Category Archives: General

Top Bass Fishing Black Friday & Cyber Week Deals

Sharing the top Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Small Biz Saturday, Cyber Week deals for bass fishing. Feel free to comment with your own suggestions.

As new Fishing Cyber Deals Pop Up, I will keep updating this post.

Omnia Fishing’s 5 Days of Big Sales with super deep discounts on specific items or categories. It starts on Nov 23 on Thanksgiving and runs through Monday with special deals each day while supplies last. On top of that, they have $60 Gift Cards for $50 which make great stocking stuffers, or you can buy digital gift cards and put those towards future deals for stacked savings! So check the Omnia Deal Page each day!

Looking for a quality $200 Baitcaster reel for less than $200? Lew’s Pro BB1 and Team Lew’s Pro SP SLP Skipping & Pitching reels are $112 when you add them to your cart at Academy. Currently, Academy has a 15% rebate through Rakuten. So with the rebate, you are getting this reel for about $96 with free shipping. Need a Rakuten account? Sign up here and you can also earn a $40 bonus on top of that $96 reel!

Need a super affordable quality spinning rod combo as a gift for an angler? Check out this Jordan Lee signature combo from Abu Garcia that can be found at Walmart. It is 60% off, so you can grab this bass combo for $39.99!

Bass Pro Shops & Cabelas usually have some solid deals this week. The one that jumps out at me is the $40 off a Pflueger President XT spinning reel. You can check out all the Bass Pro fishing deals on this page.

If you grab a deal on one of these fishing reels, you are going to need new fishing line. The very best deals on fishing line I found for 2023 is from Dicks Sporting Goods. They have many line specials that are more than 50% off

Braid for $4 a spool??

Bass Pro also has some Deep Discounts on Lowrance & Humminbird Units, see the full list here.

If you are looking to make some upgrades on your boat, check out some of the great deals on PowerHouse Lithium, Minn Kota Talons & Ultrex Trolling Motors, Jack Plates, Trolling Motors and so much More at ChaddyBoys.com

Good polarized sunglasses are imperative for fishing, check out these deals on Costa Del Mar, Oakley, and more up to $85 off per pair.

Amazon also has some sneaky good deals on Lowrance HDS, up to 52% off on these units from HDS-7 all the way up to HDS-16 units.

Every use Rakuten???? Great way to save money on most online retailers. You shop and basically get free digital rebates. Right now they are running a great promo where you can get $40 for signing up and making a qualifying purchase.

If you have a hankering for the Big Swimbaits?? DC Swimbaits is having s Black Friday Special drop, prices will be reflected as 30% off, no code is needed. Great time to try a custom hand-poured Big Swimbait!

Perch Colored 6.5″ Weedless Shad in Perch

Arsenal Fishing is known for its baits, fishing tools, accessories, and stylish fishing clothing. They have an awesome straight-up 35% off Sitewide with code BLACKFRIDAY23 – Follow this link to access ArsenalFishing.com

Keep checking back for more great fishing deals.

Best fishing gift ideas for anglers 2019

What are the best gifts for the fisherman who has everything?

Fishermen and fisher gals are arguably some of the most difficult people to shop for out of anyone. So today, I am sharing 5 Can’t-Miss Ideas for you to add to your list or if you are looking for ideas for the special fisherman in your life!

Best Gift Ideas for Fishermen

If you don’t’ want to watch the gift ideas, check out my video if you prefer to read the ideas, scroll down!

  1. Digital Handheld Scales – Having a scale is the difference between a fishing tale & a legit story & proof a true trophy catch. All anglers should have a quality scale for their fishing trips. If your angler owns a boat & primarily fishes from that, I recommend this scale, if they tend to fish from shore, other people’s boats or ice fishing, then check out this smaller more compact version.
  2. Long Sleeve Sun Hoodies – Sun Protection is nothing to joke about and sunscreen is just too easy to forget and when the bite is good, reapplying rarely happens. For me these long sleeve sun hoodies have been the deal, I never get burned any more & feel much better after a long day in the sun. Here are two links to two of my favorite versions, one from AFTCO & the other SIMMS.
  3. Boost Pack – This item is highly underrated & a must-have for any outdoors person. These small compact lithium boost packs have the juice to jumpstart a truck, car or boat. Plus they can keep GoPros, Smart Phones and other small electronics running all weekend. There are tons of options, here is a link to an affordable boost pack that has worked perfectly for my needs.
  4. Glide Baits & Swimbaits – Big baits are all the rage these days! Here is a list of affordable big baits that won’t break the bank but still catch fish!
    River2Sea S-Waver
    Arashi Glide Bait
    Baby Bull Shad
  5. Fishing Tackle Subscription Boxes – Think of these as Birch Box or Stitch fix for anglers. Basically you can sign up for 1, 3 or 6-month subscriptions and send them as gifts where they will get new handpicked tackle for them every month. Below are a few very popular fishing tackle subscription services:
    MonsterBass – #TheBetterBox
    Mystery Tackle Box
    6th Sense Tackle Bags
    Lucky Tackle Boxes
  6. BONUS – GIFT CARDS ARE AWESOME GIFTS
    Here are some of my fav stores to get Gift Cards for:
    Omnia Fishing
    Tackle Warehouse
    TheHookUpTackle
Omnia Fishing
A New Way to Shop for Bass Fishing Tackle

Tight Lines…..

Latest Bass Fishing Videos

This blog always seems to fall to a lower priority than my YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Definitely consider following me on any of those platforms to stay more plugged into my fishing activities and catch any fishing tips & nuggets that I pass on through those channels.

I am not giving up on the blog and for now, I am going to leave you with a few of my recent Bass Fishing YouTube videos. I am definitely putting more of my energy into my YouTube content as its something I really enjoy, but the downside it is time-intensive labor of love to produce high-quality original content in video format.

So here is a video recap of my trip to Alabama to fish the BASS Nation Central Regional back in April.

And topically if you live in the middle to the north part of the United States, here is a video covering my favorite bed fishing baits and tips.

Lastly, if you are into fantasy fishing like I am, please check out my YouTube bass fishing podcast series about fantasy fishing, called Fantasy Fishing Edge!

Thanks for visiting!

Mid Summer Update

I know in my last post, I said I was going to blog more, not that great, but here I am.  Work, Business, Family and other stuff has kept me off the water more then I would have chosen.

I have only fished 3 small tournaments thus far, but good news, cashed checks in all of them.  Winning would have been better, but anytime you are cashing and losing less money then most, so that is a good thing!

Two of the tournaments I fished down in La Crosse with my buddy Kevin, we fished some Bass World Sports team tournaments, got big bass in both and got 3rd and 4th places.  They may tournament all are fish fell pray to Bladed Swim Jigs and Tubes, no real surprise for the river.

Rich Lindgren & Kevin Ruh
15lb Pool 7 Bag from May

The early June tournament, we got most of our fish flipping 3/8oz Black and Blue BassTEK Tungsten jigs on various types of cover for a nice mixed bag of fish.

Kevin Ruh & Rich Lindgren
Grinding to 14lbs & 3rd Place on Pool 8

The other event was a Bass Pursuit event on O’Dowd on June7th, it was a tough bite, but we scratched out a few 2-3lbrs on Dropshot and 3/8oz BassTEK Jigs in Magic Craw on deeper weed edges bordering hard bottom areas.  The weights were so low, we didn’t even both to snap a picture of the fish.

Quick Pic of some Magic Craw Goodness!
Quick Pic of some Magic Craw Goodness!

Next up this week is the annual Pan-O-Prog event on Lake Marion which is close to home.  It always seems to be a grind, but it’s nice to fish a few events close to home.

To close, here is a recent video on a local pond to my house.  I don’t always have a ton of time to get out in the boat, but I sneak a little fishing in when I can, not bad eh?

If you can see the video, click here!

Thanks all & Tight Lines,
Rich

Back at it!

First off, apologize to you long time readers that made the transition to the new site, as you have not been rewarded with new content here.  I am planning on changing that, effective immediately.  While I am not going to promise a new post every day, I do plan to try to do something small every day to make this blog a better site again and get it back to the form it once was.

largemouth bass dobyns rods rich lindgren

When I was forced off my old platform, many of my posts suffered, broken links and lost images.  So some of the most popular posts will get reworked so they are readable and usable again.

Also, I added my Twitter feed on the right side of the page, so that should make things a little more interactive and fresh.  I have also added videos to the video page and freshened up some of the other pages on this website.

And most importantly, try to at least blog a few times a month here instead of a few times a year like last year.

Also, please leave a comment or shoot me a message via Facebook or Twitter and let me know what you would like to see more of here.  Whether it be tips, tournament recaps, videos or other.

I will close with my most recent GoPro video editing from Falcon Lake.

Thanks & Tight Lines!

Rich

BFL’s on a Budget

I think anyone on any level will be quick to admit that making money at tournament fishing can be quite the uphill climb. So I am going to share some of my tips on things you can do to keep your expenses down based on my tournament fishing, specifically last year’s Great Lakes BFL season where I finished 7th in the points in my first season in that circuit.

Rich Lindgren BFL

 

So like I mentioned, you can apply this to most any circuit, but I like the alliteration of BFLs on a Budget! For me, most of my savings comes from my lodging decisions. When I can, I like to stay at campgrounds near where I am fishing and on the water if possible. The nicest campgrounds are usually much cheaper then the lowest end of motels, meaning I can usually camp for an entire practice and event for what many guys spend for one night at most motel/hotels. Not to mention the cost effective motels are often not the newest, cleanest or most secure. Campgrounds have awesome parking situations, plus I feel like they are pretty safe and secure, there are always exceptions, but for the most part, they are like communities where everyone watches each others stuff. Often you can call and get a pretty good rate at campgrounds when you let them know all you need is electric hookup & don’t need full RV hookup.

Some people like tents, but for the most part, I make a bed in the back of my SUV, that way I don’t have to get up early on tournament days to pack up and worry about airing out a dew covered tent when I get home. My bed consists of dense foam camping mat, paired with various layers of sleeping bags and blankets depending on weather. I also like the security of sleeping in a vehicle connected to my boat, like a built in alarm system for my gear. Basically, half my vehicle is a bed and the other half is gear storage for stuff that isn’t in my boat.

The next big piece is to plan ahead for your food. I have a big Igloo Yukon Cooler that I fill with drinks, food & ice before I leave home. I pair that with a brown grocery bag of bread and other dry goods and I am good for my trip. My cooler will last about 4-5 days without having to buy more ice. The ice keeps lunch meat, cheese, sausage sticks, yogurts and other items which keeps a nice variety. That paired with my dry goods, granola bars, nuts, jerky and other reasonably healthy snacks. This ends up being so much cheaper and healthier then fast food or gas station offerings.

igloo-44666-yukon-cold-locker-cooler-50qt_1340203

Getting your food and drinks from grocery stores or a Walmart is much more cost-effective than buying single drinks or snacks on a daily basis from a convenience store. Just about any snack or drink is less than half the cost when bought in carton quantities. Walmart will probably be the best store for grabbing some snacks due to their low prices. Walmart also accepts coupons too, so people could always visit a website like https://www.raise.com/coupons/walmart to see if there are any deals that could be used to bring the total cost down.

The next biggest bucket of savings is doing what you can to be smart with your fuel usage, so if you can leave early enough that you can keep your tow speeds down that will save a chunk of cash. Also, putting in two sun up to sun down days on the water is way cheaper then 3-4 for days of just fishing 9hrs. One of my key components is too make sure my batteries last as much as 14 hours if needed and my Minnkota on board DC charger does that. It recharges my trolling motor batteries from my outboard once the starting battery has been topped off.

I also try to put together a pre-fishing game plan for the few days I have, so that I am being smart with the miles I put on the boat and SUV. Having a buddy to travel helps as well and often you can have each other’s backs as things come up.

2lb practice fish caught on Evolve Nervous Walker Frog
2lb practice fish caught on Evolve Nervous Walker Frog

Hope these tips are helpful or inspire some new thinking or ideas for some of you. Let’s face, unless you are one of the few anglers that wins an event in a season, cashing checks likely won’t cover your expenses if you are spending $90 a night on a hotel and another $30-40 a day on food for every practice and event day, the math just doesn’t work out.


Christmas Gifts & Stocking Stuffers for the Bass Angler

Whoa, been awhile since my last post here, but I have done a little blogging over at the KrugerFarms.com and NBC Sports Blogs, feel free to subscribe to those as well.

But either way, time is rapidly getting away from us for Christmas shopping, so I am going to share some of my ideas on great Xmas gifts for bass fishermen and women.  You may use these ideas to help build a better list for your loved ones or hopefully your loved ones can stumble across this list and use it to get you something cool that fits your passion come Christmas morning.

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Fishing lures make great stocking stuffers, heck you can even hang them from the tree and make them part of the decorations!  So here are a handful of baits that I love, that have a coolness factor and just plain catch bass and will make great stocking stuffers for your favorite bass angler.
Evolve Nervous Walker Frogs
BassTEK Tungsten Jigs
Lake Fork Ring Frys
Soul5 RoverMax 115
Rapala DT6 Crankbaits
Super K 1/4oz Swim Jigs
Evolve Kompak Craws or Darkstar Swimmers

If your loved one is a little more deserving there are a lot of great options out there. Here are a handful of products in the $10 – $50 range that make great gifts.  Beyond tackle, I also listed a few sun protection clothing items, anglers get exposed to a ton of UV rays, so sometimes its best to cover up with good Sun Gear!
Sunline FX2 Frog/Flip Braid
Rapala Touch Screen Scale
Rod Glove Rod Covers
Simms Sun Gloves & Sun Armor

If you need something for someone on the very very good list and want something that will really get their attention under the tree, you might want to think about getting them a new rod or reel.  Other plus cameras and polarized sunglasses make great gifts.
Dobyns 735C or 702SF
Shimano baitcasting or spinning reel at any budget
Costa Del Mar or SPY Polarized Sunglasses
GoPro Camera

If you want to see what is on my personal list, check out my Pinterest board, creating a gift wish list on Pinterest is a great way to keep an active list that you can share with friends and family for Christmas, Birthdays or any gift occasion!

Well Merry Christmas All and Good Fishing!
Rich

Minnesota Fishing Licenses Go Mobile

This is a nice feature from MN DNR, some of our fishing regulations are way out of whack, but this seems like a nice perk!  Technology is great when it can save you time and/or money!

Forgot to buy your license? Then connect to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) mobile licensing page to purchase select fishing and hunting licenses via your smartphone.
skip to main content Minnesota Department of Natural Resources logo
“This service is a convenience for people who need a license when they’re on the go,” said Steve Michaels, DNR license program director. “Not every type of license is offered but the mobile purchase site is ideal for people who have yet to purchase a fishing, small game or state stamp validation and suddenly discover that they need one.”

 Customers who purchase off the mobile site won’t receive a conventional paper license. Instead, they’ll receive a text message or email that serves as proof of a valid fish or game license to state conservation officers. More than 1,100 sales of electronic licenses have been logged since the mobile site’s soft launch in late June.

“The site isn’t, as yet, full service,” Michaels said. “There are features and products in the works. Even so, mobile license purchasing is a convenience DNR has not offered before and the sales numbers show our customers are responding.”

License types available for purchase on the mobile site include short-term angling, individual angling, resident combination angling, resident individual sports, resident combination sports, small game and state stamp validations. Any license that requires a site tag such as deer or turkey is not available for mobile purchase. Once a customer purchases and receives mobile license information by text, email or both, he or she must be able to provide the email or text information to a DNR enforcement officer upon request as proof of a valid license.

Mobile device users will automatically be identified when visiting the DNR website at www.mndnr.gov/buyalicense and selecting the “Purchase” button at the bottom of the page.

See more at: www.thefishingwire.com/story/294617#sthash.Opxb4I18.dpuf type="text/javascript">RADEDITORSAVEDTAGBEGINNINGgoogle_ad_client = "pub-3217652347347486";google_ad_width = 468;google_ad_height = 60;google_ad_format = "468x60_as";google_ad_slot = "";//RADEDITORSAVEDTAGENDING

My February Mystery Tackle Box UnBoxing Experience

I recently signed up for three months of Mystery Tackle Box.  Similar concept as Tackle Grab, or as I said before Fruit of the Month Club for Bass Fisherman.  For roughly about $15 a month, depending on your subscription plan, you get a box of bass fishing lures sent to you door every month.
Mystery Tackle Box

The idea is you get to try new stuff and the box is guaranteed to be worth more then your $15 investment, plus your shipping is included.  They also have an online store where you can buy more of the products you go in your box, so if you like them and catch fish, you can buy more.

So the following is my first un-boxing video:

All in all I feel like my box was decent value.  I was most excited for the Ish Monroe Biggie Square Bill crankbait, that clearly is worth about $9 alone.  The other stuff was a Stanley Jig, which is a decent jig but not for me, I pretty much only use tungsten jigs.  Then I got a couple partial packs of plastics, the Twin Menace seems like a cool bait, the other creature bait was fairly ordinary in my mind.  The box also came with quite a few coupons, so if it happens to be stuff you are in the market for, it could save you some nice change!  If you have not tried the Rod Glove products, give them a whirl, I love them and use them to protect all my Dobyns Fishing Rods!

Stay tuned, more videos in the next two months about my other boxes!


Minnesota Anglers Expo + Coupon

Between the big St. Paul and Minneapolis sport shows is this weekend’s MN Anglers Expo in Blaine.  Last year in April the same group put on a very good 1st year Bass Expo, to get better traction, they have changed it to the Anglers Expo and moved it up to February.

If you have the fishing bug like I do, I encourage you to take in this show this weekend.  I plan to be there all day on Saturday, when I am not walking around taking in the expo you will likely find me hanging around the KrugerFarms.com booth.

Kruger Farms is sure to have a wide selection of fishing gear and if you have been thinking about checking out a Dobyns Rod, Kruger Farms is sure to have a wide selection to check out, plus many other show specials!  Either way, make sure to stop & say hello.

Also, below is a $1 Off Admission coupon I came across to share with you.