Elite's At Mille Lacs

6AM at Eddy's

6:00-8:00AM Eddy's Jetty Mille Lacs
Conditions: 65-59 degrees, Wind Sw, Partly cloudy

I didn't get bit.

First Elite to arrive was Chris Lane

Chris Lane

I welcomed Chris to MN when he came by on the trolling motor.

Second guy to launch was Randall Tharp.

Randall Tharp

Third guy to launch was Bradley Roy.  I didn't get a picture of him.  Then came Keith Poche.

Keith Poche

After the sunrise the first one to come through was Dean Rojas.

Dean Rojas

Elites that I didn't take pictures of were Brandon Palaniuk, Adrian Avena, Andy Montgomery, Shaw Grigsby, Bobby Lane, Justin Lucas, and Brett Hite.

Bass Pundit Endorsements for B.A.S.S. All-Star Voting

Region 1: Shaw Grigsby- Truth be told I have never been a real Shaw Grigsby guy. He gets the endorsement for 2 reasons. 1. I used his jersey as a template for my own. 2. The contrast between how Shaw handled sharing water with Grant Goldbeck vs how Denny Brauer mishandled sharing water with JVD.

Region 2: Brent Chapman- Brent is a bass fishing blogger who I follow. Brent is a great guy who struggled some this season, but finished strong and made his way back to the Classic. Don "DB" Barone wrote an article titled "How fragile, we..." at the end of the year that featured Brent and his wife Bobbi (who also blogs) that chronicled the stress of a season not going well. Brent is guy who has paid his dues and is a true professional.

Region 3: David Walker- I not exactly sure why but David Walker is one of my favorite Pro anglers. He has a blog at his website and also does with The Evinrude Blog. It was cool see Dave pick up his first win ever this season and make his goal of getting back to Classic, which is the reason he left FLW.
Updated- I just found out from facebook that David is actually a Northern Boy originally from Michigan. Just another reason to like him.

Region 4: Brandon Palaniuk- This Federation Angler from Idaho turned Elite Series Pro living his dream has been fun to watch. He had a great season, that in some ways was overshadowed because this years crop of veteran rookies was so strong. He would have been Rookie of the Year last year going away. It's highly impressive that Brandon made it back to the Classic, especially having to deal with a couple of difficult circumstances that had to be overcome (The manatee zone incident and the selfish Denny Brauer). I hope Brandon makes it in the sport and he is going to need sponsors for next year, making it as an All-Star would be huge for Brandon in terms of selling himself to potential sponsors.

All 4 of these guys are on Facebook.

So go to All-Star Week Voting Page and vote for these guys. You could win a boat.

Elite Series Harris Chain Day Final Thoughts

Well the veteran legendary Florida sight fishermen Shaw Grigsby, pulled out yet another sight fishing victory in Florida. Shaw was kind of lucky because he beat Grant Goldbeck by 7-6 with Grant weighing in a full 5 fish less than Shaw. It was an increadible comeback for Grant with just 1 fish for 1lb 1oz on Day 1. Personally I was hoping Grant would somehow pull it off and he was just one toad away from doing that today. I think I along with a lot of Elite Series anglers are astounded that sight fishing was the deal in this one, especially with the winning area being shared by 3 or more boats. I guess it just goes to show how unpredictable fishing can be at times.

One thing about Shaw, I like the way his Jersey looks in the abstract and the hoodie that I am having designed is going to be quite similar in terms of the color scheme and design.

In terms of Angler of the Year race you have to believe that KVD is licking his chops. And Props to JVD in finishing 1 spot below his Uncle in 5th. If you missed the weigh in today Jonathon Van Dam was moved to tears when talking about how this was his dream come true.

My B.A.S.S. Fantasy Team was brutal in this one with 3 anglers worse than 77th Place. I faired much better in Advanced Anglers.com because I put KVD and Scroggins on that team. David Walker and Bobby Lane were major buzz kills on both. While my Fantasy Fishing teams have kind of sucked it up this year I am still ahead of the game in terms of prizes won thanks to a contests with The Bassholes.com, Chris Lane on Facebook, and TBrinks Fishing blog. Hopefully I'll pull down some Fantasy Fishing prizes yet, the season is still early.

Update: Here is a nice write up on Shaw from Wired2Fish.