Saturday, November 29, 2008


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

Friday, November 28, 2008

Thanks sickening

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

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

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

My 4th Blogirthday...

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

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

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

Rules of thumb:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Of coarse I am competing for a couple of ugly plaques, not my livelihood over 4 days.
Hellabass has blogged about the 2009 Bassmaster Classic field...

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

Cyber Sippi Smallies

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

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

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Ikeslayer wins Bass Pundit Minnesocold Bass Derby 2008!!!


He caught the biggest bass.

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

4.47lbs
4.68lbs
5.62lbs
5.50lbs
5.06lbs

Total 25.33lbs


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

Vikes Blogging

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Smallmouth Trip

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

I am sure Cyberfish will have a report posted tonight.

Saturday, November 15, 2008

The Last Day.

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

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

Friday, November 14, 2008

FLW Fantasy Bass Fishing News


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

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

Monday, November 10, 2008

Vikes Beat Packer Crackers


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

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

Skoal Vikes!!!

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

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

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Election Day Shore Bassaction

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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