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.

Minnnesota Fishing Challenge for Teen Challenge

The 1st Minnesota Fishing Challenge for Minnesota Teen Challenge will be held on Gull Lake Saturday May 30th. This will be a multi-species tournament with divisions for Walleye, Bass, Pike, and Panfish. I can’t tell from the rules if there is a combined multi-species division.

Cost is $100 per 2 person team and in addition to that you need to raise a minimum of $500 for Teen Challenge. I have had the pleasure of seeing Teen Challenge in action at church as well as on and off the water at several Fishers of Men Fishing Club events. Hardcore Bass Pundit followers may recall the post: Teen Challenge Wapo WI Opener (Man it seems like it has been longer than 4 years since that awesome fishing trip).

Fishing Challenge teams have chances for trophies and major prizes, including fishing trips with Al Lindner, a customized Mathews bow, guided fishing trips and more. These major prizes are in addition to the four species category prizes. The top fund raisers sit with Al Lindner at the Rules Meeting banquet Friday night. Al Lindner is the the Honorary Tournament Director.

Full Details @ their website.

Elite Series Dardanelle Fantasy Fishing Move

I decided to cut heavy hitter Todd Faircloth and snapped up Kevin Short in his place. Short is supposed to be a Dardenelle ace and I don't know that Faircloth is that great on rivers.

Other anglers I considerd are Boyd Duckett, Scott Rook, and Gary Klien.

It will be interesting to hear what Hellabass has to say.

Duckett Blogging Dardanelle

Read what he has to say...

Also:

Scott Campbell is doing his Voice Blogs...

No word from Skeet at this point.

I see that Jeremy Starks has an active website again, but it looks like it might not be much of a blog anymore. I'll have to monitor this one, but I will keep it as a blog for now.

Ice Out By Easter- Update #1!

Minnesota Climatology has recorded it's 1st Minnesota lakes with open water for 2009.

3-22 Lake Sarah in Murray County
3-23 Lake Shetek in Murray County (When I was a Youth Pastor in Canby MN we were involved with Shetek Luthern Bible Camp. The camp is on road accessible Island with some good looking Shore fishing spots along the road. I can't remember if I caught a fish or not, I think I did but just don't have a clear enough memory. It's a nice camp.)
3-24 Budd Lake Martin County
3-24 Loon Lake Waseca County

It wouldn't surprise me at all if in the next few days they add more lakes as having gone out today with all the rain and wind we have had in the past couple of days.

The Weather Forecast

We have had a very good run of weather for about 2 weeks now. On Wed. that comes to an end. The Forecast seems to be indicating that we will be right around to a little below the seasonal average temps for around a week. I guess I shouldn't be to disappointed if things are just going back to the average range in the high 30' low 40's. It doesn't look like we will be getting a whole lot of sun and there could be some snow in the mix. Rain good, snow bad. Anyway my mantra this year is going to be:

Open Water Before Easter!!!

At this point I think Platte lake will be open and I'll be catching fish before Easter.

Update: There has been a steady rain all night with air temps around 40 and this has been enough to seriously kick the snows butt. If this would have been snow instead of rain we would have been walloped bad and this is just the 1st night of what is predicted to be a 2 to 3 day rainfall.

The sump in the window well where the water will leak into the basement if the water gets to high got plugged up a little and it was enough of a blockage so that the pump got overwhelmed. Fortunately I checked downstairs before a whole lot of water got in. In addition to the window well sump pump I had another one running just around the corner at the back of the house. I put that 2nd sump in the window well and then got the blockage out of the original window well sump and together they pumped out the excess water at and around the window well in pretty short order. Right now the sumps are back in their original spots. This could be a messy couple of days, but on the positive side there is not a whole lot of snow left to melt.

Update: It looks like another heavier band of rain is heading right this way out of St. Cloud.

First Day in the Tackle Warehouse

Today is was cloudy windy and in the mid to high 50's. Great for melting snow, but just OK for melting lake ice. Today was my first venture into my own personal tackle warehouse this Spring. I call it a tackle warehouse because it is where I keep the largest share of my tackle. It has everything from lures new in the package to my rusty hook collection. Today I put some more nails in the wall so I could hang many of the lures I have collected over the winter. I pretty much used up the remaining wall space and so what didn't fit on the wall either went into ziplock bags or straight to tackle boxes. Some of the stuff I put on the wall will be in a tackle box pretty soon.

I sorted through my rusty treble hook collection and to my surprise actually found quite a few hooks that are still good. I don't think I have any lures that are in urgent need of hook replacements, but if I do find some I will be ready.

I spent time chipping the paint out of the eyelets of the glow Cubby Mini-Mites I just bought. I was a little concerned for a moment because I couldn't find my main panfish box where I thought it would be, but I found it soon enough in one of my tackle bins.

I love spending time in the tackle warehouse. I will be in there many times this Spring and Summer.

Bloggers test to see how fast your blog loads.

Numion Stopwatch is a site that you can use that will time your computer load up time is. It may be obvious but the faster your computer and connection speed, the faster a page will load. But not everybody on the internet has a blazing fast computer with connection speeds to match. I think people with Dial-Up are probably pretty much screwed when it comes to loading up Bass Pundit; It takes around 35 seconds with my underpowered computer and DSL. Half that time would be much better, but I like having a lot of posts on my first page because once they are loaded I can easily scroll through a bunch of stuff rather than having to go through the archives. Plus with my rather lengthy sidebar, I need a lot of blog content to match the sidebar length.

The truth is I have been staying away from a couple of BassNblogs that I like cause the load times were just to long, namely I am a bass fisherman and Rattletrap Ramblings.

Look at this thing: Triggerfish by Think Tank Lures

(Hat Tip: Bassin with Allen)
Tackle Tour has a picture of the lure.

I am betting it's not gonna come in under $15. It looks like a lure that pike would have a hard time with and if the thing floats there is a very good chance if a pike did cut you off that you would get the lure back. It's topwater and unique, I actually am considering buying one if they ever go on sale. They have a website that doesn't work. Click it maybe it's working now.
Update: Website is up, but there aren't any lures available.

Check this Tackle Tour Ad (Now that's what I need for the blog)

Production values and a hot model, or vice versa

Baxter Bass Snatchers Annual Liar's Meeting.

Yesterday was the last formal meeting of my bass club, The Baxter Bass Snatchers, before the tournament season begins. It also marked my 1 year anniversary with the club as it was the March meeting last year when I was accepted as a member in the club. The March meeting is called the "Liar's Meeting" because it is when the top 3 finishers in each of the previous summers tournaments is supposed to tell all about how they achieved their victory.

I learned a couple of interesting things. The first was that while the smallmouth beds on Big Birch that my partner had found in pre-fish were abandoned on tournament day, the same thing did not happen to all the beds on the lake. In fact, the winner won by going to beds he had made waypoints for in pre-fish. The other item of interest was to see just how far the top finishers traveled on the river to get their fish. My partner took us up the river a long ways in the morning and several of the top finishers went well beyond where we went. I also learned where on the map I fished at Serpent Lake when I came in 3rd and my partner came in 2nd. I wasn't totally sure exactly where we were but the others were able to point it out to me; My partner at Serpent Lake was not at the meeting and he was the one driving the boat, so he knew where we were and all I knew is we were somewhere toward the middle of the lake on the North end.

I don't remember if I have blogged about this before, but at the February meeting some of our lakes got changed. I blogged all about the original schedule, thinking that changes were unlikely. Apparently there were some conflicts that came up unfortunately, I really liked the lakes we were going to fish. They ended up switching dates on Gull Lake because of the Minnesota Fishing Challenge for Teen Challenge, and put Cedar (Aiken) on May 30th. I wish they would have switched dates instead because I would have liked to fish in that Minnesota Fishing Challenge. (I see that in addition to the $100 entry fee that teams must raise $500 more in sponsorship, Ouch! Maybe I don't want to fish it. I don't know if I could come up with that kind of sponsorship ging; I am not exactly the extroverted salesman type.)

They dropped Cullen on September 19th for Gull and also dropped Birch (Cass) for Ida (Alex) in July . It turns out the September 19th date for Gull conflicts with a big 2 day pike tournament. At this point it will now take a 90% vote of the club in favor of switching to Whitefish Chain, in order to stop the train wreck. Hopefully the voting will work out.

Found: Minnesota Bass Fishing Blog

Mike's Blog- The Blogger MikeD was a member of Brainerd Lakes Bassmasters which has had their club blog since 2005; Mike's Blog started just a month earlier. It doesn't appears Mike dropped out of the BLB club in 2007 and he hasn't done any blogging about bass fishing since 2006. So it appears he is a semi-retired BassNblogger who has other things on his plate (young family). Still he's going on the Blogroll.

Bait Monkey Attack

Today I was in Brainerd and hit up Fleet Farm and Gander Mountain. At Mills Fleet Farm they had some Dean Rojas Bronzeye, Bronzeye Jr's...
and Bobby's Perfect Frog's on "Clearance." Unfortunately the Clearance lures at the Baxter Mills Fleet farm aren't really heavily discounted, but saving a buck or two per lure was enough to get me to stock up with 3 clown Bronzeyes, 1 toad Bronzeye, and 1 sparrow Bobby's Perfect. You rarely see these lures go on sale here in Minnesocold. The Spro Jr's cost 50 cents more and I elected not to buy any. When it comes to slop frogs I have traditionally thrown the larger size, which I think is an advantage because you get bigger hooks and a bait that makes more commotion on the surface. Am I missing out by not going with the smaller size?

In the clearance bin I could not pass up a pack of Swim Senko's which are supposed to make outstanding trailers when you are swimming a chatter jig. Maybe they will be good on swim jigs too.

At Mills the new X-Rap Shad Shallows were on sale so I picked up a glass ghost(3rd down) and pink, which are my 2 favorite colors for X-Rap jerkbaits and Husky Jerks for bass.I had thought that Mills was no longer carrying Cubby Mini-Mite's because there weren't any in there normal place but there were several of the knock offs on the shelf.An employee was stocking near by and I asked him if they were no longer going to carry Cubby's. It turns out the Cubby's were all out of the way over on a far wall with the ice fishing lures. I am now stocked up with glow Cubby's. I went through a full 5 pack of them last year. I elected to go with the 5 pack again instead of the 3 pack with the extra bodies.

I was tempted to buy a panfish rod on clearance because it had the action I look for in a pannie rod , but I think I can get something similar for less than $30. They had quite a few of these rods and so maybe they will be marked down more. I would really like to get 1 more good panfish rod.

Next I headed to Gander Mtn. so I could look there for panfish rods and also see what inventory they will carry for 2009. Last year MT Buckets Mike Thompson and Dave Lindmark from GEM bought some great panfish rods at Gander, but I don't think the Brainerd store ever carried those same rods and it doesn't look they will have them this year either. I did manage to pick up a couple of 100yard spools of 40lb moss green Power Pro; I can't say that I've ever seen Power Pro come in 100 yard spools, but you can bet I was willing to snap up the $5 price difference from a 150yard spool. Generally the Team Daiwa reels I use have smallish line capacities and a 150yard spool is overkill and I end up having 30-40 yards that I can't put on the spool, so the 100 yards is perfect. Gander also had some Yum Tungsten hybrid bullet sinkers on clearance that I couldn't pass up. Turns out these sinkers are going for 99cents a pack online at lurenet.com. It's pretty obvious to me that these things didn't sell, but I haven't found anything negative being said about them, so maybe the idea of a scent carrying sinker was just not a brilliant idea; I most certainly didn't buy them for the scent feature.

And thus ended the bait monkey attack.

2009 Minnesota Fishing License & Walleye Stamp- Check!!!

Even though I don't need it until May, I bought my 2009 Minnesota Fishing License yesterday. I was even generous and chipped in for the first ever Minnesota Walleye Stamp. Get this, I paid $5 for a stamp that isn't required to catch or keep walleye but for that $5 I don't actually get a walleye stamp; To get the actual stamp is another $2 which I did fork over. I don't collect stamps, but I may start a collection of these Walleye Stamps since I am in on the ground floor. In all it cost me $25 for the privilage of fishing in Minnesota this year through April 2010. I'll probably have to pay something close to that or maybe even more for 2 days of fishing in WI in May.

Weather Report: We are supposed to have good ice melting weather on through the middle of next week when it is supposed to cool down some. There is some talk about there possibly being a significant rain on Mon/Tues. A warm rain or lots of sun and warm temps are the best weather to have for melting lake ice.

Kevin Van Dam writes...

The State of the Sport Address

I think it would have been nice if KVD would have thrown in a paragraph or two about the wealth of information and opportunities for sharing community on the Internet. Between kevinvandam.com , his message board, and the blogs he writes for Bass Insider KVD is one of the Pro anglers that is doing an excellent job of leveraging the Internet for the benefit of the bass angling public. Obviously, he was writing for BASS on their website which might have made directing people towards other sources of new media a no go. There could also be the assumption that anyone who reads the article is familiar with online bass fishing resources. Under the circumstances what I wanted to hear is something beyond what anyone could expect.

Boyd Duckett has a new blog post up along with a voice blog...

Elite Series Pro Scott Campbell is doing voice blogs... (My question: Scott Campbell who?) Never heard of him before I saw the BassFan Dock Talk talk about his voice blogs. His bio says he has been in the Elite Series for 3 years. Maybe I knew about him one time and forgot who he is.

Take Monthly Fishing Survey & Win Prizes

AnglerSurvey.com is a website where you take a monthly survey about your fishing and fishing equipment and get a chance to win $100 Gift Card to a sporting retailer of your choice.

They have a blog.... Which is basically a bait store picture wall.

I heard...

... a red wing blackbird
tommorrow is Spring

I just love red wing blackbirds. They provide the background noise to so many places I fish, especially in the Springtime when the males are singing for a hook up. I can't say that I have seen any robbins yet, but it wouldn't surprise me at all if they were around.

Are We Bass Fishing Millionaires or Billionaires or More?

At the BassNblog Bass and Me, which I just found, blog author Nitewraith has a post entitled: Fishing Has Made Me Wealthy. He starts out by saying;

As I sat today waiting for my Fraternal Order of Eagles district meeting to start I had time to contemplate my life, and I came to the following conclusion — Every man or woman, rich or poor, who has fished is a “millionaire.”

Now you might think to yourself, “What in the blue blazes is he talking about?” And normally you would be right, but think about it this way. It may not be reflected in the fishermen’s wallet or checkbook and you may have a poor credit rating, but even the modest fisherman is a millionaire — his wealth is in his heart and in his experience.

The sentimentality of that may be right on, but how about a literal interpretation.

How much is the real worth of time spent in the pursuit of bass?

I suppose one might answer that this is mostly a subjective question because Rich Lindgren will give you one answer and Paris Hilton would probably give you another and every individual would probably appraise the value differently.

I suppose if I were a trained economist, accountant, statistician or mathematician I could run the available numbers in a scientific manner and give answers that would have an heir of objectivity. Since I am none of these things I have a few very unscientific approaches as food for thought.

If you are interested in the rest of my ramblings on this topic check out the full essay at Bass Pundit Preach (click here)...

Bass Pundit Blog Notes:

I have added a new blogroll to the sidebar entitled Bass Educational and it features links to some good bass fishing educational sites.

I have found some new BassNblogs recently:
Jon's East Tennessee Fishing Blog
Bass and Me Out of Cali
Fish3R/Bass This one is a bass fishing news and blog aggregator. The main site is Fish3R and it aggregates information from a bunch of different fishing websites. Apparently it is big on Bass Pundit and has picked up over 200 of my blogs. It's "Sources" contain's a pretty extensive array of fishing blogs. If you have a fishing blog you might want to check it out and make sure you are a "Source" that they highlight. For instance LunkerHunt and Rattletrap Ramblings are not listed. I don't know how much traffic this place will draw to a site, but if it's better than 0 you have gained something.

And so it begins...

Minnesota's Lake Ice-Out Status - 2009 This is a website that keeps track of MN lakes as they go from ice cover to ice out. Right now they have the ice out dates for 2008 up and that will give an idea about what lakes are monitered. I would guess that they will probably get rid of the 2008 info next week. With the long range forecast being what it is I think ice should be going off some of those Southern Minnesocold lakes sometime next week.

Don't miss the description of how lake ice melts

2010 Bassmasters Classic at Lay Lake in Bama

From BassFan Dock Talk:

Classic: It's Lay 3/17/2009
When BASS originally announced the site of its 2010 Bassmaster Classic, the area was identified as Birmingham, Ala. BASS today announced the official Classic waters, and once again, it's Lay Lake near Birmingham. Dates are Feb. 19–21.

Lay Lake has hosted three previous Classics, most recently in 2007 (won by Boyd Duckett). The Birmingham area itself has hosted six previous Classics.

Shelby County manager Alex Dudchock said in announcing the news: "Shelby County's excited about the opportunity to showcase our natural resources and attract an international audience as we host our fourth Bassmaster Classic. Lay Lake continues to be a destination for anglers and water-recreation enthusiasts, and Shelby County will continue to promote tourism through these types of events in our local, regional and state economy."

Could we see a Skeet repeat? I believe he was 2nd to Duckett. Had Swindle not been DQ'd in 2007 he might have been a contender. KVD was leading on Day 2 of the 2007 Classic and came in 3rd, so I think he would have to be the prohibitive favorite going into the tournament. Aaron Martens also got a 2nd at Lay in a Classic but that was in the Summer.

Why it be? St. Patti's Day

Spring is on it's way...

My favorite Green Lure:

This colored Mann's Minus 1. I think I have this color in Full size, Mid, and Baby.

I like the looks of this color:
But I don't have a single bait with it. I used to have one but lost it to rocks in the St. Criox River.

Beautiful Day!!!

It was a beautiful day
Beautiful day
Don't let it get away
U2 Beautiful Day

It had to be pretty darn close to 60°F today maybe even warmer than that in the sun. Oh coarse this meant it was time for the annual sump pump ritual here at the house. The house has not been landscaped properly and so we have water issues in the SW corner. Once the snow starts melting pretty good we have to pump water or it will start making it's way into the house. Today was heavy duty pumping with the main pump in the window well pumping continously, it's after 10pm and it is still pumping continously.

There is still a lot of snow left to melt and tomorrow is supposed to be pretty close to the same temp. wise as today and the long term forcast is a string of above average temps in the 40's. Potentially the snow could very well be gone by this time next week. Still with Minnesocold you never know what the weather is going to do and there is a lot of potential yet for cold temps and even significant snow. Check out this blog from April 11, 2008 and this blog from April 26, 2008.

Hopefully the mild weather will continue and open water in this neck of the woods will be sometime before April 15th.

Baghdad Fishing Tournament

From: Multi-National Force-Iraq
Pro Anglers Visit Troops, Host Fishing Tournament in Baghdad Canals
Sunday, 15 March 2009

Professional anglers Sondra Rankin, Eric Maninno and Joe Mercurio were on hand to host the event. Rankin is a country music singer as well as the star in her own TV series, “Turn up the Bass.” Maninno hosts his own show as well as being co-host of Operation Catch Fish with Mercurio.

Servicemembers enjoyed a few hours off from their normal work to enjoy a fun and relaxing day of fishing. “It is nice to get out of the office and relax,” said Master Sgt. Betty Rupp, who won second place in the female division with a catch of 3 lb., 15 oz.

Gifts were handed out to all the participants while the top winners received special prizes like fishing reels and watches. Jason Sparkman, the first place male winner, won a TV for his fish weighing in at more than 13 lbs.

Taking first place in the woman’s division was Pfc. Ariadna Lee, with a catch weighing in at nearly five lbs. She was awarded a watch and a bag full of various fishing lures and hooks.

“I love it [Operation Catch Fish],” Rankin said. “We are giving the troops an opportunity to get a day off and win a few prizes.”

(By Spc. Eric Glassey, 13th Public Affairs Detachment)

Hmmm I didn't even notice that Sondra Rankin wasn't at Table Rock. FYI-Rankin is an FLW Tour Co-Angler.

I wonder if the National Guard Team with FLW has ever done something like this?

Another Picture that caught my eye:
Staff Sgt. Clayton Hendricks, a combat engineer assigned to the 731st Explosive Ordnance Disposal Company, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, takes time away from searching for bombs with the EOD technicians to play with a friend March 3, in Baghdad. Photo by Staff Sgt. Mark Burrell.

Skeet Reese has a voice blog post Amistad...

Is KVD blogging???
It sort of looks like he was blogging, but things seemed to have stopped with the Classic. WOW there is some good stuff here, check it out!!!

OK I found it now, this "Van Dam's World" blogging is being done at Bass Insider which is a pay service. I am guessing that after a certain length of time, the blogs are being released to his website and that is why it appears things stopped at the Classic.

Bass Zone Wide Open Live Amistad (Liveblogged)

Tonight at 7:15pm (which is now) The Bass Zone is going to have Jason Williamson on.

They are on, check it out here...

Update: I believe you can watch a replay of this Wide Open at Bass Zone.com.

They are showing the winning swimbait. It is like an Optimum with kind of a clear green color to it.

Apparently the Legend was following Jason on the water today and saw him catch a lot of his fish.

Talking about Jared Lintner who got 3rd who also kind of came out of nowhere.

Everybody was going for the win today.
Legend "Alton fished the perfect tournament"

Talking Stephen Browning who came in 4th another guy not talked about much.

"What a great way for Rojas to start the season." Apparently somebody non-Elite was in Rojas area today and they smacked a couple of toads.

Ike was just glad to get some points and get out of town. Never found that big load of fish today.

Gary Klien's deep fish pulled off the structure and suspended and he couldn't make them bite.

Bragging about being on the guy today who was on the big fish. Too bad I missed Wide Open earlier today.

Jason Williamson is now with them.
"I was the most consistant guy in Texas last year...this year to be the most consistant you had to win."
Main area was muddy the 1st couple of days. Fished deep to get in the cut and then his area was primed for the last two days.

The area that I am fishing is just a spawning flat with 10 or 20 feet of water with a drain in it. He has caught them in there every time he has fished the lake. Not a whole lot on Navionics chip to give it away. The locals do fish it.

The winning bait not a whole lot special about it, you just have to fish it slow. Does not think the big swimbaits are for covering water. It is the biggest Osprey Swimbait straight out of the package.

His sack didn't go over 30lbs until the last hour.

Talks about the support of his family.

25lb Flouro missed Brand, Falcon 7'6" Cara with a Abu Revo. #1 Gamma 2 extra strong hook.

"I try to keep my cool, but you can't help but hollar when you catch an 11-3"

"Light Hitch" is the color of the Swimbait.

On his way back in he didn't know what to think. Had no idea he had 34+ thought he had just over 30. Thought if he was catching em then somebody else would.
When it gets over 25lbs guessing weight goes out the window.
He thinks the area is a pre-spawn/post-spawn spot but probably.
He finished in the top 10 with only his last 2 days wait.
A lot of guys swing for the fences and it doesn't happen, but this time it happened.

The key to the swimbait bite is to reel it besides the tree. A proper cast is key.

Impact of Marshals, the sport really needed it. Claimse that his Marshal learned more by not fishing than had he been fishing.

Lost maybe 1 fish all week. The last two days culled over 20lbs both days.

Was not sharing his area. There were some local boats were up shallow.
"I learn something every time I put my boat in the water"
"I like to fish for big one's"

Talking Dardenlle, not scared of dirty water. If they bite a jig than I should be OK!

Says his back and arms are sore from throwing the swimbait.

Today was the biggest limit he has ever weighed. His hands were all beat up.
"Bass hands"
Sometimes he did use 2 other swimbaits of the same color with different size and action.
"Last 2 days nothing but a swimbait"
Got a few the first 2 days on a Zoom Monster Worm.

Would retie after every big fish on the swimbait. When the fish is hooked the swimbait runs up the line exposing the line to those sandpaper teeth.

"This solidifies what I am doing and shows me that I can compete"
Jason will take off now, they go to the break before wrap up.

Apparently Mark Jefferies is getting to keep the winning swimbait.

Legend has a Stren Tournament coming up.

Doing their Thank You's: Rudy's Bar-B-Q, Skeeter, Yum, I missed the others.

Will have a twist for Dardenelle. Looking for viewer comments.

"Beer and Ribs, we're otta here!"

Brian "Fishinghype" Brown Bass Fishing Blog

Last year Brian sort of blogged on his main site with dated journals on the front page of his Fishing Hype.com and that is why he made the blogroll. For this year he has started an actual blog: Fishing Hype. Be sure to check this Minnesocold BassNblog out and add it to your favorites. The last several years Brian's fishing has really come on.

Apparently he started the blog last May, but didn't do much with it last year and didn't do anything about pointing people to it off of his main website. The only reason I found it was because I sent him an email and he emailed me back and told me about it. He has a link that doesn't link in his "Links" section. I found the blog by Googling Fishing Hype.

Elite Series Battle on the Border Day Final

For the 2nd year in a row it is a monster come back that wins at Amistad

1 Jason Williamson 5 16-12 5 11- 1 5 33-13 5 34-12 20 96- 6
2 Alton Jones 5 24- 0 5 22- 4 5 22- 7 5 19- 4 20 87-15
3 Jared Lintner 5 15- 4 5 17- 4 5 22- 6 5 21-12 20 76-10
4 Stephen Browning 5 15-15 5 15- 0 5 27- 0 5 17- 9 20 75- 8
5 Gary Klein 5 25- 4 5 29- 3 5 12- 6 4 7-11 19 74- 8
6 Dean Rojas 5 12-15 5 15-15 5 29- 5 5 15- 9 20 73-12
7 Michael Iaconelli 5 27- 9 5 15-15 5 16-10 5 13- 7 20 73- 9
8 Kevin VanDam 5 19- 9 5 17-14 5 18- 2 5 13- 3 20 68-12
9 Boyd Duckett 5 21-10 5 25- 5 5 12- 9 4 8-10 19 68- 2
10 Kevin Short 5 20- 4 5 15-12 5 22- 6 4 8- 9 19 66-15
11 Kenyon Hill 5 15- 0 5 19- 7 5 26-14 2 5- 8 17 66-13
12 Todd Faircloth 5 17- 0 5 24- 3 5 13-10 4 11- 8 19 66- 5

Maybe it's because I didn't do hardly any Fantasy Fishing homework, that Jason Williamson was not on my radar screen. In fact I didn't even realise until his big Day 3 bag that he was even fishing the Elite Series this year. Other then at Falcon and Amistad, I don't think he did very well in 2008. He was 46th in AOY points in 2008 which was enough to re-qualify him for the Elite Series.

Anyway a huge congratulations to Jason for this phenomenal win. This is guy who obviously knows how to catch big fish.

My Fantasy score and pretty much everbody elses improved just a bit with the KVD move to 8th.

FLW Tour Table Rock Day Final

Weigh-in Live blogged

I had to run an errand so I am coming to this a little late. It looks like 6 guys have weighed in and Dan Moorhead is up.

The only guy to weigh over 10lbs so far is Walker with 11-09

Moorhead
5 for 11-09
and he moves to first.

Walker interview
"I want to thank my sponsors...says his boat is the best tournament boat he ever has... caught his big stringer on the James river... culled a 4lber with a 6 knew he would be in the lead at that point...caught the big fish on a jig.

Gags is up
needs 9-12 to beat Moorhead
5 for 14-08
New Leader!
Interview with Gags family
"Good luck, I love you" from his wife.

Moorhead interview
"fishing today was tough... I saw a 15lb bag of fish follow my jerkbait and turn away"

Scott Suggs
needs 13-01
5 for 12-07 just short 10ozs
"That's a hard one to swallow...I owe my whole week to Berkely...I caught em on a hollow belly, caught them 30 feet down...could tell it would be a tough day by the way the fish were taking it."
Interview with family
"Scott gets emotional anytime he fishes...we are excited that he got another top 10"
"Put stripes in their swimming pool so he could test his lure"

Interview with Scott Canterbury's wife
"I told him not to be in the lead after day 3 again"
"She had a check up in Dec. and is cancer free"

Scott Canterbury
needs 12-15
has weighed over 12-15 each day
Gags interview
is OK with 2nd place thanks sponsors

Apparently they have a big crowd.
"I was fishing for the fish to win this tournament"
4 top 10's in 8 events
He is bringing out fish that get a cheer
Only has 3
10-
Gagliardi Wins!!! $125,000
"Feels like it's been a really long time"

Final Standings
Gags
Suggs
Canterbury
Moorehead
Walker
Ehrler
Bennett
Bohannan
Morganthaler
Fukae

For some reason Fukae's weight's are zero for both days. I wonder if he was DQ'ed. If Fukae holds true in 10th then I have my second Exacta bonus and they have both been with Shin.

I was rooting for Canterbury, but Congratulations to Gagliardi!!!

You can send him Kudos through his website...

Eden Prairie Eagles 2009 Minnesota State High School Hockey Champions

Congratulations to the Eagles in winning their first State High School Hockey Championship!!!

Their 5th trip to State was the charm as they beat Moorhead 3-0 at the Xcel Energy Center. Moorhead has now lost 7 title games, which is a new record. Moorhead has never won the State Title, Poor Spuds.

Breck scored 2 empty netters to beat Warroad 7-3 to win the small school title.

Minnesota High School Hockey on Wikipedia...

Bass Zone Wide Open from Amistad Day 3 Recap

Liveblogged

They are not on yet. Will Duckett show his face again? Will anyone else show up?

Dean Rojas
Hands are beaten up.
"They ate and they ate good"
Giving Ike a hard time about puking with the big fish.
"Practice was totally different from what I am doing now"
Livefeed goes dead
Back on with Echo.
Talking Kermit
"No lead is safe"
Apparently Rojas had a Marshal hold onto the dock to long and ended up going in the water.
I wonder if they are broadcasting and I am not getting anything. They have been off for quite a while.

Kenyon Hill
I haven't heard a good part of his interview, tech problems.
Is fishing transition spots.
Will be throwing a jig tomorrow, thinks it gives him the best shot.
"A good attitude is the best lure in your box"
Apparently Kenyon and Mark J. are gonna do an online show.

Zona is up next.

Mark Zona
"The sun is going down and Jekell and Hide are coming out of me"
"How much more does this lake have?"
"It will be interesting to see who caught big bags today can do it again tomorrow."
Picks Klien to win.
"Some guys are fishing dirt shallow"
"Here is what I have learned in Texas, anything can happen on the final day."

Apparently there is No Boyd Duckett tonight, I'll have to check his blog.

Kurt Dove
"You've got some inconsistancy at the top, except Alton Jones"
He picks Klien for the win.

Wrap Up:
Legend goes with Alton Jones
Mark predicts 2 bags over 30.
Tommorrow the Legend will be on the water.

Elite Series Battle on the Border Amistad Day 3

1 Alton Jones 5 24- 0 5 22- 4 5 22- 7 15 68-11
2 Gary Klein 5 25- 4 5 29- 3 5 12- 6 15 66-13
3 Jason Williamson 5 16-12 5 11- 1 5 33-13 15 61-10
4 Kenyon Hill 5 15- 0 5 19- 7 5 26-14 15 61- 5
5 Michael Iaconelli 5 27- 9 5 15-15 5 16-10 15 60- 2
6 Boyd Duckett 5 21-10 5 25- 5 5 12- 9 15 59- 8
7 Kevin Short 5 20- 4 5 15-12 5 22- 6 15 58- 6
8 Dean Rojas 5 12-15 5 15-15 5 29- 5 15 58- 3
9 Stephen Browning 5 15-15 5 15- 0 5 27- 0 15 57-15
10 Kevin VanDam 5 19- 9 5 17-14 5 18- 2 15 55- 9

Jason Williamson holy freakin cow!!! I didn't realise this guy was still in the Elite Series.

Gary Klien Ouch!!!

KVD Mr. Consistant

What happened to Faircloth? 12th Suck! Your losing me points Dude!

My other Fantasy Guys:
Hackney #20
Evers #25
Both improved their positions a little bit.

Oops I thought the cut was at 10 like FLW, so Faircloth could jump up
11 Jared Lintner 5 15- 4 5 17- 4 5 22- 6 15 54-14
12 Todd Faircloth 5 17- 0 5 24- 3 5 13-10 15 54-13

FYI- Boyd Duckett is blogging...

FLW Tour Table Rock Day 3 Weigh-In Live Blogged

Hmmm for the TBF Championship I had to go through the mothership FLW website to watch the FLW Live weigh-in and I was able to blog that without things locking up. I am going to go through the mothership rather than through the Fantasy Fishing site and see if I just might be able to live blog it.

Introducing Al Lindner
"FLW Outdoors changed this sport forever."
Al's son Troy fished in the TBF Championship

I won't bother with the Co-Anglers except the final two and Zac Cassill who is "bass addict" at the Futurebass.com message board. Zac was in 3rd place after the 1st two days. They zero the weights for the final day but he got to fish with Scotty Suggs.

As it stands Zac needs to weigh 14-3, which is some serious weight.

Zac is from Fairfax Iowa
Only got 1 moster smallmouth 5-7
"I live near LaCrosse WI were there is awesome smallmouth fishing"

The guy with the lead is Patrick Majors from Rogers Ark.
The last guy to weigh is James Watson from MO and he has 3 for 6-11 so Majors WINS!!!
He wins $20,000.
"I was really lucky the first two days, only weighed 4 fish but they were all big"

Pimp N Fantasy Fishing and Players Advantage (What has PA done for me?)
The Pro's are Up:

Scott Canterbury last years rookie of the year
"Never seen this lake before and you run out of fish" then he pulls his limit fish.
5 for 16-00
"I like to keep moving a lot"
"I lost the biggest fish I've had all week, maybe I'll get him tomorrow"

Greg Bohannan
3 small fish 5-11
"Our area got a bit crowded today"
Fishing near Bennett
"This is my favorite lake, you can legitimately catch a 4lb spot, smallmouth, and largemouth"

Gags (Former AOY)
5 for 14-06
"Your never out of it on a lake like this"
Fishing a Lucky Craft jerkbait.

Dan Moorhead (Former AOY)
5 for 12-09
My partner caught the big fish (Co-Angler won)
"Never got the quality bite like I got yesterday"
Throwing a jerkbait, might go to a jig.

Brent Ehler (Former Forrest Wood Cup Champion)
4 for 9-08
Special Guest:
Brent Ehlers wife shows up from Cali. Booked her ticket last night. "Had to lie to him this morning and tell him I was in bed while I was at the airport"

Shinchi Fukae (3rd FLW Angler of the Year to weigh-in)
5 for 9-02 into 5th place
"I'm 5 years old in the United States"
"I just run up the river and keep cranking"

Chad Morganthaler
"It's always great to come to Table Rock and fish this great fishery"
1 for 2-04
"I took a chance and it didn't pay off"
"I had 11 bites the first 2 days"

Scott Suggs (2nd Forrest Wood Cup Champ to weigh)
5 for 15-13
"I was wanting the pressure to be on somebody else, there is a lot of money riding on this tournament, think about it Canterbury"
"Shin has whipped our tails for 5 years, think about it Canterbury"

Michael Bennett (3rd Forrest Wood Cup Champ to weigh)
2 for 4-01
"Things went South pretty quick"
"I didn't do anything different, I think the cloud cover hurt me"
"Unlikely, but feasible" on chances

David Walker (4th FLW Angler of the Year to weigh-in)
This is one solid Top 10
5 for 11-08
"Suggs isn't gonna get much sleep tonight"
Everybodies weight is down and we are all in it.

1. Canterbury
2. Suggs
3. Gagliardi
4. Moorhead
5. Walker
6. Ehler
7. Fukae
8. Bohannan
9. Bennett
10. Morganthaler

At this point any Exacta's for me are long shots, the closest at this point is Fukae for 10th.

TBF National Championship

Today is the Championship of The Bass Federation, which if you don't know is the FLW's lowest grassroots level. The tournament is at Bull Shoals in MO. The top fisherman and co-angler in a Division wins entry to the BFL All-American, and the winners of the whole tournament get an entry into The Forrest Wood Cup, $10,000 and the "Living the Dream Package." The package includes use of a "Living the Dream" wrapped Chevy truck and Ranger boat powered either by Evinrude or Yamaha, sponsor merchandise and paid entry fees into the winner’s choice of either the 2009 Walmart FLW Tour or Walmart FLW Series to compete against the world’s top bass anglers.

A guy from Sconni has a 4lb lead going into today, which is the final day. Minnesota boater contestant Bob Perkins, bobsfishing on the Fishwrench forum, cashed a check finished in 17th place out of 44 anglers. Bob owns a tackle business here in the Brainerd lakes area called Tournament Tackle. He has been at the last two Bass Snatchers Club meetings but I have not met him. He will probably be at our meeting next week, so I will congratulate him then.

The Minnesota Co-Angler is a very well known Minnesota bass guy named Scott Bonnema. Bonnema used to be on the Fuji Film team, but I don't think he ever fished the FLW tour. Scott came in 13th and cashed a check.

Also of Note- Al Lindner's son Troy fished it representing California and came in 2nd to last. Troy is trying to make his way up in the pro ranks out West.

The Weigh in is on right now 3PM Central on FLW Live.

Nick Smyers from WI only caught 2 today and lost by 11ozs. He lost a fish that cost him. Bob Harkness from West Viginia gets the come from behind win with the days biggest bag.

Elite Series Battle on the Border Amistad Day 3

Catch the Bass Zone Wide Open Broadcasts today 10-Noon.

The Legend is reporting that Niggemeyer and Ike are fishing right on top of each other. Within 30 feet of each other. Niggemeyer fishing with baitcasting gear and Ike with spinning gear with both fishing vertically.

Conditions: Windy NE to 15mph and sparce cloud cover

Saw Steve Kennedy drop-shotting. He had 1 small fish and broke off 4 using 6lb test.

Boat traffic is light for a Saturday.

Heard Gary Klien is struggling so far.

Apparently yesterday Jami Fralick took off without his rods in the boat.

Water Temp 56.1 main lake.

Legend Just saw Aaron Martens fly up to the area Niggemeyer and Ike are in take a look and then take off again.

They think most anglers are on the Texas side and with the way the wind is, the Mexican side is getting beat up.

Doesn't seem to be a whole lot of boat movement.

Legend says the Marshals in Ike and Niggemeyers boats are talking to each other but Ike and Niggemeyer are not.

Niggemeyer has 4 and lost a big one that broke him off.

Legend is now on Kevin Short- Kevin just caught a 3lber or so on a swim bait. He did not cull. He has 3 fish as of 11:30am Central.

Looks like it is clouding up a bit on the water rather than clearing out.

They didn't answer my question about whether or not Marshals are allowed video camera's.

Now watching Skeet Reese who gave the Legend a thumbs down. Is covering a lot of water. Not a whole lot of boat traffic.

Legend tells story about hitting seagull on Champlain after report that Bill Lowen got hit by a bird yesterday.

Now with Todd Faircloth, who is struggling today but does have a limit. He is now fishing a big swimbait (1:10pm Central)

Rumors are that the fishing has gotten tougher today. Lots of boats are running and gunning. Wind about 10mph so it is not as strong as it was in the morning.

Elite Series Battle on the Border Amistad Day 2 Part 2

Looks like the Live Leaderboard actually worked today, here are the Top 11

1 Gary Klein 5 25- 4 5 29- 3 10 54- 7
2 Boyd Duckett 5 21-10 5 25- 5 10 46-15
3 Alton Jones 5 24- 0 5 22- 4 10 46- 4
4 Michael Iaconelli 5 27- 9 5 15-15 10 43- 8
5 Todd Faircloth 5 17- 0 5 24- 3 10 41- 3
6 James Niggemeyer 5 21- 2 5 19-14 10 41- 0
7 Mark Tucker 5 12-10 5 28- 0 10 40-10
8 Matt Reed 5 23- 2 5 16-13 10 39-15
9 John Murray 5 22- 1 5 17- 9 10 39-10
10 Kelly Jordon 5 18-11 5 20- 5 10 39- 0
11 Kevin VanDam 5 19- 9 5 17-14 10 37- 7

Looks like Gary Klein is in command. I called Klein a bad deal as far as fantasy value goes, but I did say both he and Kelly Jordan could be factors at Amistad. It is cool to see that BassNblogger Boyd Duckett is catchin' em up pretty good.

My fantasy team improved ever so slightly with the jump Faircloth made, Evers was my biggest dropper. I am very disappointed that Matt Herren did not make the cut. I don't know who else among the low value anglers I could have picked but Herren I don't think is nearly as experienced at Amistad as a lot of the guys. Still I would really like all my fantasy picks to be in the top 50%.

BassZone Wide Open- Recap Show
4 out of the top 5 refined their pattern from Day 1 today.
No Rookies made the cut. Speculation that the rookies weren't able to make adjustments.
They have an interview tournament leader Gary Klien, but the video cuts out on me just like the one with Ike did yesterday.

They are gonna have Mark Tucker who caught 28lbs today and Boyd Duckett who is in 2nd.

Tucker:
"It was one of those days I could do no wrong"
Caught 2 4lbers on a single crank at one time and landed them. One of the fish got thrown back cause it wasn't big enough.
Saw a bass spit up a shad and it clued him in and the bass were just choking his bait.
Found the fish that he caught today on Tues.
Thinks his fish are pre-spawn.
On the Marshals: His guy came from WI and had a great day. Says it really helps him with boat positioning because he would always try and give co-anglers a shot at the fish sometimes to the detriment of optimal boat position.
Sounds like he was fishing a crank, but the fish that clued him in came on a jig.
Was saved on his big fish by a softer rod when he had to put the breaks on to keep a fish out of a tree.
"I turned back two 18lb bags of fish today"
Says tomorrow he will know quickly where his fish are because in his area they will be in one of two places.

Duckett:
Thinks there is good chance somebody will make the century mark but upcoming weather could make it tough.
Has 2 deals going: Drop Shot and hollow belly swimbait. Today was the swimbait.
Using about 5 area's in 2 creeks. Big area's.
Having to move around to catch fish, no magic tree.
You need cloud or wind or both for the swimbaits bite.
On a sunny day the fish will bite early on the swimbaits
Is fishing 17lb Berkley 100% Flouro which he considers light.
Thinks lots of fish will be spawning next week.
Talking about Ducketts superstition point, the shoes.
It will be cold tonight and cloudy tommorrow so water won't really warm up till Sunday at the earliest.
His expectation coming in was that it was gonna be a site pig fest, but the weather knocked it back. Thinks it will blow open next week.
Thinks tomorrow will be good for the swimbait.
Key for swimbait in clear water is a long cast.
Prefers 7:1 reel for pick up when the fish is on.

Wrapped up for the night.