Mobile Marine Pros "Servicing All Your Boating Needs"

As you may have read on an earlier post I had an unfortunate run in with a wing dam on the Mississippi River earlier in the month fishing the St. Jude Bass Classic. It was obvious the prop was shot and that I had a pretty nice chunk of the fiberglass missing from the back, and not to mention a broken skag. What I wasn't sure about was whether my prop shaft was bent. If it was that would lead to a whole lot more repairs that I was hoping I wouldn't have to open the wallet for. I was put in contact with Joe from Mobile Marine Pros. I was able to schedule an appointment for the SAME DAY and best of all he came to my house to inspect the boat. With the price of gas these days it is real nice to not have to load up the boat and haul it to some shop just to have to leave it there until whenever they can find time to get to it. I can not be with out my boat during the season and the guys at Mobile Marine Pros definitely understand that. After inspection it turned out my prop shaft was perfectly fine and we scheduled an appointment to have the fiberglass patched up.

I was so impressed with the convenience, affordability and quality of service that I thought I would share their information:

Mobile Marine Pros

Gopher B.A.S.S. Federation Club Tournament

Deer Lake, St. Croix Falls, WI

Ahh....Good ol' Deer Lake. Let's just say that I had zero confidence going into this tournament. I had prefished this lake twice and had really no problem catching fish, the problem was catching one that was over 14 inches. As I stated earlier, Wisconsin state law says that a bass must be 14" minimum to keep or in our case even put in the livewell. Trust me, admitting over the internet that in two practice days (eight hours total between the two days) that I couldn't catch a bass over 14" is self degrading on it's own, but I'll let the truth be known.

When John Haynes and I went out to practice we were met with a real bad cold front and lots of wind. We were able to locate small fish on some pretty nice weedy shallow flats. It's obvious that the bigger fish are going to spawn there, but it's just a matter of when. We also spent some time fishing deep points and humps with no success. The one good thing was that 5 minutes before I had to load up my boat on the second practice day, I hooked what seemed to be a real nice fish. I was in about ten foot of water on a nice drop that went from that shallow flat to deeper water. I was using a texas rigged 6" Amp Lures Mimi straight tail hand poured worm (Green Pumpkin), with a 1/16 oz Tru Tungsten sinker pegged about 16" up the line. Unfortunately for me after a pretty nice fight the fish got off. The one good thing though is it was minimum 3.5 pounds. That gave me just a little confidence for the tournament. I figured that I was in the right area and that the bigger fish were staging on those drops in front of the spawning flat. With the weather forecasting 70 degree days and 55 degree nights I figured at worst they would still be staged there or even better that they would have moved up onto the shallow flats and would be putting on their feed bags.

Well wouldn't you know that at tournament time we were met with another post front, high skies, cold temps and a nice stiff wind. I still figured the bass would be on that drop and right away we headed to that location. After about an hour with no bites we moved up onto the flat and I caught a couple small ones again under the 14" mark. After wasting nothing but time we decided to go try our luck on the other side of the lake. During practice we had found this certain bay to be very productive with the little fish and figured we should be able to at least stick a couple 14 inchers. I mean come on a 14" bass isn't that big. It isn't like I'm asking for a five pounder or anything! We arrived in our bay and found that there were numerous other bass boats from the tourney fishing in there. We decided to give it a try anyway. Wouldn't you know, again we had no problem catching fish but what does a guy have to do to get it over 14"? I was catching them like crazy on a texas rigged Reaction Innovations 4" Flirt with a pegged 1/16 oz. Tru Tungsten sinker.

With only a 4 hours to go in the tournament I decided to go hit some docks. We pulled into a nice stretch close to where I had lost that bigger one during practice. I figured with the sun getting brighter later in the day the bass would hold under the docks. On the very first dock I had a nice bite and missed. Second dock, same thing. Then on the third dock, I had a great bite, set the hook into what finally felt like a real nice fish, she bullnosed, wrapped me around the dock post and was gone. That hurt. We fished out the rest of the docks on that stretch with no success. The only good thing that came from that was the fact that we found fish and they could be caught under boat docks. We decided to go into a real small bay that had a few nice pontoon boats and was loaded with docks. On the very first dock I finally caught a nice one on a 1/4 oz. Tru Tungsten Jig (Watermelon) with a 2.75" Gander Mountain Chunk (Green Pumpkin). I headed down to the next dock and pitched the jig all around the dock. A few pitches and I got another nice bite, I set the hook hard and my 20 lb. Fluorocarbon snapped inside my reel. Are you serious! That has happened to me only a few times in my life and now it happens during the last hour of a tournament. I guess that is just the way the day was going to go.

At the end of the day I found myself weighing in one fish for 2.5 pounds. Oddly enough still good enough for a ninth place finish out of 22 boats. I guess it was a tough bite for everyone, 16 people either caught one fish or blanked completely. Ryan Brant won the tournament with four fish and a total weight of 9 pounds. On the ride home I couldn't help but think of what could have been had I landed a few of those nicer fish. The fact that I didn't fish well at all mixed with a tough bite and I guess I ended up right where I should be. I have some real big tournaments coming up, one of which is the BASSMASTER Weekend Series on the Le Homme Dieu chain of lakes. I plan on using this as motivation to do real well there and the rest of the season. From here on out it's fishing, fishing, fishing! I have a lot of homework to do to prepare myself for the upcoming season and one thing I know for certain is you can't expect to do well if you don't give the effort. There will always be bad days on the water, but with the right frame of mind, I can definitely out number my bad days with good ones!

Gopher B.A.S.S. Federation Club Tournament

Bone Lake, Luck, WI

Today was the first tournament of the 2008 Gopher Bassmaster B.A.S.S. Federation season. Our first tournament was held on Bone Lake in Luck, WI. Bone is known for it's excellent muskie fishing but also has a very good bass population as well. I had prefished this lake on Wednesday with new Gopher member Matt and we did pretty well. I had found an area that was holding some nice fish around the three pound range holding up under boat docks. I was pitching a 3/8 oz Tru Tungsten Jig (Green Pumpkin Brown), with a 2.75" Yum Chunk (Green Pumpkin) into all the small areas within the dock. After setting on a few nice ones I continued to run that area and pulled on what felt to be some real quality fish. I tried to get this pattern to hold up all over the luck but only managed to get minimal success. It was something about this area, I'm thinking it had a lot to do with that it was on a semi flat with some nice early vegetation coming up, but more importantly the bottom was made up of pea gravel. We also were able to find a couple nice early weedlines that were holding fish, although none that we caught were over 15 inches, however there were numbers of fish holding up there.

Right at take off I decided I would go straight to my set of decks. It didn't take two skips and I set on pretty nice 15 1/2 inch largemouth. Decision time. Tournament rules in the state of Wisconsin is that a bass has to be at least 14" to keep and there is no culling allowed. Which meant I had to gamble. Throw the bass back and gamble that I'll catch bigger and possibly risk catching not another one? I opted to put the first one in the box and get the skunk out of the boat. Two flips later and I set the hook on what appeared to be a HOG! 10 seconds later and a nice 40" muskie surfaced from under a dock. Pretty cool but not the right kind. He was still fun though. As the morning went on I was having no problem catching bass, the only problem was their size. Since I was catching so many I kept throwing them back banking on that I was going to catch some bigger ones. I even threw back one that was just over 16". As noon passed I started to get antsy and started keeping anything over 14" to make sure I still came in with a nice limit.

As the afternoon wore on I decided I would try to work my deeper weedline to see if maybe the bigger ones that I was catching in practice had decided to move out a bit. Again it was quantity over quality though. On the weedline I was having most of my bites come on reaction style baits. I caught a few on a Strike King Red Eye Shad (Bluegill), but most of my fish fell victim to the Amp Lures Midshooter (Bluegill) or a Amp Lures 3/8 oz. Musashi Spinnerbait (Sweetfish). The funny thing was that I also caught another muskie over 40" on the Musashi Spinnerbait as well. And they say the muskie is the fish of 10,000 casts!

At the end of the day I weighed in four fish for 8.7 pounds. Keep in mind the tournament had a four fish limit. My weight was good enough for seventh place. I was definitely hoping to start out the season with a little better finish but all in all I was happy. I fished real well but I just never got the big bites I needed. My next tournament is at Deer Lake, hopefully I'll get those big bites there!

10th Annual St. Jude Bass Classic - Day 2

Mississippi River Pool 4 & 5, Wabasha, MN

After making all the wrong decisions on Day One of the tournament, Ryan and I decided we would let the weather dictate our pattern for Sunday. If the wind would allow us we would head for Pepin and try to cash in on the good sized smallies that we had patterned in practice. If the wind was blowing and again making Pepin impossible to fish than we would head South to Pool 5 , lock thru and fish for the nice smallies we had found a week earlier in practice and possibly get a nice largemouth to boot.

At take off we decided that with the cold temps (high 30's), the relatively light wind, and the high bluebird skies, that we would once again venture north to Lake Pepin. Decision making is extremely important on this body of water. The winds seem to turn on and off within seconds. Making a decision to either go North to Pepin or South to Pool 5 so critical because there really isn't any turning back. The amount of time it would take to get to our fishing holes on the North end of Pepin is about twenty minutes at 65 mph in perfect conditions. If the wind picks up it could take at least 45 minutes. If you get all the way up there and find that your areas are completely washed out it would take more than and hour to run all the way back down river to Pool 5, lock through the damn, and get to your fishing areas. Than take your drive time back, again through the damn for weigh in, and you can waste at least half of your day driving and not fishing.

We arrived on our spots on Pepin and were pleasantly surprised that are areas were very fishable. The only problem was we couldn't catch anything. We decided to work a couple nice underwater points very slowly, we did get bites but the only fish boated were to small to keep. There is a 14 inch minimum on this stretch of river and I'll tell you they are always 13 1/2 when you really need a fish. After spending half the day on Pepin with no success we decided to head back to the river and fish the backwaters of Pool 4 and try to get a limit of largemouths. WIth only a few hours to go, no fish in the livewell, we arrived in a pretty nice looking area. Ryan got a couple bites early, some that missed and some that broke off. Not really sure whether they were bass or northern pike, it was still incentive enough to continue to fish hard through the area. We were both flippin' light weighted tubes with rattles, 1/8 oz., into the grass around the current. With about 45 minutes to go I finally boated a descent largemouth, about 16 inches. Than two flips later I got bit again, but as luck would have it, the fish came unbuttoned. At this point it didn't surprise me.

Back at weigh in there were teams who did have big sacks and there were a lot of zeros. With the unseasonably cold weather we were having it appears that the smallmouths were still in big groups and if you could find them you could catch them all day. After the weigh in was over it appeared that all the teams that did real well were fishing mild current in the cuts off the main river of Pool 5. That's were the biggest schools of smallies seemed to be staging. After the tournament I couldn't help but think what if we never would have had such luck on Pepin on the last day of practice. We probably never would have headed that way at all. Although that's what I mean when I say decision making is so critical in bass tournaments. Could a, should a , would a, does not cash paychecks, although they are a great learning lessons.

Needless to say after this tournament I can't wait to head out to Wisconsin and start preparing for a couple of club tournaments on Bone and Deer Lake. Happy Fishing!

10th Annual St. Jude Bass Classic - Day 1

Mississippi River Pools 4 & 5, Wabasha, MN

Talk about a weekend to put behind me. I woke up real early on Friday morning to get down to Wabasha by 6 am and awoke to temps in the mid 30's with sleet. I headed down to the mighty Mississippi and found it was mighty indeed. The waves were starting to pick up on Lake Pepin and the current was blazing on the main river. Historically this time of year I have never done that well on this stretch of the river. Knowing this I made sure to spend an ample amount of time trying to prepare for this event. The weeks before the tournament I spent my time everywhere from the backwater sloughs, the shoots on the main river, and the main river itself. All the while I was never able to put together a confident pattern. Water temps have been extremely cold (40's and very low 50's), so I spent most of my time working areas slow with tubes, jigs, and rattle trap style baits. I never caught many fish during practice and when I did there was no rhyme or reason to why I caught them. They were real scattered.

So once I arrived to Wabasha on Friday morning I decided since I wasn't having any luck on the main river that I would spend the majority of the day fishing Pool 4, mainly Lake Pepin. After running lots of water, my tournament partner Ryan and I were able to put together the best pattern yet! We were concentrating on small points and underwater points, as well as marina's and we were throwing jerkbaits with some nice success. I was throwing a Lucky Craft Pointer (chartreuse Shad) and Ryan was throwing a Husky Jerk, the biggest one I caught was just over four pounds. We decide instead of fishing and actually hooking the fish we would search for good looking water and waypoint our spots to my Lowrance units so we could more efficiently run our water during the actual tournament. After doing this we decided to check a couple of backup spots and get of the water so we could fill up the boat, register, and get our tackle ready for the next day. Our main plan was to attack Pepin in the morning, get our limit of smallmouth and then head to the river and look for a couple nice kicker fish in the afternoon, once the backwater warmed up a bit.

Little did we know we woke up Saturday morning to a horrible cold front, lots of rain and heavy winds. Being that we were both inexperienced on this body of water we decided to stick to our game plan. That would end up being our biggest mistake. Once we hit the mouth of Lake Pepin we were met with four foot rollers, not the most ideal conditions when we needed to get about twenty miles up lake. Lake Pepin is a monster in the fact that when the wind is howling there is no place to hide to get out of it. We arrived to our first and best area and saw that it was completely washed out. We attempted to fish it but only beat ourselves up in the process. The water was coming over the bow of the boat, and the trolling motor kept coming out of the water so we were mainly at the mercy of the waves. Luckily for us as I worked on just controlling the boat Ryan was able to catch a nice three pound smallmouth.

After wasting way to much time on the lake, with only one fish in the livewell we decided to head to the river. We hit one of our better spots we had in the river and Ryan flips a 4 pound largemouth into the boat! That was huge! With three hours to go all we have to do is get a few more bites and we should be doing real well. When it rains it pours. My trolling motor batteries started to die. After spending so much time on the lake dealing with those massive waves I hardly had any juice left. Which meant we had to get out of the current to insure we could continue to fish. We fished some marinas with no success and then decided to check some of the way backwater areas where the current should be minimal and the water temps should be rising. Getting to these backwater areas can be hazardous though. This time of year the river is in a flood stage and you never really know what's safe and what's not. A lot of times you just need to get up on plane and say a prayer. Well remember when I said it when it rains it pours? Well after getting all the way back there, not catching any keepers, we had to make it back to weigh in. With 15 minutes to go I was idling out from under a bridge and CRUNCH, I hit some rocks. Not good. Can this day be any better? After weighing in on day one we were at 7.16 pounds and way out of contention. It was either hit or miss for the rest of the field as well. Either you had a HUGE sack or you were in the bottom looking way up. After loading up my boat we checked out the damage, broke of a chunk of the skag, bent back to blades on the prop, and cracked some of the fiberglass on the bottom of the boat. Hopefully all is still in tact with my prop shaft and lower unit.

After the weigh in we attended the benefit dinner put on at Slippery's bar and grill, and also listened to a benefit put on by the St. Jude organization. I can't tell how touching it really was. I quickly realized how lucky I am to be able to do what I enjoy and there are kids out there that may never get that chance. It puts a guy in his place in a quick hurry and I remembered exactly why I was there. It was great to hear how our donations go out to help thousands of kids, so that God willing one day they will get the opportunity to case their dreams. Going to bed that night everything didn't seem so bad. The boat will be fixed, hopefully the fishing will be better, but we were all fishing for a great cause and that's all that really matters.

Ryan and I were able to raise over $1,900 dollars for the St. Jude's Children Hospital, and together as a group the tournament brought in over $120,000 dollars. I would like to thank everyone who donated to such a wonderful cause! Check back soon as I will update our second day of the tournament.

Practicing for the St. Jude Bass Classic

Mississippi River Pool 4 & 5, Wabasha, MN

This weekend was an interesting one to say the least. On May 3rd and 4th, I will be fishing with Ryan Brant in the 10th Annual St. Jude Bass Classic, held on the Mississippi River pools 4 and 5. This is a two day team tournament, with an eight fish per day limit. I have some experience on these waters but not usually at this time of the year. When I have fished pools 4 and 5 this early in the season I haven't been to successful. Although this year I'm hoping to make different. Unfortunately I don't want to give to much info away until after the tournament, then I'll break it all down with a lot more detail. All I can say is that the bite was very tough. There was a Fishers of Men tournament going on while we were there and that further proves my point, it only took 8 pounds to get in the money and out of 39 boats 22 of them blanked.

So instead of talking about how we fished and what worked and didn't work, I'll talk about the fishery we are fishing. Pools 4 and 5 are border waters between Southern Minnesota and Southern Wisconsin, and not to far from Northern Iowa. Largemouth and smallmouth bass are in abundance on this stretch of the river. Both have to be 14 inches to weigh in and there is a "No Cull" rule for all of this stretch of river. Generally the smallies can be caught around the main river and largemouths are found all over the abundant backwater sloughs. Pool 4 is mostly made up by Lake Pepin, a beautiful lake that is also heavily fished by walleye fisherman. Going South from Pepin you will get back on the main river channel until you hit the lock and dam, which after you lock threw becomes pool 5. Both the South side of pool 4 and all of pool 5 has endless miles of backwater area. A little tricky to navigate but once your familiar with the area it becomes a little easier. None the less, I seem to get my self in a few real hairy situations out there every year. You never really know where there is a rock, tree trunk, wing dam, or a sand flat. If you add it up I have spent hours trying to free my boat from being accidentally beached on a sand flat. In the summer time the slop fisherman seem to excel nicely in the backwaters and the finesse fisherman do great searching out the smallmouths.


**From left to right: Mississippi River Pool 4 and the Mississippi River Pool 5

The next two weeks I will be spending a lot of my days pre fishing for this tournament and then I will shift my focus to Wisconsin and get myself ready for a couple more events out there. The bad news is it is late April and the vast majority of our Minnesota lakes are still well froze over. This is crazy considering last year they where all open by late March. The weather is starting to get nice so it should be any day now. I'm happy to be spending my time down on the river and in Wisconsin because Minnesota's bass fishing opener is until May 24th! Still over a month away! Oh well I will stay way to busy anyway. After the tournament I will post a lot more detail, until then wish Ryan and I lots of luck, 10 grand for first place. That would be a great way to start out the season.

Grand Lake, Vinita, Oklahoma

Quality over quantity ended up being my theme this year on Grand Lake in Northeastern Oklahoma. Last year it was the exact opposite, lots of fish but no size to them. The weather this week was going to be anything but stable, with daily highs ranging anywhere from mid 50's to low 70's and the overnight lows were projected to be in the mid 30's. I had done my fair share of research for my trip and knew all the obvious things before I even left from Minnesota. Since April of last year Northeastern Oklahoma has been pounded with rain, making the water levels extremely high (about 8 feet higher than this time last year) and the water clarity was not more than a foot. In some areas it resembled chocolate milk. With the air temp cooling off at night and the water temps staying in the mid 50's I knew I really had no serious chance of getting into a good spawning pattern. Instead I prepared myself for a prespawn pattern by tying on a lot of jigs for both deep and shallow water, crankbaits ranging from 2 to 20 feet, spinnerbaits, swimbaits, lipless crankbaits and jerkbaits. Right after launching I headed out to the main lake where I did so well last year. I started by running an Amp Lures Heavy Hitter (Rayburn Red) in about 15 feet over some main lake points and secondary points. After no success I tried slow dragging a hand tied 5/16 oz. Jewel jig all over the point from 2 to 30 feet, again without a bite. I thought by starting out on the main lake points that would help me figure out where the bass would be staging. This time of year the bass are wanting to spawn and they will be staged somewhere from their wintering areas to their spawning flats where they will eventually bed. By ruling out the main lake points I knew they would be somewhere between the inside edge of the points to the shallows deep in the backs of the coves.

I left the points and started working my way into the coves by throwing a Amp Lures Mid Shooter (Bluegill). Usually I would go for more of a shad color but with the water so dingy I wanted a little chartreuse in the bait to help it be more visible under the water. I picked up a couple small male bass relatively quickly. This told me that the fish were present. This time of year where ever the bucks are the females are close by just waiting for their beds to be ready. I decided to make a change and slow down my presentation. Seeing that murky water up in the trees looked like an ideal spot to start flippin a jig and hope for a big bite. I opted to first start out with a 3/8 oz. Ten K Jig (green pumpkin). After about a half hour with no bites I came to the conclusion that I needed to switch to a heavier jig, with loud rattles and in a different color. I tied on a 1/2 oz. Tru Tungsten Jig (Black and Blue) and continued flippin the trees and buck brush. It wasn't three flips and I caught a nice 2 pound bass, a few more flips after that I caught a better one, 3 pounds. I was catching these fish right on the bank but it was a certain type of bank that was producing. The best banks were in the smaller coves off the main lake and they had to have a steep shoreline. I would position my boat about ten feet from shore and my Lowrance unit would read a depth of about 10 to 15 feet. I would catch them anywhere from 1 ft. in the brush to 15 ft. on the bottom of the dropoff.


**From left to right: Me with two nice Grand Lake toads, Matt with a nice one on the Basstrix Swimbait, and Matt and I showing off our day one catches.

I stuck with that pattern all day and in total I caught eight largemouth's, most in the three pound range with the biggest weighing in at exactly four pounds. It was imperative to weigh the bigger ones because my buddies and I had an ongoing bet of $20 each for big fish for the whole week. That four pounder barely gave me the tentative top spot. After loading up my boat for the day I come to find out that the rest of the people in my camp struggled to get bit. That helped me solidify my pattern because they were mostly throwing jerkbaits and spinnerbaits and having no success, which meant I was on the right track. My buddy and boat partner Matt caught the second biggest bass of the day weighing 3.13 lbs. on a 6" Basstrix Paddle Tail Tube Swimbait (yellow perch).

Day two I decided to make a long run. I made this decision for two reasons, one being I am new to my Ranger Z20 and really want to give it a nice test run and two, I was headed to a a well known spawning area way up in the northern part of the lake. The water was said to be clearer up there and the area is one big giant flat of flooded timber. I had to know whether the fish were there. The boat ran awesome but the fishing was horrible! This area in a week or two will be absolutely lights out but the fish just didn't seem to be there yet. Being that the water was more shallow I opted to go with a 3/8 oz. TEN K Jig (black and blue) and I added a rattle. Matt and I spent all day back there searching and between the both of us I only caught three small fish between the 1.5 and the 2 lb. mark. I literally threw every kind of bait I could think of and just couldn't get any bites. The three fish I did manage to catch all came on a good ole' TEN K Jig. Usually I would be extremely upset with these kind of results but the Ranger runs great and best yet I ruled out another area of the lake. When getting to know a new body of water this can be as effective as finding the fish. It's a delicate balance of knowing where to go and where not to go come tournament time.

Thursday started off soggy but the temp was a comfortable 60 degrees. The weather man reports strong storms hitting the area later in the evening and cool high skies for tomorrow. With the warm air, overcast skies and a nice wind I knew this would be my best opportunity for some big fish. I made a commitment to keep the jig in my hand and just flip the cover all day. Bites were few and far between but when they did bite they were all good size. I started with two nice ones about 2.5 lbs., than two more at about 3.5 lbs. I came across a nice point in the cove that was surrounded by deeper water and the bottom was full of rocks. I quickly tied up a 1/2 oz. Picasso Football Jig (peanut butter and jelly) and added a Gary Yamamoto Double Tail Grub (green pumpkin), I also dipped the tails in Spike It Dye (chartreuse) to help the fish see it in the dingy water. This proved to be very effective because after a few cast I set the hook on a beautiful bass weighing 6.2 lbs. I caught her in about 15 feet of water and what a great fight she put up! After weighing it and snapping a few pictures I released her quickly. Of course I always practice catch and release but I didn't want to keep her in my livewell long, figuring she was getting ready to spawn. Later that day I also caught a 4.6 lb. and a 5.7 lb. bass. The five pounder came out from under a boat dock in about ten feet of water on a 1/2 oz. Tru Tungsten Jig (black and blue). After catching a big one like that I tried very hard to make a dock pattern work but I never got another bite off them. Thursday proved to be a great day. If it was a tournament I would have brought about 22 pounds to the scales. That's a great bag anywhere. Matt caught one fish about 2 pounds on a Basstrix Paddle Tail Tube (yellow perch). I am serious when I say this, bass absolutely annihilate the Basstrix swimbaits. I got myself a sweet selection of these and I know they will pay dividends at certain events this year. My long time buddy Chris Campbell also had a good day flippin a black and blue jig and our buddy Shorty caught two nice bass on a Ten K Jig that I had given him. He was very excited because he is a walleye fisherman turned bass fisherman and that was the first bass he had ever caught on a jig.


**From left to right: Myself holding a nice 6.2 lb. largemouth and it's a good one when you can fit your whole fist in it's mouth!


**From left to right: 1/2 oz. Tru Tungsten jig, 1/2 oz. Picasso Football Jig, and a 6" Basstrix Paddle Tail Swimbait

The rest of the trip was tough fishing. A cold front moved in with blue bird skies and the bite slowed down. The little fish could be caught but the big ones vanished. It's to be expected this time of year. Chris was able to catch them on lipless crankbait, Matt with a chatterbait, Robert on a spinnerbait and myself on a jig and a Lake Fork 8" Worm (black and blue). None of which produced any big ones though. All in all it was a great trip and an excellent preseason. Great times with good friends and good fishing is exactly what I needed. Not to mention the satisfaction of collecting $20 bucks each from all my boys for big fish!!! Even better.

Preparing for the Pre Season at Grand Lake, Oklahoma

Now we're talking! Tomorrow I leave for Grand Lake o' the Cherokees, just outside Tulsa, Oklahoma. This is my pre season for what is to come of a pretty hectic tournament season. My good friend Matt and I are meeting up with our other two buddies, and headed down to where the ice doesn't exist. I was at Grand Lake last year for a few days and had some pretty descent success. There were no five pounders, or even fours for that matter. However I had huge expectations the weeks previous last year. I was watching the weather and it was in the 70's and 80's for three weeks prior to our arrival. Keep in mind when you are coming of the tail end of a Minnesota winter that type of weather seems a bit like heaven. Well when we pull into our cabin right on Grand Lake it was snowing! We dealt with a viscous cold front. The four days we were down there the high never got over 40 degrees. The first day I really sucked and only boated a few small bass on jerkbaits and shakey heads. However the second day I started figuring things out a bit. I could tell that most fish moved from the shallow water out to the deeper staging areas. They wanted to spawn but with that drastic of a cold front they were in no major hurry. I ended up having all my success by fishing main lake points in 10 to 30 feet with a 5/16 oz. Jewel Jig, casting it out along the edge of the points and slowly creeping it back to the boat. From there on I was on a good pattern that I feel would have done pretty good in a tournament at that time.

This year is going to be something different all together. The weather has been very mild for a few weeks and we're looking at highs in the 60's and 70's. My assumption is that we will be fishing shallow and possibly even some spawning action. Grand Lake is a great lake but is like none I've ever fished because of it's extreme lack of vegetation. Not to mention it has really stained water. The lake is known for it's largemouth and spotted bass, but also has a small population of smallmouth bass as well. Grand Lake is also an impoundment, that is known for it's deep water and abundance of baitfish. I'm counting on a variety of ways to catch fish. First I think I will probe the shallows. One exciting thing about this year from last is the amount of rain they have received in the past year. So much that it has elevated up past the shoreline and into the trees. This is nice for me to get up in the heavy stuff and search out those toads with a 3/8 oz. Ten K Jig. Also I could imagine that I can do well around the many boat docks with a Ima Flit jerkbait. If I get the opportunity to bed fish I already have tied on a texas rigged Amp Lures Craw. The great thing about this bait is the claws are equipped with air pockets that make the Craw's hands float. If the bass isn't interested in my bait at first once I bump a Craw claw in her face then we'll see if interested. Although I expect to still do most of my damage with two baits, a 5/16 oz. Jewel Jig and Amp Lures Midshooter Crankbait.

Well I suppose I better get to my gear. I leave in 24 hours and still have to tie up all my rod and reels and pack up the boat. The best part is I get to break in my new Ranger Z20 for a whole week. When I get back it's all business. I will start prefishing for the St. Jude Bass Classic on the Mississippi River in Wabasha, MN. Hopefully when I get back I will have some nice (heavy) stories to tell about Grand Lake!

Fishing for an Excellent Cause, The St. Jude Foundation

During the weekend of May 3rd and 4th, I will be fishing in the 10th Anniversary Dick Hiley St. Jude Bass Classic. This two day event takes place on the Mississippi River pools 4 and 5, in Wabasha, MN. I am very excited to fish this particular event, not just because it's my first tournament of the season, but more importantly I'll have the opportunity to fish for such a great cause. I get much pleasure being able to chase my childhood dream, that it hurts to think there are kids that may not get the opportunity to do the same.

The St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is the first institution established for the sole purpose of conducting clinical research into catastrophic childhood diseases, mainly cancer. They are also the largest childhood cancer research center in the world in terms of numbers of patients enrolled and successfully treated.

I will be accepting donations to present to the St. Jude on behalf of myself, my family and friends, and anyone else who wishes to do the same. The hospital's daily operating costs are $1,216,247.00, which are primarily covered by public donation. If interested in contributing to the St. Jude Children's Research Center please contact me at Josh@JoshDouglasFishing.com for more information.

If you are interested on receiving more information on the Dick Hiley St. Jude Bass Classic go to Zumbro Valley Bassmasters and for more information regarding the St. Jude Children's Research Center go to www.StJude.org.

Tackle Update: Stocking up for '08

Now that the 2007 season is all said and done, it is time to start planning and preparing for the upcoming tournament season. There is a lot of different things that I can do now so that when it's time to fish, I'll be sure to have more time on the water. First and foremost I have to make sure my boat is all ready to go. I'm so excited because this year I got a new boat! I've already had it in to be fully serviced by Frankie's Marine, now it's just a matter of getting the boat fully rigged. I just ordered two Lowrance sonar/GPS units, a Lowrance LCX 37 C for my console, and a Lowrance LCX 27 C for the deck. These units are very important because they are my eyes underwater. Not only are they a sonar but they have built in GPS to help navigate the water. A few companies offer mapping data chips for these units that will give you high definition mapping. I suggest either Lake Maps or Navionics. I am also looking into new batteries. These are real important. A matter of fact they cost me a great finish in a tournament last year. So you can imaging that is a priority to me to make sure my batteries are the best.


**From left to right: Lowrance LCX 27C and a Lowrance LCX 37C

I also make sure to stock up on tackle and make sure to keep up with new products. During the course of a season a guy can go thru the tackle. I never truly know what I am going to use in a single day but I do have a good idea. The first thing I go threw is my "go-to" baits. These are the ones that I feel most comfortable with and use on a regular basis. Some of my every day tackle consists of the Ten K jig by 10000 Lakes Tackle, Net Bait's Paca Craw, or Lucky Craft's Sammy. There are many more baits that follow under this category and I want to make sure I am fully stocked on these before the season starts. Usually it's easier to get stocked up during the off season when I have more time on my hands but most importantly, I can find what I need. Way to often I will need something in a certain color and won't be able to find it anywhere because their more likely to be sold out in the middle of the season.

Another thing I take into importance is my terminal tackle. Lets be honest, it's not as fun to buy hooks as it is to buy some new Japanese crankbait, but it is more important. I make sure to stock up on things like fishing line such as P Line fluorocarbon, Power Pro braid, and Berkley Sensation for mono. I also stock up on Gamakatsu hooks for everything from trebles to Super Line to the drop shot. I also am a huge fan of the Reaction Innovations BMF hook for all my flippin'. Also I make sure I have a huge selection of Tru Tungsten Flippin' weights and Worm weights in all different sizes.

Probably the most fun I have is stocking up on new products. This year I am really excited to be using the new line of baits by Amp Lures. These Japanese influenced baits are sure to fool many bass this year. I'm especially excited for their Air Shot Jig matched with a High Low 5.5". I'm counting on this lethal match up to entice those finicky bites from a 6 pounder.


**From left to right: Amp lures Air Shot Jig and the High Low 5.5" and 10,000 Lakes Tackle, TEN K Jigs

Also new is the one and only Basstrix Paddle Tail Tube. By far the most sought after bait on the market. This hollow belly swimbait has been silently cashing paychecks for pros for a few years now. Now let me assure you the cat has been let out of the bag. This lure is extremely hard to come by. There are alternatives that will do a great job such as Poor Boy Bait's Silly Rabbit or Berkley Power Bait's Hollow Belly. Although all are fantastic lures, in this case I tend to lean in favor of the Basstrix. Each one is hand made for the perfect presentation and it's hard to beat the original. Chatterbait used to be a "craze lure" until it became more accessible, now there are dozens of imitators. Some of them are real nice baits but I think Chatterbait is still number one.


**Basstrix Paddle Tail Tube Swimbaits.

Also I spend a lot of time studying maps of lakes I will be fishing. I try to figure out what the primary forage is and what the cover and structure are like. This usually helps me come up with a good idea of certain patterns that may work. From there I have an idea of the baits that I may want to stock up on as well. I better get going, I have some work to do!!

A Weekend of Fishing and Watching the BASSMASTER CLASSIC!!

With the weather starting to show small signs of Spring, I got one last opportunity to get out and catch some smallies! Today is the last day of the fishing season here in Minnesota. Since bass season won't be reopening until May 24th, there will be a lot of time to practice in other areas. Coming up in the early part of April I have planned on spending some time on Grand Lake, in Northeastern Oklahoma. From there I will spend a lot of my time fishing the Mississippi River between Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa, but mainly concentrating on pools 4 thru 7. I will also spend some time preparing for early season tournaments on a few lakes in Wisconsin.

So needless to say I was ecstatic to be able to get one last time before the serious work begins! Both Pops and Matt accompanied me on this trip and after a quick trip to Cabela's, we arrived at our fishing destination to find that everyone else including their mothers decided to take the same opportunity as we did. IT WAS PACKED!! There were fisherman every where! Most were live bait fishing for walleye and catfish, but that really didn't matter. This area is extremely small and I had never seen it so busy. I guess with being the last day of the season and almost 40 degree's everyone was thinking fishing.

We must have fished for around two or three hours and had very limited success. I caught 4, Matt caught 4, and Pops 2. I would have been pretty disappointed with my limited success except for two reasons. One, all four of my fish were nice ones all being two pounds or better and I caught my personal best walleye ever. The brute weighed in at 7 pounds! I know that there are people out there who have caught better, but I spend literally every available second fishing for bass, so to catch one of that size was pretty cool! I have to admit though, down deep a good portion of me wished it had been a 7 pound smallmouth! I was able to get a couple quick pictures and released her unharmed back to the waters for another angler to appreciate.

After fishing I was eager to get home and watch the final weigh in of the 2008 BASSMASTER Classic, at Lake Hartwell, SC. This Classic was holding up to all its hype! The weather was nasty and some of the top names made the top 25 cut. Most notable were Kevin VanDam, Aaron Martens, and Mike Iaconelli, although in the end Alton Jones, from Waco, TX, took home the most coveted trophy in our sport, with a nice 3 day total weight of 49-7 lbs. and claimed the winning check of $500,000.00 dollars!! Jones targeted bass in 25 to 30 feet, on the inside edge of the standing timber submerged in Lake Hartwell. Alton used three lures to catch his bass: a Booyah Pigskin jig and a Booyah AJ's Go-To jig, both rigged with a Yum trailer, and a Cotton Cordell CC Spoon.

As much as I look forward to watching the Classic every year, I can't help but dream of one day being there competing. Or better yet of being lucky enough to hold that trophy up in the air! God willing with endless days of hard work and practice, I'll be able to one day live up to my childhood dream.......Winning the Bassmaster Classic!

Give It Up for the 2008 BASSMASTER Classic Qualifiers from Minnesota

In just two very short weeks, the 2008 BASSMASTER Classic will be kicking off at South Carolina's, Lake Hartwell. Among the 50 star studded anglers that will be competing are two from my home state of Minnesota, Derek Remitz and Brent Haimes. Remitz, who now resides in Grant, Alabama will be fishing his second Classic in two consecutive years. Remitz is a former member of the Sunrise Bassmasters, a Minnesota BASS Federation Club. After spending just a few short years at the state level, Remitz went on to try his luck at the national level, fishing in the Bassmaster Opens. From there he qualified for his first Classic and earned a spot on the Bassmaster Elite Series. At the first event of the 2007 Elite Series Tour, Derek beat the whole field on Lake Amistad to earn his first Elite Series win. From there on he rode through his highs and lows and snatched the 2007 Bassmasters Rookie of the Year title.

How one goes about getting to that level of fishing can be done in numerous ways. Never easy though. Brent Haimes, from Mazeppa, MN, qualified for the 2008 Classic by succeeding so well through the grueling BASS Federation ladder. Haimes, a member of the Zumbro Valley Bassmasters, a Minnesota BASS Federation Club, started his road to the Classic in 2005, by qualifying through is club for the 2006 BASS Federation State Championship, held on Gull Lake, MN. At Gull, Brent went on to place 11th, and the top 12 advance on to the 2007 BASS Federation Northern Regional Championship, which was held on none other than Lake Erie. At this stage, the top place angler from their own state advance. Brent took 11th overall, but was first among the Minnesota anglers, advancing him onto the 2007 BASS Federation Championship on Florida's very own, Lake Tohopekaliga (Better known as Lake Toho). At this tournament it is all on the line. The top angler from each region goes onto fish the BASSMASTER CLASSIC! Brent worked extremely hard to take 7th overall, and 1st in his region, and qualified for his first Classic appearance!

**From left to right: Derek Remitz, showing off his Lake Amistad catch and Brent Haimes, going to the Classic!

I recently went to a seminar hosted by Brent Haimes, at one of our Minnesota BASS Federation State meetings. His topic was very interesting in the fact that he shared with us his road to the Classic and all the ups and downs he went through. For me this was a great learning experiance. It is my life long goal to one day be lucky and good enough to qualify for the Elite Series and the Classic. To see and hear how one of my fellow Minnesota tournament anglers did it, I would have to say it was motivating to say the least. I personally wish both of these fine anglers the best of luck at the Classic. I know I will be watching from home and rooting them on the whole way! Stick 'Em Boys!!!!

Smallmouths Curing my Spring Fever

It has been a miserable couple of weeks since my last bass outing entry. The weather has been awful for a die hard fish lipper such as myself. It has just been brutally cold. So cold to where it is beyond shivering, your bones actually hurt. I can recall jumping into my frozen Chevy Suburban on a frigid Saturday morning and my temperature gauge read -19 degrees. Hopefully the housing market gets better so my beautiful wife Bri and I can move somewhere in the South. But until then, I'll suck it up and not take for granted the couple of "lucky for me" spots that I have where I can still stick football sized smallmouth when the weather permits.

Today Matt and I where blessed with a "heat wave", all of 35 degrees, and made it a point to get out and exercise the smallmouths. It was blue bird skies when we started the air temp was only 20 degrees, but trust me, it felt like 70. The fishing was good right away. I caught a dozen or so pretty quick. The only issue was the lack of size. They were all dinks. I was using my bread and butter, a 3" YUM Mega Tube (green pumpkin), with an 1/8 oz. Kalin's tube jig. I was working the tube near a laydown, that was serving as an ambush point for the smallmouths. They like to hide on the down river side of the brush and when some food source comes by they ambush it. I am limited to the angles I can cast to being that I was fishing from shore. I don't think it is a good idea to dump my 20 ft. Ranger in a super shallow, rock infested body of water in the dead of winter. Matt was fishing some scattered rock mixed with sand and really wasn't getting many bites. After a while my laydown stopped producing and I to was looking for a new spot. We stumbled across an area that was very shallow and the water was moving across at a pretty good rip. I thought with the sun getting higher and the temp warming a bit that maybe this area would hold a nice school of fish. It turned out it did. Nice ones to. After a few unsuccessful casts I laid into the best of the day, and after that it was one good one after another. Smallmouth bass are like that. They tend to hang out in little wolf packs. If you can get one to bite you can really stimulate the activity level of the school. It is really common to be fighting a fish to the boat and seeing two, three, or even four smallies with him. They're actually competing for the bait. Although like I said before, if you break one off or don't get a good hook set, it is just like you turned the light switch off, they're done.


**From left to right: Myself with a beautiful Minnesota smallmouth bass, and a victim of the Mississippi River Fathead.

After a quick burger stop we decided to try another spot. It was much slower though. The sun tucked behind the clouds and the fish were few and far between. After close to an hour without a fish I decided to make a switch. I put on a prototype lure from Stick 'Em Lure Company called the Mississippi River Fathead (green pumpkin w/ black flake). It is a 3.5" soft plastic with a fat head and a ribbed body. Fished properly it imitates a feeding minnow pecking at the bottom. Not having the right jig for the job I decide to give it a try any way. I was thinking maybe the crawfish bite turned off and the minnow bite may entice more bites. In five minutes I caught five fish. I was pretty excited when I set into a HUGE bass. It was easy 4 plus pounds. She started dancing and jumping all over and on one jump managed to come unbuttoned. Wouldn't you know it that fish ended up proven my earlier point, the school vanished.

Looking at the forecast I can see nothing good about the upcoming weather. More negative double digits. But hey, on the bright side, for every day that passes brings me that much closer to Spring. I can't wait for my upcoming tournament season!

Tackle Update: Amp Lures

Since the weather is so brutally cold around here. 0 degrees. I think that says enough. I thought it is time to add a tackle update to the blog. Today I received some new crankbaits by Amp Lures in the mail that I am very excited to try. Japan born, Texas based Amp Lures is new to the US. Although don't let that fool you, they have been around for a long time. Known as Biovex in Japan, they have been steadily taking over the market, putting out quality baits at reasonable prices. Part of their success is due to Katsushi Umeda, who is responsible for the designs of many of their high end baits. BASSWEST USA recently ran an article on the Amp Lures, Midshooter, a medium diving crankbait, that runs 5 - 8 feet deep. They are quoted in saying, " Their colors are amazing in that many of them have a translucent external color and inner color". They also go on to say, "In field testing the baits ran true right out of the packaging and are sure to catch fish.", and "In a few hours on Clear Lake in September, we were able to catch 5 fish on 5 consecutive casts on the midshooter."

**From left to right: Amp Lures Midshooter, Pop, and Musashi Spinnerbait.

I received both their Midshooter and their Shallow Runner. The colors are great and the quality is next to none. I am soon putting in a order for their Pop, Musashi Spinnerbait, and their Heavy Hitter. Not to mention, I am also very excited to hear that they are adding a deep diving plug to their already fantastic line of baits. Rumor has it that it will dive to 30 feet! Smallmouths beware! For more information go to http://www.amplures.com/ Please keep in mind that the website is still under construction. Amp is working very quickly to get it all put together. Check it out, it's a pretty sweet site!

Hopefully this cold weather will move out of here and I can get to lipping some smallmouths. It isn't that bad though. I can watch the NFL playoffs from the comfort of my warm house, to bad for the Giants and Packers though. I hear it will be below 0 at kickoff time. Until next time, Happy Fishing!!

One More Time Before the Real Cold Comes Back

My buddy Matt and I decided we just had to get out one more time before the weather hits single digits again across Minnesota. We left the Twin Cities and the temp was 30 degrees. When we arrived to our destination it was all of 19. Burr. I started strong with 3 quick smallmouths. All of which were over 2.5 lbs and one weighed in at 3.6 lbs. After that quick stint of greatness everything starting unraveling on me. I was faced with a problem I haven't encountered here in a while. I am generally always a fluorocarbon guy but after trying all sorts of different lines in the cold over the years I have found that in this certain area and using this particular fishing style that 8 to 10 pound Berkley Sensation line fits me best. It isn't as brittle as fluorocarbon and has some nice stretch to it. Usually I wouldn't want that but since this area has so many rocks and snags it helps. Usually once I get dialed in I can differentiate what's a snag right away and can usually use the stretch to my advantage to snap the lure off the rock. It also allows me to cast a light weight tube far on the light line. Also when the air temp is between 20 and 35 degrees it is easily manageable in that kind of cold. In the summer I would opt for 6 to 10 pound fluorocarbon but in the cold the mono works better for me. Although not this time. I'm not sure if it is that we were fishing in the teens or not but my line was freezing up like crazy. Literally into icicles. I snapped nice fish off, I snapped off on casts, I dealt with the line freezing right on the spool, it was a nightmare! I spent an hour retying up baits. I probably retied at least 12 times in that hour. Mean while Matt was using my other rod that was spooled with 10 lb Vicious Fluorocarbon and was pulling in fish hand over hand. The fluorocarbon wasn't freezing up half as much as my mono. Everything that I thought I knew went right out the window. After an hour and a half, Matt was at 9 and I was still chilling (literally) with 3.

As the afternoon wore on the temp got up over 20 and luckily for me my line issues stopped. Good thing for me I over come things relatively quickly and the hook setting followed. In the next 20 minutes I evened us up 9 a piece. When we left that spot I had a small advantage of 14 to 9.

We arrived at the same spot that Rich Lindgren and I had fished a couple nights back. I started right where I left off and landed a nice 3 pound smallie. I really wanted to catch a 4 pounder before the night was over since I hadn't seen one all week. Matt feeling the exact same way decided he was going to try to find some new water that no one had fished. He did just that. I saw him pull in two consecutive 3 pound smallies back to back and thought I better do the right "friendly" thing and move to where he was. Matt snickered at the move but accepted me nicely, even pointing out his newly found strategy. He said that it was extremely shallow in front of us for about 20 feet then it dropped of quickly. The drop off was full of basketball sized rocks, which made it also full of nice sized smallmouths. With only about ten minutes of light left in our day we worked the heck out of that area. In the end we finished with 34 smallmouth total. Matt caught 14 and I had 20. No four pounders, but still a nice day none the less.

I learned something interesting today and yet I am still not totally convinced it would happen that way again. I will have to test both lines in the same conditions another time to be 100 percent certain that is the way it is. Maybe it was just that particular spool of line or maybe it wasn't. Looking at the upcoming forecast I can see that I will have a while to ponder it. Until then...Happy Fishing!! Or better yet, Happy Dreaming of the Day You'll Be Fishing! Unless of course your in the South, then I'm jealous!

2008 Gopher Bassmasters Tournament Schedule

MN B.A.S.S. Federation Club

Last night my fellow Gopher Bassmasters had our monthly Federation club meeting. This particular meeting was set for us to layout our 2008 tournament schedule. I am very excited with the lakes that were chosen for this upcoming season. This year we are headed to a lot of well established "big bass" lakes. Lakes known for their huge largemouth and or their huge smallmouth potential. It is real critical that I do well in these tournaments. They are the starting point of qualifying for other qualifying tournaments that lead to the MN B.A.S.S. Federation State Tournament, than divisionals, nationals, and the ultimate goal of a birth into the BASSMASTER Classic. Due to my strong finish in the 2007 club tournaments I have already qualified for the 2008 MN State Tournament, but with another strong season I hope to qualify for the 2009 State Tournament. Which could potentially be held at a body of water I am really excited to fish. So as you can imagine I have already started my research on our tournaments to come. The following is the list of the 2008 schedule:

May 17th, 2008 Chetek Chain of Lakes, Chetek, WI
May 18th, 2008 Chetek Chain of Lakes, Chetek, WI
June 21st, 2008 Lake Koronis, Paynesville, MN
June 22nd, 2008 Green Lake, Spicer, MN
July 26th, 2008 Lake Waconia, Waconia, MN
July 27th, 2008 Lake Minnetonka, Wayzata, MN
August 16th, 2008 TBD (2009 State Waters)
August 17th, 2008 TBD (2009 State Waters)

Click here for more details.

The Chetek Chain in Wisconsin should give us a good mix of pre spawn, spawn, and post spawn. This is also a diverse lake in that it offers both lake and river scenarios. Lake Koronis and Green Lake are equally known for their big smallmouths and numbers of bass as well. Lake Waconia and Lake Minnetonka are both heavily pressured lakes, being that they are both in the heart of the Twin Cities, yet they both produce HUGE largemouth bass. I am not very familiar with these lakes with a notable exception of Lake Minnetonka. Planning starts now!!! Wish me luck!

You'd Have to be Crazy.. or Just Crazy about Fishing

After a day like yesterday, how could anybody not want to go out and do it again. Although it wasn't the easiest thing to do. Rich Lindgren and I had decided that we just had to sneak back to the old honey hole. The problem was that Rich couldn't get out of work until about 3pm in the afternoon and we would have to be at a fellow Gopher Bassmasters house by 6:15 for our monthly club meeting. That's not all. It would also take us about an hour to get there, and we expected it to be dark by 5:30. So as you can see we would have to be nuts to drive all that way just to fish for about and hour and a half, and then fight rush hour traffic all the back to our meeting.

So we were fishing by about 4 o'clock. Oddly things actually started real slow. After about 45 minutes Rich had 5 and I only had 3. Although my second fish ended up being the biggest of the day, roughly 3 pounds. After struggling for the first hour we opted to check out another area that I had fished a few years back. It was a relatively shallow area, but it offered a main boat ramp that I knew got pretty deep all around it. I figured if we fished the rocks around the ramp we should be able to get a couple nice ones, and at least try to hit double digits. With only about a half hour to fish I caught a couple real quick. There was no time for screwing around now with the tally favoring Rich. I had started throwing a Jackall Flick Shake worm, 5.8"(green pumpkin), with a 1/8 oz. Zappu Inch-Wacky jig rigged wacky style. That only got one little bite in the first 20 minutes I threw it. I opted to switch back to my bread and butter, a 3.5" Strike King Coffee Tube(green pumpkin), with a 1/8 oz. Kalin's tube jig. Rich and I switched off catching one here and there, and with the sun nicely tucked away we both agreed since we were tied at 10 apiece we would make one last cast. Rich brought his tube back in unsuccessfully, as he was packing up his gear I set the hook on a nice 2 lb. smallie. You would never believe what happened next. Rich, I mean "Luke Clausen", came running over and grabbed my line and rod, all while I was fighting the fish. He kept screaming "Ultimate Match Fishing Style!!" I attempted to get to the fish right as he spit the tube from his mouth. WOW!! But hey, fair is fair. I should have seen that one coming. I mean I know I probably would have attempted the same thing had the role been reversed. The good thing for me is that now I owe Rich one. I hope for his sake I am not around when he has a whopper on the end of his line.

The tally ended at 10 apiece. Not bad at all for an hour and a half of fishing. We made it to the meeting and even had extra time to stop by Taco Bell. At today's club meeting we decided dates and locations for our 2008 Gopher Bassmasters tournament schedule. I will be sure to post those upcoming events very soon.

Breaking in the New Year - One Smallie at a Time

Welcome to 2008! I don't know about you but I can't think of a better way to break in the New Year in Minnesota than catching a ridiculous number of bass on a luke warm day in early January. So needless to say when I saw the forecast showing the possibility of 40 degrees I had to round up the troops. Joining me on our rare trip to smallie heaven was some good friends and fellow Gopher Bassmasters Ryan Brant, Rich Lindgren, and John Haynes.

After a not so quick stop to Cabela's we arrived at our first honey hole. To be honest time went way to fast. Everything was perfect, the weather was great and the fishing was non stop action. Ryan and I were both very close in the tallying and at one point we couldn't make a cast and not catch a fish. There were a lot of nice ones weighed in but lucky for me I weighed the heaviest in at 3.6 lbs. Ryan secured most fish with 72 and I trailed with a very close 71. Between the four of us we caught and released 210 smallmouths. Rich also caught a huge carp. I believe the scale read over ten pounds! Most of all the fish were caught on tubes (green pumpkin). Yum and Berkley Power Tubes seemed to be the preferred choice today. We were rigging them with 1/8 - 1/4 oz. Cabela's Tube Jigs. I was using 8 and 10 lb. Berkley Sensation Line (low vis green).

The Best Christmas Present Ever - I Got to Go Fishing!!!

Today the weather was cold but good enough for me. Matt and I got to our stretch of river at about 1:00 in the afternoon. It was cold and snowing a little. The temp was 23 degrees but there wasn't much for wind. We trampled through about two feet of snow until we got to our favorite spot. On my very first cast I caught my biggest of the day, a 4 pound smallmouth. I caught her on a YUM 3" tube (green pumpkin). I casted out to a underwater rock pile that always has fish on it. As soon as the tube hit the bottom my rod almost fell out of my hands. That's how bad the fish wanted it. It was on from there. The smallmouth action was pretty intense. We didn't catch a crazy number of them but definitely the size was there. Matt even caught two walleyes, one was his personal best, 6 lbs!! Both the walleyes bit on a 3" YUM tube (green pumpkin) as well.

As the afternoon wore on the fishing seemed to slow down a bit. The stretch of river is very rocky so snags are extremely common. It's nothing for use to each have to retie a dozen or more times in just a couple of hours. I have to be honest though. When your hands are frozen like ice cycles, it is very hard and time consuming to get your fingers to work for you. So needless to say we had to take a couple defrosting breaks. However it is definitely all worth it. To me there is nothing in the world more enjoyable than feeling a fish fight on the end of your line. It can make 20 degrees feel like 80 in no time. It started getting to dark and windy a little before 5 o'clock, so we decided to end our day. I finished with 19 smallies and Matt with 15. The awesome thing about it is 8 to 10 of mine were all over 2.5 pounds. Awesome!!

The forecast doesn't look to great in the near future with highs in the mid teens. The bass season doesn't end until the end of February so hopefully there will still be a dozen or so days to get the line wet. My wife Bri and I are headed out to Colorado for the New Year. We're leaving the day after Christmas and coming home on New Years Day. We're planning on spending some alone time in Denver and then meeting up with my Dad. My Dad and Step Mom Judy live in the mountains about an hour outside Denver. I know we have planned on going to watch the Colorado Avalanche take on the Detroit Red Wings, we are also planning on watching the one and only Minnesota Vikings take on the Denver Broncos. My Dad swears he is still a Viking fan but I don't believe him for a second. Hopefully the Vikes get a big win and prance their way into the playoffs!! I also have planned on stopping by Bass Pro Shops in both Council Bluffs, IA and Denver, CO. I'm going there just to look.....right?? We'll just have to see.

Until next year, Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and GO VIKES!!!!!!

Tackle Update: Swimming and Crankin'

The weather has taken a turn for the worse around here and with the high temp averaging 15 degree's the fishing has been impossible. Not being one to settle for ice fishing I just have to sit and wait until the temps get back into the 30's. Then at least my line won't freeze up instantly on me. Next winter I'm planning on competing in some national tournaments to get me out of the frozen winters around here and to help me climb the ladder of professional fishing. So until then, this means I have some time on my hands. I decided I would add an entry devoted to some of the new tackle I have been adding to get ready for next season.

Lately I have been stocking up on my swimbait selection. This is unusual for me since I rarely if ever throw a swimbait. I have always been weary to throw such gigantic, awkward looking lures, at our northern bass. Originally I thought that swimbaits where for other areas such as California, Mexico, or even Texas. I am quickly realizing that may not be the case. Steve Kennedy fished a hitch colored Basstrix Paddle tail tube on Lake Onondaga, in New York, during a BASSMASTER Elite Series event, and caught a crazy limit of fish to claim a close second place finish. Onondaga is a similar natural lake to what we have in Minnesota. It really got me thinking. It is almost unheard of to throw a swimbait around here. If I can manage a way to effectively make this a part of my arsenal it can only help me become more of a diverse angler.

Lately I have been scouring through my latest editions of BASSWEST USA magazine researching all the different makes and models of swimbaits. BASSWEST USA is out of California and the west coast is responsible for the blow up of the swimbait. After much reading I came to a conclusion that soft plastic swimbaits would probably be my best choice for the conditions I will be facing in my upcoming tournaments. For one they are generally less expensive than their more durable counter parts. With all the toothy critters around here, the thought of loosing a $60 dollar bait on a two pound pike isn't that tempting to me. Sure their teeth can tear up the soft plastic body of the bait however there is a new "must have" product available called Mend-It. Mend-It is the first non-sticky, no mess soft plastic bonding system of it's kind. Not only will it repair your expensive swimbaits but it will patch up your last Gambler Cane Toad in a quick hurry as well, possibly saving a tournament for you. Here is a list of some of the hottest soft bodied swimbaits on the market:

1. Basstrix Paddle Tail Tube
2. 3:16 Mighty Minnow
3. Huddleston Deluxe Shad
4. California Swimbabies Baby E
5. Poor Boy's Baits Silly Rabbit

Also I have been stocking up on my deep crankbaits as well. Towards the end of last season I started really having some good success crankin' deep structure for big bass. It made me realize how much more I could develop this to give me more confidence and better my odds of doing well in tournaments all over the country. This technique catches some of the biggest bass literally all over the U.S. and yet it is probably one of the least used techniques. I decided to get a couple rods that I will devote to this style of fishing all year long. I went with a 7'0" Lamiglas XCF 705 R for my deep crankin' and a 7'0" Lamiglas XC 704 C for all my mid range crankin'. For crankbaits I opted for a vast range of styles but a small range of colors. Instead of getting all caught up with the color possibilities, I am going to concentrate more on the area I am fishing and my retrieve, than on the color of the bait. I'm sticking with the four colors that have always proven successful for different conditions. Colors such as Chartreuse Blue, Red (craw colored), shad, and natural. Murky water I'll go with more my vibrant colors, clear water would call for natural colors, and any where that shad is dominate I would go with shad imitators. Here is some of the crankbaits I have added recently:

1. Strike King Pro Model Series 5 and 6 (Sexy Shad)
2. Lucky Craft Flat CB D-12 and D-20 (Green Apple, Mad Craw, Chartreuse Shad)
3. Jackall Lures Muscle Deep 15+ (Purple Chartreuse, Chartreuse Shad)
4. Jackall Lures DD Cherry 48 and 55 (Chartreuse Shad, Crawfish)
5. Rapala DT-6, DT-10, and DT-16 (Parrot, Red Crawdad)

Well the good news is that the 10 day forecast is giving the possibility of 30 degree weather towards next week. I'm really hoping that will actually hold up and I can get out for some pre Christmas fishing. Until then I'll keep my fingers crossed!