2012 ICAST & More

The fishing world's mecca of a trade show ICAST, has come and gone leaving an addicted tackle junkie like myself scowering through endless internet pages in search for what's in store come 2013. All I'm saying is the world better not end in December because I can't wait to get my hands on some of these products and better yet, bass can't wait to wrap their mouth around some of them either.

Being a die hard bass fisherman one may think I only pay attention to bass related items but that's not entirely true. A lot of our proven tackle today comes from other forms of sport fishing such as Alabama Rigs, Spoons, Fluorocarbon and swimbaits. Everyone will see and hear of the new bass gear but to find something that would work well for bass but is meant for another species is a desire to every competitive tournament bass angler. I did indeed see a couple things that toot my fancy that may be designed for saltwater use but I think will pay dividends in upcoming bass tournaments. I'd be a fool to give those ideas away so instead I'll just focus on my main area of interest and if your reading my blog I'd reckon you have the same interests as I and that's putting big ole fat bass in the livewell.

G Loomis GLX

I got all sorts of geeked out when I saw G Loomis announced their new line of GLX rods that will soon be hitting the market. If you know me at all or read my blogs and articles often, you'll know I'm a die hard G Loomis guru and have been since I was a little kid. I've been able to use these rods my entire fishing career and though I could fish with any of the G Loomis line of rods, I almost always choose GLX. The exception of course is the G Loomis NRX line of spinning rods which are most definitely the cat's booty. G Loomis used this opportunity to fix probably the only flaw in their entire line of rods which was the need for a meat stick of a crankin' rod. They've always had excellent crankbait rods that are ideal for baits like the Biovex Mid Runner or Rapala DT-6 style crankbaits, but their lack of a big, gaudy 7'11" Heavy action parabolic pig sticker was definitely a negative and also left the door open for inferior rod companies to get their name mentioned in the same sentence. Step down peons, the king has once again claimed the throne and now you can get all of that and a bag of chips as G Loomis not only combines it's GLX sensitivity but also the size and action desired by America's most well known ledge crankers!

I was even more taken aback by the new GLX Flipping Series. I wondered how they could actually improve on perfection itself, well they found a way and though I'll never trade in my tried and true 894 GLX's,  now I need to do some reel shopping because my boat definitely has room for a couple more flipping sticks. Newly designed with split grip handles and improved Fuji Titanium SIC Guides these rods are 23-35% stronger and lighter then their predecessor and better yet, is available in all sorts of different sizes and actions all stamped with the unprecedented GLX logo.

Shimano Calcutta D

Just as I'm a G Loomis die hard, I'm equally as obsessed with Shimano Reels. I have to admit, I waited anxiously to hear what was in store for Shimano. What I found was not much in the way of high end reels except of course for one of the best reels ever made, the Shimano Calcutta. In the bass world, this reel has had the reputation as the best swimbait reel on the market. These days it also has double duty as the best Alabama Rig reel as well. Let me introduce you all to the Shimano Calcutta D. I'm sure there's many a California anglers lined up outside the well known swimbait shops all waiting for their turn to play with the new design but since the umbrella rig craze, boys on the East coast are lining up as well.

Lazer Trokar Wacky Worm Hook

With today's fishing pressure, anglers are learning that they need to either beef up and throw a chandelier that holds numerous swimbaits or size down and get all sorts of finesse-like on weary bass to fill a limit. Nothing is more finesse and productive as a wacky rigged straight tail worm. I first started leaning on this technique when bass were in their post spawn funk. Casting a wacky rigged 4 inch senko around the inside weedline can produce some very good results. Now that the fish are deep I still employ the wacky rig only now I double dip 'em with finesse by wacky riggin' a straight tail worm on a dropshot. They love it! Trokar already is known as the premier hook company which puts out lazer sharp and efficient hooks that competitors can only attempt to knock off. Now they've upped the ante by releasing the perfect lazer sharp wacky hook dubbed the Lazer Trokar Wacky Worm Hook. No pun attended but enough said.

Eco Pro Tungsten Jigs

I'm a 100% tungsten guy. I believe in everything it stands for from being environmentally more safe to the fishing benefits that relate back to it's denseness. I know tungsten isn't cheap, but for most the bass fishing world loosing them on the regular isn't that often as it is for a dude from Minnesota who happens to flip his way into a school of pike or muskie by accident and snip, snip, snip, I just donated several one ounce flippin' weights to the cause. Sucks! Still though, they are a necessary part of my everyday arsenal and I wouldn't think of using lead in it's place ever again. I was very excited to see Eco Pro, who already is one of the premier tungsten companies, announced they're releasing a line up of tungsten jigs. This is a no brainer and something I've been screaming for for at least five years! It makes total sense to offer football jigs and shakey head jigs in 97% tungsten. These are bottom orientated baits that excel over rocks and bottom changing areas and to have the ability to feel every nook and cranny along the way is essential. We pay ridiculous amounts of cash for our rods and fishing line so that we have the "feel", why would that stop with the bait?

On a personal note, I'm even more excited about the Eco Pro Tungsten Flipping Jig. I used to be obsessed with the old Tru Tungsten Jig and have to admit my supply is dwindling. Anytime I can get away with a smaller profile head on my jigs, I'm all in!

Zappu Abare Dama

Zappu, one of Japan's leading terminal tackle manufacturer's released what I think will be one of the serious game changers in coming years, the Abare Dama, which translates into "the Wicked Ball". Basically they developed a spring that holds a small tungsten ball that you can attach directly to the back treble of your favorite crankbait. This offers a lot as it will give your bait that little something extra in the way of a searching style action. It also may allow your deep running crankbait to suspend which I guarantee will elicit more strikes from weary bass.

Biovex USA

Not yet ready for the 2102 ICAST, but one of Japan's premier tackle manufacturer's Biovex,  is set to soon release their brand here in the United States under the new name Biovex USA. Though they are still finishing final steps in the transformation and not yet able to present at ICAST the buzz is already noteworthy. Biovex is known for their awesome hard baits and soft baits alike.

Some of my personal favorites hard baits are the Biovex Deep Runner and Amp Wake Bait, both intended for total opposites in the water column but both get similar results, bone jarring strikes! On the soft plastic side of things, they'll take the U.S. by storm with the introduction to the Biovex Kolt Stick and Biovex  Kolt Fish Tail, both excellent on a drop shot. The Fish Tail is a smallmouth slayer, seriously they can't stand it and I'd put money on it that my Biovex Fish Tail will out fish any other bait hands down. The Kolt Stick is a very interesting bait that I now lean on all the time especially for largemouth. For years anglers have used a small 3" senko style worm with great results when drop shotting. The Biovex Kolt Stick provides that same profile but in a ribbed body, providing more motion underwater and better yet has bubble making action via the small holes that are incorporated inside the bait that when quivered releases the smallest and most realistic air bubbles. I'm telling you, GAME OVER! Bass can't stand it!

The Bass are Snapping! Book a Guide Trip Today!

The bass fishing is off the hook up here right now! I've been fortunate to be on the water everyday for the past couple weeks and am happy to admit this bass catching stuff never gets old to a true bassin' junkie like myself.

I'm starting to book but do still have some available days so if you're interested in a great day on beautiful Lake Minnetonka, please contact me soon.

My email is josh@joshdouglasfishing.com.

Looking forward to seeing you on the water!

Denny's Super 30

Lake Minnetonka, Mound, MN

Man I was looking forward to today, the lake has been on absolute fire! Being that life has been so stressful lately as we are preparing for our move south, I decided the best medicine would be to just hit my favorite lake during my favorite time of year and put in a full week of practice leading up to the Denny's.

As I said the lake has been hot and the weather has been even hotter, this isn't usually a bad thing either as I feel it puts the fish in more predictable deep water areas. The vegetation actually starts to burn off much like that of corn and other plants that get a unhealthy dose of higher than usual air temps, making finding healthy weeds a must for success. When I found these key areas, the bass were fat and plentiful as they weren't the only fish that found this habitat desirable. The bluegills, perch and crayfish also were plentiful making easy meals for the bass.

During practice I made it a point to search out new water. Once I had developed a successful pattern I saw no need to check spots that I knew I was going to fish come tournament day. My team tournament partner Paul Coffey did the same and by the end of the week we had more water than we ever knew what to do with and knew there was no way we could ever fish it all.

For the tournament we drew boat 22, not great but really I could have cared less to be honest. Like I said, we had lots of water and not a single spot I felt was more desirable than the next. The wind was tough and that made Paul and I rethink our attack strategy, in fact we reversed it all together in an attempt to be able to better approach our water.

The morning started off great as we put together a limit real quick, though the size just wasn't there. That never really changed all day as we kept catching them but just never got a big bite and also both managed to break off on a couple nice ones. In the end, we stubbed our toes something fierce and ended up with the worst showing at a Denny's tournament of my entire life, 8 for roughly 22 pounds. The end result was mind boggling as we truly were on the right fish and if the tournament was tomorrow I don't know that I'd a changed a thing and would have whacked 'em. Sometimes you just should have zigged instead of zagged but in hindsight it's always easy to wish you would have hit certain areas at certain times instead. The only thing I guess I would have changed if given the opportunity would have been to fish our original track instead of switching it up to account for the wind. We probably would have picked up a couple of better bites earlier and set a much better tone right away. Things to consider...

Up next I have a handful of guide trips and then get to head up north to fish Gull Lake in the third NABC event. I'm always more than excited to head to northern Minnesota and throw down in God's country!

Speaking of guide trips, NOW'S THE TIME! Lake Minnetonka is prime right now and the big girls are biting and biting a lot! Contact me today to book your trip.

North American Bass Circuit

Madison Chain of Lakes, Madison , WI

This tournament literally makes me laugh and not cause I was counting my money all the way to the bank, in fact it was quite the opposite.

Teaming up with me for this series is good friend Rich Lindgren. We both pulled our boats across Wisconsin to give our two days of practice the most potential possible. We did our research on the chain and broke up the waterway evenly deciding we'd adjust our game plan after the first day of practice.

I took Lake Monona and Rich took Lake Waubesa as well as some of the smaller lakes attached to the chain. His practice basically consisted of eliminating water as finding quality fish were close to impossible. I on the other hand had one of the best practice periods of my entire life. I was shaking off around 30 bites a day and the ones that I did check were all keepers with a few 4 pounders mixed in. We had previously figured that Monona would be the more consistent lake but it was easily exceeding my expectations by a long shot. Basically I was flipping three key milfoil areas that held both bass and their forage. All three areas sat out in front of shallow flats so baitfish were abundant in all these areas and the bass would use the milfoil clumps as ambush points. I was flipping small compact craw style baits on a 3/4 oz. Eagle Claw Lazer Tungsten Flippin' Weight and a 4/0 Trokar Flippin' Hook. I also was getting far more bites using 20lb. Seaguar Abrazx Fluorocarbon instead of Seaguar Kanzen Braid and the only downfall was the loss of precious tungsten weights to the many muskie that inhabit these same waters. My method of flipping was easy as I'd simply work the edge making a short flip into the visible milfoil, working the bait slowly trying to entice a bite. Working the bait slowly and methodically was important as I wasn't the only one who had figured out the milfoil's potential and pressure was setting in by the second. Still despite the pressure I had them dead to rights as whatever I was doing was getting the bites and good ones at that.

Tournament morning rolled around and we were able to get to our first stretch right away in the morning, things had changed in that we didn't have sun nor wind like we had all of practice. Despite these changes our confidence still remained high even when we weren't getting the bites I had come accustomed to all of practice. As the day wore on we'd get a bite about every 15 minutes or so but our hook up ratio was the worst I have ever seen. We had the bottom of my boat covered in craws that were missing pinchers as our hookup ratio was a disgusting 95% miss rate. I honestly felt like I could puke in disgust as the bites were there, quality ones at that but the livewell wasn't filling at all. In the end we ended up with only three bass weighing just over seven pounds, a tough tournament to say the least and one that will bug me for quite a while. I joked in the opening paragraph that I laugh about this event and though I'm 100% sincere it's not a conceded look, it's the only way I can gut it. Looking back there's obviously things we should have done differently as well as adjustments we should have made like adjusting better to the weather. The fish were on the outside of the grass with the lack of sun and we didn't need to be flipping to them since they were on the edge and probably should have leaned harder on baits like jigworms and dropshots to get the job done. However, when you've had a terrific practice doing one thing and was getting the bites on game day doing the exact same but not hooking up it's a real tough thing to abandon. It was necessary to adjust and would have been the difference between cashing a check and weighing three fish but all I can do now is acknowledge that I should have listened to the voices in my head, learn from my stubbornness, chalk it up to one of my worst tournament performances of my life and then laugh about it and move on.

There's plenty more fish in the sea and plenty more opportunities to showcase my talents then to sit and dwell on a bad one.

See you on the water!

Denny's Super 30

Lake Minnetonka, Mound, MN

Today was the second tournament of the Denny's Super 30 and team tournament partner Paul Coffey and I had some work to do. After a less than ideal first tournament where we finished somewhere in the 20's we knew we needed to shoot for a top 10 to get ourselves back into contention for the Team of the Year standings as well as give us a much needed shot of confidence heading into the middle part of the summer.

We put in the time as best we could leading up to tournament day and both were able to locate some quality fish. I have a tremendous amount of confidence in the lake and my decision making abilities once the summer months arrive and was feeling good about our early summer this season. In fact I had easily one of the best few practice days of my life as the bass are quickly starting to school up and once located can be a blast catching as they're one right after another.

Tournament day started slow for us as our first few stops didn't produce much but a fish or two here and there. Finally we managed to get on a school or two and it was a fun few hours putting the smack down as we quickly culled our way to about 24 pounds. Once the bite slowed we knew we were exactly where we needed to be and started running in search of a couple kickers to get our weight up into the high 20's. The bass kept biting for us but none that were able to help until about a half hour left in the event when Paul had an ace in the hole spot he located in practice that was close to the weigh in. After our first pass through with nothing we decided it be best to go back through instead of running as lures in the water are always better and quickly I got bit and in came a nice four pound bass making for a nice cull to end the day.

We weighed in our best 8 for a respectable 25 pounds and finished in 14th place. Missing a check by a mere two pounds but still had the day that most of the time would cough up a much deserved check. We fished well and fished clean and honestly I can say I had one of the best all around days on the water that I've ever had and if I parlay off that I'll be in great shape with the rest of my fishing career going forward.

The best part was that we moved up a ton in the Team of the Year points and are currently sitting tied with good friends Ryan and Corey Brant for 15th place overall with three more events to go. Still lots of work to be done.

See you on the water.

Searching for my Mojo

Denny's Super 30 &
Minnetonka Classic

Lake Minnetonka, Mound, MN

Usually I recap in detail each tournament I compete in no matter how good or bad it turned out. I rarely discuss anything about Lake Minnetonka though besides the very basics because it's my home water, the competition is just too stiff and I always seem to have another event out there right around the corner. As this still holds true, my latest week of fishing out there is nothing to brag about and I definitely didn't unlock any tried and true spring Tonka secrets, so here we go.

I teamed up with a good buddy this year, Paul Coffey. Paul has been fishing with myself, Ryan Brant and Corey Brant for the past couple years now and instead of the Brant's and I splitting up all the Tonka events between the three of us we decided it was time to make two teams and fish them all. We still work very close and keep an open book with everything we find since we have all worked equally as hard out there for the past three years that there's no reason to stop the learning curve. It's important to see both teams succeed.

The first event was the Denny's Super 30. I had spent a few days out on the water patterning moving fish. I found them on beds, inside weedlines, in the thick weeds, pads, laydowns, deep, shallow, you name it. They were everywhere but the overall lack of big ones was discerning as I just couldn't seem to get enough big bites and out there you need numerous big bites just to compete. In the end, Paul and I had a plan to just junk fish our way to a healthy limit. I always want to win but with not having more than a few days of experience ever on Minnetonka in the Spring, my main focus was on just saving face in the points race. I've won my fair share of money out there in the Summer and Fall and have a lot better feel for what it takes to bring in a winning sack. If we could get through this first one without falling on our faces than we'd have a descent shot at the Team of the Year going forward the rest of the season.

When the tournament ended we managed to not fall flat on our faces but we didn't turn any heads either. We weighed in 8 bass for 18.85 pounds for a very mediocre 26th place finish. Not what I was looking for but still in the hunt for the Team of the Year.

Next up was the Minnetonka Classic and though this marks the 20 or 30 something annual, I've only fished it once before a couple years back and managed to cash a check for 14th place. I was thinking this time that Paul and I could do much better giving all the time we spent on the water preparing for the Denny's. The weather seemed to change by the day and I really started getting confused. I was guessing that the fish were coming to me so I stayed deep, in hindsight I probably should have went ultra shallow. Either way in the end we ended with somewhere above the teams that chose not to weigh in and under the teams that did well. I always weigh and usually am pretty geared up to do so but I've always been one to take it on the chin and bring the fish to the scales regardless. It's embarrassing to not have a sack at the scales and that feeling will stay with me as I use it as added motivation in the upcoming weeks. In the end we zigged when we should have zagged and we ran when we should have stopped. Basically I don't know exactly what went wrong but we just weren't getting the quality bites we needed at all. You fish to learn and learn to compete.

I'm down but far from out. In this sport you take the good with the bad and need to have a short memory. If you win, you need to enjoy it but forget it the next day because someone else will rise to the occasion next week and you need to stay sharp. If you suck, learn from it and get over it because tomorrow's a new day and you can't dwell on it. Big bass are always only one cast away.

For now it's back to the drawing board, Bri and I as well as the pups are soon heading up to her family cabin for a little fun in the sun, some awesome bass fishing and possibly a beer or two around the campfire. After all, this is what it's all about!

See you on the water!

Tuning Into the HydroWave

Every morning I awake to the sound of my coffee machine brewing a fresh pot of joe. Like clockwork I roll out of bed, pour a fresh cup and off to the lake I go.

This daily habit got me thinking. If I'm self-programmed to respond and react to the sound of fresh coffee being brewed, will lethargic bass become active off the sounds of other bass feeding?

This very question got me looking into the effectiveness of the feeding emulator known as the HydroWave. As a professional bass fisherman, I'm always looking for ways to up my game and give me that needed edge over my competition. The HydroWave is an electronic devise that omits prerecorded sounds of feeding bass underwater and as their slogan reads, creates a feeding frenzy.

Despite powerhouse bass anglers such as Kevin Van Dam, Jeff Kriet and Gene Eisenmann proudly sporting them, I still found myself a bit skeptical on the whole idea. Even when Paul Elias caught that mega sack every day of competition on a very tough fall bite at Alabama's Lake Guntersville, I still wasn't quick to chalk that win up to much more than a great presentation on a few great areas. It wasn't until looking into the actual physical science behind HydroWave that I started to believe in the product.

Tactile Sound Transmission (TST) is the primary output of the HydroWave's speaker system and uses finely tuned amplifiers to deliver the sound. Tactile sound is much different than ordinary sounds because it delivers a noise that you can actually feel. As described on HydroWave’s website, if you have earplugs in you will not be able to hear a sub-woofer but you will be able to feel it. Fish hear on that same frequency, the same frequency and sound produced by the HydroWave.

To continue to break it down one step further, HydroWave incorporates both Lateral Reactive Technology (LRT) as well as Vibration Reactive Technology (VRT) to elicit predatory feeding responses.

LRT is a vibration wave technology that operates at a frequency level that stimulates a predatory response through a fish's lateral line. The lateral line is naturally tuned to detect low frequency vibrations created by small prey such as shad, herring, bluegills and crayfish. The LRT of the HydroWave, produces these exact vibrations and creates a natural predatory response.

VRT is a vibration wave that operates at a frequency that stimulates a predatory response from the fish through their inner ear. It's well known that a fish's ear is nothing like a humans, a fish's ear consists of dense bones under the skin that detect and translate vibrations. This vibration detection is so accurate that a bass is able to differentiate between vibrations of various preys. This explains how a fish can be so visually impaired but still be able to feed and know what it's feeding on before it attacks it.

Alright, enough with the science mumbo jumbo, let's take it to the water. After looking into the hype that is the HydroWave, I decided to borrow a buddy’s unit for a Bassmaster Open event on Lake Lewisville, in north Texas. I used much of my practice time playing with the different settings and options trying to quickly familiarize myself with the contraption. For those of you who don't know, the Lewisville Open broke a record for the toughest tournament in B.A.S.S. history with only 3 anglers catching a limit in technically 4 days of competition. My first realization of the potential of the HydroWave actually came as a surprise. While struggling to find more than a bite or two in the first couple days of practice I decided I better start probing a bit of deep water. I recall idling out of a creek and as I was idling out through the mouth over the creek channel I noticed my Lowrance unit "light up" with what looked like bass and enormous schools of shad on the bottom in 20 feet. I quickly got on the deck of my Ranger and started making casts with heavy spinnerbaits, a deep running Biovex crankbait, and an Outkast football jig. After a solid 25 casts with not a bite and zero activity around me, I remembered I had the HydroWave on my deck. I turned it on and within a minute fish started blowing up all around me. Unfortunately for me they were not largemouth they were stripers that had started blowing up on shad. I had literally sat there for 15 minutes with not a ripple on the water and less than a minute after turning on the HydroWave all pandemonium broke out around me and in that moment my confidence quickly started growing.

My next tournament was just a couple weeks ago on legendary Table Rock Lake. In practice I had found a couple fairly deep rock piles that were the size of my boat and sat on the ends of some long tapered points in 35 feet of water which I located by slowly scanning the points with my Lowrance StructureScan. On my very first cast I caught a 4 pound smallmouth on a 3/4 oz. Outkast Touch Down Jig. The fish instantly coughed up crayfish all over my boat so I saw no need to make another cast, I knew what they were eating and where, so I saved a waypoint and left.

The first day of the tournament, after spending all morning and early afternoon trying to make something happen shallow, I made my way to my deep rocks and within about 2 to 3 hours I probably caught close to 30 and culled a dozen or so times and put myself in strong contention going into the second day.

Day 2 of competition opened with a day full of extremely high winds and fishing these rock piles efficiently in the middle of the lake was close to impossible. The rocks were so snag filled that I couldn't fish them without breaking off and since the piles were so small, all I was doing was shutting down the school.

A sure thing was turning into a nightmare and my nerves got the best of me so I blew out of there in search of some shallow fish. This was not the best scenario considering I wasted the first few hours and the best morning shallow bite trying to force something to happen out deep. My worst fears became reality when afternoon rolled around and I only had one small keeper in the box, with two hours left before I had to weigh in. I decided I'd leave it all out there on those deep fish. This time though I'd take a different approach, instead of sitting back and trying to fight the wind I'd idle up to the rock pile and jump up on my trolling motor and use my Lowrance HDS 10 Gen-2 to show me a single fish and then try to catch that one fish and just try to put together a limit one bass at a time. The only problem was that I wasn't seeing the bass any more; I knew they had to be there but I couldn't see them. Desperate, I turned on my HydroWave unit and I started seeing fish pop up on my graph and could sit on top of them, flip my 3/4 oz. Outkast Touch Down Jig off the side of the boat and use the wind to drift the bait right past the bass's face and within an hour I filled my limit!

On my ride home to Minnesota, I couldn't help but be disappointed that I didn't put two and two together earlier in the day as I could have easily been right up there in the standings. At the same time, I was so grateful that I did figure it out and was able to prevent a horrible day on the water as well as gain valuable points in the Angler of the Year standings. Even though those bass were on a crayfish bite, the sounds from the HydroWave was just enough to pull them off the rocks by about a foot so I could separate them from the bottom with my Lowrance unit and make fishing those rocks way more efficient without snagging. Like my coffee machine, the HydroWave was just enough to turn those fish from lethargic and sitting on the rocks to active and ready to eat; regardless of what their prey was.

Speaking of Minnesota, anglers from the south regions of the country already understand the importance of the HydroWave as they've been dealing with shad their entire angling lives. Bass anglers from my neck of the woods are slow to connect the dots. For my sake I probably shouldn't be going into this. Like I said before, at the level I fish, I need every advantage a guy can get. Regardless, just because we don't have shad as our main forage here in the upper MidWest, doesn't mean HydroWave's technology isn't just as useful to us, in fact it's better. The prerecorded sounds that the HydroWave omits are actually the sounds of bass actively feeding and the crunching you hear are the shad's swim bladders crunching. The same sounds that are made when bass start putting the smack down on bluegills, it's nature ringing the dinner bell. 

The reason I say that we northerners have it better is for the simple reason that not too many savvy bass fishermen have HydroWave’s equipped on their rigs yet in this part of the country. It's totally new to our bass and like with anything else new, bass aren't at all conditioned to it. It's like showing a bass that's never seen an artificial lure in its entire life a spinnerbait for the first time. Game over.

Also, for those that are still wanting more, the rumor is that the powers that be at HydroWave are in the process of developing bluegill and crayfish sounds that will be available as an update to the already existing units. Let me be the first to tell you, if you think largemouth respond well, wait till you see how smallies react.

There's still so much I need to learn with my HydroWave but I'm eagerly learning one bass at a time.

North American Bass Circuit

Lake Winnebago Chain, Osh Kosh, WI

I might as well get this write up over with as it's not going to get any easier for me with the passing of the days. Last Saturday my buddy Rich Lindgren and I competed in the first stop of the NABC Team Circuit on east Wisconsin's, Lake Winnebago. Though Rich and I have been friends for years, this would be the first time we didn't compete against each other and instead climbed in the same boat and attempted to make something happen. I was pretty excited to team with Rich as I first learned a lot of my bass fishing skill from him years back when I joined his BASS federation club, Gopher Bassmasters. 

We've both come a long way since those club days and I'd be lying if I said that we didn't set very high expectations for ourselves heading into this event. Even though I had never been to this chain of lakes, I was confident because the largemouth bite should fall right into our wheelhouse and Rich has fished a couple pretty big events here over the years. Never this time of year but later and that should help us as we knew where they were going when they were through spawning.

We didn't get much practice time and in hindsight probably tackled practice all wrong from the get go. Basically we drove out together the previous week and got in about a full day on Saturday with the exception of the early morning bite as we were still in route from Minne. Side note, I don't mind driving long distances at all, in fact I like to. I'll drive to the any lake in the country, fish for a day or two and drive back, sounds like fun, but there's something gigantically mind numbing about driving five hours and still being in Wisconsin. I'm just saying.

The next day we awoke to thunderstorms and three inches of rain, we're die hards so there was no stopping us from going out but practicing was tough. You really can't see much and if you don't get bit, it doesn't necessarily mean they're not there. So instead we spent most our time cruising around and finding more productive areas that were working the day before.

 We were also able to get out for one final practice day the Friday before the derby. We checked what we had found the weekend before which for the most part still held up but it was becoming more and more obvious that this was all pretty community. Not always a bad thing but still worrisome none the less. Basically we were targeting spawning largemouth as well as some pre and post cruisers.

With only an hour or so to go, we happened to find an area that looked like what heaven would look like to a fisherman. We found a clear water, off the map area, loaded with fish from pike, slab crappies, bluegills, more gar than I've seen in my whole life and probably around fifty bass anywhere from 2 pounds to 5 pounds. It was crazy! This is exactly what a tournament guy dreams of, stay on the water till the last possible second and then find the holy water just before the event.

Now with mixed emotions running through our head as well as drawing boat number 23, we had some talking to do. The gambling side to us thought maybe it be best if we ran the community stuff early in the morning and caught our 14-16 plus pounds and then sneak over to the juice and really put together a kings sack. What if we don't get prime area in the community with the weak take off number? What if someone else found the juice and will make fresh squeezed lemonade before we ever get there? What if we have a tough day and driving home hate ourselves for not taking advantage of what we found?

You can see where our heads were at and decided we shouldn't take any chances, skip the community and go all out in this area we had found and hopefully have it all to ourselves. When we arrived tourney morning it appeared we were the first in until we spotted some perch jerkers anchored down on one of the better areas. We politely squeezed past them and the noticed there was another tournament boat up the cut, not sure if they creeped in another way or just had an early take off number but none the less, they were ahead of us and we were fishing their seconds. Then wouldn't you know it, out comes KVD wannabe himself blazing through the cut trolling motor on 100 talking about "they were here yesterday" and damn near bumped my boat to get out. What was gin clear water was now turning to chocolate milk fast and this area just couldn't hold up to this kind of pressure, too shallow and too skinny. There was also a lot of people on their docks enjoying the beautiful Saturday morning catching some gills. Just too much pressure, no excuses, we should have considered that from the get go but didn't and now was too late to go back. I did manage one nice keeper out of there but with three hours burned we left that area with just the one. We ran to the community and quickly got the feeling we were not only fishing seconds but more like thirds, fourths and fifths. Still head down and determined we worked at taking what we could get and Rich managed to bag three keepers with time dwindling down. Our hail mary pass came late in the game when we only had 4 in the box and an hour to go, we ran back to our starting spot and I managed to take one buck off a bed to fill our limit. 

At weigh-in we put together 5 for a very disappointing 11.88 pounds only good enough for a 32nd place finish. The most important thing though is we definitely learned something from this event and know what we have to do better ourselves at the next one. It's important in a team tournament to find as much water in practice as possible and fish each others strengths to maximize results. We're not too beat up about our decision to skip community even though that's were a lot of the big bags came from. Tournament bass fishing is about rolling the dice and hats off to those that made the right decision.      

Bassmaster Central Open

Table Rock Lake, Branson, MO

The second stop of the 2012 Bassmaster Central Opens has come and passed and I'm definitely left with mixed emotions. First of all, this was my first time fishing on legendary Table Rock and let me tell you this lake is sent from the heavens. Easily one of the most beautiful bodies of water I've ever visited and I'm pretty seasoned in that department. Not only does the lake's scenic beauty hold up to it's reputation but the bass that inhibit the lake are plentiful and match it's reputation of a trophy producer.

I was really excited to get down there and start breaking down this long and windy waterway that has everything to offer. You can fish your strengths here no matter if you excel at fishing deep or shallow water, there's something for everyone.

Saturday morning I launched with my wife Bri and spent all our day fishing the Kings river arm. The morning started slow but I think that has a lot to do with me playing around with my new Power Pole Blades and trying to get tuned into them. We managed to catch a lot of fish but the overall size was concerning. I could catch spotted bass on nearly every cast along bluff bank with a personal hand-tied Outkast Finesse Jig and Bri was catching two at a time on my modified three hook Alabama Rig but again the size just wasn't there. The most exciting part of my day was testing out the new Biovex Popper prototype and whacking spots on nearly every cast. The action of this bait is sure to be a hit. When worked it actually gives a side to side "walking" action like that of a small spook but delivers the most enticing "pop" every time you twitch your rod. My favorite detail of this new bait is that when paused, the popper actually stands upright giving that extra flare, forcing a following bass to inhale it.

At the end of the day I wasn't to crazy about the Kings even though I knew it can produce winning sacks of fish at any given time. I also took into consideration that it was a long way from the take-off point so I rid off the Kings River that first day.

For the remainder of practice I stayed close to the dam and quickly started to put some things together. I had seen some small bass on beds the day before in the Kings so I just started picking some coves near the dam that had good looking spawning habitat and that also had the main river channel flow close to the mouth of the cove. I picked out small manageable coves and started at one point and just fished my way all the way in and back out until I came to the opposite side point. I caught and pulled on some quality bites and they were all relatively shallow. For the  most part I was flipping at shallow cover with a craw type plastic and various sized Lazer Tungsten Weights and my favorite all time hook, the Trokar 4/0 MagWorm hook. In between the cover I had success working the initial drop off from the bank throwing  a Biovex Mid Runner (Vermillion), a 1/2 oz. Biovex Stangun Spinnerbait (Chartreuse and White) and of course the good old Missouri standby, a Storm Wiggle Wart (Phantom Green Craw).

I continued to work this pattern for the rest of practice and was able to find numerous coves that all held quality fish. I added to the pattern and refined it as well and figured I could catch anywhere from 17 to 18 pounds for my best five a day. I was happy with that kind of weight but I also had some anxiety as I felt like my bite was dwindling fast. Most the fish were post spawn and on the move toward the main lake and were stopping in random bushes and laydowns along their way out of the creeks. The one thing I felt confident about was that the water had a lot of color due to an unusually long algae bloom that was present because of the early summer and the warmer temps. Table Rock is known for it's gin clear waters and the bass are accustomed to that. I felt like the color of the water may keep them shallow and in the cover.

I took the last day of practice and went all in on some deeper water. I knew there was good fish in those coves so I stayed in that general area. It didn't come easy for me either but I did manage to find two small rock piles literally in the middle of the lake that were about the size of my Ranger boat. They sat in 30 feet of water and the tops of the piles came up to about 25 feet. I made one cast with a hand tied Outkast 1/2 oz. Touchdown Jig and caught a 4 pound smallmouth.

Day one of the tournament started fast as I popped a keeper out of the first to bushes I came across. The key was definitely my Trokar hooks and the reason was because I still had to use lighter line as I got way more bites on 15 pound Seaguar Invizx than I could with 20 pound Seaguar so keeping them pegged throughout the brush was a must.

It wasn't long before I was running out of water as my worries were coming true, the bite was going away from me and I was also competing for space with other competitors. After failing to scrape up a limit and no where near the weight I was seeing in practice I ran out to my rock piles and it was straight pandemonium from there. I spent the final three hours out there and probably caught close to 25 bass both smallmouth and spotted bass. I culled like crazy but for ounces instead of pounds as I just never got that big bite like I did during practice and in the end I weighed in a 5 fish limit consisting of two largemouth, 2 smallmouth and a spotted bass going 11.13 pounds and was sitting in close contention to not only claiming a check the next day but not a far cry away from the top 10.

My plan the next day was to get to that deep spot right away and see if the bigger ones would bite and if nothing else get a quick limit and then run shallow for a mega bite or two. I knew my presentation was spot on as I had to clean crayfish parts out of my boat that night, I definitely was using the right bait.

Day two started out rough and tough right away. I made it to my deep holes but the stiff 30 mph winds made them almost impossible to fish. The main problem was that the rocks were so snag filled that I couldn't finesse the jig through them and entice bites like I could the day before. Instead I got hung on EVERY cast and with the spot being so small I would just shut down the school before they ever got going. The key with that spot was to finesse the jig until it hit a bigger boulder and then "pop" it free, that's when I'd get bit. Instead I wasted a better part of two hours and about a dozen jigs with nothing to show for it.

Frustrated I ran shallow and did manage to catch two relatively quickly on a 1/2 oz. Biovex Stangun Spinnerbait. With only an hour or so to go and crushing thoughts of not weighing a limit I ran back to my deep haunts and this time took a different approach. I tied on a 3/4 oz. Outkast Touchdown Jig and really relied on my Lowrance electronics and Hydrowave to assist me in scratching out a limit. Basically I idled into the wind to the rocks and then jumped up on my trolling motor and set it at 100 to be able to handle the wind, I waited until I saw a fish on my sonar and then would pitch the heavier jig down to them and then drift backward bringing the jig past their face. This way I could be more efficient and would snag less knowing I'm working a smaller and obviously more productive area. A dropshot would have been more productive but I couldn't buy a bite on one as they clearly were on a crayfish bite. The key was my Hydrowave as it actually brought the fish up just a bit so I could easily separate them from the bottom on my sonar, honestly there is so many tricks a guy can use with a Hydrowave but I'll leave all that to my next article.

I was able to bang out a small limit in the last hour and weighed in a disappointing 9.03 pounds for an ultimate finish of 81st place out of 168. I was disappointed as I once again proved I belong on this stage but same as the last event on Lewisville, I was so close on day 1 and just didn't get it done on day 2. When you're that close your priorities quickly change and ultimately not meeting those left me disappointed. I can say that I fished as hard as I have ever fished before and saw another part of my game get even better, great signs for things to come. I had a game plan, a good one at that and just didn't get the big bite like I had in practice. That's just tournament bass fishing. Good news was two semi solid finishes moved me up in the points but the goal of qualifying for the Bassmaster Elites is almost long gone for 2012. Now I focus on continuing to work and hone my skills for an awesome 2013 campaign on the Bassmaster Opens. I still have a shot at qualifying for the Bassmaster Classic at Fort Gibson, OK in September so you can bet your ass I'll be leaving it all on the water there. Grand lake in February would mean the world to me but I got my hands full that's for sure. Bring it on! I'm a competition junkie all the way.

For now, I have a HUGE tournament schedule shaping up here in the north country. Up next is the North American Bass event held on the Winnebago Chain in east Wisconsin. Should set up for a whack fest! I'm also filling fast for guide trips so get in touch with me right away if you'd like to take advantage. I'm always looking for a good time on the water so I'll be sure to work you in! See you on the water!!

Bassmaster Central Open Preview

Table Rock Lake, Branson, MO

I'm getting very close to heading south to partake in the second stop on the Bassmaster Central Open Tour and will be putting in work on legendary Table Rock Lake. Every serious bass angler has dreams and aspirations of fishing this well known body of water, so with that a lot of my fellow competitors already have years of knowledge of what it will take to excel to a top finish. I on the other hand do not, in fact the only experience I have on this beast of a lake was a few weeks back when I made the hike down for a long weekend to get a bit more familiar. All this means is it's time to put on my work hat, pull my boot straps tight and put my chin down in search of winning fish. As Jason Aldean says, "that's my kinda party!" I like the unexpected, in fact I prefer it as I seem to find a way to rise to the occasion when I have no preconceived notions on what I need to do. I rely on instincts and my bass fishing prowess are what have excelled me in this sport in my mere 5 years of competition.

I try not to do to much homework either as it has shot me in the foot more than it's ever helped me out. I gather some info, mostly public stuff like general water information. I know that the lake runs gin clear for the most part and that spring rains can and will effect that. I know it's a deep fishery with world class largemouth, smallmouth and spotted bass all throughout it. Table Rock sits nestled into the Ozark Mountains and vegetation is null throughout the entire fishery. There's three main rivers that make up the waterway in the Kings, James and White Rivers and figuring out where these watersheds come from will give me a good idea of what to expect and how the fish will relate in these sections of the lake.

Table Rock has a reputation of being a do it all type of fishery, meaning a guy can catch 'em anyway he desires. I may have to get up close and personal and swim Outkast Swim Jigs through the brush and around the docks or throw the Biovex Wake Bait enticing big bites from schooling fish. If push comes to shove, I may need to bust out the G Loomis NRX Spinning Rods spooled with 6 lb. Seaguar Tatsu Fluorocarbon and use my Lowrance electronics to dropshot toads out of the many planted bushes that have been placed all over the depths of the lake. No matter what it takes I pride myself on being a versatile angler and am not afraid to learn on the fly.

This is the mid way point of the Central Opens and a strong finish here could really catapult me to the top of the Angler of the Year points and give me a direct shot at qualifying for the Bassmaster Elite Series, a tough task to say the least but one I've literally been dreaming of everyday since I was a little kid. I plan to take advantage of every opportunity I can create.

No more time to talk shop, it's time to put up or shut up! I also have to go get my new Power Pole Blades installed so I really do have to go! LOVING LIFE!!!

Full Throttle Team Event

Mississippi River Pools 3, 4 and 5, Red Wing, MN

I'm happy to say that my tournament season is fully underway! This past weekend I got the opportunity to fish the Full Throttle Team Tourney with a good friend and one of Minnesota's best bass anglers, Andy Young. The event was held on one of my favorite bodies of water in the Mississippi River.

As much as I'd like to get into the details of what patterns worked and which ones didn't but I can't as Andy has another upcoming tournament there in the next couple weeks.

Practice went very well and we knew if we had a run and gun approach we should easily be able to catch 15 pounds and though we caught some nice ones during practice, we knew that we would need to capitalize on a few big bites. We figured it'd take 18 to 20 pounds to have a chance of winning and thought if we ran all our spots we may just find ourselves with that kind of weight.

Game day turned up exactly what we thought and though we put together 15 pounds we never did get that big bite needed to push us to the top. We weighed in 5 for 15.28 lbs only good enough for an 8th place finish. The winners put together an impressive 5 largemouths for 19.1 pounds. Even though it didn't turn out the way we had hoped we still had a great day on the water and after some good river fishing I'm more than ready to hit the road and try to put together something great on Table Rock!

Getting the Kinks Out

Back in action! Loving every second of it too. Believe it or not, there's a lot that goes with trying to make a career out of bass fishing. It's not all setting hooks and sunny 80 degree weather with flip flops. There's a business side. My view on this is that business is just as important off the water as it is on the water and they're both extremely important!

Lately my on-water time has been few and far between and even when I do find myself on the water there wasn't much in the way of actual casting. Our lakes up here in Minnesota actually opened a few weeks ago and with the river not flooding at all, the fishing has been wide open. Instead, when the temps reached a record breaking 80 degrees in mid March, I was working a Cabela's event for my sponsors all weekend. Last week the Northwest Sport Show took all my time as the Navionics booth was hopping. Don't get me wrong either, I don't mind the business side of our sport, in fact it's what allows me to be on the water every other day. I'm fortunate to have so much support from the leaders in the bass fishing industry but there's still no denying, I work to fish!

Now with the show season coming to a halt, I've been running the river working out the kinks of a long winter. My next Bassmaster Central Open is coming up at the end of April on Missouri's legendary Table Rock Lake. My goal is to be in straight beast mode by the time that event rolls around. To prepare I decided to team up with good buddy Andy Young and sign up for a Full Throttle event held on the Mississippi River Pools 3-5. The river is the only thing similar to southern reservoir fishing that we have here in Minnesota and really they're not that close but there is shad and current. There's also everyday changes that you need to be quick on your feet and be able to fish the moment. Our lakes are different, they're by far more "spot" orientated than "pattern" orientated.

Nothing is more evident of this than the fishing we've encountered the past two days. We decided to stay close to home and fish pool 2 of the Mississippi River. We'll practice pools 3-5 enough over the next week but it's nice to be able to hit the pool just north of the action to figure out what the bite is and also be able to tool 'em up a bit without sacrificing tournament bites.

Thursday was a decent day. The smallmouth weren't wanting to join in the party at all. They'd bite but for the life of me I couldn't get them to commit but we found the largemouth a lot more willing. Odd as we had bright bluebird skies and hardly no wind, you'd think it be a smallie kind of a day? The largemouth we caught came on an array of baits but Andy whacked the two biggest on my homemade 3/8 oz. pitchin' jig (black and blue). We also caught a bunch on a jerkbait which probably got the most bites as well as an Outkast Pro Swim Jig, though the size was much smaller.


Friday was all around different. I finally caught a couple main river smallies on a Biovex Mid Runner (Blueback Chartreuse). That gave me the idea to fish more main river and secondary shoots instead of running all the way to the backs of the little feeder creeks. Usually the bite would be strong in the bays and lagoons but being that the river is extremely low and for the most part clean with little current these fish aren't needing to go as far back and with the low overnight temps, the main river is staying the same water temp where the backs are getting very cold overnight and taking most the day to warm up.

Friday I got most of my bites fishing bluff rock and where ever there was a laydown or a rock outcropping off the bluff was lights out. I caught a lot on a Biovex Mid Runner, an Outkast Swim Jig and that same 3/8 oz. pitching jig. I also got an opportunity to try out the Reaction Innovations Kinky Beaver and was impressed with the results.

The bass were double dipping on both crayfish and shad and gorging themselves in preparation for the spawn. The big girls were extra fat! Once I found that pattern I was very efficient as I could use my Lowrance HDS 8 Gen 2 along with my new 2012 Navionics Platinum North Chip and actually use the maps 3D capability to see where the bluffs where and then idle the bluff looking for the ideal laydowns or outcroppings. The "juice" was where the outcropping was still underwater and not visible to the eye, my StructureScan could pick it up every time.

The best was saved for last when my wife Bri showed up to hit the water and take some photo's with our new camera when I popped a 4 pounder on the Biovex Mid Runner and a 5.6 on the jig! Man it feels good to be back in action!! Best part, I don't ever have to winterize my boat again! Game on!

Map Your Way to the Northwest Sport Show!

Ever since I was a little kid I get excited about the return of the Northwest Sport Show. I remember like it was yesterday, my uncle coming to pick me up early in the morning because "the early bird gets the worm" and my mother handing me thirty dollars as I ran out the door "in case I find anything that would look good in my tackle box".

The Sport Show meant a lot to me every year. I'd see the pros with their jersey's demonstrating the newest baits in the bass tank. I remember all the brand new shiny boats that I could only stare at and dream of one day when I was bigger I was going to get one of my very own or the G Loomis fishing poles that I eagerly saved my allowance for. I'd always get a bag from one of the vendors and you'd think it was a personal competition to make sure I filled that bag with as much stuff as I possibly could. New tackle! Put it in the bag. Ranger boats new boat catalog! Put it in the bag. Resort pamphlets from Vancouver to Saskatchewan to Mexico! Put them in the bag. Are you kidding me? That guy with that new ShamWow towel can do some amazing cleaning tricks! Mom needs to know about this! Brochures, in the bag!

I'd spend the entire day with my uncle and we'd talk fishing and hunting and tell stories, fabricated ones of course we are fisherman. It was great and at the end of the day we'd leave full on whatever they were cooking on the Big Green Egg, even though it's meant for samples to showcase the green grill, I think we used it more like a buffet. By the drive home we were both overly anxious to get out and actually catch some fish.

Fifteen years later and now I'm all grown up and still have that same excitement as I did when I was a kid. The roles have changed though, now I'm that fishing pro wearing the jersey and promoting the products that have helped me get to where I'm at today. This weekend I'll be spending most of my time working the Navionics booth and promoting their new products and apps that are taking the fishing and boating world by storm. It's no secret that Navionics has been consistently pumping out the best lake maps for the entire country including maps for ocean and Great Lakes fisherman a like. They've recently begun releasing over 1,000 totally revamped lakes throughout the country and we'll have a list of the new northern lakes available at our booth.

The past couple of years the hot talk with the consumers visiting the Navionics stands was the development of the Navionics app for smart phones that literally has taken hand held GPS systems out of the game. Now with the introduction of the Navionics NewsStand that comes with every Navionics App download, people can also read up on boating and fishing articles from some of the world's best.

This year is especially exciting at the Navionics booth as they'll be doing a special Sport Show promotion. Anyone who buys a Navionics NEW Marine & Lakes USA or HotMaps Premium Special Edition Midwest States chip at the show from any of our dealers can come to our booth #734 with proof of purchase and will gift you your choice of the iPhone/iPad Navionics app or our PC app! Also, anyone who stops by the booth can register to win a brand new Lowrance HDS 5 just for stopping by, no purchase necessary at all! Just come by and say hi.

Speaking of Lowrance, I'm chomping at the bit to be able to show people the magic that is when you combine Navionics Mapping with Lowrance's new StructureMap that is available in their new HDS Gen-2 line of fish finders! This allows you to overlay all the structure around you on top of your Navionics Map. Making finding fish related structure a breeze and completely eliminating the guess work. Whether your a die-hard tournament angler or just planning a fun family fishing trip, this setup will making your days on the water a success. There's no denying that Lowrance is continually developing the mold to which the competition can't break!

Even though these days I spend most of my time working at the show, I still find a way to sneak over to that Big Green Egg and see what's on the grill and don't think for a second that I don't still have the habit of filling a bag full of brochures of all the things I just have to have and though my Mom may now be off the hook, my wife Bri get's the pleasure of seeing and hearing all the "stuff" that I just have to have. Unfortunately for Bri my taste may have also gotten a bit more expensive from that of a 14 year old. The days of the ShamWow Rag and little fishing float boats are in the past, now were dealing with Lowrance Graphs, Power Poles, RV's and hey, how's about a brand new shiny Ranger Bass Boat Bri? Does it help that it'll be sparkly and pretty?

To all, I hope to see you at the show! Be sure to stop by the booth, say hello or simply talk shop. See you there!

Tackling Terminal Tackle

Spring is in the air! Actually, it's only mid March in Minnesota yet it feels way more like summer than it does spring, really it should feel like winter but no complaints here, the lakes in the metro area are ice free! This weather is sweet!

I've been chomping at the bit to be fishing ever since I got back from competing in the Bassmaster Open event down on Lake Lewisville near Dallas, Texas in early February. I've gotten away a few times to a couple different Minnesota "secret" open-water spots and the fishing was so good it drove my anticipation for ice-out through the roof! To pass the time, I've been going through my tackle and restoring my old and most favorite baits.


Rust is killer to your tackle and I have so many baits that in my heart are truly irreplaceable. I have old pre-Rapala Wiggle Warts, high end Japanese tackle and other hand crafted crankbaits. I also have proven winners such as the Biovex Deep Runner and Biovex Wake that I have so much confidence in that I can't bear to see these baits get ruined. I need to show them love so they produce for me when I need them the most!

I did a lot of research on restoring overused or old baits. This is a very simple process that requires very little expense, basically you'll need just a few things for cleaning and replacing terminal components. Basic equipment includes a Eagle Claw Lazer Split Ring Pliers, a fingernail clipper, white distilled vinegar, Huggies Natural Care Wipes and paper towel. I also had the new Trokar treble hooks in both the round bend and wide gap in several sizes 2, 4 and 6, as well as Eagle Claw's Split Rings in size 3 and Eagle Claw Lazer Oval Split Rings in size 3 as well.

The first step is emptying all baits out of their respected boxes and thoroughly expecting each and every one including the box as well for any signs of rust. Usually hooks and split rings are the first to show signs of rust but if left for a long period of time, the rust will actually move to the body of the bait and other baits in close proximity as well as the tackle box itself.

The Eagle Claw Lazer Split Ring Pliers is an excellent tool for removing all tainted hooks and split rings. I keep one of these in my boat as at all times as it makes switching trebles on the fly a breeze. Next I fold over some paper towel and generously apply vinegar and I use this to thoroughly clean each and every bait and then leave it sit to dry. I also take that same vinegar rag and clean out every compartment in my tackle trays. It's important to leave these sit out over night to dry thoroughly. There's also a few decisions to make as vinegar will work extremely well at cleaning and counteracting rust but it will not completely remove it. Since the rust is usually fed by cheap hooks and split rings, removing them should do the job but if a bait is just too eaten by rust it's best to get rid of it all together. This holds true for the tackle storage box as well, if it has a lot of signs of rust, get rid of it. It's probably time you flipped the extra ten bucks and bought yourself some new ones anyways.

I use vinegar because it's an excellent cleaning agent and it's environmentally friendly but also won't leave long lasting scents on your baits. I'm very weary of chemical cleaners as they could leave a bad scent or possibly even ruin the finish of the bait. After much searching I found Huggies Natural Care Baby Wipes to be a scent free wet wipe that doubles up as an excellent crankbait cleaner and polisher. I thoroughly clean the baits and polish them up with the wipes and leave to again dry overnight. I do the same with whatever tackle storage containers I deem safe for future use. It's important to again leave everything out to dry overnight as moisture is one of the reasons your precious plugs got rust covered in the first placed.

This brings me to another point, though moisture is probably the most likely candidate for rust it's not the only one, cheap components are equally to blame. In fact, I've had some old school crankbaits that never have left their original box and hooks have already begun to rust. This is just a sign of cheap hardware and though I won't throw any present tackle manufacturer's under the bus, let's just say it's not all old bait companies that are guilty of this. Even though a present day "popular" company employs cheap components doesn't mean they don't produce a great bait, you just need to pay attention and have the proper equipment to fix this situation. This is also why I always carry extra Lazer Trokar hooks and Eagle Claw Split Rings with me every time I'm on the water as I will also need them for when a hook goes bad or dull. Even a company like Biovex who uses top of the line components can't always help when a hook gets hung on a rock and having spare Trokar hooks fixes that problem before I loose a fish over it.

Once everything is fully dry, the next step would be putting the baits back together with quality components. I start by putting on new Eagle Claw Split Rings, generally I always go with size #3. For the line tie, I use Eagle Claw Lazer Oval Split Rings as I think they give the bait a little better action and again I use a size #3.


When it comes to putting on new hooks I really like the new short shank wide gap trebles that Trokar just released. Fish bite these hooks and stay pinned all the way to the boat plus the short shank allows me to size up my hooks by a full size. The only exception to this is with topwater and jerkbaits when instead I tend to favor the Trokar Round Bend Treble. The reason for this is that these baits are notorious for bass "slapping" them instead of actually engulfing them. Crankbaits are generally eaten when dredging bottom or ricocheting off of an object and bass tend to eat them whole making the Trokar Wide Gap and excellent choice. However, being that topwater and jerkbaits are more of an open water presentation, I think bass tend to kill the bait first by slapping at it and that's where the round bend will do an excellent job of stapling the fish from it's mouth to it's tail.

Well that's all for now! I got a boat to get full of fresh new pimped out crankbaits for my upcoming weekend down on Table Rock Lake for a little pre pre practice for the upcoming Bassmaster Open held there the end of April! With ice-out on most of the Twin Cities lakes I can finally say once again, see you on the water!

Heaven on Earth

Imagine catching huge bass, one right after the other and catching them in ways you could only dream of. Now snap back to reality, it's February in Minnesota and the chance of catching lunker largemouth on swimbaits or sight fishing 5 pounders on a dropshot would be heavenly.

Well for myself and good friends Ryan Brant and Paul Coffey, heaven opened its beautiful doors on us for just a day. The air temp when we made our first casts was a bone chilling 8 degrees and though it never did get warmer than the mid twenties, I never felt the cold for a second. Something about slow rolling a big old swimbait and having it get jacked up by a giant bass just warms my insides! Honestly it was one of the best fishing days of our lives. So good I couldn't find the words to explain so I'll just let a few of the pictures do the talking.

Bassmaster Classic Preview

**Photo courtesy of James Overstreet and Bassmaster.com

The top 49 anglers are only hours away from throwing down on Louisiana's rat nest known as the Red River and will be competing for the most coveted title in all of bass fishing, the Bassmasters Classic!

The story lines are plentiful.

Skeet Reese, who won the Classic three years ago on these very waters will not be able to defend his title after having a poor 2011 season, he failed to qualify. A tough pill to swallow given the 2010 season that is arguably the best season ever put together by an angler. The theories of what happened to Skeet in '11 are plentiful but fishing is fishing and things sometimes just don't come together. I'm sure there's multiple explanations for why Skeet is on the outside looking in but I'm confident we'll see him at the top of his game in 2012.

KVD, what can I say? The man's to good to even refer to him by his real name and now is only known as a 3 lettered fishing god who simply toys with mere mortals. Littered with credentials, he's earned 6 Angler of the Year titles and won 4 Bassmaster Classics all while racking up over 5 million in winnings alone. Three times a charm right? KVD won the last two Classics respectively and now will have the chance to win his third in a row. The Jedi Zen Master, Rick Clunn had that exact same reality once in his studded career but after going back to back, he came up just shy by placing second. Impressive to say the least but don't think KVD will finish in second, that spot is usually held for Aaron Martens. You know KVD's eyes are only set on first, a scary thought for the rest of the field.

Speaking of Aaron Martens, the California Kid is one of my favorite anglers and though I poked at the obvious, 4 second place finishes in Classic competition is in my mind the best resume under Clunn and Van Dam's. I think this might be the one where he finally claims the top spot and to be honest, there's no one who deserves it more. My life goal is to qualify for a Classic and Martens is not only a every year contender, he's threatened the throne more than any other. If he's the one to hold the trophy over his head, we'll all get the honor of sharing the emotion with him.

Greg Hackney, the local who's fishing in his fourth hometown Classic has got his hands full or should I say mind full trying to deal with the lost opportunities of the past. Every serious bass angler dreams of competing in a Bassmaster Classic on their home water, yet the Hack Attack has had that opportunity 3 times before and watched them all slip away. I've spoken with him in person about this a couple times and you can't help but notice how bad it bugs him and how ridiculously bad he wants it. Truth is when you know too much about a body of water it's easy to catch yourself chasing your tail instead of staying in one or two spots and grinding it out. This year could be the exception, besides the fact that Hackney's one of the best bass fisherman to ever walk the planet, the word on the water is that the Red River is fishing tough and the clean water is at a minimum. With anglers expecting to be fishing on top of each other and thinning out the fish, Hack's knowledge of the area could come into play when needing a small out of the way spot to produce a few key bites. I wouldn't bet against him.

Mike Iaconelli is always a threat anywhere bass swim and his credentials in the crayfish state is mind boggling. Take Skeet Reese out of the 2009 Classic and Iaconelli would be holding his second Classic title in Louisiana. To bad for him, Skeet was in the 2009 field but won't be now. Will Ike find that same magic? He's been fishing on top of his game and has some added motivation in that he's been so close in numerous other events in the past couple years. When the bite's tough, he's all the better. No matter what, if he's on 'em I'm sure I'll be able to hear it all the way up here in Minnesota! Stay you Ike, we wouldn't want you any other way!

Now that I've talked about the numerous elephants in the room, what about the dark horses? I should be smacked for referring to Denny Brauer as a dark horse as the man's truly a legend but after being a "every year" classic contender through the 80's and 90's, his appearances have been less than spotty over the past decade. What's in the past is in the past and unfortunately for the competition, Denny's there and could be flippin' and pitchin' his way to his second title.

From legendary status to spring chicken. Brandon Palaniuk has earned his name amongst the best by being thrown to the wolves last year on the Delta but ended by making the cut and banging boats with KVD and the rest of the top 10 on the final day. Brandon came up through the Federation but has since proven that there's a smooth transition from amateur to professional. His Federation win on this very body of water has got to give him some added motivation as well.

Someone is going to earn the right to hold the trophy high come Sunday and will have earned it against a stacked field that all deserve it. Good luck to the entire 2012 Bassmaster Classic Field!

BASSMASTER Central Open

Lake Lewisville, Lewsiville, TX

Lake Looserville, Lake Sewerville and the Mud Hole where just some of the names I heard when people where referencing Lake Lewisville just north of Dallas, Texas. In fact, during my week and a half stay down there I heard many other choice names given to the lakes from the locals but I should probably keep this a family site.

Regardless of it's reputation, I was more than thrilled to be there competing in my first nationally recognized professional event. I knew the bite would be tough well before I signed up but also knew that when dealing with Texas everything is bigger and the bass in Lewisville is no exception. The facts be told, Lewisville is a tough fishery that sees its fair share of pressure but I don't think anyone could foresee just how rough and tough it was going to treat us while we were throwing everything on the line for the second spot in the 2013 Bassmaster Classic.

Texas as a whole has been facing a record drought and the lack of rain had Lewsiville marked at over six feet low. Days before we arrived for practice the Dallas/Fort Worth area got pounded with heavy rains that raised the water level to just a foot shy of full pool. Texas, as well as the rest of the United States, has been experiencing an unusually warm winter which changed as Mother Nature got wind of a big tournament getting ready to take place and instead delivered us a wicked cold front. The end result was high, muddy and cold water, not the most ideal situations for an already tough fishery.

Practice started very slow and honestly never really got good as bites were few and far between. As the realization of a possible skunk become more and more a reality, I found myself digging to the depths of my boat to find whatever was going to give me that edge. As a self proclaimed "dragger", I'm often more comfortable locating key areas and slowly milking it for everything it's worth. I soon realized that this was a recipe for disaster as I was having real problems locating more than one fish in a single area and with the water color being the exact same as that of chocolate milk, bass didn't have the visibility to see the bait unless it smacked them directly in the face. I shifted my focus to forcing a reaction bite and was rewarded a bit better, they still weren't jumping into the boat but bites were bites and the ones that were biting had some pretty decent size to them.

My main weapon of choice was a 3/8 oz. Biovex Stangun Spinnerbait (Black), the dark color helped them locate it in the dirty water. I found most of my fish holding in or around small stickups that had grown during the low water period and now had a foot of water on them. Finding these areas around some sort of rock was even better as the rocks retained more heat and warmed the water by maybe a degree but it was just enough to hold these weary bass.

I also practiced around a lot of deep water as I really wanted a few key areas that I could slow down and capitalize on a school of fish. I used the heck out of my Lowrance Units and Navionics Chips looking for that perfect sweet spot and it wasn't until late in the day on Tuesday that I found a point that held an immense amount of baitfish and an awesome rock spine that jetted out into deep water. The coolest thing was I was able to use my Lowrance DownScan and actually see bass school shad. It was absolutely amazing to see but getting these fish to bite was the most impossible thing ever and yes, I even through the Alabama Rig at them with still no result. I instead focused my efforts at the rock cropping as I figured it may hold inactive bass. I caught a short off it relatively quickly which even though wasn't the required 14 inches, it was still a bass. The next morning I wanted to see if I had indeed found anything and on about my third or fourth cast with a carolina rig, I set on a solid 4 pounder! This gave me a little bit of confidence that at least I had a little something that could work out if the shallow fish didn't with the intense cold front that was apparent for the tournament days.

**Bass schooling shad on a deep point with the use of Lowrance DownScan.

I drew boat 10 at registration and though most anglers weren't on anything strong enough to feel as though they needed an early draw, I felt as though the early bite on my point would be very beneficial to my overall success. Unfortunately for me, the point never produced a bite and after burning two hours up I decided to start running shallow. I knew blanking was a real possibility in this event and even when the hours went by without a single bite, I still stayed focused, kept my composure and put my head down knowing this was going to be a grind. With no fish in the boat and only about an hour left in the day, I decided to leave it all out there on my point and go for broke. Fortunately for me I was rewarded with a small spotted bass that measured just over 14 inches. Nothing to write home to Mom about but that lone fish really took the pressure off. If you fail to weigh a fish in the BASSMASTER Opens, you receive zero points for the event, which really hurts in the overall Angler of the Year points race. I weighed in at a mere 1 fish for 1.5 pounds and found myself sitting in 96th place out of 178 boats. I'd naturally think that I had shot myself in the foot with that disappointing showing but 81 anglers blanked and I was a mere 3 or 4 pounds out of the top 12. We were truly in an all time BASS record tournament for the lowest weights ever!

Day two I once again found myself fishing my rock point but with the 30 mile an hour north wind that was pummeling the area I was forced to move on as it was truly unfishable. I went shallow and since my spinnerbait didn't produce the day before I switched up to Chatterbait (Green Pumpkin) and matched it up with a Zoom Speed Craw (Okeechobee Craw) as a trailer. I was able to catch a good keeper right away in the morning which gave me the added drive I really needed on a tough Lake Lewisville. Though my pattern of 5000 casts per 1 bite held up and I again took to the scales with only 1 single largemouth bass. I weighed in at 2.8 pounds for a combined 2 day total of 3 pounds and 13 ounces and finished 68th out of 178. I seriously couldn't believe how tough the fishing was as more anglers blanked on day two than had caught fish. A BASS record for sure.


I had a lot of mixed emotions when it was all said and done regarding my finish. I was so close to the money and was only 5 or 6 pounds away from making the top 12 that I couldn't help but be disappointed. I try to remind myself of my original goal that I had set for the season of making the top 50 in the points race and growing as a professional bass angler on the national level. I got off to an excellent start. I realize to make this my career, I need to crawl before I can walk and it's definitely a marathon not a sprint. I gained much confidence by finishing in the upper 35% and edging out numerous Bassmaster Elite Anglers and FLW Pros. I proved to myself that I can play at this level and now want it even more than ever. I know with hard work and discipline, my future will be bright! Now I'm just chomping at the bit to go out there and do it again! Next up, Table Rock Lake! One of the best fisheries in the nation, bring it on!!

I'd like to thank my boy, Strike King pro Brent Homan for a great week as well as my new friends Carlos and Denise for their hospitality as they truly made me feel right at home. The red beans and rice was to die for man and the brownies and ice cream was the exact thing needed after grueling days on the water. Thanks again!