Megabass Mille LacK of Action

Today I got all 3 of the Megabass lures I won on Ebay from Japan. I headed out to Eddy's Jetty on Mille Lacs to try the firetiger Pop Max and the yellowish brown Pop X along with the Payo Buzzjet and a bunch of my other topwater lures. Unfortunately there were just not any smallies to be fooled tonight.

The Megabass Pop Max is an interesting lure. You can work it as a popper or with a quick light bouncing action it walks the dog in a really tight pattern. The lure rolls as it walks. I wasn't nearly as enamored with the smaller Megabass Pop X. There was a bit of a chop on the water and it was a challenge to work the thing properly. From what I could tell you have to be kind of gentle to work it right. On a number of retrieves I was getting fouled up with the front hook.

I did head to Cemetery Jetty but between the mosquito's and the overgrown weeds I decided it wasn't worth it to try and get out on it.

Last Night on Platte

I left to the lake around 3:30PM and first hit up Jenny's from shore, nothing. I then went and got the boat ready fishing the area around the dock pretty good, no hits. Conditions were sunny with a strong wind out of the SE.

Once I got out in the boat I headed just a little to the East and started fishing the rice edge with my new Payo Buzzjet Jr. At first I don't think I was doing a very good job of working the lure. Due to the wind I was getting blown along fairly quickly. Once I got around the little point at the entrance to our bay I was out of the wind. I decided with the high water to stay shallow right up by shore. I got my first fish on the Buzzjet Jr., which was just a little dude.
I kept working along the shore and maybe 150yards down I had this 14.5" smash the Buzzjet Jr.

Eventually I got past a little pad field to where the docks start in earnest. I think at the 2nd dock I skipped my bubblegum Zoom Super Fluke under a boat lift and I pulled out this 17"

After landing the fish I got situated and cast up under the boat lift again and pulled out a 14+".

On the next dock by the boat lift I caught a dink on the Buzzjet Jr. even smaller than that first one I got. I think I missed a couple of bites under the boat lift on this dock. On the next dock I pulled a 13+" and 15+" with the Fluke. Around this time it started getting pretty overcast. On the next couple of docks I pulled a 14+" and this 17.5" off boat lifts on a Texas rigged black/blue Crawtube.
The 17.5" was my big fish of the night; I missed the fish once as it bit and let go before I set the hook, so I pitched back into the same spot between the dock and the boat lift and got her.

I fished about 5 more docks without getting any hits, so I decided with about an hour of sunlight left to hit the slop on Loon Sex Point. I decided to start down along the last 3 docks before the slop starts. Nothing on the docks. I had worked my way maybe 30 yards up into the slop when I had a hit. I let it take the Zoom Horny Toad for several seconds and then set the hook. I missed the fish. I re-rigged the Toad and cast back over the same spot and had a nice bass come out of the water but not hook up. I cast back again and this time caught a 13+" fish. I know the one that came out of the water after the toad was bigger so I cast back over the spot and sure enough I got another hit and hooked up. This bass was just under 15". About 2/3 of the way up the point I had a blow up in a shallow pocket, but I missed it. Didn't get any hits off the end of the point.

In the last bit of daylight I worked the wind blown rice/weed edges with the Buzzjet Jr. and Horny Toad. I had one little pike after the Toad and that was it.

All in all, not a bad night.

Washburn Tournament Quick Repot

Washburn was good to me and had it not been for my boaters trolling motor batteries dying, it might have very good to me. I caught a 4lber and I believe I got 4th Place. Full Report when I get the official results. I believe this will push me into the Top 10 for the year, thanks to some of the clubs better fishermen missing tournaments.

Bass Snatcher Washburn Lake Preview

I've never been on Washburn Lake before, but I am going in to this one armed with way more information than I usually have. For this one I had an "ace in the hole" give me some solid info and advice. In addition to that my boater Darren did get out to pre-fish for one day and it sounded like he had a pretty good day. Darren was confident we will be on fish. Conditions will be similar to the day he was out pre-fishing. It's suppose to be warm and windy out of the South. It's really been pretty windy all week and the weather has been fairly stable, so the fish should be fairly aggressive. Tonight I made the call to take off a jigNtube and instead put a spinnerbait on that rod. I plan to power fish out of the gate and keep going back to aggressive presentations throughout the day.

I am hopeful this will be a good tournament.

Jerry McKinnis soon to be owner of BASS starts blog

Click to go to the blog:
McKinnis Bass Blog

Derby Update: Josh Douglas AWWWN EM'

I know Josh has been catching some real pigs this summer but he hasn't been reporting them, at least until now.

5.62lbs
5.44lbs
5.25lbs
4.81lbs
4.20lbs

Total= 25.32lbs

Still he is gonna at least need some 6's to catch Holmer.

Bassdozer Has a Blog Now

Bass fishing Internet pioneer Russ Bassdozer has created a Blogger blog titled BASSDOZERSTORE.COM. Looks like it was created to give info and pictures on lures he's selling at his online store.

He just started the blog yesterday and has a bunch of content posted. Mainly topwater stuff at this point.

The Stanley (Jigs) Phantom

This is a discontinued topwater that I got from the bargin bin at Trails End Bass Pro Shops in Fridley MN probably in 2001 or 2002. Besides these two I also have one in kind of a firetiger color. I have caught a fair number of fish on these. They are loud with a distinctive sound.

Ebayt Monkey Strikes Yet Again

Well I got a Deps Buzzjet Jr., well sort of anyway. The one I won is a Payo Megabass Knock Off. I don't know anything about Payo lures and I think I might have overpaid a little bit based on the asking prices of the Payo Vision 110 knock offs listed on Ebay. I didn't have anything to go on with the Buzzjet Jr. knock off and I did get it for quite a bit less than the $22-$26 that a Deps Buzzjet will fetch at auction.

Can't wait to get it and use it. Think it will be a hot Fall lure.

New Minnesocold Bass Blog Kicks Some Butt

Micropterus is the new blog from Blaine's Sam Anderson. Go to the blog and check the Hawgs.

A little "Big Sexy"

Today I got out for a little big of shore fishing on Platte Lake. I only had one hit and it was while casting off our neighbor Jim's dock. I did catch the bass and it was about 14". The camera was in the car but at the time I was in bare feet because Jim's dock is partly under water. I figured it was too much hassle to go and put my shoes on and run to the car for a picture. So far I am 3 for 4 on Mad Maxx strikes where the fish gets the lure in it's mouth.

If you didn't guess I got it on the Tru-Tungsten Mad Maxx in "Big Sexy" color.

I'll be a bit of a critic on Big Sexy. I don't know why they made the top of the bait light blue, which is harder to see than chartreuse or white which are the other colors of this frog.

Mad Maxx- In the Mail to On the Water.

Today my shipment of Tru-Tungsten Mad Maxx frog arrived from Bass Tackle Depot and tonight I got to try them out. I got out for about an hour up until dark.

My first stop was off the shore at Jenny's. Right away I was impressed with how far the frog casts. I don't know how much the frog weighs because it doesn't say on the package and I haven't been able to find that info online. Maybe I can't throw it as far as a Spro but what other frog does?

When I tied it up I cut the legs a little shorter and uneven; I've found doing that helps the side to side action of slop frogs. This frog has a tendency to glide a little bit which is good for walking the frog. I'm not the best frog walker in the world but I could get the MM to do it. Another feature that seemed to work as advertised was it didn't sink and it didn't seem to take on water.

I started out throwing "Big Sexy" which is a white/Chartruese/light blue colored frog. On about my 3rd cast I had a good fish boil hard on the MM as I was walking the frog. I seemed to be hooked up for a couple of seconds but then it got off. It definitely was a good fish and might have been a dogfish. I made several more casts with "big sexy" and then I switched to "Grapes of Wrath" and got this fish.
I did have a couple of small fish probably sunfish also hit at the bait.

Next I headed to the lake place to take the boat out for a quick trip in the general vicinity of the lake place. First I thoroughly fished from the dock and didn't get a hit. I took the boat out and headed East getting hit by something small that didn't get the frog. I worked myself 2 docks down and it started getting kind of dark so I headed back. I pulled the frog off some lilly pads and a fish boiled on the frog but didn't take it. I cast back and once again the fish bumped it but didn't take it. On the 4th cast it committed and I caught this chunk of a 17".

As you can see from the pick it really engulfed the "Grapes of Wrath" MM.

Since I had this luck in front of our jerk neighbor Sherman's dock I quickly moved over to the lane in the rice by our cool neighbor Jim's dock. It was so dark I went to the lighter colored "Big Sexy" and I cast it right up by the dock. Sure enough a fish swirled and just like that my frog was gone. Dang Pike. I quickly moved to the area of the strike to see if maybe the frog was around, but it wasn't on top and it was now too dark to see in the water. I would think it would have floated if it came loose from the fish. Didn't even catch a fish on that frog.

Hey lake, here's $5.

The Derby Is Updated

We have a new blogger in the Bass Pundit Minnesocold Bass Bloggers Derby 2010 and Bob's Fishing Blog has moved into 2nd Place. Check it all out at the link. MT Bucket, Ikeslayer, and Casey are yet to be heard from.

Ebayt Monkey Again

Well tonight I swallowed hard and bought not 1 but 2 Megabass Pop Max Lures. Both are supposed to be new and one comes in the package and the other doesn't. At Tackle Warhouse a Megabass Pop Max sells new for $28. I got the two for just under $41 and a quarter shipped.

What happened was that I put in the minimum remaining bid for the bluegill color in it's package, thinking that I probably wouldn't get it and then I would snap up the lime which was on a Buy It now for under $20 shipped. Well much to my surprise that minimum remaining bid was accepted and then it held on for the next 3 hours and I won the lure.

I looked through several hundred Pop Max listings and the lemon/lime one for under $20 was the very best deal out there. I figured since my Yellow Magic is lemon/lime, a bullfrog Frenzy Popper is lemon/lime that I might as well have a lemon/lime Pop Max to fish those against, so I bought it.

I've lost my mind!

And I'm still in the market for a Deps Buzzjet or Deps Buzzjet Jr. The one I bid on tonight went for more than I was willing to pay. I already have my eye on another one that is closing this week.

Ebayt Monkey

The Bait Monkey has me on Ebay again. Of late I have picked up a wacky rigging O-ring tool, Academy Sports H20 Express Popper, 3 albino Spro Bronzeye Frogs, and the above pictured Megabass Pop-X.

Later today I will most likely be bidding on a bluegill Deps Buzzjet Jr. and bluegill Megabass Pop Max. These two items are both from the same seller as the Megabass Pop-X and I'm thinking the combined shipping discount could help my bids a little because my max bid threshold is higher.

So far I think I've been getting good deals on everything but the H20 popper, which I bought in no small part because the particular Ebay Store is in business run by and to help our returning wounded warriors.

The Call's Front Man Michael Been Has Passed Away.

(1950-2010)

I first heard the music of the band the Call in 1986 with the release of their album Reconciled. I don't remember if the first song I heard was Everywhere I Go or I Still Believe (Great Design), but either way I was hooked. I was drawn in by Been's spiritual lyrics set to a sound that I thought was fantastic. As I acquired their earlier stuff they became my favorite band. Unfortunately I never did get to see them live. Obviously, no Internet in those days to tell you when and where they would be on tour. The only chance that I know of that I had to see them was when they were opening for the Psychedelic Furs.

If your not familiar with the music it is passionate, spiritual, and at times political. The band certainly went through many phases and each album is unique. The Call was in my mind a great band that just never broke through.

In the mid 90's I kind of lost touch with the band and until the past year I was unaware of Been's 1994 solo album On the Verge of a Nervous Breakthrough and the last Call Studio Album To Heaven and Back. I really like the solo album and wish I had discovered it far earlier as several of the songs are right where I was emotionally in the mid to late 90's.

I was surprised to learn that Michael was 60 years old. I would have thought him to be at least 10 years younger.

Godspeed Michael

This is their song Everywhere I Go from the 1986 album Reconciled:

My Thoughts On Six Idea's

BassFan Editor-In-Chief Jon Storm wrote an Op-Ed entitled "Upon the Cliff" where he threw out 6 ideas that he would like to see implemented by the new management at BASS and FLW.

Here are the 6 ideas and my thoughts.

1. The sport needs a unifying championship to survive. Period.

I guess a unifying championship would be OK, but I don't think it's something that is vital. Also I wonder exactly what Storm has in mind as there is a lot of different ways you can go with this. It isn't clear to me what a unifying championship would look like.

2. The sport needs a joint conservation, youth and legislative body to take on the antis and polluters. We must ensure there are players and a playing field for the sport in the future.

I view this one as another nice, but not necessary. It is not clear to me that having one big centralized initiative is better than having a diverse coalition of smaller initiatives of varying sizes.

3. Tours should be exclusive, not inclusive. Billy Joe shouldn't get to fish against Kevin VanDam, Skeet Reese or Brent Ehrler just because he's got a trust fund or a gas well in his backyard. Make it tough to get on a tour and demand a multiyear performance level to stay there.

On this one I think there are Pro's and Con's for both approaches. Obviously the Elite Series is more exclusive and the FLW Tour is more inclusive. I think there is room for both models.

4. The sport needs to ditch its focus on 1st-place payout and balance the payout down the field. Once you pay your dues to reach a tour, it should be a profitable or break-even venture to stay there. And fans simply don't care how much a pro athlete wins at an event.

I tend to agree with this point as I think it's something that will make the sport more sustainable for those trying to live the dream.

5. Outlaw made-for-TV events and formats, like the BASS post-season or the FLW Tour cut to the Top 5.

Obviously there are serious flaws with the BASS post-season that need to be addressed and scrapping the thing wholesale might be the answer. As far as the FLW cut to 5, I'm not really sure why he singled this out. Cut to 5, Cut to 10, Cut to 12 whatever cutting the field down makes sense to me.

6. Distribute house money fairly. As BASS stabilizes, it should use sponsor money to cut entry fees first, boost purses second. Same for the FLW Tour. But also, performance should dictate who gets FLW sponsor-team deals, not who you know, what you look like or which boat you drive. And FLW team money should go to tour pros only, not co-anglers.

I was right with this one until he advocated cutting out the Co-Anglers. As I've made clear on many occasions, I believe Co-Anglers are good for the sport. I think it is a feature that bass fishing has an avenue open for fans to fish with the Pro's while in serious competition. I think Co-Anglers should have a shot at incentives and a piece of the pie. This kind of gets to one of the Cons about making the sport more exclusive. I think as you make professional bass fishing more exclusive you limit the overall outreach potential of the sport. Kevin Van Dam can only be in one place at a time. More people are on the radar screen when you have an army of Tami Curtis's, Chris Ricci's, Matt Peters and Ashley Rae's. I certainly think more can be done to promote Co-Anglers and to get Co-Anglers out promoting themselves and the sport.

Blog Note:

For the 1st time ever I broke 3,000 visits in a month on the SiteMeter counter and am well on my way to breaking 4,000 page views this month. This is basically 100% attributable to the Mike Hart cheating scandal.

More Bass Blogging Notes:
The Evinrude Blog is obviously a blog from the people and bass pro staff of Evinrude.

Also the FLW Outdoors website now features 5 blogs by BRETT CARLSON, COLIN MOORE, SEAN OSTRUSZKA, CURT NIEDERMIER, and STEVE MILLER. Just scroll down and you will see the blogs on the right hand side of the site.

Yellow Magic- Act 3

Tonight I got out fishing for about an hour until it got to dark to fish. I gave Jenny's a try from shore and didn't get a strike. I then went to the boat and set out to fish water I thought would be good for poppers. Conditions were overcast with about a 7MPH wind out of the North. I fished a bit of the North side of the big Island and down the Eastern shore where Pete caught a few bass last week.

I took the suggestion from Big Indiana Bass to tie direct to the Yellow Magic Popper. I believe the line I was using was 17lb Gamma Co-Poly. It did seem to help in working the bait just a little bit, but it was still pretty inconsistent in terms of performance. The chop on the water might have had something to do with that too.

Even though the objective was to put the Yellow Magic Popper through it's paces, my first fish actually came on a bullfrog Berkley Frenzy Popper.
I was using the bullfrog color because of the overcast and it is similar in color to the lime Yellow Magic. The fish was about 12.75". As soon as I caught this fish I switched to the YMP.

A couple of minutes later I had this dude swirl and get hung on the YMP.
This was just over 14". I kept fishing the YMP and had a small bass get hooked up, but it got off right by the boat. I kept throwing the YMP for a while, but eventually switched to the BFP. I had a small pike strike at the BFP right by the boat and that was the last hit of the night.

I am not sure why I didn't get more action than I did. Maybe the fish were turned off for the most part. For the second night in a row it was a pretty equal showing for the two different poppers.

Yellow Magic- Act 2

Tonight I didn't get on the water until after 7:45PM and then on the way to my first spot there was a boat in need of a tow, fortunately not far, and that took up about 10 minutes of fishing time. I started off throwing my new lime Yellow Magic Popper. I made a great cast right up by a dock and two jetski's on lifts. Sure enough this 14.25" largie sucked it in.

I did throw back to the spot a couple of times and didn't get anything. I pitched in a blue/black craw tube and had a small bass pick it up. On my hookset the little guy went airborne and came off.

A little farther down the way after I had tried some Snagproof Frog fishing in some slop, I had a smallish fish, maybe a pike, hit at the Yellow Magic and not get it. I tried casting back to the spot without luck, so I picked up a purple Berkley Frenzy Popper and tried that without any luck. On the next dock I got a 12.75" on the Frenzy Popper.

On the next dock down I made a cast which spooked a great blue heron which promptly flew right into my line. I let it take out a little line before closing the bail and as soon as I did the heron dropped down into the water. I figured maybe I could get in behind the heron and find the Frenzy Popper, take it off and then reel in the line without any problem. It was kind of dark and the area had weeds, so I wasn't sure I would be able find the lure. While I was looking the heron took off and was totally untangled from the line, so it was all good. I didn't have any more hits from fish.

More thoughts on the Yellow Magic: I haven't yet mastered control of the lure. It seems like you can be working your rod a certain way and the bait reacts differently with each twitch. Sometimes the lure slurps but most of the time it doesn't. I threw the Yellow Magic twice as long as the Frenzy Popper tonight, yet ended out at 1 fish a piece.

Blacklisted by BassFishingDem

Apparently I offended BassFishingDem author of the blog I am a bass fisherman because he took me off his blogrolls and he even went so far as to remove me as a follower of his blog. I noticed this slight because I had not heard anything from his blog in a while, so I went to check and see if he was not posting. Well he had not posted in a while, but I still had not seen/been informed of his most recent posts and I figured it out from there.

I am guessing he did what he did either because of some political status updates I did on Facebook or else he might have discovered my seldom written on political/military blog ? Encircling Mendacity. Frankly I think this is kind of sad because I considered BassFishingDem a blogging friend as we have had a fair amount of contact over the last few years. BassFishingDem likes to consider himself "a liberal leaning outdoorsman" but by his actions it seems pretty obvious to me that the moniker of "liberal" is a stretch, at least in the classic meaning of the word. More accurately I think his actions show him to be more of a narrow minded and uncharitable left leaning outdoorsman.

In his own words from his Facebook Bass Dem Fan Page:
Bass Dem- Busy cleaning out certain kinds of people from my friends list based on comments, fan pages, groups, and other telltale clues.
June 14 at 11:17pm

I tried to contact him to get an explanation, but that was fruitless.

Tonight on Platte with Pete

Tonight Pete and I got out for about an hours worth of fishing in the boat. I got the only fish with the "Viking" Snagproof Frog about 4 feet to the side of the end of a dock in open water. I got this fish when we were fishing close to our lake place.

We closed the night fishing on the East side of the big island. Pete missed a couple of hits.

I did get a chance to throw my new lime Yellow Magic Popper and my first impression is that I am underwhelmed. Pete had pointed out that it looks like a Rebel Pop-R, so I was kind of expecting it to have the chugging sound of a Pop-R. It doesn't. It is definitely more of a spitting popper, which is what I prefer. It seemed to cast pretty good for a 1/4oz lure, but I never did try to really chuck it a long way. I don't know that I was around fish with it much tonight and I didn't get so much as a swirl. I definitely will be playing around with it in the coming days.

Could Not Resist the Bait Monkey

I just could not stave off the temptation. Futurebass.com and Rich Lindgren's Sponsor BassTackleDepot.com is having a sale on selected colors of the Tru Tungsten Mad Maxx Frog. They are selling the selected colors for $4.99 A FROG. That is $3 off the Tackle Warehouse price and $3.50 off the Bass Pro Shops price. I have been wanting to give these a try and at that price I just couldn't hold off even though I really don't need anymore slop/hollow body frogs.

Vikings Football Vikings Frog

Tonight is the 1st Vikes Pre-season game and I got out and did some fishing with the Snagproof "Viking Frog" when I went to check to see if there was water in the Trophy (boat).

Off the dock at the lake place I got about 15.5" largie. At Jenny's I started out missing 5 straight strikes, but I think I managed to catch those 2 fish plus one more. The first was a skinny 17+", the 2nd and 3rd were 14+".

Update: The Vikes ran over the Rams 28-7. Can't take too much from it as it was mostly 2nd, 3rd, and 4th stringers and it was the Rams.

Bait Monkey Acquisitions

Even though I haven't been fishing much. I have bought some stuff on Ebay:

Some Mend-It, watermelon Smithwick Dead Stick Rogues and an early purple ghost Berkely Frenzy Popper.

This is a Yellow Magic Popper that I got for about a buck less than they sell for at Tackle Warehouse.

Pete Fish

Here is Pete with a couple of bass that he caught last Friday and Saturday. The first one is off the shore at Jenny's. He caught that one and missed a strike. That is a River2Sea Bully Wa Frog.

The second fish was obviously caught out in the boat. We were fishing the North end of the big Island on Platte right before a thunderstorm moved in. That night Pete caught 3 bass and 1 pike and all I got was 1 pike. Wish I would have had a rod rigged to throw a Frenzy Popper when we were fishing by the Island.

My Suggestions To The New Owners Of BASS

I was reading BassFan's question and answer with Ray Scott about the new BASS ownership. Here is some of what Ray had to say:

What's something you'd first like to see the new BASS do?

What I'd like to see – I tried to do this with Helen (Sevier) but was never quite successful with her – is a dadgum BASS decal on the back of every bass angler's car in America. There was a time when you couldn't drive across town without seeing one. And to tell the truth, I haven't seen many lately.

I also want to see this ownership do what's right with conservation and the Federation (Nation) programs. That's what sets BASS apart from being just another fishing club. Those two things are the heart and soul of BASS, in my opinion.

Folks out there want and need to be a part of something bigger than just themselves. They want to be a part of an army, a movement, whatever you want to call it. I want to see them rebuild that sense. The members are begging for it. But we as BASS members have our work cut out for us.


This got me to thinking, what do I think BASS should do?

First on the list would be to go back to being B.A.S.S. (Bass Anglers Sportsmen Society) not BASS.

2ndly they should think about enhancing the grass roots by reforming, enhancing, and expanding qualification for the Bassmasters Classic through the Federation. For instance say if each State Federation can attain a certain goal of membership than that State's State Tournament Champion gets a spot in the Bassmasters Classic without having to win their region in the Federation Championship while keeping the regional and national formats the same so it's possible for State's to have double qualifiers.

In addition to that change, the Bassmasters Classic should change to a Pro with Co-Angler format and the Federations should strongly be encouraged to embrace some form of Co-Angler model. At the Classic itself they wouldn't have to weigh the Co-Anglers on the big stage with the Pro's. For all I care they could make the Classic for Co-Anglers a single day Pro/AM shared weight format where the Co's only get limited or no prize money, after all wouldn't getting to fish a day in the Classic with almost all expenses paid be prize enough?

Yes I may have jumped the shark with these ideas, but I think they would show BASS as an organization is serious about developing up from the grass roots, instead of from the more recent model which is more of the top down.

Update: Sometime soon I will share another idea: The Blogosphere for B.A.S.S.

The Derby Is Up to Date.

Holmer upped his weight, but Rich Lindgren cut into his lead and we added some new blogs to the mix.

Rumor has it, that Josh Douglas has some absolute pigs unreported.

Catch all the photo's and full bags here...

Baxter Bass Snatchers Rabbit Lake Tournament July 24th

Note: Rabbit Lake has a West Basin (lake side) and East Basin (pit side). There was an Iron mine on the pit side.

The first thing I will say is that I really could not have gotten a better boater draw for this lake. My boater Guy Henkensiefken has fished it for years and it's pretty clear from our pre-fish and tournament day, that he's got it dialed in.

We blasted off 10th out of 13 boats at around 6:45AM. Our first stop was going to be either where I caught my big fish in pre-fish or a weed hump we pulled a couple of nice fish off during pre-fish. Guy's son Adam went right to the big fish spot, so we headed to the hump.

I started off throwing a purple Berkley Frenzy Popper and I caught a 5" perch and a little sunfish and had a couple of other little ones be hooked up for a few seconds. Guy started off the day with a good fish from sub-surface. I switched up to a wacky rigged watermelon red fleck Zoom Z-Nail on an Outkast Money Jig and got a 15.75" largie on it. We worked the spot for about 45 minutes and those were the only two bites.

Next we headed to a weedline on a close by shoreline. Guy caught a fish right away. I got a 13.25" on the Z-Nail. Guy then had a keeper bass jump him off half way to the boat. I connected with a 12.10" squeaker.

Next we headed back across the lake to a spot that gave up a few fish, including a good one, in pre-fish. The spot is basically a weedline off of a small weed flat. Guy landed 2 or 3 fish in short order. I switched the Frenzy Popper out for a spook type topwater and had a fish slap at it. I think it may have been a pike, but am not sure. After working that spook for a while I switched to a frog pattern Rapala Skitter Prop because there was a bit of wind. While I was working the Skitter Prop a fish swirled but missed so I killed the lure and let it sit for about 5 seconds before twitching again. Sure enough the fish nailed it and it was a good one but it was on for only a few seconds and then the lure came flying out of it's mouth. Guy got a good look at the fish and said it was probably 17" maybe bigger. Missing this fish would really cost me.

We didn't get any more bites in this spot and Adam was still on his starting spot so we headed to the pit side. Guy picked a spot that didn't have any boats on it where he got a couple of good bites in pre-fish. Guy got a good fish in this spot, I didn't get any bites on the wacky rigged Z-Nail. We moved closer to shore and Guy got a small fish. We fished shallow for about 5 minutes and then went to a new spot.

I believe Guy caught a fish right away in this spot. I made a cast by a deadhead and my line started moving off quickly. I set the hook and my Z-Nail was gone. I cast back to the area quickly but couldn't get hit again. A couple of minutes later I got hung up on something and when I tried to free it, my line broke. Finally I caught a bass that I got to measure right at 12inches (we have a 12inch minimum size). I flipped the fish over to see if it would measure any longer and it flipped out of my hands up to the front of the boat and into the water. At this point I was not happy with how my luck had turned.

We moved to a "big fish spot" and sure enough Guy caught a good bass. We both got bit off by pike and I think Guy caught one.

Next we moved to a weedline near another Bass Snatcher boat and Guy got a couple of fish including 1 good one. I got a bit on the Z-Nail and brought in a 14.5". The other boat left and so we headed in that direction. I got a 12.75 off of a piece of wood and when we got to where the other boat was sitting I got a 15" largie to fill my limit. We then started working our way back to where we started. Club curmudgeon and very good angler Dennis Lothspeich was headed in that direction so we moved quickly to cut him off. We saw Dennis catch a fish about 10 minutes earlier and in a profanity filled tirade he let us know that was his first fish of the day. Apparently Dennis doesn't like Rabbit Lake.

Next we headed back to the lake side and tried fishing by Guy's son on the spot I got my big fish in pre-fish. We didn't get a hit so we went to our start spot. Nothing there. We then went to our 2nd stop and I got to cull the 12.10" with a 14.25" caught on a wacky rigged 7" Strike King Ocho. That was all we got on the spot so we went to the place I missed the good fish in the morning. We didn't get anything, so we headed back to the pit side.

We hit several spots on the pit side without any luck until I caught 12" bass that didn't help me on the 7" Ocho. When I got the fish the Ocho came off and Guy suggested I put an O-ring on (he has an O-ring tool). I decided to try it, but that would be my last bite of the day on the Ocho.

With about an hour left we tried a spot on the pit side where we had not been yet where Guy got a good fish in pre-fish. Guy got into a little flurry and culled up 2 or 3 times. He talked me into using the lure he was using on the same type of rigging he was using. I got a bite most likely from a pike, then I had a pike bite me off. With about half an hour left it started to rain hard. When the rain was coming Guy said, it looks like some heavy rain is coming. He put on a full rain suit, while I figured I would just put on my rain jacket and not my bibs. Wrong call it poured. The rain ended after about 10 minutes and we decided to head in about 5 minutes early because Guy had such a good bag of fish and he wanted to get a good spot to park where he could keep his livewells working until it was our time to weigh in.

I came in 11th which is slightley better than expected. I actually was 11th because of another guys dead fish penalty and I won the tie breaker. Had I caught the big one I missed, I could have been as high as 5th. Guy was in first with 15lbs 10ozs. He actually won because a guy brought 1 to many fish to the scales.

Analysis- This one is a slight downer because I could have done much better had I landed that one good fish. As it was I was stuck with a 12.75" swimmer. I really failed to capitalize on a very good boater draw.

Next Tournament: Washburn Lake August 28th.

Huh?

According to Sitemeter over the last two hours visits to my blog have skyrocketed past even my all time record daily traffic level. 228 then 170+ visits in consecutive hours. I wonder if something is screwed up at Sitemeter or if I'm really getting all this traffic. Google Analytics doesn't show the same bump, but I don't know if Google Analytics is in real time or delayed.

Anyways Welcome!!!

Update: It looks like the traffic spike is for real and is almost all from the Google Search engine and the Mike Hart cheating scandal. It really doesn't seem that too many people are actually stopping to read that I can tell.

BASS Tentatively Sold

Well the rumors were true that ESPN was looking to unload bass. I can't say that I am disappointed because I had grown disappoined with how ESPN was handling BASS. I think new ownership will probably be a good thing. Unfortunately the rumors about the BASS sale involving the Outdoor Channel seems to be false. ESPN will still air the Bassmasters TV Show.

It sure sounds like the new ownership is getting into this as much for love and passion for the sport as they are in it for making money. Hopefully they will continue and enhance Fantasy Bass Fishing. It will also be interesting to see what they do with Bassmaster.com and the Insider.

Shore Nuff August 2, 2010

Tonight I went to the lake place to make sure the boat wasn't filled with water due to a couple of storms in the last few days and naturally I brought my frogging rod along to try and catch some fish. The frog tied on the end of the line was Snagproof Viking which is a purple frog with yellow in the legs. I didn't take the boat out. I only fished from shore and off the dock. On about my 3rd cast I got this 13"+ largie.


On a cast over by Sherman's dock I got a 12"+ and in front of Jim's dock I had something, probably a pike, swipe at the frog.

I also fished for a couple of minutes at Jenny's and caught a 13" largie.