Afterward I decided to head to Sullivan and try for some slabbers. I put in at the West Access and by accident ended up working a hump for eye's. In the process of doing that I accidentally had my St. Croix Avid Ice Stick, my best ice fishing pole, get to close to the Coleman Lantern and the blank got weakened but didn't break. I think if I put some kind of splint on it that maybe it can be saved. At that point I was one frustrated dude. I did manage to get off the break and find 6 solid 10" slab crappies and missed several more on bad hookset and probably also not feeling the bite. They were biting really light. What finally tripped the trigger was a big minnow on a Custom Jigs Glow Demon beneath a glow dropper as an attracter. In my other hole I had a small minnow on a Glow Demon. I would jig the big minnow and they would inhale the small minnow and just sit with it.

Now that I've found these dudes, look out.

Silver Dollars

Today I started with an early morning excursion to Sullivan in search of Tulibee's. What a slush and water pit after last nights rain. Usually the Tulibee thing starts sometime in mid to late February but I decided to try my luck anyway. I nabbed one nice crappie, a small eye, a couple of little perch. I did miss one good fish about half way up, but don't know if it was a Tulibee and that was it from about 7-10Am. I came back and took a nap.

I got back out around 3:30 and headed out on Platte to the North of the Big Island. It was a wet ride over with water splashing up to the point that I needed the wipers on. I immediately ran into a school of little sunnies and had fun catching them while watching on the camera. I saw a lots of sunnies and perch, a crappie, pike, and bullhead all swim by but no bass. Talked to a guy who was getting pike, little crappies, 1 bass, who said someone caught a 4lb bass the day before. As it got towards dark I started fishing that guys holes and got into a bunch of small Crappies. Mucho 3 to 5 inch Silver dollars. After dark I did catch them up to 8 inches but no slabs.

I know there are big pannies in Platte, but finding them seems to be a needle in a hay stack proposition.

Tomorrow I will be at the Aitkin Jaycees
(Click to enlarge)
Trying to jig up an eye, Sumo Perch, or Tulibee. I could really use a 4 wheeler.

Ice Fishing in a Rut

It's a wierd deal when you are driving home at night after ice fishing in a driving rainstorm.

Anyway, in Ice Fishing, and fishing in general, it is best when you get into a groove. Fishing is more fun when you are catching the fish you seek and catching them in a steady and predicatable path even if that path is slow; It build's hope and confidence which makes the whole experience more enjoyable. In regular open water fishing it is generally a whole lot easier to change your luck. In Ice Fishing changing your luck is just plain time consuming hard work; You have to drill lots of holes and move a lot. Because you are confined to that little hole, it's a bad thing to get stuck in an Ice Fishing rut where you just can't scratch up that fishy your after.

I'm in a rut and have pretty much more or less been in it every ice fishing trip I've taken this winter. Sure I've caught fish, but generally not the sized one's that I am really after. Today, I tried Mille Lacs for Jumbo Perch. The system is easy enough; Drive out onto the lake in the middle of nowhere, drill a couple of holes, and see if anything shows up on the electronics. If your lucky you run into sumo sized perch, if you are unlucky you run into either nothing, non-active fish that won't bite, or a variety pack of less than sumo sized perch aka "baitstealers." Today I caught a fair number of medium sized perch and one mini-jumbo. No luck on the Sumo's.

I ended up staying too long which cost me when I made the move to Shakopee, where I tried a different spot and struck out. I decided to leave as that I was marking very little and it was raining.

Tomorrow is supposed to be warm. I think I may try getting up early to chase Tulibee on Sullivan. Maybe that's how I can get my groove back.

Look what I caught!

The World's Smallest Fish.

The Dead Sea

Today it was a balmy 42*F here in MN. I hit Shakopee just after noon. I was fishing the same general area as the last time. I was catching small sunnies one after another with no signs of Crappies anywhere, not that I moved around much. By about 2:30 I was itching to try something different. I decided to try Mille Lacs out of the Casino public access and see if I could get to Indian Point. I got most of the way out there in the tracks of other vehicles when I sorta got stuck in this one spot. I decided I better turn around there and spent 45 minutes getting stuck and unstuck while turning around.

Life would have been much easier with a partner today. My Ford Ranger Pick up is lite and 2wd so it gets stuck easily. Freeing it isn't that difficult especially if you have someone to push which makes the truck much better in those tricky spots, plus additional weight means better traction so you are less likely to bog down in the first place. Anyway I did get the truck turned around.

I thought I was in a good spot but as it turned out I was a significant distance to the North of Indian Point. In case you didn't know underwater the Point runs from the the West to the SE thus the point was running away from me. To be on the spot I wanted to try I was a good 400yards from the truck. I stuck it out and struck out only having one sniffer and that was it. I think I should have stayed right next to the truck and fished there. I was only out until 6:30 and then had to pack it up to get to a Bible Study in Garrison.

Tommorrow is supposed to be nice again and I think I will try Mille Lacs again.

Some fun for once.

Check out this spoof over at Fishing Jones (via Moldy Chum)

Blog Neglect and Updates

It may be apparent that over the coarse of the Bass Pundit's existance I have let the blog fall into some disrepair. By the Grace of God I will be slowly working to update and improve the blog.

If you will notice on the right/sidebar I have added some links
Bass Zone
ProBassAnglers.com
BassDozer (Greatest Bass Fishing "How to" Article site on the net)
HellaBass Bassin' Blog (MN)

Updated one:
Ohio Bass Fishing Blog

Deleted a couple:
The Bassholes
Kansas Bass Fishing
Bassin Blog (OH)

Hopefully I will get to the Blogroll-O-FishNblog in the near future as well as start adding to both that and the Blogroll-O-BassNblog. I also will be bringing another franchise blog online one of these days.

Spring Fever

It's only January 23rd here in MN, which means there is a lot of winter left before open water and bass season opens. AGGGGGGGGGGHH. Spring Fever hit me today full force. Up to this point I've just had the winter blah's big time with mild intermittent cases of cabin fever. But today it's official, I'm sick of winter.

ESPN Will be having Fantasy Bass Fishing in 2006

Registration will open up in early Feb. However they do have features open such as Prizes, and other stuff.

Check it out!

Camp and Shakopee

Been out fishin the last two nights.

Last night the Slab search went to Camp. A lake I've fished only once before in the winter. The action was slow then but the size was good in that previous trip. This night the fish were not into it, but I managed to force a few to bite. Got a 9" and the rest were small. Arrived about 4PM

Tonight, after much debate I decided to head to Shakopee. Arrived around 2:30. I immediately started smacking small sunnies and perch. I got a hammer handle and kept catching sunnies. Then I popped a 10" crip and thought I might be onto something as the sun went down. Managed to catch quite a few small crappies, along with more small sunnies and perch. Got 1 more keeper Crappie and kept one nice Sunny as well. I may have to try Shakopee during the week when it's warm as that I think if one could get on a school some nice fish are there to be had. The visibility was better than I expected it to be and the fish continued to bite after dark although slowly.

Finally cleaned my fish (7) and ate em for dinner

Worn out

Today the search for slabs was suspended because I was feeling worn out. Plus it was snowing at a pretty good clip and the thought of getting stuck on the ice just didn't appeal to me. We got around 6 inches which may mean I can't get out in my truck.

Update for the Posse at the Big O.

No Slabs for You

Tried a new area of Platte for Ice Fishing; North of the Big Island where there is always a host of houses. Upon arrival I was invited inside a house to see this guys set up and Aqua View. It looked like the right kind of area weed and depth wise. He has been fishing the area since December and he seemed to pretty much be a pike fisherman. We watched sunnies in the camera and he told me he had seen a bass or two and caught a couple. Said he hadn't seen a crappie.

I went back to drill a few more holes, instantly attracted a fish in and caught it. Crappie. I managed to catch several small crappies and sunnies with one pike to boot. No slabs at all. The bite shut off as it got darker. I'll probably fish the same area tommorrow, which is today.

Meanwhile in Fanatsy Bass Fishing JT Kenney laid an egg, but could come back tomorrow; After all Day 1 don't mean Jack Squat!