Category Archives: Fun Fishing

Fun Fishing, Multimedia, Tournament Info

Fantastic Fall Bass Fishing

October 8, 2010 hellabass

I took a few week hiatus after the State bass tournament, but finallygot out fishing a week ago today. I was looking for a good solid day offish catching, no strings attached, so I headed up to Chisago & South Lindstrom for about 6 hours. I started out alternating between SWL Buzzbait , Vixen and a Super K swim jig with Optimum Double Diamond 3.5″ trailer . I caught a few small fish on the topwaters and caught several decent keepers on the Swim Jig.

Here is a video of me catching that first fish!

From there, I decided to get to work with my Tru-Tungsten jig and start working boat docks. The very first fish I caught off a dock was 19.5″, I went on to catch around 30 fish throughout the day, most on jigs, few more on the swim jig and 2 on a SWL Spinnerbait. It truly was a great day of fishing. I capped it off with a 19.75″ largie late in the day as well.

The next day, Ifished the Gopher Bassmaster Fall Classic, which is a no practice teamtourney, where we don’t learn of lake location until the night before. It is always a metro lake, within in 45 minutes of downtown Minneapolis. My partner Dennis and I, decided to dabble deep on thislake to start and use my side imaging to located some hard bottomtouching weeds in 8-12ft of water. We found about 3 of those places, but that only produced one 14″ fish for us.

We then decided itwas time to start checking some shallow water, we eyed up a good lookingreed bed and started just off that. On my first flip I jacked a 5lb class fish on a Tru-Tungsten jig . This seemed to be a good indicator tostay shallow. In the next handful of casts, I caught a 3lb fish on the Tungsten jig and a 4lb fish on a bluegul Super K Swim jig . Not long afterthat, I filled out limit and then Denny caught some nice fish to startthe culling process.

To make a long story short, we straightjacked the fish the rest of the day fishing shallow. I caught themajority of the fish on a 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten jig. We caught some wherebetween 30 & 40 fish in the 5 hours we did not fish deep. Our best 6 ended up weighing 29.26lbs. With about an hour to go, I caught our 6.75lbs kicker and then the next fish was a fat 18.5″ fish that wecouldn’t use. That is when we knew things were getting silly, I threwback 2 fish that would have weighed right around 8lbs between them.

Pic does not do them justice, we only weighed the big one, but the rest averaged 4.59lbs a piece, so I know the 2nd biggest was at least 5lbs, I don’t think we grabbed all the right fish for the pic. Wished I would have weighed some more for BP Bass Derby .

Here is a video of loading up the winning bag!

Well time to go fishing again~
To keep a good thing going, I am going to fish a Simply Fishing Marine tourney on Green Lake on Sunday!

Fun Fishing

Got out for a little fun fishing

June 27, 2010 hellabass

Did some fun fishing this weekend on local lakes, overall fishing was not that awesome. The highliights would be getting first frog fish of the year on a Bluegrass colored Mad Maxx frog and today jacked a nice 20.5″ Largemouth on a 3/8oz Green Pumpkin Brown Tru-Tungsten jig with Sweet Beaver trailer. I think the beaver on a jig does an awesome job of giving a profile of a big sunfish or craw at the same time.

Fish were scattered, some shallow, some deep, some patrolling bluegill beds. Caught them on inside weedlines, pads, docks, outside weedlines, hard bottom. Either way it was good to get out and spend some time learning with the my new side imaging unit.

Well with the long holiday weekend approaching, I see more fishing in the immediate future!

Bass Fishing Podcasts, Fun Fishing

Bass Opener 2010 Recap

June 1, 2010 hellabass

Another bass opener has come and gone, I had big hopes and expectations for my trip to Pelican Lake. I had heard so much good about this lake. I went out fishing with buddy John Haynes, hoping to get some good footage for a future episode of All About Bass. Things started a bit slow, we found some fish loosely relating to inside weed edges and pockets in amount cattails, picking these fish off with weightless ring frys rigged on 4/0 Mihatchii OWG Super Strong Hook as primary bait.

As they day progress, fish seemed tighter to the abundant wood cover and more precise casting was required, by the time the sun was directly over head, I switched to a Okeechobee Craw colored Sweet Beaver rigged with a 1/4oz Tru-Tungsten sinker so I could get a vertical presentation next to the wood and that seemed to be the ticket, as the fish did not seem interesting in moving to come get our baits any longer.

In the end, numbers were pretty good, the boat landed 25 plus bass, but only a couple solid 3 pound fish were our biggest. None of the giants that this lake is know for showed themselves for our boat. The thick matted spring cabbage made fishing some what challenging.

For an audio recap of the trip, take a listen to the following podcast:

Tight Lines,
Rich

Conservation, Fun Fishing, General

Tired of seeing your money leave Minnesota?

April 28, 2010 hellabass

As we approach another Wisconsin fishing opener that is 2 weeks before our Walleye/Pike opener and 4 weeks prior to the Bass opener, I cannot help but wonder how nice it would be to keep all that early season fishing revenue in our state. Over the years, my buddies and I have spent thousands of dollars each just in our small group by driving our boats and trucks, renting rooms, buying food, tackle and other supplies in Wisconsin.

I have spent quite a bit of time bass fishing in both Minnesota and Wisconsin and I can tell no difference in the fishing quality; which leads me to believe that the extra closed season has no benefit on protecting the resource. So than, I ask, why not open our season at the same time as Wisconsin and take back the millions of dollars Minnesota anglers spend in Wisconsin every year?

I am sure resort, gas station, and bait shows in Minnesota are wondering the same thing…..

I feel only slightly better after writing this

Bass Fishing Podcasts, BASS Tour, Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner, Fun Fishing

Smith Mountain Fantasy Picks and Mark Zona Interview

April 14, 2010 hellabass

Too much time between blog these days, lot of things going on. Our Smith Mountain Fantasy Fishing picks for Bassmaster Elite Series have been on our podcast site for about a week, but if you did not catch it, listen below. We break down how we think KVD starts his comeback and who else we like in this tourney. In short, I went KvD, Skeet, Kriet, HIte and Crews this week, take a listen below to understand why…..

Also, earlier this week, we caught up with ESPN and World’s Greatest Fishing Show’s Mark Zona. We broke down a bunch of topics, football, Fantasy Fishing, WGFS, Elite Series, KVD and much more; We talk about what happened to KVD in Cali, Smith Mountain and what we expect from anglers like KVD, Kriet, Hack and many others. I know the begining of this podcast sounds like previous show, but just a few minutes in Z-Train joins the conversation and things heat up!

Other than that, I did get out and do about 4 hours of fishing down in Red Wing on Saturday. The boat caught 4 chunky smallmouths, we each dropped a good smallie and Paul tangled with a river slaunch of a largemouth and was left with his tail between his legs. Not the greatest outing for fish catch, but an awesome day weather wise and it just felt good to be in the boat again.

Above is my first chunky smallmouth of the current season, duped on a 4″ Green Pumpkin/Blue tube on a light Tru-Tungsten sinker!

Until next time!

Bass Fishing Podcasts, Fun Fishing, Multimedia

The Bass Closer and other stuff

March 4, 2010 hellabass

This past weekend was the end of the MN bass season and I could not resist the last chance for some open water largemouth fishing. I am glad I could not resist, because the fishing was unbelievably good. we honestly caught too many to count, so here are a few pictures of just a few fish we snapped photos of.

Me then Huff, who’ is bigger?

Love them Tru-Tungsten Jigs

5″ Tru-:Life Bluegill Swimbait getting some love from the green fish

We also did some filming for “All About Bass’ and soon there will be some teaser videos, much like this one from earlier this winter.

I also realized I completely forgot to post my FLW Fantasy Fishing lineup for Table Rock Lake, but listen to our preview and picks here.

The more I type, the more I realize how behind I am on the blog, but that is partly because i have been doing quite a bit more writing for the “Bassin’ Insider Blog” for Versus Network. Check it out, it is all original stuff out on Bassin’ Insider. Not to mention selling a fair amount of fishing stuff on eBay, check it out!

One last thing, I will be doing a Spring Bass Fishing Seminar at the Cabela’s in Rogers, MN on March 6th, 10am, and will be hanging out in the fishing department most of the day, stop by and say HI!

Fun Fishing

Even Later Smallmouth Bass Fishing Trip

November 23, 2009 hellabass

Almost like an extension of my last smallmouth excursion, I got out again this Saturday, took my buddy Skippy as he was going to help me out by towing my boat to his warehouse for storage when we were done, kind of sad

When I looked at the forecast, it showed an overnight low that stayed in the 40’s which had me excited about the potential of a good morning bite and good fishing all day. It turned that Friday night dipped into the low 30’s and we had a good cover of frost. Water temps at 9am were 37-38 degrees. The recent Bassmaster article that eluded to the switch getting flipped when water drops below 39 degrees rang true on Saturday. Speaking of cool weather, I cannot stress the importance of layering up with moisture wicking under shirts and good hat and gloves to stay comfortable and safe when fishing this time of year. Check out Akinetix.com for good deals on some new gear!

It took me about 30 minutes to get bite and only after i dropped down to a 2.5″ Tube, but it was a good fish, pushing 3.5lbs. We worked this area for quite some time, Skippy hung a beauty of a Northern Pike on a Sexy Shad Red Eye Shad.

We explored more of the river looking for other deep channel bends with nearby feeding ledges, I caught a chunk smally on a Storm Original Wiggle Wart at about noon and then we came back to our starting spot, had 1 short strike on the 3.5″ tube and picked up a nice 3lb fish on the mini-tube a little later.

Then it was time to go, I think if I had time to fish a little longer, the water temp was getting closer to breaking 39 degrees when we left and I think I could have caught a few more smallies. That is it for fishing out of the boat, unless I go to Texas to visit my Dad this winter, if not I will have to entertain myself chasing bass from the banks when weather allows this winter.

Stay Warm,
Rich

All About Bass Shows, Fun Fishing, Multimedia

Late Fall Smallmouth Trip

November 16, 2009 hellabass

This past Sunday looked to be a nice day, I still had not winterized my boat and I figured the Vikings playing the Lions was the equivalent of a second consecutive bye week. All this added up to a smallmouth trip in my boat. All in all, I caught 8 or 9 pretty nice smallmouths and a northern, no giants but a pretty good day. Water temps were 40-42 degrees.

I caught one nice fish on a Sexy Shad Red Eye Shad Lipless crank, another on a Scrougner head / fluke combo, the rest of my fish came on a 3.5″ Coffee Tube rigged on a 1/8″ Tube Jig head.

This outing also served as an opportunity to get some filming done for a future All About Bass episode. So enjoy a few of the raw footage of a few of the fish catches! With the cool temps and the frigid water, my Akinetix Moisture wicking undershirt, Multi-Sport Gloves and AK Beanie were integral in keeping comfortable and grabbing the chilly smallies from the water. Now, I think I need to get my boat out once more…….

Fun Fishing

Finally Off the Schneid!!

November 8, 2009 hellabass

This past Friday was just too beautiful of a day and I had a couple extra PTO days burning a hole in my pocket. So my buddy Josh Douglas and I hit one of our favorite small stretches of river and hunted down some smallmouth. Numbers were good, I edged out JD 24-20 in about 4 hours of fishing. We had several fish around the 3lb mark.

Most fish fell victims to green pumpkin tubes, I tried a new jig head, turns out that a Tru-Tungsten Ikey head makes a pretty sweet tube jig head. If you have some Ikey heads, you will have to try them in a tube sometime, it increases your feel and its unique eye placement seems to make the tube come through rocks, wood and snags very well. Plus its got a great super sharp hook to stick them smallies. My tube of choice was a 3.5″ Coffee Tube.

Seems like a solid start to my fall/winter fun fishing season and it help get the bad taste from my last few outing of my mouth! Also, justed loaded 3 Shimano Reels and a handheld GPS onto my eBay store for my Dad.

Fun Fishing

Tough Fall Fishing

October 25, 2009 hellabass

Wow, I fished a small club derby yesterday on Pelican Lake out west of the cities, in which 11 anglers did not register a single bass. This morning I decided to give Lake Marion a whirl for 2 hours before the Vikes game, got one northern on a Black & Blue Pure Poison chatter style bait. I found some bluegills hanging around some old coontail clumps on a steep bank, that is where the northern came, but I could not find a bass to cooperate.