Ikeslayer's outdoors blog

been a while

2012-01-26T12:39:00.001-08:00

It has been a while since a blogged but I just wanted to let anyone that may be following that I am still out here – I might be doing less blogging for a while as the wife has gone back to school and therefore I have gotten reacquainted with the washing machines in the house. This doesn’t leave a lot of time for frilly things like blogging but I will throw things up here from time to time. Below is the club schedule and my thoughts on each event.

May 19 – Pools 5 and 5a Mississippi River – I personally like the river and I feel like every other year we can have a riverish type of year on the calendar. So this year is one of those riverish types of years where we go there 3 times – but it is all good because overall it saves us money as anglers – and I am all about that. As far as this event – I am not sure how things will play out this spring – it could be a wack fest as we have had virtually no snow and what we have had is melting slowly. I expect most of our club will fish this event and some solid weights will be caught – I won’t be happy until I stick 20lbs then I might have a chance.

June 16 – Pool 4 Mississippi River – It will be fun again to do a river event – I have had very little experience in the month of June on the river – Probably because our club usually goes somewhere else for the June tourney and that is where I focus my efforts. However I imagine most fish will be far from spawning and will start heading to summer places depending on flow and heat – also the frog might start to play and that fun.

July 16 – Prior lake – I have never sampled the waters of prior – I imagine it will fish like many metro lakes with weedlines being the key as well as maybe some docks playing a role at times… I like new lakes and this one should be fun as rumor has it that Prior will throw you the occasional toad.

August 13th – Waconia – This lake has always been good to me but to really honest it is not my favorite – sure it is fun to figure them out and go and wack them and you always have a chance for a true toad on Waconia but it is boring to pitch a texas rig all day and I think that is what has won it most of the time on that lake … at least for our club this time of year.

September 22-23 – club 2 dayer – TBD - my guess is we will be going to 2013 state waters unless it is the river then we might chose somwhere else.

October 13 – Pool 6 Mississippi river – I am probably most excited about this one because the river is on fire every year in the fall – it would be fine with me if we fished the first and the last tourney each year on the river. I hope the smallies are rockin spooks by this time of year still as that is an absolute blast to catch them that way.

over 2 months

2011-09-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

I haven’t posted in some time and most of it has been due to fishing or working but now that fall has come things have slowed a bit – I think pictures speak best.

4lb 1 oz on a river2 sea dahlberg frog

A couple of smallies

One my wife caught on a wake bait that I will let you guess how big it is

And the biggest of 7 fish I caught on a frog in about 10 minutes – quite a flurry.

And then I don't know what this flathead was thinking eating a kvd 1.5 but he choked it - 20lbs 13 oz

winning bag on silver lake i may blog this later

More fun fishing

2011-07-11T21:45:00.001-07:00

Saturday marked a day of fun fishing with Mark whom I met last year as I was lucky enough to draw mark for the state tournament on lake Minnetonka – he was up to his dirty tricks again of the deep. Mark is a connoisseur of fishing the deep rock on metro lakes, he is truly the Jigaissance man . He has been learning the tips and trick of it for years and it is definitely his strength. I learned much by watching – things that will help me as the years go on. He about has the fish tied up on this particular lake as he knew exact what land marks to cast and where to hold the boat – the action started slow as My first fish of the day was this slaunchy 5lb walleye ate the football jig. Mark said that was to be expected as the fish didn’t really turn on til after 9 he thought. And in fact it was at 9 we boated the first 4lber of the day shortly after catching the 4lber pictured I caught one more that was right at the 4lber mark as well – But promised mark I wouldn’t make him take another picture unless is was over 5.. Long story short we caught several fish all day and the smallest was a little over 2lbs – our best 5 together would have been somewhere around 18. I tried to make those rock fish eat a crankbait and I finally got one that was over 5 in fact it was about 12lbs so I made Mark snap one more picture. A great day of fishing it had quality fish and quality company.

For fun

2011-06-30T10:54:00.000-07:00

Made it out Tuesday afternoon for a boat experiment – I needed to do some prop testing and regain some confidence in my motor as I had it cut out on me completely the last time I went fishing. After a few short runs up and down the lake I had about 40 minutes left to fish and only 2 were brought to the boat but one being this 3lbs 11 oz which is a giant for the lake zumbro in the summer. It ties my biggest out there

Lake winona RABT

2011-06-06T07:37:00.000-07:00

We kicked off the Rochester Area Bass Tour on Wednesday June 1 – we had a good showing of 9 boats and off we went – Team domination station or Mike and Ike or me and Idso ended up winning it but it started out slow. We started shallow on inside weedlines and managed one 12 inch fish – however the bluegills were there in full force spawning and I thought the fish would be there – (on a side note if someone wanted to go down there and load the boat with 10 inch gills it could be done in very short order). We fished that for an hour and then decided to head outside of the weedline – I marked a spot on the way to our starting spot where the contours looked promising. I started cranking and caught a walleye and idso poked a short fish on a beaver almost immediately. We gave this area a little more time and with nothing to show for it but bluegill pecks I then resorted to a jig worm just to see if anything was there. After a short time I felt something that was little more that a gill ripping on the tail – set the hook and immediately I saw that it was a good one – with some mad netting skills by Idso and she was in the well and nearly 4lbs!!! With 2 hours to go I knew if we could get a few more of those we would be right there – we made a small move of about 100 yards up the weedline and I got no more tugs on the jig worm and so I picked up the dropshot and cast to some of the stuff I had already fished after about 20th cast it felt heavy and the fight was on with another superior net job it was another 4lber in the boat. This one would’ve probably weighed 5 a week ago but she was very skinny from spawning. I made repeated casts to that same spot and caught yet another 4lber on the dropshot – this one was netted in mid-air as the dropshot came out of her mouth but my net man was there to tennis racket her out of the air!!!! So what if we hugged. We spent the next hour in the area with only small fish to show for it – so with 15 minutes left to go we went shallow – I threw a buzzbait over and around sunfish spawning beds and about 5 casts in had a giant blowup and the fight was on and there it was a chunky 3 ½ pounder!!!!! I kind of thought at this time we probably had it locked up but you never know in Lake Winona as the quality on this lake is at times staggering. We did indeed win with 15.5lbs and however we were not big bass winners as that went to Brent and Todd for bringing in a 5.3
slaunch donkey!!!! Next RABT is June 29th on Chester woods. Hope we have another good showing. sorry for the grainy cellphone picture

Overal the report was the that fishing was slow - usually lake winona is on fire in june but we were probably a bit early as this spring has been cold and wet. there were some nice fish caught throughout the night though.

Club tourney report

2011-05-25T09:04:00.000-07:00

Well it is long overdue for a report and I have much to report!!! I took some time off of work recently and did quite a bit of fishing on the might miss. I figured out several things in preparation for the first club tourney. The first was – I couldn’t catch any smallies of any size. The second was since the tourney was I pools 7 and 8 I wanted to rule out one pool or the other – since fishing seemed more consistent on pool 7 I focused my time there (that and the day I fished 8 I caught nearly nothing). So off to pool 7 it was. I spent much time out there but it is such a big area I feel like I only scratched the surface – however I did learn that wherever you had current and hard/rocky bottom you caught fish. It was this patterned that seems to be always producing so I tried to find it in as many places as possible. The lure they seem to be eating was on what Kevin won the Classic on and since I only had 2 I fished look alikes until the time of the tourney because I had already lost the lure twice to Pike and found it floating on the surface a short time later. Here is a picture of a 4lber that was caught – (I never knew a 4lber could look so small but when the guy holding it is over 6’5” its understandable.)

Tourney day – this particular day I had the pleasure of fishing with Josh Kepp. From the sounds of things Josh had found some fish on Pool 8 and we were going to hit his fish first and then most likely lock through to 7. Well stuff happens – when Josh put his boat in the water that morning he found that his engine would only idle and was taking the gas when he gave it the gas – so we ended up fishing for a couple hours near the ramp I managed to boat two keepers and dropped a 3rd at the side of the boat – needless to say with Josh having a heavy heart about his motor troubles his mind wasn’t in it yet at this point. So we trailered the boat to a nearby marine mechanic – What we didn’t know is they were a Mercury dealer and since Josh had an Johnson/Evinrude they weren’t much help – in fact we found the loose connection while sitting in their parking lot waiting for help. Then it was back on the water. When we got back on the second time Josh was a whole new man knowing that he wasn’t going to have to pay thousands to have a motor repaired. We went to his primary area and we immediately started to catch fish – lots of fish and lots of different kinds of fish. The fish were absolutely choking down the crankbaits, we caught a lot for numbers but there was some size too. After it slowed down a bit we tried a couple other areas nearby just to give it a rest and then we were back at the primary area again. They were still there and they were still eating decently. We played this game and sat in this place for most of the remainder of the day – we only hit one other area to speak of which landed me one good one. At the end of the day some of the current had subsided and the shad were no longer being pushed – This is when Josh caught a few of his better fish on a deeper diving crankbait, which I didn’t have any with (such is the life of a back boater)
All in all a pretty good tourney – I didn’t loose any fish that would’ve made the weigh in team and whenever you can recover from adversity and have a good showing it certainly helps. I ended up placing 11th out of 20 some and Josh who weighed in a little more than a pound than me ended up in the top 5 – weights were tight and overall it sounded like most guys had a solid tourney.

River report

2011-04-26T13:06:00.000-07:00

Made it down for a day on the water last Monday and fishing was ok – started out in some back water areas in the winona area – only to have come up with 2 baby ones by lunch – then time for a move – off to the lacrosse area – where I have a tourney in a couple weeks to start poking my nose in places. What I found most surprising was not the high water (which was to be expected) but was the clarity – even though the water was high I could see my lure 2-3 feed down and for the river that is amazing clarity this was not on the main channel of course this was in the back waters. I found a few fish that were willing to bit and they weren’t bad sized either. I think things are just a few warm days from being an onslaught of a slaughter.

ZVBM Schedule

2011-03-07T06:23:00.000-08:00

Pools 7-8 – Pretty pumped about this one – Of course we may have some huge floods this spring it could make it tough but I feel like I have chance on the river especially these pools as many of our guys have only fished there when our club goes there – I feel like I learned quite a bit last spring on the river and have a decent clue of what to look for on the river in the spring. I am most likely going to try and target smallies because they grow big on the ol Miss and this time of year they are vulnerable and easy to get to bite if you can find them.

June 18 big marine – Kind of excited about this one – but pull out the spinning gear – my guess is everything will be post spawn and be relating to weed edges – I expect d.shots and jig worms to play key in this one but I will see if I can catchem turning the handle as well – probably will take 12-13 to win it with a mythical 15.

July 18 – Medicine – this one is an up and coming tourney lake for clubbers – it has been getting attention from many locals the last few years as being a lake with some slobs and the word has gotten out. I expect it to be pushing high teens for weights and probably off shore. (after last week’s club meeting there is talks of switching this tourney with Clearwater which wouldn’t hurt my feelings as I am not really looking forward to hitting up Clearwater in the fall – not that the fishing can’t be good but this lake will get plenty of duckin pressure and I know we will be driving home in the dark if we wait til fall to fish this one.

Aug 15 – Tonka – I would love to be able to fish this one as I think I could be a contender on Tonka after being shown a few things last year at state. This one will be one deep and could even be won crankin but I assure you a dock fish or two will be weighed in as well. A great time of year for Tonka

Fish hook – long – Really excited that I our club is going to these lakes as I have quite a bit of experience on them and like to fish them both. This is also over my birthday so I should do really good right?? I look forward to these events to say they least (UPDATE : Just found out that I have a wedding I will be in attendance on Saturday night – so the twodayer is not looking so good right now)

Clearwater – I have always wanted to fish this lake but now this will give me good reason to. I have seen the weights the last couple years and they are on the rise – I hope I can figure something out as it is a pretty big piece of water – we shall see – I have no preconceive thoughts or notions for this lake. I do know that if our club sticks with their decision to fish it in the fall that many of the reed points will be covered in duck hunters and that means some prime shorelines will be covered up until about 10. I am happy we are fishing it but I wish we would have done it on a year where gas is not suppose to be 5 dollars a gallon!!!

for all the results as the year goes on click here

KVD wins it

2011-02-21T05:38:00.000-08:00

It is like Aaron Martens said - "he is on a whole different level than the rest of us... he seams to be a lot better than us... and if it weren't for him I would have 2 classic wins now."

look at that intensity
Job well done

Nice commercial, rap song thingy, and classic links

2011-02-16T14:16:00.000-08:00

a few too OMG's for me but i got excited

also i will post some helful classic links as i find them - it seems like bassmaster site has become a bit a of a maze to find what you are looking for.

basscam-

Bass trakk

BassCast

Hooked up

Live real time leaderboard

Super tuning

2011-02-14T12:36:00.000-08:00

I have been hearing some hype about super tuning so I decided to blog about it but really I am just going to send you to a link - I will say that if winter never existed neither would supertuning
Super tuning

update

2011-02-07T09:31:00.000-08:00

so obviously it has been like 2 months since i blogged and the number 1 thing on my christmas list (for those of you waiting in suspense) was a humminbird SI unit. And since i didn't get one for Christmas - it will pain me tooooo much to talk about the perks of something i don't have - so as you are getting ready for sping to come - i give you a video posted by basspundit but it is good

"Bass Life" - The Film from Proof, Inc. on Vimeo.

its good - and the classic is coming so that will help do - i will try and blog about a recent smallie trip that i just went on when i get some time. laters

Christmas list 4, 3 and 2

2010-12-22T09:54:00.000-08:00

Number 4 – Biosonix – So just in case you don’t know what this is, it is a speaker that goes in the water that has fish sounds on it. Normally I don’t think this would help a whole lot in the upper Midwest due to most of the sounds on here are shad sounds but we do have gaggles of shad on the river especially in the fall. This one makes the wish list but really I would just like to try it out for a season on the Mississippi river here in se MN – however I have hear from far too many elite guys, guys that aren’t even sponsored by them that they are worth every cent and fellas that don’t have them regretting that they don’t.

Number 3 – Shimano Caenan – so I have heard some mixed reviews on this one but after doing my homework they are basically a Curado in disguise. They do have some cheaper plastic parts but as far as fishabilitiy, castability and Shimano smoothness it is all there. And for the price WOWZAS – I think we owe Skeet Reese a thank you as to he was one of the first pros to make a push towards more economical rods and reels. Again I don’t have one of these (yet) but would love to get one to try them out as they seem they are going to be great - Mr. Mercer says it well below!!

Number 2 – Livewell renovation – I own a 86 champion fish and ski and it is great the only problem with old boats like that are for a short time they thought it was a good idea to but livewells in the front and in back of the boat – like his and hers, however what they discovered is that they are fish killers – if you actually use the front livewell there is good chance you kill them due to concussions of waves and if you use the back livewell it is just to small to put more than about 5 bass in it. So what I would really like is to get some custom livewell work done so that way I can have a livewell big enough to hold 10 fish of good size. I have looked up the custom livewell guys and they are Minnesota based and I will be giving them a try.Last season as badly as i hate to admit it I had my livewell fail the first tourney of the year and it cost me the win!! that won't be happening this year. CUSTON LIVEWELLS

Check back tomorrow as you will here my side or get an image of what is number 1 on my List

Christmas list 7,6 and 5

2010-12-13T09:24:00.000-08:00

Number 7 – Mudhole gift cards – Well this one may not apply to everyone but it sure will to me and many other rod makers. Due to a friends generosity I have recently acquired many rod blanks for a cheap price and now I need to put guides and reel seats and handles on all of them – although it may seem inexpensive to do all those little guides really add up. Also I need to make my kids a rod a piece as well. So a Mudhole gift card gets the nod from this guy.

Number 6 – Life Jacket – I could use some life jackets that are not so bulky like the self inflatable or automatic life jackets like the Mustang brand ones. Although I could never see myself splurging on the money and getting one for myself I certainly and many other bassers would agree wouldn’t turn down this gift. I don’t have a ton of storage in my boat so having these little devils would sure be helpful.

Number 5 – Jackplate – although I haven’t done my homework on this product I could see a good need for one on everyone’s boat but especially mine. When I am running the champion I shoot a huge rooster to get maximum speed that means my efficiency probably sucks and I am wasting energy shooting all that water in the air. Also it would be nice to have one because many times I am running skinny water on the Miss. River and I have heard from many river rats that they couldn’t live without theirs, as well as many other people so its

christmas list number 8

2010-12-06T08:01:00.000-08:00

These videos are great, they are a little repetitious in style but it is fast action and good info. I own one of the seasons and have looked at buying this four pack several times but will probalby hold off because I have some rods I need to make this winter and have plenty of fishing videos to watch to pass the time. The only downside sometimes to these movies is the Rick Clunn part. He is a fantastic fisherman don’t get me wrong – but I am not much for his zen stuff and rythms and stuff, but that’s my preference.

Christmas list 10 and 9

2010-12-04T06:02:00.000-08:00

This will be the beginning of a series – I will shoot to get a list done of top 10 gifts for a bass guy or at least this bass guy

Number 10 - Power Pole – I realize this one is a stretch for many people’s budgets (mine included) but man these things are the deal. Even for fishing offshore I have been told that they are excellent at slowing a drift and if they can reach weeds they will hang up on the weeds really good. After watching the video this one is self explanatory.

Number 9 - This one is for anyone who loves a little top water but as Bub explains this frog [transporter frog(transporting from the mat to the weighing)] was made to be a multi-faceted tool. The fact that the frog has ‘walking’ action or a side to side sashay without trimming anything is a plus. Also it has the ability to plop and spit is a bonus and after him showing in the tackle warehouse video how the hook is exposed from no matter which way a bass hits it and the fact that the hook is pointed up and not forward had got to help with hooking percentage.
Tacklewarehouse website doesn't have a embed feature so here is the link
http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/vlogpage.html?ccode=VLOG115

Waconia Tournament

2010-12-02T20:12:00.000-08:00

Tournament morning and I was pumped to go. I was lucky enough to have my good chum Idso in the boat with me as I didn’t draw a non-boater. I was one of the later boats in the draw and as I headed to my first reed spot I could see to other boats heading to the general area. As I approached the spot I could see a fellow club member dropping his t-motor right where I was going to start. So I went to the other end and started working it towards him. Anyway after fishing the entire sweet spot of the reeds I didn’t even get a nudge and neither did the other boat fishing the area. I knew the right fish were in the area so I thought that maybe the fish pulled out of the reeds as to the recent fishing pressure and cool nights. So I made my way towards the inside weed edge fan casting a sexy sunfish redeye shad. As I hit the first weeds I hooked up with a small bass. I also caught one on the very next cast but it was another shaver. Then on a long cast down the weed edge I hooked up with a good one. It was nearly three pounds and my first fish in the box. After casting the red eye many more times it came up fruitless and in that amount of time the water had slicked off and the wind had completely died. After giving it sometime in the area I thought that about this time the dock bite was maybe heating up. We moved to the docks and I caught 2 small keepers on the first two docks after running the next 8 docks fruitless and the wind had picked up I moved back out to the offshore. I thought I would try some deeper edges just to see – after wasting an hour out there I head back to the only area I caught a good one. I tried the reeds again and went way inside the reeds. I flipped a jig into about 18” of water and got a good thump I reared back and boat flipped yet another 3lber. After trying to make more out of the shallow bite than what was there we headed back off shore to the inside weed edge after pitching Texas rigs in the foil I connected with a good one – not quite three pounds. It was at this point when I had realized that maybe I should have never left this section of weeds. I fish it nearly the rest of the day boating a constant amount of fish all over 2lbs but most being shy of 3. At one point the wind picked up and it started to rain it was at this point that the wind switched and I fished the sweet spot in the reeds from a different angle than had up to this point and it paid off. I caught a real good one and to be honest I had no idea how big it was. It was an odd shaped fish and the first half of the fish was inordinately large but then it tapered quickly and was actually quite short. In fact at weigh in the fish was reweighed several times because the weighmaster though for sure it weighed more than the 4.5 it was showing. After I caught the big one there was only half hour left in the tourney and although I caught fish none of them helped. I was one of the later boats to weigh in and ended up with a little over 15 pounds and it was good enough for second place in the tourney. And congrats to Jeff on 1st place – my suspicions were correct – he found a spot similar to mine and just sat on it all day and mined it for all it was worth – which is probably what I should’ve done. I ended up weighing 3 fish on a ½ Texas rigged craw tube and 1 on a jig and 1 on the red eye. I don’t have any regrets and it was great that my home work paid off and it was fun when an on the water adaptation worked. I don’t consider myself much of a fall angler so this was a shot in the arm for my fall fishing confidence.
I will post soon next year’s schedule as we have already picked locations.

sling shot

2010-10-25T09:28:00.000-07:00

I hunted squirrels several falls with these - guess I should have had this guy with

couldn't figure out how to imbed it so here is the link

Waconia Prefish

2010-10-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

Last tourney of the year and I wanted to do well as always but I needed to find some good fish to do it especially since it has taken as much as 20+lbs to win on fall tourney on Waconia. Typically there is usually a good shallow bite this time of year. Although I understand why the fish move shallow in southern impoundments I am not quite sure why it happens up north but I think it is for a few reasons – of which I won’t expound upon now.
So as I headed out for my pre-fishing endeavor I was going to look for shallow fish and for some good green weeds in 7-12 feet of water. I started shallow and found some fish in the shallow reeds almost immediately on the edge with a dt-6 and then on the best looking spot I flipped a jig into the reeds and it never hit the bottom and lifted a 3lb fish to the surface and on the next flip I hooked a 3lber and he wouldn’t let go so he made it into the Champ that made for about 6 bites in 200 yards. So I knew I was going to fish those reeds so I just left to go check docks.
I made it to the second dock and got bit and went to the second dock and got bit on that one too – I didn’t set the hook on either and just moved on. I tried for the next three hours to fish the deep stuff and never had a sniff. I could find lots of beautiful milfoil stuff that excites a guy but nothing not even a sunfish nibble. After that I drove around and looked at some stuff that I thought might play on tournament day and then I put the boat on the trailer.
Prefish Recap: I felt kind of weird only fishing for 5 hours but I didn’t want to burn any fish but I felt good about it what I found so why beat them up anymore than I needed to.

My favorite show

2010-09-16T14:00:00.000-07:00

Well I have been sneaking peaks at Zona’s show for several years now and since I don’t have Espn I have been waiting for this moment – Well now that Zona has a new show – His World’s greatest fishing shows are now out on his site in full episodes and no commercials so that is good – so I added the link to the list on the right – click and enjoy.
I just watched Zona and Kvd catch sharks that is a pretty good one.

WGFS-Shark Show with KVD from Mark Zona on Vimeo.

Mille lacs Muskie eats Parrot

2010-09-07T09:15:00.000-07:00

Well I am a couple months behind blogging but I will start with the most resent and then work backwards if time allows. I hope to blog more in the future but we are in the process of buying a house and my kids aren’t too big yet so sadly as they get older I will have less time with them.
So lets talk about mille lacs – I headed to mille lacs with long time friend Andrew – he and I have had the pleasure of spending much fishing time together and in more recent years our kids are pretty good chums so that brings us together more often than chasing scales. We have talked for a while about how it would be fun to chase some smallies on mille lacs – well we couldn’t have picked a worse weekend to go but we go when we can go – so we went. The big enemy on m.l. is always wind well with a front just moving through the area we were truly post frontal which meant bright blue skies and tons of wind –
Well on Monday morning we set our before the wind was too bad and we started on one of the many rock reefs – in hopes for some of the tanks smallies – I was throwing a dt-10 parrot and was getting hung every so often in the rocks but was always able to pop it out. At one point thinking I got another snag I went to bowstring it out and I felt it move and the fight was on – she came blasting out of the water and at that point I felt the need to name her because I figured she wouldn’t be on long with 14lb line and no leader – so from now on we called her Maggie – I fought her for quite some time and then with the help of Andrew we were able to boat her. I didn’t get a girth measurement but she was quite out of proportioned with her girth – she was quite meaty.
Well that was the first hour of the day and the rest of the day was a grind with the wind and we left m.l. about 4 for another lake – we only managed one fish pushing the 3lb mark. Even though we didn’t catch many smallies it was quite a memorable trip and I will be back for revenge on a more windless mille lacs this time.
On a side note Maggie was 49 inches long and somewhere around 20-25 inches in girth and that puts her right around the 30lb mark.

the little smallie of 3lbs - probalby an evening snack for maggie

Decent opener

2010-06-01T11:57:00.000-07:00

As we approached saturday morning there wasn't near the anticipation for bassin that there had been in years past. For those of you that follow my blog you know I have been basin for about 2 months now so there is not the edge there like there was a while back. I was attending Pine Haven Christian Assemblies family fishing weekend. I and good friend Ben hit the water on Saturday morning on one of Park Rapids finest lakes Long Lake. We hit the water with much anticipation and I believe it was been that was the first to get the skunk out of the boat. I was throwing a bluegill swim jig and was not getting as much as even a sniff. We hit some shallow areas however they had dropped nearly 10 degrees over night as we had some good lows in the North Country. We moved slightly off the bank and I began to throw a smithwick rogue around and was getting many followers and short strikers but no takers. When I decided to change colors to the size and color I wanted I didn’t have any. So as we headed to the bank with only about a Half dozen bass under our belts I was in store for a Wal-Mart run after breakfast. What I was needing was a good old f-13 rapala Black over silver. As I came back from Wal-Mart I tied one on while on shore and made a cast out to check the action and I immediately hooked up on one. As I went to take it off the little cracked out bass went nuts and stuck one of the hooks into my pinky as I held the entire weight of the bass on my littlest finger the hook was sunk to say the least – I took the bass off and there I was with a brand new rapala hanging from my finger. Luckily we had a guide at the camp and I thought he could help me out with getting it out. So I asked for his assistance to pull it out with the old string and pull trick and after help with some beefy braid and good tug, it was now just in my finger and hurting and I had some string attached to me. After having him tug I had my brother in law C-dub pull on it twice too and it was not coming out. So I drove myself to the Park rapids E.R. where they pulled it out and I had become the 5th victim of a fishhook that day that they had pulled out. After that fiasco there is only one thing that can cure a hurting hand and that is to get back on the water. So I went out and Ben and C-dub and I beat them up pretty good on jerk baits on wood catching nearly 30 in a couple hours before supper. Although I don’t have any fish pictures I do have this nice picture.

and for those of you who are thinking(oh man up and rip it out or just push it through neither of those were options as just ripping it would have left need for stitches and pushing it through was not an option on such a small gap treble hook) It was fun watching a pro doctor at getting fish hooks out though - he is good.

Club tourney full report

2010-05-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

Feeling slightly dehydrated and shaky I was ready to go. Having one spot and not the fastest boat in the club I figured I was in trouble. But like KVD says no sense in worrying about the things you cannot control. My Rock star guest in the boat today was Tim Allen. Tim is a good backseater and provides a decent amount of comedy for the day. As we left I had several other boats in front of me but all of them blew past it. As we set down I knew we had it all to ourselves. Tim actually started the day with a fish caught on a ring fry in some current. A decent 2lber and then he caught another one a little smaller. As I pulled into the bay all of the beds were looking empty. Until I got to one near a tree branch. As we got close the first time we were to close to her and she spooked off. I gave her some time to relock on her bed. As we came back through she was on her bed and wouldn’t take anything I threw at her. After several minutes of working her she eventually peeled off her bed and headed for the depths. Knowing exactly where she was now we let her rest from some time. As we came back in on the approach I finally broke down and decided to throw the magic senko at her. Staying a good 30 yards off of her I made a cast past where I knew she was and pulled it into her bedroom. As the coils of my line on the top of the water straightened out I knew this meant good things. I reared back and gave her the steal. After getting her in the net I was quite relieved. Going down the bank a little while more and I casted to what looked like a fishy spot. Only this time I was hanging over a dock. There again my line was running and as I reeled down my rod loaded up. It wasn’t until I gave Tim the rod kept my toes in the boat and leaned out on my belly did the fish finally make it into the net. At this point I know I am on pace but I am out of spawners in this bay. We revisited the bay many times through the day and there was only one other 3lb smallie that was in there and she would have no part of me. At about 11 o’clock Tim opened up the live well and said bad things. We had fish on their side. What I didn’t know is that my livewell had stopped working. My livewell never regained and I eventually would kill those two big smallies. I managed two other measuring largemouth and was actually disappointed I couldn’t scratch a limit, until I came into the docks and realized it was a pretty tough day for most of the guys. Well as it would go down my busted livewell would cost me the win. After the dead fish penalties I was in a tie for first and since the first tie breaker is most fish the win went to Todd. Congrats to him as he figured out something with the smallies as well. Overall there is a few things I could have done better but am pretty pleased with my first tourney in Beyonce the boat.

Special thanks to Mike M. For snapping a photo of the two dead beauties.

Club tourney practice

2010-05-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

To give you a little history of this tourney the last time we were on these pools at about the same time of year it took about 18 to win and last springs tourney on one of the overlapping pools took over 17 to win so I thought just for sure that I needed to catch 20 lbs to win. So I set out to find 4lbers this is not a change from most people we are all out to find the most biggest and it is just that easy right???? I really started prefishing for this tourney way back in November. Since I didn’t know pool 6 and I am not a big fan of locking unless necessary I went to work to find them. I thought about all the places they might be and I kind of ruled out smallies as they will break your heart it seems. So I searched every nook and cranny of where I thought largemouth would be. I came up nearly empty handed. What I had caught in practice was two 3lbers and A BUNCH of little green fish. I could seem to put anything together. So I went down the day before the tourney and I told my wife I would be home when I found the winning school of fish. I pulled into one very small area that I had seen a few smallies on the previous week but couldn’t tell how big or how many due to the rain we were fishing in. When I pulled into the area I saw only 6 fish occupying about 10 beds. From what I could see they were the right kind (4lbers) I wanted to see how they reacted to the bait and this is where I might have made a mistake. I for some reason pitched a Josh Nelson rig (drop shot) to one of the beds and that was stupid because you can’t shake them off of a drop shot. As I was watching one fish on a bed a bigger one came over and smashed it. After a few minutes of wrestling I felt good and bad having landed a solid 4lb smallie however I was afraid I had ruined it for myself. Also I figured other fellas had found this spot and if they were that aggressive the next day someone was going to win it here no problem. At this point I headed for home with a giant sinus headache and wasn’t even sure if I was going to fish since I spent a few trips to the porcelain bowl before 10 o’clock

Quick post

2010-05-19T11:16:00.000-07:00

So it has been a month since i have blogged and i have fished plenty in that month i will try and give the highlights in the next post but i did manage a near 1st in our first club event
http://www.zumbrovalleybassmasters.com/2010_Results.htm#Pool 5A & 6

Bass Cat

2010-04-21T09:36:00.001-07:00

ok so I am not biased upon really which boat I ride in but they really did their homework on this one and I bet it really scoots.

2010 BassCat Eyra from Bass East on Vimeo.

Quick big report

2010-04-12T09:43:00.000-07:00

Headed down to the river Sunday afternoon for a quick fishing experience with the family. Like many kids mind don’t want to spend the entire day doing it like dad so 4 hours or less is needed for our kids. We hit some back water areas that I have always thought would be good as I looked on a map over the winter. As we got into the area there was 2 other boats leaving – I didn’t know if this was a good sign or a bad sign. I started fishing a floating jerkbait as the sun was pounding and the water clarity was surprisingly good. After fishing down the bank I began to see plenty of shad which was encouraging. On one particular cast with I stopped jerking to help my wife or kid or something and as it was slick calm I wondered why I hadn’t seen the ripples of my jerkbait floating to the surface. And as I reeled down the rod bent over and it was on. I felt immediate good headshakes and I thought I had a good bass on. As it came up and gave me a good look I noted a nice white dot on the tail of what was suppose to me my nice bass. About 10 minutes before all this I asked my wife if she had brought the camera and she said, “That is your territory” and I replied with “good we didn’t bring it that means we will catch something picture worthy”. And indeed we did. After a short tussle and trying to find a place to grab the brute and not get trebles in my hand (because of course I didn’t have a net) I got her in. After a few cell phone pics and putting the scale to her I released her. She weighed 6lbs 1 oz. Unfortunately the kids zeroed and Joey gave it a solid hour of casting a beetle spin that I thought for sure he would at least get it stolen from a northern.

************** For all you river rats that know where it is because you fished there good for you. I didn't doctor the background because if you can figure it out good for you - just keep it to yourself :)

1st to bass outings

2010-03-22T08:57:00.000-07:00

Made it out 2 times this past week down to the miss river - where bass season NEVER CLOSES!!! – one day we had nice weather and cold high water the next outing we had cooler weather but better water conditions. On the second outing we managed one bass and had to break ice to get to it. I probably should be chasing walleyes but I would just much rather be catching bass even if it is less of them

Here is the picture of the one peanut we caught – it came on a jerkbait – and usually I am not much for doctoring pictures but the background of this picture was pretty much an address to where we were. I hope to get out one time this week but that might be a little optimistic. Best wishes to all those getting out and look out for all the debris and ice floaters!!!

Bassin season wrap up

2010-03-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well we finished the 09-10 bass season with a bang. Joining me on this trip were my posse Jeremy and Steve. We caught nearly 100 bass between the 3 of us and got our biggest as well – the honors of the day went to the red head in the bunch – and as one other friend always says – “he is good for 1 fish”. I am glad to see the snow going as I will be heading to the Miss river this weekend in hopes of landing more bass. I was originally going to chase walleyes for food fair but it doesn’t sound like they are really chomping so we will probably chase bass. Enjoy the pictures and more blogs to come soon.

As far as tactics tubes were still the deal - and unless you are the man that Steve is I suggest wearing chest waders because filling your knee highs full of water - well most aren't going to take it like the burly man Steve did.

Small rant – Why won’t espn unlock fantasy fishing – I wish they would show the bass man some love as they are the most loyal group of people you will ever meet. Sports team fans come and go but once a bass guy you are lifer – it gets in your blood and that is all you want to do. Also fantasy is treating me well this year as I 485th in the world right now - pretty good I think.

Knot wars

2010-03-02T20:59:00.000-08:00

So I know it is old news but I added Knot wars to the video list too. I won't ruin the end for you so you can see who beat last years champion the Palomar knot. If you want to watch them here they are.

Classic wrap up

2010-02-22T08:08:00.000-08:00

So the Classic is done - my favorite - KVD brought it home!!!! And by pounds not ounces - and speaking of KVD - he has got a new product out for the novice spinner baiter it is his spinnerbait chart. From what I can tell from the pictures it is everthing he teaches you in his spinnerbait techniques video but just the color and blade matching he goes through. I think it is a pretty slick idea. However even though it is a slick idea I personally think it is tough to make money on an idea because people will copy it and give it to friends.

Skeet AND Classic update

2010-02-19T04:53:00.000-08:00

Skeets got a couple more videos out, I particularly like the rawness of them. Just straight up Skeet not being P.C. and calling it like it is.

Day 2 tackle prep

Day 3 Practice

And although its not a video it is a guestimation of weights as they fish for he next couple days
BASSTrakk

Here is the hooked up Cam, although nothing is playing yet it will in good time

and don't forget BASSCast, Today we ride in the boat with Tak Omori and the Bach - Byron Velvick

Classic Video

2010-02-17T21:03:00.001-08:00

Keeping up with the video theme here is a good one from Skeet reese giving us his rundown on practice for the classic. As well as Basscam pimping everyone for practice information
Skeets video
Basscam

Feb 4th bassin again

2010-02-08T21:04:00.000-08:00

As we get closer to spring I still am trying to scratch my fishing itch. So we went back to the winter open water. This time I had the pleasure of fishing with Josh from our ZVBM club. We started out taking a long walk and Josh was the first to draw blood catching 3-4 out of a brush pile but they were just babies. As we moved on I started early getting a near 3lber on a mimic minnow, and followed it up shortly after with one that was over 3. I was pretty pumped and we were catching plenty of little bucks and Josh said, “let’s go find some bigger ones.” So we continued our walk. We got to an eddy with some good rocks and we started catching some 2lbers with consistency. Josh fishing and exposed hook most of the day had been fighting snags most of the day. He had broke some of but most of the time he was able to snap them out. However on one particular snag he tried to snap it out several time and after a dozen attempts at getting it out he bared down to break it off and what do you know a fish sucked it out of the snag. Josh went from pulling to snap it off to pulling into a fish’s mouth and a good one at that. This fish went nearly 4lbs and would have had she been full of food or eggs. She was good looking and made for a nice ending to the trip as we had to go shortly after. Although I think I caught more numbers josh got the biggun award of the day. It was a good time to fish with Josh and many stories were told along the way.

Josh even had time to work while we drove home - but yes I was a little scared when he drove with his eyes close

Jan 16th warm water bassin

2010-02-08T20:58:00.000-08:00

Jan 16th – We headed to our favorite open water winter time hole. We were in pursuit of smallies and we found them. I have never gone there and tried to catch number and I just wanted to catch as many fish as I could. Well between me and Idso we ended the day losing count at 70 bass but probably caught a few more than that. The biggest one was right around 3lbs. It took us until the last hour of the day to figure them out until that point we only had about 20 fish on the board and then in the last hour we stroked them. It was a blast and much needed during this Minnesota winter.

Boat driving video

2010-02-01T07:57:00.000-08:00

Although this isn't a video about boat driving the first 2 seconds of this video are a little scary. Check out all of it if you want but the first couple seconds are a little spooky.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid58375639001?bclid=58037943001&bctid=60230194001

And since it is a Flw video I also added them to the video list.

Niche?

2010-01-28T18:23:00.001-08:00

I may try and take on the blogging niche of having the links to all the best bassin videos on the web. There are a lot of them out there but a lot of them suck too. I personally really like videos that they do more teaching than fish catching. I have linked probably my top 3 right now.

Bass edge - pro quick tips seem to be good. Kurt dove and Travis Rulle seem to be my favorite tips - if there is a down side to this site is that they don't update it enough. I would like more often

Myoutdoortv.com - this is the heaven of fishing sites and hunting as well. For a guy like me that doesn't have TV. this is perfect. Not to mention they have Lindners angling edge - which for a north country boy like me is fantastic.

Bass insider - I think you may have to pay for this site - but I will let you know if they try to charge me in 30 days as I am on the free trial right now.

Honorable mention - Basspro library, tackle warehouse vlogs.

And since youtube is an obvious one I am going to try and not include it at all. Sure there will be some exceptions.

2010 elite changes

2010-01-11T23:04:00.000-08:00

A few changes I see are coming down the pipe in the elites in 2010 – the biggest shocker for me is Iaconelli’s change in rod and reel sponsor. He is now completely with pure fishing so he will be fishing Abu rod’s and reels instead of his signature series and steez reels. I would have a tough time with loyalty and turning my back on a company unless I was mistreated. Also Greg Hackney switched boats to Phoenix boats who are designed by the same guy that designed Champion boats back in the day. I guess they don’t kick a lot of boats out but a lot goes into them and I personally looked at their website and think their tackle storage is pretty snazzy. That is all for now. As this winter dwindles on I will give a full synopsis of my 3 days of riding with the pros last June. And I am hoping to Marshal again this year however I am on waiting list for Guntersville and I am currently number 47 which isn’t that good but considering I started as number 77 I guess that is good. I am call B.A.S.S. often and making a friend in the tournament department to see if she can pull some strings. I will not take no for answer. I also just read on Bassmaster.com that the elites will only be running 95 guys this year. Which I am sure the rest of the anglers don't mind but I bet B.A.S.S. would like there money. check back for updates as I am going to see if blogging gets us closer to spring any faster.

Off season sales

2009-12-22T12:59:00.000-08:00

I have been cruising some shopping boards lately and have found that bassboatcenral and bassresource to be excellent. They are well traveled and good deals on both. If you are looking to buy or sell fishing stuff these places are fantastic.

Thanks Dollar714

2009-12-11T14:57:00.000-08:00

Look at this sick playlist of oldschool bassmasters!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rj8ikTwgGkw&feature=PlayList&p=AF264DFCBD5E7FC9&index=0

End of the Boat season

2009-12-02T23:47:00.000-08:00

Well I finally started making preparations to put the boat away. But not before getting out a few more times on the 20th of nov. I got out with fellow Zumbro Valley bassmaster John stears - He showed me a thing or two about catching late season bass. We caught several large mouth and smallmouth and it was a very good day. John being a guide on the river fishes it often and he took most of the guess work out of it and he made it look easy. Something tells me John knows where these fish are from ice out to ice on because locating them was not even an issue. It was quite fun. I hit the winona area one more time on Turkey day just to say i did it and i came up empty handed oh well I still learned alot about where they might be come spring!!! And lastly if anyone is in need of a trolling motor i have 2 for sale a 54 and 74lb thrust minn kota maxxum - i need to sell these to pay for the 101 i just put on the CHAMPION!!!

Late season bassin

2009-11-17T06:18:00.000-08:00

I got out this past friday and sunday and on friday I blanked. I had one norther bite boat side and that was it. Then I got a little tip from a fellow basser on the location of some bass. I only had a couple hours on sunday so I head back to the miss. to try this spot. and sure enough on about the 10th cast i got bit on a mimmic minnow. Water temps hanging arounf 46 degrees it is nice being able to get bit on a moving presentation. After that I went down the bank Pitching a jig and I caught one and lost the same fish twice(which of course was a good one). This is the latest in the year I have ever caught a bass. Special thanks to Tim for the tip and to God For not freezing my guides.

2010 ZVBM SCHEDULE

2009-11-16T08:42:00.000-08:00

After last months meeting we sealed the deal with next years schedule for our bass club. there are a few events I am excited about and a few I would rather gone somewhere else.
May 15 Pool 5A & 6 - kind of excited about this one - I feel like I have a good amount of confidence in these two pools and having spent all spring on 5a and good portion of the fall on 6 I am gitty and will be ready to go. I will probably fish whatever pool we launch out of. I am not opposed to locking but it is just time you are not fishing and I think either pool has the quality to win it.

June 26 Pool 7 & 8 - probably most excited about this one. As i looked at a map it is a TON of water. Lake onalaska alone is HUGE. Always fun learning new water.

July 19 Chisago - this lake is known for good fish - however I am guessing that it is going to fish similiar to many metro lakes where pitching milfoil is the deal. Not the most exciting fishing but can be very prosperous.

Aug 16 Minnetonka - We fished tonka 2 years ago for our august tourney and it was tough it only took 14 pounds to win it and for tonka that is just small. I will put a little time in on tonka this year cause state tourney is there and I plan on fishing that but I am sure tonka will get more beat up this year than any other year due to that.

Sept 9|10 State - Minnetonka - I plan on fishing my first state tournament this year. Kind of gitty but honeslty there are going to be people everywhere and could be crazy

Sept 25|26 TBD club 2 dayer could be a number of places but i am hopeing that it is on fishhook by park rapids as I spend a decent amount of time in Park Rapids and will prefish it a good amount before this date.

Oct 9 Waconia - Although probably my best couple of days of fishing have come on this lake - i don't think this lake has alot to offer our club as far as teaching goes. it use to really be a big slug fest but as sooooooo many tourneys have been on this lake the average size has gone down probably due to so many summer tourneys and resulting in some high fish mortality rates. I find this lake boring to fish. Drag your favorite plastic around the right spot and you will get bit. It will be fun to fish it in the fall however. And it will be nice that I will get to hunt duck opener next year. The other options for this tourney were lakes out west by faribault - those are the ones I would have loved to fish. Usually not a slugfest but the bites you get are good ones.
Just happy to see washta didnt' make the list again - YIKES
So there is the list for this next year. I have to admit I think spring is right around the corner ( i hope)

a few more pics

2009-11-03T09:54:00.000-08:00

these first two were caught just last week - really nothing to brag about but i have never caught fish past MEA ever cause I have been too busy hunting but this year with new boat and no bow tags and trying not to look for ducks I have been giving it a try.

These two caught fishing some sand - My good friend greg took me to the spot and we knew they were there but couldn't get them to eat. finally I broke out a fluke and both of these fish came on it. One under 3 one just over

fun little game

2009-10-28T10:01:00.000-07:00

My older bro sent this to me a few years ago it is a fun little game but nearly impossible on a laptop. I have yet to beat it but have gotten up there in level a few times

have fun

bassin pictures

2009-10-26T08:21:00.001-07:00

Caught on the ol - miss this fall on a spook

Can you say shadilicious!!! one of the nicer smallies I have caght this year

A starter fish of the day

Joey in preparation to lip His first smallie

I had five fish one for each one of us but someone dropped one and it wasn't one of the kids - look at joey lipping that largie now!!!

Josh with a bass a little over 4 on a buzzbait.

Bassin pictures

2009-10-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

This picture taken on a rainy morning on a well known hog lake - this was the biggest of the day going 5 oz shy of 5lbs

This one was an excursion down to pool 6 - I had never chased bass on this particular stretch so I wanted to give it a try - this one just shy of 3lbs

This one I believe was taken on July 4th - apparently you can't smile until you catch a 3lber - keep trying Idso

The next 2 are from a smallie lake in northern mn, Although we were chasing smallies biggest one of the day ended up be a largie

Goosin

2009-10-25T17:01:00.000-07:00

Well I stopped bass fishing long enough to go goose hunting for the first time. This is the longest I have ever gone in my life without waterfowling. Well I got spoiled and my first goose of the season was wearing an engagement ring that she gave to me shortly after her departure.

We ended up with a limit of new down pillows which I took advantage of shortly after we conquered the day and had to stop shooting due to some regulations saying only 2 a day. A great thanks to Dad for romancing mom allowing creation of me, to Marcus for pictures, to Mike for calling and for transportation, and lastly to steve - (who is unseen and couldn't make the hunt but was nice enough to store his decoys at Mikes house and we employed them that day.

Champion Drive

2009-10-19T08:44:00.000-07:00

So maybe I purchased a new boat. It was a little more than I wanted to spend but it suits our needs perfectly. Family boat and yet still a tournament boat.

Here are the pics.

Highlights - GPS - I have dreamed of having this someday and now I got one.

Speed - not that goes 80 or anything but it scoots along faster than what I am use to.

Rod storage - My wife has longed for me to have somewhere to store the too many rods I bring with. It has 2 lockers and I have 17 rods in 1 locker alone.

Travel cover - nice cover to keep the elements out!!!

Motor - everthing I read online about the faststrikes were good - but I also learned to stay away from the ficht

Lowlights - as if there was a down side to all this.

T-motor - a bit sissy for my liking especially since I fish the river alot and current is an issue - so I swapped it out for my 74 off the other boat.

Has a flasher up front which I am not use to - obviously I will be trying to get GPS up front but all in good time.

Gull lake 2 dayer

2009-10-05T11:43:00.000-07:00

So at the end of September our Bass club did our annual two day event on Gull lake. I was lucky enough to draw a fella that had been on the water several times before as I had never been there prior to day of. The dock talk was that no one had really anthing going and the suspicion was that 10+ would get you along aways. As we blasted off morning of as always I was gitty and couldn’t wait. We pulled on to the first way point and Dan pitched in and caught what turned out to be the biggest of his day. I caught my limit quite quickly on a jig worm but there were no where near the quality Dan was getting pitching a beaver nock off. This is pretty much how the day went. It seemed I could catch lots of fish just not the quality – I dropped 2 fish that would have helped and Dan lost a few decent ones as well. Overall we caught fish most of the day but we did have a 2 hour stint where we went nearly fishless. It also seemed like we could get bit pretty good on crank baits if you didn’t mind weeding through 6-10 inchers all day. It was a pretty long day of fishing and I could only cull onces. We spent most of the day on weedlines but put a little time in the shallows and that is where Dan caught his final keeper of the day. Even though it took him much longer than me his quality is much better.

Day 2 was a little different story. I wanted the quality but I knew the fishery was going to be stingier with us really beating on it the day before. It started out pretty slow for both of us but slowly Dan put together a limit on a chrome trap. As the morning progressed the wind picked up and what we were fishing the day before was dead. We went and hit a wind blown shore line with thick mats of weeds and started pitching to the pockets and Dan was getting bite by decent fish. I however was trying to be scrappy behind him and he didn’t leave much. I managed one fish under a dock that he never pitched to and one a a spinnerbait over the tops of the weeds and that is all I did for the day. He managed to cull several times and put together a good limit. A special congrats to Stan larson for catching the big fish both days. He found a magic reed patch that he blistered them on 2 days in a row. Got to love a spot that reloads.
After this event I fell a little in the Aoy and since I was not fishing the last event of the year I knew I was going to drop even further and as it turns out I was about in the middle of the pack. Gotta wonder how it woul d have gone if I could have fished the last event of the year on the river. Any way I hope to do better next year as always.
Thanks for reading

Minnewashta = Tank

2009-09-15T12:40:00.000-07:00

On August 17th ZVBM headed to our 4th stop of the year on Lake Minnewashta. This is a catch and release lake so would be a measure tourney. I did pretty well prefishing and had decent fish eating crankbaits, however when it came day of I quickly realized that this wasn’t how they were going to be eating today. I ditched the crank bait quickly for texas rigs and jig worms and had my first hit on a jig worm only to have the line break on the hook set. Today in the back of the boat I had Chris. As Chris took the front of the boat for me to retie he politely asked if I would net the fish he had on and then to rub it in my wounds he proceeded to ask me if the line that was running out of the fishes mouth was my line, and indeed it was. This was pretty much how the rest of the day went. Chris managed his five behind me and I managed one fish on spinnerbait the whole day. I felt like we were in the right kind of places and even throwing the right things but never managed good hookups. It was indeed a grind of a day and it didn’t pay off for me. Although there was some good fish caught it was a long day for most by the sounds of it. I do like this lake and probably will be back for more I just hope it is as nice to me next time as it was in practice. http://www.zumbrovalleybassmasters.com/2009_Results.htm#Minnewashta

august is good

2009-08-08T10:49:00.000-07:00

Recently been out prefishing for a tournament and on another lake with some Hawgs. Last week I caught one that went 19.5 and then just yesterday a 4-11 and a 4-4 and a few that were pushing 18 that i didn't put stick or scale too. It was a wet good day. Pictures will be up probably next week, as I am heading to Texas with our students to help some Hurricane Ike victims.

fun quiz

2009-07-26T13:00:00.001-07:00

I tanked at this but it was interesting
http://www.fieldandstream.com/quizzes/fishing/bass-fishing/where-fish-bass/quiz-do-you-think-bass-pro

ZVBM Tournaments

2009-07-26T12:27:00.001-07:00

I am a little bit behind in my tournament blogging so I will get us all up to speed in one blog.

May 16 river tournament. – I fished decently I had the quality of fish to place better but what hurt me was not having 5 fish. I weighed in 4 for a little over 10 lbs. I think all of my fish were caught on swim jigs in darker colors. I did have 2 fish come off on me during the day both probably would have measured over the 14 inch minimum. I don’t think I have any regrets – Maybe I should have kicked Greg out of the front of his boat since he was a HOOVER in front of the boat and was hogging all the keepers (he placed 3rd) It was a good day and I learned once again that you can run anything wide open in your Champion boat as long as you trim it up and put the hammer down.

June 20th Sugar lake – This I knew was going to be a dinkathon as far as fish sizes go. I only had 3 keepers in the boat with an hour to go and then we found a magic milfoil patch in deeper water. And before you know it I was culling. However one guy managed to find them in the deeper milfoil and took 1st by nearly 6 lbs. He caught them good for this known small fish factory. I think if I had to do this one over again I would have studied maps harder and practiced more where the fish were going to be than where they were at the time when I went up and practiced. Special thanks goes out to the winner, Chuck – who sat me down and showed me what he did on all of his spots, since it is very unlikely our club is ever going there again.

July 20th Waconia – Traditionally a lake that I have liked just cause you can really find them and wack them when you do find them. However it was a little slower this year and it was windy to which made the lake fish smaller. I had the pleasure of fishing with one of the seasoned anglers of our club Mr. Dorman, who by the way has an aircraft carrier for a boat – Nearly 22 feet long I think. He had won it the previous year so my hope were high. We blanked on our first weedline and on the second weedline is where we both managed limits. However during our flurry I managed to lose one good fish probably just under 3 pounds as he came unbuttoned only half way in the net. I believe the winner used a unique style of dropshotting to win it. Ironically I had one in the boat and never picked it up the whole day. Managed 10.45 on the day which is by no means great for Waconia but isn’t terrible either. Managed a few little culls during the day but no biggies. More irony is that the big fish of the day was nearly the same size of his entire 5 fish limit on sugar the month previous. Only thing I would have done different on the day was land that decent one but again that was out of my control – and maybe thrown the dropshotJ

After Waconia I went and practiced for our next club tourney on Minnewashta. I won’t disclose much but there are some big fish in that lake!!!

As far as Angler of the Year I am in 7th so that is GREAT!!! Especially for a back boater.

For full results visit http://www.zumbrovalleybassmasters.com/2009_Results.htm

river pics and report

2009-07-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

I fished the ol miss on Friday and Saturday. Friday was pool 4 and there wasn’t too much action but we didn’t try too hard cause it was a family day. However onto Pool 5 on Saturday and when we found them they were snapping pretty well. My guests for this day were Marcus, Ben and Nate. A little background on these three: Marcus – pure mans man and an ogre by nature, Ben a techy guy who wears his lifejacket all day looking like a 6th grader, Nate a little person who is a professional figure skater. Yeah I am sure our crew looked awesome. We tried a few spots that usually have some current and there was nothing on them. But once we found current we got them to smash swim Jigs pretty quick. As I stopped to help tie on a few swim jigs, Marcus found it necessary to push us off the log with all his mite we were hung up on and as he pushed the oar slipped of the log and Marcus found himself wet very quickly – this not being the worse part, the worse part was he landed on an underwater log and gashed his leg wide open. I am guessing he found our favorite invasive species the zebra mussels and they are sharp. The following picture is mildly graphic. After taking Marcus back to the boat ramp so he could head home to fix his leg we came back to that spot only to find another boat had discovered our little treasure. We managed a few more on swim jigs and then had to head home to due clogged impeller.

Quick river report

2009-07-10T19:18:00.000-07:00

Slammed 3.5 largie today on a Rojas Frog. He slurped and missed the first time and then I paused it and he ate it. It was pretty fun. Wife caught a small smallie in the same spot - they were holding on rocks and weeds. I am heading out tomorrow as well back to the river. I will post pics soon

Archived Aj blogs

2009-06-26T08:42:00.000-07:00

Since the shut down of the Ajrodsandtackle.com blog i had to find a new place to do my blogging so here it is. Here are all the posts from previous blogs on aj.
This is what I like to call a dump.

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June 2009 9th
I got it
I thought this was clever
Do you have O.C.F (obsessive compulsive fishing)
That is a very important question. The first step to managing your obsession is admitting to yourself that it exists.
Please read these five simple questions and answer them honestly.
1. When eating finger foods, do you ever smell fish on your hands?
2. Has your loved one ever been upset with you for coming home late because you were “stuck” on the water?
3. Do you own a higher number of fishing rods than you do shoes?
4. Do you secretly feel upset when someone in the boat catches more fish than you?
5. When preparing to call it a day, do you ever make five or more “last casts”.
If you answered “yes” to two or more of these questions, you are a member of one of the fastest growing conditions in America.
Posted: May 27th, 2009 under Blogroll.Comments: none Edit this post
Prefish # 2 Miss river 5a
The second day of prefishing found me with my tournament Partner Greg Halleland or as he goes by on some boards – champion198elite
After meeting him at his house and helping him diagnose some engine starting issues (coughcoughkillswitchcough) we were on the river. The first spot we tried was a sand drop and it was so windy that it was nearly impossible to fish. We went into a slough and started pitching to wood. On my fifth pitch I felt a wonderful tap and I set the hook. With the fight being on I knew it was a good one and Greg asked if it was a good one and I said yes. He came back to help and he didn’t realize how good it was until he got it in his sausage fingers. It was a good 4.5 pound start to the day and I hoped it was going to carry momentum through the day. We each managed one smaller keeper off of that chute and then off to the next spot. The next spot produced a smallie on a swim jig and another on the DT FAT 3. We then poked our head around some docks and Greg got bit and we decided to save this spot for the tournament. We then hit the sand drop that I had hit on Monday and it proved successful again kicking out a 3.5 pound fish for Greg. We caught several others from a few different spots but many of them seemed to be at random places. After checking one area we decided to run an area that was heavily wooded and run it is what we did. Greg cut through two big downed trees and as he trimmed it up we both cringed to the sound of metal on wood. We pulled into the access to check things out and all we had was a bent skeg. After that Greg figured is rig was invincible so we ran everything. A decent day of fishing and we learned as much where not to fish as well as where to fish. Swim Jigs were the top producer of the day and it is always fun running around in a bass boat for a day. We both had high hopes going into tourney day especially hoping the big one would bite again. sorry for the lack of quality sun was just coming up and all we had was the cell camera
Posted: May 20th, 2009 under Blogroll, prefish.Comments: none Edit this post
Prefish # 1 Miss river 5a
With our first club tourney right around the corner it was time to prefish. My guest today was Andrew. Andrew and I hit the river early. And when I went to start the van that morning I was scraping frost. YIKES. We started out by the access and within the first half hour we had our first fish on a 16” piece of supper walleye on a chart. and white spinnerbait. In another 20 minutes Andrew would christen the trip with the first bass, a short, on a coffee tube. After leaving there we went to a weed flat. With the sun coming up and the fog lifting I caught the first fish of this area ripping a swim jig through the weeds and had another one come off next to the boat both 2.5 pound fish. We then went to an area with some bed fish. We couldn’t coax any large mouth into biting but each of us landed a decent smallie. We fished some rip rap with some shad catching a short and good smallie on a DT FAT 3. The next area went fruitless as it looked good on a map but turned out to be very shallow.We then found a good little sand drop with some roots and stumps on it. This is where we had a bit of a flurry. Andrew caught his fish on a square billed storm and I caught my 3 lber swimming a jig over the stumps. All in all a good day on the river. the three pounder
Posted: May 19th, 2009 under Fishing Log, prefish.Comments: none Edit this post
Pro research
I am not pushing buying this stuff but it is lure and technique research all condensed into one. Here is their site http://www.profishingresearch.com/?utm_source=Outside%2BHub&utm_medium=Banner&utm_campaign=Campaign
but what I liked most was this chart:Top 50 lures rankings
Posted: April 30th, 2009 under Uncategorized.Comments: 1 Edit this post
Bass bite
Interesting article on how bass get caught and their genetics.http://www.bassfan.com/news_article.asp?id=3257
Posted: April 23rd, 2009 under Uncategorized.Comments: none Edit this post
Bassin
Headed to the river on Saturday afternoon for a little basin fix. After checking a few places that looked good on a map only to find them unfishable we headed to my old trusty spot. The water temp on the main channel was low fifties but in this back water bay it was 64 which was great. I had the whole family with on this excursion so fishing was not the first priority. We did manage some bass but none pictureworthy and Idso was with and he managed a few first. His first spinnerbait fish ever (which was a 4-5lb pike) and his first spinnerbait bass and first bass of the year. Good to be along when someone accomplishes their first. Good job Idso. I hope to get back out soon I love smacking those fish.
Update: I noticed that the first batch of tourney results are in from Pool 4-5 looks like it took a 16lb bag to win. Brown and green fish mix.
Posted: April 20th, 2009 under Blogroll, Fun fishing/Multispecies.Comments: none Edit this post
a good little trick
Master Chuck turned me on to this little video - although i have never tried it CEO Jeremy says it works good. I guess if i ever had the need i might do it. Ha Ha
Posted: April 14th, 2009 under Blogroll, video.Comments: none Edit this post
Trouting
As I was sitting at my desk on Monday the 6th I got a phone call from the man who is a 3 time daddy, Andrew. He dangled in front of me this idea that he was playing bachelor for the day and wanted to have something tug on his line. I proposed trout fishing and shortly after 1:37 p.m. we were on the water. Andrew was new to trouting and he told me to play guide and so I did. I put the best lure I knew of for trout on his line because I wanted him to have action. The lure was an inline spinner but the color is the real secret – I call it the Jeff Oliver – after the man who introduced it to me. After having a few short strikers on the first few smaller holes Andrew finally tied into one and it was a good one. His first trout ever measured in at an impressive 15 inches – even through his sucker in his mouth you can see his smile. We caught several others in this time that were decent but none picture worthy. We hit one hole and I caught a decent one but my sausage fingers definitely dwarf this trout.JPG. After these few hole we were onto water I had never fished before and we were walking many yards due to shallows and no deep water haunts. After tagging one decent fish I wanted a picture on I managed to step into a good hole of mud. (No I am not kneeling) Then we came across and area that was scum filled due to no current and just above this scum area was a good haunt. I was the first to cast and my lure brought nothing but 3 big boils behind it. Then Andrew made the cast with Jeff Oliver and it was on. The fish came out of the water immediately and then proceeded to bull dog him. Of course I left the net at home but I knew this was a giant and I was certainly wishing for it. After many good runs by the fish we managed to wrangle him to shore and put the tape on him and he measured in at an impressive 20.5 inches. After a few pictures and much admiration we let the biggun go. Then on the very next cast Andrew hooks into an 18 incher, hey when you are hot your hot. Not bad for a first time trouting EVER. Nice work Andrew.
p.s. if you want the full quality pictures those are linked belowmud.JPG lang15.JPG andrewstank.JPG
Posted: April 9th, 2009 under Blogroll, trout.Comments: none Edit this post
Betty the bass
We have an at home aquarium with a small bass in it and feeding time is my favorite. Here is a video of her nailing fast and furious. I would recommend only watching the first 1:20 after that it’s lame but I don’t have any editing software. ENJOY!
Posted: April 8th, 2009 under Blogroll, video.Comments: 1 Edit this post
First mn bass trip
March 30th - we headed out for our first Minnesota bass trip of the year. It took found us on the Mississippi river over by Winona. I grabbed Idso and Meyer (since it was Meyers birthday and spring break) and we went. Although we ate a glorious lunch on one of the island down there the fish weren’t biting as well as brandon. As you can see by all the pictures we never got bit. Warmest water temp we found was 41 and most of the time it was 39 and we had to break ice to launch the boat. Felt good to get out though, but was pretty cold.
Posted: April 8th, 2009 under Blogroll, Fun fishing/Multispecies.Comments: none Edit this post
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Trouting
Went out Last week with a first time trouter the man we like to call Idso. We each had spinners tied on and went to a local stream for our first attempts at catch and release season. Since it has been some time for us to have gotten precipitation of any amount the stream was as clear as i have ever seen it. Many fish were moving to our spinners but it was tough getting any to commit due to the clear water and what we did get to commit came unbuttoned easily due to barbless only rule. Either way plenty of trout action on this day here are a few pics of Idso.Idso doing his best Iaconelli impression
Posted: April 8th, 2009 under Blogroll, trout.Comments: none Edit this post
Missouri Massacre Day 3
Day 3 was the day of exploration. Steve had a milk run of ponds set up that he knew had never seen any bass pressure but didn’t actually know if anyone had stocked them. So we were on the search and destroy mission to see if any of these ponds had bass. We woke up this morning to cold temps around freezing with even worse wind chills. We hit the first pond called heart pond and immediately Jeremy poked one and then Steve a few and me as well. We had not been there even 5 minutes and it was good. We fished until they stopped biting and then off to the next pond. We fished about 5 more ponds and blanked on all of them. Until we hit the mother. This pond was off the beaten path and was a bit of a walk to get to. I casted out the spinnerbait and POW I got bit, we knew it was on then. We were also under specific instructions to keep everything for a fish fry. So we started stringering them up. We got to one bank of this pond where everything was just right. The wind was blowing into it and had for days. There was a nice point on flat with submerged clumps of weeds and for about 6 casts in a row I got bit. And then I poked my big one of the trip. She was short and fat like a MN fish and was right at 4lbs pig.JPG. I missed her the first time on the spinnerbait and then she came and smoked it the second time. It was fun to watch it all happen as I stood up above the pond casting from a rock. We fished the whole pond and everyone was catching them. At one point I caught one and its stomach had a big bulge in it and I messaged its tummy and up came a bluegill. This bluegill was an identical match to my spinnerbait it was scary wanted to take a picture but by this time the batteries had died. The last time I was able to match the hatch that well was in my days of fly-fishing. Equpment of the day was a and most of the spinnerbait bites - SCIII 7′0″ MH Fast 1pc, Plueger supreme reel and 14lb test fireline tied to a secret weapons spinnerbait in bluegill. It was a fun day and I will always remember it. Click here if you want to see bass about to get the chopping block.A great trip to Missouri’s finest pond fishing and a special thanks to the Rowland family for putting up with our Minnesota sarcasm and to their great hospitality.
Posted: April 7th, 2009 under Fun fishing/Multispecies, Missouri.Comments: none Edit this post
Missouri Massacre Day 2
Day two the birds were singing and the sun was shining. We again headed to our favorite pond so far, midnight and her sister Crane lake. These were big enough to dump the boat in so we did. It was nice having electronics and knowing how deep they were and were the fish were. We also brought the aquavu so we could see what was down there. I threw a suspending jerk bait most of the morning and it produced a few fish always on the pause. The biggest fish of the morning went to Josiah. He was chunking a Blackbird spinnerbait by northland and caught a good solid high 3lb bass. We had gotten several fish to cough up several crayfish and they were orange on the tips and dark otherwise and this spinnerbait does a good job of imitating that when cranked slowly. We also hit a pond near midnight and crane that we named bipolar pond. This is where Steve caught the biggest of the trip that was over 4lbs. He caught it on that good ol blackbird spinnerbait. On this pond it seemed like you caught a good one or a real small one hence the name. I caught one good one on a secret weapon spinnerbait in bluegill. I bought this bait because the blade change intrigued me. So I used it and it caught a good one and slowly became my goto lure for the trip. After milking these three puddles we went to Steve high school coach’s pond. It was a good walk there and according to coach we needed the exercise. We found the fish just inches off the shore sitting in the wood that was there. I had a good one pull off just at my feet as I was wading into the water. The real show this evening was the ducks. Being a duck hunter first when the sun started to go down the ducks showed up and were everywhere and all kinds. I have to admit I put my rod down and just watched the show. We ended the day learning a good amount about Missouri fisheries and how if they are there they will bite quickly – putting this into good use on day 3.
Posted: April 7th, 2009 under Blogroll, Fun fishing/Multispecies, Missouri.Comments: none Edit this post
Missouri Massacre Day 1
It all started late Tuesday night with a 1 a.m. Wednesday morning wiring harness fix on my dad’s sub (which is a whole other story) and we were headed for Unionville mo. After picking up hillbilly Steve in Doesntmatter Iowa we were on our way. Arriving sometime before 8 a.m. after a little bit of rigging we were on lake #1, Midnight is what we named her. It was a chilly morning and keeping hands warm would have been an issue had it not been for Jeremy was first to break the ice catching a bass on a jig and pig combo. This jig rod was Jeremy’s favorite all week until he decided to throw it overboard cause he thought the lake needed more structure (guess you can do that when you are the CEO of a big Company like ajrodsandtackle.com). The fish was a good one and was probably just shy of 3lbs. I was burning a orange craw red eye shad early that morning because I have A.D.D. and don’t like slowing down. When I attempted to make a long cast I a small professional overrun that I had to fix and after getting it fixed I went to start reeling and felt weight on the end and THUMP. I had hooks into my first Missouri bass. She was about 2lbs and after singing a few bars of the Missouri Waltz to her I gently returned her to her home. The fish were just on the outside of some of last year cover. We proceeded to catch many more fish and I ended up catching most of mine that day on a jig spinner – kind of an old school lure where a skirted jig collides with a spinnerbait, but good for this kind of situation. I think most of the fish were in prespawn and I check the water temp and it seemed to be in the mid to low 50’s. Jeremy seemed to catch the quality that day with several fish around the 3lb mark and most of them coming from one area, where he was soaking a Stanley flat eye jig in green pumpkin (pics the wrong color but right kind). After this stop we got a little taste of Missouri eating lunch at the sales barn. After lunch we hit a few mud puddles that were worthless and then we hit one that we caught a few that we named Dead calf pond. This was the darkest water I have ever caught fish out of. I could not see my jig in even an inch of water. All of my fish came on slow rolling a spinnerbait. For the evening we went to a deep dark strip pit that produced only marginally but we were happy to just be fishing since we got the Sub stuck and it took us over an hour to get out thanks to the help of Big Wes and his truck. With day one in the books and no sleep, full tummies of chili and peanut butter and syrup sandwiches and some thumb wear it was easy to fall asleep. And at this point this was all done from shore and had not even launched a boat yet.
Posted: April 7th, 2009 under Blogroll, Fun fishing/Multispecies, Missouri.Comments: none Edit this post
Count down
It is so close I can taste it as i write this we are leaving in 36 hours. I put the last of the rods on the epoxy turner last night, tip tops today, spooling reels tonight and sharpening hooks and i am set. Weather is looking wet but I don’t even care. So excited i could explode. I still expect to catch them on things like jerkbait but i would love to catch them on faster thing like swim jigs and Spinner baits. It would be great. Can’t wait to make that first cast, get a stinky hand and a ripped up thumb
Posted: March 23rd, 2009 under Blogroll.Comments: none Edit this post
Getting Close
As spring is approaching I am super pumped about open water fishing. This year Me, CEO of ajrodsandtackle.com (Jeremy) and hillbilly Steve are all going down to Missouri for a little early basin. We are going to hillbilly Steve’s parents house. I have been checking the weather and it maybe quite wet while we are down there. I am also going to say that the fish are going to be in pre-spawn or post winter – I will be bringing some deep water stuff just in case the are still deep. The thing I am most excited about is a possible jerkbait bite. We will be fishing mostly farm ponds that sound like they are less than 20 acres – I am thinking they will heat up fast. I would really like it if it got warm enough we were looking at a bedding situations. That would be fantastic!!! Here is a new lure a bought:
Looks like a lucky craft Pointer only it is a net craft Springer – suppose to be a great knock off and for about 75% less than a pointer too. We will see only I have never had deep enough pockets to fish a pointer I will have nothing to compare it too. The other tough thing is to decide how many rods to take – chances are I will take too many and most will stay in the truck but that is ok too. Pretty excited and this is turning into a ramble.
Posted: March 16th, 2009 under Blogroll, Fun fishing/Multispecies.Comments: 1 Edit this post
good drivers
Just looked at Skeet Reese’s picture gallery from his practice day and he must be good if things like this don’t even rattle him a little bit.
Posted: February 20th, 2009 under Blogroll, Tournament action.Comments: none Edit this post
Classic update
Well the day is near half way and still according to bass traks and the classic blog KVD is a 0 - however they have a camera on his boat along with Kim Bain on hers and Kims is working but it says KVD’s is out of range - i am guessing if his camera is out of range so is the cellphone they text updates in with. - I personally think it is rigged for dramatiziation.
Posted: February 20th, 2009 under Fantasy Fishing.Comments: none Edit this post
Fantasy picks
Well it is classic time of year and that means time for some fantasy fishing . Well I waited this long to say who my classic picks were so no one could rob them.
Kevin VanDam – You would have to be a fool not to have this guy on your team. He will be the captain of my team all year.
Todd Faircloth – he is on a roll right now he only missed one 50 cut last year and that miss alone cost him the angler of the year. He will be on my team at least through Amistad and then we will see from there
Gary Klein – this guy has fished pro longer than I have been alive. He is well respected – if a flippin bite turns on the Red River for the classic he will be in it. He is my sentimental pick – I really would like to see him win the big one before he retires.
Mark Davis – Back in the classic after being gone a few years. He will most likely do well this year and is my dark horse for the Classic
Matt herren – Just a river rat with a simple attitude – bust buy for 12 bucks.
Got a $1.50 left for tootsie rolls.
Posted: February 20th, 2009 under Fantasy Fishing.Comments: none Edit this post
Smallie Excursion #2
We headed back to my favorite winter time smallmouth hole for another wack at them. With chest waders on and too many rods with I was ready to go. Today I was once again accompanied by my long time fishing friend Andrew. Andrew is a good river rat in my opinion as he understands the current and how it places the fish. He cut his teeth river fishing on the St.Croix and he put it to good work here. We started out the morning on a stretch of river we both had a lot of confidence in. We started out with the 1-2 combo of Andrew tossing his favorite coffee tube and I throwing a small x-rap. I don’t remember who caught the first fish but it was back and forth for a while and we left our first spot each touching seven fish. Today’s gear I was excited about because I was using a new Rod – a Seeker Crankbait rod that was new to me. Being a cranking rod that meant baitcasting gear and it felt wonderful not to have a spinning rod in my hands. The real fun for me was in the second part of the day when we started getting into some warmer water. I saw a fish rise and I stood in one spot and caught 3 fish and missed one more. At this point the fish were fairly aggressive and I thought to myself, “wonder if I could catch one on topwater”. With this thought in mind Andrew just tied on a Mann’s baby -1 in what I think was chartreuse shad. At after seeing yet another fish rise he casted towards it and he had blow ups immediately. It was fantastic. Andrew lost and missed more than he caught on the lure but the amount of fish action that it brought was second to none. After success with the x-rap lessened I switched to a ½ oz Terminator spinnerbait (thanks Andrew) and I wrangled my last 3 of the day on this lure. It seemed that the water was warm enough that they wanted summer time presentations. All said and done we each ended up with 14 fish a piece with probably losing and seeing almost that many again. Big fish honors of the day went to Andrew so that is probably the tie breaker. This big fish had a huge gut. Don’t know if she was hungry or if she was already packing eggs but she was hefty and probably over 3lbs. Good times. I might be back once more. Presidents day?
Posted: February 10th, 2009 under Fishing Log, Fun fishing/Multispecies.Comments: none Edit this post
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Smallies, skis, largies
Here is a decent video part of it shot in mn and the other part with KVD - What i find amazing is the casts he make in the dirty water. He is so efficient and has pinpoint accuracy over and over again. Watch and enjoyclick here
Posted: February 1st, 2009 under Blogroll, video.Comments: none Edit this post
Carolina rigging Part 2 of ???? (The basics)
It has been said,” Why say it yourself when someone has already said it better” That is true for the following article. I stole it from someone else but it give good basics. Good standard info

Carolina RiggingD. B. Jackson
The Carolina rig is one of the most effective bass fishing techniques on the planet. Two top 2008 Bassmaster Elite Series pros - Peter T and Kenyon Hill - consider it a mainstay in their arsenal on the tour. Between them they have banked over $1,000,000 using the technique.
And, the great thing about Carolina rigging is that you don’t need to be an expert to use it effectively. It’s easy to make and even easier to use.
The basic rigging is as follows: Thread a sinker and a bead to the main line running off your reel. Then, tie a swivel to the line. The bead should be between the sinker and the swivel.
Tie a leader to the other ring of the swivel and a hook to the far end. Attach your favorite soft plastic lure. Toss it out over your favorite structure or near your favorite cover and you’ll should be good to go.
Those are only the basics, however. To make your rig more effective give these refinements a try.
1. Sound: Beads are made from different materials. Each has its own unique sound as it smacks against the weight; some are loud and clank, others are soft and barely tick. Change beads to create a different sound.
2. Line size and strength: The line running from your reel to the swivel is important but isn’t visible to the fish. It’ll have no effect on lure action or movement. Heavy fluorocarbon or braid increases feel and sensitivity while reducing break-offs. Give one of them a try if you haven’t already.
3. Tie knots carefully: There are three knots in a Carolina rig - two on the swivel and one on the hook. That’s three places for trouble to develop. Take your time, tie your knots carefully and retie frequently throughout the day.
4. Adjust leader length: The length of your leader directly affects the way your lure looks to a bass. Short leaders tend to keep your bait near the bottom and restrict its action. Longer leaders do just the opposite.
5. Hook size and design matters: A round bend model is not an offset worm style. And, neither is a circle hook. Make sure your selection suits your style of fishing and the bite pattern of the the day.
Buy good, high-quality hooks. Keep them sharp and make sure they’re big enough. Bass have very big mouths. They can handle a big hook.
6. Get creative with your lures: You can rig darn near any bait available with a Carolina rig. Hill used a 10-inch worm on his during the Pride of Georgia. And, don’t think plastic lures are your only choice.
Small, shallow-running crankbaits can be Carolina rigged. They wiggle just fine as they’re being pulled behind a sinker along the bottom. (Rapala minnows and Shad Raps are especially effective when fished this way along sand and rock bottoms.)
7. Vary your retrieve: Most anglers drag the rig back to their boat. That may work some of the time but it won’t work all of the time. Try varying the speed of your drag, give the assembly a hop every now and again. And never be afraid to do something different - radical - if you’re not catching bass.
Posted: January 25th, 2009 under Blogroll, Technique.Comments: none Edit this post
A Classicish Showing
The following article is from a fellow Zumbro Valley Bassmaster. He nearly made it to the Classic this year. The following are his thoughts about going as far as he did and how he did it.It is a little lengthy so i won’t post it but if you want to check it out here it is.http://futurebass.com/intRickBillings.htm
Posted: January 25th, 2009 under Blogroll, Tournament action.Comments: none Edit this post
Carolina rigging Part 1 of ????
Carolina rigs have been around for many years. No one is quite sure who invented it. However I would be willing to bet it was some average joe with a ‘take care of business’ attitude that just found a need for it and it worked. However, It first came to national prominence in 1973 when Bill Dance used the technique to finish second in the Bassmaster Classic on Clarks Hill Lake. In 1985, Jack Chancellor used a Carolina rig to win the Bassmaster Classic on the Arkansas River. Using a 4” pre rigged ‘do nothing worm’ that he created. Now it has taken many new avenues version and dialects and is a useful technique when applied correctly. Over the next few weeks I will try and cover the latest and greatest and the old and the new on this technique known as c-rigs.
Posted: January 23rd, 2009 under Blogroll, Technique.Comments: none Edit this post
Zumbrovalley Bassmasters Schedule
So for some time the bass club that I am apart of has had their schedule out. So I thought I would give a little up date to on each stop.
May 16th Pool 5&5a Mis. River – This one should be a good one. Last year the guys that did well found some big smallies and the pattern that won it was good largies moving in and out of spawn. I didn’t do to well last year but it was great seeing all those fish caught. I will probably do a little prefishing for this one since it is closer to home and the river is open year round. Prediction to win it 16lbs.
June 20 Sugar – This is a lake I have never see. However it should be interesting as I will probably not get much sleep the night before coming directly from working a week of camp, and leaving that morning REALLY early to get there on time. However I do plan on prefishing this one on Memorial day.
July 20 Waconia – This should be an interesting tourney if I even get to go. My wife is due with number 3 on July 20th however she has gone early with both of our kids, so one can only hope for an early again I will say July 14th giving us enough time to get settled in. However if there was one I was going to miss it would be this one. It is unique in that once you find them you usually pound them. That is fun but it proves to be pretty unskilled fishing that is why I would chose this one. However Wac is known for some big bags so that makes it fun too. Prediction High teens to win it.
Aug 17th Minnewashata – I have never seen this lake either and this will be my first paper tournament. It is a catch and release tourney so everything will be by measure. This makes it pretty anticlimactic. I really like weigh-ins and seeing others fish. However I have also been told it’s a good fishery and new to me so I am looking forward to it.
Sept 19-20 – TBD – This will be our club 2 dayer. I am not sure if I will attend our not. We will see when we get closer. I would like to do it just for the comradery and the shenanigans that go on.
October 3 Pool 4 Mis. River – This does break my heart a little as this is the projected duck opener. All the banging of guns will hurt me a little with each shot as that is where my roots are. However the river was smokin hot last year at this time. Fish were being crushed on topwater making it an absolute blast. Looking forward to this one and hope we time it right.Prediction is that it takes 18 to win it.
Click here for more info on ZVBM
Posted: January 23rd, 2009 under Blogroll, Tournament action.Comments: none Edit this post
Good vids
Bassmasters is allowing us to watch some great video action of previous classics. Only 30 days left until the classic and that means 30 more classic videos. Check them out at bassmasters site . Just look for the countdown in the center column.
In February I will give my classic predictions but probably closer to when my fantasy fishing team is due!!!!
Posted: January 21st, 2009 under Blogroll, video.Comments: none Edit this post
King day Smallie Excursion
Bass fishing in the winter here in Minnesota is a bit of an oxymoron unless of course you find a hot water discharge. After hearing about this from a few other guys it has been a quest of mine to do it for a couple of years. Last year we didn’t go due to brutal cold temps on the day we had planned for the trip. This year was a high of 20 and we thought that was quite doable. We showed up ready to fish a few minutes before 10:00 a.m. Since many students didn’t have school due to Martin Luther King day I was accompanied by, Josh, Nick, Brandon, and Idso and long time basin buddy Andrew. Our pursuit today was smallmouth. My goal was to try and figure out the fish quickly and hopefully assist the students in catching some as well. As we arrived Brandon was the first out of the gates catching a bass on his second cast. We were in amazement at his quick success. This bass fell victim to a Rapala Husky Jerk #9 in Glass blue Minnow. We all then rushed the water. For several minutes I threw a small x-rap but no takers and after baitcasting gear getting real iced up that rig had had enough. After that I quickly switched to a small booyah bug with a gulp trailer – I had several hits on this but due to long casts and mono I didn’t connect with any. The star of the show quickly became Andrew
In the short few hours he was there he brought around 14 smallmouths to hand and lost several others. He was using a 4.5 Coffee tube in Watermelon red flake on a shakey jig of some kind with a barbed keeper similiar to the keepers on Northland Jigs. Andrew was very persistent and was well set up for the morning excursion. It was obvious this river rat had done this before – with his warm Neoprene chest waders and all of his equipment on his back he could have gone all day. Nick managed to snag a good sized carp through the eye on a Daredevil– and so we failed slightly on getting all the students some action. However, if you didn’t have chest waders your odds weren’t that great at getting bit. It was along cast to where the bass were from shore. The bass seemed to be in the 3-5 foot range and not in heavy current but in some current. The water was also fairly clear so I am sure we spooked many fish. It turned out to be a tough day for some– I had one extra pair of waders and Idso thought he could fit his size 12 skis into about a size 9 boot. After much convincing and the boot going through birthing pains he got into it. However, the moment he hit water he asked, “is it suppose to feel cold?” This turned out to be a hole and in order to get them off of him we had to cut them off with a knife. I will be back to chase these smallies and hopefully we have a few more pairs of waders or some live bait to dead stick some minnows as others on shore showed us how effective this set up was. Biggest fish of the day was this three pounder. Great to be chasing my favorite fish while everyone else has to punch holes in the ice. I will be back.here is a little product showcase on the go to lure of the day:and a video on the tube too.
Posted: January 20th, 2009 under Blogroll, Fun fishing/Multispecies.Comments: none Edit this post
Happy New year
I can think of really no better way to bring in the New Year than fishing. This has been a bit of a tradition for about 5 years and traditionally I have gone trout fishing or even ice fishing but this year we were open water fishing. My goal – to cast. I know that sounds funny but it just feels like you can beat the system this time of year if you can just cast. We headed to a near by dam that holds an array of species from Northerns and muskies all the way to cats and carp. I grabbed my stout gear as I was going to chase Cats and Muskies. My guests today were Zach, Jen, Brandon, and the artist known as IDSO. We were not there long and someone coughZACHcough got his boot wet falling through some snow covered ice – shortly after that someone COUGHidsoCOUGH found the whole section of thin ice and was wet up to his knees. At this point goals switch from casting for muskies, northerns and catfish to building a roaring fire. After collecting wood having a fire and throwing rocks we did manage one fish. Brandon managed to land a nice Muskie on KVD’s finest a Redeye chrome sexy shad. A good day and nobody lost any toes thanks to God’s beautiful placement of loads of driftwood.
Posted: January 20th, 2009 under Blogroll, Fun fishing/Multispecies.Comments: none Edit this post
TOP 10
Well it is now the time of the year to start working on your vocabulary for next season. So the next time you get a big one on here are some possible choices to yell. Thanks to our man John Crews.
Posted: December 28th, 2008 under video.Comments: none Edit this post
Greatest Fishing video ever!!!
If this doesn’t make you want to put off winter than go buy Golf clubs.
Posted: November 20th, 2008 under video.Comments: none Edit this post
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Marshaled
So gitty I can hardly take it. I am signed up to be one of the Bassmaster Elite Marshals when they come to the River Rumble in Ft. Madison Iowa. What this means is I get to spend 3 days riding in a boat watching a pro’s every move. It is gonna be great. You can read more about it here:
BASS Unveils New Marshal Programfor Bassmaster Elite SeriesAn exclusive opportunity to ride along with the world’s best bass anglers
Continuing with its firm commitment to provide opportunities for BASS members to learn from the best, BASS announced details today regarding its Bassmaster Elite Series Marshal program, which will allow BASS members to ride along with Bassmaster Elite Series pros during competition throughout the 11-event Elite Series season.
Upon registering for the exclusive opportunity to learn a lifetime of bass fishing tips and techniques from the best in the business, Marshals will be expected to become familiar with tournament rules and to help ensure the integrity of the highest level of professional fishing by reporting rules violations to BASS tournament officials. Thus, they will be required before each event to attend a registration and briefing by BASS officials, who will provide them with copies of BASS rules. During the briefings, Marshals may ask rules-related questions.
As an added bonus, Marshals will also have the opportunity while on the water to operate technological devices that will enhance the sport, including BASSTrak, a cell-phone based scoring technology, and BASSCast, an onboard camera developed by ESPN Technology, which will broadcast to Bassmaster.com so fans can see more up-to-the-minute action from the top bass fishing pros in the world.
Similar to the popular “Day on the Lake” feature in Bassmaster Magazine, Bassmaster Marshals will witness first-hand a full day of tournament fishing from the best seat in the house. In addition to the experience, Marshals will be provided with official Bassmaster Marshal apparel and will be allowed to attend exclusive social functions with the Elite pros. Marshals will also receive products from BASS sponsors.
“One of the main objectives of the Marshal program is to provide a unique, fun experience that will resonate with members,” said Tom Ricks, vice president and general manager, BASS. “It’s a fantastic opportunity to get up-close and personal to the only true professional fishing league.”
BASS members who are interested in becoming Marshals can register at Bassmaster.com. The enrollment fee is $100. Starting on Nov. 11 at 1 p.m. ET, BASS Federation Nation, BASS Insider and BASS Life members will be able to sign up at Bassmaster.com, and on Nov. 18 beginning at 1 p.m., all other BASS members will be allowed to enroll in any of the 11 Elite Series events. View the complete 2009 Bassmaster Elite Series Schedule.
Elite Series Marshals will only participate on the first three days of Elite Series competition. Elite pros will be joined by a cameraperson for the final day of competition. In instances where more Marshals register than the number of Elite pros, BASS will keep an alternate list and spots will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis.
This will be the inaugural season for the Bassmaster Elite Series Marshal program, created to replace the co-angler division at Elite tournaments. Each day, Marshals will be randomly paired with Elite pros. Family members of Elite pros can participate but will be restricted to ride along with Elite pros to whom they are not related. Members must be at least 16 years of age to participate.
Posted: November 18th, 2008 under Blogroll, Tournament action.Comments: none Edit this post
Nov 7 Late Fall Fishing
I wanted to get out and try my hand at some fishing in late fall. And late might be an understatement. We woke up to temps in the 20’s with some good snow falling. We started out at about 8 and we were going to fish for about 4 hours. Again tough for me to not be chasing ducks but I rose above it. Today in my presence were again Brandon and Mike. They didn’t have school today and wanted to get one more crack at it before heading to their deer stands the next day. I had done my homework the night before looking on a map I figured fish would be deep near winter holes. We drove up to a spot with a nice sharp break and as we went over it shad scattered and I dropped a buoy marker. We fished around that marker for 10 minutes and I had fish on. I thought it was a small bass that had fallen victim to X-rap in Glass Ghost. However it was a decent sized crappie that went in the box for my tummy. A few casts later I caught another smaller crappie too small for the box. And then in the next 10 cast I caught another keeper crappie and 2 keeper walleyes all going home for a meal. Although this was a nice bonus it didn’t make any sense that we weren’t catching bass. As the snow fell the shad were busting all over the surface. I knew they had to be near. As most fishermen are object orientated we moved closer to the bank and after Mike had some tangles with an aerator and a broken rod later we were back fishing. We moved down the bank and as someone else was running the trolling motor I rigged up a strike king Z Too in Smokey shad a fluke style bait. I made a cast out towards shore and I saw the infamous tick in the line I set the hook on the first bass of the day. Cast back out and another one and the third cast also reaped a bass. By this time Brandon and Mike were re-rigging intensely. Luckily these are the 3X plastics so they last a person a life time. We pounded that weed edge for about an hour catch fish here and there with even a few doubles. It was not fast action but pretty constant I wondered if this same thing could be duplicated in deep water. We head back out to the deep and we were sitting in 32 feet of water and we started catching bass. They were schooled up and all right around 2 lbs. pretty good time. We all went home with stink on our fingers this time and we were cold.One observation I notice throughout the morning is that the fish bit better the worse the weather got. Snow falling made for good pictures though.

Equipment: X-rap gear – 6’6” Gander Mountain I.M. 8 Rod M.H. with a Quantum tour edition P.t. and 14lb XL.Z Too – 6’8” St. Croix SCII M – Gander Mountain spinning reel with 8lb Vanish transition
Posted: November 18th, 2008 under Blogroll, Fishing Log, Fun fishing/Multispecies.Comments: none Edit this post
MEA day 2
On day 2 of MEA we were heading to THEE River. Around here when we say the river it is known that you are heading to the daddy of all rivers the Mississippi. We got there in the morning and we were welcomed by God with Rain and wind. After some time the wind left but his friend the rain didn’t. Today in the boat we had Mike and Brandon two fine fellows that help me beat the banks of Rochester and know their way around my boat as well. We started chunking topwater on wing dams as this was going really good the last time I was on the river. I had a couple follows and a few misses on a Spook but no takers. We tried one other spot that on the map looked good but was a failure. As we floated down stream we discovered a little point and as we drifted by we had a double. Mine on my favorite swim jig and Brandon’s on a Jointed Shad colored Shad Rap. We kicked the trolling motor back up and we had discovered a honey hole. This was just one of those spots that the fish were there for one reason and that was to eat. The current was bringing food by and the rocks were blocking the current so these fat lazy largemouth could sit there and just eat was came by. At this point I was convinced that it didn’t really matter what you were throwing it was more where you were throwing it. Your lure had to be right on the rocks or they wouldn’t eat it. They weren’t moving far to eat but they were eating. Fish were caught on Senkos, swim jigs and one on a Strike king series 3 in sexy shad. Brandon caught the biggest one of the day at just over 3lbs.In all this mess however Mike didn’t boat a fish. Now he had several on and had teeth break him off but my heart went out to the guy. He fished the hardest that day and he went home without stink on his fingers. Sorry Mike.
Posted: November 11th, 2008 under Blogroll, Fishing Log.Comments: none Edit this post
MEA Day 1
Growing up i had always duck hunted Mea - not that those years are behind me but i bet the fishing is better over MEA than the hunting is we shall see…
So I had some ambitious students who wanted to get out over MEA so we went no matter what the weather. First day of MEA we went to Lake Lura. This lake is known for hawgs not numbers. I warned all the students (Josh, Brandon, and Tanner) that they might not catch a lot of bass but that they would probably catch a big one if they caught one at all. My wife and i fished a fun tourney here this summer and we only had 9 bites all day but caught a couple of pigs.click here for tourney results
We hit the water at 8 and it was cold air temp was 27. This lake is only 9 feet deep at most and the water temp was 49 when we started. I figured the bite wouldn’t pick up until afternoon. We fished the first 4 hours without a bite and I caught the first 2lb bass on an edge on my favorite purple swim jig. We went another 3 hours or so without a bite. We tried deep, shallow, slow, fast and everything in between. It was just slow. So we went to a proven bank that had been getting sun soaked all day and we pounded it and I had switched to a green pumpkin swim jig. After about a dozen casts I hooked into a good one I politely asked for the net and Brandon netted it like a champ, a few moments later we had one in the boat that was 4-11 on the Berkley digital.
A few casts later I tagged into one that was 3lbs. By this time everyone in the boat was chunking a swim jig. Josh caught one little one making him the winner of the student trophy that day. So much for all that talk about only catching good ones. Good times but not the bites we were wanted. Day 2 Mississippi River…
Posted: November 11th, 2008 under Fishing Log.Comments: none Edit this post
October 4th North South center – Tournament day
We were the last boat in the draw for take off but we didn’t think it would matter because we were going to start out deep and we figured most guys would beat the banks from start to finish on this one. We raced one other boat there and as it turns out it is one other guy who found the same spot as us in practice. We got bit on this spot in practice but couldn’t get them to commit and we never landed one. As it turns out our waypoints were within a cast of each other and Brent the captain of our boat put one fish in the box but wasn’t the quality the other boat had found the previous day.During prefishing everyone works as a team to find the fish but during the tourney it is every man for himself. This has its positives and negatives but more on that later.We left our deep spot for another deep spot and Brent landed another keeper. We then headed to another deep spot but on the way we hit a milfoil patch that was near by. Brent landed yet another keeper this time pulling a swim jig through the cover. When we arrived at our 3rd deep spot I quickly hooked up on a good fish but in 14 feet of water any fish feels good. And as it turns out it was just an ok fish right around 2lbs on a footbal jig. We hit a stretch of milfoil Brent cranked while I threw a swim jig and I boated 3 non keepers quickly. Brent switched from cranking a Sexy shad to his swim jig and boated a keeper right away. At this point I am wishing I was in front of the boat, but with the amount of money one pays for a rig this nice he indeed has honors. We then got to the first dock that was on this long milfoil patch, Brent skipped in a Gitzit Tube and the line took off. I quickly helped him net it and it was his best fish yet. As he was getting situated I boated 2 more non keepers on the swim jig. At this point I know he is going to probably chase bigger fish and this is where it becomes a disadvantage to be in the back of the boat. We were zooming in between docks and I was burning the swim jig as fast as I could but when the boat is moving a little over 3 mph you are casting and reeling as fast as you know how. I picked up another keeper this way nothing much but he will measure. And by now he was no longer swimming a jig in the milfoil and was leaving them for me. He picked up another fish on a dock and he told me to go to the front so he could cull. I thought this was my big chance but nope just a couple more runts. We then circled back around to where we started our day on the deep stuff. But the spot was already taken. So we hit some milfoil nearby and Brent caught another keeper off of a dock. I get the front while he culls and this time I capitalize. The fish came on the deep edge of the milfoil. And it was a fish that wasn’t quite 2 lbs. We then went back to the long stretch of milfoil and Brent again cranked it while I fished a swim jig another couple of little guys until we got to the dock and then I caught one keeper casting straight out the back of the boat on a swim jig. Brent hooked up on a good fish under the same dock he got his biggest one on. Again I netted and Brent was grateful. Brent asked me at this point what I was thinking. All I was thinking at this point was how I would love to have my 5th fish. We then flipped a huge milfoil flat where we had gotten 2 bites that we shook off the day before. Nothing, not a tap. At the end of the flat there was a big pontoon and we thought while we are there let’s do it. Brent flipped in and wacked the pontoon with his tungsten weight. It was loud! He reeled in gave himself a little pep talk and flipped in there good. Only problem was he was over the pontoons gas lines and you would guess it we watch the line go ‘thump’. He hooked into a good one and let it hang over the gas lines while we motored up to it. It was a dandy fish. It turned out to be his big one of the day 3.15. It came out of 18 inches of water. We flipped a few more docks and Brent caught a few more keepers but none that helped him. By this time we were deep into some pads and I wanted to put a frog on but no time. We were hauling through the area. We finally got down to the last stretch of docks before it was time to go in. And Brent asked if there was anything else I would like to do in the last 45 minutes. I said I didn’t know because what I wanted and what he wanted were 2 different things. He needed a 5lber and I need a 12incher. Right as I said I didn’t know the rod loaded up and it was over I caught my 5th and final and smallest keeper and took almost all day to do it. Brent ended up taking 4th on the day and became our state team captain and I took 15th with 7lbs.It took 15 lbs to win and winner caught 4 of his fish swimming a sprofrog on the inside edge of pads.Here is what I learned. Don’t let anyone talk you out of what your gut tells you. There were some areas that I thought looked mint for top frogs and I was talked out of it. Also I would have made a few suggestions on fishing an area a little slower. There was an area that still had some really green milfoil in 8 feet of water and we just burned through it. Other than that I was proud of myself for doing a good job scrapping behind a very good fisherman.
Equipment used –Swim jig gear – 7’0” SCIII MH fast, Diawa tournament reel, 20lb Power pro, 3/8 oz. Custom swim jig in purple/Black
Football jig gear - 7’6” Batson flipping stick IFT 905 og, Quantum Tour Edition PT Burner, 17lb Vanish transition Fluorocarbon, ½ oz unknown brand jig in black and brown, Chomper DT skirted grub in watermelon seed
Although this is all i caught fish on this day i had 10 rods on the deck and they all saw use. Happy readings let me know if i can answer any questions. ike
Posted: October 9th, 2008 under Tournament action.Comments: 2 Edit this post
October 3rd North and South Center lake Prefishing
We left early Friday morning for some pre-fishing. I met a fellow club member at 4:30 a.m. to make the drive to Lindstrom. We met up with a few more club members in Cannon Falls. When we arrived at the landing it was a steaming 40 degrees outside. This was the coldest I had fished in sometime when it wasn’t ice fishing. We started out hitting some pads by the access and found nobody home. We gave it some thought and figured that the fish probably weren’t up shallow yet due to warmer temps out deep. So we hit some deep stuff and nothing but a few taps and swing and misses. We then went to the north end of north center and immediately we started popping fish on swim jigs and spinnerbaits. Only problem was the size. We caught maybe 10 fish and 2 of them would have been keepers. So we set off in hopes to find bigger fish. We tried pads, milfoil flats and we had nothing going. We pulled up to one rock point in the afternoon and caught a decent keeper on the rocks. Then we flipped some more pads and more milfoil and we shook off a few bites in hopes they would eat it again tomorrow. Overall numbers producer was my favorite swim-jig but the size came on a Mann’s Hardnose Junebug worm. We continued to fish with very little luck and before we were done for the day we decided to retie in preparation for tomorrow and so we didn’t have to do it in the dark later. We had high hopes for the next day but with 10 rods on the deck you know things can’t be good.
Posted: October 6th, 2008 under Tournament action.Comments: none Edit this post
Hawg Country fun fishing
On Saturday we headed to a known hawg producing lake and it didn’t disappoint. The last time I was there we caught two fish over 5 pounds and not one fish less than 2 pounds. It made for a good time. I did well last time on a swim jig so I started with that and the northerns really liked it and it was my last one of my favorite color (but have gotten more since then here is a picture sorry for the cell phone quality) We turned the corner of a spot and Jason missed one a spinnerbait so I flipped in with a Booyah jig and berkley beast trailer WHAMO it crushed it. Fish went 5 pounds and an ounce. After catching about half dozen other fish we went back to the access for a food run. I messed around by the access while Jason went for grub and had one blow up on a horny toad and that was it. We then headed to the far side of the lake. We pulled up to a shore and talked to a few other fellas and they had just fished the shore. They told us they caught nothing but a couple of 2 1/2 pounders. We fish it anyway and about 20 minutes later Jason dropped his northland reed runner spinnerbait or as we like to call them Fleet farm specials in front of the right fish and CRUNCH. 5lbs 9 oz A very nice fish. We fished a few other spots and only one small fish and then off to home. The lake wasn’t as good for numbers but didn’t disappoint with size.
peace out,ike
Posted: September 29th, 2008 under Fishing Log.Comments: none Edit this post
N/S center practice
We arrived to the south access of South Center Lake at about 8 a.m. I was fishing with Jeremy’s (CEO of www.ajrodsandtackle.com) brother Jason. Jason just bought a new (to him) bass boat. It is pretty nice and I would take it any day. I wanted to start on the north Center and then slowly work my way back to the access as the day went on. We started on the islands and the long point on the east side of the north lake and Jason quickly boated a couple of nice northerns on a spinnerbait but no bass to speak of. We slowly made our way out to deeper water. The wind had really picked up. The lake is quite low and what the map said would be 5 feet of water was more like 2-3 feet of water. We threw across the rocks with spinnerbaits, wigglewarts, and Booyah Jigs but nothing to show for it but one small keeper coming on the wart. We then tried chasing some fish in deep water that we didn’t know if they were bass or not we each had one bite. Jason on a craw, and me on dropshotted ringworm. However we failed to connect on either. We then went into the northern part of the north lake. There was already a boat in there so we kept our distance but as we rounded the point I pulled a swim jig over a clump of coontail and POW a fish hit it come out of the water while striking. Fish weighed a little over 3 pounds. We fished areas the rest of the day trying to duplicate this type of area only to find little fish. I hope I learn more fishing it again the day before the tourney. I am pretty pumped because I am fishing with “Mr. 45” The guy that took 45th in last years Bassmaster Classic.Peace outike
Posted: September 29th, 2008 under Tournament action.Comments: none Edit this post
I am rich
Many of you would probably like to know why? Well here is the story. This past spring I entered in a trout and bass league. It was an online contest and all entries had to be submitted by the month and it was your best 5 fish making up total inches. It started in April with the hunt for trout. I only registered 3 average fish. Then May came and I was banking on the bass so I didn’t even pick up the trout gear. However with hail and a huge front the day before bass opener fishing was rough. In one day of fishing our whole boat only boated one keeper (12 inches or longer) bass. And the between our boat and 2 others all chasing bass we only boated 6 keepers.Anyway one guy in the league registered 5 fish for the month and pulled way out ahead. I thought it was over. All he had to do was catch fish even little ones and we had no way of catching him. But he let down and only registered 3 fish the next month. I was coming on as strong as I knew how. As it goes he ened up missing a month as well and I ended up squeaking out the win by almost 40 inches. Not to mention I became 180 dollars richer. You can check it all out here. This is what I might be doing with the money…SCIV 7′0 M Fast 1pc Rainshadow Mag Bass 7′0 MH Fast 1pc SCIV 7′0″ MH Fast 1pc Or I am predicting I may need one of these soon.
On a side note look what my wife got me for my birthday.
Off to N/s center this weekend to prefish for our last club tourney. Never been on the lake but I have done my “off water” scouting and am ready to hit the water.Peace out,ike
Posted: September 25th, 2008 under Blogroll.Comments: none Edit this post
Guaranteed Fish Catcher? (Part 2 of 2)
The other guaranteed fish catcher is a little friend of mine I have been getting to know this summer. Of course like stated before there is no guarantee in fishing but this is as close as it gets. I will preface the lure with a little Story.I joined the Zumbro Valley Bassmasters this year in hopes of learning how to fish better and although I got an education sometimes it was painful. The first tournament of the year was definitely that way. It was May 17th and we were headed to the Mississippi river, where it is legal to fish bass year round. I was lucky enough to drawn a river vet and I was excited. We got to our first spot and he told me it was a smallmouth spawning area. I had my doubts but I had nothing to loose. I tied on a Yum Zellamander in Junebug and after about the 5th cast I felt a chomp. I set the hook into a 2.5 smallie and I was pumped. And then the dry spell began.We fished that area for the next 2 hours and the guy in the front of the boat proceeded to show me how to catch them and even how to lose a few next to the boat. We made a run and this is where I became a believer. He started casting a black and purple jig. However I notice he wasn’t working it on the bottom he was reeling it. I had heard of the swim jig craze as well as the chatterbait craze. I thought I would never own one of them because if you could catch them on that then why couldn’t you catch them on a spinnerbait or a rattletrap. Well the river rat in the front of the boat gave me a free education on just how effective swim jigs were. He filled his livewell and culled a few times and was catching fish that were doing him no good but would have helped me because I only had 2 in the box. These fish however wanted no part in my spinnerbait or my Sexy shad. By the end of the tourney I was throwing one but it was too little too late. At the next club meeting I asked him to bring his box of swim jigs so I could buy some. I proceeded to buy about 10 (which turns out isn’t enough because Northerns like them too) in about 3 different colors.This lure has been Phenomenal. The fish absolutely crush it or they swim right at you and you have to burn the reel to catch up with them. It is so easy to fish too. Cast it out and real it in nothing fancy largemouth and small mouth both like it A BUNCH.I thought they were only good on the River until I tried them in some north-country clear water lakes and the fish loved them. The fish haven’t seen anything like them and they look very good to eat and are great at producing reaction strikes.This august while fishing a lake in the metro area I made a cast at a log and felt the unmistakable thump of mister line sides inhaling the jig. I set the hook and the line snapped instantly I thought for a moment it was teeth but upon further review an old knot was the verdict. About 20 minutes later Jeremy (CEO of www.ajrodsandtackle.com) cast in the same general area and caught a nice 2.5 bass. He said it had something sticking out of its throat. It was black and I figured it was the remnants of a bullhead. After some prodding and a little help from a needle nose it was indeed my swim jig. I was so gitty because by this time in the summer I didn’t have many left. I offered it to Jeremy as a finders keepers but his heart was so BIG he let me tie it back on. WHAT A GUY.Swim jigs are to stay in my tackle box and I think they are really a new thing on lakes in the upper-Midwest even though they have been on the River for many years now. With something so easy to fish and catching so many fish I would be a fool not to fish them, however there is a little part of me that didn’t want to publish this just to try and keep it more of a secret, however I continue to realize there are no secrets in fishing. By the way these rods would make excellent swim jig rods and have plenty of tip for soft quite entry but back bone to horse around cover.For some more information on swim jigs check this out.Peace out,ike
Posted: September 22nd, 2008 under Blogroll.Comments: 2 Edit this post
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A good little video
A quick little 5 minute video to see a piece of graphite turn into a quality rod.Pretty neat,ike
Posted: September 9th, 2008 under video.Comments: none Edit this post
Guaranteed Fish Catcher? (Part 1 of 2)
There are few things when fishing that you can call a garuntee however here is one. Now granted I fish for bass almost always but i dabble in a few other areas. But when bass fishing there are a few things that just always work. The first is a senko/ soft stick bait. There is much debate as to why this lure was built but the builder designed it after a ball point pen. I don’t know if he had one fall out of is pocket into the water and watched a bass inhale it or if he was under the influence of something but that is what I was once told it was designed after. There is also much debate as to why fish eat it. One theory that i was told is that is simply moves like a panfish. or My personal favorite “It looks like food but appeals more to their curiosity and since fish don’t have hands they have to use their mouths” Whatever the reason they workOne morning while I was out fishing with Jeremy (CEO of www.AJRODSANDTACKLE.com) I was out fishing the old man on a top water Dean Rojas signature series Sprofrog. I believe I caught 5 bass in 6 casts. After some time the top water bite shut off and Jeremy picked up his old faithful Chartreuse pepper Senko. I believe Jeremy has never even used another color but he would stake his life on this one. It was at this point of the morning where things shifted. Jeremy started catching fish, bigger fish. At one point I said out loud, “ Stupid senko always working”. And it is true. They almost always do and it is as close to a guarantee in bass fishing as it gets. For all you competitive spirits out there I think I caught more fish that morning but Jeremy would have definitely had more pounds. If you are interested in buying some senkos or one of their knockoffs they are everywhere and go by the alias as – Tiki sticks, Zeros, Stickos, Wackos, Dingers, noodles, sinking minnows, and I am sure many more that I cannot think of right now. Fish them like there is something wrong with you. Cast them out and don’t do anything. Let it sink all the way to the bottom if you can then a few jerks and let it sink. The fish will tell you what they like.
On a personal note:i don’t use senkos too much anymore i feel that once you figure them out and how to use them they are another thing in the arsenal of tricks to get mr. linesides but dont’ get stuck on them esspecially in days where is windy they are tough to fish. however here is one of my personal best caught on a watermelon red fleck dinger and a jobee hook on a SCV marblized rod

peace out,ike
Posted: September 5th, 2008 under Blogroll.Comments: none Edit this post
Inaugural blog
Hello, to all the readers out there. My name is Isaac, i am from Rochester, mn. many of you may know me by the alias ike or on the fishing and hunting boards on the net as ikeslayer. Due to the blog needing some attention Jeremy asked me if i wouldn’t mind doing some blogging. I was absolutely honored to have some blog space. So here is what i will do. I will tell you as much as i know as if you were the most intrigued listener as it pertains to the subject of fishing, and rod making and whatever else i throw on the blog. So greetings to you all and i look forward to sending some thoughts, product info and fishing news your way. tight lines.
(Just so you all know what i look like and what a 5lber looks like)
good new to you,ike
Posted: September 3rd, 2008 under Blogroll.Comments: none Edit this post