All posts by hellabass

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.




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Rich
 

Fun Fishing, Multimedia

Finally a few smallmouth

Been a slow winter bass fishing for me this winter, the weather has been great, but time commitments have made it near impossible as of late.  I had not caught a Minnesota bass since November!  On the bright side, I did make a November trip to Lake of the Ozarks, a December trip to Lake Falcon & caught a Sailfish in Playa del Carmen, so I am guessing I will not get many sympathy comments from the faithful blog readers.

Even with all that, I was feeling some urgency to get my first 2012 bass under my belt and the Minnesota bass season closes at end of February for awhile, so my window was shrinking.  So against my better judgement I set out for some fishing this past Sunday in weather temps that I would normally pass on, 14 degrees with wind chill of 1.

It ended up being not too bad other then not being able to feel my hands and fingers after touching wet fish a few times.  I ended up with 16 smallmouth, mostly 2-3lb chunky fish, all came on a Shakey Beaver combo except for one on an Ima Square Bill. (See video for Shakey Beaver rigging).  My fishing buddy for the day got 6 nice smallmouth on soft plastics as well, he wore better gloves and did not get frost bit fingers like this guy.  Also of note, unbelievable how my DX 782 Dobyns spinning rod launches lights baits & gives great leverage when fishing from waders, super sweet setup with a 4000 size spinning reel.
 
But on a positive note, I can report near normal feeling in my right fingertips as I type this blog.  Which is good, because I plan to brave the cold to chase some winter largemouth this weekend!

FISH ON!

Announcements, Multimedia, Product Reviews

Sneak Peak into New Zayta Rods from Dobyns

Dobyns Rods have risen quickly to become a very popular rod among casual bass anglers to the most serious tournament anglers alike.  Their roots are definitely on the west coast, but they have quickly expanded their market and popularity across the United States and beyond.

At last year’s ICAST they launched the Coalition Series and the Savvy Micro series and now this year they will debut the new high end Zayta Series rods.  These rods will incorporate 3M Nano Matrix resins to build a rod lighter and more sensitive then their popular Champion Extreme Series.  This 3M resin is used in other high end rods like G-Loomis NRX and St. Croix Elites. 


Photo Courtesy of Tackle Tour – Follow Link for more pics!

Prototypes of these rods were on display at the recent ISE show in California.  You can read initial reviews from Tackle Tour and also check out this video of Gary Dobyns himself taking about the new Zayta series and the growing Coalition Weapons Series.  As Gary claims, “This will be the best rod money can buy”!

As a Dobyns fan and enthusiast, I will be anxious to add a Zayta or two to my lineup in the near future!  Just to be clear, its Zayta, not Zeta!



Fun Fishing

Back From Playa

It was a much needed break, relaxing with the wife and another couple at the beautiful Grand Mayan resort just North of Playa del Carmen in Mexico.  So that and the holidays is the reason for the lack of activity hear on the blog.

I did get out fishing for half of a morning, nothing special, but we did “Luck” into a sailfish right before the morning trip ended.  It was pretty cool to feel how hard a 40-50lb class sailfish pulls and that is not big by any means for a sailfish.  Check out the pics and the video.

On a positive note, feel pretty recharged and the warm weather definitely gave the fishing bug big time!



Fun Fishing

Quick Falcon Lake Trip

This past weekend I finally got down to see my Dad and fish with him on Lake Falcon.  A bit of a whirlwind trip and only two days of hard fishing.  The weather was about 15-20 degrees cooler then normal for Zapata, TX this time of year.  The cooler temperatures seemed to temper the fishes’ attitude a little but we still caught some good fish.

My Dad spent some time practicing before I got there and had one really good area identified and it didn’t take but about 10 minutes to get the first bite, it was only a 2 pounder on Brush Hog it felt good to swing back on a largemouth which feels good to a Minnesotan in December.  A few minutes later I got another fish on the Brush Hog, I then tried one of my new Kinky Beavers in Okeechobee Craw, quickly caught a bass and then got a pretty good fish on, turned out to be a good sized catfish.  Shortly after the cat, I got a nice 5 plus pound fish on the Kinky Beaver.  Just after I got my limit of fish by switching back to the big brush hog, my Dad loaded up on a good’un, soon I helped him scoop a 9lbr into the net that fell for a dark jig.

I worked hard throwing several baits, and I ended up catching around 15 bass and got a few 6lb class fish, but the 9lbr was the highlight of the day.  I caught some nice fish power shotting a Lake Fork Hyper Freak.  We caught quite a few 4-6 lb fish and our best 5 would have weighed over 34lbs.  The best area was a channel drop with hard wood on the top of a 4-6ft ledge dropping into 20-25ft.

We started in this area early on Sunday, but the water was 3 degrees cooler and there were 2 boats already there.  A few fish were being caught by the other boats and us included, but size seemed to be down, as I quickly caught a fish on a jig, but it was only about 2lbs.  After the other boats slid away from the sweet spot, my Dad bowed up on another dandy, it went 10-07 which fell for a Mag Fluke.  We fished hard the rest of the day and mixed in some other areas, ended up with 13 fish, good ones were tough to come by, but my dad got 7-10 just before dark of a rock pile in about 8ft of water on a Carolina Rigged Magnum Fluke.

Weather and short amount of time, limited the amount of video that I was able to shoot, but I will put together a few clips soon and probably embed it in here when it is done.  In the mean time, check out my photo album here.

For those of you that want to fish Falcon but are a little worried, after visiting I have no apprehension or worries about returning to do some more bass fishing.  You are more likely to get mugged at your local shopping mall then run into trouble down on Falcon Lake.  My only complaint, is that the trip was far too brief!



Fun Fishing, General, Multimedia

Making Lemonade

About 11 months ago, I had a whole pile of lemons and now I about to have glass of super sweet lemonade this weekend.  Early in January, you may have read this blog post about I how I justified to myself that it wasn’t so bad that a dream trip to fish in Mexico fell apart in the 11th hour.

It was a tough pill to swallow at the time, but my airline ticket was purchased in my name by the would be sponsor of the trip, so I had a nice credit with US Airways in my name, well this weekend I am using that credit for a flight to San Antonio and driving down to Lake Falcon to fish with my father.

Bummer that I don’t have some extra time off at work to fish more then Saturday & Sunday, but I’ll take my chances for two days on Falcon.  My dad has been dialing in on a deep bite lately.

I am going to pack the video cameras, so I hope to get some good footage of some Falcon monster to share with you in the near future!  Goals for this trip:
Exceed personal best of 8.3lbs
Double Digit Bass
Whack some Bass & Have FUN!

Here is a video of Tom Redington & Justin Rackley whacking some Falcon Bass from last week!

Leave a comment if you got any tips on the bite down there right now



General

Sneak Peak into Major League Fishing (MLF)

If you follow bass fishing, you have probably seen rumblings from Boyd Duckett, few other anglers, BassFan.com and a few other outlets about Major League Fishing (MLF).  A few weeks back they held their first event on Lake Amistad, but interesting enough, no results posted to internet or shared in the news.

Supposedly there are some real unique things to MLF format, real-time weights for whole field, so you can see what your competition is doing and results for public won’t be released until it airs on Outdoor Channel of pay-per-view web format. These are supposed to be ready for viewing sometime in 2012.

Other cool things, its only 24 anglers, supposed to be a week long event, no gps coordinates coming into event and immediate catch, weigh,  & release.  This week they also released a few photo albums on Facebook.

Looks like all competitors are fishing from BassCats or Nitro Z7 boats.  Most anglers have very similar jerseys, not the full customization you see on the Elites Series.  Also, Bass Pro, Scott’s, Geico, Busch Beer, & Jack Links appear to be a few of the key sponsors.

Supposedly the new style is made for the TV and internet fans, so it will be exciting to see how this all unfolds!