Category Archives: Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner

Weekend of open water bass fishing

After a very busy winter, I was able to sneak away from the house to chase some open water bass with some good bassin’ buds.  A place that I have fished a few times before in the winter, but a first for several of the others.  The fishing started decent but was not as hot as I had seen it before.

We all caught fish on several lures from flukes, to jigs, swim jigs and chatterbaits, but as the day went on the swimbait bite started to dominate.  It was clear the swimbait would elicit strikes form better quality bass that would pass on most normal offerings.  For the most part we fished a range of 6-8″ swimbaits in slow to moderate sink rates and had to fish them quite slow.
   

 The patience and persistence paid off in the from of several 3-5lb fish for all those that stuck with the swimbaits.  I have done a fair amount of dabbling with swimbaits and caught fish here and there, but this is probably the first time I felt the swimbait was the predominant bite.  It was very addictive, as these fish keyed on the vibrations of these swimbaits until well after sunset.  My Dobyns 795 Mike Long swimbait rod finally got a well deserved work out!

I inserted a couple pictures into this post, but you can see the full gallery of fish catches here.

Also, Fantasy Bass Fishing season is almost upon us, so catch the first Podcast of the season here.  We break down the Bassmaster Classic, Bassmaster Central Open on Lake Lewisville & much more.




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Rich
 

My thoughts on 2012 Bassmaster Elite Series Schedule

Looks like 8 stops again this year, nice mix of venues.  Although, I have reason to believe some/all pros knew some of these venues ahead of time as several Elite Series pros were sighted fishing in La Crosse a few weeks ago.  Also, nothing about an All-Star week as of now, so maybe details still to come or maybe gone all together.

Also note, several conflicts with FLW Tour, so no chance of full time 2 tour pros in 2012.  But with only 8 event, many pros will have to supplement with PAA, EverStarts or Opens to make a full schedule to support their families and sponsor obligations.

BASSMSTER ELITE #1
Dates: March 15-18
Venue: St. Johns River

Host: Palatka, Fla.
Notes: Back to St. Johns, should be another fun event and sight fishing should play a role again.

BASSMASTER ELITE #2
Dates: March 22-25
Venue: Lake Okeechobee

Host: Okeechobee, Fla.
Size: 470,000 surface acres (about half the size of Rhode Island!)
Impounded: Natural with many levees and dikes
Notes: The Big O is on fire right now, should be an awesome event and expect a century belt or 2 to be handed out here.  Very exciting to have a BASS Tour level event on Okeechobee.

BASSMASTER ELITE #3
Dates: April 19-22
Venue: Bull Shoals Lake

Host: Arkansas
Size: 45,000 surface acres
Impounded: 1951
Been awhile since BASS has been here on a Tour level, but Bull Shoals is a historic fishery and adds a nice flavor to the mix of events for the season.

BASSMASTER ELITE #4
Dates: May 3-6
Venue: Douglas Lake

Host: Dandridge, Tenn.
Size: 30,000 surface acres
Impounded: 1943
Notes: Not much history here, but they did have an Open event last year.  Good to see the best anglers on some new water.  Good lake, but will provide some challenges, not a whack fest by any means.

BASSMASTER ELITE #5
Dates: June 7-10
Venue: Toledo Bend Reservoir

Host: Many, La.
Size: 185,000 surface acres (fifth largest man-made reservoir in the U.S.)
Impounded: 1969
Notes: Toledo Bend has been a very popular stop on the Bassmaster Tournament Trail over the years. Thirteen professional events have been held here, including the 2011 Bassmaster Elite Series Battle on the Bayou won by Arizona’s Dean Rojas with 70-15. Should be a good time to be there, deep bite should be heating up and anglers  should catch some monsters and heavy bags!

BASSMASTER ELITE #6
Dates: June 21-24
Venue: Mississippi River

Host: La Crosse, Wis.
Notes: I think this event will open some eyes, these guys are really going to catch them here.  Expect majority of anglers to weigh limits and lots of 3lb fish to be found, both largemouth and smallmouth.  They will probably launch out of the top of Pool 8, probably an even split of anglers will lock up to Pool 7 or stay in Pool 8.  You will learn about the home of the “Swim Jig”.  This section of river has everything.  Watch out for Frog anglers to potentially dominate here!  Put this on my list to either bring boat down to watch or enter as Marshall.

BASSMASTER ELITE #7
Dates: June 28-July 1
Venue: It’s a secret … for now.

Host: We’re not saying, but they’ll be ready.
Size: Big enough!
Impounded: Some time ago.
Notes: I think it is pretty safe to assume, this event will be a easy day’s drive from La Crosse.  So I predict the western edge of Great Lakes like Sturgeon Bay or Escanaba (most likely destination).  Possibly a few lakes in Minnesota like Mille Lacs, Leech, Vermillion or Minnetonka.  Winneconne/Winnebago in Wisconsin.  Or maybe a swing back through to Missouri.  Either way, I think you can count on another event close to us upper midwest anglers.

BASSMASTER ELITE #8
Dates: Aug. 23-26
Venue: Oneida Lake

Host: Syracuse, N.Y.
Size: 51,072 surface acres
Impounded: Natural
Notes: Frequently referred to as “the thumb” because of its proximity to the New York’s famed “Finger Lakes,” Oneida has been a very popular B.A.S.S. stop in the last decade. In fact, B.A.S.S. has been here 7 times since 2003, including 3 Elite tournaments. Should be exciting as the Bassmaster Angler of the Year award and more than 30 Bassmaster Classic berths are finalized in New York.


What are your thoughts on schedule?  I do like that its a bit more stretched out as well, gives me more time to get my Fantasy Fishing lineups set!




Beaver Lake & St. John’s River Fantasy Winners

Just shipped some prizes today.  Congrats to Carl Spande of MN for winning the prize for Beaver Lake event.  Because Carl is a Facebook Fan of this blog, he brings down a pack of Optimum Double Diamond Swimmers.  I think Carl will find these great as a swimbait or large swim jig trailer!

Still waiting to hear from my Harris Chain winner, but Cody Salzmann (Facebook Fan) of IL almost won the whole thing, not quite, but he still wins an IMA Roumba wake bait.  I think Cody will find this a super product bait once the bait get shallow for him this spring!.

In other news, check out the great bass Cory Cook has been catching on his IMA Flit jerkbait that he won from an earlier tourney, also a Facebook fan.

Maybe Cory can get his mug in the next pic, ha!  Thanks for the pictures Cory!   You have set a standard for future winners!

Hartwell Fantasy Fishing Picks

If  you haven’t made your picks yet for FLW Tour on Hartwell, better get on it, they start fishing in the morning.  Gonna try pasting my picks from FLW site, see how it works below.  Prizes for Beaver & St. Johns will ship soon, still trying to get a hold of Harris Chain winner….

Lake Hartwell


Listen to the Fantasy Fishing podcast here, special guest this week is Brett Ehrler, he talks about his preference on drop shot setups, his practice & favorite RoboWorm colors…

Anybody of my fellow Minnesotans excited for next week’s Northwest Sportshow?  I think I am actually going there this year with a purpose, camera & video camera in hand, try to do some blog recaps on what is cool & new this year!

Hey – are all you readers subscribers?  If not, why not drop your email in the upper left corner of my blog & click subscribe button, they you can get my blog right in your inbox moments after each entry!

St. John’s River Fantasy Picks

Been too busy to blog lately, been to Mexico and back this week already.  Still manged to get the podcast done, sorry for short notice, talked to producer to work towards publishing by Tuesday of tournament weeks.  So go here to listen to Podcast.

Otherwise, my picks – KVD, Big Show, Bernie Schultz, Chris Lane, & JVD.  BTW – what does JVD gotta do to get his face on the Fantasy Game?

I saw that JVD got some of KVD’s cookies, so I am convinced he is good to go this week!

Also, got some goodies on listed in my Bass
Fishing

eBay
Store

Fantasy prizes coming soon for Beaver & Harris chain, still need to hear from Harris Chain winner….

February Fantasy Fishing Winners

The February prizes are in the mail, and final results from Beaver Lake should be ready soon as well.

In both leagues, our winners also won league prizes, so the Bassin’ Blog prize slid down to next finishers.  Congrats to Jeremy White as he was the best picker in all the lands for the Bassmaster Classic, he will enjoy a $1000 gift card to

BassPro
from BASS.  So he didn’t feel to bad seeing his prize go to the next in line, so our Classic prize winner was Kenneth Grover of Decatur, AL.  Kenneth did not seem to be a fan of the Bassin’ Blog on Facebook so he will get some left over finesse worms from last year.

Glynn Brown was the best from our group for Lake Okeechobee on the FLW side, but he did so well, he got a nice Walmart gift card, so once again, to spread the wealth, the prize slides down.  Cory Cook of Carrolton, KY won an IMA Flit Jerkbait because he was a fan on facebook.  Thanks to IMA Lures for helping out with this week’s prizes!

So hopefully lesson learned, it pays to become a Fan on Facebook to get the bigger prizes!

Still time to join my leagues and compete for prizes at each event!

Another MN Bass Closer Passes

This past weekend the bass fishing season closed in Minnesota and for most inland waters does not open until end of May.  I did not get out on the Bass Closer this year, had too many other things to juggle, but did have a brief bass fishing outing on Lake Bartlett in Arizona earlier in the week, where i caught some of these monsters pictured below…..

As a tribute to the Bass Closer, here is a video of last year’s bass closer and here is a post from 2009 to check out as well.

Finalized my Fantasy Fishing picks for Beaver Lake, working on getting Beaver and Bassmaster Classic prizes out still, trying to get caught up, be patient.  My Picks:
Brent Ehrler
Stetson Blaylock
Greg Bohannon
Randall Tharp
Ray Scheide
Glenn Browne
Bryan Thrift
Andy Morgan
Robbie Dodson
Shin Fukae

Want to hear the breakdown, listen to the podcast coming soon at http://twincitylimits.podbean.com

Take is easy all!

Bassmaster Classic Eve

Well, reviewing last minute articles, blogs, video, etc learning all I can in anticipation of tomorrow’s launch and fishing.  Plus, looking for any angles on last minute Fantasy Fishing roster changes.  So I will give you a bunch of links to things of interest.  For online classic coverage, check out the online guide .

Bassmaster Classic Live Practice Blog – Nice nuggets from Randall Tharp and others if you comb through it.

Wired2Fish Blog Entry on Practice Stuff – Snippets from McCleland, Kriet, Pace, Combs, Tracy Adams, Remitz, & Russ Lane.

Bill Lowen decides to fish, not run
– says he doesn’t fish well after long runs and found some stuff on Wednesday to make him stay.  It doesn’t matter, the Turtle has the new IMA Square Bill on his side!
2011 Bassmaster Classic Official Practice - On the Water
James Overstreet

Bill Lowen idles into a backwater area Wednesday in practice

Practice video reports – Ike & Lowen seem confident

Final Bass Pundit Fantasy Picks – not many surprises here

BassFan Articles – Local Spills Guts, Final Scouting Report, More Scouting

All that said, here are my TWO final rosters, too many leagues, 3 groups is not enough, so I created a 2nd team under 2nd email & identity.  One on left is my PRIMARY!

g9jh.jpg      snws.jpg

 

 One of these two line-ups should be awesome!  Or both average???  Thing your picks are better then mine, join my league & win prizes at every event.  That reminds me, I need to get prize ready for the Big O FLW Winner.

Good Luck & Safety to all participants tomorrow and all weekend long!  Plenty of updates here and here – http://www.facebook.com/BassinBlog  – Also check out & use the #BassmasterClassic hash tag on Twitter – http://twitter.com/#!/search?q=#bassmasterclassic

Playing Field Below

Photo: NOAA

A run to Venice, at the southern tip of the Delta, is well in excess of 100 miles.


Went fishing this morning

And because of the nice weather, so did everyone else and their brother apparently, LOL!  Got up early to beat the rush, and we did, but their wasn’t much of a morning bite at our first stop.  By the time we got to 2nd area at 8:30am, there wasn’t much room to move around, so we staked out our little stretch.

Today my buddy and I each caught 8, mine were 2 on IMA Square Bill, 2 on a tube & 6 on a shakey beaver.  I ended up getting one over 3lbs and another right at 4lbs, so at least there was some quality today.  This could very well be the last trip on this fishing license, as the bass season ends at the end of this month.

This fish is bigger then it looks, between 19″ & 20″ when referenced against my Dobyns 702 SF .

That being sad, listed a few things on my Bass
Fishing

eBay
Store
this weekend and here is a nice article on how not to ruin your fishing equipment over the winter.  Some things are simple, but I think many anglers still make these mistakes.

Still time to sign up for my BASS Fantasy Fishing leauge – http://www.bassmasterfantasy.com/GroupHome.aspx?groupId=539


Lot’s of stuff going on, must be Classic Time!

First off, big 20% off sale at Bass Tackle Depot ends at midnight tonight – check out sale here!

Also, Bass Factory Forums area taking off and every time you post, you got a chance to be the weekly tackle winner!

If you can’t find what you need, I will be loading my Bass
Fishing

eBay
Store
up with lots of stuff this weekend, got to make room for all the stuff I bought a for-mentioned sale, LOL!

Read about how Classic (Edwin Evers, Ryan Said,  & other) anglers are getting stuck in the cold water at the delta, not much fishing the first day for some anglers.

Clark Reehm tweeted water temps only in high 40’s right now, don’t think we have to worry about a spawn tournament at this point.

On a lighter note, KVD is supplementing his income with some magic cookie this week, check out this video .

Plenty of other funny Bassmaster Classic Promos on that YouTube Channel.  

Also, join my Fantasy Fishing League, will be doing prizes again this year.  Here is link to my group.  Also if you need help, picking your fantasy fishing team, listen to picks from Mark Zone, Dave Mercer & myself, oh yeah, Greg Huff too….  Links to Podcast here or here!

Look for lots of more blogging from me this week, I just really get into the CLASSIC!