All posts by hellabass

Mississippi River Pool 4 Practice Day 2

Yesterday for the most part was a struggle for my dad & I on pool 4, our first area produced two small keeper smallies and the next 4 areas had zero action.  Then on a hunch we decided to check  a two other areas and we actually found some keeper largemouth & smallmouth in those areas, nothing great, but much better then nothing.

Then with 5 minutes before we had to go, I caught this really nice 18.5″ smallie on a White Flash 1/4oz Super K swim jig.  This was probably the lone bright spot of my two days of prefishing thus far.  At least its another cull in the BP Bass Derby.

I will get out for a few hours on Saturday, but some of that time must be dedicated to finding Everts resort and best navigation route out of there.  On a positive note, I have not burned my fish……  A strong practice does not always mean a good tournament and Vice Versa.

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Mississippi River Pool 4 Practice Day 1

Memorial Day, my dad and I got out on Pool 4 to start preparing for the upcoming Bassmasters Weekend Series tournament on May 30th.  We decided to launch from Red wing and check some areas in Lake Pepin and stuff closer to the launch ramp.

The first two areas we checked produced some decent bites on a Secret Weapon Lures Quickstrike spinnerbait that I custom built for the water conditions, which were fairly muddy just about every where we fished.  I also picked up a few decent fish on a White Flash Super K Swim Jig.  The 3rd area produced one good smallie, the next handful of areas were spotty to say the least.

At the very end of the day we found two more areas where we got several bites, a few keepers but nothing over about 2lbs.  Again the spinnerbait & swim jig produced, I also finally got a few fish on my trusty 3/8oz PB&J Tru-Tungsten jig.

Overall, I think I got a few areas that can produce a check cashing bag, but on my next trip I plan to search out some other areas in search for some heftier fish to contend for a win.  The most impressive thing is my spinnerbait caught the most largemouth and smallies by far, as well as a pike and two walleyes, the biggest 23.5″

See you on the water!
Rich
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Bass Opener Outing

Josh Douglas & I headed out to one of our favorite south metro bass lakes, we were on the water around 7:30am, just after the rain had passed.  We also brought along Greg, as he had a camera and were hoping to shoot some video footage of fish catches.  We also decided to impose a challenge on ourselves.  We had a goal of trying to catch 20lbs plus by 2pm for a 5 fish limit between Josh & I.  We did a similar big bag challenge last year!

It took us about 20 minutes or so to get in the groove, but once we started catching them, it was pretty steady action for most of the day.  We did about 90% of our damage with Lake Fork Ring frys rigged weightless on 4/0 Heavy OWG Super Strong Youvella hooks.  I am really starting to dig both the hook up and land ratio with my new Youvella hooks.

We actually went through 3 full bags of the Ring Frys in the natural green colors, catching 2-3 fish on average per bait.  We also caught a few fish on paddle tail swimbaits, Swim Jigs, Frogs, and TT Jigs.  We caught a few fish off docks, but most fish came around emerging pads and old pad stem clumps.

Early on in the day, I actually busted a 5lb 5oz beauty.  This was a great fish to put us on the 20lb pace.  About mid day, I caught another nice toad that weighed 4 lbs 10oz; both fell for the LFT Ring Fry.  To go with those we had a bunch of 2-3 lb fish.  We knew we need one more 4.5lb fish to make our goal, but it never happened.  We ended up with 17lbs 13oz, still a very good day and only a couple ounces different then last year.

Stay tuned, hopefully I will have some video to share with you as well!  Next stop, time to start practicing Pool 4 of Mississippi River for the Bassmaster Weekend Series.

Hope all of you had a great MN Bass Opener as well!
RichLindgren.com 
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More Blogging!

Actually you may have noticed a slight decline in activity on this blog, partly because I have been commissioned to provide content for a new blog for VersusCountry.com.  If you head on over to the Versus Country site, you will find a Bassin’ Insider Blog that I am writing for them.

If you like what you find here, then I suggest checking it out, it is all original content and you will not find it here at the Bassin’ Blog.  You will find less about my personal fishing endeavors at the Bassin’ Insider, but more about bass intensive fishing techniques, FLW Tour happenings, and general bass fishing topics.  As of now, you will find 2 fresh entries every week on the Bassin’ Insider Blog, if things continue to go well, it could be more.  There is already 3 weeks plus of content posted, so your first trip will be well worth it.  Plus there are a lot of other cool fishing articles and videos from your favorite Versus Network fishing shows.

So if you have a thirst for more bass fishing info, please check it out when you have a chance.  And if you like what you find, please share with your friends and fellow anglers!

See you on the water!
Rich
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Mississippi River – Pool 2 – Club Tournament #1 – May 17, 2009

Sunday was my first club tournament of this year on Pool 2 of the Mississippi River.  Because this is a special regulation continuous catch & release body of water, our tournament is a paper tournament, where we measure the length of the fish, have our partners verify the length and then convert to pounds back at the landing.  It was only about 45 degrees when we launched in the morning, I am really learning to appreciate my new Akinetix Gear (Beanie, Gloves & Long Sleeve Shirt) to keep me confortable no matter the conditions.

My partner John Haynes and I were able to get out prefishing, so we have a pretty good idea of where we wanted to start and fish during the tournament.  The first area we started was a small pocket not very far off the main river.  Two other boats also started in and around this cut, John managed to catch 2 largemouth pretty quickly on a 3/8oz Sunfish Tru-Tungsten jig, and I launched a 12″ bass over the boat on the hookset, which came off.  After that, the bite slowed.  We continued to fish this cut and fish behind other anglers and as the sun came up, we picked up a few fish, my first fish was a 12″ smallmouth on 3/8oz PB&J Tru-Tungsten Jig tipped with a green pumpkin chunk.  About the time the last boat left, we got into a couple flurry where we each boated fish on jigs as well as a tube.  Including a very chunky 18.5″ smallmouth on my jig.  On the way out of the pocket John nabbed his limit fish on a Sexy Shad Swimbait and I caught a small keeper smallie on an Ima Flit Jerkbait.  On to different water to look for some bigger bites.

The next two areas did not produce for us, they both areas that we had really not fished before, sometimes when you swing for the fence you strike out.  From there, we decided to make the run into Moore Lake.  We each caught a couple upgrade fish in Moores, John on a CreatureX and I on a 4″ Black Blue Yum Tube with 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Flipping Weight and 3/0 Youvella EWG hook.

Time was running out, so we figured we should hit a few areas in Grey Cloud soon.  The first area we wanted to hit was covered up by another club member’s boat and he was measuring a 17″ largemouth as we went by.  In the next area, John culled two fish on his CreatureX texas rig.


No fish pics, but here are the actual tubes & jigs that I caught all my fish on.

We then decided to make the long idle to the very back of Grey Cloud, and I was rewarded with a nice 17.5″ largemouth on the same tube rig, but now with a 1/4oz weight.  We caught a few more fish and missed a couple chances, we wanted to spend more time in the area, but had to get going.

We did hit a couple more areas on the way back to the ramp, had a couple taps, but no hook-ups.  Both John & I had some opportunities that we did not convert on, but sometimes that is fishing.

My best 5 measured out to 14.99lbs for 3rd place and John had a respectable 10.82lb limit.  I wished I could have fished a little cleaner, had plenty of chances to catch the fish to take 2nd, but I do not think i was on the fish to win this tournament, as it took 5 smallies for over 18lbs.  Most of the better bags were caught on soft plastics and jigs in this tournament.  All in all, I am very impressed with Pool 2 as a bass fishery, I will be back for more!.

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Guntersville Fantasy Fishing Group Winner!

Congratulations to Brad Veech from MN, he was the highest scoring member of my Bassin’ Blog group for ESPN Fantasy Fishing at the Lake Guntersville event.  He is our 2nd repeat winner on the Bass side!!!

No word on Brad’s lineup strategy, I think he is trying to withhold info, so that he can make a run at the points title….

His winning team was:

Todd Faircloth
Skeet Reese
Bret Chapman
Aaron Martens
Matt Herren

For Brad’s efforts, he has won a bag of Tru-Tungsten finesse worms, should be great for catching our clear water bass!!  


Thanks to Tru-Tungsten for helping out with the prizes.

Tru-Tungsten - Discover the Feel!

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end. 

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com 
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

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Setting a FLW Fantasy Fishing Lineup for Beaver Lake

Beaver Lake is a staple in the FLW Tour schedule.  This lake is known for huge numbers of fish, but not always very big.  One cool thing, is anglers get to fish for the trifecta, as all 3 bass species are present.  Water is reported about 6-8ft high for this tournament, but very clear.

Type of water: highland impoundment of White River
Surface acres: 28,370 acres
Shoreline: 487 miles
Average depth: approximately 55 feet
Max depth: 204 feet
Primary structure/cover: rocks, bushes, lay-downs, docks, points, off-shore brush
Species: largemouth, smallmouth, spotted bass
Length minimum: 15 inches for largemouths and smallmouths, 12 inches for spotted bass

All indications is that this tournament will again be a combination of spawn & post-spawn fish. 

Here are my other anglers to watch:
Scot Suggs
Jacob Powroznik

Basically I am sticking with the strategy to keep littering my lineup with anglers that are hot right now and have past experience and lots of wins & top 10’s this week.

Finally, my fantasy fishing picks:

Rich’s Beaver Lake Roster Tour Stats
  Selected Anglers Tournaments Earnings Missed
Cuts
Avg
Finish
Top
3
Top
10’s
Top
25’s
Wins
 1  ANDY MORGAN       89 $ 734,854 74 48 3 13 30 1
 2  GREG BOHANNAN       12 $ 86,500 10 72 1 2 3 0
 3  DAVID DUDLEY

      87 $ 1,348,100 70 43 7 16 35 2
 4  MICHAEL BENNETT       31 $ 1,391,850 25 53 3 6 13 2
 5  BRENT EHRLER       30 $ 769,000 26 49 1 4 12 1
 6  SHINICHI FUKAE       37 $ 631,650 26 48 2 10 16 2
 7  CRAIG POWERS       69 $ 536,950 60 67 5 9 15 1
 8  ALVIN SHAW       92 $ 710,522 80 59 2 10 24 2
 9  STETSON BLAYLOCK       33 $ 302,975 27 46 3 6 12 2
 10  BRYAN THRIFT       20 $ 250,700 14 40 1 6 11 0

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Sign up today!
Play Fantasy Fishing for Millions

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com 
Bass Fishing Today
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Lake Norman Fantasy Fishing Group Winner!

Congratulations to Mychal Boerman from CA, he was the 5th highest scoring member of my Bassin’ Blog group for FLW Fantasy Fishing at the Lake Norman event.  Our top 3 guys won some nice FLW prizes and the #4 guy never returned my emails.  Sometimes it pays to pay attention!

Brief email interview with Mychal and this is what he had to say on his strategy:
“I made my picks by utilizing the tools from FLW’s Player’s Advantage.  I tried to cross reference the local finder, the post practice rankings, fantasy trends, and lake/angler matchups in order to pick who I thought would finish in the top ten. I also picked Bennett and Ehrler because I know that my fellow Californians are generally awesome sight fishermen. The rest was just up to the fishing gods!”

For Mychal’s efforts, he has won a bag of Tru-Tungsten finesse worms, should be great for catching Cali’s clear water bass!!  


Thanks to Tru-Tungsten for helping out with the prizes.  I should have my Beaver Lake Fantasy Line-up posted tomorrow!

Tru-Tungsten - Discover the Feel!

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Sign up today!
Play Fantasy Fishing for Millions

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com 
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Bass Tackle Depot - Free Shipping $50 Orders - Great spot for hard to find Bass Fishing Gear!! 

Raining 4 pounders!

The short term forecast for Gadsden, AL is continued downpour of 4lb and bigger bass.  To put it simply, the fishing is out of this world right now at Lake Guntersville.  The weights are unbelievable!!  The top 50 cut sits at 20lbs – 11oz; 20lbs even puts you in 64th place out of 99 anglers.  Todd Faircloth leads with 31lbs and the 12 cut after day 1 is currently held by Rick Clunn with 25-14.

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How Jacked my the Stone Pony be to have weighed 27lbs! – Photo of Courtesy ESPNOutdoors.com

Sounds like most guys are working a shallow shad spawn bite early and following the fish back out a bit as the day wears on.  But guys are reporting catching them about any way they want to.  Faircloth reports catching most of his 31lbs by 8am and throwing back 20lb limits in the afternoon.  Aaron Marten’s Marshall reports him catching 130 fish, many other anglers talk about sorting through any where between 60 – 200 bass during the day.  

Sound like fishing has slowed some today, but i have heard reports that KVD has over 23lbs, A-mart 25lbs, Velvick 27lbs, Faircloth 20lbs as of this entry.

So my final question, how did 3 guys not weigh limits when other guys are calling catching 4 pound fish Stupid Easy???

DAY ONE Top 15 STANDINGS 

Pl. Pro Angler DAY 1
# WT
1 Todd Faircloth 5 31- 0
2 Mike McClelland 5 30-10
3 Byron Velvick 5 29- 4
4 Ken D Cook 5 29- 2
4 Aaron Martens 5 29- 2
6 Alton Jones 5 28-12
7 Michael Iaconelli 5 27- 5
8 Marty Stone 5 26-15
9 Mark Davis 5 26-14
10 Jami Fralick 5 26-11
11 Boyd Duckett 5 26- 3
12 Rick Clunn 5 25-14
13 Matt Reed 5 25-12
13 Russ Lane 5 25-12
15 Skeet Reese 5 25- 9
15 Kevin VanDam 5 25- 9

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