All posts by hellabass

Product Reviews

Got some new tackle…

You can never have too much bass fishing stuff, right?

Well here are a few things that I have picked up lately.

Bought some more Vixens, because I have been wearing them out on this bait for the last year or so.  I thought I would get some more colors and also wanted to get that Baby Bone colored one on the bottom, because I think it may really light up the smallies next weekend on the Mississippi.  Also, these baits walk like not other, its falling over easy to walk the dog with these


I have been doing more & more flippin’ lately and with the river and Leech on the horizon, I needed to stock up a bit.  These BMF Hooks (Bad Mother Flippin’) are unbelievable when it comes to flippin’, caught some really good fish practicing on Pokegama when I teamed these up with Tru-Tungsten Flippin’ Weights.  Just look at the bite these hooks have and they are heavy duty, no worries about straightening hooks on the set.  Also, these BMF Barbs help keep your plastic in place, which means less fixing your craw and in turn keeps your bait in the water more


Last but not least, got a whole box of these for the river.  If you do not know what a swim jig is yet, or more importantly a Brovarney Swim Jig, you are missing the boat.  I will be lacing these up with some single tail grubs and flinging them all over the Mississippi and I will be catching fish doing it.  Thanks for hooking me up Tim!!

One last note, I think Luke Clausen is an idiot after watching the latest episode of Ultimate Match Fishing.

Rich
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Tournament Info

Pokegama – Bassmasters Weekend Series Tournament #3 – August 5th, 2007

I arrived to prefish around 3pm on Friday afternoon, found some decent smallies deep and a few good largies in the reeds.  Saturday was much of the same, not much for size except for a few fish I was able to flip up on soft plastics in the river area of the lake.  I did not have near the fish that I had going last year for this tournament.  I drew boat #32 and had a pretty solid non-boater, he ended up being a lot of fun to fish with.

I decided to fish some reeds that I thought would produce a solid 10-12lbs, but I ended up wasting over an hour fishing reeds, we each had a couple fish in the well when we left, but nothing special.  The first weedline that I pulled up on, we had a near double and I soon caught a nice smallie and largemouth on a drop shot with a little 4″ Chompers worm in a watermelon flake color paired with a 1/4oz Tru-Tungsten drop shot weight and a drop length of about 16″.  A northern bit of my drop shot weight so I switched to my finesse carolina rig (a.k.a. Mojo Rig) which was sporting 1/8oz Tru-Tungsten bullet sinker pegged about 20″ up from a Green Pumpkin Fork Craw.  Within the first 5 casts I whacked my 3.94lb smallmouth, I continued to fish with that and filled out a nice limit of fish.  I mixed in some docks as well and caught one of my nicer largemouth on a 1/4 oz Green Pumpkin/Brown Tru-Tungsten jig.
4 
We hopped docks and weedlines the rest of the day, the docks did not produce any more good fish, I had one decent one on and he jumped, but it was marginal in whether I would have culled with him.  I culled a few more times deep with the Fork Craw and my partner finally put on the Fork Craw with about 90 minutes left and he culled his entire well with two nice smallies and a largemouth.  His 3 fish total was 9.86 with a 4.59 smallie which put him in 5th.  I also lost another good smallie that leaped next to the boat where he caught the 4.59, that is the nature of smallmouth bass fishing though.  My total ended up being 15.99lbs and that was good enough for 12th place.  The positive news is that I moved from 8th to 5th in the point standings, which is keeping me on pace to qualify for Nationals on Clarks Hill reservoir in November.

I think the biggest mistake that I made was starting in the reeds, had I started deep, I think I would have had a little better bag, maybe moved up in to the middle of the Top 10….   I need to quit playing it safe sometimes, live and learn.   Also of note, my dad took 4th as a non-boater with just over 10lbs and had moved to 6th in his point standings.  I hope to have some pictures to post here later as well.  On to the river for the next few tournaments and the State TOC on Leech is just around the corner as well.

Rich
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Announcements, Sponsors

Big Bass Contest on My Forum

Hey all,

Just started a tackle give away @ Rich’s Bass Fishing Forum.  This month there is a contest for Big Bass- go here for details – http://richlindgren.proboards46.com/index.cgi?board=members  I am giving away a Tru-Tungsten Prize Pack this month!

Its easy & fun, I also have some runner-up packages ready if we get enough entries.  Get your fishing pole, your camera and a ruler and win some great tackle!

If you are reading this now, I am probably up at Pokegama practicing or fishing the Bassmaster Weekend Series tournament!!!

Rich
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Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog


Tournament Info

Mississippi River Pools 4 & 5 – Practice Day – July 29th, 2007

Well Tim & I started out at about 5:45am, it was a beautiful quiet misty morning in Wabasha for some bass fishing.  We started off fishing some backwater around Wabasha and caught some solid fish on Frogs and buzz toads.  Tim also caught a couple dandy Dog Fish (bowfins).  Targeting mainly duck weed & slop.  We drove around and looked at some other stuff, then headed south for Pool 5.

We hit one small wing dam, I caught a 13″ smallie on a Pop-R, and we also got a few small largies on other baits.  The next point, I made one cast and caught a nice largemouth on my popper and had a bigger on following it, then Tim launched his Sammy into the trees and we scared the fish getting it   We worked a slop pocket in from that, caught a couple bass and large sized northern.  We then hit the point on the way back out and caught sever bass on swim jigs & soft plastics.  I also showed Tim the power of the Mojo Rig……

We then fished a cut with rocks on the points, largemouth were stacked on both sides, but not many of them were keepers.  Caught most of these fish on tubes and a 3/8oz Watermelon/Brown Tru-Tungsten jig that I had added some extra red strands to the skirt and trimmed the skirt to give it a more finesse look.  You can see that in the picture, along with the Gambler B.B. Cricket used for a trailer.  The smaller profile gives me a little more confidence when fishing around smallies in the river

The next area we hit was a pad area way in the back of a backwater lake, we did not get many bites but we caught some really nice quality on frogs & toads.  We drove around a bit, then I had to get home.  It was a great day, learned a bunch.  Thanks Tim, never seen anyone catch 3 nice doggies on topwater like that in one short day

Rich
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Tournament Info

Mississippi River Pool 4 – Practice Day – July 28th, 2007

Well, I got a handful of tournaments coming up on Pools 4 & 5, and I never really have fished them much, so this is the weekend where I start putting some time in.  I have two club tournaments on Aug 18 & 19 on Pool 4 one day and Pool 5 the other, then there is a Weekend Series tournament on Sept 9th out of Wabasha as well as a two day Weekend Series out of Wabasha in early October.

My club partner for Pool 4, Josh Douglas, and I took his Ranger out on Saturday morning and launched out of Colvill Park just south of Red Wing.  The second spot we stopped at, I caught two nice chunky largemouth on a mojo rigged super fluke in an Arkansas Shad color.  Josh also caught a keeper on a Baby Brush Hog.  We worked our way down Pepin and found some nice smallmouth on some rocks & grass.  We initially caught them on a Bone Pop-R and a Perch Sammy.  It was just good plain fun whacking some smallies in the 3lb + class on topwater
I also caught a nice one a Brovarney Swim Jig that was kind of green pumpkin with matching single tail grub trailer.
         Baby Fork Creature Watermelon/Red Flake
We hit a few more spots and around some marinas down further on Pepin, we caught some fish but mostly small.  It proved to be kind of a lull in the day.  We then turned around headed back up the lake.  We were able to catch a few fish working a Baby Fork Creature Watermelon/Red Flake on a mojo rig along the rocks.  I was also able to catch some really nice smallies and largemouth flipping a 3/8oz Watermelon/Brown Tru-Tungsten jig tipped with a green pumpkin candy Gamble Gambler B.B. Cricket on isolated structure in some areas.  All in all, we had a pretty solid day, we both would have had our limits, mine would have pushed 15lbs for my best 5.  Check back soon, should have a report from Sunday where I fished out of Wabasha and even dipped down to Pool 5.

Also, hats of to Peter T. on his second Bassmaster Memorial Win, it looks like he will be the only winner of that event as the majors are going away and he won the tournament last year. 
“He had numerous rods on his deck, and he picked up one with a modified version of a Carolina rig that Kenyon Hill had dubbed the “Petey rig” in his honor. It consists of a 1/8oz. Tru-Tungsten sinker above a Tru-Tungsten smart peg  placed 8 or 10 inches above the hook. He attached a super fluke and went to work.”

Funny enough, the “Petey Rig” sounds a lot like what I call a mojo rig……

Also, hats off to email subscriber #42

Rich
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Tournament Info

Whitefish Chain – Bassmasters Weekend Series Tournament #2 – July 15th, 2007

Well, in my last post I was chomping at the bit to get out in the morning and whack them bass on that hump.  So my partner & I take off 5th boat with a hitch, get to the spot first.  Its a little too windy there for topwater, so I grab my trusty Parrot DT6 and cast & cast & cast……  I feel something slap it really hard but no hooks…..  then the rod loads, just a northern.  Well I fished it hard, with my DT6, lipless crank, Lucky Craft Pointer, etc…..  My partner caught two small keepers on a little white spinnerbait and I caught a small keeper on a 8″ Redbug Lake Fork worm on a jig head.

Also, after awhile my Loomis rods were really buzzing with the “energy” in the air, I even felt a few shocks through my rod blank, so we moved a little closer to the bank.  I started working some docks that I had prefished with my 3/8oz Green Pumpkin/Brown Tru-Tungsten jig & a 1/2oz fall craw version as well. I whacked them up and down the docks for about an hour, but could not find any over 2lbs, but I caught probably 30 fish on that shoreline.  My partner even caught one keeper along there to round out his limit.  We hit the hump one more time, I caught 3 more keepers on my DT6 but they did not help.

We started working our way back to the weigh-in, I stopped on some main lake coontail clumps.  I quickly boated a 1.75lb fish on a jig that did not help and a northern and tied into a 24-25″ walleye, got me excited for a little while anyways.  We ran docks the rest of the day, I was able to cull up once, although not much.  I missed a fish that I saw cruising, he picked up my jig twice but must of just had the claws of my trailer.  I also heard afterwords that his pro caught a couple of 3lb fish off some docks that I skipped, just a little misfortune and bad decision kept me out of the money.  I weighed 5 fish for 10.79, which was 15th and about 8oz out of 11th which was the money cut.  This is the first time I have missed the money in the 6 weekend series events that I have fished.  On the bright side, for the year I am 8th in points out of 73.  The top 8 earn a trip to the National Championships, right Billy?

Well on to Pokegama in a couple weeks, hope to have a strong finish is that is my favorite lake of all the waters we fish this year.

Rich
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Tournament Info

Whitefish Chain – Practice Days – July 13-14, 2006

Well, due to me missing half my tournament last week because of work related travel, I got to leave early on Friday.  Drove up to Fifty Lakes, messed with my tackle and spooled some new reels I recently got and was on the lake a little before 4pm.  The campground was just minutes from Big Trout, so I decided to practice there for a couple hours since it was so late in the day.  I started on a sharp point that I had caught good fish in a previous State TOC, plus I really wanted to try out my brand new Crucial Drop Shot Rod that was paired with a 2500 Stradic Mg (What a SWEET Setup!).  I drop shotted a few dinks & small keepers on a little 4″ Chompers worm.  Then I checked a few docks with a Paca Craw, plenty of fish, but not great size.  Then I checked a weed turn, small keepers on a 4″ jig worm.  I then found a hump that I started fan casting with a Parrot DT6 and it was unbelievable to say the least.  2-3.5lb fish and at one time I had two on at the same time, they also were willing to come up for a Bone colored Vixen.  Left there pretty quickly, checked one more spot, caught some keepers on the DT6 and called it a night.

The next morning, I wanted to see if those bigger fish were still there, made one cast with a Bluegill Vixen and I got my answer    So I spent the majority of the day on Main Lake Whitefish checking old coontail areas and docks.  Found plenty of fish but nothing like the size in Trout on the hump.  I even caught some fish on a frog in the duckweed, but most of my fish came on the DT6, 8” Lake Fork Worm or my Tru-Tungsten Jigs.  It was about 2pm, and on the way back I decided to check my hump in the high sun, since I had only fished it during low light to this point.  I made about 5 casts with my DT6, my rod loaded up, I pulled the fish to the surface and I let about 3.5lb fish toss my crank and I put her on the trailer in anticipation of tomorrow

I drew boat #5 at the pairings meeting and was stoked that I had nearly no worries about being the first one there.  I spent the rest of the night getting my tackle organized and tied up.  I had not felt this confident since Pokegama last year…..   Check back tomorrow for the rest of the story.

Welcome email subscriber #41!
Rich
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Tournament Info

St. Croix River – Club Tournament #6 – July 15, 2007

Time to get caught up a little big……

I came into this tournament feeling pretty confident and hoping to make a dent in the deficit from 1st place in the club standings.  My optimism & confidence train wrecked into two keepers.

I ran up to Afton, only to arrive simultaneously with another club member.  Turns out the fish never really went on that spot.  My partner Art & I started working the adjacent weed beds and edges.  I started catching some short fish on a white swim jig and then missed a few others that felt bigger because I could not catch up to them before they spit the jig ( I have since ordered a new Curado DHSV Reel ) 

We then followed the weed edge to some docks, I quickly caught a short smallmouth and largemouth off the first dock and missed another fish.  Art then caught a nice keeper largemouth on the inside weed edge on a 4″ Fork Craw Green Pumpkin that he texas rigged with a 1/8oz screw lock weight.  I then caught my first keeper on a swim jig.

We checked the starting spot again and each got a few dink smallmouths. We then moved to another weed area and each caught a nice 16″+ smallmouth, mine came on a Zoom Speed Craw and his on the Fork Craw. 4 We went back to the original weed area & docks, Art caught 3 more keepers on the Fork Craw by casting into openings and then pulling it into the next hole.  The two big fish hit as he was pulling it over a weed clump into the next hole.  I broke off twice and lost another fish next to the boat off the docks.  It was the story of my day, I caught tons of fish, most of them short and I managed to screw up my keeper bites.

Art ended up with 5 fish for 10.7lbs, 2 smallies and 3 greenies, all out of the weeds.  I two fish for 4.1 lbs.  Art won the tourney and had the only limit out of 18 guys. So I only managed to gain .1lbs on the leader this weekend, but did move from 7th to 3rd.  One thing is for sure, I need to clean up my fishing before the weekend series on Whitefish, I cannot continue to drop and break off fish like this.

Hats off to E2 (Edwin Evers) on his big win on Lake Eries, he pulled away with a bag of smallies over 23lbs on the last day!!

Rich
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Tournament Info

Big Marine Lake – Club Tournament #5 – July 14, 2007

It will not take long to cover this tourney because I only fished half the tournament, but that is all I needed to get 2nd place I guess….  I was traveling for work on Friday and due to mechanical issues with Delta Airlines, I got to spend the night in NYC and was not able to get to my tournament until 10am at Big Marine while everyone else started fishing at 6am.

Fortunately I was fishing alone, so I did not have a partner that was effected by my misfortune.  I got to the lake, picked up my 3/8oz Green PumpkinT ru-Tungsten jig and targeted shallow cover.  I quickly caught a nice keeper out of a piece of brush in some dollar pads and then started methodically working docks around the lake.  I managed to catch 9 keepers and several short fish.  I did pick one up on a Sweet Beaver, but he was quickly culled, so all my weigh fish were on my go to jig.  It turns out most people struggled in my club that day, not very many limits.  My final weight was 9.9lbs with a 3.2lb big fish, good enough for 2nd and propelled me from 7th to 3rd at the end of the day.

If you have not heard, Tim Tucker, outdoors writer was tragically killed in a car accident this past week.  He was a long time journalist that covered bass tournaments and it is sad to lose his talents.

Congrats to Tim Horton for lapping the field at Champlain and Steve Clapper for dominating at Lake Erie.  I visited Tim Horton’s Website and he has a cool little blog section where he updates after every tournament, very nice.

Should have an update soon on my St. Croix tourney as well….   Also, I found some good info on the lures that Tim Horton used that I found….

Rich
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Tournament Info

St. Croix Practice

Wow, this is great, I actually got out on the water for this club tournament two different days, once for about 3hrs on Memorial day and now about 5 hours this past Sunday.  Mr. Veech and I got out on the water a little before 7am.  Nothing really happened topwater wise for us and the first 3-4 spots we hit produced nothing.

We then worked our way all the way down to the bottom of the St. Croix just so we could see what it looked like, we did manage to find a few fish down there on a white super fluke.  On the weigh back up, we caught a keeper on the west side on some chunk rock bank.  We then rode all the way up to the Afton area and found a sand bar with some rocks on it and few other areas.  We even found some shallow grass, wood and rocks that were able to pluck some nice largemouths with a swim jig & tube.
  All in all, it was kind of hit and miss, we did find some good areas with good quality fish, which will be key as we are fishing a no-cull tournament.  So my strategy will be to start fishing for big fish first.  I feel pretty good about this tournament, but Saturday is another story.  We have a club tournament on Big Marine on Saturday and I have not been there for two years…..  It is a hole tournament, which suits my preferred shallow water power fishing style

I am traveling for work for the rest of the week, so check back early next week for entries on my tournament finishes.  I also forgot to mention how key my Stay’NCharge – All Charge unit was on Lake Marion last Saturday, as we ran a ton of docks and every time we fired up the big motor my trolling motor batteries got a little boost that kept us going all day.

Tight Lines,
Rich
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