Great Essay by Jerry McKinnis

Culture of the Green Machine Go read it.

Oops

I didn't order from Tackle Warehouse yet and I just learned on Facebook that the Black Friday 20% off sale ended at 7PM. (It's 8:15PM) Ohh well it's not like I could fish those Kelly J's right now anyway.

I'll just have to wait for their next 20% off sale. I'm guessing that will be New Years.

Snow Yo!

I thought the storm had passed and we only got an inch.

When I woke up this morning there was 5 more inches.

Apparently a little farther North up at Platte Lake, there is a lot less snow.

Bait Monkey Monday

So is everybody stocking up Online today?

I will be putting in an order with Tackle Warehouse because they are the only one's with bluegill color Lucky Craft Kelly J topwaters. I think I will get a couple of those and another Paycheck Baits Repo Man. I will have to get at least 1 more thing to get me over $50 for free shipping.

Try Tackle It!

Yeah, I know for regular readers this is probably getting redundant, but blog traffic is low around holiday's and weekends and I want to give a fair chance to get the word out.
Tackle It is an online tackle retailer that I recommend everyone check out this holiday season. They have free shipping on orders over $50 and for the holiday's are also giving a 15% discount on orders over $50. It looks to me like Tackle It has things that you maybe won't find at too many other places. One of their specialties is Maverick Baits with whom they will do soft plastic bulk orders and custom colors.

Tackle It and Maverick sponsor Bass Fishing Blogger Tami Curtis

MT Bucket blog Is Now Fish Chaser blog

My good friend Michael "Cyberfish" Thompson has decided to change the name of his flagship blog from MT Bucket to Fish Chaser. The URL remains the same.

The blog also has an all new look.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

I personally will not be having my family Thanksgiving Dinner until Saturday, due to the weather. It's Football Day for me, too bad there are not better games. I think Cowboys/Saints is probably the most interesting. I expect the Lions to get crushed and I don't really care much about Jets/Bungles but maybe the Jets will make it interesting.

Update: A friend of the family who used to work on the FLW Tour via Land O' Lakes will have some no shows at her big Thanksgiving feast today. She graciously invited us over to help fill the vacancy, which Mom, Dad, and I will do. Looks like I will get some turkey on Turkey Day after all.

Can't wait, Marilyn does a feast right.

Vikings Fire Brad Childress

Maybe instead of the No Cheese logo I used on Sunday, I should have had a No Chili logo (except I can't find one of those on the ready in Google Images). If you have read my blog before you know I was all on the Fire Chili bandwagon from the second he let Randy Moss go. In all likelyhood the change to Leslie Frazier is to little to late. At this point as a fan for this season, I want to see Adrian Peterson win another rushing title. I am indifferent to pulling Favre and don't think that should happen until we are at least mathmatically eliminated from the playoffs. I did not blog it at the time, but when Favre came back I was not super excited for the precise reason that Green Bay would get a shot at revenge and chances were high Favre wouldn't be able to duplicate last years season. Well Favre is having a rough year (not all his fault) and the Packer fans got the last laugh with that blow out in the Dome.

At this point I'm probably rooting for the Steelers despite their wayward QB. I most certainly don't want to see the Packers, Bears, or Patriots in the Super Bowl. Same goes for a Vick led Eagles Team.

Bass Pundit 6 Year Blogirthday!!!/Blogiversery

Back on Saturday November 20th 2004 I wrote the 1st Bass Pundit blog Post: Welcome from the BP to the Bass Pundit Blog. Since then this blog has spit out 1744 posts.

For the Blogirthday the infamous Ebayt Monkey has gotten me a

Shimano Crucial Rod model CRC-C70MH (That's a 7' Medium Heavy Fast Action Rod)
And put in bids
On a St.Croix Avid
A St. Croix Pro Glass
And another Shimano Crucial along with a lot of Zoom Super Flukes.

Update: Won the Zoom Super Fluke auction as the only bidder, that's always nice. Came to $1.70 per 10 pack, 5 packs of Glow/Chart Back.
The Pro Glass auction is up Monday
The Avid auction is up Tuesday
The 2nd Crucial auction is up Wednesday (doubt I will get this one, but you never know. Sometimes other people don't bid and it is a busy holiday week.)

Update: Yep was out bid on the 2nd Crucial.

Scooped By Bass Parade

I've never made the claim that Bass Pundit is any kind of authority with a finger on the pulse of Minnesota's bass fishing scene. But I feel a little out of it that I got scooped on this one by the bloggers at Bass Parade. Maybe if I was a Fan of the NAFC Facebook Page, I would have been on top of it.

Then again maybe not, looked on the Facebook Page and I couldn't find a mention.

Speaking of Facebook Pages, Bass Pundit Blog has one. You can become a Fan by hitting the "Like Button" on the upper left hand corner of this blog. So if you "Like" Bass Pundit become a Fan. Thank You!

Bass Fishing Blogs

Thanks to TBrinks Fishing and Tami Curtis I was made aware of a couple of Bass Fishing Blogs I didn't know were out there. The first is:

TipsNbass.com apparently aspires to be the Maxim of bass fishing blogs with their Baitmates. Guys do yourself a favor and only look at the pictures, the included "interviews" are like a bad B-movie. Besides the babes the site is heavy on product reviews and fishing tips. The writing is often supplemented with video. Production value on this blog is about as good as it gets.

Jeff Klicka- Pro Bass Angler looks like it is another blog from a group I am now going to coin as the Tami Curtis posse. As you can tell by the title, it is a blog/website for Professional Angler Jeff Klicka.

Minnesota Bass Fishing Wins Derby!!!

For the 2nd year in a row Jason Holmer of the blog Minnesota Bass Fishing has won the Bass Pundit Minnesocold Bass Bloggers Derby also taking Big Bass honors for the 2nd straight year with another 7lber. Jason's 5 fish creel went 28.32lbs which unbelievably is .60 of a pound less than his Derby record bag of last year.

2nd Place goes to Rich's Bassin Blog with an impressive 27.35lb bag.

3rd Place goes to JoshDouglas.com blog with 25.32lbs

This year 16 blogs had fish, which is 1 more entrant than last year and actually 2 more blogs than last year because my friend Pete who isn't a blogger, but was in the Derby last year.

This was my best Derby yet with 23.50lbs.

You can see how it all went down with lots of big Minnesota Bass pictures at the Bass Pundit Minnesocold Bass Bloggers Derby 2010 blog.

Derby Deadline!!!

Today is the last day to submit fish for the Bass Pundit Minnesocold Bass Bloggers Derby 2010

Da Bears Beat the Vikings 27-13

This one was basically over before it began because of the injury to Bernard Berrian and the continuing absence of Sidney Rice. I'm sorry but a receiver corps of Harvin, Lewis, and Camerillo spells serious trouble for Adrian Peterson against a good Bears defence who could stack the box in any possible running down. For this game outside in windy Chicago running the ball was critical. Peterson had 51 yards for the game, with a 3 yard average.

The Vikings really needed Randy Moss in this game, but thanks to Chilly's ego this season is now pretty much a lost cause. Fire Chilly!!!

I should also mention that the Vikings Defence was horrendous on 3rd Down and Cutler thouroughly shredded our pass rush and pass defence.

This game wasn't even close as the final score reflects.

Sweep Those Bears!!! (or Weep)

Today is the first Vikings vs. Bears game of the season. I think any Vikings playoff hopes at this point ride on beating the Bears in both meetings this season. Last year we split, but swept Green Bay. The Vikes already lost to Green Bay and to be honest I think the Vikes don't have much chance of catching the Packers for the Division title. I think a wild card at 10-6 or 9-7 are possible, provided we beat Da Bears.

SKOL Vikings!!!

B.A.S.S. Was My Idea!!!

In case you haven't heard one of the first actions taken by the new ownership of the Bass Anglers Sportsmans Society was to put the periods back in the organizations title. Under ESPN the company went by BASS, now it is back to being B.A.S.S.

Back on August 10, 2010 just after the pending sale was announced I blogged My Suggestions To The New Owners Of BASS

My leading suggestion was this:
First on the list would be to go back to being B.A.S.S. (Bass Anglers Sportsmen Society) not BASS.


Thus, just like in those Windows 7 commercials I am taking full credit.

B.A.S.S. was my idea!

New Bass Blog

Thoughts of a Christian Bass Fisherman: It's a "BFB" and a "God Blog" all in one. If you have ever wanted to read a bass fishing Christian devotional blog than this is the blog for you. Had the Internet and blogs been around when I was in college 20 years ago, Thoughts of a Christian Bass Fisherman is probably along the lines of what a Bass Pundit would have looked like back then.

Pete's New Dog Josie

Pete was hunting way up in Northern MN, I forget where, when he went to an animal shelter on a whim. At the shelter was this yellow lab that the shelter workers were very high on. The dog was picked up as a stray and had been in the shelter for about a month. Pete checked the dog out and decided to adopt it. The shelter named the dog Joseie and it seemed to know it's name, so Pete didn't rename it. Josie is house trained and was obviously a house dog. The vet thinks it's about 18 months old. It has a great temperament and gets along just fine with our dogs and cat. Pete's old dog Sandy isn't exactly in love with Josie but she seems to be getting more tolerant.

We had a scare with Josie this week when she found and bit into a albuterol inhaler of mine that had been lost. She got a pretty good overdose. Pete took her to the emergency vet in Little Falls and they wanted to send her on to St. Cloud where it would be over $1,000 to treat her. Pete wasn't having that so he got a little advice and brought her back here after picking up some potassium pills at Wall Mart. The main danger with an albuterol overdose is cardiac arrest because the drug really makes the heart rate accelerate for a prolonged period of time. From the vet along with online research we found out to give her the potassium and a beta-blocker, which I happen to have because of my heart condition. All we could do was pray, wait, and hope. Thankfully, she was pretty much back to normal in 24 hours.


Update 1/31/11: Josie turned out to be gun shy and would run away every time Pete shot at something. One of the times it ran away it went to a farmer who liked Josie so much they offered to keep her seeing as how it just wasn't going to work out for Josie to be a hunting dog.

Thank You Veterans

The Weather Has Been Awesome

But I haven't been fishing, except for a few casts after we took the dock out on Monday.

Yesterday I took the Trophy out to Rock Lake and ran Stabil into the motor before running it completely out of gas. When I got home I vacuumed out the carpet, pulled the batteries, and trolling motor. Later today I plan to wipe out the white interior. I don't think I'm going to do anything about the scum on the outside of the boat because the stuff I have for that is a little too harsh of a chemical for my taste.

I may do a little shore fishing tommorrow, but I'm not sure.

"Like"

"Christianity is my faith, fishing is my religion"
Keith Wiley on Al Lindners Facebook in an answer about why fishing is important to him.

This Is Good News

EPA Denies Petition Seeking Ban on Lead in Fishing Tackle

SOLD!

Here is a good article from the Bassmaster website: Buying Into BASS

Randy Moss Released By Vikings

Randy's Gone

Seriously Chilly? You do know that most of us fans would rather see Moss in purple than YOU. On Facebook yesterday my brother Todd called for Chilly's head, so we can elevate D-Coordinator Leslie Frazer to head coach. Honestly, I don't think that is that bad of an idea at this point.

I'm officially on the Fire Chilly bandwagon.

Vikings Loss At New England- My Take

At 2-5 it isn't quite time to stick a fork in the 2010 Vikings season, but it is getting pretty darn close to that point. You have to figure there is a 1 or maybe 2 loss cushion at this point.

I, along with many I'm sure, thought Chilly should have kicked the fieldgoal instead of going for it on 4th and short at the end of the 1st half. The Vikes have already paid for not taking points once this season and you would think Chilly wouldn't be dumb enough to make the same mistake twice. However as the final score was 28-18, a field goal and even a touchdown in that situation were irrelevant to the outcome.

The most troubling aspect of this game was the collapse of our Defence in the 2nd half. The offence put the game in reach in the 4th quarter and the D just could not get the crucial stop. Instead they gave up a long time consuming TD drive that sealed the game.

I will say this, the Vikes did get a couple of bad breaks. The Pats 1st touchdown was set up on a bit of a freak play that should have been a Viking interception or at worst a knocked down pass. In the 2nd half the Percy Harvin bobble interception was an even bigger break for the Pats. The Vikes dominated play up until that point and were in the lead and driving. The Pats get lucky on the pick and then put up a big play and it's 14-10 despite the Vikes dominating play. If both of those plays break for the Vikings, it very well could have been a different outcome.

Note: To Chilly for short yardage plays you need to put Tavaris or Web in the game to give a quarterback sneak threat in addition to jamming Peterson. I have been quite disappointed with Chilly's lack of creativity in not plugging Tavaris and Web in for a few plays here and there.