Category Archives: Fun Fishing

Not giving up yet

November 24, 2007 hellabass

I am refusing to let winter be here yet in Minnesota. I am going Smallmouth Bass Fishing tomorrow. My buddy Josh Douglas & I are going to fish the Mississippi River from an undisclosed bank location.

So today, I went through my tackle like I had a tournament tomorrow, funny stuff. Anyways got a couple spinning rods setup with 8lb fluorocarbon and two baitcasters. I also made up a little smallie box. Got some 1/0 & 2/0 wide gap hooks, drop shot hooks, hair jigs, tube jigs, scroungers, etc. Then I sorted through my plastics and grabbed a bunch of grubs, tubes, smallie beavers, & salty sinkers, etc.

I also spent some time updating my websites, as well as my MySpace page. We even are starting to think about getting the Christmas tree setup tonight.
I have to get up early and make a bunch of turkey sandwiches from leftovers. Also, Josh & I plan to stop at Cabela’s on the way, get some last minutes supplies as well as stare at & hold the Shimano Core they have on display. It should be fun, look for a report early next week.

I hope I do not freeze tomorrow, hopefully the smallies keep me warm
Rich
RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
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BASS Tour, Fun Fishing, Tournament Info

Lake Marion Evening Outing #2 & more….

June 26, 2007 hellabass

A little late, but I have been really busy. Ryan & I got out a bit earlier on Thursday night last week. We started out by poking around on a hard bottom spot with a Fantasy Football jig, no takers. We then moved in and found some nice 3lb fish on an adjacent inside turn. Ryan caught his on a Sweet Beaver on a Title Shot jig and I got mine on a Yum Craw Papi rigged on a straight shank tied with a snell knot and a 3/8oz Denny Brauer Flippin’ Weight.

We hopped around trying some different things the rest of the night, caught 8 or 9 fish, but nothing over about 2.5lbs.

Hats off to KVD as the only angler to win two Elite Series events in a single season so far. Sounds like he pretty much cranked his way to the victory on Grand with a Strike King Series 5 & 6 Crankbaits in a new color called “Sexy Shad” that should be available for the masses very soon. I like the sounds of it

Also, it was another Jekyll & Hyde weekend in my club tournaments on Clearwater & Chisago. I should have posts on those in the next few days. And thanks to Davey Hite, I got $5 back from Mr. Veech on our usual Super 6 fantasy bet.

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

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Fun Fishing, Tournament Info

Lake Marion Evening Outing

June 20, 2007 hellabass

So my Pan-O-Prog partner Ryan & I got out for about 2.5 hours last night on Lake Marion in Lakeville. We decided to look for some new shallow water / slop areas to go with some of our deep water stuff that we fished last year. We tied on frogs, buzz toads and flipping rigs and worked the shallow pads & weed mats. We managed to catch 3 bass all around 2lbs and missed a couple more. They all came on black floating frogs.

Nothing to write home about, but it was good to be out bass fishing again after being in Europe. Also, while I was gone, we climbed to 39 email subscribers, thanks to all you new subscribers!

Another note, did you see the 2008 Bassmasters Schedule?

Elite Series

Click on the links below for a preview of the
2008 Bassmaster Elite Series destinations.

2008 BASSMASTER CLASSIC
February 22-24	Bassmaster Classic	Lake Hartwell — Greenville, S.C.
2008 ELITE SERIES SCHEDULE
March 6-9	Sunshine Showdown	Harris Chain of Lakes — Leesburg, Fla. City of Leesburg/Lake Co. Dept. of Tourism
March 13-16	Citrus Slam	Kissimmee Chain — Lake Wales, Fla. Polk Co. Tourism/Sports Marketing
April 3-6	Lone Star Shootout	Falcon Lake — Zapata, Texas Zapata Chamber of Commerce
April 10-13	Battle on the Border	Lake Amistad — Del Rio, Texas Del Rio Convention/Visitors Bureau
May 1-4	Pride of Georgia	Clarks Hill Lake — Evans, Ga Columbia Co. Tourism
May 15-18	Carolina Clash	Lake Murray — Columbia, S.C. Capital City/Lake Murray Co. Regional Tourism
June 5-8	Southern Challenge	Wheeler Lake — Decatur, Ala. Decatur-Morgan Co. Convention/Visitors Bureau
June 12-15	Bluegrass Brawl	Kentucky Lake — Gilbertsville, Ky. State of Kentucky
June 26-29	River Rumble	Mississippi River — Fort Madison, Iowa Fort Madison Convention/Visitors Bureau
July 31-Aug. 3	Empire Chase	Lake Erie/Niagara River — Buffalo, N.Y. Buffalo Convention/Visitors Bureau
August 7-10	Champion’s Choice	Oneida Lake — Syracuse, N.Y. Syracuse Convention/Visitors Bureau

Couple thoughts, sad to see the Majors gone, but very excited to see them coming to IA, I am definitely going to put my money in for that tournament as a co-angler. Good to see some new water like Falcon, that will be a great tournament, probably better then Amistad. Also Lake Murray is a great lake as well. Probably will get out on Marion tomorrow night as well. Then Friday night I will get all tied up and prepared for my club tournaments this weekend on Clearwater & Chisago, have not been on either one this year :0

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

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Fun Fishing

Bass Opener on Minnetonka

May 29, 2007 hellabass

Well, the plan was to hang sheet rock all weekend, but my buddies inspection did not pass, so I quickly made plans to hit the water to do some bass fishing

Couple of my fellow Gopher club members are fishing the Denny’s tournament today and had invited me to go prefishing with them, so on Saturday morning I hopped into the Ranger with the Brant Boys. I started the morning tossing a 6″ Optimum suspending swimbait over the milfoil & cabbage while they fished docks. I had a good fish on for a split second, but never got to see it, not sure if it was a muskie, bass or pike.

We fished everything from 1ft to 15ft, our best fish came relatively shallow on inside weedlines, throwing soft plastics and finesse jigs tipped with smallie beavers. I caught most of my fish pitchin’ a regular Watermelon Green Pumpkin Sweet Beaver rigged with a color matched 1/8oz. Tru-Tungsten sinker, force bead & smart peg. Based on what I saw, I would say that the vast majority of bass are already done spawning. I would guess the best 8 fish in the boat that day would have weighed between 20-22lbs, so hopefully they bag them today.

My dad & hit the St. Croix for some smallmouth action, should have a report up on that soon as well.

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

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Fun Fishing

Mother’s Day Outing

May 17, 2007 hellabass

Well, unfortunately I was not ready to head to WI and get any additional practice in, but on a positive note I was able to get my boat out for this spring’s maiden voyage. I headed over to Marion which is just a few minutes from my house & the best part was she ran great, from the main motor to the electronics to the trolling motor. It was good to test out my new Stay’n Charge & All Charge systems as well.

I did do a little casting for notherns, casting both a crawdad XCalibur xr50 Lipless crank and DT6.
Ended up catching two nice bass, the biggest being a solid 3lb bass in about 8ft of water on a weed edge, she totally tagged the DT6. The water was in the mid to upper 60’s every where I went. Only was out for about 2 hrs, most of that driving the big engine, then I headed home to grill steaks for my parents.

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

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Fun Fishing

Crystal Lake Fun Fishing

October 10, 2006 hellabass

Wow, October 1st already and this is only my 3rd time on the water since April that was not practicing for or fishing a tournament. Basically John & I had a tough day on Medicine Lake the day before, so we thought we would go to Crystal for about 3-4 hours to rinse that from our mouths.

We got on the lake around 7:30am, I caught one on a light carolina rig using a Zoom Super Hog and a 1/8oz Tru-Tungsten Tungsten Sinker. I believe I had one or two other bites out on the bar. We then bounced into some docks, I lost a nice one on a jig and then caught a little peanut. We fished some pads in the large no wake bay, no bites but I saw some nice fish swimming around.

We then ran across the lake to fish some other docks, I got one decent keeper on my Tru-Tungsten Jig. We fished a bit longer, but that was the last fish we caught. Another tough morning on the lake…. Fall fishing can be a feast or famine kind of thing, the past two days have been a bit more famine

I will spending the next couple weekends at home getting stuff done, preparing for the trip to Patoka.

Tight Lines,
Rich
RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Blog

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Fun Fishing, Tournament Info, Youth Fishing

Gopher Jr. Club Tournament – Clearwater Lake – August 27, 2006

August 29, 2006 hellabass

This past Sunday we had the 2nd of our two Jr. Club events. The first event was Prior Lake back in June, where the kids fished two to a boat with a boat captain who did not fish. This second tournament was a team format with one Jr. Angler partnered with an adult boater as a team. A shared limit of 5 fish and the Jr. angler must catch at least 3 of the 5 fish.

I fished with Cody Sieben who is the current MN State Champion and is headed to the Jr. World Championship in February on Lake Logan Martin. He and his father had been prefishing and I had not been on the lake in several years. Somehow my cell phone alarm failed me and I was 15-20 minutes late, so they started fishing out of his father’s boat and had 1 keeper in the boat on a spinnerbait our of the reeds when I picked him up.

We continued fishing the reeds he was in, and as I was digging a rod to rig up out of my rod locker he got another keeper on a Green Tree Bronzeye. I soon got my act together and caught two keepers on a Ring Fry and he missed one on the frog. He also got a couple short fish on a white Fluke and lost one on the Fluke.

We hit another reed area and we each missed a fish and the sun was getting high so we went to check a weedline of Cody’s. I caught a couple short fish on a Ikey Head and DT6, Cody then got a keeper on a drop-shotted Sour Grape Baby Ring Fry. He then got another on the Ring Fry which was a nicer fish that culled. We then moved to the docks and we each caught several fish, Cody got them on the Fluke and I got mine on Pumpkinseed Ring Fry and a Fall Craw 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Jig. He caught better fish then me and we ended up keeping 4 of his fish and only 1 of mine.

We won with 5 fish 9.7lbs, it was close all 5 teams had their 5 fish limit and all between 8 & 9lbs! Did I mention I fell in the lake at our first spot adter 15 minutes of fishing, I slipped on the landing net, that is the fun story!! I also caught a fish on Cody’s Bronzeye right at the landing after the weigh-in while waiting to load the boat. Jr. Tournaments are always fun

Rich
RichLindgren.com
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Bass Fishing Blog

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Fun Fishing, Tournament Info

Lake Minnetonka Weekend Series Early Practice #2

August 24, 2006 hellabass

My buddy and I launched out of Gray’s Bay last night at about 4:15pm. It was a mostly overcast afternoon evening with a light easterly wind. We spent most of the evening in Excelsior and St. Albans Bays. We caught right around 20 fish. Towards the end we found some better quality fish (2.5 – 3.5lbs). Almost all our fish came on 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Jigs in Sunfish and Watermelon Brown colors using a Green Pumpkin Speed Craw as the trailer. I also caught one bass on a Sammy and another on a Watermelon SWL Spinnerbait with Gold Willow Blades. This is much better than what I found in my last practice day. I feel that these areas will only get better as we approach tournament time as the milfoil becomes less thick, it will concentrate fish in these areas.

We hit a couple areas in Wayzata on the way back, but it was getting pretty dark and Ryan got two northerns. I will be out there for a solid day this Satuday and hopefully next Wednesday evening.

Earlier in the day, there was small celebrity/Sponsorhip/charity type deal. Sounds like it only took 15lbs for 6 fish, I think the bite was probably off a little, that is not that impressive for Tonka.

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

Fun Fishing, Tournament Info

Cass Lake Vacation & Leech Practice

August 14, 2006 hellabass

I left directly from Pokegama to meet up with my wife and in laws for a family vacation at Sunset Cove resort on the Cass Lake Chain. I got there on Sunday evening, no fishing. Saturday we went to town for breakfast and I stopped to get bluegill tackle at Froggys and gas for the boat. I took Laura, her mother and sister out in search of some bluegills, did not find anything to speak of after and hour and we went back to the cabin. Laura and I went back out and we caught a few gills and I got a nice bass on a Jig and missed one on a Perfect Frog in the rice and pads. I went back out myself for about 2 hours and bagged a couple nice bass on jigs and a white Snag Proof Bobby’s Perfect Frog.

Later on in the evening, it was time to put the boat on the trailer, I fished the rice near the landing with a Black Bronzeye and caught one more nice 2lb bass before the day was over.

Tuesday we fished off the dock for bluegills and perch for a bit, left the boat on the trailer all day. I am very impressed with the Berkley Gulp Extruded Baits (Corn, Grub, Earthworm, Maggots); the maggots worked great. Got plenty of bites, just as many as pieces of crawler and not as nearly messy. Plus they do not rot in your boat in the sun and last forever. Check them out next time you are doing a little panfishing.

Wednesday, on the way home, I stopped to practice on Leech for about 2.5 hours on the way home. I boated 5 nice keeper bass all on a 1oz Blk/Brn All-Terrain Grassmaster Jig tipped with a Green Pumpkin Super Chunk.. I was using the heavy jig so I could cover water fast, and I had several follows on the jig as well. Most of the fish came out of the reeds and one about 4lbs off a bog point. I was pleased with what I found in such a short time and feel confident that I can put a decent limit together in my club tournament.
Tight Lines!
Rich
www.richlindgren.com
basstournament.blogspot.com

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Fun Fishing, Tournament Info

Crystal Lake – PrePractice

May 30, 2006 hellabass

My partner (John) for the Crystal Lake club tournament decided to head out on Memorial Day for a little pre-practice/fun fishing. We fished from 6am – 2pm, we started in a shallow bay with topwater, no luck on Lucky Craft Splash-Tail or 1/4oz Buzzbait. I then switched to a watermelon Zoom Super Fluke because of the large amount of small bluegills spawning in the shallows. I quickly caught a nice 2lb keeper on the edge of a dock. After that I threw a brown/purple Swim Jig, I quickly caught 2 bass and got bit off by a northern. Through the rest of the day, most of the fish we caught were relation inside weed edges and pockets. Some were guarding fry, couple were on beds, most were just cruising. We also picked up a few under trees and around docks, but most fish were just along the inside edge or in a pocket. John caught all his fish on a texas-rigged Zoom Baby Brush Hog (watermelon/red) with a small pegged sinker. I caught fish on LFT Ring Frys, LFT Twitch Worm (watermelon) on Shakey Head, and a LFT Craw Tube (Bull Bream). I also had my first fish on a Pumpkin/Gold Rad Lures Chatterbait, too bad it was a small pike. I also had a 2lb bass on that spit the hook All in all it was a pretty solid day, caught 15 keeper bass between us with the biggest being about 4lb and most around 2lb. I plan to practice Friday and Saturday for this Sunday’s Bassmaster Weekend Series on Le Homme Deu Chain.