Denny's Wednesday Nighter

Lake Minnetonka, Wayzata, MN

Today started the first tournament of the Denny's Wednesday Nighters, held on the one and only, Lake Minnetonka. Also referred to as "Tonka", this lake is known for it's trophy largemouth bass and also has a few nice, but elusive schools of smallmouth bass. These are team format style tournaments and my partner for these series is my good friend Ryan Brant.

Going into this tournament we were very excited because we have really been getting dialed into the fishery and have some really good areas that have been holding both quality and quantity. We were real stoked when we drew boat number five and were pretty sure we could get to our areas without much competition. At take off we headed to a spot that has been holding some real nice fish and expected to put together a quick limit with a few nice ones and put ourselves into position to hog hunt the rest of the evening. Since these tournaments are only 4 1/2 hours long, time management is extremely important. As we pulled up Ryan was first to add a nice 3.5 pound largemouth to the livewell. I believe she was suckered on a homemade football jig. As time quickly started to pass, I was able to boat one that only went about 14 inches but still another keeper. We both missed a bunch of bites and just couldn't get anymore bass to commit to our offerings so we opted to head out and start running some water. We arrived at an outside weedline that I had done so well on in practice and I started cranking the weedline with a Storm Wiggle Wart (Red Craw) with no success at all. Again we left disappointed. With a couple hours gone and a pathetic situation going on in the livewell, we decided to run some boat docks and try to scrap our way to a limit. Ryan quickly adds a two pounder into the well and I quickly follow. We decided to continue on and get our fifth keeper. A little way down and I set into a nice largemouth that was about 3.5 lbs, but it threw my bait at the boat. That was rough, but fortunately for me I was able to semi make up for it by boating our fifth keeper that went about 2 pounds.

We only had about an hour and a half to go and Ryan suggested a nice point not far from the row of docks that we were fishing. We pulled up and I quickly caught a good three pounder on a modified carolina rig. The next 3 out of 5 casts I was able to boat a fish, culling nicely two more times.

With about 45 minutes to go, and sitting with roughly 13 pounds, we decided to hit up my money spot in hopes of a nice kicker. We arrived and instantly we both missed a nice strike. With about twenty minutes left I got a nice bite and set into a great fish. I instantly yelled to Ryan for the net knowing this was the fish that would place us in the top three for sure and maybe even a chance at the top spot. The fish quickly surged to the top showing off her big ole' belly, an easy 4 to 5 pound fish. After the initial leap, she surged back to the bottom as I played her to the boat. Ryan was eagerly waiting with the net as it started floating up from under the boat as if it was giving up the fight. Just as I was inches away from having her in netting position, she decided it was not over and again leaped from the water and shot straight back down just missing the net and that was it, the hook popped free from her mouth and left us with nothing but to watch her quickly swim out of sight. I swear to God I almost puked. After a few choice words and a toss of the fishing pole, we tried everything to get back on track and focus on trying to actually catch, not hook, but catch another one. We both did, but neither big enough to cull and time ran out. At weigh in we weighed 5 for 13.13 lbs. and finished in 12th place, three positions out of the money. The worst part was that we would have had second place easily had we boated that bass and would have won $700 dollars. Thats the bad news, but on the good side, we had a solid finish and are in good position for the team of the year race. The top two teams at the end of the season join the top eight from the Denny's Super 30, and all ten teams compete for a first place prize of $10,000.

I've had my share of fish get off in a tournament but never in the last minutes and never that would have been that big of a deal breaker. I suppose I better get used to it because when I make it to the level that I am desperately trying to get to, I see those guys do it and instead of loosing a $700 dollar fish, they loose a $250,000 dollar fish. I couldn't imagine.

Another good thing that came from this tournament was that we now have even more confidence that we're on the right kind of fish to put ourselves in position of winning some good money. This weekend I will be heading up to the Whitefish Chain, in Cross Lake to start preparing for the next BASSMASTER Weekend Series event and than will be coming right home to celebrate my 28th birthday on June 30th, and than will start preparing for the Pan O' Prag tournament on Lake Marion. Happy Bday to me!

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

Green Lake, Spicer, MN

Every fisherman has a bad outing on occasion and finds themselves saying "the fish just weren't biting today". I have never agreed with that way of thinking. In actuality, the fish are always biting somewhere on the lake. The likelihood is that the fisherman didn't have them patterned correctly by making mistakes to seasonal patterns, presentation, location, the list goes on and on. So really 90% of the time it isn't the fish weren't biting, it's the fisherman wasn't catching.
I'll get to my point later. This tournament was held on Green Lake, in Spicer, MN. A trophy smallmouth fishery, that also has a ok population of largemouth bass. The lake is a clear, deep, and rocky lake. I had practiced the week before and managed to do pretty well. I caught a bunch of descent sized largemouth and even stuck a four and a half pound smallie. I spent most of the time checking out the lake and putting together a game plan. My pre tournament strategy was that the majority of the largemouth had already spawned and that the smallmouth were in the spawn. Meaning that sight fishing and shallow water was going to claim the biggest bags. I decided right away that I should concentrate all my efforts in the tournament on smallmouths because it is highly unlikely to do well with a bag of largemouths on this body of water.

The club format is that you are paired with another member of the club and split time on the trolling motor. It's not a team event, your actually competing against each other, but still bounce ideas off one another to give both a good shot at a nice limit. My game plan was to search out the rock flats, in 5 to 10 feet of water, for smallmouths. I had one area in practice that held a nice weed clump that I figured I could possibly get some nice post spawners from. I knew the lake had being getting a ton of tournament pressure and it was getting a little late into the spawning season for the to still be on beds. So just in case I had some back up areas to fish.
At take off my partner John informed me of some nice post spawn smallies in the three to four pound range that he was on just days before the tournament. The weather was great except we were expecting 20 to 30 m.p.h. winds, so we decided to hit his area first. Arriving at his spot I have to say it looked great. It was a nice weedy shelf in about ten feet of water and was surrounded by deep water. It also had some mixed rock piles along the edge. I started throwing a Amp Lures Pop topwater bait, but quickly decided it was already to windy for it to be effective, so I switched to a 5/16 oz. hand tied Jewel Jig (Brown) and started tossing it to the weedline. On my second cast my rod buckled and I knew I had a good fish on. The smallmouth surfaced, danced, and threw my jig! I couldn't believe it! Your not supposed to loose a fish like that on a jig!

The worst thing about it was that smallie was well over four pounds! That hurt. I was pretty worked up about that but found some excitement in the spot we were on. After spending another half hour or so in the area we decided to give it a rest figuring that fish may have spooked the school, and go run some of my water. We pulled up to a nice rock flat and only spent ten minutes there. No excuses but that damn fish was still in my head so I said we should go try my deeper weeds and try for some post spawners. We arrived to the weedline and I caught a couple quick largemouths but they were to small to keep and John hooks into a nice three pound smallie. That did it. That convinced me that the fish were in the post spawn. So we abondoned the area and spent the rest of the day fishing deeper water, that held nice weed clumps, in search of a good bag.

Arriving back to the area where I lost that good smallie, John starts catching them right away. A few small largemouths, but still keepers, and another good smallmouth. I caught a couple two pound largies as well. We continued to work similar areas and next thing you know it was time to head to the weigh in. I weighed in at four fish for 6.0 pounds and John had four weighing 6.7 pounds. I finished in 12th place, my worst performance in a club tournament to date. My good buddies Ryan Brant and Rich Lindgren took first and second respectively, fishing wouldn't you know it, rock flats for spawning smallmouths. Needless to say it was a long drive home for me. I understand that I will have bad tournaments, sometimes you just never got on them, but to be on them and make horrible game time decisions is a hard one to swallow. So back to my earlier statement. On the way to the weigh in I remember saying to myself "they just weren't biting, they must be in a post spawn funk", instead the truth to the matter is they were indeed biting, I just wasn't catching.

Mid way thru the season and I find myself in eighth place in the Angler of the Year standings. The good news is this tournament will serve as excellent motivation to do real well in the last four events and make a run at club stick. I have a lot of confidence in the bodies of water that we will be fishing, Lake Minnetonka and Lake Pokegama. Both lakes are capable of coughing up 17 to 20 pound bags. I have every intent at trying to do just that! There are so many skilled fisherman in the Gopher Bassmasters that it takes excellent fishing to be at the top. Now my plan is to put this one behind me and concentrate on the next.

This weekend I am heading up to the Whitefish Chain, in Cross Lake, MN, to do some prefishing for a BASSMASTER Weekend Series event held there in a few weekends from now. I had a nice start in the first event at the Le Homme Dieu Chain, where I walked away with a sixth place finish. I have been doing a lot of studying to prepare so I give myself every opportunity at having a great finish. Wish me luck!

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

Lake Koronis, Paynesville, MN

Today was the third tournament of the year held at Lake Koronis, in Paynesville, MN. Koronis has an excellent population of both largemouth and smallmouth bass. After take off I headed straight for some main lake islands that I knew was the best bet for some nice smallmouth bass. I started with an Amp Lures Pop and switched back and forth with a Reaction Innovations Barely Legal Vixen, neither producing. After figuring that the topwater just wasn't going to work for me, I quickly switched to a hand tied 5/16 oz. Jewel Jig (Brown) with a 2.75" Guide Series Chunk (Purple). I threw that along the deep side of a rock spine and quickly caught a 14" largemouth and a couple largies that wouldn't bump 12". With one fish in the livewell I continued down the spine and hooked with with a nice 3.5 lb. smallmouth on the same jig.

After spending another thirty minutes around the rocks with no fish I decided to switch it up completely and headed for some nice looking slop areas. After about an hour of slop fishing I was just about ready to head back out to the main lake when I bass exploded on my Scum Frog (Black), missing it all together. Being in this situation many times I didn't panic. I simply waited for the ripples to stop and twitched the bait once or twice and that was all it took. The bass came back and smacked it adding about three pounds to my total weight.

I headed back out to the main lake and decided to run some boat docks that were productive during practice. They were very productive except they only produced dinks, but none the less they helped me fill my limit. Looking back, I probably spent to much time on the docks. I think it was a good call to hit them up to fill a quick limit but I probably spent two to three hours on them hoping I would hook up with one big un. I should have made a better decision when I caught a nice smallie around the rocks and a nice largemouth in the back slop areas. Instead of trying to make something happen, I should have let the lake dictate where and how to catch a better bag. With that said I finally headed back to the rock in search of another football shaped smallmouth. I switched to a YUM 3" Tube (Green Pumpkin) and quickly hooked into another good sized smallie. Being that I forgot my landing net in the truck, I lost that fish right at the boat trying to hand land him. Bummer. Lesson learned. When fishing for smallmouth bass in particular, DON"T FORGET THE NET! They will never give up fighting.

I continued to catch smallie's one after another mostly to small to cull. I was able to cull one and probably gained a few ounces on the deal. I also broke off another nice one, but that's part of the game when your rocking with 8 lb. fluorocarbon around a bunch of sharp rocks. With about twenty minutes to go, I headed back to the slop and again started flinging my frog across the pads. With literally three minutes to go I hooked into another bass just shy of three pounds. I weighed in at 12.3 lbs. with a .3 dead fish penalty, which was good enough for a solid fifth place finish. Looking back I was happy with the way I fished considering I only prefished the lake for about an hour and a half. My only regret was that I wished I had studied a map a little harder and that I would have got of the boat docks after filling a limit on them.

No time to think about what if's though. I have another tournament the next day on Green Lake, in Spicer, MN. A trophy smallmouth lake! I can't wait!

Tackle Update: Shimano Steps Up Again!

Anyone who knows me is well aware that when it comes to reels there is only one brand in my opinion, Shimano. I have a great assortment of these reels both oldies and newbies. I am very excited to inform you all that Shimano has redeveloped the very popular Curado line of reels. The Curado has long been one of my absolute favorite reels on the market. Their excellent craftsmanship paired with their very fair price makes them an excellent option for any angler.

I still own multiple Curado BSF and Curado D reels that I can't get myself to upgrade, but I have to admit the new Curado E looks like the best yet! Weighing more than 2 ounces less than the Curado D and sporting a more compact design similar to the Curado 100 and the Chronarch 100. The best part of it is they are actually set to be twenty dollars less than the older version. Look for the discontinued Curado D to be on sale at stores near you. Here is a review from Tackle Tour, click here.


**From left to right: The new mean green Shimano Curado E and the E21 Boyd Duckett Series Carrot Stix

Also new to my arsenal is the new E21 Boyd Duckett Series Carrot Stix. Almost all of my rods are made by G Loomis and I have to admit I was very skeptical when the Carrot was first released. However after trying one out for only a half an hour I found myself ordering one days later. I opted for the 7'2" MH casting version and paired it with the Shimano Chronarch 50mg. I have never held a lighter combo in my life. Don't let the weight fool you either, the set up has zero problem yanking that 4 pound largemouth out from under a boat dock. Click here for more information from E21.

So Many Tournaments, So Little Time

I have been real busy lately to say the least. Between guide trips, preparing for tournaments, and tourneys themselves, I have spent some serious time out on the water. The good thing is, there's no other place I'd rather be, with the exception of course, of spending some quality time with the love of my life, my wife Bri. With the weather getting better and better, or should I say with the tanning season coming around, I get the privilege of her joining me more and more for a day of prefishing. I have to be honest, it's not all tanning, she's really becoming a pretty good fisherwoman.

Lately I have been up to Koronis and Green Lake preparing for a couple club tournaments that I have. Both lakes harbor smallmouth and largemouth bass, with Green Lake being a championship smallmouth venue. The wind was really rough when I was on Green, but I still managed to catch fish, one of which was a nice four pound smallmouth. I also had a pretty good practice at Koronis. I caught lots of fish, but size was an issue. Although I have a pretty good idea where I can get into them on game day.

I also took part in the Gopher Bassmasters Junior tournament on Lake O'Dowd, in Shakopee, MN. I drew Zach as my partner and we had a fun day. We missed a lot of fish but still had a respectable day besides. After the tournament, I went back out on the lake to work on some summer patterns, preparing myself for some upcoming tournaments that I know could potentially have me doing some heavy vegetation fishing. I found some nice clumps of a certain vegetation (which will remain un named for the fisheries sake) and started flipping a pegged 3/4 oz. Tru Tungsten Flippin' Weight, with a 5/0 Reaction Innovations BMF Hook, and texas rigged a YUM Big Show Craw (Black and Blue). It did not take very long and I was lipping a near six pound largemouth. Man does it get any better than that? That is what I live for. I also was able to catch a 4, a couple 3's, and a handful of 2's, duplicating the same pattern. Heavy flippin' is a style that I really enjoy fishing. It seems that I catch BIGGER fish when employing that technique. This is something you will hear a lot more from me as the year goes by.

**From left to right: Myself and a Tanker Green Lake Smallmouth, and Myself with a near six pound Twin Cities Largemouth

This weekend I will be in the Willmar area fishing two tournaments with the Gopher Bassmasters on Lake Koronis and than Green Lake. I would like to do real well in these events because next month we will be fishing Lake Minnetonka and that is a lake I have a lot of confidence on. After that I will be heading right up to the Whitefish Chain to start practicing for an upcoming BASSMASTER Weekend Series event. After taking a respectable 6th place on the first event on Le Homme Dieu, I am going to be putting in as much practice and research as I can, to make sure I do real well on the Whitefish Chain.

Also recently I did a Pod Cast interview for Bass Fishing in the Midwest, which can be heard on either Bass Fishing in the Midwest, or on iTunes. The subject in which I was interviewed was on practice and pre tournament strategy. Be sure to check it out and leave any feed back for me at Josh@JoshDouglasFishing.com.

Until next time, Tight Lines!

BASSMASTER Weekend Series Tournament

Le Homme Dieu Chain, Alexandria, MN

Today was the Start of the BASSMASTER Weekend Series, put on by B.A.S.S. and ABA. This is the first of five events with a guaranteed five grand payout for first. I was also able to get out and practice yesterday and had some success despite the massive storm front that rolled in. According to the Weather Channel we had some gust blow over 40 mph. Despite the wind and rain, my pattern that I had developed last weekend during practice was still holding up strong. I usually try not to actually hook the fish in practice especially the day before the tournament, however, I do a couple just to verify that one they're bass and two, check their size. My first bite of the morning hailed a five and a half pound largemouth. Cool but not so cool at the same time. It was nice to see that I was on some tankers but was hard accepting that it was only practice and not the tourney itself. What do you do?

I drew boat number 18 for takeoff and was third in the second flight. I headed straight to one of my best stretch of banks and instantly started going to work throwing a 3/8 oz. Amp Lures Musashi spinnerbait (Sweetfish). I quickly caught a 12" squeaker that got the skunk out of the boat. It wasn't the size I was looking for but none the less, it was a start. About a half hour later and a little further down the stretch I caught a pretty nice fish that was between 2.5 and 3 pounds. This fish was a nice Le Homme Dieu keeper but I noticed it was bleeding pretty good from the gill. I decided to keep the bass even though I was worried about it dying on me. A dead fish penalty carries a .25 lb. penalty on your total weight and it's against tournament law to release a dead fish. An hour later I caught another 12 inch keeper and when I put in it the livewell I noticed the injured fish was floating, still alive but in real rough shape. I instantly added Rejuvenade to the livewell water in hopes to give the bass the kick it needed to live. Not to jump ahead but that fish was by far the most liveliest bass at weigh in. I knew for sometime that Rejuvenade was a good product, but good is an understatement. It's great! Any tournament angler should have a bottle in their boat. Not only did it save me a couple ounces at weigh in but more importantly it benefits the health of our fish. With how much we enjoy the sport of tournament fishing we owe it to the fish to make sure to take good care of them.

Back to the tournament, I was able to put together a limit rather quickly in the morning. I was moving water throwing an Amp Lures Midshooter crankbait (bluegill) and a Amp Lures Musashi Spinnerbait (sweetfish), and then would target isolated cover with a jig, a 3/8 oz jig for semi deeper water and a 1/4 oz. for the real shallow clean areas. I was convinced going into today that the bass would hold of on the first deep ledge and then as the afternoon approached they would move up shallow. I had the game plan of following this pattern and relying on the bite to get better as the afternoon wore on. At one point I came across a boat dock and I could see 6 or 7 bass holding underneath it. Most weren't even 10 inches but I kept getting glimpses of a pretty nice fish. After taking a few shots under the dock I managed to catch a couple but they weren't big enough to cull. I decide to come around the dock and pitch my jig from the backside. I watched as two juvenile bass fought for my jig and purposely didn't set the hook. Suddenly I saw the three pounder fly in and snatch the bait away from the other two. This proved to be effective as I was able to cull out a one pounder for a three. As I was pulling away from the dock I spotted another three pound bass cruise from deep water straight under that same dock. I instantly turned the boat around and skipped back under the dock and instantly set, culling away another little twelve incher. Now I knew I was in pretty good shape although I still had a 13" bass in the well. An hour later and I was able to set the little guy free and replace him with one that was about 2 lbs. Not huge but could prove to be critical.

At weigh in I brought 12.36 lbs. to the scales that ended up good enough for a solid 6th place finish. I was one big fish away from a top three but I just never really got that big bite when I really needed it. Which just made that five pounder from practice a little harder pill to swallow. That aside I was very content with my finish. I walked away with a pretty nice paycheck, sitting in great shape for the divisional tournament on Kentucky Lake, in Tennessee, and gave myself a boat load of confidence. No pun intended. This confidence is going to be very important on assuring I do well in the next four events.

Well from here my schedule only gets more hectic. I have a an all day guide trip tomorrow and then will be going directly from that to meeting my buddy Ryan Brant for some evening practice on Lake Minnetonka to prepare for the Denny's Wednesday Night Shootout. This weekend I will be heading out to Green Lake in Spicer, MN, preparing for an upcoming tournament and then will be coming back to do a Gopher Bassmasters youth team tournament in Shakopee, MN. As I said, hectic but fun doesn't even begin to describe it!

BASSMASTER Weekend Series - Le Homme Dieu Chain Practice

I made it up to the Le Homme Dieu Chain in Alexandria, MN. Being that I had never fished this chain before, I put in a lot of extra preparation and research. I knew who and what weights had won in past years. I knew this chain was notorious for its massive weedlines and clear water. I also did some serious map work to better acquaint myself with this body of water. I obviously take my tournaments very seriously but these BASSMASTER Weekend Series tournaments I take especially serious. Besides the guaranteed five grand their giving out for first place, there's also the fact that I can qualify for regionals on Kentucky Lake, TN. Doing well at the regional tournament can put you into contention for the BASSMASTERS Classic or maybe even the Elite Series. Also Tennessee is where my wife Bri and I want to soon move. Tennessee is a beautiful area and better yet it's smack dab in the heart of bass fishing. I love tournament fishing and guiding. Here I'm restricted to six months fishing and six months of ice covered hog heavens. Also being that I plan to start fishing more tournaments at the national level, it will put us in a more central location. And in addition, on the record, Bri and I hate winter! So doing well at the first event of the series is on high priority for me.

Arriving at Le Homme Dieu I decided to launch on the North end of Lake Carlos and instantly starting moving water with a 3/8 oz. Amp Lures Musashi Spinnerbait (Sweetfish). I was targeting some wind blown reeds and was catching fish left and right but none of substantial size. This chain is known for its numbers of bass but lacks a little on the size. Not that there isn't any brutes but they're a little harder to track down. I also caught a couple in between boat docks in about 3 feet of water on a 5" Basstrix Paddle Tail Tube (Chartreuse Blue), rigged with a 5/0 Gamakatsu 1/8 oz weighted wide gap hook. I expected the bite on these swimbaits to be a massive explosion but was surprised to find it kind of like a worm bite. I would be reeling in slow and suddenly feel a slight "tick" in the line and the hook set was awesome. I searched out some other areas and found fish that didn't carry much weight and I missed a couple around boat docks with a 3/8 oz. Ten K Jig (green pumpkin). I noticed that because of our extremely late Spring this year the weedline hasn't had the weather to really bloom. I tried fishing some of the areas that looked good on the map but only caught small ones and really felt that the weedline may actually not be the ticket this year. I noticed the water temp was in the mid 60's but remembered when I was doing some internet research a day or two before that the lake was only in the very high 50's then. So I figured that the majority of the fish were still well in the pre spawn pattern. Knowing that since the water was very clear the shallower water would warm the quickest and decided to head there. I threw a lot of baits but caught some quality fish under boat docks and tree laydowns on the jig. They were few and far between but at the end of the day my best five would have weighed over 17 lbs. Looking back as far as I could only a handful of people have needed more than that to win a tournament here. This was by no means tournament conditions but it definitely gave me some confidence to build on.

Since I'm on this topic, last week I did a Pod Cast interview on tournament preparation and practice for Bass Fishing in the Midwest and it should be airing soon. I will post links to it as soon as it is available. Check back soon!

Minnesota Bass Opener - Big Bag Challenge

Minnesota Bass Opener 20+ Challenge, MN Opening Weekend Celebration Challenge, Minnesota Opener Big Bass Challenge, these were just some of the many names that buddy Rich Lindgren and I came up with for the prestigious title to our day on the water. Being that we are both very competitive tournament anglers, it was only necessary for us to come up with some sort of challenge. We decided that instead of making it a head to head competition that we would take on Mother Nature as a team. The challenge was a testy one at that. We set a very lofty goal of our top five bass for a total weight of 20 lbs. We set our sight at a small South metro lake that has a reputation of coughing up some real lunkers.

We arrived at the boat ramp at about 8 a.m. and decided to run some shallow water. Being that it has been a very cold Spring we figured the bass would be in a nice pre spawn mode or possibly even sitting on beds. This posed a nice challenge because living in Minnesota we both don't get to many opportunities to practice catching fish on beds. Usually the spawn is pretty much wrapped up by the time bass opener comes around. After a few casts of a spinnerbait with no success I switched to a weightless texas rigged 4" Bass Pro Shops Tube (Clear), and and started pitching it to any open spots between the thick vegetation. We came across a bed that was sitting behind a boulder. I quickly skipped my tube to the bed and instantly got bit. Unfortunately on the hook set my fluorocarbon leader snapped right at the knot. I decided that I was going to try to use a different set up for the day. Almost always I would throw a weightless tube on a casting outfit, especially when around vegetation, but I thought I would try something new. I see a lot of guys do this and thought maybe I should see for myself what, if any, the benefit was. So far, I see none. Rich spotted the fish that broke my line and commented on how big it was. As I retied my line, Rich took a couple cracks at it with no success. We decided to fish on and come back later in the day. We were on a time crunch and were only giving ourselves 6 hours to boat 20 pounds. No time to mess around on a 4 pounder with a sore lip.

We continued to move water, staying very shallow. We saw a lot of nice bass cruising but quickly found out that if we saw the fish it was to late to catch them. They were very skiddish. We came to a tiny inlet and Rich quickly boated another keeper that went about 2 lbs. Nice fish but not what we needed to fulfill our task at hand. Just after he threw the fish in the livewell he set on a real nice fish, only to loose her at the boat. We definitely were making this hard on ourselves. We knew we were on the right pattern to boat some big ones, but were not going to get there fishing the way we were.

As we continued on, we quickly put together a limit of fish weighing about 9 pounds. Rich was catching his on a 4" Lake Fork Tackle Ring Fry (Green Pumpkin) and I was getting mine on the same Bass Pro Shops Tube. I cast my tube to a nice laydown and as I was quickly reeling in to make another cast a big bass exploded on the bait, missing all together. Rich seeing this quickly pitched the Ring Fry to the ripples and next thing you know has a nice 4 pound fish! Now things are starting to look up. That was perfect team work and we were going to need that kind of action to push the scales past 20. Shortly after that I caught a nice one out of the lily pads that went about 3 pounds. The pads lead to a nice point that met up with all sorts of different vegetation like milfoil, cabbage, pads, and scum. My experience tells me that these types of places hold nice numbers of fish. The good thing was I was right on, the bad thing was I hooked and lost four nice fish in a row. Needless to say this ended my spinning rod extravaganza! I think that the spinning rod is a good bet in open water or rocky areas, but it just proved to not have the muscle in the weeds. I switched to a G Loomis 7' MH IMX casting rod, paired with a Shimano Curado BSF reel, and 15 pound Seaguar Fluorocarbon Line. I also made the change to a texas rigged Lake Fork Ring Fry (Green Pumpkin) and added a Tru Tungsten Force Bead (Black) for just a little added weight. First cast with the new set up and I added another nice 3 pounder to the livewell. You live to learn!

With only a couple hours to go we were sitting pretty good. We had roughly 5 fish for 14 pounds. We continued to catch fish, culling maybe an ounce here and there and then Rich catches a good 'un that was roughly 5 pounds. She was definitely all spawned out but had the mouth of a six pound fish. That was a good cull. Now we were sitting at roughly 17 pounds and were itching to blast a big one and exceed our mark. Further down the stretch and I boated another three pounder to cull away our last two pound fish. Sitting with roughly 18 pounds we decided to hit the main lake and throw some bigger baits for a giant. I started throwing a Basstrix Paddle Tail Tube (Yellow Perch) and a Sumo Frog (Black). Rich busted out a Tru Tungsten Swimbait (Bluegill) and a Ima Shakr Crankbait (Matte Bluegill). To be honest the first 20 minutes were spent admiring the action of the TT Swimbait. It's AWESOME! It even does a 180 when stopped. After we finally got back on track Rich caught a couple on the Ima and I caught one on the Sumo Frog. No takers on the swimbaits. Our total weight was 18.4 pounds. Not a bad sack at all. We were on BIG bite away from hitting that huge goal.


**From left to right: Myself and Rich with some of our bigger ones

So far this year has been a great one. I have been doing a lot of fishing preparing for upcoming tournaments and have also been staying busy guiding. I will be spending all this weekend practicing for the upcoming Weekend Series tournament held at the Le Homme Dieu Chain of Lakes in Alexandria, MN. I will give a full report of my practice and tournament results as soon as I get back. Here are some pictures showing off some of the giants starting out an already awesome season. If interested in going out on a fully guided bass trip please feel free to contact me aJosh@JoshDouglasFishing.com.

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!!