FYI-The BP blog Color Scheme

There is a method to the maddness.

Green: Is for bass the "little green fish" of lore. Green is also for healthy weeds and we all know how Bass love the grass. Green is also the traditional frog color, and the BP does love those topwater frogs.

Blue: For clean clear water.

Black: Is for muck bottom where the weeds grow thick and the bass grow big.

Red: Is for blood because bass fishing is in my veins and for when I poke my finger with a hook by accident. Red is also supposed to represent something wounded and vulnerable, hense the rage with red "bleeding bait" hooks and color scheme's on lures.
(OK red and black is a stretch but the blue and green were chosen for those reasons)

Rapala Christmas Commercial

It's Ok, not great.

Fantastic Fishing Avatars!

I have been searching around on many of the websites on the Bass Fishing Top 100. One of the sites ranked near the top is called Tackle Tour . The emphasis of this site is product testing and it is a great site to get info. The site has a message board/forums that are pretty good as well. What impressed me the most about the forums was the selection of Avatars on site to choose from; it is simply amazing. They have tons of fishing company logo's, lures, reels, cartoons, fish, etc. It is worth going there and signing up for the forums just to get into see this collection.

The BP at Bass Fan.

Once again the BP was published in the BassFan feedback section. It's more like a "letter to the editor" than wide open comment section. I should have taken a little more time to craft my statement, but I figured they would edit it to be a little more clear where it wasn't. Unfortunatly, the only thing they edited was "The Bass Pundit" as part of my name.

Here's an excerpt (for full excerpt click the title of this post and scroll down).

Dave Maas of Lake Platte, MN writes:
My initial rections to the BASS co-angler changes were slightly negative, but nothing like the hysterics people seem to have at this point...

The topic of my "letter" was the controversial change B.A.S.S. has just made to it's Co-Angler rules. A Co-Angler is a person that fishes only from the back of the boat in a tournament and they compete against the other Co's; there is a separate tournament within the tournament. This type of tournament format is also sometimes called a Pro/Am.

The new Co-Angler rules at B.A.S.S. show a different direction in philosophy than FLW. The B.A.S.S.'s philosophy seems to view Co-Angler's as tourists with perks, while FLW cultivates Co-Anglers as a legitimate form of Bass fishing competition from it's lowest level, BFL (Walmart Bass Fishing League), to it's highest level, The FLW Pro Tour. In fact I think it was the FLW regime of tournaments that have changed the bass fishing nomenclature from "Am" to the now popularized term "Co."

The Bass Pundit doesn't think there is a right or a wrong answer as to which philosophy is better or more legitimate. Personally, I really want to try both at the highest level's of the "major league" trails. I think both sides are missing the boat in not giving the Pro credit in some way for fish that the Co-Angler catches. In FLW the weights are totally separate and BASS is now counting the Pro's weight with 3 fish for the Co, but the Pro's bass stand alone. I believe firmly the pro should get credit in some way for big fish the am catches because the pro chooses the fishing location and controls the boat. I will probably spell out how I think the Pro/Co formatt should be done at some later date.

One Good Bite a Night

That is the story for this week. I have been getting out at dusk and I get one quality bite a night. Tonight it was that little Pike on the left and last night it was the nice eye on the right. BP followers have seen pics of the other nights I was out (scroll down if you haven't).


Tonight there was a slight change in the routine, however, as I did bring up a half way decent sunfish. Last night I caught a small sunny and small crappie besides this 20.5" Eye.

Good Ice Fishing Article

The Aggresive Ice Angler is a good ice fishing article written by fellow Team Bass fisherman Deitz "Exudedude" Dittrich.

Today’s aggressive ice angler would be unrecognizable to the ice angler of
twenty years ago. The days of sitting over a hole in a permanent fish house are
far from over, yet the new breed of aggressive ice angler is becoming more
conspicuous. Fishing is no longer a form of relaxation; it’s a sport, and it’s
fun!

Check it out.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

If you don't know know what you are looking at, it is one of the finer things in life; my Mom's Christmas Sugar Cookies in it's rolled frozen pre-cooked dough state. The cookies are good, but the dough is MONEY!

In the immortal words of Bart Simpson all I have to say for myself is:

"I didn't do it, nobody saw me do it, there's no way you can prove anything!"

Patti's first Ice Fishing Trip.

Well I decided to let the pup come out with me and ice fish today. I was quite worried she would be more of a nuisance than she was. Other than not sitting for the pic I wanted to take, she was pretty good. She quite enjoyed playing with the perch before finally eating it. Patti Lou does love sushi.

As far as the fishing, I got out even later than yesterday so I fished the same general area. Picked up more perch right away but that stopped after a couple of fish. I decided to try and find the hump that is out from the point I had been fishing. Amazingly enough I found it rather quickly and started getting perch right away. As it got darker I figured an eye or crappies might be inclined to position on this spot, just like I always think they will, but I've never got one yet. I hole hopped for a while and got nothing on the hump.

I then went back to last night's holes as my final stop. Once again I started doing some Trap keeping and I saw something on the Vex and grabbed the rod right away. It looked like a couple of fish had come in and then I got a bite. I got tangled in the transducer which stunk cause it was a good fish. I managed to get it entangled and fought the fish for a good 3 minutes. At first I thought I had another nice crappie, then I thought it might be an eye, I got it up by the whole twice and then it ripped off runs. Unfortunately I didn't get a good enough look to see what it was and it broke me off. I suspect it was a pike because of the way it ran but yah never know. It was well after dark, not normal pike time and if 2lb test gets nicked it's gonna break. Looks like that spot is good for one hit a night. Hopefully I will be able to get out to the deep whole soon.

My day on ice

Well I didn't exactly get out first thing, but that is OK. It was warm today and as you can see the whole of Platte is ice covered with a slight snow covering. The ice seemed to be about 4-5" where I was. The date on the pick is a day early. This was taken about 4PM just after I started fishing and is the view NW from our bay.


The Blue in the Grey

Unfortunatly due to the snow cover I was unable to find the holes I wanted from last time out. It took me a while to find fish. I took this pic of the first fish to prove I didn't get skunked just in case I didn't catch anything else. I got several small perch, but once again was shut out on pike, amazing.

At least... (Click on pic to enlarge, it will make all fish pics look better)


After it got dark, I thought I would stick around in case another eye or more likely a bullhead would come by; I even chummed the hole with minnow cuts. I hadn't gotten anything for 1/2 an hour and started doing some housekeeping things in the trap. While I was doing that I noticed that red line on the Vex that was my bait seemed to be big maybe with some strange separation (people who know flashers will get it, the rest of you will have to come out ice fishin with the BP sometime.) I immediately grabbed the rod and slowly lifted and sure enough the electronics started separating my lure from something else. I stopped lifting and immediately the bigger red line moved on top of my lures red line. I didn't feel anything, but figured whatever it was bit. Sure enough I set the hook into something bigger than a perch. I figured it would be a wooly bully or maybe a smaller eye than I caught last week; I was presently surprized when I saw a silver mug in the hole. I've never caught a crappie off of this spot summer or winter.

Fresh Crip on Ice

This one must have been a loner as that I didn't have another fish come in again. I was in about 10feet right on the break on a point.

The fish was a perfect eater size at 11.5 inches. Those who know there ice jigs know that is a Glow Demon which is indeed a fish catching demon once the Sun goes down.

Results of Gone Fishin Above

Gone Ice Fishin!
(Click "Gone Ice Fishin" for Poem and Flash Animation)
(You will need a Flash Player to see it)

New Fishing Message Board- Get free tackle.

Goto:
Catch N

The guys at Catch-N Tackle have started a fishing BB or forums or whatever. Anyway they are giving away free tackle packs to the 1st 100 to register and then Personal Message Dave Hoggard.

As of midnight 12/7 I was the 67th person to register. Check it out.

If your not a fisherperson register anyway and send the BP what you get as a Christmas present. Ha!

Breakthrough News

I broke into the Top 100.

Ok it's just a stupid Internet Top sites site, but I did break the Top 100!
Rank is determined by the number of "hits" I get at this site and then averaged over three days.

Didn't get out today.

I was just not up to getting out on the ice today. Maybe tomorrow.

Here's some pics from last season and Scott "CollegeOutdoorsguy" Hillesheim. Scott was living at his uncle's cabin on Platte while he finished up his last year at college in Brainerd. We discovered each other through Fishingminnesota.com and we ended up fishing together in his uncle's permanent many days and nights. We had a good time and caught some nice fish, Scott was an entertaining person to be around, I'll miss him this year as that he has now graduated. Hey Scott, if you see this buzz me an email or sign the guest book or something.

Here is what I am pretty sure was Scott's biggest ice bass of last year. I think it was about 18.5"



And I believe this was the 1st Good Bass of last winter and it was just a hint of all the good fish in the area which we would later catch a bunch of. The majority of the bass were slightly closer to shore than where the permanent shack was located.


Man I hope to get into that kind of Ice Bassin action this winter.

AAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

As that the BP bleeds Purple and Gold, today was a rough football game to watch. DA Bears held the Queens to 14 and stole a win. I love Daunte but he cost us this one. The O line, O and D coordinators helped out too. I watched that instead of going fishing AGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!

However, my attitude is settling with the Packers getting utterly undressed in in Philly. 28-0 and it isn't even half. Do I hear 35!

No sooner do I hit publish and the Eagles go in for 7.

EAGLES 35 Packers 0

I think I'll live blog it.

Halftime Score Eagles 35-3. Packers Suck!

GAME ON!

Eagles go down and only get a field goal this time. 38-3

Well so much for liveblogging the game. The BP's gotta eat.

Final Eagles 47 Packers 17. So basically the Pack and Vikes are tied.

1st Ice Fish of the Year

I got out to the little point in our bay and put a minnow down. Nothing, but I was messin around in the Trap getting things in order. I had only drilled one hole and the depth was right at 9.5 feet for me to be right on the break. After I got done getting things in order I put a Cubby Mini-Mite down the hole. Much to my surprize a fish showed on the Vex which had not happened yet and the fish immediately hit. First thought was that it had to be a pike, and it was a half way decent fish. As I fought it, it didn't run like a Pike and so I figured I had a bass, eye, good sunny or crappie on. As I got it about 1/2 way up it came unbuttoned. AGGGGH!

A short time later a school of little perch moved in and I iced my first fish of the year this ice season. Here it is:

He's inside of the Ice scooper. I actually lost several bigger perch before I got this little dude through the hole. All I was getting were small perch and so I moved around a bit but couldn't find anything in the other holes. As it started getting dark I went back to pull some more perch. I lit up the lantern for the 1st time only to find out it had about 5 minutes worth of propane left. I switched to Glow Demons as the light faded. Right after I got the Demon on my jigging rod with maggies glowed up and down the hole, bam. I had a good fish on and it wasn't fighting like a pike. It got caught up on the Vex transducer so I though I would lose it but it stayed hooked. When I finialy did get the 2lb test unwrapped I kind of figured it was a bullhead, but much to my pleasure a golden fish appeared in the hole. Ahhh success.

Well here she is

15" of Perfect Platte Eater Eye

Gone Ice Fishin!
(Click "Gone Ice Fishin" for Poem and Flash Animation)
(You will need a Flash Player to see it)

VADOS!

"The Best In Baits From The Land Of Lakes"


Multi-Cultural Maggots, Maggies, or Spikes
They look yummie, don't they? If you are on Survivor or Fear Factor maybe/maybe NOT! If you are a Crappie definite maybe. If you are a hungry Crappie; GULP and my St. Croix Avid Ice Rod is a bendin! And the only question left is: "Are you are a lover or a fighter or both?"

Today, after holding niece Isabelle, was the first of my annual trips to get some creepy crawly critters from Vados. Somehow I don't think Kristen would have let me in the house had I gotten the bait before hand. The Staff was friendly as always and I even got a hot tip somewhere here on the BP blog about a good Crappie bite just north of me from Vados GM?? Mike Jacobson. Mike is a fishing buddy from the Viking Bassmaster days of the BP. I just might have to check that one out.

I will be hitting the ice tommorrow 4sure!

(Next time I go in I think they should give me one free red spike for this post and one free green spike for the link)

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.

SKUNK!

That's right, my first ice outing was a skunking. I did get out to the little break, in 8-9ft of water, where I thought I might find a few fish but nothing was there. No Pike, No Perch, No Sunnies. The wind was blowing pretty good or I would have moved around a bit more. On thin ice you don't wanna take the chance of the fish house blowing down the lake. It was also pretty cold out in that wind. The upside is that I discovered my propane heater is out of gas and that I rediscovered the need for remodeling the Trap to get it the way I want it. I did take a couple of other pics but I left the cover on the lens for those, Dough!

The view from the inside.
(When it appears, this pic didn't format right and only comes on when I go back in and re-edit it)
(Isn't it remarkable how precise my "writing" of the days date came out.)

Ice Fishings 1st Attempt

In mere minutes, I am going to start getting dressed in the warm clothes, put my gear in the Fish Trap, and try to ice a few fish; Probably Pike, Perch, or Sunnies. Due to treacherous ice, I will not be able to get out to where I would like to fish, but I think down the shoreline I can get over a drop-off safely. Wish me Luck.

Ahh, the sound of ice cracking under your feet, the hum of the Vex, the feel of shaving ice with the Laser Hand auger, the sight of sunnies nosing up to your bait, or a pike ripping through the hole. Ice Fishing is here again!

(Actually, yesterday I did put a line down right out in front in 3 to 4 ft of water, but that won't get the job done. It seems like you have to be 6ft or deeper to get fish under the ice on platte.)

I will report with Pics if I don't fall through and die of hypothermia.