Category Archives: General

Quest for a new Boat & My Fall Clearance Event

This past Saturday I fished the Simply Fishing Marine tournament with my buddy Paul Coffey on North & South Center.  Even though I had not been there in 10 years and Paul had never been there, I am pretty confident in my abilities to catch fish this time of year.  They put on a fun event and thought it was a good opportunity to put some more money in my boat fund.  Didn’t quite work out that way, we ended up with 16.5lbs and just missed money and win, just needed one more good cull.  I did get destroyed by a biggun on a dock late in the day, but that is fishing!

If you are wondering why I need to build up my boat fund, my boat had a terrible accident back in August, it was totaled, see blog post on that.

So I have decided to liquidate several rods, reel and all kind of tackle and gear to have a little more cash to put down on prospective boats.  So if you want to participate, check out my ebay page, got all kinds of good stuff and I will continue to keep putting up stuff for a couple weeks.

Currently, I have G-Loomis Rods, Shimano Reels, Lowrance GPS, Trokar Hooks, and more.  I have some Rapalas, Lucky Crafts, a Lunker Punker and a few other things ready to load tomorrow night as well.

If you don’t want to buy stuff, consider clicking on a few extra links/ads on my site or YouTube Channel



Recipe for Saving a Wet Cell Phone

How do you dry out a cell phone?

If you have never soaked a cell phone in the outdoors, you probably don’t fish enough to read this blog or its going to happen this weekend and just jinxed yourself!  All kidding aside, I actually have a recipe for recovering a soaked cell phone.

Whether it was left in a boat compartment that wasn’t so water tight, your rain coat pockets took on a little water or you just fell in the water with your phone in your pocket.  Unfortunately, I think I have had all these happen to me.

So below you will find a 10 step recipe to saving your expensive cell phone:

Step 1 – Get yourself out of the water. (Feel free to skip step 1 if you did not fall in)
Step 2 – Get phone out of water and open it up & take battery and memory cards out.
Step 3 – Wrap everything in something dry; keep it away from any more moisture
Step 4 – Wait until your wife is out of the kitchen
Step 5 – Place battery in a bag of white rice & seal it up
Step 6 – Get two cookie sheets
Step 7 – Place empty cookie sheet on bottom rack closest to burners (see setup photo above)
Step 8 – Spread out all components of your phone except for battery on cookie sheet & place on top rack
Step 9 – Set oven to 150°F & bake for 8-12 hours
Step 10 – Let it cool and put back together, fire it up and smile, you just saved $300!

This is no joke, it really works.  If your oven won’t go down that low with its settings like mine, get an oven thermometer with an external display and then you can cycle it on and off to keep the temperature low enough.  Cell phones are designed to operate at temperatures around 160°F so that is why baking the moisture out of it works so well.

Try it, it should save you some money and some headaches!  Comment below if you have some better tips, but I don’t really think the bag of rice thing works that well.  I think this is the Best Way to dry out a mobile phone that gets soaked whether in a lake, your pocket or the washing machine.


Got the itch…

A rigorous travel schedule has kept me off the water other then throwing a little crappie spinner from shore for a few minutes on Saturday.  I did catch one small fish pictured below.  But it’s not really doing an adequate job of scratching my itch.  Kinda want to get out on the boat, maybe towards end of this week, I can make some time.

 Anybody noticed all these silly looking multicolored bar code looking things in all the fishing magazine these days?  Well if not or you have and have no clue why, read on. They are “Electronic Tags
and are a relative;y new and cool new way to connect print media or any
other visual media with Digital media.  These tag barcodes are embedded
with a URL or a link to a video, website, or pretty much anything you
can think of…
    

Curious, how it works, simply download the FREE application or “App” from the website http://gettag.mobi
or download from your appropriate App Store.  You can even test on the
Tags in this article.  First will bring you to a Strike King Ad other
will bring you to a YouTube video demo of how to use the tags with my
Blackberry.Interestingly enough, two large fishing and outdoor companies
are embracing this technology.  See my YouTube video demonstrating how these tags work.

From a consumer’s perspective, these technologies get me  excited. Just think, if this technology becomes
widely accepted and embraced, consumers could scan small tags off of the
package, download customer reviews, video ads, much more then you could
ever fit on a package. So you scan a code on a new lure, get straight
talk from the pro that invented it in video form or even get an instant
coupon.

I think they are cool, do you?  Or a huge waste of time?


Still time to save on bass fishing gear you need

Hey all, got a late tax refund burning a hole in your pocket or at least didn’t owe as much as last year?

BassTackleDepot.com is having a sweet little sale thru April 25th, Save 15% off almost everything in their awesome store!
http://www.basstackledepot.com/btd/sstockup.jpg
Sale runs thru 4-25
Online Orders Only
Discounts will display in your cart
Some
Restrictions May Apply, example: Jackall, Koppers, Reaction
Innovations, Shimano, TroKar, Gift Cards, & Wright & McGill

In Stock At BassTackleDepot!!


Picasso Tungsten Flippin


Xcite Raptor Tail Jr.


Luck E Strike Rick Clunn


Bomber Balsa Model B


Sebile Spin Shad


MattLures Ultimate U2


Gambler EZ Swimmer


E
akins Jigs


Jackall G90

Minnesotans for an Early Bass Fishing Season

The great majority of Bass anglers in Minnesota would do just about anything to get an earlier bass season in some form, whether it be experimental regulation lakes, catch & release season or just an earlier start date.  Well time to organize and unite, check out this Facebook Group and discussion board, time to get involved if we you want to see this become a reality.
http://www.mnearlybassseason.com

I am totally behind this idea, here is my general stance on the situation:
“I believe the only way this changes is to convince law makers that we
are losing money to WI & IA because of our long closed season. Tons
of guys travel out of state, spend money on licenses, gas, food &
lodging to fish bass legally, not to mention, potentially the state
could save money on trying to enforce the extended close season or use
the resources to enforce poaching or exotic species issues.

Not
to mention, an earlier season extends our tourism season, more
opportunity for more anglers to travel to MN and spend their money in
our local economy.

So in the end, we need to put a business case together!”

Hope you are interested in joining the cause!


Sights from 1st Day of 2011 Northwest SportShow

Made it down to the Minneapolis Convention Center to take in first day of the best Sport Show in Minnesota.  This is kind of the official start of spring for most of us anglers, we should have ice out just around the corner, so this is the last show to get some last minute tackle or get that boat ordered so it gets here for opener!

Here are a few highlights that I found on my first walk through:

Nice Selection of Dobyns Rods at this booth, only a few store like Capra’s carry them in Minnesota, so here is your chance to feel what every body is raving about on the forums

Or better yet, check them out at Capra’s booth & buy one, they have a show special, you can save 20%!!!


The Legend Boat Alpha is worth a stop to check it out, very nice boat and when you are done checking it out, enter to win the free drawing for a Lowrance HDS5 at the very same Simply Fishing Extreme Marine booth!


Seems to be some Steam around the new HAVOC baits, saw them at Capra’s, Joe’s & Reeds, sure a few others have them too!  I think you get a free hat with purchase of 4 bags, which will cost you about $12


These 2 Phoenix bass boats are probably the biggest surprise to me this year, I’ve known about the brand, but had no idea anybody carried them up here, turns out Southside Marine out of  Waseca, MN just started as a dealer for 2011.  These boats are pretty cool, worth crawling around in.  I got more pics showing storage of this boat and other stuff at show here on my Facebook page, check it out!

I will be headed back on Saturday, so expect another update on Saturday evening, plus you can watch my Facebook Fan Page & Twitter feed for updates from the floor as I walk around.

Last tip, FREE BEER samples at the Northern Beer booth, don’t ever say I don’t bring value, LOL.

Leave comments if there are things you want to see or saw at the show I should check out,

Thanks!


Some upcoming events

In case it has creeped up on you and you dind’t realize it, next week is the Northwest Sportshow.  If you are a serious bass angler, it is clearly the best show all year around this area.  I will probably go one of the first evenings and most of the day on Saturday.  I plan to bring my camera & video camera, hopefully capture what’s new & cool, then bring it to you here on the blog. 

Here are a seminars that could be helpful to us bass anglers:

Wednesday, March 30, 2011
7:00 pm Fishing Electronics Made Simple Scott Petersen Room 101 H
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Friday, April 01, 2011
1:00 pm Fishing Electronics Made Simple Scott Petersen Room 101 H
Saturday, April 02, 2011
4:00 pm Bass Fishing Tips and Tricks for River Fishing Brad Leifermann Room 101 H
7:00 pm Bass Fishing Tips and Tricks for River Fishing Brad Leifermann Room 101 H

When:              Wednesday, March 30                1:00-9:00p.m.
                       Thursday, March 31                     1:00-9:00p.m,
                        Friday, April 1                              11:00a.m.-9:00p.m.
                        Saturday, April 2                          10:00a.m.-9:00p.m.
                        Sunday, April 3                             10:00a.m.-5:00p.m.
 
Where:            Minneapolis Convention Center
                       1301 Second Avenue South
                       Minneapolis, Minnesota
 
Tickets:           Adults (16 and older) $10; Senior Day, (Thursday, March 31st only,
                       62+) $5; Children (15 and younger) FREE
 
Advance tickets can be purchased online at
NorthwestSportshow.com 


Web:               Visit us at NorthwestSportshow.com, on Twitter
@NWSportshow, or 
                        find us on
Facebook

Also of note, a fellow bass buddy of mine, Glenn Walker, has a bass fishing basics seminar on April 9th at Belzer’s down in Lakeville.  Looks like fun stuff, some giveaways, I think I will probably drop in for this one as well.


Hartwell Fantasy Fishing Picks

If  you haven’t made your picks yet for FLW Tour on Hartwell, better get on it, they start fishing in the morning.  Gonna try pasting my picks from FLW site, see how it works below.  Prizes for Beaver & St. Johns will ship soon, still trying to get a hold of Harris Chain winner….

Lake Hartwell


Listen to the Fantasy Fishing podcast here, special guest this week is Brett Ehrler, he talks about his preference on drop shot setups, his practice & favorite RoboWorm colors…

Anybody of my fellow Minnesotans excited for next week’s Northwest Sportshow?  I think I am actually going there this year with a purpose, camera & video camera in hand, try to do some blog recaps on what is cool & new this year!

Hey – are all you readers subscribers?  If not, why not drop your email in the upper left corner of my blog & click subscribe button, they you can get my blog right in your inbox moments after each entry!

Trying to stay warm

As I type this entry, it is -6 degrees actual temperature, on it’s way to -13.  So if this entry ends abruptly, its me hitting “Publish” with my last ounce of energy as the cold takes over.

As you can imagine, not a lot of fishing as of late for this guy, so what I have I been up to?  Well, doing a little orginization of fishing gear, listing some stuff on ebay , trying to do more blogging here and on Vesrus.com, day dreaming of a trip to a warmer fishing destination .  Also, doing lots of reading of articles on the internet.

Here is a nice little piece on Cold Front Bass Fishing that I found on EarthSports.com.  If I am not in a cold front, then I don’t what a cold front is……

G-Man flat caught them today at the Big O for the first BASS Southern Open today!
Gerald Swindle
B.A.S.S.

I’m feeling a bit inspired right now, I think its the start of both major tours, the Bassmasters Classic and Fantasy Fishing all getting fired up real soon.  That is, if I don’t freeze to death….

Rich

Sometimes it pays to Procrastinate

Instead of of writing this blog tonight, I thought I was going to be franticly packing, respooling and staying up all night getting ready for a bass fishing trip of a lifetime to Lake Comedero.  Besides who wants to fish on a lake with World Record Bass Potential….

Didn’t work out, ended up blowing up just 36 hours before flight was scheduled to depart.  Long story short, partners of fishing lodge destination had a bit of falling out and everything came crashing down just 36 hours before our flight left.

So, my whole procrastinate title is me trying to spin this positively in my head.  At least I did not respool all my reels yet with 37# fluoro that would not be that useful come spring in MN.  At least I didn’t waste my time finishing packing.  Good thing I waited to rush out and buy a light weight rain suit for this trip. If I stay up late enough, I am sure I will think of some more…

Now, I will not get to share what most certainly would have been some amazing photos and videos from the trip on the blow with all of you

Well, time to focus on making some other fishing adventures.

Later,
Rich