Amistad Day Final

AND IT's REMITZ BY A MILE
Minnesota native Derek Remitz wins the Bassmaster Elite at Lake Amistad with a final day bag of 31-6, big bag of the day, for a total of 111-7; beating IKE by 7-12. Derek had the days big bass with an 8-11 kicker. Way to go Derek!

It's been a long time since a Minnesocoldian wins a tour level Bass Tournament.

BassFan Story...

BASS story...

beartrap first hand report with pic...

BassZone Report...

Hellabass Blog...

Fishing Diva has a tournament tale, complete with lost car keys...

Fantasy Bass Round UP:
Bass Pundit 1 with 468 currently in 2nd MN fantasy bass league. Fair line up with 3 anglers in the final cut Kennedy 2nd, KVD 5th, Ish 6th. Niggemeyer was the albatross.

MNsocold BPboys with 377 to move up to 25th in MN fantasy bass league. Two angler in the final 6: Kennedy 2nd, Ish 6th.

Super 6 Pickem Round UP
Bass Pundit 1: 32 Points for

MNsocold BPboys: 20 Points

Amistad Day 3

Hellabass Day 3 Blog is up...

SMG has a March 10 Blog up...

Amistad PRO Top 12
1. Derek Remitz: 80-01
2. Steve Kennedy: 77-02
3. Mike Iaconelli: 76-04
4. Todd Faircloth: 75-01
5. Edwin Evers: 71-04
6. Davy Hite: 69-13
7. KVD 68-4
8. John Murray 67-1
8. Jeff Kriet 67-1
10. Skeet 66-14
11. Ken Brodeur 66-12
12. Ish 66-09

MN Co-Anglers Day 3
20 Joe Barnett 36-8
32 Richard Lindgren 31-7
36 David Doty 27-11
48 Wayne Lindgren 21-11
85 Jason Dudek 10-0

Team Evinrude Day 2 Journal

Liveblogging the weigh IN
I'm enjoying watching the ESPN/Bass Live Leaderboard

Right now MN boy Derek Remitz has taken the tournament lead with a Day 3 leading bag of 30-7. He also has Big Bass as of right now with a 9-2 kicker.

Other notable news at this point: IKE stays consistant with another 24lb bag, KVD may not make the top 12 cut; he only caught 17-4 today. Gary Klien only caught 8-8 and has dropped out of the top 12, so far he has low bag of the day (didn't even catch a limit).

Hellabass' pro Jason Quinn weighs 13-14
Hellabass weighs his tournament best at 13-1 (He will probably move up but is way short of the cut)
Hellabass total weight 31-7
Hellabass' Dad weighs only 1 bass for 2-6 total 21-11

Ken Cook has the new Pro low bag with 8-2
Real-time leaderboard is now stuck on Brent Chapman-I hate when that happens.

Weigh in is now over. KVD made the cut in 7th. Todd Faircloth had the days big bag 36-7 and big bass 10-11. Derek Remitz is in 1st Place.

Amistad Day 2

Halloween Machine! Grand Rapids Thunderhawks beat #1 Edina Cake Eaters 3-1 in Minnesocold State High School Hockey Tournament.

3 Questions

Excellent Amistad Coverage at BassZone

Pro's Picks to win it.

Co-Angler Report

Drats! It looks like the Real-time Leaderboard is down, therefore "No weigh in for you" Update:It's working now!

SMG Pro's On Tour March 8 & 9

Billy Harris Bass Pro has a Percy Priest Tournment blog up.

Hellabass Day 2 Blog

MN Co-Anglers Day 2
19 Joe Barnett 26-5
36 Wayne Lindgren 19-5
46 Richard Lindgren 18-6
48 David Doty 17-0
85 Jason Dudek 10-0

Fantasy Notes:
Bass Pundit 1: KVD moves up +9 into 5th Place, Kennedy holds on by the skin of his teeth, Linter backs off a little along with ISH. Niggemeyer is a disaster pick, LAST PLACE (not even a bonus point) Overall Day 2 about the same to positive.

BP boys: Martens drops like a rock right out of the cut. Ish and Kennedy see BP1, Jeff Reynolds bombs without limit, Place 106. Crews is a slight up mover +6 and in Da Cut. Overall a tough one because of Martens.

Hellabass has a fantasy team that is smokin.

Amistad Elite Day 1

Check Out Elite Rookie Scott Campbell's 12lb Amistad Beast--->


Hellabass has an Amistad Day 1 Blog


Amistad BassFan Story

ESPN/BASS Story

Day 1 Standings

Velvick's Follies




Amistad Fun Facts: 5 Minnesocoldian's are fishing as Co-Anglers including Day 1 leader Joe Barnett of Fergus Falls with a 24-12 Catch. Hellabass' Dad Wayne Lindgren is in 11th after Day 1 with 16-06
49. Richard Lindgren Lakeville, Minn. 4 8-11 Go Hellabass!
50. Jason Dudek Excelsior, Minn. 4 8-08
57. David Doty Cottage Grove, Minn. 3 7-11

Day 1 Fantasy Bass Notes: Steve Kennedy Rocks, Ish Solid, KVD on the prowl, Lintner respectable along with Martens. Niggemeyer and Jeff Reynolds bomb, Niggemeyer didn't even catch a fricken limit thus stealing 5 bonus points from Steve Kennedy's Big Sack Bonus.

Day 1 don't mean Jack Squat! (except for those 5 missed bonus points)



Steve Kennedy Sacks 36-10!

Bassfan Big Stick John Murray has a practice report from Amistad.

Good Luck Hellabass!
If you are unaware Bassing Blogger Rich "Hellabass" Lindgren is fishing Amistad as a Co-Angler.

Hellabass has a pre-fish Update Up.

Get those Fantasy and Super 6 Pickem rosters in.

Congratulations! to Terry "Big Show" Scroggins on his come from behind win at the BASS Southern Open on the Kissimmee Chain. Story

Bassfan's weigh in on Swindle DQ
BP weighs in on Bassfan's article:
I am of the opinion that Gerald Swindle operated his boat in a reckless and unsportsmanlike manner at the Bassmasters Classic and agree that Tournament Director, Trip Weldon, made the right call. The BassFan article confirms that there are many that agree with this assessment, but not all. Those who justify Swindle's actions are flat out foolish. It is common sense that you don't run through boat traffic at a high rate of speed. All the talk about a "narrow" channel misses the mark; You don't navigate a channel at high speed if there is little room for maneuver because of other boats. It is common courtesy to not buzz by other boats especially at distances of no more than a couple of feet.

Swindle himself tried to justify his action claiming to be a "professional boat driver." If he were such a Pro he would have shut it down and idled through because that was THE ONLY sensible action.

Meet Elite Series Rookie Matt Sphar

Team Lucky Craft Journal Lake Travis

BP stands for Back Pain This time the Chiropractor was not a miracle healer and my back has been quite sore since Monday. I think I'm gonna need to see the Chiropractor again next week. However right at the moment my back is feeling OK, which is a nice change.

Team Lucky Craft Journal has it's blog about the Classic Up.

On Tour SMG pro's at BassMaster Southern Open on Lake Kissimmee and the Classic.

Rich "Hellabass" Lindgren has started himself a My Space Page.

Until I figure out what to do with this, I'll leave it here: Lunkergirl.com

Just learned about Ken Cook's Elite Schedule Journal which consists of Elite Series Bass Pro Ken Cook blogging about the various stops on the BASS Elite Series. Check out the blogs of the 2006 season. Another cool thing on Ken Cook's website is the Pattern Forecast. Ooops I guess you have to pay for it, not that cool then.

Bassmaster Classic Fantasy Bass Recap

Team Bass Pundit 1 gave a respectable performance amassing 636 Points which is in the 96t% and in place 448 overall. 3rd Place in MN Fantasy Bass League.

The Bass Pundit 1 line up:
Boyd Duckett-1st
KVD-3rd
Mike McClelland-12
Tim Horton-16
Russ Lane-24

The Minnesocold BP Boys didn't fair nearly as well.
Line Up:
Steve Kennedy-8th
Russ Lane-24th
Aaron Martins-25th
Jeff Reynolds- 27th
John Crews-35th

This was only good enough for the 20%, 8989th place overall and 28th place in the MN Fantasy Bass League. The BP Boys have some ground to make up.

In Super 6 Pick em both teams scored 16 points missing KVD's spot by one short and one long. This put the teams in the 53%, 2845 overall and tied for 8th in the Minnesota Elite Venue League.

Next Fantasy opportunity is the Lake Amistad Battle on the Border lock down 03/08/07 08:59:59 AM PST. Good Luck!

Classic Day Final

Well the 2007 Bassmasters Classic is in the books and the winner is Alambama native Boyd Duckett. He won on the strength of a 6-9 kicker that gave him a 6oz margin over Skeet Reese.

Congratulations Big Bass Boyd!














A little liveblogging of the Classic weigh in:
Note: I do NOT have live streaming of the weigh in and even if I did I'm on dial up so it would be all hacked up anyway. I can blog because of the real-time leaderboard.

So here are the unofficial Top 10 on the day
1. Kevin VanDam 45-6
2. Gary Klein 44-3
3. Terry McWilliams 43-9 45-3
4. Skeet Reese 43-5
5. Boyd Duckett 42-5
6. Dean Rojas 38-9 37-13
7. Todd Faircloth 37-7 35-11 (Not in Top 10)
8. Randy Howell 36-14 36-15
9. Kevin Wirth 36-6 41-4
10. Jason Quinn 36-3 38-1
10. Mike McClelland 36-3 37-5

Once again we will watch to see if it holds true to form.
Jason Quinn has 38-1. Mike McClelland has 37-5. Faircloth has 35-11. Kevin Wirth has 41-4. Randy Howell 36-15. Dean Rojas with 37-13.

Terry McWilliams knocks it out of the park 17-6 for 45-3!

The Super 6 are: Klein, Horton, Duckett, Scroggins, Reese, KVD!

LONG DELAY for the Super 6 hoopla!

Oops that Unofficial Top 10 wasn't the Final Unofficial Top 10.

Here it is:
1. Kevin VanDam 45-6 45-4
2. Skeet Reese 45-5 48-4
3.Gary Klein 44-3 44-5
4. Terry McWilliams 43-9 45-3
5. Boyd Duckett 42-5 48-10
6. Dean Rojas 38-9 37-13
7.Mike Wurm 38-1 37-9
8. Todd Faircloth 37-7 35-11(Not in Top 10)
8. Terry Scroggins 37-7 39-9
10. Randy Howell 37-6 36-15

Gary Klien comes up short.
Boyd Duckett knocks it out of the Park 17-13 for 48-10
Scroggins 39-9
Skeeter 15-14 for 48-4 just short.

Van Dam vs. Duckett and the winner is: BOYD DUCKETT! breaks the home state jinx!

KVD comes in 3rd with
45-4
Snowed In Last night we got about 14 inches of blowing and drifting snow. Major drifts in the drive way; Big enough to make Lilah disappear entirely.

Keep up with going's on at The Bassmaster Blog and Unofficial Top 5

Vam Damage has his limit already and is ready to rock. According to the Bass Trakker Rojas is making a surge but has a lot of ground to make up.

BassFan Bigstick John Murray recounts his sub-par Classic performance.

Rotico's talking big bass in Texas.

Classic Quotes from Bass Zone

Bassmaster Classic Day 2

The big news today other than Van Damage and Pamela Martin-Wells is the DQ that G-Man Gerald Swindle received for unsafe boating. It was all caught on tape. Shame Shame G-boy. He got exactly what he deserved. The DQ cost him a fair shot at the Classic.

Well Day 2 is in the Books and Van Damage is in the Cat-birds seat. Will he be able to do it? I wouldn't bet against it. But I think anyone in the top 13 could take it.

The Day 2 weigh in has started here is an unofficial Top 15. with the actual
1. Tommy Biffle 33-5 28-6 #8
2. Ishama Monroe 31-5 27-5 #11
3. Kevin VanDam 30-3 32-15 #1
4. Boyd Duckett 29-6 30-13 #4
5. Skeet Reese 29-5 32-6 #2
6. Terry Scroggins 29-4 30-15 #3
7. Steve Kennedy 28-14 28-9 #7
8. Gary Klein 28-10 28-11 #6
9. Randy Howell 27-13 27-8 #10
10. Kevin Wirth 27-7 27-1
11. Terry McWilliams 27-3 27-13 #9
12. Michael Iaconelli 26-1 24-15 (In the 15 Spot)
13. Mike Wurm 25-8 24-8 (Not in Top 15)
14. Royce Dennington 25-2 23-12 (Not in Top 15)
15. James Charlesworth 24-7 21-10 (Not in Top 15)

It will be interesting to see how this corresponds to reality. Skeet Reese has weighed in and officially has 32-6. KVDamage weighed 19-14 and has 32-15. Wurm only weighs 10-8 for 24-8. Howell fizzles 9-9 for 27-8. James Charlesworth bombs with 9-3 for 21-10. Kevin Wirth 12-8 for 27-1. Terry McWilliams 12-4 for 27-13. Gary Klien 17-5 for 28-11. Steve Kennedy 16-7 for 28-9. Ish 12-5 for 27-5. Ike 11-6 for 24-15. Tim Horton 12-6 for 29-11. Boyd Duckett 10-15 for 30-13. Terry Scroggins 13-15 for 30-15. Royce Dennington 13-13 for 23-12. Tommy Biffle only 11-11 for 28-6.

People also in Top 15:Mike McCelland, Kevin Wirth, Aaron Martins, Tim Horton
Looks to me like anyone in the top 13 have a shot. GO KVD!

Congratulations Pam Martin-Wells!
Apparently Pam Martin-Wells has gone wire to wire at the inaugural Woman's Bassmaster Tour Championship at Lake Mitchell. She sacked a tournament best 15-8 bag on day 3 and beat out Sherri Glasgow by a solid 7-2.
>Story Here
>Results Here

BP Notes: So I wake up early this morning to catch the Bassmaster Coverage on ESPN 2. I thought the deal was that they would be showing an hour or two of Day 1 and then an hour or so of Day 2 coverage. I was quite disappointed when they only did a little on Day 2 and just immediately re-ran the same stuff from day 1. Boo!

Day 2 Classic Blog
Day 2 Unofficial Top 5

BassFan Day 1 Notes from the rest of the field.

Blog of a Classic Volunteer

BassMaster Classic Day 1

BassFan has it's intial recap up.

BassFan Big Stick John Murray on Day 1

Team Evinrude has the Day 1 story for Mike Wurm and Denny Brauer.

Just Call him Big Bass Boyd Boyd Duckett has weighed a 8lb2oz Toad and has just a scrape under 20 with a total weight of 19-14.

Well the Day 1 Results are in and Duckett is in the lead by almost 2lbs. The ten spot is at 14-9, the 25 (Cut) spot is at 12-2, and the 38 spot is just 2-1 from there; This all adds up to a pretty congested field going into Day 2. I feel like day 2 will make it or break it for the front runners. My guess is they are going to need to have 17lb plus bags at this point to make a run for it.

Alabama anglers aquitted themselves well on day 1 taking 3 of the top 5 slots and 4 of the top 10.

Some WBT Championship results are in and Pam Martin-Wells leads by 4-08 over Sheri Glasgow going into the final day.
Day 2 Story
Day 2 Standings

Weigh starts at 4:45CT: Real Time Leaderboard

Check out: the Classic Blog for the latest scuttlebutt.
Also Check Out: the unofficial "Top Five"

It's about time the major bass fishing organizations break out some new technology to cover the fishing competition. It's been a complaint of mine that the tournaments are not blogged. Now at least the Bassmaster Classic is being blogged as it should be. Hopefully FLW will take a clue and due something to expand their tournament coverage as well. I just hope BASS keeps this up for the Elite's.

Hellabass on The Classic Media Blitz.

Will Kermit Play? Kermit, of coarse, is the nickname for the Spro Bronzeye Frog that Dean Rojas throws. According to BassFan, Rojas plans to throw Kermit during the BassMaster's Classic this weekend. I think the frog bite is a bit iffy due to the water temps being in the low to mid 50's. It will be interesting to see what happens.

My first day of practice was unbelievable. It was rainy, warm, the fish were biting, and I had about 25 bites. A few were good ones, and one was about 4 pounds. I was pretty confident.

Then the big freeze happened and I hardly fished the second day.

On the third day, I went upriver and got only a couple of bites.

A week later, on the final practice day, it was warm again and I got quite a few bites. A lot of them were little ones – 1 1/4-pound fish. I also caught a couple of drum.

So right now, I've got a deep-water pattern where I can get 10 to 20 bites. It's a main-river, current-driven pattern for a good limit. I've also got a shallow pattern for later in the day. I'm really not sure of the size on that shallow pattern.

If I could catch 13 to 15 pounds the first day, I'd be highly pleased.
BassFan Big Stick John Murray on his Classic Practice

Hellabass has his Fantasy Bass and Super 6 Pick'em line up's available for the world to see.

more Classic Picks are

Bass Fishing Home Page 1

Bass Fishing Home Page 2

Major League Baseball Players

Elite Series Anglers

BassFan's Top 10 To Watch

Women Bassmaster Tour Championship Day 1 Results.

Alton Jones ON TOUR

Clay Dyer has an update.

BassFan Army is offering FREE lifetime memberships, sign up here

WBT Amistad Story from the 7th Place Finisher

Be sure to visit the Classic Blog

Zona on Fantasy Bass Fishing

Weather.com for Birmingham Alabama. Looks like the weather is gonna warm up which may turn the Classic into a pre-spawn largemouth whack fest. If that's the case look for Brauer, Biffle, and Hackney to do well.

Classic Media Info. BP's Thoughts: I am probably going to follow the weigh ins on the Real Time Leaderboard and then watch them on TV. I would prefer that they carry the weigh in's live but ESPN has elected not to do that, probably so the coverage will look a little more slick.

Tim Johnson gives his FLW Lake Travis recap

Bish on Fish on fishing photograph cheating

Pro Site-ING
Aaron Hastings who just won the FLW Lake Travis.

Here's how the Posse faired at Lake Travis in the FLW Fishing Challenge

1 BPObro Todd Maas 855
2 Bass Pundit 1 Jeff Sutter-Maas 836
3 BP's Dad Chuck Maas 814
4 Minnesocold BP's Boys Dave Maas 785
5 Cyb'sBboys Mike Thompson 735
6 Bp's Mommy Sue Maas 676
7 Schmenzig Bassmen Steve Maas 620

BPObro was 39th best of all players
Bass Pundit 1 was 78th overall
Bp's Dad was 177th overall
Minnesocold BP's Boys are 376th overall
Cyb's are 882 Overall
Bp's Mommy is 1691 overall
Schmenzig is 2432 overall
I am unsure how many are playing FLW this year because only the top 500 scores are listed.

The winner of the Lake Travis Flw tour stop is Aaron Hastings of Middletown, MD with 9-10 bag and 19-9 Total weight. He won by 1-11 over Bryan Thrift of Shelby N.C..

Clark Wendlandt only brought in 2 fish for 5-15 and ended up in 4th place.

The days heaviest bag belonged to Bryan Thrift with 10-9.




BassFan Story

FLW Story

Quick Bites

Sean Hoernke blogs about Lake Travis and fishing in a 200 boat field.

Liveblogging today's Day 3 FLW Weigh in (Starts 4PM CT)

Today was obviously the toughest of the tournament so far with only 4 of the top 10 pro's bringing in limits. Aaron Hastings will take a 2-4 lead into day 4.

Dave Lefebre -- Union City, Pa sacks a limit but only for 6-8. Which pretty much leaves the door wide open for most of the anglers for Day 4. One kicker fish is about all the distance between 1 and 10.

Will Lefebre knock it out of the park or will it be a nip and tuck day 4?

Clark "Clean Shoes" Wendlandt -- Leander, Tx the home town hero does get a limit for 7-12.

Jerry Green -- Del Rio, Tx with only 2 for 3-8. He caught 13-2 and 11-1 on the previous days. Ouch!

Craig Dowling -- Madison, Al with 4 for 5-8. Wow today is looking tougher and tougher.

Ron Shuffield -- Bismarck, Ar with 2bass for 5-5.

Ott Defoe -- Knoxville, Tn with 4 fish for 4-12. Looks like it was a tough day. Note in an amazing twist on Thur. and Fri. Ott and Robertson caught exactly the same weight both days. Amazing!

Darrel Robertson -- Jay, Ok fumbles with only 1 fish for 1-7

Bryan Thrift -- Shelby, Nc bags 7-6 with a 5 bass limit. His two previous days were 10lb bags.

Aaron Hastings -- Middletown, Md bags 9-15, that's a little better.

Tracy Adams -- Wilkesboro, Nc weighs 1 fish for a scant 1-6. I don't think that is gonna get the job done.

And we are under way first up is a Co-Angler. I will not be liveblogging for them. I only am going by the results screen as that I can't get the live video feed to work. It looks like they are weighing all the Co-Anglers first.

Lake Travis Co-Angler Champion is Frank Divis SR with 8-11

BASSMASTER.COM has a Classic Blog in the run up to "The Classic"

Full Classic Coverage from BASSMASTER.COM



More News on Bassmaster the movie.

Rojas takes on Winni:
When his guides complimented Rojas on the sheer fact that he was not whining about the cold, Rojas wanted none of it. "Dude," he told them, "I'm a professional fisherman. I deal with stuff like this all the time."
Sure Dean fishes in 20 below wind chills all the time in Arizona. Right

Jay Yelas on Lake Travis:
Jay Yelas – Competition 2/16/2007
It was a pretty poor tournament for me – I thought I would do a lot better. I had several good jig bites in practice and a lot of good dropshot bites, but I only hooked one good fish in 2 days during the tournament and that one broke me off under a big metal dock.

I thought I was dialed in pretty good, but as it turned out I didn't have the fish to do much better than I did. It just goes to show you that sometimes things don't go the way you think they're going to.

On a new lake, it's easy to get fooled into thinking you're on a good pattern when you're really not. If I had it to do over again, I'd probably fish a jig a lot more in practice.

Fantasy Notes:
Jim Moynagh had a good day at Lake Travis catching 11-15 to jump 100pts in the standings. Overall Day 2 was on balance a good one for the Posse fantasy picks. BPObro will be the top team

5 Best Plays: Wendlandt(cut), Robertson(cut), Stacy King (19), Chip Harrison (21), Moynagh (23)

5 Worst Plays: Chris McCall(164), Alvin Shaw(159), Mike Hawkes(147), Sean Hoernke(95), Gagliardi (82)

Today was the start of the 2007 FLW Tour Season. The first tournament is being held at Lake Travis near Austin Texas. This is Clark Wendlandt's home lake and he did not dissappoint bagging 17-03 which is 3-13 in front of the nearest competitior.
BassFan Story Here
FLW Story
FLW Quick Bites

Fantasy Bass Fishing Notes:
I have the full 7 team posse playing the 2007 FLW Fantasy Fishing Challenge After Day 1 there are a couple of teams doing OK but nothing to get too excited about. On a possitive note I did put Clark Wendledt on every team.

Happy Birthday Steve!

If your looking for fantasy bass fishing help for the FLW event at Lake Travis the Pundit Picks are in. Better hurry though the roster deadline: Feb 14, 2007 11:59 p.m. ET.

About the ladies:
Conny Jenkins* presents: Profiles of the 24 women who will be competing
in the first Women's Bassmaster Tour Championship...a series starting in
reverse order of ranking..... (Scroll down the page for these interesting articles)

A Remarkble Fisherman

Today in my online pursuits I came across Flw Tour Pro Clay Dyer's website. As you can see from the picture, Clay doesn't have legs or hands yet he is still able to drive a bass boat and fish competitively at the highest level. I was pleased to discover that Clay is also a Bassin Blogger.

Very soon Clay will be releasing a book entitiled The View From Down Here Is Just Fine with biographer and outdoor writer Scot Laney. Check out those links to find out about this remarkable fisherman.

The SMG site has a blog for all SMG Pro's .


Also through the SMG site, I found FLW Pro Sean Hoernke.com with blog.

Changes, who needs them?

Today I have discovered that the way that I import pictures into the blog is no longer available because the new updated Blogger (which I don't use anyway, at least not yet) is not compatible with the Hello BloggerBot.

So now I've got to try a new way of adding pictures. Here it goes:





And there it is! A huge bass from Lake Nacogdoches via FLW Catch of the Week






All well and good but what about multiple pictures?


Well I'll be a blogging bear in a river, it's easy to do. Thanks for bearing with me!

What is with FLW?
The 2007 FLW tour debut at Lake Travis, Texas starts in two days yet their website doesn't have any articles about it. Where are the pundit picks? Someone throw BP a bone cause that Fantasy Bass Fishing lock down deadline is looming in quickly.

Blog Note: Not only have I learned a new way to import pictures today, but I also, thanks to Hellabass, learned the secrect of getting links to open in a new window. You're never to young to learn especially when your computer IQ is as low as mine. Now all my links on right column will open a new window; It was quite the project to change that up, so I hope BP users enjoy. No more hitting the back button to get back here.

Wanna take a fishing trip?
Check out Fishing Traveler: the blog that helps you plan your next fishing trip. This blog has information on trips in the Continental USA, Canada, Alaska, Mexico, and looks to be adding more info all the time. As of now they have 7 articles on Minnesocold Fishing. It's easy to find the articles on the destinations where you want to go.

Blog for Cyberfish to Check out:
These are the Generations of...

Global Warming
Global Warming? Where Have You Been The Past 60+ Hours? from Sportsman's Blog

Find out about:
The FISHHER Sisters (Hat tipUltimate Bass.com blog and ebassfish) and ladies don't miss the FISHHER website.

Minnesota bass anglers crowned top Federation for 2006 via Hellabass

New products for 2007 (via Ultimate Bass.com blog)

WBT Amistad Results
And the winner is Juanita Robinson of Highlands Texas. She sacked the day and tournaments biggest bag at a respectable 26-00lbs to bring her three day weight to 56lbs-08ozs. Both weights set WBT records.
Bassmaster Story Here
Final Standings Here

Bass in Blogs:

As American Dream stories go, this one had me hook, line, and sinker.

Non-bassfishing-endemic blogger Steve Krause of Steve Krause: Blog has blogged about Takihiro Omori titled Bassmaster and the American Dream

Bass Fishing Hits the Big Screen ... Again blogged by Cinematical. Movie Blog has a related opinion: A Movie About Bass Fishing - Kill Me

Kentucky takes its bass fishing seriously blogged by PigIronMalt

Random Facts About Bass Fishing Don't believe everything you read on the internet or hear at the Waffle House. blogged by Nick Gray dot net.

Pro Bass Fisherman Explains Life To Son Through Complicated Bass-Fishing Metaphors from The Onion Sports.

And this could have come from The Onion Sports; Bass Fishing with Famous People from The Ebb and Flow Institute.

Thanks to a entry over at the Hellabass Bassin Blog I found out about this cool fishing web community called Angling Masters International. AMI is basically a My Space type online community specfic to fishermen and women. It is a neat idea and I signed up straightaway. I think the page layouts are much cleaner than the typical My Space page.

An individual's page is called a "Cabin." The Cabin holds some basic personal information, a blog, photo gallery, "Livewell" (place to record catches and accrue points to compare against others from your state and presumably all AMI members), and "Fishing Buddies" listing. Fishing related businesses can have a part of the action as a "Marina."

So to make a short story longer; I have now openned up another franchise in the Bass Pundit Blog Franchise Empire:

Introducing BP's Cabin

Hellabass Cabin Here

Cyberfish Cabin Here (Apparently Cyb found AMI, but he didn't say anything to me about it)

I have taken to adding some new Bass Fishing Blogs to the Blogroll-O-BassNblog. They are:

Rick Morris Blog - An Elite Series BASS Pro gave blogging a try, but it looks like he stopped.

Rotico’s Bass Fishing Blog- About Rotico: I’m a long-time freelance writer, specializing in fishing, conservation, environment, and travel. I’m a Senior Writer for ESPN/BASS Publications and a Contributing Editor for Stratos, an in-flight publication for private and corporate owners of planes. I’ve fished all over most of this country, as well as in Mexico, Brazil, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and South Africa. Also, I’ve fished with many of the best tournament anglers and guides. I’ve caught my share of big fish, including ten bass of 10 pounds or more. I’ve also been skunked more than a few times.

Bass Fishing Center Blog- I am not really sure what the deal is with this blog. It looks to be dormant as well.

Cyberville Bass Fishing- A blog about fishing for Sally and Larry.

Flyfishing, Bassfishing and all about fishing- This blog is crazy and I'm not sure what it's deal is.

Gone Fishing bass fishing tips locations- Looks like a respectable bass fishing blog that is current. This blog has been around for quite awhile. Where has it been that I couldn't find it?

Apparently Fishing Jones has a new site. I wonder if they got to big for Blogger?

The Ladies of the Women's Bassmaster Tour are fishing the 1st event of the 2007 tour this weekend. The Ladies are fishing "HAWG factory" Lake Amistad in Texas.

The Top weight for Thursday was only 19lbs-13ozs and was brought in by Texas Angler Karla Bullard. She is from Del Rio Texas thus Amistad is her home body of water. Marcia "Reelady" Rubin ,who I blogged about on Wednesday, only caught 2 fish and is sitting in 57th place.

Day 1 Story Here
Day 1 Results Here
Day 2 Story Here
Day 2 Results Here

Cool Article on the life of Bass Pro Ish Monroe
Through society's often-stereotypical eyes, Monroe, 32, might seem out of place in the sport he loves. Not long ago, competitive fishing was an almost-closed fraternity, with both subtle and visible barriers. It was a sport rooted in deep traditions that conjured images of the "good ol' boy" South.

But Monroe is perhaps the biggest example of how it's changed: He is the only black to have made it on the Bassmaster Elite Series and one of the hottest anglers on the circuit. Monroe is part of a new breed of stars, along with Mike Iaconelli, Skeet Reese and Jason Quinn.
Read it all Here

Check it out:
Team Evinrude website is a new feature out of BassFan that is similiar to the On The Water with Team Lucky Craft and BassFan big sticks. I consider online journaling like this to be a form of blogging. They have entries from a couple of 2007 tournaments already, the latest being Gary Dobyns on the FLW Western Series at Havasu.

One of the unique things about Bass Pundit blog is that it has the most comprehensive listing of Professional Bass Fishermen and women websites on all of the internet.

Here are the new one's I've added to the Bass Pro Site-ING blogroll for 2007.

Alton Jones
Charlie Youngers
Chris McCall
Dearal Rodgers
Gary Howell
Robert Karbas
Kim Striker
Mike Wurm
Preston Clark
Zack Thompson
Tim Carroll
Jason "Hardware" Quinn My Space Page
Denese Freeman My Space Page
"IKE" My Space Page
"Ish" My Space Page
Kurt Dove My Space Page
Sondra Rankin My Space Page


I'm counting ebassfish as a BassN blog even though it is more of a full-website than blog. It's a great site to learn about the ladies.

Update: I have decided that this site ebassfish is the Bassfan.com of the Women's Professional Bass Fishing world therefore I will reposition it under Pro Bass Info as I will also do with the two other women's site's that I have under BassNblogs, but really aren't.

Of interest:

I'm back from my first "official" tournament as a new Bass Pro. Although I did
not finish quite as high as I had hoped, (Motor troubles the day before the
tournament) I will tell you that my experience on Neely Henry is not one that I
will be soon to forget. I've never fished a "river system" before, so this whole
"current" thing was a brand new dimension.

from Marcia Rubin's 2006 WOMEN'S BASSMASTER TOUR Diary

She has a website and My Space page with blog.

What have I stumbled into...
Answer: The world of My Space Bassfishing which appears to be rather extensive. So this is where bassfishermen and women have gone to be a part of the blogosphere. What a huge disappointment. IMHO MySpace is designed for 8-16year olds with high speed Internet connections. I just flat out don't like the way My Space pages are laid out especially since I'm on dial up. I consider sites like My Space or Xanga to be the gated communities of the blogosphere. Sure you can navigate them without being a member, but it's obvious that they are designed for community membership and not a wider world wide web appeal. I guess I am prejudiced in favor of blogs which are more free floating.

My Space is it's own world in the blogosphere and I'm a little unsure how or if I want to integrate it with my blog. I foresee a lot of time expanding blogrolls if I want to incorporate the My Space world into the B.P.B.F.E.. I suppose the best way to do it would be to (God forbid) start up a Bass Pundit My Space page and add it to the Franchise Empire and go from there. I'm gonna need some time to think about this.

BP Blog Note:
I have decided to get rid of the Guest Book because the thing wasn't working anymore. Thus visitors can only now make their presence known by leaving a comment. Thanks BP

Fishers of Men Club Meeting with Travis Frank

My fishing club is the Fishers of Men (Twin Cities). We meet the first Thursday of every month. Last Thursday, February 1st at the club meeting our speaker was Travis Frank of Trophy Encounters Guide Service (His website is basically a jazzed up blog-check it out). Travis is a young guy (23) but a hardcore fisherman who spends lots of time on the water. He guides mostly on Tonka, Waconia, and Mille Lacs for Muskies and Walleyes. He gave a very interesting presentation on shallow water weed walleyes. He says he fishes walleyes in 4 to 10ft of water for most of the year (open water), catching some real brutes. I was impressed and will give his methods a try.

Congratulations Colts
the BP was rooting for them all the way.

Favorite Commercial: The Blockbuster mouse

Best diversion of the day: Puppy Bowl III on Animal Planet

As promised ESPN/BASS Fantasy Bass Fishing is ready to rumble. Prizes seem to be a little better than last year.
(BP is FBFing in the group: MN Fantasy Bass)

Ice Fishing 2007

I have yet to try my hand at ice fishing this winter. The weather is supposed to stay quite cold for a couple of more weeks, so I probably won't be getting out anytime soon. It's hard to say why I've not gotten my act together and headed out. There are a lot of little reasons and the simple fact that I just have not been motivated to want to do it. If it were summer I would go out fishing tommorrow as that I've got an itchin to go open water fishin. Ohh well only another 2months and 2 weeks or so until open water.

Hellabass is reporting that ESPN/BASS Fantasy Bass Fishing will open up registration on February 2nd.

Hopefully Espn will up the prizes from last year.

Congratulations to Mark Zona who will be hosting The World's Greatest Fishing Show on ESPN Outdoors.

Bass fans out there are aware already I,m sure, but it is notable that BassFan has changed it's website page layout.

BP's Review: I absolutely loved the old layout; It was perfect. The new look is not nearly as good; It's harder to navigate and it's just plain ugly by comparison. Two thumbs down!

Registration is open for FLW Fantasy Bass Fishing.

Christmas is coming

A year ago I was in Florida for Christmas, boy do I miss that. Actually the weather in MN has been very mild so far this winter. Will it be a white Christmas?

The BP has not been out ice fishing yet, but the ice seems to be safe on area lakes. I was given a very nice permanent ice fishing shack that will go on the ice sometime after the first of the year. Hopefully I'll put up pictures.

The Vikes are almost officially not play-off bound. I do like the looks of Tarvaris though.

Anyway Happy Holiday's to all!

The wheels are falling off

Last week a loss to the Pack, this week a loss to the Dolphins. The only good thing about the loss is that Chokepepper wasn't QBing. If you missed it, the Vikes awfulfense gave up two touchdowns in the 4th quarter and Miami won 24-10.

Mallory goes to the doctor. 

Here she is: 

Isabelle is my 2yr old neice and these pics were taken 11/3/06 

Fluh Fluh and Belle 

Future Pilot??? 

Big Smile 

Big Sister and Mallory Doll 

Eating Invisible Pizza 

Isabelle in a box 

Isabelle Grace Photo Blogging 

Happy Halloweener!

Vikes got Rolled
The Pats came to town on Monday night and put sort of a whooping on the Vikes. However, on a key play in the red zone Mewelde Moore was blatantly held, uncalled, resulting in a Patriot interception. The game may have turned out quite a bit differently had a penalty been assessed with the Vikes 1st and goal at the 2. The score was only 10 zip at half.

Mewelde who is my favorite Vike ran back a punt for 6 otherwise it would have been shut out city. The Vikings red zone offence was terrible. I was not happy that Bolinger came in instead of Taveris.

Also I am now NO fan of the New England Patriots. When the game was obviously over, they stayed in the pass first offence and tried to run up the score. Fortunately the Vikes D stepped it up a little and put a few knocks on the golden boy as they well should have.

Vikes Win! Vikes Win!
31-13
I had no faith. I thought the Vikes may play the Seahawks close in Seattle but didn't think they had any shot at the win. Who knew?

Mille Lacs Fall Trolling

Still alive, still not much in a blogging mood. I have been out for one Fall Walleye trip on Mille Lacs. I did OK Fishing from 8PM to 1AM or so landing 7 walleye from 1 cigar up to two 27"'s. Got them on either a Perch Frenzy Minnow, White Green Frenzy Minnow, or Mystic Susp Minnow wht/blu. Unfortunatly I was unable to get down to the Salmon Run again this year, the reports say it's been a good year.

I probably should have gone trolling tonight as that it was reasonably warm, oh well.

What is up with the BP

Ever since I hit that deer, I have had very little interest in fishing. I've only been on the water twice since; Both trips I was fishing with someone else or I wouldn't have bothered. Since I've had no interest in fishing, there has been no interest in blogging about fishing or anything else. I guess the BP is just drowning in the dog days of summer.

Hellabass has been writing consistantly, so if you want a bass blogger check him or Bass Hole first.

Anyone know of any new bassin bloggers?

Tigerhawk goes fishing

I've been a periodically avid fisherman since I caught my first smallmouth bass at age five. In addition to the savage smallmouth, the Adirondack lake where I learned to fish has walleyes and northern pike, and at various times I have pursued these as well. I've just returned from two lovely weeks up North, and had a very nice time reliving fishing memories through my tackle box. Any tackle box collects, over the years, a wide assortment of lures, each with its own story, or the grating absence of a story. Mine is no exception. In addition to lake fishing, I have at various times also pursued largemouth bass in weedy farm ponds, fished for carp and channel catfish in the muddy Iowa River, and sought trout and landlocked salmon in fast, clear running streams. Of course I share a fisherman's attraction to pretty, shiny lures of new shapes and sizes, and am far easier to tempt than the fish I pursue, and as a result my tackle box is crammed with all sorts of lures.

I have stuff to say, but will say it tommorrow maybe

I'm still alive, but haven't been doing any fishing. The FLW Championship was held an was won by Brent Erhler, who? Not exactly a house hold name. Jay Yelas actually had the best 4 day weight by quite a bit, but only the last day matters in the FLW Championship.

BP Update- Hit A Deer

The big news is that I hit a deer this morning on my way to the Team Bass Horseshoe Lake Tournament. I was about a half hour into the trip and it did a pretty good number on the front of the truck. I was able to get turned around and limp it back to the new house. I am not even sure if the deer was killed or not because it was nowhere to be seen. Dad thinks it's fixable but that is gonna take some time and that I may have lucked into replacement parts cheap.

I was not needed at camp this past 4th of July week thanks to some campers that cancelled. I spent the week resting and spent a day pre-fishing for the Horseshoe Chain. I will not be needed for camp this week, which is fine seeing that I've have no tow vehicle for the boat.

All in all I'm pretty bummed about the hitting the deer and missing the tournament and last week of camp. I'm going to try and get over it by going down to the cities and see my niece Isabelle for a couple of days. Hopefully the little cutie will cheer me up.

It's official:
Dave Maas wins 2006 Bowfin Championship

Dave Maas won his second Grand Championship in the Minnesota Bowfin Club (MBC). The Hillman, MN angler also won the Championship in 2004. Maas took the lead early, registering a 30 inch fish in April this spring, and was never seriously challenged for the title. His nearest competition was a 25 inch fish recorded by Chuck Fields, of Brainerd, for a distant second place.

Maas caught the winning bowfin (sometimes called dogfish) on April 26, 2006, on Mille Lacs Lake. He was sight fishing, and used a ½ oz white jig & pork rind. Maas is the first person to win two Grand Championships since the club began competition in 1999

The MBC tournament occurs each spring to see who can catch and release the largest Bowfin. The Bowfin is considered a “rough fish,” by some. However, this fish puts up a great battle when taken on traditional bass fishing equipment. The MBC promotes fishing for these fish using artificial lures, and releasing them unharmed. Bowfins play a valuable role in the eco-system of any lake.

The MBC tournament season is held from ice out until June 15th each spring. For a complete listing of tournament rules and registration procedures, please visit the MBC website at http://get.to/bowfin/

FYI-Dave Maas is the BP.

The Week in Tournaments:

Monday June 12th GEM Pepsi Challenge Tournament Town Line Lake:
The fish were on the feed this night with lots of fish caught in all boats. The winner of the 3 Bass, 3 Pike tournament was Dave Lindmark and the 6 kids in the pontoon achored by Sarah's 20inch Largemouth. Sara is a girl, duh, who has mild cerebral palsy and retardation but she held up wonderfully for the week and was a joy to be around; Her 20 incher was big Largemouth for the week and her first fish ever. My boat, Rick and Justin, caught a bunch of bass and some pike but no size.

Tuesday June 13th GEM Pepsi Challenge Tournament Mule Lake:
The weather was sunny which makes Mule Lake tough, the fish did bite late in the day. The Tournament was taken by Guide Mike Thompson and his two kids. I think they won this Multispecies Tournament with 7 species: Largemouth, Smallmouth, Rock Bass, Perch, Sunfish, Crappie, and Pike. Mike caught several 4lb class largemouth on docks and a few good smallies on docks and poppers. My boat, Rick and Justin, didn't try that hard to fish multi-species. I caught a 4lb Larry and 4lb Sally on the Frenzy Popper.

Wednesday June 14th Pepsi Challenge Tournament Town Line Lake:
We went back to Town Line cause the fishing was so good on Monday night, but the weather was warm and sunny which made fishing much tougher. Mike Thompson took the tournament with Rick and Justin on the strength of 3 good Bass and Pike. My boat Malik and Dylan, struggled and didn't have much size on either the bass or pike. We did have fun "surf fishing."

Thursday June 15th GEM Pepsi Challenge Tournament Blackwater Lake:
Conditions were sunny with a south east wind with growing cloud cover late, not ideal but Blackwater has lots of bass and fishing was pretty good. The Best 6 Bass tournament was a tie at 97inches between my boat, Elijah and Alex, and Dave Lindmark and the 6 kids in the pontoon. The pontoon won the tie breaker with Rick's 19inch smallie which was also big smallie of the week. Thus my boat was shut out for the week.

Saturday June 17th Fishers of Men Club Twin Cities Multi-species Buffalo Lake:
The weather was cloudy with a slight South then North wind turning very wet. The fishing was tough and me and my partner Tony Hanf got skunked. Buffalo lake appears to be in the midst of a major decline thanks to winter time over harvest, weed killing, and run off. The Tournament was won by Mike Thompson and his Dad with 10 Crappies and a 20.5 inch Largemouth. The day was not a total wash out as that I had Angeno's Pizza for dinner.

Camp Summary: It was a good week with good kids. On to Lindisfarne.

Great Expectations Ministry

It's time for the me to head off the GEM camps for the summer. I will be spending the next 5 weeks volunteering as a guide to take kids fishing. It's a lot of fun but my blogging will take a big hit as that I will only have access during the weekends and those are busy enough already.

Hopefully I can get some pictures from the camp this year. I think the director has a digital camera.

Please be in prayer for me and the kids
Peace Out!

The BP Tournament Scuttlebutt:
The first two Team Bass tournaments are now history and the results are satisfactory but not spectacular. The first tournament was last week at Lake Osakis in Todd County. Osakis is a big lake that is known more for panfish and walleye than bass. I had a reasonably preductive pre-fish and managed to parlay that into my first check of the year with a fourth place finish out of 17 Teams. This was my best regular season finish since two years ago.

Today we had our tournament at Lobster lake, as I said yesterday I had low expectations. The weather was better than I thought it would be and I actually had a really good time. I managed to beat my weight from last year by a few ounces but didn't manage to crack the 12lb mark . I thought I had a great shot at another check but it wasn't to be. I ended up in 5th place because the 3rd place team caught a 4lb03oz kicker right at the end of the day, otherwise I would have been ahead of them. I am keeping on track so far with the 5th place average finish that I will need to have a shot at the top 10 at the end of the year. Still no kicker fish for me. The next tournament isn't until July 8th at the Horseshoe Chain.

Kumar Blog Day 3

On tommorrows tournament at Lobster Lake: My pre-fish didn't go well and now lousy conditions are going to prevail. It is gonna get cold and it will be a wet and windy morning. This will probably make the fishing tough. Not looking that much foreward to fishing this one.

BassFan's Jay Kumar is blogging the Skeeters Owners Tournament this weekend at Lake Fork, TX at the BassFan Army Site
Day One Here
Day Two Here

Check out this somewhat new fishing blog Black Gumbo a good primer post would be How We Started This Fishing Thing, and Why Excerpt:

Our first fishing trip of 2006 was spawned by my son’s question “Dad, when can we go fishing again?” I had really been trying hard for years to find some activity that my son really embraced. He had tried sports, and while he was enjoying himself, he really wasn’t embracing it like some kids do. Swimming, soccer, gymnastics, all were tried, all were dropped. He got into BMX racing for while too, but the heat really kills that sport in the summer for all but the most dedicated.

And to add another layer to our quest for something he would really click on, I never really was an integral part of his outdoor activities. That bugs me. You see, we believe in a strong family identity and we foster things that some folks consider out of place. We belong to a classical education home schooling program of maybe 200 kids; we attend a family integrated church where we worship together, not segregated; we actually sit down to eat dinner as a family more often than not; and we do stuff together because we like each other. All four of us genuinely like each other! Imagine that. So my desire was to carry on that kind of togetherness with my son’s activities. Sports wasn’t cutting it.

It looks like the fishing is centered around inshore down in Texas.

See a Fish shaped coffin at The Trout Underground

Don't miss this blog: Spike of Living the Dream has his tribute to Kirby Puckett done. Actually it was done March 17th but I've not been to his blog since then.

Lobster Pre-Fish- UUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!

I'll be pre-fishing Lobster Lake tommorrow.

BassFan Chris Koester Grand Lake Co-Angler win story.

He's on BassFan radio too!

BP 2005 Team Bass Tournament of Champions Report

Hellabass Le Homme Deu Tournament Story- Congratulations on 10th Place and making a check. Full Bassmaster Series LHD results here with Co. For the intial Bassmaster Series they had 60 boats and Dean Capra won it going away. Lots of the Excel Bass guys fished this tournament either as a boater or Co.

Tournament Results at the Ohio Bass Fishing Blog

Chris Koester wins the Co-Angler division at Elite Series Grand Lake plus other BassFan Big sticks stories.

GOLIATH fish story at Fishing Jones

Hellabass Prefish at Bassmaster Series Le Homme Deu Chain

Pics and Info at The Bass Hole


Grand Lake Bassmaster Elite Series Champion Mike McClelland
He absolutely smoked the entire field and won by a staggering 15-09 margin.

What I've been up too.

I've turned into a slithering reptile in the TLLB ecosystem, wonder when that happened?

Pre-fished Osakis on Wed. more on that later.

Didn't feel well yesterday, bad head and back aches

I've got a new trolling motor. More on that later.

Holy Schmallies
Caught by FLW Rookie Michael Murphy . Story on the Guy from Bass Fan.

BP sends out Memorial Day gratitude to all soldiers who served this nation. God Bless America!

Pic from the launch on Mille Lacs. Story Here

The Weather edited(from earlier today): It has been rumbling for the last 45 minutes and it has gotten very dark outside. I love a good thunderstorm, just waiting for it to punch. It has started to rain with a medium downpoor... It eventually came down pretty good with some marble sized hail. The temp went from 92 to 74.

Blogs that BP recommends:
Fishing Jones
Ezods
Hellabass One & 2
The Bass Hole

BP finds a new search engine: Dogpile I'm one of the many who are miffed that Google didn't put a tribute to our soldiers on Memorial Day.

Sunday May 28, 2006

BP VS. Cyberfish Bass Opener 2006

Tommorrow is supposed to be hot again. I don't have a plan but I'm scheming to get rid of that Minn Kota Endura trolling motor as fast as I can.

Family News
Congratualtions to my older brother Jeff for being accepted to Hamline Law school with a generous merit scholarship. So William Mitchell, what is thy offer?

Mom got a speeding ticket in Florida

I got a call from Isabelle Todd and Kristen yesterday

Devin Sage lost Grandma Maas to the road as of yesterday. Mom is heading north.

Liveblogging the 2006 MN Bass Opener

I didn't repeat last years mistake and got up early to hit the PRO where the early bird gets the worm. I woke up at 5:00 and was on the water by 5:35. It was a cool 67 with a bit of a SE breeze already stirring the air. I headed straight for the Platte River Outlet.

Upon Arrival I had several rods rigged and ready to go. I picked up the white swim jig and reddish purple trailer first. I got a hit on my very first cast but it was a pike. The Swim Jig was getting to caught up in the rice and so I switched to a green Zoom Horny Toad, shortly after starting to throw that I landed a 13.75" bass. Shortly after that I landed a 16.75" fish on the Horny Toad, then I landed a 17" bass with the swim jig. I then caught another 13.75" on the Toad and then a pike and then a 12" bass.

I had started making my way into the river at this point and another boat was coming in there with me. I landed a 15" right in front of these other two guys. They proceeded to go right in front of me and start fishing almost immediately the guy in the front of the other boat caught a 14-16" fish. I kind of worked slowly allowing for us to have some separation. I then started thoroughly working the wind blown side of the river. I caught a couple of 12 inchers then I got 2 that were 15-16", this was fishing behind these two guys. I narrowed the gap between us and decided to split.

I went to a semi-protected part of the PRO outside of the river. The slop was thick enough that it was Snagproof Frog time. I started by throwing a white frog and was shortly rewarded with a 16" bass. A little bit later I caught a 15" fish. I switched to a brown Snagproof Bobby's Perfect Frog, I got a bite and broke off, I'm not sure if it was a pike or not. Disappointed I tied on a Black Red Sparkle Frog and kept fishing. I worked my way to the river mouth then headed to the south shore of the PRO. All I got on the south shore was a few hits from Pike.

I then headed into "Old Cabin Bay" to do a little dock fishing except the good dock run was all covered up by parked panfish fishermen. I moved beyond them and started on docks with a black and green jig. I got a few on the docks and missed a few but nothing bigger than 15" and the fishing was fairly slow. I headed in about 11 O Clock. Overall I did alright. Conditions started to get tough with that wind, there were a ton of people on their docks or out in boats, it was a zoo out there by 9AM.

And then I took a nap

I went out for about 45 minutes around 4:30PM. I was fishing docks in our bay with the black and green jig. I managed to get one little bass. Didn't see much activity but a few sunnies. I left my polarized glasses here at the house. I got back to the house by 5:30 and shortly after that Mike "Cyberfish" Thompson arrived and we had dinner. He had been out on Mille Lacs hammering crappie and sunnies. He said he saw a lot of bedding Larry's and Sally's but could not get them to bite. After Dinner Mike cleaned crappie for a fish fry tomorrow.

We decided to go out around 7:30 in the calm area just to the East of our place. I got one 12"bass and Mike had a couple of follows. This area is full of rice which caused the Trolling Motor to overheat and now I have no working forward speeds. NICE! Fricking Minn Kota piece of crap.

Tomorrow is supposed to be warmer and more windy than today. Dad will have a look at the trolling motor tomorrow. I have a sinking feeling that I will be using our old trolling motor for at least the first couple of tournaments. I think it will work out ok provided I don't have to fight millfoil or rice. Tomorrow with the high winds and boat out of commission Mike and I may go float tubing on a little lake.

Tournament Reports 2005 for Knife and Platte Sullivan are up at the Tourny HQ.

MN Bass Openner is now just under 24 hours away!

The Plan: Wake up at day break and hit the PRO, from there it's anybodies guess but I will be out today looking for beds and bass activity. I suspect I'll be throwing lots of jigs and trick worms at docks with maybe a little bit of action in the slop. It's supposed to be quite windy and warm.

Mike Thompson will be coming up on Sat. night and we will hit the lake after church on Sunday which is supposed to be into the 90's. We may hit Mille Lacs if it's nice on Sun. or Mon.

Gar at The Bass Hole has been whackin and stackin

Mosquito's the little buggers started to be out in force today with the warm weather. Bass openner is now just a few short hours away. Visions of Snagproof Tournament Frogs will be dancing in my head tonight.

Hellabass wins at Wapo

BP fishes with Gordy

Mille Lacs Launch with Dad

BP Feature: BP's 2006 Tournament Outlook Part 1

Picture of Devin Sage Maas

This is what Uncle Todd had to say at his blog.

Welcome....

Devin Sage Maas my wonderful new little niece coming in at 21 1/2 inches and 8lbs 7oz at 4:51a.m.

I am an uncle again. So welcome little one, my prayer for you would be that you would know Jesus, know Jesus, Know Jesus and that you would grow in wisdom and mercy. Wisdom and Mercy will be your the 2 godly attributes that I will pray be raised up in you.

Congrats Steve and Kim and of course Haley! I'm sure you are exhausted. Love you,

Uncle Todd

We are all very excited!!!!!!

Fishing Rod and Reel Story from My Fishing Chronicles- "Fishing is a Passion." This is one good fishing blog, lots of pictures and stories.

Gar with Big Korean bass at The Bass Hole.-Check it out!

In case BP fans are wondering, why all the blogging. It's kind of cool outside and I don't think the fishing will be that great, plus bass aren't officially open, plus the weather is supposed to take a turn for the better starting tommorrow; that's why I blog today.

The first BASS Major is over with Peter T taking home $250,000 at the Bassmaster Memorial.

Check out this Blog: Bassin' the Net (a very fishy blog)

Devin Is Born! Plus Misc

Hooray! my Brother Steve and Sister in law Kim had Devin Sage Maas at 4:40AM. She was 21" inches and 8lbs7ozs. I haven't seen any pictures yet, but Steve says she is definitely a little Maas. The labor went on for 15 or 16 hours. Poor Kim had a terrible time of it, but everything is good now.

Hellabass has his first tournaments of the summer this weekend. Preview

Because we are fishing these two tournaments "No Cull", it changes how I may go about things. I feel pretty confident I could start out with Jerkbaits & lipless cranks and get a limit in the morning. If I do that and females make themselves easy pickings in the afternoon, then I am hosed because I am stuck with a livewell full and I cannot cull them out. So if the water looks right, I may just start the morning looking for bigger fish.

Although traditionally our May club tournaments are pretty stingy, so I may put the first few keepers in the box regardless of size. I have been burned before by throwing keepers back. I feel there is a pretty solid chance there will be some fish ready to spawn by tomorrow afternoon.

I don't know about in the Amery area but up here the weather threw a curve ball from the actual forecast. It was nice up until about 11 and then the clouds rolled in the wind picked up and it even rained for a while. This front wasn't supposed to come through so fast. The bite up here on Sullivan for pike went from so so to tough. I hope Hellabass wasn't counting on the bite getting better as the day wore on.

Have I been dissed?

Anyhow, if you want a target to shoot for, it makes more sense to target Instapundit than Bass Pundit.

via basil's blog

Man he could have used any of the other 143 other Pundits out there, but NO basil chooses to smack me around.

Actually I thought it was funny. I think I'm gonna add it to the top of my page.

Today...

Was a nice day a wee bit windy. I hung out most of the afternoon throwing the frisbee to Pattie Lou. Eventually I braved the wind and went out fishing. I caught 3 Pike including a strong 29" that made my day. I also had a break off and caught several bass. I fished Sullivan.

Tommorrow I will be heading to Lake Minnetonka for the inagural Fishers of Men 3rd Thursday Outing. At this point I expect to be the only boat out there. Oh well.

More trolling motor problem, my bracket broke, but dad worked out a pretty good fix for me. Minn Kota Endura transom mounts are junk for serious fisherman, step up to the Maxxum's.

Brought the Widow Olson some fish to eat and she repaid me with a choclate bar and banana bread. Had fish for dinner, yum.

Still no word on Kim, tommorrow must be the day

Tommorrow is the start of the Bassmaster Memorial Major-be sure to get those Fantasy Bass Rosters up to date.

All for now.

How much longer until bass opener? Anyone seen any dogfish I can catch?

It's been a pretty lethargic last couple of days, I did get the boat cleaned and visited the Minnesota Fishing Museum with Dad yesterday.

Go check Hellabass for some interesting Wapo informationO. I am amazed that he would write about his pre-fish before the tournament was over. Or maybe he was doing PsyOps with the competition.

Here is Cyberfish's openner report: via Catch-N.com

No walleyes for me either. We took some kids out on a pontoon for some pike
and crappies. the lake I wanted to fish had too shallow ramp for the toon.
Decided to mosey on over to whaletail, where I have heard rumors of huge pike
and slabs. Well, I am sure they are in there, but we didnt find em. The bass
must have known the season was closed, cuz that is all that was biting! I threw
a huge spinner with a heavey steel leader, but only got two nice bass. Mitch our
best GEM fishing guide boated a huge bass over 21inches and full of eggs. No
pike not even a hammer handle, no crappies, one kid got a couple of sunfish on
waxworms. Everyone had a good time, we got out of the wind and it didnt rain too
much.

Kim, I think you should have your baby today;)

Opener in 4 Parts

Opening Report Part 1:
I'm Back. The wind and waves were howling in out of the East which means I couldn't cast very well. After about 6 to 10 casts I was out of there. If the wind stays like that than the Eddy's Jetti may be pretty good tomorrow during the day.

Opening Report Part 2:
I've spent the day so far inside relaxing, the weather has been cool rainy and windy, but plan to get out in a bit. Here is the results so far from the Gov., Governor, first lady reel in walleyes.

Opening Report Part 3:
Around 3PM or so I started getting around to getting the boat ready in a steady drizzle to light rain to steady downpour. I was not thrilled about this. When the boat finally launched I trolled a Excaliber Floater Shad for Pike and Walleye's. I got a pike and then the motor started giving me trouble so I headed into the little east bay. I got 3 small pike and a bass. From there I headed into Sullivan and trolled the Excaliber Floater Shad for Pike and Walleye's with no results. I then headed to the South side of the Pro. I started with throwing a swim jig and caught a small bass immediately. Shortly after that a pike separated me from the swim jig. I put on a spinnerbait and worked all the way into the river. I got 2 more small pike and a bass. I was getting hungry and so I headed back into Platte. I decided to troll with the Excaliber Floater Shad for Pike and Walleye's when I was between the two Islands. Trolling in I whacked a 5-6lb Northern and then I decided I was good and headed in.

Opening Report Part 4:
The weather was finally clearing up and so I decided to head to Mille Lacs and Eddy's Jetty. The reports from Mille Lacs today have been that the fish were on fire. I waited until I saw all the fishing stuff on the 10 O'clock news and then headed out. Between 10:45 and Midnight I landed 4 Eyes all off the same spot on the Jetty. The first two were a 15" keeper and 19" keeper. I then landed a 21.5" slot fish and 20.5" slot fish. After casting for another 15 minutes or so without a bite I decided that was good and left.

Not a bad end to a somewhat crappy day.

Heading out to open at Eddy's Jetty. Developing...

Pre-Opener Thoughts

Minnesota Pro Jim Moynagh is leading the FLW Kentucky Lake Tournament.
BassFan Story
FLW Story
FLW Quick bites

Pre-Opener Thoughts:
Tomorrow night at Midnight is the start of "The Opener," the weekend that marks Minnesota's open season for the state fish Walleye and the toothy Northern Pike. "The Opener" comes with a great deal of hoopla and anticipation amongst the angling crowd; It is a rite of Spring.

I do look foreword to "The Opener" but it is not the end all be all for me because it doesn't open the season for bass. I must note it is OK to catch bass provided you are fishing for northerns, walleye, dogfish, or panfish. It's still a couple of weeks away before I can break out the full arsenal of bass catching bliss. In the meantime I do enjoy fishing for both pike and walleye and will do a little of both over the weekend and throughout the rest of the open water season.

The weather is supposed to be cool and breezy with a hint or two of some rain. Not the greatest but not outright cold wet with gale force winds either. If the weather was better I would be hitting the water hard. As it stands I will take it easy. I will probably head to Eddy's for some midnight shore fishing. When I wake up on Saturday I will venture out on Platte/Sullivan to see how many hammer handles I can catch. The weather should be good for catching pike. I may even try to troll for walleyes a little bit.

The weather is supposed to be better for Sunday and I may hit the big pond on Sunday night before the night ban goes into effect on Monday.

Those are the plans, report to follow.

2005 Horseshoe 2 Tournament Report

Fishers of Men Spring Outing BP Report.

Team Bass 2005 Tournament Report Sauk Lake

Team Bass 2005 Tournament Report North & South Center

Fantasy Bass Fishing Update

2nd Dogfish of the Year

2nd Dogfish of the Year
Got a 21incher tonight on a white Stanley Phantom. May have had another follow.

Happy Birthday Kim!