Sportsman Garage Sale Next Weekend

Fishing For Life Taking Boat Donations

#TBT My 1st Tournament Out of the Trophy???

It's amazing how doing Throwback Thursdays can jog one's memories. I had been trying to remember for the longest time, exactly when I first came into possession of my boat, formerly Cyberfish's boat, the Trophy. I know from doing # TBTs that I had it for the Spring of 2005 when this picture was taken. However, I was trying to remember if I had it in 2004. But then I was tracking down my various #TBT for Facebook today when I remembered fishing at the Excel Bass Tournament on July 17th of 2004 on the Whitefish Chain. I'm now absolutely positive I fished that tournament out of the Trophy. Was it the first tournament I fished out of the Trophy? I'm not 100% positive on that, as I might have fished a Team Bass tournament out of it on July 10th, and there was a Fishers of Men Club Tournament around that time as well. But I do remember fishing the Excel Tournament out of the Trophy; I am sure of it.

Interestingly, I didn't fish out of the Trophy for a memorable tournament on Koronis Lake on July 31st with Team Bass, where my 6-fish limit weighed 20.44 lbs. I know for a fact that I fished that out of MT's old tin boat, the same one I fished the first two Excel Bass Tournaments out of that year. No wonder I had such a hard time remembering when I got to use the Trophy. I only had it sometimes, depending on the needs of GEM Camps. I wish I had started the blog earlier in 2004.

Ebayt Monkey Goes Banana's for Topwater

I basically bid on this lot of lures for the Spro Frogs and the Jackall Dagored which is the jointed minnow with the propeller. I am not sure what kind of popper that is, maybe when I get it I will be able to figure it out.

I think I will probably be donating some of these lures to GEM. If you have any extra lures that you don't use and would be willing to give to a good cause, Great Expectations Ministries (GEM) is a great organization that gets kids on the water.

Update: Arrived in the mail 12/22. The seller included a bonus bag of 3" Powerbait Hollow Belly Split Tails, which look like they would be a good dropshot bait or maybe put on a jig for GOMH bullheads. Have no clue what kind of popper I got and I'm not impressed with it's shallow spitting cup. I got a good deal on the stuff, so I'm happy.

Hmmm

I don't know if this is pathetic or brilliant...

For the record, Cappy is getting nothing from BP. I do have some stuff I need to give to GEM. If you are looking to get rid of some tackle and are thinking of giving it away. GEM will get it in the hands of kids who fish.

GEM Camp

This week I will be volunteering with Great Expectations Ministries at one of their summer camps. This will be the first ever camp that GEM has done at The Land of Promise retreat center on Beebe Lake near St. Michael Minnesocold. I have no clue how the week is gonna go. We will be sleeping outside in tents (oh boy, sigh) and I am unsure about how meals will go other than the fact that we have to do the cooking and the cleaning (oh boy, sigh). Even in my younger days I was not much fond of roughing it, but they needed my help, I was available, and if it wasn't for GEM I wouldn't have a nice boat.

I don't know what lakes we will fish other than Beebe. I suspect we will fish Beebe on Monday and Tuesday and other lakes on Wed. and Thur.. I have caught some monster bass out of Beebe in the past. I hope getting kids into fish won't be that difficult but we are bound to be fishing waters that see a high amount of angling pressure and that has me a little concerned.

Hopefully all will go well.

GEM blog here...

I'm back (for a day)

I plan to blog the last couple of weeks fishing adventures over at the Fishing Log Blog, I'll let yeah know when that is ready.

The MN Fishing Openner is only a few hours away, Hooray! I may or may not hit Mille Lacs at mid-night, then tommorrow I'll be hitting the water at the St. Louis River south of Duluth with GEM taking kids walleye fishing. When we get back, I plan to head to Sconi to pre-fish Bone for a couple of days. The weather tommorrow is supposed to be cool and rainy, oh boy!

Good Luck to my fellow Minnesocoldians!

In the meantime get over to BassFan to register and play the Stratos BassFan Patterns Game.

Getting Nowhere Faster!

Now it's car trouble. I was about 7 miles from the access, at West Rush to help with the annual Rush Lake GEM Panfish outing, when my oil pressure dropped to nothing. It's either a bad oil pump or sensor, whatever, it NEEDS fixed ASAP.

So I ended up missing the GEM outing, mostly. I was there for a brief moment to let em know what was going on. Thank You Mike Cummins for driving me to Franzen Park and thanks to the Good Samaritan who drove me back. A church from Rush city was doing an angler outreach at the park with free food and one of their guys drove me back.

I gotta get my Log Blogging and BPC blogging up to date because after Friday, I'll be fishing a lot more.

Ohhh, and it's MAY AKA Fishing Openers Month.

WI Opener: Midnight Next Saturday May 7th!
MN Walleye/Pike Opener: Midnight Saturday May 14th!
BP's Tournament Opener: Team Bass @ Bone Lake WI Saturday May 21st 7AM!
MN Bass Fishing Opener: Saturday May 28th (when I get out of bed, probably a bit before sun up if the weather is any good.)

FYI- Gar over at The Bass Hole has been catchin as have The Lost Nomad and Brad at Bassin Blog .

Anyone know of a new Blog-0-Bass, let me know so I can add em to the blogroll. Thanks Mngmnt!

Bass Pundit News

Prayer Request:I just learned that my brother Todd has applied to be the MN Teen Challenge Dean of Men, so if you could pray for him and the organization while they are in the process I would appreciate that. My brother was a Youth Pastor for several years and just earned a Masters Degree from Bethel University and as you might already know my darling niece Isabelle is their daughter (Scroll down).

The Bass Hole (Ex-pat bass fisherman in Korea) Spring Fling.

Be sure to register those FLW Fishing Challenge Teams for Beaver Lake this week before Wednesday. The Pundit Picks Staff and Pro's Picks are up.

Have you heard of any Bass or fishing blogs?
If you have than tell me there URL's by leaving a comment. Or if you just wanna say hello Click on comments or write something in the guest book.

Thanks to Gregg over at My Bass and I I should have this website a little more streamlined in a few days.

Once again thanks to my brother and sister-in-law, Jeff and Erin Sutter-Maas I'll be fishing Team Bass Tournament Circut/Club this summer.

Also again this summer I will be volunteering to help with G.E.M. Camp. With the high gas prices the operational cost of getting to camp and running the boats will be higher than it's ever been, so if any Bass Pundit readers are feeling generous and want to make a monetary donation, a donation of quality usable tackle, or a donation of something else you think might be beneficial to a fishing Camp for Teens than email me at basspundit@hotmail.com or Contact Camp Director Dave Lindmark by email dlindmark@usa.net or phone (952-882-1711).
Great Expectations Ministries is a 501(c)3 non profit organization; all donations and contributions to it are tax deductible.

In addition to helping with GEM Camps, I will be out with them for the annual Rush Lake Crappie/Panfish Outing on April 30th, this will be my 6th or 7th straight year. I also plan on helping with the GEM Minnesota Fishing Opener Trip to St. Louis River near Duluth. I went on that GEM outing last year and it was a ball, I even caught a limit of walleyes (of coarse the limit on the St. Louis is 2).

In other BP fishing news I will be attending the 2005 Fishers of Men Club(Twin Cities)/ Teen Challenge Spring out May 7-10 at Camp Wapogasset near Amery WI. I will be helping guide for some of the Teen Challenge program participants and staff. If the warm weather holds than the fishing should be phenomenal. MN Teen Challenge is another organization that the BP considers worthy of donations.

I've already mentioned and linked The Fishers of Men Club (Twin Cities). If you went or go to the link you will see that our meeting place has changed but not the night, first Thursday of the Month from 7-9PM. Also note that the webpage is a different URL.

The first MN open water reports are in and to keep tabs with MN fishing information go to Catch-N, FishingMinnesota, and LSF Bulletin Boards.

Be sure to check out what is up with the Fishers of Men Tournament Trail (MN & WI Divisions)

The MN Ice out range is moving up.

It's Cold

-10F
Yes, it's finally putting the Cold into MinnesoCold. I haven't been posting for what should be an obvious reason, I just haven't felt much like blogging this past week. I also have not been doing any fishing. To get my mind off things I went to the Cities for the weekend and hung out with Cyberfish as well as going on a GEM outing to the Cabela's in Owatanna MN. We also watched the football games on Saturday and Sunday which was a total blast because all the games were exciting plus the Cheese lost while the Vikes pulled out the victory. If you did not know, the Vikes and Pack play tommorrow, Christmas Eve, for the division title and a home playoff game.

If the Vikes pick up there level of play they could conceivably make it to the Super Bowl this year. Amazing!

Once this cold weather passes I will be back to fishing and blogging. I have a lot of stuff on tap for the last week of 2005; Including a review of Bass Pundit's year in tournaments and Big Bass, Bass Pundit's Bass Fisherman of the Year, Bass Pundit's Bass Fishing Website of the Year, Bass Pundit's Fishing Message Board of the Year, Bass Pundit's Bass Lure of the Year, and Bass Pundit's new years resolutions.

About G.E.M.

A little GEM Camp overtime on Platte Lake for Jordan and Malik.

G.E.M. stands for Great Expectations Ministries and it is a Christian Fishing Camp and club for kids. You can find out more about the organization by clicking on the GEM link on the blogroll in the right column.

This past summer I was volunteer staff for about 6 weeks during the summer. With my physical limitations it was quite exhausting at times, but they are small camps and we had ratio of no more than 3 kids per staff member which allowed me to rest when I needed it. Plus the camp is pretty laid back and we usually didn't get out fishing until mid to late afternoon and so the time on the water was not to much for me.

The kids were great for the most part and I particularly enjoyed the camps at Luther Dell Bible Camp. I will probably help out in some capacity next summer, I'll just have to wait and see where my physical endurance levels are at. Unfortunatly I didn't have a camera with me or I would have some great pics of kids with fish. Oh well.

Tonight at the Fishers of Men Club Twin Cities meeting camp director Dave Lindmark will be speaking.