All posts by hellabass

Lake Minnetonka – Club Tournament #6 – July 27, 2008

Well Rick Taft and I hit the water launching out of Gray’s bay hoping to turn Saturday’s performance around.  I started on my favorite weedline in Wayzata Bay.  It only took me about 5 casts to lose a 1/2oz TT Jig to a toothy predator.  I then picked up my trusty bluegill Vixen topwater and started working over the top of the Milfoil.  About 10 casts later a nice bass crushed it, I finally dragged it out of the milfoil and it was a nice 3lb plus bass.  Way better start to today then yesterday   We continued to work this area on top and the deep edge, only to come up empty handed.  We then headed to where I had caught a 3lb bass late in the day yesterday, I managed to pick up a small keeper there on soft plastics, but that was it, a little disappointed.
Vixen
The next area I wanted to hit had a boat on it, so we fished a few boat docks and I ended up getting 3 more small keepers on a 3/8oz Texas Craw Tru-Tungsten Jig, but nothing to brag about.  We hit a little slop pocket next, Rick got a frog bite but lost it.  Back to our first weedline, a couple shorts.  We then hit a an inside turn off an island and I caught one keeper that culled and Rick got two fish on a Senko.  At this point it was almost noon, so I wanted to run some shallow milfoil that had produced for me in the past.

It was kind of a long run with some no wakes.  We got in there and it started to pour for about 10 minutes then stopped.  I finally worked up to the prime area and made a pitch and my jig started moving off, I reared back and a sow came up out of the water.  Rick grabbed the net and she was in the boat.  I was pretty jacked as this fish was probably my biggest of the year.  I quickly grabbed one of my 13″ fish out of the well, dropped her in and got back on the deck.  Made another pitch and with my glasses I could see a big bass swimming to the right of where i just casted, so I tightened up the line and sure enough she already had it.  Set the hook, she came straight up and she looked almost the same size as the first one.  Got her in the boat and tossed back another 13″ fish.  Talk about 2 major upgrades!!!!

We continued to work down this shallow milfoil, caught a 2lb fish that helped.  We then hit some docks, I lost one and caught another one that got rid of my last real small fish.   Time was running short, so we made a swing though the sweet spot, I let Rick get a cast in first and he caught one over 3lbs on a ring fry.  It was time to go, we got to make a few casts back near the ramp, but no more bites.

My final tally was 5 fish for 17.5lbs which was good enough for 1st place by about 2lbs.  I also had big bass of 4.9lbs and I weighed my other big fish, she weighed exactly 4.9lbs as well.  It was a great flurry to end the weekend.  So other then the Vixen fish, all my other fish came on the Texas Craw Jig tipped with a green pumpkin chunk.  This Friday I leave for Pokegama Lake for the 3rd Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament, I will probably need another bag like today to be in contention there as well.

Rich
RichLindgren.com 
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Lake Minnetonka – Club Tournament #5 – July 26, 2008

Saturday morning was Gopher Bassmasters 5th tournament out of 8 this year.  We launched out of Maxwell bay public ramp on famed Lake Minnetonka.  Minnetonka is an interesting lake for me, I know its one of the best bass fisheries in the world, yet i rarely make it out there.  It really seems unless I have a tournament out there, which is rarely, I don’t venture out that way.  I really did not practice for this tournament, other then a guide trip that i had back on July 4th.

My partner was David Larsen and this was his first time even on Tonka, so I was kind of winging it and kind of fishing on a few distant memories for this club tournament.  We decided to start on a set of marina docks, this place has a history of giving up some big bites, but all we caught were a few barely legals and shorts there.  I threw back 2 or 3 fish that were probably keepers that I did not want to waste time culling later and David boxed one small keeper there on a Ring Fry.  One cool thing that happened there, was that I had a small keeper on and about a 6-7# Northern grabbed the fish right after I set the hook and knocked the fish off my jig.  About 5 minutes later, David had to wrestle his keeper away from that same northern.  Then about 15 minutes later, I had another 12-13″ bass on and 8-10lb musky grabbed it and we literally had to nudge the muskie with my net to get him to let go of it, I ended up throwing that bass back because he looked like he would have died in my livewell.

It seemed like the fish could be active, but we were in the wrong area.  So we headed to some milfoil spots in Crystal Bay.  I caught a small keeper on a smoke purple flake senko on an inside weed edge, I was getting a little concerned, so I threw him in the well.  We then dropped out into the deeper edge and nothing.  We then fished a couple inside milfoil turns on another spot in Crystal, more shorts there.

We then hit a stretch of docks in Crystal, I got bit off 3 times, Dave lost a decent fish, I lost one and then finally with my brand new JKruz Storm sunglasses I spotted a shadow next to a dock pole that looked like a fish.  Flipped my tube in there and sure enough, that was my second keeper bass.  I also picked up another small keeper on a watermelon Swim jig along that stretch.  Dave had another fish on briefly by the channel to Maxwell, but I think it surprised him and it evaded him.

JKruz Storm Series Polarized Sunglasses

Things were not looking good, so we ran to Wayzata bay to a milfoil stretch that had always been pretty good to me.  We got a few short fish right away, then I caught a small keeper on 4″ green pumpkin senko, we then hit an adjacent dock and I was able to get my 5th keeper on a Green Pumpkin tube.  At that point, I am guessing I had about 6lbs   Not the sack that one looks for on Minnetonka.  We fished that weedline a little more, then we hit another inside turn that I had discovered on my guide trip.  I actually caught 3 or 4 fish pretty quickly there, one of them being a 3.4lb largemouth and at least one other that made a small cull.  That fish lifted my spirits at least temporarily.  Time was starting to run short, so we ran back to Crystal to fish some docks before time ran out.  The first dock yielded another small keeper that was a small cull for me on a 3/8oz Texas Craw Tru-Tungsten jig.  3 or 4 docks later, Dave caught a nice 2lb fish on a ring fry and it was time to go.   We made it to the landing with 10 seconds to spare.

We definitely struggled as a boat, my fish only weighed 8.8lbs and placed me 11th out of 24 guys at this tournament, actually finished higher then one would think with that weight on Tonka, but several other guys struggled as well.  I guess the good thing is that we stuck with it and both caught some good fish at the end to turn a complete embarrassment into a slightly more bearable disappointment.  The good news, is we were fishing Tonka the very next day out of Gray’s bay for club tournament #6, so I was going to have a chance to redeem myself and get revenge on the Tonka bass.

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

Minnetonka Club Tournaments this Weeked & more…..

I have two club tournaments this weekend on Minnetonka, Saturday we launch from the west side and the east side on Sunday.  I have been not been out on Tonka since July 4th and before that it was probably May last year.  It will be interesting as neither of my partners have been out there, so we will just have to wing it a bit.  I am hoping to do well enough this weekend to lock up a spot on next year’s State TOC team without fishing the last two club tournaments on Pokegama.  Look for tournaments report early next week!

Last Sunday I spent some time on Pokegama, fished all new water, caught a few nice fish, not sure it is anything I will use in the Weekend Series tournament, so hind sight, I wish I would have went to Tonka that day instead. 

If you have not been to Bass Fishing the Midwest to check out my Podcast, you can now listen to it here.

This podcast and other cans be found on iTunes
Apple iTunes
Also, feel free to go back and visit my other two podcasts:
Rich Lindgren on Outdoors This Week
Catch’N.com Radio Interview

One other tidbit, I know a lot of people are still looking for Sebile Magic Swimmers and most places are backordered.  Click here to find them in stock!!!
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Rich
RichLindgren.com 
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Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

ima EMAILER ~ July 2008

Welcome! to the ima EMAILER ~ July 2008 Issue

The IMA EMAILER brings you news from ima pros Fred Roumbanis, Michael Murphy, Bill Smith and ima pro staffers across the USA and worldwide.


Good News for ’09! ima Intros New Lures at ICAST for 2009

Established in 1998, ima is the number one hard plastic lure manufacturer for saltwater lures in Japan.

“Anglers in Japan expect to see only the best from ima, and North American anglers are starting to hold these same lofty expectations too,” says Matt Paino, CEO of Optimum Bait Company in Temecula, California who handles all of ima Japan’s marketing and distribution in North America.

Matt refers to the satisfaction US anglers are already enjoying with the first three ima bass baits that debuted last year at ICAST 2007 – ima’s incredible Roumba wakebait, Flit jerkbait and Shaker flat-sided crank.

ICAST is the tackle industry’s annual trade show, where vendors regale the nation’s biggest tackle buyers with what’s new for next year. This is so big buyers can get a good feel for what they should plan to order for the coming new year.

ICAST 2008 was held in Las Vegas two weeks ago, and ima unveiled it’s second season of new bass baits. ima unveiled a total of five new models. Two are available right now. Three others will be available in early 2009.

What’s interesting is that ima’s line of fine freshwater bass lures are only made for and sold in North America.

Igarashi, who owns ima, says he has no plans right now to offer ima’s freshwater bass baits in Japan. They are North American exclusive baits for now. Lucky us!

We asked Igarashi how he felt ima’s foray into the North American market was going so far? Angler acceptance and awareness of the product has gone very well, says Igarashi, much quicker than he expected. He attributes the quick acceptance in part to having picked the right US pros to ride for the ima brand. Fred Roumbanis, Michael Murphy and Bill Smith are all well-respected, well-know and featured in ima ads and on the packaging, thereby facilitating market acceptance and angler recognition of the ima brand via the pros. Plus anglers do recognize the exceedingly high lure quality, says Igarashi. And picking Matt Paino along with Tony Paino and Optimum Baits to help steer ima though US waters has been the best choice, Igarashi explained.


A few members of Igarashi’s team at ICAST 2008. L to R: Matt Paino, Igarashi, Capt. Karl Bunch, Tony Paino.


Speak Softly but Carry a Big Stik in 2009

Randy Pringle is one of the latest draft picks for team ima. He’s one of those guys who speaks softly but carries a Big Stik.

You see, the Big Stik is a new topwater for 2009 and it’s enticing to all sorts of scaly brawlers in fresh or salty water.

See Randy handle the ima Big Stik at ICAST 2008.

 Click here to see:

  VIDEO


Listen for the Roumba to Rattle in ’09

It’s true! A new version, the Rattlin’ Roumba will debut in 2009.

It has rattles that rumble around inside.

They never stay still – nor silent – just like Fred Roumbanis.

He talks up the new Rattlin’ Roumba and gives it a shake in this ICAST clip.

 Click here to see:

  VIDEO


Get the net ready for the new Rattlin’ Roumba in 2009.


Flit Jr. Jerkbait Coming for Spring 2009

The Flit Jr. is on the queue for 2009 too.

It’s a smaller version of the Flit 120 released earlier this year.

Direct from the ICAST floor, Michael Murphy shows and tells us about them.

 Click here to see:

  VIDEO


Flit Jr (bottom) and ima Shad (sorry, no video available) are slated for 2009


ima Intros New Surface Skimmer and Vibrating Rock N Vibe

No, you won’t have to wait till 2009 for this dynamic duo. They’re available now!

The ima Skimmer is a new top water walking type bait.

The Rock N Vibe, a new vibrating lipless crankbait.

 Click here to see:

  VIDEO


No need to wait till next year here. The new Rock ‘N Vibe and Skimmer are available now!


Thank You! For Reading the ima EMAILER

ima’s a big name in Japan where ima is known for its hardbaits. ima is now making it’s debut in the North American market. U.S. bass pros have helped ima design new hardbaits for the USA.

Whitefish Chain – Bassmasters Weekend Series Tournament #2 – July 19th, 2008

I was able to practice for this event only on the Friday before the tournament.  I spent about 7 hours out on the water and found a few decent deep weed edges that were producing and checked a few shallow areas with mixed results.  I drew boat #21 out of 50.  Not too bad, but I actually would have preferred the 3rd flight and the extra time to fish.

I started out on a deep weed edge that created an inside turn that had some good coontail clumps on it off of Swede’s Bar.  I caught 2 small keepers there, but nothing like the bites I had in practice.  I then ran to a small shallow weed depression near by and caught a quick limit on a green Brovarney Swim Jig and actually caught one nice fish that was over 2.5lbs.  From there I hit another deep coontail area and we caught a couple more small bass.  I then ran some docks that had been good to me in the past and another weedline and just a couple short fish.  So I hit a small slop area that I had checked the night before and instantly started culling on a frog.  I think I caught about 8 keepers and culled all but my biggest fish in there in about 90 minutes.

From there I started running docks again, I could not buy a bite on docks.  I ended up getting one small keeper and a short off about 20 docks.  I saved about 20 mins for my starting spot at the end of the day.  Quickly after arriving I hooked into a good fish on my jig, she came straight up and spit the hook.  Looked to be about 2.5 – 3lbs, probably would have been a solid 1lb cull.  I kicked the buoy over and worked the area over with jigs and soft plastics, caught one more small keeper that did not cull and it was time to go in.

Me Pictured, hoping some how these fish would grow to over 12lbs
The result of this year’s Whitefish tourney were very similar to last year.  I caught 11.14lbs which was just out of the money, my dad won the non-boater side and Dean Capra won again.  Although last year, I do not think I dropped the fish in the last minutes that would have put me in the money.  Oh well, it was still a solid finish and I am guessing I am in 7th for points after 2 tournaments and only 10 points from first and my favorite body of water is next.  Congrats to my buddy Josh Douglas who is tied for the lead in points, but at the same time, I will be gunning to take the lead from him on Pokegama! 

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

ICAST Preview, New Bassmaster Elite Series Schedule and Bass Fishing PodCast

As many of you know ICAST show in Las Vegas is in progress of getting going.  Here is a peak at what the Fish Harder company is showing off this week!!!  Tru-Tungsten has also completely revamped their website, so check that out.

BassTrix Weight

Clip on Weight

As anglers ourselves we realized that as popular and effective as plastic BassTrix style swimbaits are they have one drawback – weight.  Sometimes we need to cast further or fish deeper.  To solve that problem Fish Harder Companies, LLC, designed the Picasso Quick Change Swimbait Weight. It easily attaches to any hook style or size with two wire clips.

 Picasso Quick Change Swimbait Weights are available in four sizes to meet every angler’s needs – 3/16oz, ÂĽoz, 3/8oz and ½oz. They’re sold 2 to a pack.

4' Blue Gill

4' Blue Gill

The Pill Jig is designed for skipping docks.
Pill Jigs are offered in two colors – black and unpainted – and in three sizes – 1/8oz, 3/16oz & ÂĽoz. They are sold 3 to a pack.

4' Blue Gill

Our Tru-Life Swimbaits now come in a 4″
size
. They feature the same high-quality hooks & attention to detail as their full-size relatives.

These lures are offered in a wake/slow sink model and a slow sink/fast sink model.  Each bait comes with two tungsten weights that are easily inserted or removed.  This will allow the rate of sink and running depth of the lure to be instantly fine tuned by the angler to meet changing conditions.

4-Inch Tru-LifeSwimbaits are available in six fish catching colors -Baby Bass,Bluegill (shown), Blueback Herring, Shad, Chartreuse Shad and Yellow Perch. 

4' Blue Gill


The Depth Shad has been designed to be the ultimate soft plastic jerkbait.

They are available in two sizes – 4-inch and 5-inch,   unweighted (4 to a pack) or weighted (3 to a pack). And, as if that wasn’t enough, the Depth Shad is available in six fish catching colors – White Pearl, Silver Flash, Shad, Chartreuse Shad, Blueback Herring and Rainbow Trout.

Tru-Life Swimbaits were developed by professional anglers Ish Monroe and Matt Newman for anglers who demand the very best.

8' Trout

Our newest offering – the 8-Inch Trout– features the same high-quality construction, and attention to detail, as all Tru-Life Swimbaits. Equipped with removable tungsten weights and armed with the best hooks available we think it’s the finest hard swimbait on the market.

Also announced today is the Bassmaster Elite Series schedule for 2009 & 2010.  Also note, no more co-anglers on the Elite Series after this year   Notable things on these schedules, California gets some love in 2010, Del Rio is definitely scratching BASS’s back, Big Bay De Noc should be an interesting tournament.  Also, there are a couple Wed-Sat tournaments scheduled.   If the table below is hard to read – click here.
2009 Bassmaster Elite Series Schedule

DATE
March 12-15
March 26-29
April 2-5
April 23-26
May 7-10
May 14-17
*June 3-6
June 11-14
July 23-26
Aug. 6-9
Aug. 13-16
EVENT
Battle on the Border
Diamond Drive
Dixie Duel
Blue Ridge Brawl
Southern Challenge
Alabama Charge
Tennessee Triumph
River Rumble
Cold Water Clash
Empire Chase
Champion’s Choice
FISHERY
Lake Amistad
Lake Dardanelle
Wheeler Lake
Smith Mountain Lake
Lake Guntersville
Pickwick Lake
Kentucky Lake
Mississippi River
Big & Little Bay de Noc
Lake Champlain
Oneida Lake
HOST CITY
Del Rio, TX
Russellville, AR
Decatur, AL
Moneta, VA
Guntersville, AL
Florence, AL
Paris, TN
Ft. Madison, IA
Escanaba, MI
Plattsburgh, NY
Syracuse, NY

For more details, including lake maps, click here.

2010 Bassmaster Elite Series Schedule

DATE
March 11-14
March 18-21
April 15-18
April 29-May 2
May 6-9
May 20-23
*June 9-12
June 17-20
*July 21-24
July 29- Aug. 1
Aug. 12-15
EVENT
Duel in the Delta
Golden State Shootout
Battle on the Border
Alabama Charge
Southern Challenge
Pride of Georgia
Tennessee Triumph
Sooner Run
Empire Chase
Champion’s Choice
Blue Ridge Brawl
FISHERY
California Delta
Clear Lake
Lake Amistad
Pickwick Lake
Lake Guntersville
Clarks Hill Lake
Kentucky Lake
Arkansas River
Lake Champlain
Lake Erie
Smith Mountain Lake
HOST CITY
Stockton, CA
Lakeport, CA
Del Rio, TX
Florence, AL
Guntersville, AL
Evans, GA
Paris, Tenn.
Muskogee, OK
Plattsburgh, NY
Buffalo, NY
Moneta, VA

* Wednesday-Saturday event
For more details, including lake maps, click here.

Also, if you have not checked out my Podcast on PostSpawn fishing, head over to Bass Fishing the Midwest today!

You can find this episode as well as all Bass Fishing in the Midwest Podcasts on iTunes
Apple iTunes

Last note, we are only one email subscriber from hitting the 75 email subscriber plateau, kind of exciting!

Rich
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!!

Lake Marion – Pan-O-Prog Days Tournament – July 12th, 2008

So yesterday I fished the Pan-O-Prog tournament on Lake Marion for the 4th year in a row.  The 3rd time with Ryan Brant as my partner.  We took 3rd the previous two years and really had our sight on trying to win it this year.  Its hard to have a real solid game plan, because with 40 boats on this little lake, boat draw can really dictate how you start your tournament day.

I stepped up and drew boat #38 out of the bag, so that means we had to kind of wait and see what would be left for us to start on.  Most of our good areas were already covered up, so we made a quick 15 minute pass in a shallow area and I got one decent keeper on a 3/8oz Green Pumpkin/Brown Tru-Tungsten Jig.  We started down the lake and saw an opening on one of our deep weedlines.  I quickly boated another small keeper on the jig and lost another one that was pretty small as well.  I did not feel bad about losing that one, because we would need to get rid of him anyways.  We tried two more deep areas, Ryan got two more small keepers and a pike.

We then started running our shallow water and Ryan put a solid 2lb bass in the boat on a Smallie Beaver.  The next area, I boated our first 3lb class fish on a baby brushhog.  That was also our 6th fish, but really only one fish of the size you need to contend for the win on this lake.  The next shallow area produced another 3lb bass on the jig, seemed like we were getting some traction.  We then fished a mid-depth grass point and I got one close to 4lb on the texas rigged baby brushhog.  Now we had 3 really nice fish, 1 decent fish and 2 that we needed to cull.
Click to Close
We fished hard the rest of the day, culled twice, lost two good fish in shallow cover, but that does happen.  When you fish heavy cover, some will fish will elude you.  In the long run, we still had one really small fish and that hurts in this tournament.  Our best 6 fish weighed 16lbs even, I believe our big fish was 3.77lbs.  We ended up 8th, which we felt was pretty fortunate to even finish that high.  It ended up being the last money spot.  It was a little tougher then most years, some years 16lbs will not even get a check.  All the fish we caught either came on Tru-Tungsten jigs or Small creature bait Texas Rigs with Tru-Tungsten sinkers

Time to start preparing for this Saturday’s 2nd MN Bassmaster Weekend Series event on the Whitefish Chain north of Brainerd, MN.  Last year, I was on some really great fish that eluded me in the tournament, so I aim to track down this good fish this year and have a solid finish to move up in the Weekend Series standing, as I am in 8th right now.  I will be prefishing on Friday and fishing the tournament on Sunday.

Tight Lines,
Rich
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Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

July 4th Holiday Weekend Bass Fishing Recap

No better way to spend a long holiday weekend then doing a little bass fishing!!!  Friday July 4th, I had a guide trip out on Lake Minnetonka.  We launched out of Gray’s Bay and kind of stuck to the east end of the lake.  We started throwing some topwater and spinnerbaits over some weedlines that I had caught fish on in the past.  I caught a pike and a nice little bass pretty quick on a Vixen.  We then started working the deeper edge, quickly Daryl boated a bass on a black 10″ Power Worm.  I then caught several fish on soft plastics ranging from ring frys, robo worms and Big show paddle tails.  Daryl caught his fair share on a wacky rigged Yamamoto Senko.  We probably caught close to 10 bass on the first area.  The next area we each caught one keeper on soft plastics.  The 3rd area produced 3 small bass on spinnerbaits and another on a drop shot.  We tried a couple more deep areas, but the boat traffic started to be too much to fish main lake areas.  We then fished some shallow weeds, pads and docks.  We caught another 6-7 bass on jigs, frogs, sweet beavers & senkos.  On the way back in I spun the hub on my prop, so we ended up fishing our way back through Wayzata bay and I caught one more real nice bass on a green Brovarney Swim Jig.  We finished up in the pads across from the access and I caught one fish on a frog and 2 more on the swim jig.  All in all, a pretty good day for numbers, but nothing over 3lbs.

Saturday morning, I got out on Lake Marion just to try my spare prop, making sure it was just a spun hub on my good prop.  Thankfully that was the case, I fished for about 45 min, caught a few small keepers but nothing to write home about. 

On Sunday, my Pan-O-Prog partner spent a full day out practicing on Lake Marion.  In all, we found plenty of fish but had trouble getting the quality bites that you normally need to do well in this tournament.  Out best numbers bait was a green pumpkin Brovarney swim jig.  We covered a lot of water and that will be the plan during the tournament. 

If you are not too busy on Saturday afternoon, come check out the Pa-O-Prog weigh in at Casperson Park on Lake Marion.  The small lake usually kicks out some big bass, as it always seems to take 20-24lbs to win this tournament.

See ya on the water!
Rich
RichLindgren.com 
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Fishing Last Weekend

Well this past weekend I got out on one of my favorite south metro lakes to do some fun fishing.  I quickly found some of the larger bass keying in on bluegill beds.  This is an often overlooked pattern and at the same time one of my favorite ways to target post spawn largemouth bass.  You can hear more about Bluegills beds and post-spawn fishing very soon on a Podcast I did with John Haynes and Bass Fishing the Midwest.  I actually won a tournament on Chisago & Lindstrom Lakes last year on the bedding bluegill pattern.

I caught most of my nicer this past weekend in 1-4ft of water on frogs and a Deps BuzzJet in a Bluegill pattern.  You cannot complain catching 3-4lbs bass on topwater.  The frog fish were fun, but the strikes that the Buzzjet drew were some of the most ferocious I can remember.  I think it does such a great job of imitating a wounded bluegill, the big bass cannot resist hunting it down and destroying it, its pretty wild!!!

The buzzjet has a very unique and loud action on the surface, kind of a topwater slash wakebait.  Below is a picture of one of the many bass caught on the Deps Buzzjet this weekend.  This was one of the smaller ones.

Also, this weekend, I have sorted though some of my extra gear and have listed it here on eBay!  Check out my listings.  I have some Sonar & GPS units, Lowrance accessories, Sebile Magic Swimmer, Lucky Craft, more swimbaits & jigs.

Tight Lines & Good fishing!
Rich
RichLindgren.com 
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Green Lake – Club Tournament #4 – June 22, 2008

You may have noticed there was no Club Tournament #3, I skipped Lake Koronis to spend the day with my wife on our 5th Wedding Anniversary.  So on to Green Lake….

When we arrived at the launch, that was my first look at Green Lake, no time to pre-fish and no prior history.  Always makes for an interesting tournament.  I did do a little research and talked to a few guys in the club to get an idea of what stage the smallmouth were in, as they are the predominant species and how most tournaments are won on this lake.  My partner Frank did get out one day on the lake, scouted out a few things but it was terribly windy that day.

We started on one of the main lake reefs in the middle of the wide open lake, the wind was already coming across pretty good.  Frank and I both started with assorted reaction baits, topwater, Ima Flit Jerkbait, etc.  Nothing doing on the reaction baits.  I then switched to dragging a Fork Craw on a Petey Rig, and was pretty quickly rewarded with a nice 2lb plus smallmouth.  We continued to work that area with soft plastic presentations and got no more bites.

We then both agreed to move to the calm side and look for some boulders or bedding smallies.  We looked at Frank’s GPS map and picked a likely area based on contours.  I pretty quickly found an isolated bed with a nice smallmouth on it.  It only took a single pitch with a Green Pumpkin Mizmo Tube to put a near 3lb smallie in the well.  Shortly after that I was rewarded with my big smallie of the day on a Bluegill Reaction Innovation Vixen topwater.  Things were looking good, as it was still in the 7am hour.  We tried to get some more topwater fish, but that did not pan out.

We then poked around in a little cut, where Frank was able to get 3 small largies on a jig and I was able to get 2 largemouth on a Mizmo Tube, one weighing 3.3lbs.  So that rounded out my limit, but the one largemouth was still pretty small.  We tried a few more things in that area, then went searching for more beds.  I then culled 2 more times with smallies off beds, both on Tubes rigged texas rigged with Tru-Tungsten 3/16oz weight, 6mm Force Bead & Smart Peg.

We kept fishing hard the rest of the day, I caught some more smallies on the Fork Craw and a nice largemouth on a 5″ BassTrix, but nothing that upgraded my limit.  Frank caught several more largemouth, but they were all short.  We really had all out fish before 10am.  We fished hard the rest of they day, but it did not work out.

Me with two nice fish and Sport Smith tallying my weight in the background
At the end of the day, i weighed 13.9lbs, but due to a livewell pump issue, I lost two fish, and set me back to 13.4lbs for 2nd place.  I also had big fish, with a 3.5lb smallmouth.  Cannot complain for first time on the lake.  I am anxious to get back there and chase smallies again when the opportunity presents itself.

Looking forward to doing some fishing on local lakes around the 4th, maybe Marion & Minnetonka
Rich
RichLindgren.com 
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog