Last Weekend Club Tournament Recaps

June 18, 2009 hellabass

This past weekend, I had two Gopher Bassmasters club tournaments on Big & LIttle Green Lakes on Saturday, and Sunday we fished the Chisago/Lindstrom chain. I was able to briefly practice the weekend before on Green.

My partner Art & I started in a little shallow water pocket that had lots of pads, wood & other grass. We were both able to get a limit from this area by a little after 8am. I caught 2 of my better sized fish on a frog and on Kizew Gill Super K swim jig, the rest of the limit was filled with a tube & a weightless Green Pumpkin Ring Fry. Art caught all 5 of his fish on a 8″ Green Pumpkin Fork Worm on a 1/8oz texas rig. The rest of the day, we pecked around docks, bluegill beds and other shallow cover, where I was able to cull 3 times, twice on the Ring Fry and once on a 3/8oz Tru-Tungsten Jig. My final weight was 14.32lbs with a big fish of 3.82lbs. It was good enough for 2nd place. Art had around 7lbs and that put him in 6th out of the 28 anglers. Final standings here.

Green Lake Largemouth

Sunday brought Chisago & Lindstrom, which is an excellent bass fishery. Because of catch & release regulations, this tournament would be a paper/measurement tournament. My partner Steve had a chance to briefly practice, we quickly discovered the two areas he found were places I had previously fished and intended to fish during the tournament. After catching a few small keepers on our first weedline in Chisago, we moved and the 2nd spot produced nothing. We decided to try a shallow stretch where I had caught several of my bigger fish 2 years ago in a club tournament. I was able to quickly get a limit and Steve got two more fish all on Ring Fry’s and other soft plastics; but i was only able to get one good fish at 17″. We jumped across the bay to look for more of the same, I saw one nice fish cruising and saw another on a bed. I caught that fish which was almost 16″ pretty quickly on a drop shot.

Steve and I made a decision to go deep in hopes of finding some bigger fish, that is where we went wrong. We never got on anything substantial, we both struggled to get one more keeper each. Although the tourney was won deep, with 20.1lbs, we could not locate the fish in the short time of the tournament afternoon. Turns out we should have stayed shallow, as most of the rest of the field recorded very solid catches 15-18lbs doing what we did early. My final weight was 12.84lbs, which is good on many lakes, is not good on Chisago, finished 11th. It bothers me that i left a shallow bite and missed out on it, that is usually my deal. Oh well, lesson learned. It’s good to learn these lessons in club tournaments, instead of money tournaments

Saturday I will be fishing Pool 4 for my next weekend series tournament…
RichLindgren.com
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Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner

Mississippi River Rumble Fantasy Fishing Group Winner!

June 15, 2009 hellabass

Congratulations to Rob Busse of Farmington, MN; he was the highest scoring member of my Bassin’ Blog group for ESPN Fantasy Fishing at the Mississippi River Rumble event. It was nice to see someone new win an event.

Here are Rob’s comments on his winning line-up:
“KVD is the obvious choice, especially when you’re not much of a bass fisherman like me and he’s the only name you recognize. The rest of the line-up is pure luck. I know a lot of people change their line-up every week to go with local guys and while that makes sense, I don’t want to be like everybody else. I also heard a number of times that it was not smart to keep Elton Luce on my team (and it certainly wasn’t for the prior tournaments), but I stuck with him. I guess this proves the saying that “every blind squirrel does eventually find a nut”. “

Rob’s Fantasy Picks:
KVD
Elton Luce
Kevin Short
Ike
Alton Jones

For Rob’s efforts, he has won a bag of Tru-Tungsten finesse worms, should be great for catching those finicky Lake Dubay bass for his annual fishing excursion over the 4th of July!!

Thanks to Tru-Tungsten for helping out with the prizes.

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com
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Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

BASS Tour, Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner

Kentucky Lake Fantasy Fishing Group Winner!

June 12, 2009 hellabass

Congratulations to Jason Mayer from IN, he was the highest scoring member of my Bassin’ Blog group for ESPN Fantasy Fishing at the Kentucky Lake event. He is our first threepeat winner on the Bass side!!! Somebody needs to start winning prizes other then Jason & Brad.

Jason said it was the same line-up he used for the past two tourneys, but he would be changing it up for this Mississippi river tournament.

For Jason’s efforts, he has won a bag of Tru-Tungsten finesse worms, should be great for catching those tough Indiana bass!!

Thanks to Tru-Tungsten for helping out with the prizes.

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

All About Bass Shows, Multimedia

All About Bass – Episode 1 – Part 3 of 4

June 11, 2009 hellabass

The Inaugural episode (webisode) is a 20lb Minnesota Bass Opener Challenge on a small south metro lake. I invite my buddy Josh Douglas to help me catch 20lbs in 7 hours of tournament style fishing. You may remember I blogged about my Bass Opener outing here. There are 4 segments to this first episode, here is a link to the first 2 segments. Embedded below is Segment 3.

Segment 4 will be coming soon, so check back to the blog often. Or better yet, consider signing up with Email or RSS subscription so you never miss an episode! Email subscription can be found on the upper left corner of this page in the side bar.

If you are looking for Ring Frys, find them here!

You can also find these videos by searching YouTube or checking out MN Sun Newspapers.

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

Mobile Blog Entries, Tournament Info

Green Lake Practice Report

June 10, 2009 hellabass

This is my first attempt at a mobile blog post, so it will be short. Art and I got on the lake around 8am, started shallow caught some decent fish on soft plastics & swim jigs. We then hit some mid-depth areas & found another pod of decent fish. From there it got super slow, hope things are better this weekend.

Tight lines,
Rich

Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner, FLW Tour

Setting a FLW Fantasy Fishing Lineup for Kentucky Lake

June 10, 2009 hellabass

Kentucky Lake is in a big time upward cycle right now and kicking out a ton of fish and some real big ones. Both big smallies & largemouth could likely factor in during this event.

Fishery Details:
Type of water: Kentucky – Tennessee River (TVA) impoundment,
Barkley – Cumberland River impoundment
Surface area: 160,000 acres for Kentucky, 58,000 acres for Barkley
Shoreline: 2,064 miles for Kentucky, 1,004 for Barkley
Average depth: 20 feet for Kentucky, 12 feet for Barkley
Max depth: Approximately 60 feet on both lakes
Primary structure/cover: rock, grass, bushes, lay-downs, points, off-shore ledges, brush
Species: largemouth, smallmouth, spotted bass
Length minimum: 15″ for largemouths, 18″ for smallmouths, 12″ Spotted bass

All indications is that this tournament will be a full on ledge bite.

Here are my other anglers to watch:
Dan Moorehead
Jim Moynagh
George Geane, Jr.

Basically I am sticking with the strategy to keep littering my lineup with anglers that are hot right now and have past experience and lots of wins & top 10’s this week.

Finally, my FLW fantasy fishing picks:

Kentucky/Barkley Lake Roster		Tour Stats
	Selected Anglers	Events	Earnings	Missed Cuts	Avg Finish	Top 3	Top 10’s	Top 25’s	Wins
1	TERRY BOLTON	84	$ 422,100	77	65	2	7	25	0
2	ANDY MORGAN	90	$ 747,854	75	48	3	13	31	1
3	DAVID DUDLEY	88	$ 1,348,100	71	43	7	16	35	2
4	DAVID FRITTS	79	$ 836,548	64	69	7	14	21	5
5	BRENT EHRLER	31	$ 789,000	26	47	1	5	13	1
6	RAMIE COLSON JR	29	$ 143,000	26	87	0	2	7	0
7	DAVID YOUNG	34	$ 84,200	33	81	1	1	4	0
8	MICHAEL BENNETT	32	$ 1,401,850	26	52	3	6	13	2
9	STETSON BLAYLOCK	34	$ 302,975	28	48	3	6	12	2
10	SHINICHI FUKAE	38	$ 645,650	27	47	2	10	17	2

It’s not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com
Bass Fishing Today
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Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner

Setting an ESPN Fantasy Fishing Line-up for Mississippi River – Fort Madison

June 9, 2009 hellabass

The Mississippi River is one of the great bass fisheries in this country, but this particular section (Fort Madison) I think is under a little bit of hard times from last year’s flooding. This time of year, fish should be really starting to gang up in pads and eel grass edges, but from the sounds of it, not much of it has grown back from last summer. So if you can find some good stretches, they could be loaded, but also very crowded. A strong wood flipping bite could play as well. Either way, its nice to see the Elites visit the upper midwest for a change, should be a very exciting tournament, they will catch plenty of fish. Look for Swimming Jigs to be a big player here.

I am making some fairly serious changes this week to try to make some big moves, Alton Jones had to go, he was just too safe.

Here are a few guys that I think would be solid fantasy fishing picks that are not on my team. Chris Lane, Tommy Biffle, Iaconelli and Jami Fralick. The breakdown on my team is as follows:
KVD – He catches them every where, probably have a solid spinnerbait pattern going.
Matt Herren – For the money probably on my roster until the bitter end, should have a solid finish, strong shallow water angler.
Skeet Reese – To good to cut loose, should catch plenty of bass slinging Lucky Crafts around rocks & wood.
Dean Rojas– Come on Kermit, don’t let me down. Hoping the bass will eat a frog even if there is no grass.
Bill Lowen– C’mon wood flipping bite, that is Lowen’s deal!

So here are my Fort Madison picks, two signifigant changes from KY Lake:

Rich’sRoster
Angler 1	Angler 2	Angler 3	Angler 4	Angler 5

Kevin VanDam Kalamazoo, MI	Skeet Reese Auburn, CA	Dean Rojas Lake Havasu City, AZ	Bill Lowen North Bend, OH	Matthew Herren Trussville, AL
MKT: $24.9 (+0.4) LKD: $24.5	MKT: $24.2 (+0.4) LKD: $23.8	MKT: $21.1 LKD: $21.1	MKT: $17.3 LKD: $17.3	MKT: $14.0 (+0.9) LKD: $13.1

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com
Bass Fishing Today
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner, Sponsors

Beaver Lake Fantasy Fishing Group Winner!

June 5, 2009 hellabass

Congratulations to Tricia Heinecke from New Richmond, WI; she was the highest scoring member of my Bassin’ Blog group for FLW Fantasy Fishing.

Brief email interview with Tricia and this is what she had to say on her strategy:
“My husband & I have Players Advantage. My husband made list of fishermen and my 5 year old son helped to pick his mommy’s team! Wish I could have had a couple exactas for a really big prize!! ”

For Tricia’s efforts, he has won a 5/16oz Threadfin Shad Secret Weapon Lure Sidearm Spinnerbait and will get a 30% off promo code to order anything he wants in the Secret Weapon Armory!

I am sure Tricia & her family will catch plenty of bass with this great spinnerbait! Thanks to Secret Weapon Lures for helping out with the prizes.

Its not too late to join my group, prizes will be awarded at every tournament and year end.

Best regards,
The Commissioner
RichLindgren.com
Rich’s Bassin’ Forum
Bass Fishing Tackle Blog

All About Bass Shows, Multimedia

Presenting “All About Bass” – An Online Bass Fishing Show

June 3, 2009 hellabass

If you have been reading this blog and paying attention, I have been hinting & eluding to the possibility of some new video content. Well here it is! “All About Bass” will be an online bass fishing show that I will be working on, this blog will be one of many places you will be able to view it. Check out My YouTube Channel!!!

The Inaugural episode (webisode) is a 20lb Minnesota Bass Opener Challenge on a small south metro lake. I invite my buddy Josh Douglas to help me catch 20lbs in 7 hours of touranment style fishing. You may remember I blogged about my Bass Opener outing here. There are 4 segments to this first episode, posted below are all the segments.

UPDATED JUNE 12
Part 3 Added for your Viewing Convience:

So what do you think? We learned a ton from this first shoot, we already have ideas to improve the audio and other things. I would appreciate comments after you have watched. Segment 4 will be coming soon, so check back to the blog often. Or better yet, consider signing up with Email or RSS subscription so you never miss an episode!

UPDATED JUNE 19
Part 4 – “The Weigh-In” Added for your Viewing Convience:

If you are looking for Ring Frys, find them here!

You can also find these videos by searching YouTube or checking out MN Sun Newspapers or check out My YouTube Channel!

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

BASS Tour, Fantasy Bass Fishing Corner

Setting an ESPN Fantasy Fishing Line-up for Kentucky Lake

June 2, 2009 hellabass

Kentucky Lake is one of the great bass fisheries in this country. This time of year, fish should be really starting to stack up on ledges. Sounds like water levels have dropped, so flipping bushes probably won’t play much, but you never know.

By the way, you need to get it in by tomorrow 8am central, this tournament actually starts on a Wednesday and ends on Saturday to allow travel time to Iowa next week.

The next 3 events Kentucky Lake, Mississippi River, & Lake Oneida are all vastly different fisheries, so trying to set your lineup to fit all 3 may be a bit of a challenge.

Here are a few guys that I think would be solid fantasy fishing picks that are not on my team. Kelly Jordan, Kevin Wirth, Edwin Evers & Timmy Horton. The breakdown on my team is as follows:
KVD – With a 3rd & a 1st last two June events on KY Lake, he is a lock.
Matt Herren – For the money probably on my roster until the bitter end, should have a solid finish, hopefully he does not get caught chasing shallow fish and misses the ledge bite.
Skeet Reese – To good to cut loose, should catch plenty of bass slinging Lucky Crafts on Ledges
Alton Jones– Hot hand & should have solid finishes all 3 events.
Jami Fralick– Hopefully Jami can repeat last summer’s Kentucky success both on Elite Series and Open tourney, I am hoping he can produce on the Mississippi river as well, but he is for sure gone before Oneida.

So here are my Guntersville picks, just one change from Smith Mountain:

Rich’s Roster
Angler 1	Angler 2	Angler 3	Angler 4	Angler 5

Kevin VanDam Kalamazoo, MI	Skeet Reese Auburn, CA	Alton Jones Waco, TX	Jami Fralick Martin, SD	Matthew Herren Trussville, AL
MKT: $24.7 (+0.2) LKD: $24.5	MKT: $24.0 (+0.2) LKD: $23.8	MKT: $21.8 (+0.2) LKD: $21.6	MKT: $15.8 LKD: $15.8	MKT: $13.8 (+0.7) LKD: $13.1