Fishers of Men Fall Outing 2009 Sept 24-27

My 1st Bass on Three Island Lake.

I fished all 3 days (Thur-Sat) out of the GEM pontoon with Dave Lindmark and Mike Thompson.

Day 1 Thursday Sept 24th-
I met Dave Lindmark and Mike Thompson at Lutherdell Bible Camp around 1PM. We got our stuff put in the cabin and then Dave wanted to take a nap, so I picked out a couple of rods and went to fish off the camp docks. At the last of the 3 docks, usually the best spot, I made a cast between the dock and a pontoon boat with a smoke tube and was rewarded with a 15 inch largemouth. I headed back up to the cabin pretty much as Dave was getting ready to roll. We took on a Teen Challenge graduate named Aaron, and two Fishers of Men Club boats were going to follow us. Dave had decided to go to Three Island Lake because it is close and we would be coming back for supper at 6PM. Three Island had been a good bass and pike lake for GEM this summer. It turned out to be kind of a bust for us under the sunny and calm conditions. We caught a few really small bass and a few small pike. Mike and I lamented the fact that we were going in for supper and wouldn't be on Mule Lake for the prime time evening bite.

Day 2 Friday Sept. 25th-
Since the Minnesota Teen Challenge group brought their own boats I wasn't needed for taking guys out in the camp pontoons, so I ended up in the GEM pontoon with Dave, Mike, and a Teen Challenge guy named Dave. The Day 1 Tournament allowed for the length of my best pike, bass (largie or smallie), walleye, and muskie combined. We picked Mule lake not so much for the tournament as for the opportunity to catch the largies and smallies in this bass catch and release only lake. Mule has clear water and conditions were sunny, then partly cloudy until about 3:30PM when it looked like it might rain but it never did.

We started off fishing on the South End of the lake by a downed tree. I tossed my smoke tube by the tree and missed a bite. Teen Challenge Dave cast his tube into one of the branches and we broke him off. I tied him another tube and when I casted back at the tree I got the first fish of the day, which was a rock bass. Mike Thompson worked us out onto the weed flat going East. I picked up a couple of small pike on a black spinnerbait while the other guys caught some bass on plastics. Eventually I switched up to a black/blue Strike King Pure Poison chatterjig and landed my first bass (1st picture) and this healthy 16+ incher.

A little later on I caught a 23 inch Pike on the Pure Poison.

Eventually we stopped working the SE corner of the lake because it was sunny and calm. We headed towards the access to work the West side of the lake which had some wind blowing on it. As we worked this shoreline Dave Lindmark got the only two smallmouth we would catch. I did see one nice smallmouth follow in a largie that Mike had hooked. As we worked this shore it was kind of slow but one of us would pull a fish every 10 minutes or so. Action picked up some as we got to the North end of the lake when I popped a couple and missed one on a smoke tube, while Mike got one, and Dave caught then lost one. It had clouded up at this point so the fish were probably turning on a little bit.

After another lull Mike hastily worked us towards the North Narrows Southern Point trying to get us there before the sun would pop out again. Mike got a quality hit on his popper and I threw in behind him with my smoke tube. I was reeling in quickly to make another cast when a bass swirled on the tube and missed. I let the tube sink and it was inhaled by this 17incher.

Mike thought we were going to get into a flurry but I think those were the only two fish we pulled off the Southern Point. As we were working that point the wind came up quite a bit from what it had been out of the East. As we worked our way to the North Narrows North Point I got a 16" largie that hit the tube on the drop. As we worked our way into the wind along the North point I switched up to a white/chartreuse gold bladed Strike King Pure Poison chatterjig and I immediately nailed a couple of small pike and then had a quality 28 inch class pike get hooked up and take a run but before I could get it in it pulled off. I was super disappointed because that was a money fish. I got a couple of largies on the Pure Poison, including a 15", and then the lure got bit off. It was the only white/chart gold blade that I had and my efforts to replace it were in vain as I stopped catching fish while the Dave's and Mike managed to get a few and miss a few. We worked all the North end points and went back to the North Narrows Southern Point one more time and then it was time to head in.

I had 40 inches which was 4th best for the day, but got me 3rd place in the money pool. Had I got the big pike I missed I would have been 2nd.


Day 3 Saturday Sept. 26th-
Day 3 was FallEE WallEE Trophy Day where the top 3 for the days tournament would get to put their name on the back of the plaque/trophy. The tournament would be decided by the length of one's 3 biggest bass and 3 biggest pike which is the same way things were decided last year when I got 1st Place. Because of tournament parameters the smart move was to hit Townline Lake because it has decent sized bass and an excellent average size for pike including many 30 inch class fish. Townline was where I won it last year. Today I would just be fishing with Dave Lindmark and Mike. It was fairly breezy all day out of the SW with clouds early giving way to warm sunshine in the afternoon.

I started off fishing a silver buzzbait and was rewarded with some solid pike from 24 to 26 inches. Mike Thompson started catching bass on the inside weedline with tubes, so with 3 nice pike under my belt I switched up to that. Mike was out fishing me on the bass but I managed to pick up 2 on a junebug Powerbait tube texas rigged on a jig. We got to some slop and I lost a bass on a Horny Toad but soon after that picked up my 3rd keeper bass on the Toad. Fish were in the slop but we didn't do a very good job of catching them. It's hard to say if they were mostly bass or pike. The sun came out and we decided to head back to where we started. Lindmark still didn't have a fish at this point and it was after noon. Mike and I started off working the inside weedline again and we both managed to upgrade our bass but Mike had the edge with bass while I had the bigger pike. Eventually it seemed we had run the best bass water so we headed out and tried for pike. Mike slowly started to upgrade his pike and Dave eventually got a few fish. I struggled to get bit and switched lures, eventually getting bit on a white with silver blades Terminator Spinnerbait, but after catching a couple of fish it got bit off and once again I struggled to get bit. Eventually we worked our way to the NE end of the lake where there is an abandoned beaver dam that can hold some nice bass and unfortunatley for me it was Mike who pulled a 17incher out from under the pads. I got an 18incher from the same spot the previous year.

Next we went to work the weeds off of one of the points on the North End of the Lake. We pulled a couple of pike and were working our way across the flat when I had a bruiser of a pike come out of the water while missing my spinnerbait, the fish followed to the boat before darting away. Mike Thompson threw after it and it struck at his spinnerbait and missed. Mike did a figure 8 at the boat and hooked up with the 29" inch fish which would win him his 1st FallEE WallEE title.

As time was closing in I had the brite idea to put on a Mann's Minus One crankbait and I upgraded a half inch and got a couple of other nice pike. I was kicking myself for not thinking of this lure sooner.

For the Day I got 3rd Place behind Mike who beat Lowell Borgan by a half inch. Lowell also had a 29" Pike, unbelievably from Mule Lake. However Mike forgot to get in the money pool, so I got the 2nd Place money.

So FallEE WallEE for 2009 is:
#1 Mike Thompson
#2 Lowell Borgan
#3 Dave Maas

Note: Lowell and I are both on FallEE 4 times and both during the exact same years (2003, 2004, 2008, 2009)

Brett Favre Miracle Win at Metrodome!!!

This time the Vikings were on the winning end.

It's a game that the Vikes deserved to win, as they did out play the 49ers. A blocked field goal touchdown is a fluke play that probably doesn't happen more than once or twice a season in the whole league. I am sure some years it doesn't happen. Still the penalty that made that field goal a 47 yarder instead of a 37 yarder was inexcusable.

I think it sucks that our Punt Returner pulled a hamstring.

Also the Vikings receivers need to stop dropping the ball and Favre needs to work on his accuracy. If the Vikes were fundamentally sound they would have wiped the field with the 49ers.

Gull Lake Bass Snatchers Sept. 19th

The Weather: It was a sunny day in the low 80's with light wind in the morning picking up to about 10MPH out of the South in the afternoon.

Here are a couple of Snatchers (Darren and Owen) waiting for blast off:

On the phone my boater Art sounded confident we would get fish but before blast off he informed me that he thought he would be lucky to get a limit under the expected weather conditions.

We blasted off a little before 8AM from the Government Point Public Access and we headed SW to Wilson Bay where we stopped on a weed flat on the South side of Hunters Point. There was a light ripple on the water and I started off throwing a buzzbait, but eventually switched to a purple Berkley Frenzy Popper. After about 7 minutes I put a 12.5 incher in the boat. That fish was followed by a 13.5", 12.75", 13.75" that totally went airborne when it hit, and 13.10" that started bleeding pretty good so I threw it back. We got off the flat and as we were making our way back on I threw a smoke tube along the deep weedline and got a 13". I started throwing the Popper again and got a 12.5" and a couple of shorts. At this point we were about an hour into the tournament. My partner Art had two fish at this point. The wind died and so did the action on top. I think I got a couple of fish that did not help on the tube.

Around 10:30AM we made a move to Green Lake which is a small round bay ringed by slop and docks. I pulled a 15.75" on a black blue jignpig on the edge of pads and slop. I got a couple that didn't help on a bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke off the docks and slop. Eventually I started throwing the smoke tube out into deeper water and I culled up to a 13" and got a few more that didn't help. Once we fished around the bay, we made a run to a spot on the South end of Wilson that had rice and pads near deeper water. Art had a fish miss his topwater frog. He had me throw in with a jig and I pulled out another 12.5" that didn't help. As we made our way down the rice I had a good fish swirl on my jignpig as I was swimming it but it didn't get hooked. Eventually we moved to a weed flat were I had a fish rise to but not hit the Frenzy Popper and Art got a couple of keepers.

We probably spent the last 3 hours back at our starting spot. On the first pass I threw a black spinnerbait because the wind was blowing pretty good and I got a small pike, a rock bass, a short and a 12.5 plus I lost one that was most likely a 12 incher. On the next pass I tried a chatter jig without any luck. Art pulled out to the deep weed edge and started catching fish, so I went back to the smoke tube and started catching fish; some short, some keepers that didn't help, and my final cull with a 13.5. I caught quite a few fish in the last 3 hours. Art filled his limit and culled a couple of times fishing with a red jigworm.

At around 20 to 4PM we headed in to Ernie's where we would have the weigh in. We tied the boat up on the dock and Art took this picture of my biggest fish which cut off my head.

Art went to the bar to get a drink and I decided to throw a cast out towards a dock with some boat lifts that was within casting range with the tube. I had a fish nail the tube but I didn't hook up. I couldn't get a re-strike as our tournament boats started coming in.

My 6 fish ended up weighing 8lbs 7ozs which put me in 12th place out of 24 guys. My boater Art had 7lbs 9ozs, so this is the 3rd time out of 12 Bass Snatcher tournaments where I "back seated" my boater. The tournament was won with 13lbs 4ozs caught by 2009 Baxter Bass Snatchers Mr. Bass Dennis Lothspeich which made this his 3rd win of the year. I back seated Dennis at Pelican this year.

Kevin Van Dam is Angler of the Year Again.

Somehow I missed the fact that Elite Series Angler of the Year race final 2 tournament days were on Thurs. and Fri.

Congratulations to KVD for pulling it out. I didn't think this was going to be his year.

Snatchers Gull Lake Quick Report

I didn't have any problem catching a limit today. I probably caught 3 limits worth of keeper bass but almost everything was right around 13 inches. My 6 bass went 8lbs 7ozs.

Full Report when I get the final results.

Two Tournament Weekend- Preview

Originally this Saturday's Baxter Bass Snatcher Club tournament on Gull Lake was going to be my last bass tournament of the year, but now I am going to fish in a tournament that pits the Bass Snatchers vs. The Range Bassmasters on Sunday at Mission Lakes.

Gull Lake Tournament- Apparently water temps are about as warm as they have been all year, so it is quite possible that more of a summer pattern will prevail. Still I plan to look for fish first on buzzbaits and spinnerbaits which are stronger Fall than Summer patterns. If those two things don't pay off then I will fall back on topwaters, tubes, and jigs. I suppose I better bring a rod just in case my boater Art wants to go in the reeds.

Mission Lakes Tournament- This tournament is for club bragging rights between the Baxter Bass Snatchers and the Range Bassmasters which is another Brainerd area bass club. I will be partnered with a boater from the Range Bassmasters Club, but that is about all I know about how the tournament sets up at this point. This tournament poses a dilemma for me in that I normally don't care about getting my half the day in the front of the boat. However, the way this tournament sets up for the sake of the club I probably should take command of the ship for 4 hours.

The only time I have fished on Upper and Lower Mission was at the last Bass Snatcher tournament of the year last October, so almost all of the spots I know on the lake are those of a guy in our club and I'm not gonna give those spots away. I figure that leaves me with the spots the Range Bassmaster takes me to, fishing in and along the reeds, and maybe hitting a large sunken island with coontail on it in Lower Mission. I think I'll just have to be ready to be versitile. Hopefully fishing will be good and I will bring in a better bag than several of the Range guys.

Update: Mission Lake tournament postponed.

Skeets to Lose

The first Elite Series Angler of the Year "playoff" tournament is done and Skeet is in the drivers seat. He hasn't Vblogged about the situation.

Jason Holmer Takes Massive Derby Lead!

This one went 7lbs and Jason's five fish Derby Limit is now a whopping 28.92lbs which puts him just short of 5lbs in front of 2nd Place. See Full Coverage at my Derby Blog.

Leech Lake Bass Snatchers August 22nd

This is the tournament I was looking forward to more than any other on the schedule and I ended up with a great partner draw for the lake. I rode up from Baxter to the Horseshoe Bay resort with my boater Bill Ludenia. Horsebay Resort on the map above is by the Y in Agency. There was some pretty good fog on my way to Brainerd, but it really wasn't to bad until we got up to Leech. Despite a fairly good fog we blasted off early at around 7:30AM. It turned out that after we got out a couple of miles the fog disappeared.

Our starting spot was a reed bed towards the NE side of Bear Island (Bear Island is the big Island on the SE side of the lake). Another club boat also started in this reed bed. I didn't even have my rods organized and Bill was pulling his first bass into the boat on his 2nd cast. We worked the area for about 30 minutes and I think Bill got one more fish.

Next we moved to some of the heavy cover in Headquarters Bay, which is South of Boy Bay. I think it was our third stop in Headquarters that I had a massive explosion on my white Zoom Horny Toad and I landed a thick 17" bass. We were fishing rice and the fish bit close to a nice sized clump of rice that had a pretty good open lane beside it. As we worked this rice bed Dennis, my boater from Pelican, pulled in a pretty good distance in front of us and Dwight, my boater from South Long, was also fishing in the general area. I had a couple of fish swat at my Horny Toad and one solid blow up that I should have hooked up with as we worked the area. I think Bill got 1 fish and we say Dennis land a bass and his partner catch a big dogfish. To be honest I think we worked through this rice a bit quicker than we should have because fish were definitely there. After about 45 minutes we moved a little ways to some undercut banks with pads and rice, but that was dead. We kept moving North along some good looking rice and I think Bill landed a fish or two before we made a move to some rice on the East side of bear Island. There were lots of signs of fish in this rice but we didn't catch any. The day was bright and sunny and the fish on this particular spot were spooky.

We moved North to the reed bed where we started the day and I got a bite on my tube jig but missed it. I cast right back to the same area and got hit again and this time I landed a 13.75" largemouth. I don't remember if I got one more fish in these reeds or not. I don't think Bill got a fish this time.

Next we moved up to Boy Bay to try some docks. On the very first dock my bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke got bit off. On this same dock Bill landed a 3lb bass. I think Bill got a 2nd dock bass before I connected with a 12.5" bass. I think Bill got another dock bass before I had a fish that I thought was a bass swim out and take the Fluke but when I set the hook I was bit off clean, so it was actually either a pike or muskie. Once we got to the end of the docks we pretty much kept working East in a mix of rice and reeds. Bill in the front of the boat was pulling an occasional fish while I was throwing the white Horny Toad, a brown Bobby's Perfect Snagproof Frog, and a tube jig hauling water. One time when Bill was culling and I was in the front of the boat I cast the tube a ways into the rice and pulled out a 15". We jumped around and worked some reeds and then more Rice with Bill pulling more fish and me getting blanked. We were working rice and I threw into an open area with the Bobby's Snagproof frog and got a strike which I landed but it was under the 12 inch minimum. You don't catch shorts on Snagproof frogs very often.

We moved to the South side of Boy bay into some awesome looking water and I landed another short on the Snagproof Frog, what is with that. After a long lull Bill moved us to an area where he thought I could fill my limit with some small fish. I managed to get a 12.5 on the Snagproof frog on this water.

Time was starting to run short, so we headed back to the area where I got my big fish. Unfortunately the long day in the sun was wearing on me pretty good at this point and I wasn't at my best. Right away I had a bite on the Horny Toad and missed it. About 5 minutes later I had another great bite on the Toad and I came up empty again. A few minutes after that there was a massive explosion on the Horny Toad but I didn't hook up this time either and that was my last bite of the day.

On the way in we did throw a quick hail mary for me in the reeds where we started. I was worn out and highly disappointed in my execution. I ended up one short of my limit with 5 fish for 9lbs 4ozs which got me 17th out of 24. If I would have landed my bites I probably would have been 14th or better. My partner Bill had 13/11 and got 10th. The winner was Dennis with 19/13 and big bass was only 5/0 and went to Art Becker who will be my boater at Gull Lake.

Analysis: I just did not have a very good day on the water.

Maybe today

Man I thought I was going to have that Leech Lake report done by now.

Maybe sometime later today.

I will...

I will get around to a tournament report on the Leech Lake tournament soon.

In the meantime the Derby blog is now updated again.

The Call- Getting updated on the band.

(Cover of their 1st, self titled album)
I have joined Facebook and I found a page their dedicated to The Call which was my favorite band up until U2 came out with All That You Can't Leave Behind and U2 went from #2 to #1. I have tried in the past to find out about what The Call has been up to online but my searches turned up almost nothing.

From Facebook I discovered some later albums that I didn't know about, found some You Tube Video's, and even a fan website and Wikipedia page that I never knew existed. I went to Amazon and will be updating my collection of their music.

Here is a taste:
I Still Believe from the album Reconciled


I think I Still Believe was the first Call song I ever heard and I was drawn in as much by the lyrics as the music.

The lyrics:
I've been in a cave
For forty days
Only a spark
To light my way
I wanna give out
I wanna give in
This is our crime
This is our sin

But i still believe
I still believe
Through the pain
And the grief
Through the lies
Through the storms
Through the cries
And through the wars
Oh, i still believe

Flat on my back
Out a sea
Hopin' these waves
Don't cover me
I'm turned and tossed
Upon the waves
When the darkness comes
I feel the grave

But i still believe
I still believe
Through the cold
And through the heat
Through the rain
And through the tears
Through the crowds
And through the cheers
Oh, i still believe

I'll march this road
I'll climb this hill
Down on my knees if i have to
I'll take my place
Up on this stage
I'll wait 'til the end of time for you
Wake everybody up

I'm out on my own
Walkin' the streets
Look at the faces
That i meet
I feel like i like i want to go home
What do i feel
What do i know

But i still believe
I still believe
Through the shame
And through the grief
Through the heartache
Through the tears
Through the waiting
Through the years

For people like us
In places like this
We need all the hope
That we can get
Oh, i still believe