All posts by hellabass

General, Product Reviews

Fresh Baits Getting Bit in Florida

There are lot of newer baits and prototypes making several pros lots of money as of late.  Here are a couple examples:

Skeet Reese seems to have found his dominating form again.  While he caught plenty of fish on his name sake Pit Boss & a jig.  He claims that he got several key big bites on a new Berkley Havoc Sick Fish swimbait.

Photo by Tom Leogrande

Then the week before, the new Havoc Rocket Craw fueled his high finish on the St. John’s River.  Skeet tells us in this video that the bait was designed by FLW Pro Scott Suggs.

Photo by BASS & Seigo Saito

Back to the Big O, Ish Monroe dominated the field and the big fish on a new beaver style creature / flipping bait called the D Bomb from Missle Baits.


Ish used the D Bomb on a heavy tungsten weight with punch skirt and on a Medlock Jig.

Yes, the same Medlock jig that Brandon Medlock won an FLW tournament earlier this year and the year before.  Check out Monster Fishing tackle to buy the Medlock Jig online.

So if you are an angler that has to have the goods, might want to keep a close eye on some of these hot baits.  The D Bomb and Medlock jig are available to buy now and I expect the Sick Fish & Rocket craw will come out around July and ICAST.

 

Bass Fishing Podcasts, BASS Tour, Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner, Multimedia

March Madness

Since my office bracket had Missouri over Florida State, I am not talking about the NCAA basketball tournament.  The madness that is going on for me, is frantically preparing my boat for the early open water this year, listing more stuff in my Bass
Fishing
eBay
Store, because I have been on a tackle organization kick and trying to keep momentum going after picking winners in the last two fantasy fishing events.

So this week, the Elite Series is on the Big O.  If you have not checked out BassRankings.com, its a great new site for doing Fantasy Fishing research and keeping up with which pros are fishing the best!

So here are my picks:

As always, check out our podcast page to get more insight to these picks and some of my runner up choices for each bucket and my co-hosts picks (use their picks at your own risk).  Good stuff can be found at BassUtopia.com as well!

Also, I finally got around to making a quick video from my Lake Falcon trip back in December.  We had terrible wind & rain, so not much video to work with.


Also, I will be posting several G-Loomis rods and other tackle in my Bass
Fishing
eBay
Store over the next few weeks, going to be replacing them with Dobyns Rods!

Also, MLF Spoiler Alert!!! Congrats to Brent Ehrler, showing he is truly an elite angler!

 

Bass Fishing Podcasts, BASS Tour, Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner, Multimedia

Basketball smasketball….

Sure this is an exciting week because of March Madness, but what has me all geeked out right now is the warm weather in Minnesota, on the bring of open water bass fishing in March and the Bassmaster Elite Series starting tomorrow on the St. John’s River.  So here are my picks, listen to the podcast to get the 411 and the logic.




Podcast Powered By Podbean


Mean while, I need to remember to call tomorrow and check if my hot foot will be done so I can pick my boat up before the weekend!   I did fill out a few NCAA brackets, but I spent more time thinking about my Fantasy Fishing lineup.

Still need to get caught up on the latest Major League Fishing episode.

Bass Fishing Podcasts, Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner, FLW Tour, Fun Fishing

2012 Bass Closer & More

I did get out fishing for a few hours on the Minnesota Bass Closer, it was hard to leave the laptop and all the Bassmater Classic coverage, but I decided catching was better then watching.  Air temperatures were tolerable, but the wind was ridiculous.  I did catch 7 smallmouth pretty darn quick on a homemade smallie beaver bait on a 1/8oz shakey head.
 
Then the bite just died on me, I switched to a jerkbait and only mustered one follow.  Next up was an Ima Square Bill and that produced 3 nice chunky smallmouth to round out the trip.  It is always nice to catch a few open water winter bass to keep the cabin fever at a minimum.  On a positive note, it was 55 degrees and in all likely hood I will be fishing the Mississippi River in March and catching a few bass out of my boat.

I continue to be tuning into Major League Fishing every week, and it continues to be a solid product.  This week in the first Sudden Death Elimination round, 6 anglers fished for two spots, the first two to get to 40lbs moved on, the rest eliminated.  Spoiler Alert: Cream rose to the top, KVD & Ehrler advanced.  KVD DOMINATED!

FLW Hartwell tournament starts on Thursday, still time to lock in a Fantasy Fishing roster or make last minute adjustments.  Below is my roster, soon a Podcast will post here, breaking it all down!

Lake Hartwell

SELECTED WINNER


 

BASS Tour

2012 Bassmaster Classic Final Day – Red River

If you were glued to your laptop. tablet or phone all day you probably had a pretty good idea that this was going to be a two horse race at the final weigh-in.  BASS does a good job of getting you a feel of what is going on and who the players are but leave just enough detail out to make it exciting to watch the final weigh-ins online and the following weekend on ESPN2.

Congratulations to Chris Lane on becoming the 42nd Bassmaster Classic champion.  More details will come out this week with exact details on locations, lures and patterns, but I think there are a few things that are already interesting. 
Chris Lane
Photo by James Overstreet

I thought the biggest part of Chris Lane’s victory was his game plan and his decision to fish a pattern rather then just devote his Classic hopes to a single area.  He really did the best job of managing his fish, the spectators and executed very well.  Day 1 he milked an area for a solid 16lbs bag that tied him with his brother for 6th.  Then on day 2, he fished completely new areas feeling his day 1 spot was depleted.  He fished in both pools 4 & 5, locking midday.  Part of the reason was, he thought spectators could be an issue in his Pool 5 area, so he chose to lock down to start his day in 4 and then return midday to finish up and fish for bigger fish in a smaller area and maximize the end of his day closer to the ramp.

Pile of used Ugly Otters building up on Day 3 of his Classic Victory!

He credits a few G4 tube bait from Luck E Strike and a Gambler Ugly Otter creature bait, predominantly in Bowen’s Silver.

It was awesome to watch another angler achieve a life long dream and secure a career in personal bass fishing, seems like every time someone other then KVD wins a classic, I get goose bumps and chills as the scale locks in and they clinch victory!

 

BASS Tour

2012 Bassmaster Classic Day 2 – Red River

As expected, things changed on day 2, from the weather to the conditions to the fish to the leaderboard, it was a ripple effect.  Greg Vinson still holds down the runner up spot, but instead of being an ounce behind Mr. Poche he is a full pound behind a surging Chris Lane who brought a tournament’s best 19lbs 4oz to the scale today.

Photo by James Overstreet

For me, their were two surprises today following today’s coverage, there is a fair amount of sight fishing happening as bass are moving up on beds and the other was Timmy Horton’s super sweet throwback jump suit.  I didn’t expect bedding fish to be factor, but it is obviously happening.  Even sweeter was Horton’s tournament attire, I am guessing he will wear it again tomorrow as he was tied for 3rd biggest bag of the day.

The top two anglers do have a little distance from the pack, but not much.  I think it is pretty wide open down through the top 6 or so and the top 12 are still in the game.  Outside of the top 12, it would take some serious 20lb plus bags and some stumbling on top to make that happen. All reports point this to being a grinder’s tournament, jigs and soft plastics seem to be dominating.

Everything is shaping up to be another exciting Bassmaster Classic final day!  I am putting my money on Vinson, but Lane is surging, either way a huge career booster for either angler!

On a side note, my fantasy team surged from 19% to 45% and I still got 3 guys alive fishing day 3 that can move me up, but only 1 is a any threat at all for the top spot, which is Keith Combs and he is a long shot at 11th.

 

BASS Tour, Multimedia

2012 Bassmaster Classic Day 1 – Red River

Interestingly enough the top of day one’s leaderboard is not held down by the biggest stars in bass fishing.  The top spot is held down by a home grown Cajun by the name of Keith Poche with a stout 17lbs 13oz, but his lead is ultra slim as Alabama’s Greg Vinson is only a single ounce behind.  Quite possibly the bigger issue for the leaders is the 6 anglers with 16lb bags right on their heels and there are some heavy hitters in that bunch of anglers (Edwin Evers, Lane Brothers, Ott Defoe, David Walker & Dustin Wilks). See Full Standings

Photo by Seigo Seito

The top two anglers have nearly a 2lb lead over the next group and a positive for them is that they both commented that they did not have much company and have a good amount of water to themselves.  This could be a very positive sign over the next two days for Poche & Vinson, but I would be very afraid of Evers and Walker, look for these guys to make a move tomorrow.

In all reality, anybody with 10lbs or more are not completely out of it if they can put 18-20lbs on the scales the next two days.  Overnight lows are supposed to drop a bit tonight and tomorrow is supposed to be cooler, calm & sunny.  This is more then likely to cause a shake up in the leaderboard come tomorrow afternoon.  So yes, anglers like KVD are still in this, but they need to make a move tomorrow to be in the hunt on Sunday.

Man do I regret taking Keith Poche out of my fantasy fishing line-up and inserting Brandon Palaniuk during our podcast on Wednesday

Make sure to tune into Bassmaster.com tomorrow, great coverage from BassCam, War Room, & BassTrakk, but do keep in mind, there are always errors on the BassTrakk.

We’ll close out this entry with a neat little video from Poche’s practice….

 

Bass Fishing Podcasts, BASS Tour, Contests, Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner

Ready for the 2012 Classic?

While a February Bassmaster Classic almost assures it will never be in my back yard, I do admit it if fun to look forward to this time of year.  Today was the last official day of practice for the 49 anglers, tomorrow is media day and the tournament action starts Friday morning  Hopefully we do not have the fog delays that plagued the 2011 Bassmaster Classic.

For those that have been part of my Fantasy Fishing leagues in the past, I have joined forces with Bass Utopia.  So join the Bass Utopia League, they will be doling out the prizes, I think the winner of Classic week will be winning a Abu Garcia Veritas flipping stick!!!!  So be sure to join the group, play every week and you could be a winner!

If you need help picking a lineup, check out our Fantasy Fishing Insider podcast.  Too lazy for that, check out my starting lineup for this year’s Classic.  I will be posting my lineups here all season long, but you will have to tune into the podcast to get the logic and details.

Along with the Classic, comes the itch to start buying tackle and gear, so to make room, I have been adding things to my eBay store this week, so check it out for some bargains!

Also, quick report on the 2nd Elimination Round from Major League Fishing, it may have been more exciting then the first show.  Couple of notables:
Alabama Rig or Meat Rake was a factor again
IKE goes psycho, big surprise???
Jerkbait is a major player again
Flipping Bite is found

Anticipation grows for the next episode, waiting a week between episodes has been only downside thus far…



Announcements, General, Product Reviews

Early Returns on Major League Fishing

I finally finished up watching first webisode of Major League fishing.  I signed up for the the $18 Bass Pass which either gets me all the events or you can pay $3 per event.  The first episode at the Challenge Cup at Lake Amistad was 114 minutes long, so for $3 you are going to get 8-10 hours of web coverage, pretty sound deal.  I got a basement of $3 soft plastics not getting used right now.

The format is pretty unique, preliminary rounds where top 4 move on & bottom 4 go home, real-time scoring shared with all competitors, penalties, 3 periods of fishing, cumulative weights & no limits, immediate catch & release, restricted fishing areas, no practice, no GPS coordinates,  I am sure we will find out more new stuff.

Cool Highlights from Round 1:
No Surprise KVD gets of to great start on a 6XD
Aaron Martens whines some
Jason Quinn does some work on Alabama Rig
KVD switches to what looks like MegaBass ITO 110 jerkbait late day, definitely not a Strike King Wild Shiner
Brent Ehrler & others spin out based on results from real time leader-board
Jack Link’s Sasquatch makes several appearances, always entertaining

But for me, the coolest things what to get an inside look how these pros break down water with only 15 minutes of scouting and make on the water adjustments.  If you are bass enthusiast or tournament angler, I say this is definitely worth the money!

Watch the podcast page, our next episode will break down the MLF in more detail.



Bass Fishing Podcasts, Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner, Fun Fishing, Multimedia

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.




Podcast Powered By Podbean

Rich