Josh Douglas Qualifies For The Elite Series

All my fishing energies were focused on Platte Lake this past weekend, so I missed Josh Douglas making the ten cut at the Southern Open. Thus qualifying to be the second Bass Pundit MN Blogger Derby participant to make the Elite Series. Bob Downey was the first.  I have so much respect for Josh as a person and angler. He is the ultimate grinder who just kept at it getting closer season after season.  This guy hustles, and his love for catching bass and sharing bass fishing knowledge is really something special. He put in the work for his sponsors everywhere he went in venues small and large.  Josh wanted it, and now he's got it. Congratulations man, can't wait to see you up there with Mercer and making it to your first Classic. I don't think anything is going to stop you from reaching your goals. Get that Rookie of the Year in 22.

Check out this Bass Pundit flashback from 2011: (Near as I can tell and recollect I found out about Josh in 2008, through Rich "Hellabass" Lindgren, who will also probably walk across the Classic Stage sometime in the future and would stand a great chance of making the Elites if he put his mind to it.)

The Blind: Platte/Sullivan Goals/Rods

My goal's for this tournament is to get at least a 15lbs limit and finish no lower than 3rd.

Have either Darren or I win the days Lunker

Get Darren a limit 

 
Rods I am bringing:

7'4" XH Zillion (Frog)

7'4" H Tatula (Frog, Swimbait)

7'4" H Tatula (Fluke)

7'4" H Zillion (Jig)

7'3" H 736 Dobyns Fury (Swim Jig, Chatter Jig,  Spinnerbait, buzzbait)
7'2" MH Tatula (Topwater, Chatterjig)

7' H Avid (Crawtube)

6'6" Abu Veritas (Fluke) 

My Initial Thought On The Platte/Sullivan Draw

 

Last January, I wrote the above about Platte/Sullivan when the blind tournament initially went on the schedule. I was highly confident if my lakes were drawn, I would have a pretty good chance of having a really good day. Fast forward to now after struggling all year to get bites with so many good Fall areas being complete trash or almost trash due to low water and the proliferation of carpetweed in Platte Lake.  Three of the areas I was thinking about specifically back then have been an extremely rough go this year. The weed set up this year is garbage in so many formerly productive spots. The spots that aren't I have pounded relentlessly. Some places that still look fishy haven't given me anything.

I really should have taken a couple of days to search out some new non-froggy spots. Oh well, that is water under the bridge now.

Because the lakes are off-limits today, I put together a spreadsheet of all my spots/areas. I then gave a percentage for my confidence level in catching a fish there right now and in catching one 3lbs or above. In my mind, I have 13 spots where the chances of getting a keeper are better than 50%, and pretty much every spot has a 50% chance of getting a quality bite. Not bad at first glance. However, many of them are either a small one or two fish spot or a wide area that is only good for a bite or two. The highest probability of getting into fish is 60%, which I have for one area on Sullivan and two areas on Sullivan. I will have to see what the wind does, but I tentatively have my starting spot picked. It will be interesting if there is a morning bite or if we have to wait for things to warm up.

Bass Snatcher Leech Lake Tournament Recap

Conditions: 47-74℉, Mostly Sunny, clouded up in the final hour, 8-25mph S

My Day: We started on the South End of Bear Island, where Bruce caught a couple while pre-fishing. I had a pike steal my Dinger about 20-minutes into the day. We then went around Partridge Point. From there, we went to the North end of Bear Island in the reeds. I thought we might get a bite there with the wind blowing on it, but we didn't. We then went to the East end of Center Rice. We started by drifting along the edge.  Thought for sure I would get a bite there as it looked great, but nope. Then we went on the lee side, and I frogged it, trying to make a perfect cast to get a reaction bite. When we met Snatcher Ludenia and Al, they confirmed that it was a tough bite. We then made the run back west to Uram Bay and finished the day there. Bruce missed a bite, and I got the muskie in the final 15-minutes. So we both ended the day skunked for bass.

Results: Goose egg buys a goose egg as good as DNF or DQ'ed. Snatcher Nate came in first with 21-8. Snatcher Chuck got 2nd with 17-8, and Smitty came in 3rd with 15-1. Snatcher Chuck and Bacon tied with a 4-9 Lunkers.  Only 4 limits were caught, and we had 6 guys skunk. So half the Co-Anglers blanked and one boater (My boater).

My Thoughts:  The bite was off, and wind conditions were not favorable. We fished too fast most of the time. I'm not going to beat myself up over this one. Dennis only put two keepers in the boat, and Hammer, who was fishing with Chuck, only caught 3 keepers. Nate's non-boater got skunked as well. I am just glad it warmed up, and I was able to listen to tunes while we were making our long runs through the waves, it actually made the bumpy wet ride enjoyable.

 

Snatcher's On Leech, My Plan and Rods

The Plan:

The Rods I'm Bringing:

7'6" H Mod LTB (Punching)

7'4" XH Zillion (Frog)

7'4" H Tatula (Frog,Swimbait, Swim Jig, Fluke)

7'4"H Tatula (Crawtube)

7'4" H Zillion Mod (Pitching Jig)

7'3" MagH 763 Dobyns Fury (Spinnerbait, Swim Jig)

Spin:

6'6" MH Abu Veritas (Fluke, Dinger) 

 

MN Vikings 2021

 

Update after the Game 1 27-24 loss to the Bengals.

The team looked shaky in the first half, especially on offense with penalty after penalty. The second half went quite a bit better. 

The D looked much improved. It will not surprise me if Burrow has a breakout year and Mixon runs for 2,000  yards.  Sure the Bengals sucked the last two years. What I  saw was a team in the playoff hunt this year, provided they can stay healthy. I was really impressed with Burrow other than that one terrible throw that should have been a TD. It looked to me like Hunter and Kendricks had quite a bit of rust to shake off.  

On the O side of the ball, Cousins played good enough to win. I am concerned about the O-Line. Not nearly good enough protecting Kirk or making holes in the run game. Hopefully,  they will improve quite a bit with a game under their belt. I wasn't happy with play calling in the moment, but we probably should have won the game. I think the Cook fumble was a blown call. 

The next two games look to be dog fights. Maybe Arizona will lose a little bit of their edge with a win under their belt and will underestimate Zim's squad.  

Tuma & Walls On the Hellabass Livestream

 I finally found the time to listen to this podcast. So glad I did. Good stuff! They discuss the 27lb five fish bag they got on Woman Lake, Smallmouth Fishing, and Frog Fishing.