Thanksgiving at Bass Parade Blog

If you haven't seen it yet, you missed it because Bass Parade is no longer.

Giving Thanks for Our Soldiers

H/T - A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words at The Blaze Blog via Soldiers Angels

Today is my 8th Blogoversary!!!!

I apologize for the lack of blogging frequency since I hurt my back this summer.  My back is getting better but I've mostly switched to my laptop now and typing on it and doing other certain things for blogging are not  as easy to do. I only had two blogs last year in November so I'm one up on that.

Thank You to all of my readers and yes I haven't forgotten about the Derby.

Notice on the Derby

While the Bass Pundit Minnesocold Bloggers Derby 2012 is now over for the year I do not have everyone's weight for the year up and calculated yet.  Hopefully I will finish things off, sooner rather than later.  But I'm not guaranteeing anything.

Thank You Micropterus for sending me your top five.  I'll have your final weight up soon.

Thank You Veterans!!!

KARE 11

Vikes Disappoint Tonight

I wish tonight's game would have been in Tampa Bay because the Vikings didn't show up ready to play.  We started out down 13 to nothing and it never got closer than 6 points for a brief time in the 2nd quarter.  The Vikings have to have the Defense play better than they did for us to have a chance.  They were probably still a bit winded from Sunday when the Cardinals easily owned the time of possession. Plain and simply it looked like The Bucs wanted this one more.

Ponder seems to be getting pounded on Facebook by a lot of the fans, but his numbers tonight weren't that much different than Freeman's.  He was sacked 3 times and was knocked down several more.  The fact is he was put in poor down and distance far to many times.  I wish the naysayers would just shut up for a while and see what happens with Ponder.  It's way to early to call him a failure.  The interception at the end was unfortunate and meaningless.

The fumbles by Peterson and Simpson were just killers in the first half and the touchdown at the start of the 2nd half was the final nail in the coffin.  The Vikings were not going to come back from being down 17 points.  The game at best would have been 36 to 33 with scores on our last two possessions where we got into the red zone.

Hopefully we can bounce back and give Seattle a game.

Some Viking Blogging: Pondering Ponder

This is my first Vikings blog of 2012 and what a start to the season it has been.  Who would have thought the Vikes would have a 5-2 record at this point.  I know I sure didn't.  The Vikes got lucky to win their first game in overtime verses a poor Jacksonville team after giving up the lead on a late touchdown.  Then we lost to the Colts in Week 2 and it didn't look good.  But then we soundly beat the 49ers when a light went on in our Defense and since then our only loss was to Washington last week.  Ponder had a terrible game today but we won 21-14 thanks to a pick 6 by our Rookie Safety, some solid running by Adrian Peterson, and of coarse the play of Percy Harvin.

This season Ponder has really only had two games that were stinkers.  This game with only 58 yards passing with 2 INT's and at Detroit where he had just over 100 yards passing.  Sure he made a bad throw in Washington that went for 6, but as far as I'm concerned his second Int in Washington was on tight end Kyle Rudolph for jumping the gun on a play in which Peterson would have scored the touchdown that would have put us within a field goal of winning provided we got an on-side kick.

Ponder is going to have uneven performances just like every other young quarterback.  Personally I don't think he was getting that much time to throw in today's game especially in the 2nd Half.   Hopefully Ponder will bounce back verses Tampa on Thursday.

Fishers Of Men Club Fall Outing Pictures Sept 28&29

This 17 incher was caught on Mule Lake with a bluegilll colored Strike King Pure Poison with green pumpkin Craw Fatty Trailer on Friday.

This 28.5" Pike was caught on Saturday on the same Pure Poison at Town Line Lake.  It was my first fish of the day and I was lucky I caught it because in totally inhaled the thing and I didn't have a leader on it. I put a leader on it and caught a few more small pike.  I also managed to catch 3 decent bass.  I caught my third bass on the last cast of the day.  It bit just as Mike Thompson laid the hammer down as we were going in.  It turned out that fish along with my 3 best pike won me FallEE WallEE for the 3rd straight year.

Mike Thompson got a 19" bass on Town Line Lake

Bass Zone Comes Up with The Golden Ticket Concept

Basically the idea is to have a lottery for B.A.S.S. Members to get 1 of 8 Golden Ticket's to fish in a tournament, where the winner gets to fish in the Bassmaster Classic.  The idea has potential to significantly raise revenue that B.A.S.S, could use to increase the payout at the Classic, in the Elite Series, for B.A.S.S. in general and for conservation.  The revenue would depend on how much it costs to get a ticket and how many are sold.  You can view the full details at Bass Zone.com

I personally like the idea.  Why not have 1 more avenue to reach the Classic for B.A.S.S. Members?  It will be interesting to see what B.A.S.S. thinks.

Range Wins the 2012 Challenge Cup

Well the Bass Snatchers streak had to end sometime and this was the year.  The Tournament involving my Club the Bass Snatchers, The Range Bassmasters, and Brainerd Lakes Bassmasters for the Challenge Cup took place on Saturday on Borden Lake out of Garrison, MN.  Apparently we only had 4 Snatchers that could make it and all but 1 wasn't even in our top 10 for the year.  Had I known I could have fished, oh well

We apparently got crushed by the Range, not sure how bad Brainerd beat us as well.

Maybe I'll have the final results and a picture at some point, but that depends on what the Range Club gets to me.

Updated:

I Caught A Fish And More Are Coming

I was convinced by Lowell Borgan that  I should go to the Fishers of Men Fall Outing when he offered to pick me up and told me I could fish with Dave Lindmark out of the GEM Pontoon.  Yesterday I was picked up by Lowell and Art.  When we got up to Lutherdell there was some time before dinner so I went out in the Lutherdell pontoon with Art and Jim Druk.  Art got 4 pike and I got 1 and had several follows.  I can't stand up to fish very long before I have to sit back down. Hopefully I'm not gonna be super sore from my first choice of beds.  It's 3AM, I woke up and found a stiffer mattress.

The weather is gonna be perfect!

I will have Pictures later today.

Bass Snatcher Gets Big Bass at State

Outdoors with Sam Cook

 Congrats to Chuck Steinbauer on catching this 5.41 Smallie at the Minnesota B.A.S.S. Federation Tournament of Champions.  Story at Outdoors with Sam Cook.  The tournament was won by Rich Lindgren's Father Wayne.

Congratulations Brent Chapman 2012 B.A.S.S. AOY

B.A.S.S.

Brent sealed the deal today.   Couldn't have happened to a nicer guy.   Way to go Brent!!!

Not Fishing Bass Snatchers North Long

Tomorrow is the 5th Bass Snatcher tournament of the year at North Long Lake.  I will not be fishing due to my back.  I've got a bulging disc in my L4/L5.  It's doubtful at this point that I will be able to fish at Lake Alexander on September 22nd.

Bass Snatchers Pokegama July 28th

My boater Adam had a good day getting 3rd Place and Big Bass 4.15lbs 

The fishing at Pokegama was tough for me in large part because my back/ right leg was in pain for much of the day.  I couldn't keep contact with my lure like I needed to and hooksets were an issue as well.  The weather was partly cloudy to sunny with a bit of a breeze out of the South, blowing strongest at the end of the day.

We got on the "juice" immediately in the morning.  On my 3rd cast I got a big fish, but it was the wrong kind.

It was a big bowfin that did a number on my hook.  While I was landing the fish, Adam got his first bass.  I got the bowfin off the hook and no sooner did Adam have his big bass on.  I got it netted went back to dealing with my line.  Adam had another fish on immediately.  He may have gotten one more before I got my line back in the water.  I finally picked up first bass a 13 incher on a Blue Bruiser Crawtube.  I also got a small pike.  Adam got 5 fish on the starting spot.

We headed to our second spot and got nothing.  Then we went to run some docks.  Adam got his limit fish and I missed a couple bites on a Zoom Fluke.  Adam caught his first cull and I got a 10" bass and another small pike.

We went back to our first spot and I got a  14" bass on the Crawtube.  I think I got another pike as well.  Adam got a couple more fish.   We went to another spot and Adam caught 3 or 4 and I got nothing.  Next we headed out of Poole Bay and went to Salter Bay but that was a bust.  Next we went to Sugar Bay where I got a couple of 13 inchers on a brown/green pumpkin Crawtube along with a non-keeper and a pike.  We went to 1 more spot in Sugar then headed to the river.  The river turned out to be a bust and we headed out of there stopping to fish some slop in Jay Gould.  I finally got a good bass on a Horny Toad (15.5").  I ended  up missing a couple more on poor hooksets.  Adam got 3 or 4 more bass.

Next we headed back to our starting spot and I got my limit fish (15.5") on the brown/g.p. Crawtube.  I was relieved to get my limit.  I also culled my first fish of the day with a 14" fish.  Next we headed way down to the bottom of Sherry Arm to fish slop.  Adam picked up a few fish on a frog and I missed my first bite.  Finally I got one on a Zoom Horny Toad that went 15.25".  I think I missed one more and Adam got a couple more.  We ran back up to Sugar Bay for 20 minutes than fished the last 10 minutes in Tioga Bay where I caught a dink pike to end the day.

My weight was 10-15 and got me 19th Place.  Adam's 16-6 got him 3rd Place.  1st Place was Chuck Johansen who was fishing by himself with 19-1. Apparently he was fishing docks.

I should have had over 12lbs easy, but my leg was just to much of an issue.

Eddy's Launch with Spike and Dad

This evening my old boss at Gander Mtn in Maple Grove Mike "Spike" Miller got together a group to go out on a launch out of Eddy's Resort on Mille Lacs Lake and Dad and I went along.  The weather was warm, but not to hot, mostly sunny with a bit of a walleye chop.  We started off going for smallies in some shallow rocks.  My dad's rod had a problem with the bead getting on the wrong side of the bobber stop.  Several small smallies were caught and Jessica my old roommate from when I lived in Champlin got a 17"er.

I didn't get Dad's rod in order for about 35 minutes and by then we were heading out for walleye's.

Spike got the first eye of the trip with this 26.5" which was the big fish for the launch.

It was a slow night with only about 6 or 7 walleye's caught for 20 of us.  I lucked out and got the last eye of the night as we were pulling up anchor.

24.5"

I think dad might have had a bite, but am not totally sure.  It was good night to see some old friends.

Pokegama Quick Report

My right leg gave me trouble for much of the day, so I ended up not fishing my best.  My boater Adam kicked my rear end after we were pretty even in pre-fish. I did get a limit and even culled a couple of times, but it took most of the day.  Adam was culling in the first hour.  We'll just have to wait and see what my 11lb limit gets me.  Maybe if I'm lucky I'll be in the top 20 out of 29 fishing..

Pokegama Bass Snatchers Preview

It should be an interesting tournament tomorrow with the high water.  Reports I've heard is that the river area's aren't very good.  In my pre-fish we stuck to the lake and fished weedlines doing OK.  Weather forecast is for sun and 10 mph wind out of the South similar to conditions we pre-fished under..  I think it's gonna be a Crawtube kind of day.  The Crawtube was my lure in pre-fish where I got  a 17", 16", 15.5", 14.5", 14" and 14" for my best 6.  Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get a few topwater fish.

I expect weights are going to be down for once this year, but who knows.  I'll be glad if I can get 12lbs, I have a feeling that will be a good weight for this one.

Bass Snatchers Whitefish Chain July 15th

We fished from about 7AM to 3PM.   It was sunny for the first couple of hours, then got cloudy until about the last hour when the sun came out again.

My boater Dave Branum and I were second boat out and we headed to the North East corner of Big Trout Lake.  I decided to start throwing a Paycheck Baits Repo Man and was rewarded on about my 3rd cast with a bass, but it jumped off just before it got to the net.  A few casts later I had another one on that got off half way back to the boat.  Dave then landed the first fish of the day.  Shortly after that I got a 12" squeaker and then I got another 12" squeaker.  About 15 minutes later I landed a quality 15.5" fish also on the Repo Man.  After that the topwater bite died and Dave was getting a few on a jig, so I switched up to a Strike King Ocho on a mushroom head jig.  I got a 13.25" and 12.75" on that.  


We moved to a sunken hump in the middle North part of Big Trout were I missed a good feeling bite on the Ocho.  We then moved to a close by weedline and I got 14.75", 13.25", and another 14.75"on a Blue Bruiser Crawtube and a couple that didn't help. We moved West to another weedline spot where we found rock bass.  Eventually we headed back to our starting spot as it sprinkled a bit.  I got a couple of shorts on the Repo Man, so I switched up to a gold Berkley Frenzy Popper and got a couple that didn't help, then I landed 16".  We moved back to the weedline in the middle North and I got a 16.25" and a 14 on the Frenzy Popper.  Caught a few more that didn't help on the Frenzy and Crawtube.  With an hour left, we headed into Middle Whitefish, then to Upper Whirefish where I caught a rock bass and a pike.  Then it was time to head in.


I ended up with 12/8 but one of my fish died so I dropped to 12/6 which put me in 12th Place.  My boater Dave only got 9/10, which put him in 25th out of 30.  The weights were up again this tournament with 12lb bags to 15th Place and 10lb bags to 24th place.  Last time we were on Whitefish two years ago in early June, my bag would have been good for 5th Place and the time before that in 2006 also in early June it would have been good for 6th Place.  Guys are catching them this year.   The winner was Dennis Lothspeich with 16/15 with an ounce more than Chuck Steinbauer.


My Thoughts:  I was a bit disappointed we didn't get any smallmouth, which I would have thought would have happened with those topwater fish up in Big Trout.  I think we might have actually seen a lake trout that came up to the surface and then swim right by us.   

Whitefish Chain Quick Report

The weather was favorable with light wind and clouds.  It seemed like people caught 'em good today as well.  I had fun catching my best fish on topwater.  The fish bit all day long.  I caught 12/8 minus a 2oz dead fish penalty.  I think I'm in the top 12 out of 30 but then again maybe not.