All posts by hellabass

Kennedy at Kentucky & Top 5 Patterns

May 17, 2006 hellabass

Thanks to Terry Bolton’s 8oz of dead fish penalties, Steve Kennedy walked away with the $100,000 pay day. This FLW tour stopped proved to be more fruitful than the previous stop at Lake Cumberland.

1st- Steve Kennedy with limited practice quickly eliminated thoughts of a shallow pattern and focused dragging a PJ’s Finesse football jig paired with a Kinami Double Tailed Grub on deep river ledges. When the jig slowed he Carolina-figged 10.5″ Zoom Ole Monster Worm. He also weighed on Nories Bugs , Baby Brush Hogs & a Bomber Fat Free Shad. He attributes his success to fishing the football jig, which is a technique learned from a co-angler on Kentucky lake a few years ago.

2nd – Terry Bolton really had the winning fish has he been able to keep his fish alive. He also probed deep ledges with 4 baits that he fished erratically. The 4 main baits were the following: 3/4oz Terry Oldhan Chart/White Spinnerbait, 5/8oz custom football jig (black/brown or gourd green) made by David Crass tipped with a green-pumpkin Zoom Chunk , Zoom Ole Monster Worm (plum) paired with 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Tungsten Sinker, and finally a Chart/Blue Luhr Jensen Hot Lips. He attributes his success to local knowledge and fishing deeper than most.

3rd – Gary Yamamoto split his time deep & shallow. Once he made the Top 10 cut, he decided to chase fish in less pressured fish, by fishing what he called ugly water. He junk fished with his new “swimming senko” that does not have a real name and is not out yet. His deeper spot was in a marina and he used a Kut-Tail worm (green-pumpkin/chart tail) on a Shakey-head . He attributes success to versatility and previous knowledge from other tournaments.

4th – David Fritts fished ledges with crankbaits, what else would you expect. He only used two bait, Rapala DT 14 & DT 16 in Pearl/Blue Back & Pearl/Brown Back colors. Fished them both on 10lb Rapala cranking line and changed the hooks out for #4 VMC Sure Set Treble Hooks.

5th – Curt Lytle fished shallow on Lake Barkley all 4 days. He rotated between a Berkley Power Hawg & a Power Jig . He targeted post spawn fish in heavy laydowns & logs outside of coves. All his fish came between 3-6ft of water. His success came from a solid seasonal pattern and sticking with it.

This tournament had several patterns going, but it seemed the deep ledge fish dominated. On a side note, Jim Moynagh, Carver, MN Pro has continued his success this year with a strong 8th place finish and lead after two days. His day-2 bag was the biggest of the tournament (23-04) which he caught on his All-Terrain Rock Jigs.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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Announcements

Cool Way to Support Our Troops

May 17, 2006 hellabass

Most of us anglers and outdoors people are very aware how important service men & women are to protecting our country. We also acknowledge, we would not be able to go fishing every weekend if it were not for them serving and protecting our freedoms. I sent a link to my website to one of my co-workers and she went to Secret Weapon Lures and clicked on their “Support Our Troops” page, she then ordered a couple buzzbaits to be sent to troops returning home. I had noticed this before, but did not realize how interested people would be. After seeing her reaction and how great she thought it was, I decided to make a posting to offer this to all of you.

So check out this page and consider buying a spinnerbait, buzzbait or fishing cap for our service men & women returning home. These gifts will be awarded to the soldiers at a bass tournament organized be ABA this fall on Kentucky Lake where returning soldiers will be paired with experienced bass anglers for a day of fishing.

Thanks to all our troops!
Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

If you enjoy this Blog, consider making a PayPal donation to help me keep it going. Thanks!

Tournament Info

Wapogasset Prefishing

May 15, 2006 hellabass

Well I had so much fun fishing on Saturday in the cold rain that my partner & I headed for Wapogasset. We were on the lake a little earlier, probably around 7:30am. Only 3 boats at the access, not much for company on the lake. Once again, I was too lazy to study the map, we started off cruising around the lake. The water was 52-53 degrees in the morning. The biggest difference from Deer Lake was the greater presence of cabbage and other submergent vegetation.

The first place we actually put the trolling motor down was in a little boat channel on the east side of the lake. It was pretty shallow and actually colder than the main lake. It was chock full of small bluegills, crappie, and fingerling bass. Also there were a few pike and I did spot one loner keeper bass in there. Not very promising, but could have some merit next weekend if the weather warms, i just wished it were a little deeper.

We started covering more water with the outboard and headed for BearTrap Lake which is connected by a channel to Wappo. On average the water was about 1 degree warmer in Bear Trap. We hit a few docks with plastics and I fished a Perch colored Husky Jerk between them and over the inside weed edge., not much luck just a few short bass on a Lake Fork Baby Ring Fry. I then hit a shallow main lake shoal on the outside of a cove with a Husky Jerk & Glass Shad Rap (Perch) but has no action. We then stopped at some docks farther in the pocket, I saw one nice bass cruising and several empty beds. Not sure if fish had moved up and then pulled off because of the cold snap or if some fish had already spawned. I did not really notice any empty beds on Deer Lake. In the back of the cove I picked a nice keeper on the Baby Ring Fry off a dock. We had seen enough of Bear Trap so we went back to Wappogasset.

We started in a pocket on the east side that we had liked the looks of earlier when we were driving around. We backed off and fished the cabbage edges in 4-7 feet, we caught several keepers on spinnerbaits (chart) & lipless cranks (crawdad). I caught 3 bass in 4 casts with my crankbait and then a northern at it Rather than beat on those fish we headed to the far north end, we saw about a 3lb bass locked on a nest, I made a few pitches just to get a feel for her attitude, she was definitely catchable, but figured it did no good to catch her today and that she would be gone by next weekend. We then moved out to the weed edge in this area and replicated our success from the previous cove on a 1/4oz Rat-L-Trap (chart crawdad) and the double willow spinnerbait.

We also idled up the inlet on the NW corner, it did not look very promising so we checked one more cover before we had to head home early for Mother’s Day events. I came away pretty confident in the weed areas that we found and I have a pretty solid idea of what shallow areas will produce if the weather warms the water enough. Based on what the fish are doing on Saturday at Deer Lake, I will determine where I will start and what fish I will target.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

Tournament Info

Deer Lake Prefishing

May 13, 2006 hellabass

My partner & I braved the cold & rainy weather today so we would not be completely unprepared for our club tournament next weekend. We arrived at Deer Lake at about 7:45am and were on the lake by 8am. Unfortunately I did not put any map study time into this trip and never had been on Deer before. So the first bit of agenda was to take a cruise around the lake and get the lay of the land. Main lake water temps were about 51-52F, which dropped from the reported 55-57 last weekend.

So I cruised around the lake, map in hand, slowed down in a few places and circled a few areas that good looking depth changes and contours. I did notice that there is not a lot of early weed growth on this lake. So we started in area outside of a shallow spawning area that some good weed growth. I caught a quick fish on a Rapala Glass Shad Rap (Perch) and then hat a few hits on my Husky Jerk . My partner had several hits on a Rattlin Rogue but nothing hooked up. We tried some chatterbaits, lipless cranks, shakey heads, mojo rigs, and Gambler Swim Blades in this area as well, no more fish.

I went up into the shallow area to look it over, banking that it will be warmer next weekend and figured the fish would be using it then. We were surprised to see some nice bass relating to wood in very shallow water. We then covered the weed flat with Swim Jigs & Chatterbaits, I caught a few small bass & a northern, while my partner lost his $10 Chatterbait to a 3ft Musky

We followed the weed edge out of the cove and I picked up a keeper fish on a XR-10 Rapala X-Rap in a clown color. Though he only had the very rear hook, which leads me to believe he really did not want it that bad. We then shifted in to fish some wood where I got a 12″ bass on a texas rigged green pumpkin Baby Brush Hog . We continued the day fishing in & out in areas that looked to have the most potential for next weekend. We picked up a fish here and there on soft plastics and X-raps, most of my bites came on a Pumpkin Melon Lake Fork Baby Ring Fry Side Note: the shallow boat canal on the far east end of the lake was loaded with nice crappie & gills. People were getting nice 10-12″ crappies from there docks. Tomorrow, my partner for Wapogasset will head over there to practice up for Sunday’s tournament.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

BASS Tour

Clarks Hill Bassmaster Elite Series Patterns

May 12, 2006 hellabass

In a tournament where most if the top finishers were all doing the same thing (throwing topwaters) it was Davy Hite that was doing something different to bury the competition and run away with the “Pride of Augusta” tournament on Clarks Hill Reservoir. You could say he “mopped up” the competition.

1st – Davy Hite relied on his years of experience that comes with living within 40 minutes of the lake. He decided that going for ‘down fish’ rather than surface feeding fish would be the answer to this tournament. They key was a Buckeye Pro Jig made by the same company that makes the Spot Remover. Important factor was the large diameter living rubber skirt of the just that makes it look like a softball falling though the water. He fished his jog on main lake shoals and points on days 1-3 and then on day 4 he switched to a Storm Wild Eye Swim Shad in a shad hues.

2nd – Kenyon Hill lived and died by the topwater by making milk runs from point to point with a Cotton Cordell Pencil Popper and Heddon Zara Spook . He had a huge bag the first day but could never match that though the next 3 days. He just made 10-15 casts at each spot and knew if he kept moving, he would find fish feeding on herring and catch them, it was just the lack of big bites that held him back.

3rd – Jason Quinn rotated between a Cotton Cordell Pencil Popperand a brown 1/2oz Tru-Tungsten Jig for when the fish were not chasing herring. He also weighed a couple fish on a Gambler Super Stud soft jerkbait. Quinn mainly focused on the blueback herring spawn on main lake shoals as well.

4th – Kevin Wirth fished a lot like Quinn except he carolina-rigged a Gulp! Sinking Minnow instead of a jig for his down fish. 80% of the fish were caught on a Super Spook topwater in a Lake Fork Shad color. He mainly targeted main lake points but he did into some main pockets as well.

5th – Randy Howell actually got better as the tournament went on, which he attributes to just getting the timing down and hitting the right points at the correct times for prime activity of the herring & bass. He also fished a Pencil Popper, but he would wait until fish started to crash before he would even make a cast. He also caught 4 keepers on a 3/4oz Hawg Caller 3-blade spinnerbait in a blueback herring color.

I only wish we had topwater action like this in MN, sometimes on the Mississippi River, but that is about it.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

General

Good Bass Fishing Site & Forums

May 10, 2006 hellabass

Recently I have come across a few good sites. First, the Minnesota Bass Federation Nation has started a Bass Fishing Forum. You can find a link to the Message Board on the homepage of www.MNBF.org.

Also check out FutureBass.com and their bass fishing forum. It has a ton of info on Minnesota & Wisconsin Bass Tournaments. Everything from small money circuits to major tournaments. Fishers of Men, Anglers Edge, BFL, Stren Series, etc…

Enjoy,
Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

FLW Tour

Top Patterns @ FLW Series – Lake Cumberland

May 9, 2006 hellabass

Mike Hawke is really the only guy to consistently get them on this lake that had many top FLW Pros puzzled. Lake Cumberland hosts all 3 major species of black bass, but Smallmouth usually figuring into winning bags, the trick is catching them over the 18″ min. slot limit. Here is how the Top 5 caught their fish.

1st: Mike Hawke used primarily finesse tactics to win this event. His tools included 6lb fluorocarbon line with a spinning rod. The first two days when there was sun, he relied primarily a Reaction Innovations Flirt Worm (Juicy or magic craw swirl colors) on a 1/8oz homemade jig head. On days 3 & 4 when clouds rolled in, his finesse worm failed, so he switched to a Zoom Super Fluke (Albino Shad). He also picked up one nice sight smallie on a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver .

2nd: Rusty Salewske just fished his way around in depths 8-20 feet with a Zoom Finesse Worm (green pumpkin) on a 3/16oz Spot Remover jighead. He sights his success was just a lack of finding anything else productive….

3rd: Luke Clausen scrambled around fishing subtle points in 20ft of water with a Mann’s HardNose Worm for the first 3 days, the final day he drop shot a 6-inch Roboworm (red crawler) around released fish to make a move. He used Tru-Tungsten Jigheads & dropshot weights.

4th: Sean Hoernke alternated between watermelon candy and green pumpkin hand poured worms teamed with homemade jigheads. He used these baits on second day points off of small cover in the lower-third section of Lake Cumberland.

5th: Steve Wright differed his approach in that he targeted smallmouth in the mornings and largemouth in the afternoon. He probed river ledges with Zoom Finesse Worms (green-pumpkin) on a spot remover jig head for smallies. Then he would flip flooded trees in a river bend with a Reaction Innovations Smallie Beaver on the same spot remover jig head.

Most anglers had solid patterns and game plans until the final day, where Mike Hawke was the only one to make the correct adjustments and catch a 5 bass limit.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

Conservation

Turn In Poachers – 1.800.652.9093

May 8, 2006 hellabass

This is a great program, check it out! TIP Website

What does TIP do?
TIP furnishes rewards to callers providing information which leads to an arrest. Rewards range from up to $100 for fish, small game and non-game species violations, up to $250 for big game and endangered species violations and up to $1,000 for flagrant or commercial violations. Callers may remain anonymous.

TIP educates the public about the effect of poaching on Minnesota’s game and fish through:
• The TIP ‘Wall of Shame’ at sportshows and other events.
• Educational activity books for young conservationists
• Speakers
• Brochures, billboards, license envelopes and newsletters

TIP needs your help!! You may report violations anonymously: Call 1-800-652-9093.

Help Protect our Resources!
Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

If you enjoy this Blog, consider making a PayPal donation to help me keep it going. Thanks!

BASS Tour, FLW Tour

Busy Weekend for Major Tournaments

May 7, 2006 hellabass

This past weekend both the Bassmasters Elite Series and FLW Series were in action. Bassmasters at Clarks Hills Reservoir near Augusta, GA and FLW visited Lake Cumberland near Somerset, KY. The tournaments were much different, while Clarks Hill provided lot of nice limits, Cumberland was stingy for the FLW series anglers, the only mustered 16 keepers for 10 anglers while all 12 BASS anglers managed a 5 bass limit.

Davy Hite outdistanced his nearest competition, Kenyon Hill, by over 8lbs. This is the last tournament before the inaugural Major event, Bassmaster Memorial, at Eagle Mountain lake near Dallas, TX. This is Davy Hite’s 7th major victory in his career. Notable Finishes: Byron Velvick finished 13th and just missed the final day cut and KVD finishes 50th because of a late penalty, the day before he just made the Top 50 because Mark Menendez had a 2lb fish jump out of his weigh bag on the dock, that cost Mark $10,000.

Mike Hawke’s win was his first major win, and this his second go at being a professional angler, his first attempt at a pro career forced him to bankruptcy. Mike Hawke brought in the only limit on Saturday to give himself a comfortable victory of 10lbs.

More to come on the details of the top patterns this week.

Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

General

Head East Young Man

May 4, 2006 hellabass

If you are like me, you have been waiting for this weekend to come all winter….

Saturday May 6^th is Wisconsin Bass Opener! If you live in the frozen tundra & prefer lakes over rivers, this is your first legal angling opportunity for Smallmouth & Largemouth Bass. Unfortunately I do not have my boat ready, so I will only be dipping my boat into a local metro lake for a test drive this weekend, but I will be headed to laceName w:st=”on”>Deer & WappogassetlaceName> laceType w:st=”on”>LakeslaceType> next weekend to practice for my first to club tournaments next weekend. Sorry Mom, we will have to get together once I get off the laceType w:st=”on”>lakelaceType> laceName w:st=”on”>SundaylaceName> night You understand how it works….