In the Mail: Take Me Fishing Stuff

There was a knock at the door and it was the FedEx man with this:
As soon as I saw the box I figured it was the stuff I had won from the Outdoor Blogger Network via takemefishing.org

I knew all of the stuff I was getting and had a general idea in my mind about what it would look like. This is the actual stuff:

To be honest it was a bit less than I expected. I thought the tackle box was going to be something more than a small utility box. I thought it was going to be a full sized kids tackle box that would be perfect for me nieces who I just gave fishing rods for Christmas. I also expected the Flip Video camera to come with a more substantial amount of stuff. That Flip Video must be awfully simple to use because the instructions that came with it is bare bones.

Updated: It kind of looks like this free camera is going to be a boon for the people at Hatcams. I'm thinking about a hat, tripod, and neoprene protective cover.


I am not sure what I will do with the 2 kids fishing rods and reels. Right now I'm leaning towards sending them to a 5 year old niece in Florida.

Cry (Berkley) Havoc and Let Slip An OBN Product Review

I entered and was randomly selected by the Outdoor Blogger Network to do a product review on four Berkley Havoc baits.

If you were anywhere near the Bassmaster Classic this past February no doubt you heard about the new economy priced Berkley Havoc Plastics. If you weren't paying attention to the Classic and don't care about professional bass fishing maybe you haven't heard about them. For instance I am not aware of a store in my area in Central Minnesota that is carrying them Spring.

The four baits I received to review are the Bobby Lane designed Craw Fatty™, Gary Klein designed The Deuce™, Skeet Reese designed Pit Boss™, and the Mike Iaconelli designed Devil Spear™. These were the four baits rolled out for the Bassmaster Classic and as you can tell from the previous sentence Berkley B.A.S.S. Elite Series Pro Staff are being given credit for inspiring the designs of each bait. Could be marketing hype or could be the truth, I don't think it matters.

I don't believe the baits are suppose to be "scented" but a couple of reviews about the baits I've read suggested it smells somewhat like an old Powerbait formula. I guess I can't make up my mind if that is the case or not. If it does, the scent isn't very strong. The plastic on all the baits is soft, but not so much so that I would call it a wimpy weak formula thus the plastic is reasonably durable.

I will do my reviews in order of preference for the baits:

The Mike Iaconelli designed Devil Spear™.
The Devil Spear has to be the most original bait of this crop. The Devil Spear is 4 inches long and a serious piece of plastic that comes in at least 10 colors; I was sent a pack of June Bug and Green Pumpkin. The bait gets it name mostly from the unique ribbed spear shaped tail. The original intent for this bait was to be a compact bait good for punching heavy cover with a stout 5/0 flipping hook. However, when I saw the action of it's tail on a You Tube Video before I ever received the bait I was fixated on one thing and one thing only. I wanted to use the Devil Spear as a swim jig trailer and that's it. The ribbed spear tail's action is a dead ringer for the tail of a baitfish propelling the fish through the water. Rigged on a swim jig it gives an incredible baitfish profile and action just like I thought it would. It can also be rigged on a weighted swim bait hook and be used as a swim bait.

As a swim jig trailer I have only thrown the Devil Spear for about 30 minutes from shore. With the weight and compact stature of plastic you can throw even a light swim jig a very long ways; Swim jigs are definitely a bait where distance can matter. In the 30 minutes I caught a pike and a couple of bass and had a couple of other hits that came off. One thing that is nice is that you can rig up the Devil Spear out of 4 different sides on a swim jig which adds to it's shelf life.

From what I have seen I give the Devil Spear an A-.

The Bobby Lane designed Craw Fatty™

Aptly named the 4 inch Craw Fatty kind of reminds me of a hybrid semi-beaver/Chigger Craw. It's body is wide and thin with Chigger Craw arms. The body is detailed with little ribs, little legs off the side, raised eyes and two plastic strip antenna in-between the craw arms. The Craw Fatty comes in at least 10 colors of which I was sent black blue fleck and green pumpkin. Texas rig it, use it as a jig trailer, or chatter jig trailer is all good. I read somewhere else that it skips well and makes a serviceable topwater toad.

I used it as a a chatter jig trailer and this is some of what I caught on the black blue fleck:

I really like the Craw Fatty, I also give it an A-

Gary Klein designed The Deuce™
There isn't to much original or exciting when it comes to the The Deuce; It's a 3 inch double tail grub that Berkley says has an extended body to accommodate a bigger hook and specially designed twin tails that are suppose to move at very slow speeds. You couldn't prove either of those things by me because I just don't own many double tail grubs and the one's I do own are buried somewhere. It comes in 10 colors and I was sent smoke sparkle and green pumpkin. I used it on a ball head jig and as a swim jig trailer. No luck with it as a swim jig trailer, but the fish didn't seem to want a swim jig that day. I did catch quite a few fish either jigged or straight retrieved on the ball head jig, but the fish seemed to run small.

I think it's a reasonably good bait, so I'll give it a B-.

The Skeet Reese designed Pit Boss™
I guess you would call the 4 inch Pit Boss a creature bait. It's got kind of a very elongated tear drop shaped body with ribs that are mostly on one side and off the bottom it has two saber tails and two tails that come straight off the bottom. The saber tails give a lot of kicking action when pulled through the water. They come in at least 10 colors and Skeet gave some of them original names. I was sent California which is kind of a brown pumpkin with lots of red fleck and Vampire Orange which is black and red. It is designed to be a flipping bait, presumably Texas rigged and that is how I fished it. I was excited about Vampire Orange because black/red is a good bowfin color. So far I have given the Vampire Orange a workout and caught several bass and a couple of pike. I think I may have had 4 bites on it from a bowfin but I couldn't hook up. Sometimes hooking up was a problem with both a 3/0 wide gap or 4/0 wide gap hook. I tried it as a chatter jig trailer but wasn't impressed as the saber tails seemed to lose their magic. I think the bait is probably most effective when hopped a foot or two and then letting it fall with either a horizontal or vertical retrieve. Because of the saber tail action you can swim it as well.

I was least impressed with the Pit Boss so I'm giving it a C.

One great thing about all the Havoc baits is they are $2.99 a pack and can be found at Tackle Warehouse and Bass Tackle Depot.

Other reviews of these Havoc baits can be found at:
Lunker Hunt
Man Versus Fish

Disclaimer: The Berkley Havoc plastics were provided to me free from Berkley via the Outdoor Blogger Network. Other than the free product I was not paid to write this post and it is my honest opinion.

National Fishing and Boating Week June 4–12, 2011

This is my National Fishing and Boating Week contest entry sponsored by Take Me Fishing and the Outdoor Blogger Network.

“How do you plan to celebrate National Fishing & Boating Week?”

That is the contest question I need to answer.

This much I do know. June 4th, the kickoff day of National Fishing & Boating Week also kicks off the tournament season for my bass club the Baxter Bass Snatchers. We will be fishing my "home lakes" of "Platte/Sullivan." Platte/Sullivan are connected lakes in Central Minnesota about 15 miles West from the South West End of Mille Lacs Lake. Platte is 1,746 acres shallow (Littoral Area 1,694 acres) and generally weedy with a fair amount of undeveloped shoreline. Sullivan is 1,221 acres, has deep water (Littoral Area 567 acres with a max depth of 57ft), still has a fair amount of aquatic vegetation and is developed everywhere except it's NW corner where the Platte River flows out of the lake. I have fished Sullivan since about 1999 and Platte since 2001. This will be my 5th bass tournament on the lakes; I have a mixed record with 2 OK finishes and 2 terrible finishes. Because of my terrible finishes I look on this one with a bit of trepidation.

I am a non-boater in our club, so I will be fishing out of someone else's boat. By rule I am allotted half the day in the front of the boats on spots I want to fish. Normally I don't take advantage of that rule, but at this tournament I just might. Right now the bass population in both lakes is very good, but for the past 3 years or so I have had a hard time catching quality fish in June. In the past these lakes have been know for their quality fish and the potential is certainly there for some big bags to come in. If fishing is tough it may take only 14lbs on a 6 fish limit, but if fishing is good it may take more than 20lbs. I expect fishing is going to be good, here's why.

One thing that will play a factor this year is high water. The water has been up more than a foot over normal levels since last Fall. We had a fair amount of snow in the winter and it has been a wet Spring and so water levels are still quite high and I don't see that changing over the next 4 weeks. In addition to a wet Spring, ice off was on the late side and it's been cool. Combine the high water with cool conditions and weed growth will probably be a bit behind normal. Last year many area's were unfishable due to weed growth by late May. I expect on June 4th there is going to be a lot of shallow water that is just prime for fishing and in early June in MN the bass should be shallow.

I plan to kickoff National Fishing & Boating Week by rocking Platte/Sullivan largemouth bass. Topwater should be AWWWWWWWWWWN!!!

Today's Agenda

Hopefully I have my computer anti-virus software issues straightened out now.

I will check the ice on area lakes and possibly do a little fishing.

Taxes

Follow the conclusion of FLW on Chic and the Elites at Toledo Bend.

Get my blog re-registered for the new Directory at the Outdoor Blogger Network.

In the Mail- From OBN

Up pulled the Fed Ex Man, after the surprise on Monday, I remembered that I had a package coming from the Outdoor Blogger Network for a product review.

You may recall that the product is a foursome of the new Berkley Havoc Baits (Ike's Devil Spear, Klein's The Deuce (double tail grub), Skeet's Pit Boss, and B. Lane's Craw Fatty.

First impressions: The Devil Spear is an impressive piece of plastic, The Deuce not so much. The Pit Boss and Craw Fatty are kind of similar to one another; I think I'm going to have to do some reading about how they were designed to be used differently from one another. I noticed that Pit Boss's had slightly different head shapes from one another while the Craw Fatty's are much more uniform from one bait to the next.

I have decided I will review each bait separately. Look for those reviews to start sometime after the MN fishing Opener May 14th.

Winner Winner Havoc Grinner!

Thanks to the Outdoor Blogger Network I will be getting some free Berkley Havoc baits in exchange for an honest Bass Pundit product review.

From OBN: Each winner will receive 2 bags of each bait (2 different colors, specified in the details of the bait) for a total of 8 bags. At $3.50 per bag, you get $28 worth of new baits to try!

The baits are Bobby Lane's The Craw Fatty™, Gary Klein's the Deuce™, Skeet's The Pit Boss™ and Ike's The Devil Spear™. I think I am most looking forward to trying the Devil Spear as a swim jig trailer. According to the rules I am suppose to do the review within 4 to 6 weeks of receiving the product. Hopefully it will take a little while for the baits to arrive as Bass Opener is 7 weeks and 5 days away. However at a minimum I will be able to use them to try for dogfish and pike.

OBN Prompting- Why I Started and Still Blog and Un-Frame Worthy Photo

The Outdoor Blogger Network (OBN) is a blog dedicated to networking, encouraging, and enhancing the sphere of the blogosphere that is inhabited by outdoor enthusiast bloggers. One of the things they do is "prompt" us bloggers to write or photo blog about certain things. I'm knocking out the last two prompts with this post. I'll start with the most recent which is a writing prompt.

Why do you blog about your Outdoor Experiences? What got you started with that first blog entry? Are the reasons you started blogging the same now as when you started? Has blogging changed anything for you? And so on…

I started Bass Pundit blog on November 20th of 2004 and in my very first post I wrote: This Blog will be a true fishing weblog with Pics of the BP's fishing exploits, successes and misses starting in 2005, along with being used for other miscellaneous purposes such as Commissioning a Fantasy Bass Fishing League, ripping or praising products, and commentary on bass fishing issues, personalities, and news.

I basically started this blog to enhance my experience with my bass fishing and fishing hobby. I had a heart attack in 2003 that left me disabled and I had a lot of time on my hands and this was something productive that I could do that I thought might be fun and interesting. Although at times in the past 6 years my enthusiasm for blogging has wavered I kept at it and in the past few years blogging has become a much more important part of my life. I blog because I enjoy doing it and I do find it fun and interesting. Through blogging I have met some pretty cool people and learned a great deal. I have certainly enhanced my overall bass fishing experience.

The second earlier OBN Prompt was a Photo Prompt: post the photo that most likely will never find itself in a photo frame in your house.

So here it is, a genuine Tiger Bullhead I took the picture so Tami Curtis would know what a tiger bullhead looked like.

My Biggest Fishing Train Wrecks Pt 2

This story begins with a several trips into Gander Mtn in Maple Grove Minnesota. They had a 7'6" Fenwick HMG Medium Heavy spinning rod for 50% on clearance. That rod was calling my name and about the 4th time I looked at it I finally gave in and bought it. I thought it would make a great rod for my annual Fall Salmon trip to SE Wisconsin. I was right, the rod was excellent for Salmon fishing. On my third trip with the rod I was fishing at the dam on the Pike River in Kenosha WI. The dam, which is no longer there, was located in the midst of a golf coarse and there was a golf cart bridge over the river made of railroad tries right below the face of the dam. There was a small deep pool where the fish stacked up under the bridge. On the dam side of the bridge there was really only room for one person to fish on each bank of the river and you would either have to stand in the water on a concrete ledge or stand on the asphalt that made up the river bank.

The first time I ever fished at the dam I figured something out with a Mepps Spinner that was just a killer on the Salmon as I fished off the asphalt. On about my 5th hook up I had a beautiful coho salmon that was about 4lbs on. As I was bringing the fish up on the asphalt my rod tip caught on the bridge and my rod tip broke. Not Cool! I then grabbed my line to pull the fish up further on the bank and my line broke and the fish along with my magic spinner dropped right back into the water and were gone. At that point I had a meltdown that I'm sure was a source of great amusement to the other fishermen at the pool.

When I got back home I called Fenwick and told them what happened, much to my astonishment they said they would cover the rod under warranty. I sent them the broken rod and they sent me a new one. Cool!

Fast Forward two years later I was fishing with the rod in the same pool, but this time on the down river side of the golf cart bridge. I was having a grand old time catching Salmon when I hooked into a brute. I was using really strong 20lb test line and really laying the wood to the fish when the rod exploded under the pressure. It sounded like a gun shot as the rod broke in 4 different places!!! My line didn't break and I managed to hand line the fish which was about 15lbs. Now you would think I might be upset, but I thought the way the rod just exploded was pretty darn cool. I was satisfied that I got my money's worth from Fenwick on a rod I paid half price for and didn't bother trying to get another rod under warranty; I wanted what was left of the rod as a souvenir. I still have the rod handle.

See: My Biggest Fishing Train Wrecks

My Biggest Fishing Train Wrecks

The week the Outdoor Blogger Network has a writing prompt titled Damaged Goods. Here is the idea:

If you have broke, damaged, or set on fire a favorite piece of outdoor gear we want to hear your story!

I have a few stories, which I will do in multiple posts.

Can you guess what this first story is about?

For about 10 years in a row from the mid-90's to the mid-2000's I made the trek down to SE WI to fish the Fall salmon run. I would go in early to mid October to fish the Root River in Racine and the Pike River in Kenosha. One of the places I fished was Lake Michigan where the Pike River flowed into the lake. Sometimes the wave action from Lake Michigan would close up the river mouth with sand; The river comes out at a beach. To get fish you need the river flowing into the lake. The first time I witnessed the phenomenon of the river being closed up by sand, I had the bright idea to try to do something about it. I went and got a 5 gallon bucket from the car and set about making a channel from the river to the lake. The idea was to get some water to start to flow, which would naturally cause erosion in the sand making a wider channel until eventually the river would be flowing into the lake, which would bring the fish in close. Well the plan worked and once I got the channel made water was soon flowing quickly from the river into the lake. I kept working to expand the channel and the flow got better and better. One time when I bent down to scoop some sand while I was in the middle the channel my cell phone popped out of the pouch on my waders. At this point the river flow was such that the cell phone was instantly swept away from me right into the lake. Just like that it was gone. I couldn't believe it. As the Z-Train would say, "train wreck."

Sustainable Fishing

This blog entry is my submission for the GreenFish and Outdoor Blogger Network Writing Prompt Giveaway

This Weeks Writing Prompt:
What does sustainable fishing mean to you?
I will answer this one from my perspective as a bass fisherman and bass fishing blogger in Minnesota. Basically we are blessed with an abundance of bass fishing opportunities in Minnesota. The key to sustainable bass fishing in this state is all about two things in my mind; Habitat and water quality. Because of the catch and release mindset of most bass fishermen and the fact that bass are regarded as lesser table fare than so many other abundant species in Minnesota bass harvest is not much of an issue.

Habitat issues in most cases have more to do with quality of a fishery in Minnesota, rather than a threat to the sustainability of a fishery. Bass are very adaptable fish. The better the habitat available the more bass thrive and the better the quality of the individual fishery. Even a fishery with poor habitat is likely to keep a sustainable population of bass because bass are hardy and prolific spawners.

Water quality is the biggest danger to the sustainability of bass fisheries in Minnesota. Probably the biggest water quality problem bass in this state face is winter oxygen depletion winter-kills. Right behind that is the leeching of fertilizers into fisheries that cause algae blooms and abundant plant growth that can create oxygen level problems for the bass. We are lucky in the fact that most lakes do to size and depth are shielded from these serious threats to bass sustainability. Many lakes that are susceptible to winter-kill now have aeration systems put in by the DNR, Sportsman's Clubs, and Lake Associations which serve to eliminate or partially mitigate against winter kill problems.

I am lucky, bass fishing, Minnesota, and sustainability go hand in hand very well.

What fishing practices do you engage in that help fisheries?
I engage in selective harvest when I fish and the truth is I don't keep a whole lot of fish mainly because I'm catch and release fishing for bass 85% of the time.

Any other thoughts you might have on this subject? Yes, but I'm tired and the deadline for this writing prompt is noon today, so I'll leave this for another time.

Amazing Wildlife Photography Blog

One of this weeks Outdoor Blogger Network Featured Bloggers of the Week is JJ Wildlife Photography. This guys work is worth checking out, some amazing pictures.