All posts by hellabass

Bay De Noc Practice Days 1 and 2

August 10, 2009 hellabass

I drove pretty much straight through from MN to the UP on Friday night/Saturday morning so I could start fishing early on Saturday morning for the Northern Divisional that would start on Wednesday. I arrived around Cedar River area at about 8am, I was greeted with 6 foot plus waves, I fished a little in the harbor and caught a northern and headed 8 miles out to Whaleback Shoal, I found it to windy to fish when I got there. It was time to meet a team member Tim back at the landing. We headed up to Ford River area, had a couple bites but no fish. We then decided to check into our cabin for the evening at Lindberg’s Cove up in Gladstone, great resort right on the lake! Tim and I decided we needed to catch a fish before dinner. We goofed around, ended up catching 1 keeper largemouth on a white Super K swim jig and then Tim got a nice smallie on a tube, we also caught a few short fish, time for dinner and bed.

Day 2 we tried more deep areas, fishing breaks with weeds and rocks, could not believe we were not finding any fish. Finally, it was calm, so we decided to head towards Big Bay de Noc. Right before it was time to head back, we found a school of fish on some sand and rock mix in about 6-8ft of water. I ended up catching one nice smallmouth on a 5″ Tru-Tungsten dart worm (watermelon/purple) on a 1/8oz Flea Flicker head. There were a lot more fish there, so we headed back to check into our hotel in Escanaba.

Not the greatest start to practice, but Tim and I were optimistic we were on the verge of something….

Rich
RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner, FLW Tour, Tournament Info

Too Busy….

August 6, 2009 hellabass

Traveling the past two weeks, so this blog entry will try to get me all caught up in one shot. I was home last weekend between trips, my buddy Ryan Brant decided to fish the Celebration OUtdoors tournament on Lake Marion kind of last minute. Neither of us had fished Marion since last summer, but we thought it would be fun none the less. We did not get to practice at all, so we had a couple ideas and decided to start on one of our favorite deeps spots. We fished the area pretty good and only had 1 missed bite. We then tried a few shallow areas, we caught a couple shorts and then I got a good bite on my favorite 3/8oz Green Pumpkin/Brown Tru-Tungsten jig using a 3″ Green Pumpkin Chigger craw as a trailer, it ended up being about 3.5lbs. Definitely a good first fish! The next are we fished was a mid-depth area that usually has good coontail clumps, after a few casts I got a decent 2lb fish on my jig and that was the only bite we got there. The next area was shallow again and I popped 3 keepers pretty quick on my jig, nothing special by any means, we would need to cull several of them to contend on Lake Marion. Shorty after that, Ryan caught a nice almost 3lb bass on a frog out of a small clump of pads. Then we jumped to another shallow area and I stuck a another nice 3.5lbs bass. We tried two more deeps areas without a single bite and then made a decision to spend the last two hours dedicated to shallow water. Ryan caught a few more fish on jigs, but none that helped, on my last cast I got broke off by what felt like a good bite on a dock. We though we had around 13-14lbs for 5 fish, which on Lake Marion normally is not that great, but we optimistic to at least make the bottom end of the checks. We were the last boat to weigh-in, and as we watched and watched the small bags, we were in disbelief, with us and one other boat to weigh, the leader was only 12lbs. We knew we had more then that, but the bag just before us ended up being a whopping 21lb plus bag. So we ended up at 13.91lbs and 2nd place, so Ryan and I got a nice $700 check to split and some spiffy little trophies. Not bad for no practice or effort of preparation. Regardless, it was fun fishing a team event with a good buddy!

Here are our 2 biggest from Lake Marion Celebration Tourney

Congrats to Greg Hackney on his Forrest Wood Cup championship on Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers. A great victory for a guy that had traditionally not shown well in season end championships like th FLW Cup and Bassmaster Classics. I also like that fact that he kind of stuck it to FLW a bit, because they would have obviously preferred it if one of their main FLW pros would have won, not a traditional BASS guy. THis is quite evident based on the coverage of the FLW Series East-West fish-off on Lake Falcon, where Hackney destroyed the field and almost broke a 4 day weight record in 3 days, and Hackney got almost no TV coverage when that program aired. Hackney used several baits en route to his win, but he gives credit to a 1/4oz Pro-Model Spinnerbait in Golden Shiner and a Strike Kingd Ocho rigged on a Tru-Tungsten Flea Flicker jig to catching many of his key fish.

Watch for a preview to Oneida Fantasy Fishing lineup for next week. Tomorrow night I leave for Escanaba, MI to fish the Federation Nation northern divisional on Lake Michigan. It is a tad intimidating to tackle 120,000 acres of wide open water and at the same time very excited to tackle some big great lake smallmouth bass. Not to mention, this being my 4th Northern Divisional, I am really focused on trying to make it to the Fed Nationals from this tournament.

Wish me Luck!
Rich
RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Product Reviews, Sponsors

IMA Emailer – August 2009

August 5, 2009 hellabass

banner

Welcome to the IMA Emailer — August 2009 Issue – The IMA EMAILER brings you news from IMA pro staff members across the USA and worldwide. For more on these lures, www.imalures.com

Is it hot where you live? If it’s not, please, please tell us where you reside so we can travel there.

Whether you live in Florida, California, Alabama or Minnesota, hot weather is the norm this time of year. A few weeks ago the IMA Elite Series pros traveled to Lake Oneida in upstate New York and encountered 90-plus temperatures every day. South Carolina pro-staffer Michael Murphy went to Dardanelle in Arkansas and sweated non-stop for his entire stay. This week he’s at Clarks Hill closer to home and it’s more of the same.

While you’re sweating, so are the bass. Well, not literally — they live in water, after all — but the summer heat affects them the same way it does you. They can’t go sit in the shade with a tall glass of sweet tea or lemonade, but they still want to take it easy nonetheless.

Fortunately for us, fish still have to feed in the summer, even during the hottest periods. Just as a hot bowl of soup might not tempt you right now, their taste buds are fickle. With that in mind, we went to some of the IMA pros to learn what they’re doing to turn the summer doldrums into big catches.

Ohio’s Bill Lowen may be the ultimate shallow water fanatic. If his trolling motor isn’t kicking up mud, he’s not happy. So when he hits the major impoundments and the mercury is nearing triple digits, you probably won’t find him sitting on a hump or ledge unless he absolutely has to do it.

“This time of year I like to go up the rivers,” he said. “Those fish are current-oriented and I target laydowns and log jams.”

He’s not particular about which wood he fishes. It’s all golden to him as long as it’s close to deep water, which in this case can mean as little as a few inches at the base of the logs and 4 or 5 feet at the end of the portion that extends furthest. But he is particular about the lures that he uses, and in many instances his number one tool is an IMA Shaker crankbait.

“Being from Ohio, I grew up fishing all the handmade balsas and this is pretty much identical,” he said. “You want to deflect it off any cover you can find.” Sometimes a worm or a jig won’t trigger the strikes and a spinnerbait isn’t as natural, so the Shaker gets the job done.

“When it’s 90 degrees the baitfish are still up there, so I go with a shad pattern,” he continued. “It’s more natural so you get a better reaction.”

While cranking often involves light line to maximize diving depths, that’s not a concern in this case, so Lowen gets rid of his 10 or 12 pound line and spools up with 15 or 17 pound well rope. “I’m not concerned with getting it on the bottom,” he said. “And once they’re buttoned, you can get them out of the nasty stuff real fast.” You may end up surprised at how shallow some of the biggest fish in the lake can live.

With his background in fisheries biology, Michael Murphy can explain how depleted summer oxygen levels slow down the metabolism of the bass, but it’s enough to know that they, like you, just want things a little cooler. Often, on lakes throughout the mid-south, that forces them down about 10 feet.

But just because you have them pegged doesn’t mean they’re catchable. Those suspended fish are some of the toughest of the year to catch. Murphy found that to be the case at Dardanelle earlier this month, where he figured out a little something and sacked a monstrous (for that event) 11 pound limit on the third day to vault into the money.

“It was super-tough and the fish were suspending,” he recalled. “That happens a lot this time of year. They sometimes get to suspending out on deep points or in the guts of coves.” The key then, he added, is to find the shad. They too are growing quickly so they can’t hide in the shallows any more. They bunch up and the fish keep tabs on them.

Murphy uses two IMA baits to keep tabs on them himself. The first is the Rock N Vibe lipless crankbait. He uses it to cover a lot of water and trigger reaction strikes. “Despite what people may thing, that tight wobble is not just for spring,” he said. “It’s good any time their metabolism is low.”

His second tool is the IMA Skimmer topwater bait. After all, what could be better for the Dog Days than a lure that makes it easier to “walk the dog” than anything that comes before it. It too is a great fish locator, but it particularly excels when fish are breaking the surface during their brief spasms of activity. The Skimmer casts a country mile and nothing on the market today resembles an injured shad more closely.

With both lures Murphy favors patterns that resemble baitfish and have “as much flash as possible.” He typically throws them on a 7 foot medium-heavy baitcasting rod and 12 lb. Big Game monofilament. “I keep it simple,” he said.

As the mercury near his home rarely dips below 80 this time of year, with 90s more the norm, Captain Karl Bunch has stayed busy with the red hot bassing of the Upper Chesapeake Bay. The bay’s grasses are thick, lush and green this time of year, and like most anglers Capt. Karl spends plenty of time frogging with his favorite Optimum Furbit and punching the mats with big weights and small soft plastics. But he said that anyone who puts his hard baits away right now is committing fishing suicide.

“We released the Rattlin’ Roumba at the perfect time,” he said. Has his brain gotten a little baked in the hot Maryland sun? Hardly. He’s probing the outer grass edges on the Upper Bay and its tributaries with the hottest wake bait on the market.

“I’m looking for eelgrass mixed with hydrilla and milfoil,” he continued. “It’s like a nice umbrella for the bass to cool down under. You want to run that bait down the edges as close to the grass without getting caught in it. That outside edge is closer to deep water and on a lower tide that’s where they’re more comfortable.”

The results have been nothing less than remarkable. As others have complained about tough fishing, Capt. Karl and his clients have caught, photographed and released a parade of 4-, 5- and 6-pounders.

He retrieves the lure on the surface, “just fast enough to make a nice steady wake.” How does he know when it’s time to go to this presentation? Typically it’s when he starts getting a lot of short strikes on the frog. “They have the heart but they don’t have the energy,” he said.

When it’s comparatively clear, he’ll start with Blue Shad, but if there’s a bit of run-off he can’t wait to throw out his special “Double Cheeseburger,” which resembles a bluegill or yellow perch. “That produces by far the most and biggest fish,” he said. When he wants to create even more ruckus, he’ll add a hitchhiker and a Double Diamond swimbait to the rear hook hanger.

On days when you could fry an egg on the sidewalk, when just a trip to the mailbox requires two Gatorades, it’s easy to stay inside in the air-conditioned comfort of home. But just because you and the fish are lethargic doesn’t mean that you can’t fool them into biting. Pack up some cold drinks, a lot of sunscreen and some key IMA baits and head to the water — there will be time for comfort, and fish stories, later on.
FIND ALL THESE GREAT IMA BAITS @

Tournament Info

Bassmaster Weekend Series Tourney at Prairie Du Chien – 2009

July 28, 2009 hellabass

Sunday was my 3rd Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament of this year. In general river fishing suits my fishing strengths well, so even though I had not fished this strech of river in about 10 years, i still felt I could compete down there. I ended up getting 3 full practice days inn. Fishing both pools 9 and 10, based on that, I really felt I had two areas in Pool 9 that could produce a potentail winning bag.

I am not sure what happened, we got a lot of rain and most things got muddied, but my area remained in great shape, but the fish seemed to have vanished. Long story short, I was back at the lock around 11am and neither myself or partner had a fish in the livewell. We hit a rock point just below the lock, nothing happening there. At that time, I pushed the panic button and went to the area I was most confident that I could get a keeper bite and put at least one in the well. It was a shallow flat backwater area with just a little wood, but for some reason there was some bait in the area. Turns out I caught 4 keepers pretty quickly pitching a Sweet Beaver on a 1/4oz Tru-Tungsten sinker. My partner lost one that seemed to be good as well. It was now decision time, should I stay and try to catch another small keeper?

I decided that the decision was no, I must go find bigger fish. With 4 fish in the well, I knew I had a decent points finish, the smart decision was to shift gears and try for a check. It did not work out, but I am still happy with the decision, it is the right mentatility to have to do well in the long run.

Sorry no pictures, 4 fish for 7.5lbs and a 41st place finish is hardly picture worthy. I am still hanging in at 7th in the points, well in the position to fish the regional if I choose to do so. I am not fishing the La Crosse event, to much going on with the Norther Divisional event in Escanaba, MI.

Til next time!
RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner, Product Reviews, Sponsors

FLW Fantasy Fishing Group Prizes Keep on Giving!

July 24, 2009 hellabass

Hey all,

Got some great feedback on some fish catches on the some of the prizes given away on my FLW Fantasy Fishing group from the Lake Norman event. Mychal proves that the west side bass like their Tru-Tungsten hand pour worms!

“I got the Tru-Tungsten worms and you even sent them in green pumpkin… you are the man! Put them to use yesterday, attached is a picture of the 4lb result. I just figured I’d let you know that this one definitely worked for your sponsors, I am picking up a few more packs tomorrow after work, awesome worms, I was fishing senkos most of the day but things started to slow down, popped the TT’s on and the fish kept eating them up (not to mention they last a hell of a lot longer than senkos). Take care man.
Mychal Boerman”

If anyone else has had success with their prizes, feel free to drop me an email as well. Thanks for the feedback Mychal!
RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

General

Catch Up Time

July 22, 2009 hellabass

Man not enough time to blog in the day these days….

Couple things to update on:
null Check out this 7lb 2oz pig that Richard Wong caught from a local metro lake, see a story here. Hard to believe this thing did not weigh more, guess it was lacking in length, but not girth! Either way, I am sure Mark Zona would label this as a “Man Bear Pic”, “Slaunch Kong” or “Fence Panda”!!!

I had a fairly rough practice down on Mississippi River this past weekend. I was practicing for an upcoming Bassmaster Weekend Series. I fish both Pools 9 & 10, not much current in either pool, made it tough to pin down any schools of fish. Got a couple areas that have some potential, one more day to nail them down before practice.

I actually just add a new tournament to my tournament schedule, I will be fishing the Celebration Bass Tournament on August 1st on Lake Marion with my buddy Ryan Brant. Because of scheduling reasons, we did not get to fish the Pan-O-Prog tourney this year, so this should be a fun replacement!

We are up to 95 email subscribers, don’t be afraid to join in. Also, my Bassin’ Insider Blog is doing very well on VersusCountry.com, you should check it out, plenty of original content you will not find here.

Also, I am planning to do an ICAST product and lure review, hope to get that done soon. It really was a blast this year, following all the Twitter and blog updates from the people attending the show.

Also, I think I am getting close to selling a few things on ebay, bit of a mid summer sale, so keep an eye out for that.

Well, guess that is it for now, hopefully I get another entry in before this weekend’s tournament, but if not wish me luck!
RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

All About Bass Shows, Multimedia

All About Bass – Episode 2 – Part 1 – Practicing on Mississippi River

July 16, 2009 hellabass

Episode 2 of “All About Bass” is finally off the production floor and ready for viewing. This episode brings us to the Mississippi River Pool 4, where I am practicing for an upcoming Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament. Little bit like Joe Thomas’ “Angler On Tour” show that used to be on the Outdoor Channel.

In this segment, I pick apart a backwater cut with a few different baits:
3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Jig – PB&J
1/4oz Super K Swim Jig – Blue
Strike King Game Hawg – Bama Bug on 3/16oz TT Weight & 3/0 Youvella OWG hook

Segment 2 will be coming soon, so check back to the blog often. Or better yet, consider signing up with Email or RSS subscription so you never miss an episode! You can also find these videos by searching YouTube or checking out MN Sun Newspapers or check out My YouTube Channel.

“All About Bass” is produced, photographed and directed by mnsun.com editor Greg Huff. If you are a professional in the fishing and/or boating industry and have a story idea, a product to test, or would like to sponsor a segment of the show, contact Greg at ghuff@acnpapers.com.

For email subscriber or those viewing on readers that will not load the video, click here to watch video.

RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Tournament Info

Knife Lake – Gopher Bassmasters Tournament – July 12, 2009

July 15, 2009 hellabass

I was able to get up to Knife Lake on Friday night for about 3 hours to scout the lake for my tournament that was on Sunday, prior to that I had never been on the lake. I did catch a few fish, but nothing bigger then about 2lbs, learned my way around the lake anyways. Because of some last minute adjustments, I ended up fishing alone in this tournament and there for was last boat to take off. So I decided to just start by the landing. After working the shallows with buzzbaits, frogs, jigs and a chatterbait, I decided to toss my Carolina Rig out from one of the small points, it did not take long to put a nice solid keeper in the boat on a ring fry. I ended up catching one more fish on the C-Rig and another on a Chompers Twin Tail Grub on a TackleSmith Tungsten Bronzeback Football head jig. Not too long after that, I picked up two smaller keepers on a chart/white Fishing Magician VooDoo. Fished a few docks along there and got nothing on them early.

I then decided to head down to near the bridge where I got a few decent bites on Friday evening, I ended up catching a few really small keepers, not what I had hoped. I kind of bounced around a bit, finally got a nice 3lb bite on a dock with my 1/2oz Black Blue Tru-Tungsten jig with Blk/Blu Rage chunk. I spent most of the day hopping around fishing banks and rocky areas, catching fish here & there, but nothing that really helped my bag. After lunch the sun started popping out, so for the last 90 minutes I decided to commit to fishing docks with my Tru-Tungsten jig and cover water. The afternoon dock bite really seem to go, as I caught about 10 fish in that time and caught my two biggest fish.

My final weight ended up being 14.59lbs which was barely good enough for first place, I really thought it would take more weight to win this lake, I think we caught it on a bad day. See full results here. I also advance to the Final Four of Gopher Match fishing and jumped from 4th to 1st in the overall standings on the weekend.

RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Tournament Info

Rush Lakes – Gopher Bassmasters Tournament – July 11, 2009

July 14, 2009 hellabass

Saturday morning came very early this weekend, as several Gopher members stayed up in Hinckley the night before and participated in the town festival on Friday night. I actually was retying most of my rods as my partner Rick was parking the truck and others launched. We were boat #2 and boat #1 actually went to the same area on East Rush that we did. We set down about 75 yards apart and worked a weedline towards each other. I made sure I had my buoy on my deck, so if we ran into the school that I hoped was there, we would be able to stay on them. (More on Buoys here) Sure enough a few pitches with my 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten jig and I had a nice fish hooked and in the boat, as I fought it, I kicked the buoy in with my foot and it was game on. I was able to boat 6 fish on my jig, lost 3, and my partner got 2 and lost 1. After that the fish stopped biting, we tried a few other baits, but then left.

On the next spot, I cracked a nice fish on a Mad Maxx frog in Bluegrass color, that was the only frog bite I got, but it called a small fish from my starting spot. After that, we fished some shallow grass and docks on East Rush, I caught a few fish, but nothing that would help, but Rick got a solid 3lb fish out of some shallow grass with a jig. We then decided to try our hand at West Rush, more of the same, we tried about 8-10 spots with little success. On our last spot before coming back to East, we made a pass around the Cane grass on the north end of West Rush and I caught a nice 3lb fish on my jig; Rick also missed a bite there.

We ended the day on our starting spot, right when we got there, I caught another nice 3lb fish. I ended up catching a few more smaller fish and it was time to go in. My final weight was 14.86lbs and I won by about 3.7lbs. I also advanced into the 2nd round of Gopher Match Fishing. It was a fun day, we had a great weigh in at Flickabirds on Rush. After that, it was back to the cabin to prepare for Knife Lake on Sunday.

Check back soon for the Knife Lake Report.
RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Tournament Info

Rush Lakes Practice Report

July 9, 2009 hellabass

Sunday I was able to get up to Rush City with John Haynes to get a little practice on East & West Rush Lakes for my upcoming club tournament. We did not get a super early start, probably on the water a little after 8am. We checked a few reed & dock areas early, not much water on them to speak of, but John did manage a single small keeper.

I then drove around East Rush and found what i thought looked to be a good looking inside turn in the outside weedline. We caught 4 keeper bass from there and big pike, felt we did not need to catch anymore and left. We then went froggin for a bit, had about 4 hits on my new Mad Maxx Frog, but they all just slapped at it or bumped, they would not commit. We checked a few more deep areas, trying to duplicate our first area. John got one bass and I went through a bunch of jig worm hooks, lost to pike. After that, I went to check some more shallow stuff, did catch the nice 3.44lb bass pictured below on a Tru-Tungsten Jig.

Headless angler photo courtesy of John Haynes

We then spent an hour or two looking around West Rush. I think I only caught one bass on a Super K bluegill colored swim jig, had a few frog hits, but more of the same short striking.

At the end of the day, we each caught 5 fish, with a few decent ones. I think I at least got a starting point, after that it will be a scramble. I am efforting to get to practice Knife lake on Friday night for a few hours before dark for the Sunday tournament.

Check back next week for results… maybe a live Tweet from the no wake zone channel during the day…..

RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog