Bass Fishing without a rod???

I am sorry but the idea of catching bass without a rod has exactly zero appeal to me. In the winter I really don't enjoy tip up fishing that much. I don't really care for the line stripping that is done in fly fishing either. I love the feel of the tug on the rod and playing the fish with a winding reel.

UltimateBass.com blog has some good articles on worm fishin, pre-spawn and reel care...

Slop Frog News:

I've been over at Cabela's looking at lures and reading some product reviews. I was reading reviews on the Spro Bronze Eye Frog. A re-occuring theme in the reviews and the #1 complaint about the bait was difficultly with hook ups. Now bass do miss topwater lures outright 10-15% of the time and you don't have a chance for a hook up in that case. But if the fish does get the frog with proper gear you should hook up and probably catch the fish 80% of the time or more. I think people are probably not using heavy enough equipment and aren't doing a wicked enough hookset. Braided line is a must along with a long rod with a lot of back bone. I use a 7'3" St. Criox Avid Flippen stick and have found this rod to be perfect for Slop Froggin'. There are a number of rods out there now designed specifically for Slop Frog fishing. I say if your not hooking up it's a failure of the fisherman and his equipments, not on the Bronze Eye Frog.

Speaking of Frogs, Cabela's has come out with it's own house brand Chuck-It Frog.

It is a handsome frog and at $5 bucks a pop, I'll have to try it.

Another New Frog is the River2Sea Bully Wa Frog

This frog is supposed to be excellent for walking the dog. At $6 a pop, I'll have to give these a try too.

Maas Marauder

They named a bait after me: The MAAS Marauder

Actually it's named after Al Maas the Leech Lake muskie guide. The bait sells for $20 at Cabela's. The lure sure isn't very pretty.

Audio Blogs from KVD on the last two Elite Series events...

MT Cyberfish has been catch-n some metro specks... with Cisco Pete...

New Rapala Lures: Rapala has come out with 2 new baits that look phenominal. The X-Rap Walk which is an X-Rap topwater and the X-Rap SubWalk which is a lure designed to walk the dog sub surface. So far the SubWalk is getting some good reviews. The downside on these baits is cost; The Walk goes for $12 at Bass Pro and the Subwalk goes for $10 at Bass Pro. I will probably buy a SubWalk, but the Walk is a little to pricey for me on a topwater. I made the mistake of buying a Lucky Craft Sammy once, I'm not doing that again. Note: The Sammy does catch fish but I have a number of other far cheaper topwaters that I have been more productive with, the Sammy doesn't measure up in comparison.

FantasyBasstour.com: Apparently this Fantasy Bass Fishing site didn't make it past 2006. I can't imagine trying to do FBF on AAA and AA bass tournaments. It's hard enough doing FBF on the 200 boat FLW field. If it was MN bass tournaments my team would be Dean Capra, Rich "Hellabass" Lindgren, Brad Cline, Jeff Bosshardt, and Jason Berg. With Jim Severson, Chuck Steinbauer, John Crane, Brad Leiferman, and Chad Kastenbauer as alternates.

BASS Toho Day Van Damage!!!

Stolen from Bass Fishing from a Different Perspective

KVD is the man!!! KVD held onto the lead and won his 3rd Bass Elite Series title and I think this was his 13th tour level victory. He had the 4th biggest bag of the day at 10-6 which did leave the door wide open if someone could have sacked a bag in the upper teens. As it was Kevin won by 1lb 11ozs.

FBF News: For the second time in two years the Bpboys had a shot going into the last day to make it into the BASS FBF prizes and possibly even win outright. Prizes go to the top 7 of all BASS FBF players. While I will have to wait for the results, my guess is that I came up a little short even though I did gain 2 angler places for the day and Bobby Lane caught the days Big Bass. I think to vault into the prizes I needed Bryan Hudgins to improve several places and maybe snag big bass or big bag bonus points. Hudgins ended up dropping 2 places on the day, which I think kills my chances.

Update: I gained a total of 42 points over yesterday, but all that did was keep me in 8th place; one place under the prizes. If Hudgins would have sacked them today than I would have been in like Flynn. In FLW Fantasy Fishing 8th place is good for a $1,000 Wal-mart Gift Card. Back a few years ago an 8th place finish would get you a pretty good gift card from Bass Pro Shops.

BASS Toho-ho Day 3

Holy Cow: I just checked the BASS FBF page and the BPboys are sitting in 8th place of all players. If KVD, Scroggins, Hudgins, and Bobby Lane all perform well I could see a prize.

Hmmm- I was planning on buying a Abu Garcia Revo SX fishing reel this spring, but I have been doing some research and several people have commented that they are extremely backlash prone. I don't like the sound of that, especially because I have almost zero backlash problems with Team Daiwa reels. I guess I've got a decision to make.

JoshDouglas is going to be fishing for sick kids...

DH to RH: My guy Disappearing Hudgins turned into Re-appearing Hudgins by sacking the days best bag with 20-10. Who knew.

FBF Recap: For the first two days of the Elite at Toho the BPboys have had 4 anglers in the top 12. I thought that streak was over when Mark Davis weighed in 7-13 and slowly fell out of the top 12. But my guy RH showed up big and the streak of 4 in the top 12 continued. The Bpboys managed to move up a total of 10 angler places thanks to RH's 28 position jump. However despite the 10 place increase my score will remain close to the same.

BPboys:
KVD 1st +2
Hudgins 6th +28
B. Lane 10th -4
Scroggins 11th -7
Davis 18th -9

Bass Pundit 1 was elevated slightly thanks to RH. Bobby and Scroggins are poised to strike tommorrow as that they have more upside than downside.

Hudgins 6th +28
B. Lane 10th -4
Scroggins 11th -7

BASS Toho-ho Day 3

Sean Hoernke blogged a FLW Toho recap...

OTW Bassfan Bigstick John Murray...

Disappearing Hudgins: At the 2008 Bassmasters Classic Charlie Hartley did well the first day and then fell back the 2nd and 3rd days. Because of his fall we found out that he has the nickname "DC" for Disappearing Charlie. The nickname was given to him by his wife for his tendancy to fish strong the first day of a tournament but then fall back during subsequent days. Well the posse BASS FBF teams have found a "DH," Disappearing Hudgins. At both Harris Chain and Toho Bryan Hudgins sacked 20lb bags the first day, but couldn't follow up and fell badly on subsequent days. DH made the 50 cut at Toho but fell 24 spots on Day 2. He had the worst Day 2 of any angler who made the cut.

FBF Recap: It was an ugly Day 2 for Bass Pundit 1, which is a big surprize because it seemed to have the better upside of the two posse teams. Here's the shake down on Team Florida.

Scroggins 4th -2
B. Lane 6th +1 (Yes a 1 point gain!!!)
Hudgins 34th -24
P. Clark 60th -23
C. Lane 72nd -11

That's right the BP 1 fell 59 angler positions on Day 2. OUCH! They were 8750th place on the day (54.24%) I suppose it could have been much worse if Scroggins and Bobby Lane tanked. BP1 dropped all the way down to 16th in the Futurebass.com league.

My hope for the Minnesocold Bpboys on Day 2 was that they would hold strong. With the exception of DH they did. In fact the Bpboys actually improved 13 angler positions thanks to big mover Mark Davis.

KVD 3rd +5
Scroggins 4th -2
B. Lane 6th +1
Davis 9th +33
Hudgins 34th -24

Despite an actual improvement in points over yesterday, the BPboys slipped to 262th best of all players from 91st. Wierd!

March Madness for Fisherpeople

It's something to do while I wait for the ice to melt. Go Steelhead!

BASS Toho-ho Day 1 (D.M.J.S.!!!)

The Weather: Today was supposed to be cloudy and in the mid to low 30's, it turned out to be sunny and in the mid to high 40's. I can actually see some of our driveway which means things around here get messy.

Dock Talk: I avoided it and decisively went with my fantasy line ups this time.

BassFan Big Stick John Murray on Toho practice...

BASS Live-Streaming: Today started out with nothing and I wasn't the only one as there was a thread with a couple of posts on the Bass Fishing Home Page. I was just about to take Patti outside to play ball when the feed went up just in time to see Byron Velvick weigh his big bag. The feed was great the rest of the time.

American Idol blog and more... So yesterday I post about American Idol and today I get an email from the website BuddyTV.com telling me about their blog and American Idol coverage. If you are into TV shows than this looks like a great site to burn some time at.

At first I wasn't gonna say anything, but it's on BassFan so it isn't much of a secret. There is yet another Fantasy Bass Fishing game in town This one is sponsored by BRP/Evinrude and has total purse of $175,000 in Prizes. I know I'll be playing.

FBF Round-UP: As all Bass Pundit readers know, when it comes to Fantasy Bass Fishing Day 1 of a bass tournament doesn't mean Jack Squat! Now if today was Sunday the Bpboys would have a line up to crow about; They are the 86th best roster of all players on the day (99.55%).

Scroggins 2nd
B. Lane 7th
KVD 8th
Hudgins 10th
Davis 41st

I do have some hope that these anglers can hang tough and that Mark Davis will move up some, but the fact of the matter is that it's a lot easier to slip with a line up like this than to improve.

Bass Pundit 1 is doing OK at 1283rd of all players for the day (93.29%)

Scroggins 2nd
B. Lane 7th
Hudgins 10th
P. Clark 37th
C. Lane 61st

If the line ups hold, big question mark, both Posse teams have a shot at being in the Futurebass.com league Top 10 maybe even Top 5.

Minnesocold Weather: I think it might have reached 40°F today with rain that has turned to sleet/snow but it really isn't accumulating.

FBF News: Get those rosters for BASS Toho in ASAP.

I got my FLW Player's Advantage $15 Walmart gift card today. Apparently they are also going to send a coupon book with over $100 in coupons from FLW sponsors.

FLW Lewis Smith rosters aren't due until 11PM April 2nd.

Big Bass Contest: Cyberfish of MT Bucket is participating in a for fun big bass contest at AnglerInsider.com message board. Info on it here... I don't think I'm going to enter because of the hassle of having to take an accurate picture with token item. This summer I am going to run a Beat Bass Pundit challenge instead of BP vs. Duffman Challenge.

The weather: It almost hit 50°F today

Unstuck: Farmer Ron Wall brought over his little tractor and pulled the Explorer out slick as Rick.

American Idol: Once again this year I am following American Idol. They are touting this year as the "most talented group they have ever had." Personally I think that is hype because I don't know if there is a Kelly Clarkson or Carrie Underwood in the bunch. I am not even sure if there is anyone as good as my favorite last year, Melinda Doolittle, who came in 3rd place.

My favorite performer this year is Brooke White. She doesn't have the biggest vocal chops in this years group, but she is very pleasant to listen too and is an excellent performer. If she were to make a record, I am pretty sure I would like it. It doesn't hurt that she has a million dollar smile and genuinely nice and humble personality.

"Struggled Again, I wasn't alone" Boyd Duckett...

The weather: So far in 2008 the winter weather in MN has put the cold in Minnesocold. We have had a lot of days in the single digits and below zero. Finally it looks like tomorrow we are going to see some warmer weather. The average daily high temp. for Brainerd today is 35°F. When I think about it, that isn't really all that warm, but the next few days are supposed to be close to 40°F. Unfortunately it is supposed to cool down a little bit come Thursday. It will be nice to see some of this snow melt.

Stuck in the Snow: Today I had the bright idea that I was going to do some scouting for some ice fishing I might do this month. One of the access points I use to get onto Platte Lake is on our friend Jenni Olson's property. I have used this access in the past and never really had any trouble until today. I ran the Explorer down to the lake and where the lake met the shore the snow was too deep and I got stone cold stuck. No problem, you just dig out the truck and proceed forward. Unfortunately the snow under the truck was up to the undercarriage deep and hard packed. I tried to dig out as best I could but for the first time in my life doing this wasn't enough to get a stuck vehicle free. Tomorrow morning one of the local farmers is going to come with a big tractor and we are going to have to pull it out. Dad was not happy.

Secret Weapon Survey: Answer 8 questions and have a chance to win some nice prizes. Let them know that Dave Maas referred you.

Bass FBF News: Point values have not been raised after Harris Chain for any of the anglers. Get your picks in fast or else this might change.

Harris Chain Day Final

It's a shocker: Brain Snowden who had a 10lb lead going into the last Day and caught 3 consistant big bags of fish ends up with a skunk and loses to Mike McCelland by 5lbs. McClelland caught 15lbs which was the days biggest sack. The leaderboard says Brad Hallman had the days Big Bass at 2-11. I wonder if that is right because McCelland obviously had to have some fish over 3lbs.

For Full Harris Chain recaps as always check BassFan.com, BassZone.com, and Bassmaster.com.

FBF Recap: I was wary of day 3 for the posse because with Bobby Lane at #3 there are more places to go down than up. Bobby caught a limit and held steady in 3rd, holding off his brother Chris by 10ozs.

Minnesocold Bpboys: 1240 points which was good for placing 1391 overall for the tournament (92.51%). This moved the Bpboys up 22 spots to 16th in the Futurebass.com league 151 points off the lead. Overall rank #2827 (84.8%).

Bass Pundit 1: 1234 points which was good for placing 1514 overall for the Tournament (91.84%). This moved BP 1 up 11 spots to 7th in the Futurebass.com league 78 points off the lead. Overall rank #1449 (92.2%)

I don't know if it was the Day 3 slide or that I haven't figured out something about the way BASS does the scoring, but neither team would have made the prizes under FLW's generous prize schedule.

Welcome from BP to the Bass Pundit blog...
This was the blogs very first post, worth a read for new Bass Punditeers.

Angie T of the blog Bass fishing from a different perspective is back to blogging again.

Casey Ashley singing Fisherman (Just the song, no video)


Hook Setting from Bass Insider by Gary Kline

I still like the snap set better. I don't think the "pull set" is a good idea for texas rigged soft plastics.

2008 MN High School Hockey State Champions!!!
Hill-Murray

Tonight the Hill-Murray Pioneers managed to shut out the Cake Eaters, aka Edina Hornets, 3-0 and win the schools 3rd Minnesota State High School Boys Hockey Championship. Last night Hill-Murray beat the previously undeafeted, #1 ranked, and defending AA State Champion Roseau Rams. The game was a rematch of the 1988 championship, my senior year of HS, that Edina won 5-2.

Way to go Hill-Murray!!!

I can stomach anyone but Edina winning it. Apparently Edina had many underclassmen and are the odds on favorites to take it next year.

Class A was taken by St. Thomas Academy.

Harris Chain Day 3

FBF: Weights and limits were down on Day 3 at the Harris Chain and so were the fortunes of the Bpboys and Bass Pundit 1. The gains of Day 2 were taken back a little bit. Bpboys lost 7 angler places and were 2 for 4 on the limit bonus. BP1 lost 17 angler places and was 2 for 5 on the limit bonus. The Bpboys Mark Davis missed the cut on a three way tie breaker, had he caught a limit today he would have been 11th but he misses the cut in 13. Even though it wasn't a good day of FBF for me, the Posse teams performed well this tournament.

Minnesocold BpBoys
B. Lane 3rd 0 (limit bonus)
Davis 13th -5 (lack of limit today was buzz kill)
Skeet 17th +8 (The only possitive mover on both squads)
Hudgins 21st -10 (I'll just be thankful the implosion wasn't worse)
Scroggins 63rd DNF

Bass Pundit 1
B. Lane 3rd 0
Skeet 17th +8
Hudgins 21st -10
Stone 37th -3 (At least he popped a limit bonus)
Rook 42nd -12 (Was 1 short of a limit and 2-1 from holding at 30th so that missed limit fish had a ton of upside potential)

Apparently the people at BassFan.com, BassFanArmy.com, InshoreFan.com, OutdoorsFanweather.com and ShotgunFan.com have openned up another franchise: Walleyefan.com.

Here is the logo (Not a link)

BASS Harris Chain Day 2

BassFan Big Stick Blog John Murray...

FBF: This is the reason I say Day 1 don't mean Jack Squat. The BPboys anglers moved up 95 places and Bass Pundit moved up 167 places. There is still a lot of moving to be done Day 3 of Elite Series events when the cut goes from 50 to 12.

Updated:-----------------------------------------------------------------
The Bpboys are 98th best of all players for the day. If only this were FLW, I'd be sitting pretty. Scroggins really is going to keep my line up from being Elite. It won't surprize me if I backslide Day 3.

As it turns out Bass Pundit 1 is even better ranked at 86th best of all players for the day. This line up has more upside for tommorrow than the Bpboys with all 5 in the cut with 3 of them between 25th and 34th
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Minnesocold BPboys:
Scroggins- 63rd +15 (Van Dam beats handily, this pick a bust)
Skeet- 25th +9
Davis- 8th 0
Hudgins- 13th -11 (Little weight today, not looking good for Day 3)
B. Lane-3rd +82 (Biggest Sack Bonus Points, biggest + mover)

Bass Pundit 1:
Skeet-25th +9
Rook-30th +68 (Probably the days 2nd biggest + mover)
Stone-34th +19 (Schultz crashed and burned)
Hudgins-13th -11 (Had nowhere to go but down)
B. Lane-3rd +82

The Day in Live-streaming: For the first 3/4 of the day it streamed just fine, but it got choppy towards the end. Unfortunatly I missed seeing and hearing Lane's big bag.

BASS Harris Chain Day 1 (Don't Mean...)

The Day in live-streaming: I decided to try the BASS Live-stream with Firefox. I don't think it was the Firefox but I actually did get a real stream of the BASS weigh in today. It was working great up until the time I went to check on the Live Leaderboard and my computer locked up. I had to reboot the computer, which takes forever, but I still got to catch the end of the weigh in. When I first got the streaming the 2nd time it ran a little rough for a couple of minutes but then evened out into a good stream again.

Since the weigh in was streaming so well I'm guessing the streaming problems at the Classic and with FLW are heavily related to how many people are loading up the live-stream and less about how clunky my computer is.

The Live Leaderboard stopped working so I don't really know the results beyond the Top 10 at this point.

Harris Chain FBF:
Here are the posse line up's and Day 1 results

Minnesocold Bpboys:
Scroggins-78th (traded out KVD at the last minute on word that KVD had a bad practice. KVD's record at Harris Chain isn't good)
Skeet-34th (Has a great Harris resume')
Davis-9th (At 4.0 is the best value in BASS FBF)
Hudgins-2nd (FL guy)
B. Lane-85th (FL guy, picked more for Toho than Harris)

Bass Pundit 1
Skeet-34th
Rook-98th (Has a good Harris track record)
Stone-53rd (Has a good Harris track record, traded out Bernie Schultz at the last minute)
Hudgins-2nd
B. Lane-85th

Neither line-up is going to set the world on fire in this one, but Day 1 don't mean Jack Squat.

Wow!!! I can hardly believe my eye's. The average FBF score today was only 805. The Bassmasters Classic average score was 1150. The BPboys, who's score for the day was 1023, moved from 25% to 87.5%. The BPboys jumped past Bass Pundit 1 (884) in the Futurebass.com league, up to 8th from 38th. A little upward movement on Day 2 and the Bpboys are lookin' fine. Only 4 out of the 59 teams in the Futurebass.com league scored over 1000 today.

If my math is right there is between 17,500 and 18,000 people playing BASS FBF. So FLW is actually bigger than BASS for the 1st time ever. Amazing what a couple million in prizes will buy you.

Updated: I think my math was bad, I now think there are around 22,000 people playing BASS FBF.

Oops: 1147 fantasy players have Jeff Coble on their Harris Chain rosters. Coble is not fishing the Elite Series. There are 109 guys fishing Harris Chain yet BASS has 117 anglers you can pick from in FBF. Apparently they didn't scrub the non-Elite series Classic guys. Brent Haimes is on 197 rosters and he ain't fishing either. Jeff Freeman is on 1026 rosters, not fishing.

I wonder if the not fishing this tournament asterisk wasn't working? I know Coble didn't have it when I switched him out.

Boyd Duckett blogs from the Harris Chain...Go and wish him some luck.

John Murray OTW Bassfan Bigstick Harris Chain...

Making it official...

With the addition of the Bad Bass Boys Blog and Nicks Bass Blog that now makes at least 13 BassNblogs that call Minnesocold home. I think it is time to stake our claim and make it official.

Minnesocold: BassNblog Capitol of the World!!!

Rumor has it that MN Pro Brian Brown of Fishing Hype.com is going to start a blog.

FBF News:
If you don't have your roster changed for BASS FBF Harris Chain then you better get crackin'.

FLW has the story of Minnesocold guy that won $100,000 for Toho...
Turns out the winner didn't hit the Hite Exacta; He hit Exacta's on Svebek, Fisher, and Hadden. Those were the only 3 anglers he had in the Top 10. The story claims both he and the 2nd place winner used Player's Advantage to their benefit. I'm sorry but I have Player's Advantage and Svebek, Fisher, and Hadden never even crossed my radar and I try to throw a wide net before narrowing down my picks. Unfortunatly all the Player's Advantage features no longer work for Toho. I would love to go back and try and see what this guy saw. Maybe he used the quick picks option and got supremely lucky.

Updated: I went into the Player's Advantage Angler profiles and there was nothing, except the fact that Hadden is from FL, to recommend Hadden, Fisher, and Svebeck. I'm at a loss.

From a comment a guy made about being in the 4 percentile and missing the prizes by 100 points, I figure there is 15,000 to 20,000 people playing FLW Fantasy Fishing. If so this is a stagering increase over the 6,000 that used to play. Hopefully FLW will reveal the number of players at some point.

A BassNblog oversight corrected.
Last July I got an email from the guys at BadBassBoys.com and their Bad Bass Boys Blog about doing a reciprocal link with our blogs. I don't think I was blogging much at the time and so I ignored the email and hadn't looked at it again until today. They did link to me even though I ignored them. I am sorry about the oversight. You have a great looking website and blog. Hopefully I will get in on some of the free stuff they give out. The blog appears to originate out of Minnesocold, the Bass Blogging Capitol of the World. Check em out!!!

Another Minnesocod BassNblog:
Nicks Bass Blog- Nick is Nick Madison of the Golden Hook Bassers. The blog is centered around his tournament fishing experiences in the club and with the BASS/ABA Weekend Series. It turns out Nick drew Rich "Hellabass Bassin' Blog" Lindgren's dad as a Co-Angler at Whitefish Chain last summer (Hellabass gets props in the story, click that link and read it); It's a small world after all!!!

Hellabass has a touching tribute to the retiring Brett Favre...

My thoughts on Farve: Apparently his record vs. the Vikes was 17-15. I would have thought it more lop sided than this, but then again Favre had a hard time winning in the dome for most of his career.

Being a Vikes fan I never was that fond of the guy, but I think I did root for him in the Superbowl he won. He is certainly among the Elite of NFL Quarterbacks and Players, but I don't know if he is the greatest quarterback ever despite the fact that he now owns most of the records. His records are due to productivity but they are also due to longevity and the good forturne of never suffering any major injuries. One record for quarterbacks that he does not own is Super Bowl rings and another is career Quarterback rating due to all those interceptions he threw and Farve did entertain me with a great many of those in fact he is the NFL all time pick champion of the world.

One thing I don't like about the retirement is that the Pack Favre backup QB seems to have game. I think I would trade Tavaris Jackson for Aaron Rodgers any day of the week.

This just in... FLW Fantasy Results now in!!! Developing...

I am just floored by the scores people racked up. The $100,000 winner, Martin Toring from MN, had 5212 which is about 1000 points more than I anticipated. This person must have hit the 2,000 Brett Hite exacta and then had 3 more in the Top 10 or 2 in the Top 10 with 1 exacta.

585th Place (Last Prize) had 3113points which beats my score by 782 points. In other words I needed 2 more Top 10 anglers or another exacta just to make the prizes. I ranked at 17% which tells me nothing about how many players there actually are.

I figured I would be either first or second in all of my leagues.
I am 1st in the FishingMN.com league (13 teams)
I should be 2nd in the Fishwrench.com league but my team doesn't show up in the standings.
I am 4th in the RichLindgren.com league (24 teams)
I am 9th in the Futurebass.com league (29 teams)

My guess on why I was so off on the scores: I think Exacta's were probably far more common than I guessed. I figured the Exacta bonus would be few and far between, 8 of the 29 people in the Futurebass.com league hit an Exacta. In the RichLindgren.com league 3 of the 24 hit an Exacta. If my math is correct the odds of hitting an Exacta are 1 in 200 overall and 1 in 10 if you do get an angler in the Top 10. How can it be that so many people hit them?

FLW FBF regret: My one regret is that I was blind to Ron Shuffield. He was never on my radar screen yet has a solid career history on Toho. I don't know how he slipped past me but he did. Shame on all of the FLW Player's Advantage pundits for not picking him and pointing him out to me. Of coarse they didn't pick David Walker either who has a strong track record at Toho, yet bombed badly this year sticking both mine and my dad's team with a pathetic 28 point angler.

This just in... FLW Fantasy Fishing results not in.

It says the results will be in "soon." How long does that mean? Yesterday at the weigh in they said the $100,000 winner and presumably all of the results were going to be announced today. It is now 5PM central time, so I doubt that "soon" means anytime today. I know the game is free and all, but should it really take more than 24 hours for them to at least get some unofficial results out there?

Slop Bass at Futurebass.com emailed FLW and they told him that "soon" is sometime later this week. I guess I'll just have to wait some more. BOOOOOOO!

This lack of promptness tells me that FLW didn't and doesn't have all their ducks in a row.

Cyberfish is getting his blog on. He learned how to do a blogroll... Now he just needs to start putting in some "target="_blank" code to open the links in a new window.

FLW Toho-ho Day Final

FLW Live- So I'm watching the pre-weigh in festivities and the live feed completely cuts off. I've tried several times to get it back, but nothing. This sucks!!!

I restarted it completely and it came back.

I can't believe it!!!
Everyone has weighed in but Morehead and Hite. Fukae sits in 5th with 15-06 so all Morehead needs is 2-1 and Fukae goes to 6th. I have Fukae in the #5 spot in Fantasy Fishing and it's figure it's pretty much a certainty that I am off by 1 place. Then Morehead only weighs 1 fish for 1-13. EXACTA bonus 750Points. Shin Fukae scores me 1446 points, far more than my other 9 anglers combined. I now think it a possibility that I will make my way into the lower echelon of prizes. My guess is that it will be close.

I should also mention that Brett Hite won Toho by a 20-04 margin which is an FLW Tour record. Hite didn't even need to fish today to win. He did have the days biggest bag anyway 13-07. Bassfan projected Hite in their Top 10 to watch because of his skills worming, but it turns out he used a Chatterbait type lure to catch his fish.

Josh Douglas is "Stocking up for 08"...

FLW Toho-ho Day 3

Looks like Brett Hite blew the doors off at Toho with a 25-02 sack building himself a 12lb lead.

Day 3 Highlights at FLW and Bassfan

Boyd Duckett blogs more Classic regrets...

Cyberfish blogs Minnetonka ice fishing at the MT Bucket...

BassNblogs Found:I just happened to stumble across a Bass Fishing blog called BassBlogging.com The subtitle is "The Only Bass Fishing Blog." Not sure what that is supposed to mean because there obviously are other blogs about bass fishing besides this one. The archives show 12 blog posts going back to August 28, 2007. I have no clue if the blog goes farther back than that. The most recent post is from Nov. 13, 2007.

I am trying to Google up a list of previous BASS Anglers of the Year and now I have stumbled onto a 2nd blog with at least one bass fishing entry. This one is a blog called Lighthouse Patriot Journal: Searching for truth in a sea of misinformation. It looks like the LPJ is out of Wisconsin and is mainly based around conservative politics so it's not a blog for Bassfishingdem at I am a bass fisherman. I have now looked over the blog some and I think it qualifies as a BassNblog.

So then I went looking for BassNblogs:

KeelShield News: "Find out what's new with our product line, Pro Staff and public events we will be participating in. Look for the Gator for the best in protection for your boat."

Bass Fishing and Bass Fishing Toys: Unfortunately it looks like this promising was a short lived experiment.

The Angler Report: This blog is active and very well written. I highly recommend checking it out. "The Angler Report is here to provide angler insight about happenings in the bass fishing industry. Much like our new sister site The Angling Center, my goal is to provide the competitive bass angler good usable information and positive interaction. Some of the content found here may include HOT New Tackle available to anglers or some information about trends or techniques winning tournaments these days."

FLW Lake Toho-ho Day 2

How to video's from FLW...

FLW Live today- It seemed to work a little better today than yesterday in terms of the audio interruptions. I got to hear the touching story of Ron Shuffield and his son who got shot last year. Both Ron and son are fishing Toho, son as a Co, and they both made the Top 10 cut.

The live streaming video didn't really stream at all today, not that it streamed much yesterday. This lack of fluidity may have been due to the fact that FLW Live was free to anyone who wanted to get it today.

The leaderboard actually did update on it's own today. However at the end of the day things locked up and so I don't know the final standings. I've tried to get back in and see if the standings are available, but I can't log into Fantasy Fishing. I think the website might have crashed. I WANT THOSE STANDINGS NOW!!!

I got back into the Fantasy Fishing website but I can't get into FLW Live Players Advantage version, so I'll have to wait for the final standings along with everybody else. I do know that both my Dad and I have someone in the Top 10 where all the fantasy points are. Dad had Moorehead sqeak in at the 10 spot with 23-04. I think that guy Sherry who had 20lbs yesterday blanked. Obviously with 23-04 being the cut spot the weights were down drastically today. Some no name guy who caught almost nothing yesterday bagged today's biggest bag of 19lbs and change; It wasn't enough for him to make the cut.

Ah Day 2 results are up at FLWoutdoors.com...

Fantasy Recap: I managed to improve only 21 places with 1 in the Top 10. My Dad's team improved 121 spots with all but 2 of his anglers showing improvement.

BPboys:
Nixon 98th +43
Browne 30th +60
Walker 173rd -31 This one hurts
Harrison 95th - 36 This one hurts worse, picked in Kenney's(52nd) Place.
Fukae 8th +4
Yelas 53rd +7
Lefebre 167th +2 Improved from royally sucked to totally sucked.
S. Martin 179th -15 What happened to him? This pick killed me. Mckinnie(42)or Seagraves(75)
Clausen 27th -15 CHOKE!!! I had such high hopes for 2 Top 10's.
Tracygier 102nd +2 Another pick that really bit me. Grigsby(29)

That's right, moving on Kenney and Grigsby cost me 116 points.

While there is Fukae, there is hope. Need him to finish 5th, got the 1 in 10 chance of it.

I really figured Scott Martin would know what to do when the conditions got tough, boy was I wrong on that one.

How the FLW Player's Advantage Pundits Did: As I have said before my main motivation for getting Player's Advantage was to get a look at the "Pundits Picks." For the Toho tournament there were only 5 Pundits who selected a total of 28 different anglers for their 10 team rosters. Of these 28 Pundit Picks only 2 made the Top 10. Two pundits chose Fukae and 1 Pundit chose Thrift. 9 Picks were in the Top 50, 9 Picks were 51-100, 7 Pics were 101-150, 3 picks were below 150. So basically the Pundits were a mixed bag, unfortunatly I went with 2 of the Pundit Picks in the bottom 150.

BassFan 10 to watch: BassFan esentially picks a fantasy roster with their 10 to watch article. Bassfan only had 1 angler make the Top 10 but their picks overall were mostly solid: Nixon (98), Kenney (52), Grigsby (29), Yelas (53), Dudley (67), Clausen (27) Lefebre (167) Fritts (156) Browne (30) Hite (5). Better than my line up anyways.

FLW Toho-ho Day 1 (Don't mean Jack Squat!!!)

FLW Live- This is the name for the FLW live streaming and live leaderboard. FLW Live used to be free to anyone, but is now limited to those of us who have the Fantasy Fishing Player's Advantage service. The day 1 weigh in is over and I am underwhelmed with FLW Live. The video feed is extremely choppy for me and the audio is choppy enough to be quite annoying. At least at the Bassmasters Classic I could hear the weigh in well for the most part.

Also, there is a glitch in the live leaderboard, at least on my computer, where the only way I can get the leaderboard to update is to close FLW live and re-open it again which takes a minute or two. Also there is apparently a "script" in the FLW Live that makes my computer speed bog way down so I have trouble navigating around on the computer while FLW Live is running. I have no clue how much of this is due to the fact that my computer is several years old and not nearly as powerful as a new computer would be. Maybe the Flash Player needs to be upgraded.

Toho Day 1 Recap: I think things went down pretty much as expected with most of the field struggling. Only the Top 35 broke 10lbs and there were 65 limits. Cut weight right now is 14-14, which will probably put the Top 10 cut at 26-28lbs which is a bit higher than expected. There were 3 bags over 20 with Brett Hite's 22-06 being the biggest and 6 bags between 18-04 and 15-09. There are 3 names in the top 10 I do not recognize: Monte Knight 7th with only 3 fish, Randy Hadden 9th with 4 fish, and Robert Pearson 10th. The big names in the Top 10 are Andy Morgan 4th, Ron Shuffield 6th, and Shin Fukae 8th. Big Bass was a monster: 11-9 by Randy Hadden.

BP Day 1 Fantasy Recap:
Why even bother? Day 1 doesn't mean JACK SQUAT!!! Especially in this tournament where 1 or 2 big bites can make a zero a hero in no time flat. My last minute switch out of Kenney for Harrison and Grigsby for Tracygier looks to be a mixed bag at this point. Harrison has a half pound on Grigsby (12 places) and Kenney has a 1-9 on Tracygier (25 places).

Here is where the BP boys stand:
Nixon 141st
Browne 90th
Walker 142nd
Harrison 59th
Fukae 8th
Yelas 60th
Lefebre 169th
S. Martin 164th
Clausen 12th
Tracygier 104th

So basically I have 5 bombs, 3 mediocre, and 2 contenders. I am thinking that 2 in the cut is probably not good enough to vault into the prizes. However if the no names continue to make a good showing you never know. I just wish the Player's Advantage "Fantasy Trend" was still available for Toho. The "Trend" tells by percent how many teams selected a given angler and there were a fair number of anglers who were not chosen at all. Unselected anglers is something you never see in the BASS game do to the point restrictions.

Wow!!! No sooner did the FLW Toho registration close and all the Players Advantage information on Toho was replaced by Lewis-Smith Lake info.

"It's a dissappointing story but here's what happened" by Boyd Duckett

Sounds like if the weather would have been stable Boyd would have been a contender. He might have been a contender anyway had he landed his bites on Day 1.

Michael "Cyberfish" Thompson has decided to start a new blog called MT Bucket. He did start a blog once before but I don't think he posted there more than once. His second blog post at the MT Bucket is about his trip to the Mississippi fishing Smallies this past Sunday with pics. In his first blog post there is a pic of a young Cyberfish with a dead muskie he "caught".

Blogger Billy Harris had his 1st tourny of the year. It didn't go so well...

My words of consolation would be at least he is fishing open water. We are still a month plus away before Dogfish season begins.

FishwiththePro's.com... When I win a million in fantasy fishing I'll consider it.

FLW Toho: Word is that Toho is going to be tough with as little as 22-24lbs making the cut. Bassfan puts the cut weight at 23. One big bite should make a big difference which means anyone in the field could get lucky. I have been vacillating on my fantasy picks but I think I've got a line up I'll stick with. I don't know how much past performance on Toho is going to play into things because almost all the tournaments held here are either earlier or much later in the year. This year the fish are supposed to be farther along spawning wise than in a normal year. As it stands I have 5 picks in common with the BassFan "Top 10 to watch". My dad has also has 5 in common with BassFan, 4 of the picks we all have in common. I would consider all my Dad's picks favorites and mine are with the exception of one no name guy.

For FLW Fantasy Fishing I decided to spend the $25 to get this thing called Player's Advantage which gives you a number of special features that are supposed to help pick a roster. One of the special features is video and audio podcasts from the tournament during practice. I like the audio podcast best. The video is not exactly fast loading on my DSL. At first I was getting 6 seconds of video for 26 seconds of loading time so watching the video was taking forever and those long pauses are annoying. I have figured out that I can pause the video and it still loads up, so I can watch longer segments of uninterrupted video.

From the podcasts I have learned that two of my anglers claim to be struggling. What to do? What to do? A big cold front is going to hit the area on Wed. then the temps rebound a bit for Thur and it gets warm Fri-Sun. I think I will drop these two, both of who were Toho favorites according to the Pundits.

The dumbest part of Player's Advantage has to be the "Quick Pics" feature. This is a deal where you set certain parameters and then the computer picks a team for you. I can't imagine buying Player's Advantage and then using this feature.

My Dad decided he wanted a shot at the prizes in FLW Fantasy so he has put together Team Camiuhfish. He gets the benefit of my Players Advantage knowledge. For Toho we have 5 picks in common.

Wow!!! I was just checking out the Leaderboard for BASS FBF after the Classic and there was a 7 team tie with 1491 points for 1st place. I don't recall ever seeing a tie for 1st in BASS FBF before. They all had the exact same line up: Jones, Pace, KVD, Lane, Ashley.

2nd place was 26pts lower and 3rd place is 3 pts lower than 2nd. There was at least a 17 team tie in 34th place.

You can now make your line ups for the "Sunshine Showdown" at Harris Chain Locktime: March 6, 2008 8:59:59 AM PST. The point value of Mark Davis' is 4.0.

I already went to make a switch on my roster and so the tie breaker screen comes up. For the season I want to put in 14,640 which would be an average of 1220 per tournament but when I go to put it in you can only enter 4 numbers not 5. Almost no one that plays a full season will have under 10,000 pts. How stupid! I wonder if they will get it fixed.

Holy COW!!! I just for the 1st time took a look at the prizes available in the FLW Fantasy Fishing Game. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME!!!

In the FLW Tour events and FLW Opens they are "paying down" 585 places each tournament. The Forest L. Wood Cup pays down 639 Places and the end of the year cumulative points race goes down 52 places. Total guaranteed prizes value $2,395,030. Go to FLW Fantasy Fishing for the Prizes

I figure if I can't win prizes in 3 out of the 7 tournaments than I suck. (Actually hold the "than I suck" part. This year the FLW scoring system is whacko, dumb luck could play a significant role. Here is the complicated scoring methodology:

Points will be assigned according to the points awarded in the 2008 FLW Wal-Mart FLW Tour Angler of the Year program. To access the rules for this program, visit www.flwoutdoors.com, click on "Bass Tours", then "FLW Tour" and then "Rules".

For each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team, the Player will earn the same number of points the angler earns in the 2008 Wal-Mart FLW Tour Angler of the Year program for each particular Tournament. Please note, if an angler is disqualified, or, if an angler fails to catch any fish within the first two days of a particular tournament, no points will be awarded to that angler.

For the Lake Toho, Lewis Smith, and Ft. Loudoun - Tellico Lakes Tournaments:
In addition, for each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team that finishes in the Top 10 of that particular Tournament, the Player will earn 500 points.

In addition, each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team that is ranked in the exact position they finish in the Top 10 of that particular Tournament, the Player will earn the following points:
1st place ranking angler correct: 2,000 points
2nd place through 10th place ranking angler correct: 750 points

For the Lake Norman, Beaver Lake, and Detroit River Tournaments:
In addition, for each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team that finishes in the Top 10 of that particular Tournament, the Player will earn 1,000 points.

In addition, each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team that is ranked in the exact position they finish in the Top 10 of that particular Tournament, the Player will earn the following points:
1st place ranking angler correct: 4,000 points
2nd place through 10th place ranking angler correct: 1,500 points

For the FLW Tour Championship Tournament:
For each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team that finishes in the Top 10 of this Tournament, the Player will earn 1,500 points.
In addition, for each angler a Player selects for a Pro Team that is ranked in the exact position in the Top 10 of this Tournament, the Player will earn the following points:
1st place ranking angler correct: 6,000 points
2nd place through 10th place ranking angler correct: 2,250 points

So basically it is the old scoring system, which was straightforward and the fairest in fantasy fishing with a couple of new wrinkles that could make a huge difference. I think I am fine with the extra rewards for anglers in the top 10 cut, but I don't care for the bonus points for selecting an angler in the exact place of finish; these points are total dumb luck. I would like it a lot better if you only got a bonus for picking the winner as the winner. Yes I do not care much for the BASS Super 6 Pick'em game either.

Under this new scoring you could have a line up that is all in the top 25, but if you do not have a bunch of them in the top 10 than you are out of luck. In the regular tour events two anglers in the top 10 totally wipes out a line-up with 5 anglers in the 11-15 positions. In the Opens 1 angler in the top 10 is better than 5 anglers placed 11-15. Don't forget FLW line ups this year are 10 anglers deep.

Bassmaster Classic Fantasy Round Up:

BPboys: The last day saw a slight improvement with Ashley and KVD moving up a combined 4 places, still we sucked.
Score: 1128 Pts which was good for 11456 Place and the 26.9%.
Futurebass.com League: 38th of 51.

I don't know what the "average" score was but I know it isn't the 1057 they have it listed as. 1150 might be the 50% mark.

BP 1: I think the last day saw a slight reduction in points as IKE slipped 4 while Martens gained 1 place and Ashley 3.
Score: 1207 Pts for 5536 place (Ugh!)and the 64.7%
Futurebass.com League: 18th

Bassmaster Classic 2008 Day Final Blogged...

Alton weighed the days 3rd best bag and wins with 49-7, so it was a bit of a run away. Way to go Alton!!! He is an outstanding guy.

This is his website . The website is already updated about the Classic win just minutes after it happened. He has a new website design and it is in a blog format where you can leave comments. So go and give him your congratulations (You have to register)

The site is a Bigfishtools.com product.

He is an SMG pro so he blogs here....

He blogs here for ESPN.

Alton has to be the King of Bass Pro bloggers his main website, which is set up as a blog in style has another official Alton blog within.

Note on the Livestreaming: This morning at the blast off it was a true live stream just like TV with audio and video. However for the Weigh in the audio was live streaming with a few snags here and there, but the video was more like looking at snap shots than TV. My guess, all the internet viewers were slowing down the feeds or maybe it was combo of that and my relatively slow DSL connection (but it worked so good this morning). Anyway I hope FLW Live streams better.

Liveblogging the Bassmaster Classic Final Day weigh in:
The Bass Blog with BassTrakk has Alton Jones "at the top of the food chain". Will it be?

They started the weigh in on time so I am already behind the eight ball. So far 5 guys have weighed in.

Dave Wolack is in the lead with 38-6, that won't hold.

Casey Ashley sacks 11-6 for 35-12. Not much of a fantasy gain if any.

Open angler Clark Reehm knocks out the days big bag so far today with 15-00, breaking the 40lb mark (40-8) Won't hold up.

Koto Kiriyama moves into the lead with 40-9. Won't hold up.

So far with 17 anglers weighed, it seems that the weights are down again today.

Bobby Lane takes the lead with 42-7. This was expected as Basstrakk projected him 2nd.

Are they gonna hype the Super 6? Yes they are!

They picked someone random out of the crowd to "Cast for Cash" $50,000, just make a medium sized cast into a fairly small cylinder in a mock up fishes mouth. Naturally they ended up selecting a non-angler (buzz kill) It was not exactly an easy cast, so naturally she missed it. He consolation prize: A bunch of Berkley tackle perfect for the non-fisherwomen.

Super 6
Alton Jones
Charlie Hartley
Ciff Pace
KVD
Jeff Kriet
Ike

Ike gets only 4 and Lane stays on top.
IKE has kids???? I guess he is married to. I didn't even know that.

Kriet doesn't have it, Lane stays

KVD 11-7 and he takes the lead with 43-8.

Cliff Pace knocks off Van Dam with 44-5.

Charlie Hartley had a brutal last day 2 for 3-5.

Alton is up.

ALTON JONES WINS!!! You heard it hear first! (they haven't yet weighed his fish)

BASS blog with BasstraKK...

WOW! Fantasy Bass Fishing News: So they finally got the FBF scores up and I thought I was looking at a misprint. Scores of over 1000+. That can't be right, right?

It is right!!! They changed the scoring system this year. Instead of the winner getting 200 points they get 300, 2nd gets 295, 3rd gets 290 and so on down by 5's then 4's then 3's then 2's. Meanwhile the bonus points are the same, so they don't count for as much in the grand scheme of things. This scoring change makes it play much more like the FLW game where it isn't so top loaded. The scoring is much more geared to rewarding or penalizing a whole team instead of needing just a couple of good picks. I don't think I like the change because I liked the game as it was.

So that's how it works! I got the bright idea to upgrade my Windows Media Player if I could. Maybe this was the reason I wasn't getting the live streaming from the Classic. I have no idea what version my Windows Media Player was but apparently #9 is the best you can do on my OS (they have up to #11). So I downloaded and installed it and what do you know, I am getting the live feed. Hooray!!!

Alton Jones Blog...

Charlie Hartley has blogged day 2...

Bassfan Bigstick John Murray blogs his 27th place finish...

Will we see anything like this today?

Ike does have a shot.

Almost Smallmouth plus...

I was asked by Cyberfish if I wanted to do some open water Smallie fishin today at the Mississippi river. It is the last day of open season and the weather is supposed to be nice. I guess our friend Jim has been whacken em good. I told Cyb no thinking that I didn't want to drive that far (90 miles) and I don't exactly have my tackle all ready to go. I am kind of wishing now that I had said yes. I'd like to know where to get in on this winter smallmouth action. I wonder if it's the same area Hellabass and Josh Douglas fish.

I saw two big ole wild turkey's in the yard today. That was a first. My Dad has seen a bunch of them in the open pasture to the north of us. Maybe I should take up turkey hunting (NOT).

Bassmaster Classic Day 2

Breaking News: MinnesocoldBpboys leads the Futurebass.com League (46 Teams) after Day 2 of the Bassmasters Classic.

(OK the catch is that the BASS FBF is having some kind of technical difficulties at this point and all scores remain at zero. So while the BPboys are listed first, the team is actually tied with everyone else at zero until they get the game fixed. Once that happens I'll drop like a 5oz lead weight.)


Be sure to check out BassFan, Bass Zone, and Bassmaster.com for the days recaps.

Besides today being Day 2 of the Classic, it was the Championship Day for Minnesocold Girls State High School Hockey. I caught part of both Championship games.

Congratulations to Alexandria and Eden Praire the Champs for 2007!!!

The goalie for Alex, Senior Danielle Justice, kept her team in it making about twice the saves of the Breck goalie. In fact, Alex was outshot in all 3 State Championship Tournament games.

In 2A Eden Prairie Senior Andrea Green scored a hat trick including an empty netter to seal the game. Her 2nd Goal was unassisted on a beautiful run from Center Ice.

The Boys Tournament is in 2 weeks. That's right March Madness has started already.

Follow that Basstrakk blog...

Sort of a Classic blog by some writer named Barone (Not Michael)...

Rumor has it Boyd Duckett is moving on up today. Also the bags seem to be significantly below yesterday's weights.

Live Blogging the Leaderboard:

Steve Kennedy drops the fricken ball 2fish for 5-3.

A. Mart hangs in there with 15-14, so far the days best.

We are now at the half way point.
Charlie Hartley leads with a total of 34-13 (13-12 Day 2)
Cliff Pace is 2nd with 33-5
IKE is 3rd with 31-3
Hack is 4th with 30-11
Bobby Lane is 5th with 29-13
Matt Sphar is last with 7-14

At this point it looks like it is gonna be a close one going into day 3.

IKE drops down with 12-14, but that will be good enough to keep him in contention probably.

Frag!!! Again Jeff Coble fails to bag a limit again today. He has almost a carbon copy of yesterday 3 fish for 8-12 a whole 2oz improvement from yesterday. (That makes 2 fantasy anglers out of the cut)

There were 37 limits weighed on day 1 or 74% of the field.

Fred Roumbanis Bixby, CA weighs a 6- 7 hawg.

Ouch!!! Casey Ashley stumbles hard 2 fish for 5-12. He may not even make the fricken cut. NOT a good fantasy day at all so far.

So far 9 anglers have bettered their day 1 weight. 14 have dropped weight on Day 2.

A.Mart still with the big bag of the day with almost half weighed in. (Alton Jones is supposed to have the days biggest bag, we shall see)

Chris "Yes he is never going to be on a fantasy team of mine ever again" Lane catches 1 fish for 3-7. He now is the bottom of the barrel at 6-1.

Ish weighs in a single 2lber and takes the bottom spot from Lane. That makes two guys who were supposidly "on 'em" that finish with disasters.

MN boy Remitz the "Wolverene" finishes out a forgettable Classic with a total of 4 fish for 11-1.

KJ skunks or DQ's, not sure which.

Jeff Kriet scores the biggest bag so far today 18-12.

KVD is up next... 5fish for 11-14 total 32-1. He definitely has a good shot going into the final day.

Rook stumbles hard 5 fish for 7-12. So much for the sun helping him. He still will have a shot though with a big bag tommorrow.

MN Federation Angler Brent Haimes comes in with only 2 today for 3-3. Hey at least he beat some of the Elite Pro's. He will be the lowest placing Federation angler.

The Rumors were... TRUE Alton Jones comes in with 18-11 and takes the lead with 36 even. He by far has had the two strongest days with a 17 then 18lb limits.

Now I am just waiting out Boyd...
Boyd 5 fish for 15-2, unfortunatly that is not gonna be enough to put him in the cut.

Skeet weighs the days third biggest bag with 17-2 putting him at 28-7. Although it's a long shot he puts himself in contention.

Fantasy Review:
BP boys: Van Dam 4th, Ashley 20, Kennedy 39, Coble 41, C.Lane 49 Not so good. We need a KVD top 2 bad and there is always the possiblity Ashley could come up big on Day 3 with more places to move up than down.

BP1: Ike 6th, Martens 10, Ashley 20, Duckett 33, Coble 41 So basically mediocrity reins supreme in the first fantasy outing of the year.

Classic Day 1

Charlie Hartley has up dated his blog on his Day 1 success...

Of coarse go to BassFan and Bassmaster and Bass Zone for additional day 1 coverage.

John Murray blogs his day at Bassfan Bigsticks...

Boyd has blogged Day 1...

Looks like conditions suck, but that could mean conditions are ripe for catching fish.

Yeah! Classic blog with "BasstraK" again this year.

Doesn't look like Bass Zone is going to have the "On the Water Blog" this year. They are keeping the the Bass Zone live chat from the water.

I guess the Women's Bassmaster Tour Championship started yesterday at Lake Keowee in S.C..

The Day 2 leader is Dianna Clark Bumpus Mills, TN Weight: 20-14. Can't say that I've ever heard of her, at least I don't think I have. Today's Big Bass was a pathetic 2lbs2ozs caught by Sheri Glasgow Muskogee, OK. On day 1 Secret York caught her only fish of the tournament but it went 5-8.

Marcia "Reelady" Rubin is sitting in 8th (out of 12) with 11-6.

I am not sure if you are supposed to be a Bass Insider or not to get live streaming, but whatever the reason, I don't get it.

Live Blogging the weigh-in:
Well the Classic weigh in is about to start looks like Skeets up first.
Real-Time Leaderboard.

Skeet comes in with a mediocre 11-5, looks like he's out of it. He did only catch 3 bass so the size is there, but it will take a miracle for him to catch up with projected 20lb bags coming in.

Boyd Duckett will not be a repeat champ: 2 fish for 4-15 (Buzzkill for Bass Pundit 1, but I moved him out for the BPboys)

KVD rocks it with 20-3. And to think I was getting jittery on Van Dam and nearly dumped him. (I would have dumped him most likely for Martens who is supposed to also be having a good day.)

Pre-tourny fav Swindle bombs with 5 fish 9-12.

Horton totally bombs with 1 fish 3-9. I nearly had him on BP 1 traded out for Kennedy then Kennedy for IKE who is supposed to have a big bag.

Ish who was supposed to be "on em" 2 fish for 3-11. Ouch!

I traded Duckett for Chris Lane 2 for 2-10. Looks like I should have kept the original pick of Lintner 5 fish 13-2 in that slot. (Bpboys)

Remitz bombs 2 for 4-6 (This was kind of expected, anyone who kept him on there fantasy line up wasn't paying enough attention. Remitz was the 4th most chosen Classic fisherm with 35% or 5968). I will be interested to see if McClelland bombs as well because I think him and Remitz fish similar styles.

I should mention MN Federation Angler Brent Haimes caught a limit but it was a small 8-7.

Big Show bags 19-3!

IKE only 18-5, the BasstraK had him over 20lbs. Still this is OK, IKE was a last minute fantasy add after I had dropped him once.

Coble comes in with a dissappointing 3 fish for 8-10. This is a double disaster both BPboys and BP1 carried him. I should mention that home town boy Ashley sacked a respectable 18-10 which is a score for both posse teams.

WHAT!!! BASS blogger Charlie Hartley from freakin OHIO bags 21+

MCclelland bombs 1 for 2-4, yep looks like he and Remitz die together.

Bobby was the Lane to take, a respectable 15lb bag. What happened to Chris?

Martens only sacks 12-15 (The BasstraK had him at 15+)

Come on Kennedy!!!
Kennedy 5 for 12-13

Weigh in OVER!!!

Fantasy Review:
And Kennedy closes out my fantasy day.
BPboys: 2 top 5, a middle of the pack and 2 lower half's with one of them being 2nd to last.
BP1: 2 top 10, a middle of the pack and two lower half's.

Bassmaster Classic Week

What’s Your Go-To Bait? over at Getting Reel.

Boyd Duckett blogs about Bobby Knight and the Classic.

Way to go Boyd, make me even more jittery in my fantasy picks.

At the KevinVanDam.com website I decided to join the KVD forums. (Hellabass has been there for awhile as RichLindgren.com)

And since I am in the joining mood, I also decided to break down and enter
Rich Lindgren's Bass Fishing Forum.

I've been all around Rich's forum and I am really impressed with the place. I wish all other boards would go to that set up.

Bassmaster Classic Week

Hellabass has his 2008 Fantasy Fishing Kick Off (I give away some secrets in the comments).

In FLW Fantasy Fishing I have joined 3 leagues (Futurebass, Hellabass Blog, and FishingMinnesota.com). The Player's Advantage definitely gives you a lot of helpful information. One of the exclusive content items is a Blog by Jeff Schroeder who is a FLW media guy. I hope the Hulksters FF blog is open to the public.

Apparently with BASS Fantasy Bass Fishing you can only get Pundit Picks with a Bass Insider membership. BOO! Of coarse in BASS fantasy, Pundit Picks were never as important as those on the FLW side where you have a full 200 boat field to choose from every different tournament. In BASS FBF you are really limited in picks due to the point system.

Bassmaster Classic Week!!!

Well it's Bassmasters Classic Week: Check out the hype on the MN participants at Josh Douglas Blog. (2/9/08 entry)

2007 Bassmaster Classic Champion Boyd Duckett is blogging again. Go comment him some encouragement.

The BassFan Army Weekend Warrior Championship will be held in a couple of months and at least 4 Minnesotians are going to be in it.

Big Bass Bonanza
Doug Pietrzak -- St. Cloud, MN
Nick Gross -- Watkins, MN

Excel Bass
Jim Smith -- Brainerd, MN

In-Fisherman Editor Steve Quinn -- Brainerd, MN is in as a wildcard.

Fantasy Bass Fishing News:

Being that it is Classic Week and the first FLW event is a week from Thurs. it's time to put that FBF research into high gear.

I did break down and spend the $25 ($40 -$15Walmart Card) on the FLW Anglers Advantage. I figure if I get lucky enough to win anything, it will be more than worth it. One of the primary reasons I signed up was for the Pundit Picks. In the past this info was given for free, but not anymore. It says in the Anglers Advantage Pundit Picks description that the Staff and Touring Pro's will have selections just like in the past, but for now all they have is Staff picks. I haven't looked into all the Angler Advantage features and I haven't chosen a line up yet.

Updated: Initial line up now selected. It's quite a different experience picking 10 instead of 5 anglers.

I have decided to switch the Posse's league in BASS Fantasy Bass Fishing to Futurebass.com do to lack of participation at the league I created. I am keeping the Super 6 Pick'em league the same (Minnesocold Super 6).

What's with this: FLW Fantasy Fishing is running a free feature called "Top 10 Countdown" The problem is that they started the counting down with angler #9. HUH!!!

So I have been looking through those MN BASS club websites and I am just amazed by the Baxter Bass Snatcher site. Their club "Tournament Archive" goes back to 1977, so they have an amazing allotment of statistics going back to that time. Their "Statistics on Lakes and Tournaments" goes back to 1983 and gives up all sorts of interesting info on Lakes they have fished (You just have to go look to see all the statistical Breakdowns). They also have a statistical archive dedicated to "Angler Statistics, Lakes and other useless info."

Through these archives you can learn of the feats of 2007 Minnesota Bowfin Club Grand Champion Chuck Steinbauer. This guy is one good stick. According to the records he has been fishing with the Bass Snatchers for 31 years. In those 31 years he has been the Club Angler of the Year 10 Times. In those 31 years he has finished in the overall Top 6 (State Tournament Qualifiers) 27 times, his current streak of Club Top 6 finishes goes back to 1981; This feat is remarkable because the Bass Snatchers is not a small club, they have had between 27 and 40 members in the years Steinbauer has been in the top 6. He has fished 179 club tournaments and won 34 of them with 75 top 3 finishes. He has caught the "Lunker"/Tournament Biggest Bass in 27 of the 179 tournaments. In the last 5 years his average tournment 6 fish bag has weighed 13.53lbs. In 2007 when he won the club AOY he averaged 14.99lbs per tournament (6 fish limit). In 2004 he won club AOY and averaged 15.29lbs per tournament (6 fish limit). In 2007 he made the MN State Team finishing in 11th at Leech Lake. I also found out he was 2nd Place in the AOY for Excel Singles in 2007 Out of 23 who fished a full season with 85 anglers total (To bad, I think 2nd place got nothing).

Happy Birthday Steve!!!
(He is my younger brother, the baby is my brother Todd's daughter Isabelle Grace who is now 3)

Bass Pro Site-ING

Derek Remitz "The Wolverine" His site is done by bigfishtools.com

Jeff Kriet

Rick Morris- I can't believe I didn't already have this in the Site-ING blogroll as that I have his blog blogrolled.

Some MN Bassfishing Clubs:

Sunrise Bassmasters (North Branch) This is Derek Remitz's old club.

Range Bassmasters (Brainerd Area)- This is the club I blogged about fishing Platte/Sullivan in 2005. This club has In-Fisherman editor and Bass Guru Steve Quinn.

Baxter Bass Snatchers: This club has the distinction of having 4 of the 9 Minnesota Bowfin Club Grand Champions: Chuck Fields (2000), Guy Henkensiefken (2001), Tom Swanson (2002), Chuck Steinbauer (2007)

Check your "Favorites" The MN Bowfin Club has a different web address.

The Blogging Brainerd Lakes Bassmasters- Yes that's right this club blogs it. The blog has been in existance since June 2005. Since it's a true blog, it will go on the Blogroll-O- BassNblog plus the MN Fishing Clubs Blogroll.

Loon State Bassmasters- This Central MN bass club has semi-pro's Roland Willis and John Schlee. I've fished against John in an Excel Singles Tournament on Gull. I'd never fished the lake before that tournament day. I ended up catching a bunch of bass and finishing in the top 30%, which I thought was pretty good seeing that most if not all of the field was made up of local's. I was only 1 big bite away from the money. Not a lot of info at this web site.

North Star Bass Club (Since 1974)- This group claims to be the oldest Bass club in the state. It doesn't appear to be a Federation club. They are out the West Central part of the state.

Zumbro Valley Bassmasters (Since 1979) A club member, Brent Haimes, is fishing in the 2008 Bassmasters Classic as a Federation Angler. This was his road to the Classic.

Prior Lake Hooksetters- Twin Cities based club. Not a whole lot of info from this website.

Metro Hawg Hunters- BASS Federation Club out of the Metro(duh!)

Not that anyone will care, but I have re-organized my Blogroll-O-BassNblog.

2008 Bassmaster Classic Qualifier Charlie Hartley is blogging his way into the classic:

It's called "Charlie Hartley's Classic" because that's what it really is — my classic. I've been waiting for this my whole life. That's no exaggeration. My whole life — years and years of tournament fishing — has been pointed towards next February.

Go visit, it's a good read.

Story of Mark Davis returning to the BASS Elite Series... If they have Davis for a pittance in BASS fantasy bass fishing, which they should do to his two year absense, you can bet he'll be in my line up. I am hoping his value will be 8 or below.

Yesterday, I was looking at the 2008 Tournament Schedule on Classic Bass (Classic Bass is the definitive web-site for Minnesocold bass tournament fishing). While browsing the tournaments I began to think about whether or not I should think about trying to fish some bass tournaments this summer as a non-boater/co-angler. It would be good for my health if I get out more than I did last summer and I'm thinking that fishing tournaments might give me a little bit more motivation to get out and fish.

Does the BP really need motivation to go fishing?

The answer to that after 2006 most definitely is yes. Last year I did do a fair amount of fishing from shore in the Spring, but once the hotter weather hit in June I just was not finding the energy needed hook the boat up and go. I have been finding it harder and harder to deal with the hot weather since my heart attack in 2003 and this really messes with my energy level and motivation. Maybe if I am looking foreward to tournament fishing some of this negative trend can be reversed; That's my theory any way.

The tournaments with Co-Anglers are the Silverado Tour, ABA Bassmaster Weekend Series, the new Minnesota Federation of Bass Anglers Series, and the new Excel Elite Pro/AM.

The Silverado Tour is pretty much the Premier Pro/Am Circuit in Minnesota, which means it's the most hardcore and most expensive at $200 a tourny for AM's. Their Am slots are already filled.

I believe the ABA Bassmaster Weekend Series is going into it's third year and provides opportunties to advance beyond just the 4 tour events. They have TOC, regional, and national. Hellabass and his dad fish this tour and really seem to like it. While I could probably afford to fish this tour I think all the travel would wear me down.

The MFBA has a series of 4 tournaments that would be a little lighter on the travel for me but is still more than what I am looking for at this point.

That obviously leaves the Excel Elites which are run by a former fishing partner Joel Stokka. They will only be having 2 tournaments (Leech July 27) and (Whitefish Chain Aug.31) both of which don't require extensive travel time for me. I love the idea of fishing the heavy cover in Leech and there is a lot of Bass to be caught on the Whitefish Chain. I am seriously considering these tournaments.

Hulkster Hawks FLW Fantasy Fishing: "Sign up or to the turn-buckle you go!"

Apparently he is going to have a Fantasy Fishing Blog.

I'm just glad they didn't go with Jesse "Govenor Turn-buckle" Ventura.

More BassNblogs

I found these BassNblogs with the help of Boyd Duckett Blog:

The Fishin' Blog: Started in Jan 2007, it's mostly about Bass but does run into a lot of other subjects.

Bass Fishing from a Different Perspective: "Bass fishing, and professional bass fishing in particular, is a fun, fascinating, and gratifying sport to be involved in or follow as a fan. I work in television production on the Bassmaster Elite Series and will share my perspective on the sport." Started in May 2007. Seems to have a lot of inside stuff for the Bass Elite Series. She hasn't posted since November.

Fulltime Fishing.com: This is an angler down in FL who does a lot of bass fishing and reports about it. Misc other fresh and saltwater fishing covered. Looks like the blog was started in January of 2006.

BassFeed (The Bass Fishing Podcast) This blog is obviously a site dedicated to podcasting about Professional Bass Fishing and Bass Fishing Info. This site is pretty cool, started in March 2007. Learn more here!!!

Kirk's Fishing Hole:Blog started on Halloween 2007. Bass and Cat fishing.

Here's a story I came across: They're Ice Fishing In Bikini’s

BASS Fantasy Bass Fishing

I am a little slow on the draw, but the BASS Fantasy Bass Fishing and Super 6 pick'em are now open for registrations. Better hurry cause the classic starts Feb. 22.

The prizes this year seem to be a small step up from last year maybe. For the Classic they are going down 10 places and for regular Elite Series events they go down 6 places. I can't say that I am very impressed with the #1 prize for the classic: One (1) 100,000 Trip Reward Points from Ramada Inn ($500 ARV) for First Place.

Right now my leagues are: (This is subject to change if no one else sign's up)
Minnesocold Fantasy Bassmaster
Minnesocold Super 6

Baby Steps

I took some baby steps toward doing some ice fishing today. I located my five gallon pail, and panfish ice tackle. I am out of string bobber stops and don't have any pliers or scissors. I got the Vexliar carrier out of the tackle shack along with my ice rods, jigging raps, and jigging spoons.

Yet to do: Mount reels on my two panfish rods and put line on them. Get pliers and scissors, find Coleman lantern, find and put together propane heater, mount Vexliar on carrier.

It is very possible I will ice fish this next week when it warms up.

Bass Pundit Blogging In 2007

I was curious to see what I blogged about in 2007. Here are the results:

Bass Fishing: 107 Posts
Fishing: 22 Posts
Football: 12 Posts
Holiday Greetings: 3 Posts
Weather: 2 Posts
Personal Life: 1 Posts
Total Posts 147

There were a lot of posts that combined more than one topic, but I only counted these under 1 Post; Usually these posts had something about bass fishing in them.

Super Bowl 42 Thoughts

I am sorry but Eli Manning does not deserve to be the Super Bowl MVP. On the game winning drive he threw a pass that absolutely should have been picked off and had two other throws that were up for grabs and could have been picked. If anyone on offence the MVP should be David Tyree for making that spectacular catch that kept the final drive alive. That was the play of the game and it was as good a catch as your ever going to see. Tyree not only kept the ball from being intercepted but managed to hold on despite the defence being all over him. Without that catch, I think it doubtful that the Giants win the game.

Speaking of the other QB; I don't think Brady had that good of a game. He missed throws to open receivers on several occasions. Sure the Giants were getting a fair amount of pressure, but Brady was definitely off his normally dead accurate self.

The Giants defence was really the game's MVP. I have to give the Giants credit, they beat the best team in NFL history when it mattered the most. I am shocked.

The Commercials: I do not think there were any truely outstanding one's. Most were quite forgettable. I think my favorite was the car commercial where the squirrel ran out in in the middle of the road and the squirrel plus many others got wide eyed and wide mouthed at the impending carnage of an on coming car, only for disaster to be averted when the car was able to nimbly swerve out of the way.

Puppy Bowl IV: Did you watch Animal Planet today? If not you missed out on what is now my favorite Super Bowl tradition: The Puppy Bowl. If you haven't seen it, it is a TV show where a bunch of puppies of different breeds are put in a mock up football stadium where they play for the cameras. You can see the "Puppy Players" here. My favorite has to be the biggest puppy of them all, Bruin the Alaskan Malamute.

This puppy just lumbered about compared to all the other puppies running all over the place. Good Fun!

Some New Blogs to Check Out

I am a bass fisherman Yes there is yet another BassNBlogger out there. The blogger goes by the alias BassFishingDem and is out of Shreveport, Louisiana; He is not a tournament angler. From the looks of it this site is dedicated to all manner of bass fishing from BassFishingDem's fishing reports to a plethora of tips and fishing info. The blog started in August of 2007 and garners quite a bit heavier traffic than the BP; Obviously someone that knows something about blogging that I have yet to figure out. I found this blog thanks too:

Penn's Outdoors This is a Hunt/Fish blog from Pennsylvania. He says his favorite fish is the Smallie, so we will put it in with BassNblogs. I found this blog because he commented here at BP.

JoshDouglas.com I found this blog through Hellabass. This guy is in Gopher Bassmasters with Hellabass.

Secret Weapon Another blog found thanks to Hellabass. This blog is for the lure company Secret Weapon Lures.

Boyd Duckett Blog This is the blog of the 2007 Bassmasters Classic Champion. Another blog found thanks to Hellabass.

ESPN Outdoors Blogs- Boyd Ducketts blog led me here. Here you can find access to bassin blogs by Alton Jones, Kevin Short, Ryan Coleman, and Brian&Gregg Watts Brothers.

Getting Reel This is a bass fisherman out of Virgina. Lots of bass topics. Found thanks to Hellabass.

Jeremy Starks Bassmaster This is the blog of another BASS Elite Series Pro. He has not blogged since last August. Also found thanks to Hellabass.

Sport's Outdoors Forum This new MN blog has a lot about Ice Fishing so far. We will probably have to wait to see if this qualifies as a BassNblog. Found thanks to Hellabass.

U2 3D

My older brother Jeff took me to see the U2 3D concert movie at the IMAX for my birthday. WOW!!! Amazing!!! Increadbile!!! Awesome!!! A must see for all U2 fans no matter how casual.

The promotional material claimed the experience was "better than a front row seat" and I would have to agree with that assesment. The 3D really puts you right there in a way a flat screen never could. It would be revolutionary to see a sporting event in this new high res 3D 3ality digital technology. I would love to watch a football or hockey game where you are so close, it's like the action is right in front of you and larger than life. I am sure watching on the big IMAX screen enhanced the experience quite a bit over what you would get in a regular theater. It really was amazing.

Also as a birthday gift Jeff gave me U2 the Joshua Tree (Remastered / Expanded) (Super Deluxe Edition) (2CD/DVD). The first CD is the Joshua Tree remastered, the second is the Joshua Tree B-sides plus Silver and Gold (Sun City) and 4 songs and a poetry reading that I've never heard before. The DVD is the Joshua Tree Tour Paris Concert, Outside it's America-Documentary and two music video's. Plus you get a small book/memior and some U2 prints. Thanks Jeff!

Packers Lose!!!

Congratulations to my sister-in-law Kristen's NY football Giants for their overtime victory over Favre and the Packer Nation in the Ice Bowl 2.

I will be rooting for Randy Moss and Lawrence Maroney in the Super Bowl. As I said before at 18-0 the Patriots have earned the mantle of being the best football team in history. It's doubtful that the Giants will get in the way of the Patriots and that NFL Championship.

The Weather: We are currently in what will probably be the coldest stretch of the winter. It was something like -17 last night. When it warms up I may do something about getting my ice fishing gear together.

Ouch!

Two years from today I'll be 40. Will I make it? Will the blog make it? Will I go ice fishing between now and then?

My older brother Jeff turned 40 New Years Day. To celebrate he took a trip to Sunny and warm Puerto Rico. Actually it is just a really long distance law school field trip. I am sure he will have some fun in between studying. Have a good time bro, you deserve it!

College Bowl Games: Who cares!!!
I will probably watch the national Championship Game. Maybe Ohio State will getter done this year.