Grumpy Old Men

I had a heart attack March 14th 2003 that did extensive damage to my heart muscle. I did not know how much I would recover or if I would ever be able to work again, so I made the decision to move from the Twin Cities to live "up north" with my parents at their place on Platte Lake in Crow Wing County. I think it was in the Spring of 2004 that I learned the bridge that separates Platte and Sullivan lakes is a good place to fish that time of year and so I would go there often. I quickly discovered that there was a group of 3 or 4 older men that fished at the bridge regularly,2 of them fished their almost every day or evening. I enjoyed their company and at times found their antics to be nothing short of hysterical. It wasn't long before I started refering to these guys as the "Grumpy Old Men" when I would tell my parents or others the stories about what these guys were doing or saying that would make me laugh. Once I started blogging I dubbed the bridge the Grumpy Old Man Hole or GOMH.

Naturally, the Grumpy Old Men moniker came from the Jack Lemmon, Walter Matthau movie about two crusty old Minnesota fishermen that always gave each other a hard time. My Grumpy Old Men would give themselves and anyone else fishing at the bridge a hard time. All these guys ever catch is "bullheads."
In this picture you can see 3 out of the 4 main grumpy old men. The closest guy in the brown jacket is Willard and he is always talking about something and is the ring leader. The guy sitting on the bucket closest to the bullrushes is Lee Ander who is kind of quiet but loves to talk fishing and gives Willard a hard time. The farthest guy away standing up is Lewis, he is Lee Ander's brother and doesn't usually fish or say a whole lot to me unless we are the only two there. I don't have any pictures of Bud the 4th grumpy old man. Bud doesn't come around much, but he swears more than the other 3 combined in a month unless of coarse Willard gets really mad about something and then you very well might hear a few expletives one after the other.
This is Lee Ander after he had to have his foot cut off due to a bad infection. After this unfortunate event he would pretty much only fish from this spot.
Willard did not want to have his picture taken. Who knew he had a shy side?

Hopefully the Grumpy Old Men will have survived another winter and I will have them entertaining me again in 2009.

The GOMH Old and New

If you frequent my blog in March through June I frequently use the GOMH acronym in place of spelling out Grumpy Old Man Hole. The GOMH a bridge that separates Platte Lake to the North and Sullivan Lake to the South. The bridge was getting old and so it was replaced with a new bridge last Fall. Here are a few picks of the South Side of the old bridge with a couple of Grumpy Old Men thrown in for good measure.

Usually the water flows from Platte (North) into Sullivan (South) in varying degrees of intensity depending on wind direction and lake water level, but sometimes the water does flow back up into Platte. The South or Sullivan side where the current is usually flowing tends to be the best place to fish. Not only is into Sullivan the prevailing current direction but there has been a wash out hole that gets about 10 feet deep within 10 yards of the bridge deck on that South side. This wash out hole is the deepest water in the area for a pretty good distance in both directions which are extended sand, muck, and weed flats. At this point I am uncertain if the water depths have were altered with the construction.
At the GOMH we catch all kinds of "Bullheads."

Update Note-The wash out hole is still there but seems to be a about a foot to a foot and a half shallower than before.

Here is a Westward look at the Sullivan side of the new bridge:
Notice the high metal railing that pretty much runs the length of the concrete sides of the bridge.

This picture looking East is on the Platte side and gives a view of the underpass opening:

The changes have me more concerned than excited at this point. I guess I will just have to wait and see how it shakes out, but as of right now I think the old bridge was more fisherman friendly. The fishable water area is wider than it was before, but it seems like there is less room to access the water and it isn't like the old bridge had a lot of space for fisherman. If they would have left 5-10 feet less metal railing on both ends of the South side of the bridge things would be a whole lot better. Access on the Platte side actually looks to be better better than before, but that hasn't traditionally been where the fishing is best, especially early in the year. Maybe if they dredged a little on the Platte side and within the overpass, the Platte side will improve from what it has traditionally been.

It won't be long now, here are a couple of pictures from today looking out onto Sullivan Lake.While there is significant progress on the Sullivan side, it looked a lot like a fair size area on Platte that was open re-froze.

Update 4/3/11- The new bridge definitely seems to have improved the fishing on the Platte side of the bridge, while fishing on the Sullivan side is about the same to possibly slightly worse. The new bridge is at least a couple of feet wider which I think is pulling water from more area in Platte, but the rate of flow tends to be less intense in Sullivan than it was. I don't recall having seen water flows into Platte being as intense with the old bridge as they can be now. On the whole it seems like there is less flow now than there was before with the old bridge.

Elite Dardanelle BassZone Wide Open- Live blogged

I don't know how much blogging will get done, because I am eating dinner right now too.


They have tournament winner Mark Menendez. Didn't fish clean today was a little concerned his weight today wouldn't be good enough. The aluminum boat was the big difference maker for him. Is confident about Wheeler, thinks he has something that is going to work. The volume on Menedez's mike isn't loud so I can hardly hear what he is saying. Said he used Internet satillite photo's to find his key area. Said a local came into his area, but when he realised Menedez was there the guy didn't fish and just watched. Menendez

Talking KVD, he struggled in the morning moved and ended up with the best bag of the day. Had some boat problems, needed back up boat. The sunlight today helped him out and he got dialed in. Caught 2 big fish while he was waiting for back up boat.

The BassZone guys are happy that they didn't have to talk about "Sexy Shad" this week.lol

Go to commercial break before final segment.

Talking Chris Lane also made a move today to stay on the fish.
Cliff Pace who dropped big time just didn't have any other area's.
They say Roumbanis "Boom Boom" fishes fast like KVD
Not sure if KVD or Alton will be in the lead of AOY points.
Someone commented that KVD is on top, had the points calculated.

Into end of the show silly season.

Will be there Wide Open next week at Wheeler.

Legend predicts a mix of cranks and plastics for Wheeler.

Saying Thank You's and goodbye.

Elite Series Dardanelle Day Final

I would put my money on Menendez at this point.

Boyd Duckett went out with his Marshal on Sat. in spite of the day being cancelled and his fish were going...

Skeet has been heard from...

Menendez edges out KVD by 2-3. Maybe if they would have fished yesterday KVD would have put another feather in his cap. My fantasy guy Herren moved down 5 places and with KVD only moving up 1 today was a net loser for my fanatasy team, still I believe this is my best ESPN/Bass Fantasy Bass Fishing showing so far this year.

Here is how the Top 12 stacked up:
1 Mark Menendez 5 17-12 5 21- 8 5 16- 3 15 55- 7
2 Kevin VanDam 5 15- 6 5 18- 6 5 19- 8 15 53- 4
3 Chris Lane 5 15-14 5 14- 8 5 17-11 15 48- 1
4 Jim Murray 5 12- 0 5 19- 3 5 14- 6 15 45- 9
5 Denny Brauer 5 16- 6 5 15- 5 4 11-13 14 43- 8
6 Skeet Reese 5 15-13 5 13- 9 5 13- 6 15 42-12
7 Cliff Pace 5 16-11 5 21-12 1 2- 1 11 40- 8
8 Fred Roumbanis 5 16-12 5 15- 5 3 8- 4 13 40- 5
9 Matt Herren 5 17- 1 5 15- 7 3 7- 0 13 39- 8
10 Alton Jones 5 17- 5 5 14-14 3 7- 0 13 39- 3

Well no rest for the weary as it is on to Wheeler this week. I've already done my Wheeler scouting and you can bet Kevin Short is a gonner from the fantasy roster. I think Hack might get the axe too.

Bait Monkey Resistance Fighter.

I did it. I resisted the bait monkey. I was putting in an order with Bass Pro Shops to get a Gortex Rain Bib and some Fireline which are on sale. In this particular sale they also had Cordell Spots for $1.94 and Strike King Red Eye Shads for $4.44. My Rattlebait box is past full already and with that knowledge I beat the bait monkey back, even though the bait monkey was lobbying hard, especially for more Cordell Spots.

Ice Out by Easter- Update #4

Things had been looking good but we have run into a major snag in the weather. The past few days have been farther below normal than I first anticipated and this trend looks like it is going to hold on for almost the whole week. We may even get a significant amount of snow Mon-Tues.

I hate to say it but it is beginning to look like a repeat of 2007 when the ice went off the lakes in Southern Minnesota in good time and the ice offs proceeded even up to the Twin Cities in early April, Minnetonka was ice free 4/3/2007, but then a extended cold snap hit and ice didn't go off Platte until the 19th.

A warm up to the averages and beyond by April 5th could have the ice out by Easter 4/12/09, but any kind of a set back that week and it just ain't gonna happen. At this point I am pretty certain ice will be off Platte before the 2007 date of April 19th, but I think by Easter is now looking very sketchy.

Froggy Went a-Catchin' Parts 1 & 2

Dean Rojas talks frog fishing @ Bassmasters.com

Froggy Went a-Catchin

Rojas, Frogs, and Bass

Smashed 2000!

Today was the day that my Sitemeter visits total for the month smashed the 2000 mark. That is a long way from Sept. 08 where I only had 453 visits that month. A Big Thank You!!! to everybody who has dropped by, expecially the regulars.

Update: The month is now over and I had a total of 2375 visits and just 4 short of 3000 page views. I closed out the month with 3 days at 100 visits or more. I am sure that was in no small part due to Rich Lindgren listing me in his Top 10 bass fishing blogs. Thanks Rich! To put the increase in traffic in perspective 2375 is more than 5 times my previous 12 month low which occured in Sept. 08 with 453 visits.

BASS Elite Series Dardanelle Day 3 Cancelled

I went to the Live Leaderboard when the weigh in should have been happening and there was nothing going on, so I waited and checked nothing; I waited some more and nothing, so I went to Bass Fishing Home Page and nobody was talking so I went to Bassmaster.com and found out the day was cancelled. According to Kevin Short it was a peculiar decision because the wind wasn't out of a very troublesome direction.

I don't know if I am happy with the decision. I will never know what might have been. Short made a big move on Day 2 and was in position to make the Top 12 with another good day. But then again I have 2 guys in the Top 12 and it's possible one of them could have dropped out. Who knows. I think it is gonna be awfully hard for KVD to make up the weight now, and everybody has him on their team anyway, so it really doesn't matter what he does. Hopefully Herren can move up a little, but somehow I doubt that is going to happen from what I have read.

Dang It!!!

I was alerted at the Bassholes that the Bass Edge fishing TV show that was going to be on today was shot in Minnesota at Leech Lake. I have a tournament on Leech this summer and I think it would be a good show to watch. I didn't want to miss it so I set my alarm clock just in case I was sleeping. I slept through the stupid alarm and woke up just after the show had finished. DoH! Unfortunately Bass Edge is not affiliated with My Outdoors TV Channel, and I don't think Bass Edge shows their episodes online. As a consolation prize I listened to Mark Dove and Aaron Martin talk about their Minnesota experience.

I did not know this... (Inside BP blogging)

I just noticed tonight that I can add "Labels" that identify and categorise my blog posts. For some reason I was under the impression that I couldn't do that. I wonder if this is something I missed right from the start or if this is something that got added later that I just never noticed.

Man do I feel stupid. I think I am going to make a project of putting labels on all my posts in the past. If I do several a day, then I should have all posts done by sometime next winter.

Update: I also have just got around to doing something about my archives. While I didn't find a way to put in the archive format I wanted. I did discover the code that is available to have your archives come in a drop box that takes up almost no space on the sidebar. I elected to keep the old long archive list at the bottom of the right sidebar and put a couple of the archive drop boxes in the sidebar so when I want to hunt the archives a box and therefore search is handy.

Elite Series Dardanelle Day 2 BassZone.com Wide Open liveblogged.

Matt Herren 4th place is the guest, big thunderstorms are on there way

Says Harold told him they were going to play golf. Fish were a little different today than the 1st day. Herren won an FLW Series Tournament on Dardanelle, I did not know that. Fish are in all 3 phases of the spawn, yesterday caught spawn fish, today he caught post-spawn. Thinks he will be able to adjust to what the fish will do with the storms. Not in a crowd, only getting 6-7 keeper bites a day. Backed off the fish today and spent a couple hours practicing. The tournament he won he was fishing a pattern until the last day when flood forced him to stay in one area. Doesn't think there will be a drastic change in surface temp. Thinks if the water gets muddied up that will mess the fish up. Says in the Elites practice is so short that it's hard to tell what kind of fish he is on. When he practices he tries to fish to his strengths, doesn't think there is time to get to fancy. Has not been thinking about points, "I am thinking about the money, I need some Ben Franklin's." Thinks he will be ok in the Alabama swing (Herren is from Ala). Not a light line fishermen. Enjoys having observers watching him fish. Water has risen and with more rain tonight thinks his area will be helped as far as fish coming in but is concerned about his area getting muddied up.

Cliff Pace in 2nd Place is On

Has caught all fish on the same bait. Has found that he has to pretty much fish one stretch. It is hard to find un-used water. Thinks a lot of fish have just spawned and that he is catching post-spawn fish that are looking to eat. He is fishing for 5 bites in the 8 hours. He is not worried about KVD and the other anglers on his trail. Practices with lots of rods on the deck and tries to find what the fish want rather than going into practice with a specific idea. "All patterns in the Spring are dying" you need to cover water and find good area's. Says his better days are his longer days. He stayed and guarded his area until 2pm, but when he left someone moved in. Says the water is raising in his area and it is helping the bite and thinks rising will help, but there isn' a wild fluctation.

Coming Intern Chip who was KVD's marshal today...

Says KVD talked with him all day long. Will be with Kelly Jordan tomorrow. Kelly and KVD were in the same area today. Thinks $100 for 2 or 3 days is a great deal for the Marshals. He thinks when he was a co-angler he was in it to learn and so he doesn't think he is missing much by not fishing. Says the weather for tomorrow could be brutal with wind and cold. Thinks he is learning about the need to adapt.

Live feed goes out for the second time, first time I didn't realise it right away because they went on break.

Marshals can't aid the pro in anyway. Says he would ask question about what the pro was thinking every time they made a change. KVD says the changes he makes are mostly dictated by his experience.

And that is all she wrote

The Quest for 2000!

March 2009 is going to set a new record for "visits" to my blog as tabulated by Sitemeter. Right now I am at 1963 visits for the month. I will most likely break the 2000 visits in a month barrier tomorrow. Visits are recorded everytime someone loads Bass Pundit; A single person can be counted for more than 1 visit in a given day. I don't know the reason, but Bass Pundit has seen a huge surge in visits from the normal range of 2009 (1100-500) in the past 2 months. Last month I set a new record of 1753 visits which was a 500 plus visit jump from the previous record month.

A couple of days ago I purchased a couple of books about Blogger on Amazon.com:
Google Blogger For Dummies
The Rational Guide to Google Blogger.

I have been at this blogging thing since November 2004 but there is a lot about blogging that I don't think I know or understand, so hopefully these books will give me a clue. I like the fact that The Rational Guide to Google Blogger is an older book because this blog is in the older Blogger Template mode. With fishing season rapidly approaching I don't know where I am going to find the time to read and blog at the same time.

Ice Out By Easter- Update #3

3-25 Shields (Rice County)

Tetonka is listed as "partial cover" and it is absurd that Fountain Lake in Freeborn County is not listed as ice free. Fountain is just North of Lake Albert Lee and is a smaller body of water than Albert Lee which went out on the 24th.

I have not linked to the Minnesota Climatology web page that gives the historical data for many of the lakes they monitor, that info is here...

BASS Elite Series Dardanelle Day 2

I see that BASS does not have Bass Cast or Bass Trakk working here either. Come on BASS, start to deliver.

It looks like they are doing Hooked Up segments giving some competition to Bass Zone Wide Open. Hmmm

5:21pm Central Time Weigh In in progress
Looks like the fish bit quite a bit better today. As of right now there are 3 bags over 20lbs
Greg Vinson (who?) 21-14
Leader Mark Menedez 21-8
Tim Horton 20-3 with 7-8 Big Bass

I am watching Edwin Evers and Greg Hackney close because it looks like they both are right on the bubble for the 50 cut. Right now Evers is 2 places below Hack, and Evers just needs to be bumped 5 more times with 8 more to weigh.

4 left Edwin in 47th
3 left Edwin in 48th
1 angler left Edwin in 50th
BaH!!! Edwin bumped to 51st when J Todd Tucker weighs 16-8. Edwin misses by 4ozs.

Well I suppose it looks a whole lot better than yesterday
KVD 3rd
Herren 4th
Short 24th
Hack 49th
Evers 51st

Everyone moved up but Herren who held steady in 4th. Now that is the kind of Day 2 I like to see.

Here is the Day 2 Top 12
1 Mark Menendez 5 17-12 5 21- 8 10 39- 4
2 Cliff Pace 5 16-11 5 21-12 10 38- 7
3 Kevin VanDam 5 15- 6 5 18- 6 10 33-12
4 Matt Herren 5 17- 1 5 15- 7 10 32- 8
5 Alton Jones 5 17- 5 5 14-14 10 32- 3
6 Fred Roumbanis 5 16-12 5 15- 5 10 32- 1
7 Denny Brauer 5 16- 6 5 15- 5 10 31-11
8 Jim Murray 5 12- 0 5 19- 3 10 31- 3
9 Greg Vinson 4 9- 1 5 21-14 9 30-15
10 Chris Lane 5 15-14 5 14- 8 10 30- 6
11 Skeet Reese 5 15-13 5 13- 9 10 29- 6
12 Bradley Hallman 4 10-10 5 18- 4 9 28-14

Cliff Pace's 21-12 was the 4th 20+ bag of the day. It may look like a 2 horse race, but don't count KVD out yet.

Tonight at 8PM I am gonna watch me some BassZone.com Wide Open.

An Experimental Catch & Release Program for Minnesota Bass in the Spring???

Big Indiana Bass is one of several very good bass fishing blogs out of Indiana and Illinois. Brian Waldman of Big Indiana Bass blog is on top of developments of science as it relates to bass fishing. His March 14th post, Bass Fishing On Beds: An Indiana Perspective links to a PDF file of a report/study from the Indiana DNR about whether allowing bass fishing in the Spring or having a closed season is best for the resource and it's users.

In the PDF file is this tidbit:

Minnesota is currently the only state with a statewide closed season on bass even though an advisory counsel recently recommended moving towards a catch-and-release at a few lakes on an experimental basis.

I am not aware of any such advisory counsel, but if this is true I am all for it and hope that the DNR listens and tries it out selecting bodies of water from every region in the State. We have so many lakes with bass and so many lakes with special regulations already that I think it is a no brainer to open a few lakes up for catch and release fishing for bass during the Spring closed season. It just isn't right that bass fishermen in Minnesota are prohibited from catch and release fishing for bass during the pre-spawn on every body of water in the state except the Mississippi River from Pool 2 on South. At a bare minimum a few lakes sprinkled throughout the state should allow catch and release bass fishing in the Spring.

From my blog to God's and the DNR Commissioners ear.

Elite Series Lake Dardanelle Day 1 Part 2

I missed all of today's Bass Zone Wide Open coverage. I don't know if I will watch it or not with their on demand replay. Apparently "The Legend" Harold Allen did a breakdown for Fantasy Fishing. Just watched it, it's from Amistad, nothing on Dardanelle. I think the Legend fished a tournament last weekend so that may be why.

BassFan has an initial partial story up...

Elite Series Lake Dardanelle Day 1

Ooops I kind of missed the days events so far. The weigh in is in progress.
Brent Chapman leads with 19-7 and Mark Menendez is in 2nd with 17-12 with big bass at 6lbs. So far my Fantasy Line up isn't looking so great, check that Hack, Herren, and Short are yet to weigh.

They said it was a tough bite on BassFan and I guess they were right. Only 34 limits out of the 83 anglers weighed so far.

My Fantasy Line up is mediocre but Day 1 doesn't mean Jack Squat!
Herren 4th
KVD 11th
Short 49th
Hackney 57th
Evers 63rd


Here is the days Top 12
1 Brent Chapman 5 19- 7
2 Mark Menendez 5 17-12
3 Alton Jones 5 17- 5
4 Matt Herren 5 17- 1
5 Fred Roumbanis 5 16-12
6 Cliff Pace 5 16-11
7 Denny Brauer 5 16-6
8 Chris Lane 5 15-14
9 Skeet Reese 5 15-13
10 Billy Mccaghren 5 15-11
11 Kevin VanDam 5 15- 6
12 Stephen Browning 5 15- 5

Ice Out By Easter- Update #2

Just as I thought more lakes went out on the 24th than were previously reported.

Here are the lakes added yesterday by Minnesota Climatology.
3-24 Lake Albert Lee (Freeborn County)
3-24 St. Olaf Lake (Waseca County)
3-24 St. James Lake (Watonwan County)
3-24 Lake Washington (Le Sueur County)
3-24 Lake Shaokatan (Lincoln County)
3-25 Clear Lake (Waseca County)

As of March 25th there are 10 of 21 lakes in Southern Minnesota that they track which are ice free, however none of the 3 lakes they track in the South East are ice free.

The weather here in Minnesocold has turned colder but I still expect some of those Southern lakes to be opening up anyway. Despite this weather set back, I think we are still on pace to see Platte Lake ice free by Easter.

Update: MC has listed 3 more lakes as open today.
3-24 Sakatah (Le Seuer County)
3-24 Cannon (Rice County)
3-25 Swan (Nicollet County)

Of the MC tracked lakes I have heard rumors that Tetonka in Le Seuer and Hendricks in Lincoln County are ice free. It would not surprise me at all if all these Southern MN lakes are now ice free.

Non-MC tracked Cedar Lake in Scott County is rumored to be open. Cedar is shallow and has an aerator, so this isn't a big surprise. Northern Scott County is within the Twin Cities Metropolitan area.

MN B.A.S.S. Federation Nation Auctioning Bass Boat

*Actual boat up for bidding is equipped with a Yamaha 150HP (carb)*

The Minnesota B.A.S.S. Federation is selling a 2009 Skeeter SX190 dual or single console boat. This boat will be sold via a silent bid auction with a minimum accepted bid greater than $16,000. This package has a retail value of over $24,000+. Expected delivery is the last two weeks of April. - BID HERE

(Hat Tip: Rich Lindgren's Bassin' Blog

Also if you are in the market for a bass boat FLW pro Jim Moynagh may still have one for sale.