Friday, February 29, 2008

FLW Lake Toho-ho Day 2

How to video's from FLW...

FLW Live today- It seemed to work a little better today than yesterday in terms of the audio interruptions. I got to hear the touching story of Ron Shuffield and his son who got shot last year. Both Ron and son are fishing Toho, son as a Co, and they both made the Top 10 cut.

The live streaming video didn't really stream at all today, not that it streamed much yesterday. This lack of fluidity may have been due to the fact that FLW Live was free to anyone who wanted to get it today.

The leaderboard actually did update on it's own today. However at the end of the day things locked up and so I don't know the final standings. I've tried to get back in and see if the standings are available, but I can't log into Fantasy Fishing. I think the website might have crashed. I WANT THOSE STANDINGS NOW!!!

I got back into the Fantasy Fishing website but I can't get into FLW Live Players Advantage version, so I'll have to wait for the final standings along with everybody else. I do know that both my Dad and I have someone in the Top 10 where all the fantasy points are. Dad had Moorehead sqeak in at the 10 spot with 23-04. I think that guy Sherry who had 20lbs yesterday blanked. Obviously with 23-04 being the cut spot the weights were down drastically today. Some no name guy who caught almost nothing yesterday bagged today's biggest bag of 19lbs and change; It wasn't enough for him to make the cut.

Ah Day 2 results are up at FLWoutdoors.com...

Fantasy Recap: I managed to improve only 21 places with 1 in the Top 10. My Dad's team improved 121 spots with all but 2 of his anglers showing improvement.

BPboys:
Nixon 98th +43
Browne 30th +60
Walker 173rd -31 This one hurts
Harrison 95th - 36 This one hurts worse, picked in Kenney's(52nd) Place.
Fukae 8th +4
Yelas 53rd +7
Lefebre 167th +2 Improved from royally sucked to totally sucked.
S. Martin 179th -15 What happened to him? This pick killed me. Mckinnie(42)or Seagraves(75)
Clausen 27th -15 CHOKE!!! I had such high hopes for 2 Top 10's.
Tracygier 102nd +2 Another pick that really bit me. Grigsby(29)

That's right, moving on Kenney and Grigsby cost me 116 points.

While there is Fukae, there is hope. Need him to finish 5th, got the 1 in 10 chance of it.

I really figured Scott Martin would know what to do when the conditions got tough, boy was I wrong on that one.

How the FLW Player's Advantage Pundits Did: As I have said before my main motivation for getting Player's Advantage was to get a look at the "Pundits Picks." For the Toho tournament there were only 5 Pundits who selected a total of 28 different anglers for their 10 team rosters. Of these 28 Pundit Picks only 2 made the Top 10. Two pundits chose Fukae and 1 Pundit chose Thrift. 9 Picks were in the Top 50, 9 Picks were 51-100, 7 Pics were 101-150, 3 picks were below 150. So basically the Pundits were a mixed bag, unfortunatly I went with 2 of the Pundit Picks in the bottom 150.

BassFan 10 to watch: BassFan esentially picks a fantasy roster with their 10 to watch article. Bassfan only had 1 angler make the Top 10 but their picks overall were mostly solid: Nixon (98), Kenney (52), Grigsby (29), Yelas (53), Dudley (67), Clausen (27) Lefebre (167) Fritts (156) Browne (30) Hite (5). Better than my line up anyways.

Thursday, February 28, 2008

FLW Toho-ho Day 1 (Don't mean Jack Squat!!!)

FLW Live- This is the name for the FLW live streaming and live leaderboard. FLW Live used to be free to anyone, but is now limited to those of us who have the Fantasy Fishing Player's Advantage service. The day 1 weigh in is over and I am underwhelmed with FLW Live. The video feed is extremely choppy for me and the audio is choppy enough to be quite annoying. At least at the Bassmasters Classic I could hear the weigh in well for the most part.

Also, there is a glitch in the live leaderboard, at least on my computer, where the only way I can get the leaderboard to update is to close FLW live and re-open it again which takes a minute or two. Also there is apparently a "script" in the FLW Live that makes my computer speed bog way down so I have trouble navigating around on the computer while FLW Live is running. I have no clue how much of this is due to the fact that my computer is several years old and not nearly as powerful as a new computer would be. Maybe the Flash Player needs to be upgraded.

Toho Day 1 Recap: I think things went down pretty much as expected with most of the field struggling. Only the Top 35 broke 10lbs and there were 65 limits. Cut weight right now is 14-14, which will probably put the Top 10 cut at 26-28lbs which is a bit higher than expected. There were 3 bags over 20 with Brett Hite's 22-06 being the biggest and 6 bags between 18-04 and 15-09. There are 3 names in the top 10 I do not recognize: Monte Knight 7th with only 3 fish, Randy Hadden 9th with 4 fish, and Robert Pearson 10th. The big names in the Top 10 are Andy Morgan 4th, Ron Shuffield 6th, and Shin Fukae 8th. Big Bass was a monster: 11-9 by Randy Hadden.

BP Day 1 Fantasy Recap:
Why even bother? Day 1 doesn't mean JACK SQUAT!!! Especially in this tournament where 1 or 2 big bites can make a zero a hero in no time flat. My last minute switch out of Kenney for Harrison and Grigsby for Tracygier looks to be a mixed bag at this point. Harrison has a half pound on Grigsby (12 places) and Kenney has a 1-9 on Tracygier (25 places).

Here is where the BP boys stand:
Nixon 141st
Browne 90th
Walker 142nd
Harrison 59th
Fukae 8th
Yelas 60th
Lefebre 169th
S. Martin 164th
Clausen 12th
Tracygier 104th

So basically I have 5 bombs, 3 mediocre, and 2 contenders. I am thinking that 2 in the cut is probably not good enough to vault into the prizes. However if the no names continue to make a good showing you never know. I just wish the Player's Advantage "Fantasy Trend" was still available for Toho. The "Trend" tells by percent how many teams selected a given angler and there were a fair number of anglers who were not chosen at all. Unselected anglers is something you never see in the BASS game do to the point restrictions.
Wow!!! No sooner did the FLW Toho registration close and all the Players Advantage information on Toho was replaced by Lewis-Smith Lake info.

"It's a dissappointing story but here's what happened" by Boyd Duckett

Sounds like if the weather would have been stable Boyd would have been a contender. He might have been a contender anyway had he landed his bites on Day 1.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Michael "Cyberfish" Thompson has decided to start a new blog called MT Bucket. He did start a blog once before but I don't think he posted there more than once. His second blog post at the MT Bucket is about his trip to the Mississippi fishing Smallies this past Sunday with pics. In his first blog post there is a pic of a young Cyberfish with a dead muskie he "caught".

Blogger Billy Harris had his 1st tourny of the year. It didn't go so well...

My words of consolation would be at least he is fishing open water. We are still a month plus away before Dogfish season begins.

FishwiththePro's.com... When I win a million in fantasy fishing I'll consider it.

FLW Toho: Word is that Toho is going to be tough with as little as 22-24lbs making the cut. Bassfan puts the cut weight at 23. One big bite should make a big difference which means anyone in the field could get lucky. I have been vacillating on my fantasy picks but I think I've got a line up I'll stick with. I don't know how much past performance on Toho is going to play into things because almost all the tournaments held here are either earlier or much later in the year. This year the fish are supposed to be farther along spawning wise than in a normal year. As it stands I have 5 picks in common with the BassFan "Top 10 to watch". My dad has also has 5 in common with BassFan, 4 of the picks we all have in common. I would consider all my Dad's picks favorites and mine are with the exception of one no name guy.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

For FLW Fantasy Fishing I decided to spend the $25 to get this thing called Player's Advantage which gives you a number of special features that are supposed to help pick a roster. One of the special features is video and audio podcasts from the tournament during practice. I like the audio podcast best. The video is not exactly fast loading on my DSL. At first I was getting 6 seconds of video for 26 seconds of loading time so watching the video was taking forever and those long pauses are annoying. I have figured out that I can pause the video and it still loads up, so I can watch longer segments of uninterrupted video.

From the podcasts I have learned that two of my anglers claim to be struggling. What to do? What to do? A big cold front is going to hit the area on Wed. then the temps rebound a bit for Thur and it gets warm Fri-Sun. I think I will drop these two, both of who were Toho favorites according to the Pundits.

The dumbest part of Player's Advantage has to be the "Quick Pics" feature. This is a deal where you set certain parameters and then the computer picks a team for you. I can't imagine buying Player's Advantage and then using this feature.

My Dad decided he wanted a shot at the prizes in FLW Fantasy so he has put together Team Camiuhfish. He gets the benefit of my Players Advantage knowledge. For Toho we have 5 picks in common.
Wow!!! I was just checking out the Leaderboard for BASS FBF after the Classic and there was a 7 team tie with 1491 points for 1st place. I don't recall ever seeing a tie for 1st in BASS FBF before. They all had the exact same line up: Jones, Pace, KVD, Lane, Ashley.

2nd place was 26pts lower and 3rd place is 3 pts lower than 2nd. There was at least a 17 team tie in 34th place.

You can now make your line ups for the "Sunshine Showdown" at Harris Chain Locktime: March 6, 2008 8:59:59 AM PST. The point value of Mark Davis' is 4.0.

I already went to make a switch on my roster and so the tie breaker screen comes up. For the season I want to put in 14,640 which would be an average of 1220 per tournament but when I go to put it in you can only enter 4 numbers not 5. Almost no one that plays a full season will have under 10,000 pts. How stupid! I wonder if they will get it fixed.

Monday, February 25, 2008

Holy COW!!! I just for the 1st time took a look at the prizes available in the FLW Fantasy Fishing Game. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!

In the FLW Tour events and FLW Opens they are "paying down" 585 places each tournament. The Forest L. Wood Cup pays down 639 Places and the end of the year cumulative points race goes down 52 places. Total guaranteed prizes value $2,395,030. Go to FLW Fantasy Fishing for the Prizes

I figure if I can't win prizes in 3 out of the 7 tournaments than I suck. (Actually hold the "than I suck" part. This year the FLW scoring system is whacko, dumb luck could play a significant role. Here is the complicated scoring methodology:

Points will be assigned according to the points awarded in the 2008 FLW Wal-Mart FLW Tour Angler of the Year program. To access the rules for this program, visit www.flwoutdoors.com, click on "Bass Tours", then "FLW Tour" and then "Rules".

For each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team, the Player will earn the same number of points the angler earns in the 2008 Wal-Mart FLW Tour Angler of the Year program for each particular Tournament. Please note, if an angler is disqualified, or, if an angler fails to catch any fish within the first two days of a particular tournament, no points will be awarded to that angler.

For the Lake Toho, Lewis Smith, and Ft. Loudoun - Tellico Lakes Tournaments:
In addition, for each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team that finishes in the Top 10 of that particular Tournament, the Player will earn 500 points.

In addition, each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team that is ranked in the exact position they finish in the Top 10 of that particular Tournament, the Player will earn the following points:
1st place ranking angler correct: 2,000 points
2nd place through 10th place ranking angler correct: 750 points

For the Lake Norman, Beaver Lake, and Detroit River Tournaments:
In addition, for each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team that finishes in the Top 10 of that particular Tournament, the Player will earn 1,000 points.

In addition, each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team that is ranked in the exact position they finish in the Top 10 of that particular Tournament, the Player will earn the following points:
1st place ranking angler correct: 4,000 points
2nd place through 10th place ranking angler correct: 1,500 points

For the FLW Tour Championship Tournament:
For each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team that finishes in the Top 10 of this Tournament, the Player will earn 1,500 points.
In addition, for each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team that is ranked in the exact position in the Top 10 of this Tournament, the Player will earn the following points:
1st place ranking angler correct: 6,000 points
2nd place through 10th place ranking angler correct: 2,250 points


So basically it is the old scoring system, which was straightforward and the fairest in fantasy fishing with a couple of new wrinkles that could make a huge difference. I think I am fine with the extra rewards for anglers in the top 10 cut, but I don't care for the bonus points for selecting an angler in the exact place of finish; these points are total dumb luck. I would like it a lot better if you only got a bonus for picking the winner as the winner. Yes I do not care much for the BASS Super 6 Pick'em game either.

Under this new scoring you could have a line up that is all in the top 25, but if you do not have a bunch of them in the top 10 than you are out of luck. In the regular tour events two anglers in the top 10 totally wipes out a line-up with 5 anglers in the 11-15 positions. In the Opens 1 angler in the top 10 is better than 5 anglers placed 11-15. Don't forget FLW line ups this year are 10 anglers deep.

Bassmaster Classic Fantasy Round Up:

BPboys: The last day saw a slight improvement with Ashley and KVD moving up a combined 4 places, still we sucked.
Score: 1128 Pts which was good for 11456 Place and the 26.9%.
Futurebass.com League: 38th of 51.

I don't know what the "average" score was but I know it isn't the 1057 they have it listed as. 1150 might be the 50% mark.

BP 1: I think the last day saw a slight reduction in points as IKE slipped 4 while Martens gained 1 place and Ashley 3.
Score: 1207 Pts for 5536 place (Ugh!)and the 64.7%
Futurebass.com League: 18th

Sunday, February 24, 2008

Bassmaster Classic 2008 Day Final Blogged...

Alton weighed the days 3rd best bag and wins with 49-7, so it was a bit of a run away. Way to go Alton!!! He is an outstanding guy.

This is his website . The website is already updated about the Classic win just minutes after it happened. He has a new website design and it is in a blog format where you can leave comments. So go and give him your congratulations (You have to register)

The site is a Bigfishtools.com product.

He is an SMG pro so he blogs here....

He blogs here for ESPN.

Alton has to be the King of Bass Pro bloggers his main website, which is set up as a blog in style has another official Alton blog within.

Note on the Livestreaming: This morning at the blast off it was a true live stream just like TV with audio and video. However for the Weigh in the audio was live streaming with a few snags here and there, but the video was more like looking at snap shots than TV. My guess, all the internet viewers were slowing down the feeds or maybe it was combo of that and my relatively slow DSL connection (but it worked so good this morning). Anyway I hope FLW Live streams better.
Liveblogging the Bassmaster Classic Final Day weigh in:
The Bass Blog with BassTrakk has Alton Jones "at the top of the food chain". Will it be?

They started the weigh in on time so I am already behind the eight ball. So far 5 guys have weighed in.

Dave Wolack is in the lead with 38-6, that won't hold.

Casey Ashley sacks 11-6 for 35-12. Not much of a fantasy gain if any.

Open angler Clark Reehm knocks out the days big bag so far today with 15-00, breaking the 40lb mark (40-8) Won't hold up.

Koto Kiriyama moves into the lead with 40-9. Won't hold up.

So far with 17 anglers weighed, it seems that the weights are down again today.

Bobby Lane takes the lead with 42-7. This was expected as Basstrakk projected him 2nd.

Are they gonna hype the Super 6? Yes they are!

They picked someone random out of the crowd to "Cast for Cash" $50,000, just make a medium sized cast into a fairly small cylinder in a mock up fishes mouth. Naturally they ended up selecting a non-angler (buzz kill) It was not exactly an easy cast, so naturally she missed it. He consolation prize: A bunch of Berkley tackle perfect for the non-fisherwomen.

Super 6
Alton Jones
Charlie Hartley
Ciff Pace
KVD
Jeff Kriet
Ike

Ike gets only 4 and Lane stays on top.
IKE has kids???? I guess he is married to. I didn't even know that.

Kriet doesn't have it, Lane stays

KVD 11-7 and he takes the lead with 43-8.

Cliff Pace knocks off Van Dam with 44-5.

Charlie Hartley had a brutal last day 2 for 3-5.

Alton is up.

ALTON JONES WINS!!! You heard it hear first! (they haven't yet weighed his fish)
BASS blog with BasstraKK...

WOW! Fantasy Bass Fishing News: So they finally got the FBF scores up and I thought I was looking at a misprint. Scores of over 1000+. That can't be right, right?

It is right!!! They changed the scoring system this year. Instead of the winner getting 200 points they get 300, 2nd gets 295, 3rd gets 290 and so on down by 5's then 4's then 3's then 2's. Meanwhile the bonus points are the same, so they don't count for as much in the grand scheme of things. This scoring change makes it play much more like the FLW game where it isn't so top loaded. The scoring is much more geared to rewarding or penalizing a whole team instead of needing just a couple of good picks. I don't think I like the change because I liked the game as it was.

So that's how it works! I got the bright idea to upgrade my Windows Media Player if I could. Maybe this was the reason I wasn't getting the live streaming from the Classic. I have no idea what version my Windows Media Player was but apparently #9 is the best you can do on my OS (they have up to #11). So I downloaded and installed it and what do you know, I am getting the live feed. Hooray!!!

Alton Jones Blog...

Charlie Hartley has blogged day 2...

Bassfan Bigstick John Murray blogs his 27th place finish...

Will we see anything like this today?

Ike does have a shot.

Almost Smallmouth plus...

I was asked by Cyberfish if I wanted to do some open water Smallie fishin today at the Mississippi river. It is the last day of open season and the weather is supposed to be nice. I guess our friend Jim has been whacken em good. I told Cyb no thinking that I didn't want to drive that far (90 miles) and I don't exactly have my tackle all ready to go. I am kind of wishing now that I had said yes. I'd like to know where to get in on this winter smallmouth action. I wonder if it's the same area Hellabass and Josh Douglas fish.

I saw two big ole wild turkey's in the yard today. That was a first. My Dad has seen a bunch of them in the open pasture to the north of us. Maybe I should take up turkey hunting (NOT).

Saturday, February 23, 2008

Bassmaster Classic Day 2

Breaking News: MinnesocoldBpboys leads the Futurebass.com League (46 Teams) after Day 2 of the Bassmasters Classic.

(OK the catch is that the BASS FBF is having some kind of technical difficulties at this point and all scores remain at zero. So while the BPboys are listed first, the team is actually tied with everyone else at zero until they get the game fixed. Once that happens I'll drop like a 5oz lead weight.)


Be sure to check out BassFan, Bass Zone, and Bassmaster.com for the days recaps.

Besides today being Day 2 of the Classic, it was the Championship Day for Minnesocold Girls State High School Hockey. I caught part of both Championship games.

Congratulations to Alexandria and Eden Praire the Champs for 2007!!!

The goalie for Alex, Senior Danielle Justice, kept her team in it making about twice the saves of the Breck goalie. In fact, Alex was outshot in all 3 State Championship Tournament games.

In 2A Eden Prairie Senior Andrea Green scored a hat trick including an empty netter to seal the game. Her 2nd Goal was unassisted on a beautiful run from Center Ice.

The Boys Tournament is in 2 weeks. That's right March Madness has started already.
Follow that Basstrakk blog...

Sort of a Classic blog by some writer named Barone (Not Michael)...

Rumor has it Boyd Duckett is moving on up today. Also the bags seem to be significantly below yesterday's weights.

Live Blogging the Leaderboard:

Steve Kennedy drops the fricken ball 2fish for 5-3.

A. Mart hangs in there with 15-14, so far the days best.

We are now at the half way point.
Charlie Hartley leads with a total of 34-13 (13-12 Day 2)
Cliff Pace is 2nd with 33-5
IKE is 3rd with 31-3
Hack is 4th with 30-11
Bobby Lane is 5th with 29-13
Matt Sphar is last with 7-14

At this point it looks like it is gonna be a close one going into day 3.

IKE drops down with 12-14, but that will be good enough to keep him in contention probably.

Frag!!! Again Jeff Coble fails to bag a limit again today. He has almost a carbon copy of yesterday 3 fish for 8-12 a whole 2oz improvement from yesterday. (That makes 2 fantasy anglers out of the cut)

There were 37 limits weighed on day 1 or 74% of the field.

Fred Roumbanis Bixby, CA weighs a 6- 7 hawg.

Ouch!!! Casey Ashley stumbles hard 2 fish for 5-12. He may not even make the fricken cut. NOT a good fantasy day at all so far.

So far 9 anglers have bettered their day 1 weight. 14 have dropped weight on Day 2.

A.Mart still with the big bag of the day with almost half weighed in. (Alton Jones is supposed to have the days biggest bag, we shall see)

Chris "Yes he is never going to be on a fantasy team of mine ever again" Lane catches 1 fish for 3-7. He now is the bottom of the barrel at 6-1.

Ish weighs in a single 2lber and takes the bottom spot from Lane. That makes two guys who were supposidly "on 'em" that finish with disasters.

MN boy Remitz the "Wolverene" finishes out a forgettable Classic with a total of 4 fish for 11-1.

KJ skunks or DQ's, not sure which.

Jeff Kriet scores the biggest bag so far today 18-12.

KVD is up next... 5fish for 11-14 total 32-1. He definitely has a good shot going into the final day.

Rook stumbles hard 5 fish for 7-12. So much for the sun helping him. He still will have a shot though with a big bag tommorrow.

MN Federation Angler Brent Haimes comes in with only 2 today for 3-3. Hey at least he beat some of the Elite Pro's. He will be the lowest placing Federation angler.

The Rumors were... TRUE Alton Jones comes in with 18-11 and takes the lead with 36 even. He by far has had the two strongest days with a 17 then 18lb limits.

Now I am just waiting out Boyd...
Boyd 5 fish for 15-2, unfortunatly that is not gonna be enough to put him in the cut.

Skeet weighs the days third biggest bag with 17-2 putting him at 28-7. Although it's a long shot he puts himself in contention.

Fantasy Review:
BP boys: Van Dam 4th, Ashley 20, Kennedy 39, Coble 41, C.Lane 49 Not so good. We need a KVD top 2 bad and there is always the possiblity Ashley could come up big on Day 3 with more places to move up than down.

BP1: Ike 6th, Martens 10, Ashley 20, Duckett 33, Coble 41 So basically mediocrity reins supreme in the first fantasy outing of the year.

Classic Day 1

Charlie Hartley has up dated his blog on his Day 1 success...

Of coarse go to BassFan and Bassmaster and Bass Zone for additional day 1 coverage.

John Murray blogs his day at Bassfan Bigsticks...

Boyd has blogged Day 1...

Friday, February 22, 2008

Looks like conditions suck, but that could mean conditions are ripe for catching fish.

Yeah! Classic blog with "BasstraK" again this year.

Doesn't look like Bass Zone is going to have the "On the Water Blog" this year. They are keeping the the Bass Zone live chat from the water.

I guess the Women's Bassmaster Tour Championship started yesterday at Lake Keowee in S.C..

The Day 2 leader is Dianna Clark Bumpus Mills, TN Weight: 20-14. Can't say that I've ever heard of her, at least I don't think I have. Today's Big Bass was a pathetic 2lbs2ozs caught by Sheri Glasgow Muskogee, OK. On day 1 Secret York caught her only fish of the tournament but it went 5-8.

Marcia "Reelady" Rubin is sitting in 8th (out of 12) with 11-6.

I am not sure if you are supposed to be a Bass Insider or not to get live streaming, but whatever the reason, I don't get it.

Live Blogging the weigh-in:
Well the Classic weigh in is about to start looks like Skeets up first.
Real-Time Leaderboard.

Skeet comes in with a mediocre 11-5, looks like he's out of it. He did only catch 3 bass so the size is there, but it will take a miracle for him to catch up with projected 20lb bags coming in.

Boyd Duckett will not be a repeat champ: 2 fish for 4-15 (Buzzkill for Bass Pundit 1, but I moved him out for the BPboys)

KVD rocks it with 20-3. And to think I was getting jittery on Van Dam and nearly dumped him. (I would have dumped him most likely for Martens who is supposed to also be having a good day.)

Pre-tourny fav Swindle bombs with 5 fish 9-12.

Horton totally bombs with 1 fish 3-9. I nearly had him on BP 1 traded out for Kennedy then Kennedy for IKE who is supposed to have a big bag.

Ish who was supposed to be "on em" 2 fish for 3-11. Ouch!

I traded Duckett for Chris Lane 2 for 2-10. Looks like I should have kept the original pick of Lintner 5 fish 13-2 in that slot. (Bpboys)

Remitz bombs 2 for 4-6 (This was kind of expected, anyone who kept him on there fantasy line up wasn't paying enough attention. Remitz was the 4th most chosen Classic fisherm with 35% or 5968). I will be interested to see if McClelland bombs as well because I think him and Remitz fish similar styles.

I should mention MN Federation Angler Brent Haimes caught a limit but it was a small 8-7.

Big Show bags 19-3!

IKE only 18-5, the BasstraK had him over 20lbs. Still this is OK, IKE was a last minute fantasy add after I had dropped him once.

Coble comes in with a dissappointing 3 fish for 8-10. This is a double disaster both BPboys and BP1 carried him. I should mention that home town boy Ashley sacked a respectable 18-10 which is a score for both posse teams.

WHAT!!! BASS blogger Charlie Hartley from freakin OHIO bags 21+

MCclelland bombs 1 for 2-4, yep looks like he and Remitz die together.

Bobby was the Lane to take, a respectable 15lb bag. What happened to Chris?

Martens only sacks 12-15 (The BasstraK had him at 15+)

Come on Kennedy!!!
Kennedy 5 for 12-13

Weigh in OVER!!!

Fantasy Review:
And Kennedy closes out my fantasy day.
BPboys: 2 top 5, a middle of the pack and 2 lower half's with one of them being 2nd to last.
BP1: 2 top 10, a middle of the pack and two lower half's.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Bassmaster Classic Week

What’s Your Go-To Bait? over at Getting Reel.

Boyd Duckett blogs about Bobby Knight and the Classic.

Way to go Boyd, make me even more jittery in my fantasy picks.

At the KevinVanDam.com website I decided to join the KVD forums. (Hellabass has been there for awhile as RichLindgren.com)

And since I am in the joining mood, I also decided to break down and enter
Rich Lindgren's Bass Fishing Forum.

I've been all around Rich's forum and I am really impressed with the place. I wish all other boards would go to that set up.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Bassmaster Classic Week

Hellabass has his 2008 Fantasy Fishing Kick Off (I give away some secrets in the comments).

In FLW Fantasy Fishing I have joined 3 leagues (Futurebass, Hellabass Blog, and FishingMinnesota.com). The Player's Advantage definitely gives you a lot of helpful information. One of the exclusive content items is a Blog by Jeff Schroeder who is a FLW media guy. I hope the Hulksters FF blog is open to the public.

Apparently with BASS Fantasy Bass Fishing you can only get Pundit Picks with a Bass Insider membership. BOO! Of coarse in BASS fantasy, Pundit Picks were never as important as those on the FLW side where you have a full 200 boat field to choose from every different tournament. In BASS FBF you are really limited in picks due to the point system.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Bassmaster Classic Week!!!

Well it's Bassmasters Classic Week: Check out the hype on the MN participants at Josh Douglas Blog. (2/9/08 entry)

2007 Bassmaster Classic Champion Boyd Duckett is blogging again. Go comment him some encouragement.

The BassFan Army Weekend Warrior Championship will be held in a couple of months and at least 4 Minnesotians are going to be in it.

Big Bass Bonanza
Doug Pietrzak -- St. Cloud, MN
Nick Gross -- Watkins, MN

Excel Bass
Jim Smith -- Brainerd, MN

In-Fisherman Editor Steve Quinn -- Brainerd, MN is in as a wildcard.

Fantasy Bass Fishing News:

Being that it is Classic Week and the first FLW event is a week from Thurs. it's time to put that FBF research into high gear.

I did break down and spend the $25 ($40 -$15Walmart Card) on the FLW Anglers Advantage. I figure if I get lucky enough to win anything, it will be more than worth it. One of the primary reasons I signed up was for the Pundit Picks. In the past this info was given for free, but not anymore. It says in the Anglers Advantage Pundit Picks description that the Staff and Touring Pro's will have selections just like in the past, but for now all they have is Staff picks. I haven't looked into all the Angler Advantage features and I haven't chosen a line up yet.

Updated: Initial line up now selected. It's quite a different experience picking 10 instead of 5 anglers.

I have decided to switch the Posse's league in BASS Fantasy Bass Fishing to Futurebass.com do to lack of participation at the league I created. I am keeping the Super 6 Pick'em league the same (Minnesocold Super 6).

What's with this: FLW Fantasy Fishing is running a free feature called "Top 10 Countdown" The problem is that they started the counting down with angler #9. HUH!!!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

So I have been looking through those MN BASS club websites and I am just amazed by the Baxter Bass Snatcher site. Their club "Tournament Archive" goes back to 1977, so they have an amazing allotment of statistics going back to that time. Their "Statistics on Lakes and Tournaments" goes back to 1983 and gives up all sorts of interesting info on Lakes they have fished (You just have to go look to see all the statistical Breakdowns). They also have a statistical archive dedicated to "Angler Statistics, Lakes and other useless info."

Through these archives you can learn of the feats of 2007 Minnesota Bowfin Club Grand Champion Chuck Steinbauer. This guy is one good stick. According to the records he has been fishing with the Bass Snatchers for 31 years. In those 31 years he has been the Club Angler of the Year 10 Times. In those 31 years he has finished in the overall Top 6 (State Tournament Qualifiers) 27 times, his current streak of Club Top 6 finishes goes back to 1981; This feat is remarkable because the Bass Snatchers is not a small club, they have had between 27 and 40 members in the years Steinbauer has been in the top 6. He has fished 179 club tournaments and won 34 of them with 75 top 3 finishes. He has caught the "Lunker"/Tournament Biggest Bass in 27 of the 179 tournaments. In the last 5 years his average tournment 6 fish bag has weighed 13.53lbs. In 2007 when he won the club AOY he averaged 14.99lbs per tournament (6 fish limit). In 2004 he won club AOY and averaged 15.29lbs per tournament (6 fish limit). In 2007 he made the MN State Team finishing in 11th at Leech Lake. I also found out he was 2nd Place in the AOY for Excel Singles in 2007 Out of 23 who fished a full season with 85 anglers total (To bad, I think 2nd place got nothing).

Friday, February 15, 2008


Happy Birthday Steve!!!
(He is my younger brother, the baby is my brother Todd's daughter Isabelle Grace who is now 3)

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Bass Pro Site-ING

Derek Remitz "The Wolverine" His site is done by bigfishtools.com

Jeff Kriet

Rick Morris- I can't believe I didn't already have this in the Site-ING blogroll as that I have his blog blogrolled.

Some MN Bassfishing Clubs:

Sunrise Bassmasters (North Branch) This is Derek Remitz's old club.

Range Bassmasters (Brainerd Area)- This is the club I blogged about fishing Platte/Sullivan in 2005. This club has In-Fisherman editor and Bass Guru Steve Quinn.

Baxter Bass Snatchers: This club has the distinction of having 4 of the 9 Minnesota Bowfin Club Grand Champions: Chuck Fields (2000), Guy Henkensiefken (2001), Tom Swanson (2002), Chuck Steinbauer (2007)

Check your "Favorites" The MN Bowfin Club has a different web address.

The Blogging Brainerd Lakes Bassmasters- Yes that's right this club blogs it. The blog has been in existance since June 2005. Since it's a true blog, it will go on the Blogroll-O- BassNblog plus the MN Fishing Clubs Blogroll.

Loon State Bassmasters- This Central MN bass club has semi-pro's Roland Willis and John Schlee. I've fished against John in an Excel Singles Tournament on Gull. I'd never fished the lake before that tournament day. I ended up catching a bunch of bass and finishing in the top 30%, which I thought was pretty good seeing that most if not all of the field was made up of local's. I was only 1 big bite away from the money. Not a lot of info at this web site.

North Star Bass Club (Since 1974)- This group claims to be the oldest Bass club in the state. It doesn't appear to be a Federation club. They are out the West Central part of the state.

Zumbro Valley Bassmasters (Since 1979) A club member, Brent Haimes, is fishing in the 2008 Bassmasters Classic as a Federation Angler. This was his road to the Classic.

Prior Lake Hooksetters- Twin Cities based club. Not a whole lot of info from this website.

Metro Hawg Hunters- BASS Federation Club out of the Metro(duh!)

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Not that anyone will care, but I have re-organized my Blogroll-O-BassNblog.

Monday, February 11, 2008


2008 Bassmaster Classic Qualifier Charlie Hartley is blogging his way into the classic:

It's called "Charlie Hartley's Classic" because that's what it really is — my classic. I've been waiting for this my whole life. That's no exaggeration. My whole life — years and years of tournament fishing — has been pointed towards next February.

Go visit, it's a good read.

Story of Mark Davis returning to the BASS Elite Series... If they have Davis for a pittance in BASS fantasy bass fishing, which they should do to his two year absense, you can bet he'll be in my line up. I am hoping his value will be 8 or below.

Yesterday, I was looking at the 2008 Tournament Schedule on Classic Bass (Classic Bass is the definitive web-site for Minnesocold bass tournament fishing). While browsing the tournaments I began to think about whether or not I should think about trying to fish some bass tournaments this summer as a non-boater/co-angler. It would be good for my health if I get out more than I did last summer and I'm thinking that fishing tournaments might give me a little bit more motivation to get out and fish.

Does the BP really need motivation to go fishing?

The answer to that after 2006 most definitely is yes. Last year I did do a fair amount of fishing from shore in the Spring, but once the hotter weather hit in June I just was not finding the energy needed hook the boat up and go. I have been finding it harder and harder to deal with the hot weather since my heart attack in 2003 and this really messes with my energy level and motivation. Maybe if I am looking foreward to tournament fishing some of this negative trend can be reversed; That's my theory any way.

The tournaments with Co-Anglers are the Silverado Tour, ABA Bassmaster Weekend Series, the new Minnesota Federation of Bass Anglers Series, and the new Excel Elite Pro/AM.

The Silverado Tour is pretty much the Premier Pro/Am Circuit in Minnesota, which means it's the most hardcore and most expensive at $200 a tourny for AM's. Their Am slots are already filled.

I believe the ABA Bassmaster Weekend Series is going into it's third year and provides opportunties to advance beyond just the 4 tour events. They have TOC, regional, and national. Hellabass and his dad fish this tour and really seem to like it. While I could probably afford to fish this tour I think all the travel would wear me down.

The MFBA has a series of 4 tournaments that would be a little lighter on the travel for me but is still more than what I am looking for at this point.

That obviously leaves the Excel Elites which are run by a former fishing partner Joel Stokka. They will only be having 2 tournaments (Leech July 27) and (Whitefish Chain Aug.31) both of which don't require extensive travel time for me. I love the idea of fishing the heavy cover in Leech and there is a lot of Bass to be caught on the Whitefish Chain. I am seriously considering these tournaments.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Hulkster Hawks FLW Fantasy Fishing: "Sign up or to the turn-buckle you go!"

Apparently he is going to have a Fantasy Fishing Blog.

I'm just glad they didn't go with Jesse "Govenor Turn-buckle" Ventura.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

More BassNblogs

I found these BassNblogs with the help of Boyd Duckett Blog:

The Fishin' Blog: Started in Jan 2007, it's mostly about Bass but does run into a lot of other subjects.

Bass Fishing from a Different Perspective: "Bass fishing, and professional bass fishing in particular, is a fun, fascinating, and gratifying sport to be involved in or follow as a fan. I work in television production on the Bassmaster Elite Series and will share my perspective on the sport." Started in May 2007. Seems to have a lot of inside stuff for the Bass Elite Series. She hasn't posted since November.

Fulltime Fishing.com: This is an angler down in FL who does a lot of bass fishing and reports about it. Misc other fresh and saltwater fishing covered. Looks like the blog was started in January of 2006.

BassFeed (The Bass Fishing Podcast) This blog is obviously a site dedicated to podcasting about Professional Bass Fishing and Bass Fishing Info. This site is pretty cool, started in March 2007. Learn more here!!!

Kirk's Fishing Hole:Blog started on Halloween 2007. Bass and Cat fishing.

Here's a story I came across: They're Ice Fishing In Bikini’s

BASS Fantasy Bass Fishing

I am a little slow on the draw, but the BASS Fantasy Bass Fishing and Super 6 pick'em are now open for registrations. Better hurry cause the classic starts Feb. 22.

The prizes this year seem to be a small step up from last year maybe. For the Classic they are going down 10 places and for regular Elite Series events they go down 6 places. I can't say that I am very impressed with the #1 prize for the classic: One (1) 100,000 Trip Reward Points from Ramada Inn ($500 ARV) for First Place.

Right now my leagues are: (This is subject to change if no one else sign's up)
Minnesocold Fantasy Bassmaster
Minnesocold Super 6

Baby Steps

I took some baby steps toward doing some ice fishing today. I located my five gallon pail, and panfish ice tackle. I am out of string bobber stops and don't have any pliers or scissors. I got the Vexliar carrier out of the tackle shack along with my ice rods, jigging raps, and jigging spoons.

Yet to do: Mount reels on my two panfish rods and put line on them. Get pliers and scissors, find Coleman lantern, find and put together propane heater, mount Vexliar on carrier.

It is very possible I will ice fish this next week when it warms up.

Monday, February 04, 2008

Bass Pundit Blogging In 2007

I was curious to see what I blogged about in 2007. Here are the results:

Bass Fishing: 107 Posts
Fishing: 22 Posts
Football: 12 Posts
Holiday Greetings: 3 Posts
Weather: 2 Posts
Personal Life: 1 Posts
Total Posts 147

There were a lot of posts that combined more than one topic, but I only counted these under 1 Post; Usually these posts had something about bass fishing in them.

Sunday, February 03, 2008

Super Bowl 42 Thoughts

I am sorry but Eli Manning does not deserve to be the Super Bowl MVP. On the game winning drive he threw a pass that absolutely should have been picked off and had two other throws that were up for grabs and could have been picked. If anyone on offence the MVP should be David Tyree for making that spectacular catch that kept the final drive alive. That was the play of the game and it was as good a catch as your ever going to see. Tyree not only kept the ball from being intercepted but managed to hold on despite the defence being all over him. Without that catch, I think it doubtful that the Giants win the game.

Speaking of the other QB; I don't think Brady had that good of a game. He missed throws to open receivers on several occasions. Sure the Giants were getting a fair amount of pressure, but Brady was definitely off his normally dead accurate self.

The Giants defence was really the game's MVP. I have to give the Giants credit, they beat the best team in NFL history when it mattered the most. I am shocked.

The Commercials: I do not think there were any truely outstanding one's. Most were quite forgettable. I think my favorite was the car commercial where the squirrel ran out in in the middle of the road and the squirrel plus many others got wide eyed and wide mouthed at the impending carnage of an on coming car, only for disaster to be averted when the car was able to nimbly swerve out of the way.

Puppy Bowl IV: Did you watch Animal Planet today? If not you missed out on what is now my favorite Super Bowl tradition: The Puppy Bowl. If you haven't seen it, it is a TV show where a bunch of puppies of different breeds are put in a mock up football stadium where they play for the cameras. You can see the "Puppy Players" here. My favorite has to be the biggest puppy of them all, Bruin the Alaskan Malamute.

This puppy just lumbered about compared to all the other puppies running all over the place. Good Fun!