I have been waiting anxiously to see what the 2012 Elite Series schedule was going to be. Well, yesterday they announced what it will be, and there aren't any tournaments in Alabama. That's disappointing to me, because I have connections in Northern Alabama that I can tap so that I don't need to use hotels. This allows me to keep my costs down when I travel there to Marshal Elite Series events. Here is the link to the the 2012 Bassmaster Elite Series Schedule and discussion, and here is just a quick look at the schedule .
If you didn't click on the "Schedule Discussion" link above, you probably didn't hear about the new wrinkle to the Elite Series Schedule. Next year they are putting a "Mystery Lake" into the mix. The seventh lake of the eight lake schedule will not be revealed until right before the practice period. I don't know how they plan on having enough Marshals for that event unless they are working through a state federation who might be able to supply enough Marshals.
Oh well, doesn't look like I'll be Marshaling an event next year. I've really enjoyed them, and was hoping to do it again next year.
If you've been reading the blog, you know that Nate Wellman won his second Bassmaster Open last Saturday. The event was on Lake Erie out of Sandusky, OH.
Sandusky, may be best know for the amusement park there, Cedar Point . For many years, it has been "The" destination for the young, and young at heart. The rides are thrillers, but I would bet that the best ride that Nate has been on there is the one he took past the amusement park as he went back and forth from Pelee ferrying his loads of smallies.
This is one of those blogs that gets added to in the 11th hour. I don't know if you call 5:00 a.m. the eleventh hour, but not being able to sleep, for some reason, in the wee hours, found me killing time surfing the net. I had trouble getting online with the Safari browser, so I popped up Fire Fox. I hit most of my usual sites, but in my bookmarks on Fire Fox Bass Zone stuck out, so I clicked on it. As I checked out Bass Zone, I saw that they did a Skype interview with Nate hours earlier, and I missed it. However, they archive their programs, so I was able to watch and listen to it.
Before Nate came on, they talked quite a bit about the new Elite Schedule, interesting. When they cued Nate they talked to him about his second Open win and got his impressions on the new Elite schedule. He also showed the three baits he used on Erie. One was a prototype crankbait that he says will crank down to 29 feet! If you have an extra thirty minutes of so in your day, you might want to check out Mark Jeffries' Bass Zone BTL program .
Well unless something else flashes on my screen this is going to be it from me today. The final cast of the day is a quote by David Barry. He said, "Never be afraid to try something new. Remember that a lone amateur built the Ark. A large group of professionals built the Titanic." Take care, and if you are looking for something to do Thursday night, GVSU plays Western Oregon at 7:00 p.m. at GVSU. They play some fun football!
August 30, 2011
Howdy, I'm sitting around the house as per usual, so I thought I'd get busy formatting an article that Ross Parsons, submitted to the blog. It's a story about his recent FLW Collegiate fishing experience on Lake Erie out of Buffalo, New York. I think you'll like it. I'm glad that colleges, and even high schools, are starting bass clubs. Here is Ross' report. (After checking the article online I see the Facebook links don't come up. Go to Facebook and enter the blue link title to get to the page referenced.)
2011 FLW Collegiate Fishing Report
Central Michigan Fishing Team Members Ross Parsons and Brandon Carmen are greeted by the FLW Stage and the dawn's early light.
CMU Team Report from FLW's Collegiate Fishing Event Buffalo, NY
A few weeks ago, at a local club tournament, I was surprised to find out Central Michigan University (CMU) had a bass fishing club . Immediately after emailing the president, he asked me if I would like to fish a FLW Collegiate event on Lake Erie . Because of students moving in for the new school year, a number of their regulars couldn't make the event. Lucky for me, not so lucky for them.
Lake Erie has to be the smallmouth capital of the world! Tournaments either on the Western or Eastern Basin typically require twenty pounds or more per day. Fish in the five pound class are fairly common, and big bass usually tips the scales at six plus pounds! For many, that's a fish of a lifetime!
The FLW goes all out for College fishing . Each school is given a boat with a volunteer boat driver. The Collegiate event is held the Saturday of an Everstart event and the Everstart pros are commandeered to act as drivers for the Collegiate teams. The driver can't share any information, but can take you within the boundaries set by the FLW. There is no entry fee, and the winning team takes home $10,000 for their school and club.
The FLW also provides a big stage, very similar to the one the FLW Tour uses. Unfortunately, the College fishing trailer was getting serviced, and the BFL trailer was used.
The tournament was on Saturday, August, 20th, 2011. My CMU partner, Brandon Carmen, and I left at 2:00 p.m. Friday. Driving through Toledo on I-90 it is 490 miles to Buffalo from CMU. It made for a long trip and we didn't get in to our motel until 10 p.m.
After getting checked in, and getting our licenses at Wal-Mart, it was midnight. Next time around, we will definitely leave earlier, or maybe take I-69 and go through Canada, which would have saved us a 100 miles.
After registering at 5:00 a.m., we got paired with our boater, Everstart Pro Chuck Pohlman , and packed our things in his 08, 21 ft. Triton bass/walleye boat.
With only a few days of preparation for this tournament, coupled with the fact that I had never fished Erie before, I did my best to research the Buffalo area smallmouth fishing. Several members from Dan Kimmel's greatlakesbass.com stepped up for me, and gave me some information on techniques, baits, and some general locations to key on. Thanks guys!
My partner and I decided to run a few miles to Seneca Shoal . The Seneca Shoals Departure Buoy is about 4 miles west of the south gap (The south gap is the gap in the breakwall when you come out of the small boat harbor of Buffalo Harbor). You can't miss it if you head west from the south gap. Seneca Shoals is about 4-5 miles south of the departure buoy. It is a popular rock pile that usually produces fish all year. Chuck, our boater, said that at least 35 boats had hit the spot during the Everstart tournament, which was still going on. (The top ten Everstart anglers fish Saturday for the championship.)
Once on the Shoals, we marked fish right away, but couldn't get a bite. An hour later, having tried tubes and drop shotting Berkley Gobies and minnows, we decided to change up baits. Dan Shine, from this site, told me a black Gulp leach is a great Erie smallmouth getter, so I gave it a try.
We moved the boat north, and started to drift. All of a sudden, I hear my partner's drag begin to sing, and it was fish on! I grabbed the net and was so excited! My partner had a 2.5 pounder almost to the boat. As I waited anxiously with the net, the thrill of victory went to the agony of defeat, as I saw the line snap. We were so pumped to have that first fish on, but that's why they call it fishing and not catching.
Keeping our focus though paid off, because about 20 minutes later, I hooked into a two pounder, my first Lake Erie bass! Boy was I smiling!
I was surprised how Lake Erie bass don't like to show themselves until you get them right to the boat. I had heard that they rocket to the surface, but that wasn't the case. They were bull doggers, and loved to stay under the boat.
We continued to make several drifts and finally found some fish. My partner landed a few twelve inchers, which keep in Buffalo. It took us three hours, in to our six hour tournament, to get a partial limit of three fish. We could almost hear the clock ticking.
We marked the area where we caught all of our fish, because we were told to find fish, and then sit on them. However, despite all our efforts we couldn't get another bite. With half of the tourney over, we decided to move to the north east side of the shoal, which was empty of boats. During our first drift, I got a wind knot in my braid putting my dropshot rod out of business. I picked up my rod that I was uncertain about bringing, because it was an older light action Fenwick. I didn't know if it had enough backbone for Lake Erie monsters.
With the lack of bites coming on our vertical presentation, I decided to cast the drop shot rig. After a few casts, I hooked into a nice fish! Wahoo! A 3.5 pounder! My light weight rod was tested to the max, and it bent almost in two as the fish fought to stay under the boat! A Very exciting fight on six pound test flouro. Minutes later I catch a 14 incher!! The fish are biting, and we now have our limit!
Having only about nine pounds, we went searching for some Erie pigs. Unfortunately, our new spot, in front of the windmills, only ate up time and lures. With only an hour left, we decided we better just fish the Seneca Shoal in hope of culling the small fish we had in the live well.
With the tournament only being six hours, it limits the spots you can hit. Once back at one of our earlier coordinates on the Shoals, I immediately hooked up! Another nice fish!
I had bought a variety quart of Gulp minnows and leaches , and my black leaches were gone. So, I decided to try the pumpkinseed ones, what a color difference can make! Quickly, I culled another four fish which helped a lot!. The MSU team was fishing near us, and was constantly looking over their shoulders wondering how we were getting all our fish, lol.
All we needed was a big fish to cull one of our 14.5 inch fish.
With five minutes to go, I picked up my line, and it seemed to be a goby. I start reeling, and I don't feel much weight. As I get my bait right at the boat my reel begins to zing! After a five minute fight, the hook pops loose from a solid five pounder. That really deflated my hopes, but it was still an exciting fight. With check in time closing in on us, and having to three footers to contend with and slowing our speed to around 25 mph, we had to head back in.
Once back at the docks, we saw our fish weren't in the best shape. The water temperature was pretty hot. The surface temp varied from 74-76 degrees. That's pretty warm for the smallies that like that deep cool water. Next year we will definitely have plenty of ice.
Our fish weighed in at 13-2 which placed us in the middle of the pack, in 17th place, out of 35 boats.
For my partner and I being the only college rookies out there, we did pretty well. We ended up catching about a dozen keepers. The winners boated 20 pounds, and said they fished clean the whole day. If I had gotten that five pounder in we may have culled up a number of places. I'm sure I'll have a few dreams about what may have happened, and those thoughts will keep me wanting to come back even more.
With the stipends I was given, my Erie trip ended up costing me around $150, and that included some tasty Buffalo, buffalo wings!
I can?t wait to go back to Erie next year! I will never forget my first big water trip, and my lessons learned their.
Ross waiting at the tanks in his first FLW Collegiate Fishing event
Ross and Brandon on stage.
Ross Parsons and Brandon Carmen with some Erie smallmouth
Thanks Ross for the story. It sounded like a fantastic time! Maybe, I should think about going back to school. I could get in to a trip like that! Back in my day, colleges didn't even all have football teams let alone fishing teams. (Yea, I know I'm older than dirt. I had to get that in there before the Cementman emailed me.) Good luck to you and your CMU fellow anglers! We'll be waiting to hear about more of your exploits.
August 28, 2011
Nate Wellman wins the B.A.S.S. Northern Open out of Sandusky, Ohio, going wire to wire. The win nets him a little over $50K in money and prizes, but I would guess, more importantly to Nathan, is that the win puts him in the Bassmaster Classic. A dream he says, that he's had since he was 12. That would have been the year I had him in sixth grade. In a very small way, maybe some of our old fishing discussions at school, steered him toward a path that could very possibly put the World Championship trophy in his hands.
Nate now has two Northern Open wins. These haven't come easily. I know for a fact that since he graduated from high school he has signed up for and fished countless tournaments. His full time job has been fishing, and the hours upon hours on the water are beginning to pay big dividends.
For a number of years, Nate was an FLW Tour angler. Last year his Open win gave him the points he needed to get invited to fish the B.A.S.S. Elite Series. In his rookie Elite season, he posted two top tens! A terrific start, against some of the best anglers in the world!
The new B.A.S.S. ownership changed the rules for Bassmaster Classic qualification this year. They decided that any Open angler that won an event would qualify for the Classic. I like the change. It insures that the tournaments don't have a drop off in numbers because guys know that point wise they had no chance. Points, still come in to play, because as I mentioned, to qualify for a Elite Series invitation, you have to finish high in the Open points.
I've been texting Nate prior to each of the Open tournament days, and when he's had time to settle in with his trophy, I'll give him a call. Maybe, I'll make a little trip over to his house and do an interview with him, and get a picture of his bookend Open trophies. Congratulations Nate!
Yesterday, CMU Sophomore, Ross Parsons participated in a local bass tournament and won big bass in the event. A nice four pounda did trick for him. Nice job Ross! Remember, we are all waiting for some of those pictures and the story that goes with your FLW Collegiate fishing outing on Lake Erie.
CMU Sophomore, and FLW Collegiate fishing competitor, Ross Parson.
It's early yet this beautiful sunny Sunday, but my options are few. We have had to stay at home for quite a while now, because Gramma has not been doing well. We were back in the ER again Friday night. Her dementia is getting worse, and she's just had her shots at the Pain Clinic for her arthritic shoulders, which usually intensifies her dementia.
Caring for an aged family member, has been a real learning and taxing experience for us. Any small changes in medication, routine, overall condition, can really affect her grasp of things. We are getting to the point where we are concerned she will fall because she is getting up an walking around at night without her walker. It looks like it might be time to investigate facilities that could better keep her safe. It's a hard decision, especially for my wife, but it is one all the doctors we talk to say we must make. We're learning there are some real misconceptions to what some call your "Golden Years."
The last entry today's blog is going to be a link to Fenwick's new line of smallmouth rods. I've checked them out and would like to hold one they look pretty sweet. Here's the link: Fenwick's New Suite Of Smallie Sticks
The last cast of the day is a quote from the one and only Bill Cosby. He once said, "A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice." Take care, and enjoy these last days of summer.
August 25, 2011
B.A.S.S. Rookie, Jenison, MI native, my former student, and now celebrity fishing friend, is number one on the leaderboard after Day 1 of the B.A.S.S. Northern Open. The weigh-in was just an hour ago. I didn't get to watch it on the internet, because on my way back from taking my granddaughter home in Kalamazoo, I broke a tie rod, and had to be towed in to the shop. Drats, double drats! Any how here is the link to the leaderboard for Day 1: 2011 Bass Pro Shops Northern Open #2 .
I didn't get too far into this blog, when it came to my attention that I was taking the bride out for dinner. The mechanic we have that does all of our car work had the car fixed, and we were going to pick it up and then get a sandwich at Charley's Pub , one of our new favorite dinner places. I say this because, when I got back home the Northern Open Day 1 story was up on the Bassmaster site. Nothing had been posted before I left.
The Day 1 stories usually don't contain many specifics. Anglers are a bit guarded early in the event, and don't reveal too much about their locations, techniques, or baits. If they did say much you have to remember that they are fishermen. Do you know how to tell if a fisherman is lying? Watch their lips, if they're moving their lying. Kind of brutal I know, but in most cases, not all, that is a very true statement.
Nate did say, in the Bassmaster article, that he had a drop shot rod in his hand all day. This time of year it is the dominant technique on the big water, and in many of our inland lakes. More and more anglers are learning that this is a technique they must have in their repertoire. If you need a crash course, or want some tweaking secrets, check out this double DVD from Seth Burrill called, Drop-Shot Secrets Revealed . I wouldn't be surprised though, that we find out that the crankbait bite played a factor for many anglers. This time of year a deep diving crankbait bouncing off the bottom is a killer technique.
Nate and I down at Pickwick this past April. One of his two Elite Series Top 10s this year.
Nate bagging his fish on Wheeler, AL in the B.A.S.S. event there in June.
I talked to the Cementman tonight, after he fished Danny Warner's Thursday nighter on Hamlin. He said he won a nifty fifty with big bass of the night. It was his first fish of the night, a dandy almost four pounder. It was two ounces shy, but I'd have to say it was one of the biggest fish I've heard of in a number of Hamlin events this year. I had mentioned in a recent blog, that the bigger fish on Hamlin were just not showing up at the scales. Maybe with the summer season being on the wane, will prompt some of the bigger fish to show themselves.
Today they have an article featuring Elite Angler Gary Klein on Bass Fan. Gary has never had any other job than that of a professional bass angler. He's a California boy who started fishing tournament trails right out of high school, and for all those years he has been a consistent money winner. Even the best of the best though hit the wall some time or another, and 2011 was one of those kind of years for Klein. Some say his focus may have been diminished because he's been working so hard in the development of the new Major League Bass Fishing tour. Klein gives no excuses, but does go on to say that fishing has changed over the years. Anglers are beginning to find themselves fishing in clusters more, due to the fact that with electronics, and the advent of the digital age, anglers just aren't going to be as spread out searching. They eliminate dead water very quickly.
The new young guns have grown up with all this technology, and tend to not have a problem fishing rail to rail. Klein, however, is definitely old school when it comes to fishing near another angler. His code of ethics says that if another angler gets to his spot first, i.e.. because of a better draw, then Klein fishes elsewhere. He is beginning, however, to understand that with all the new advances that help pinpoint fish, he may have to rethink how he feels about fishing in a crowd. Here is the link to part one of the editorial Bass Fan is doing on Klein: Says He Must Evolve - Klein: MLF Work Not Reason For Poor Season .
Gary is very generous with his time and knowledge. On my Marshaling trips, I've listened to him talk about several of his memorable adventures.
Well it's now 2:00 a.m. I've managed to prolong this blog effort right to the bitter end of my focus, or lack there of. Before I close though, I wanted to gloat a bit. Two or three days ago, I got an email and a phone call from Bass Pro Shops , and they said that I was the winner of the KVD Fishing Package and Autograph Jersey. I sign up for a lot of contests and quite frankly, I couldn't remember exactly what this contest was for. When I got the email, I thought maybe it was a boat package, but the phone call clarified it a bit, and the gal from corporate said she was calling from her cell and didn't have the particulars at hand, but thought the contest was for a KVD rod and reel and the jersey. Whatever the case, I was thrilled. They are going to ship me the items, and as I said, I'm not exactly sure what they will be. It adds to the excitement. Kind of like Christmas Eve as a kid. I'll let you all know what the package entails when it arrives. Thanks Johnny Morris and Bass Pro Shops!
Well take care, and if you want to watch the Northern Open weigh-in live, it's at 2:30 tomorrow and 3:30 on Saturday. You can access the player for the weigh-in with this link: 2011 Bass Pro Shops Northern Open #2 weigh-ins . Barring any tie rod malfunctions, I'll be watching!
August 22, 2011
I was surprised when I heard the results of Danny Warner's Thursday nighter on Big Bass Lake last Thursday. Rick texted me, that's right Rick "The Cementman" Skinner is turning in to a techy! He texted me three times last week! Any how, Rick said he came in second with around 12+ pounds. He said Jeff Brauneck won it with a little over 13. I thought to myself holy moly the lake is rebounding faster than I thought. Come to find out though they weighed ten fish.
Several years ago Big Bass Lake was checked out by the state DNR, and was found to have largemouth bass virus. Tournaments for years, had been showing a steady decline in the fish, to the point where they could no longer hold tournaments any more.
After several years of badgering the state, the lake association got them to do a fish study. They netted over 100 bass and only found one to be 14 inches long.
Big Bass Lake is in Lake County. It is a small lake of about 300 acres. It has been a great little bass lake, probably one of the best in the area. As noted though, the fishing, for a number of years, has not been good, leaving many scratching their heads wondering what had happened.
The largemouth bass virus (LMBV) seems to affect the big fish and kills them. The smaller fish seem to make it. Now, after several more years of discussion with the state, they have instituted a 10 inch limit on the lake. The lake has become over populated with small bass. Taking some of the small fish out will hopefully develop a year class that will grow some larger fish (due to less competition), and develop a balanced predator prey ratio. I have my fingers crossed that it works, and that in a few years the lake will be back to its former glory.
I mentioned in the last blog, that Ross Parsons, a CMU sophomore from the Lansing area, had been chosen to represent CMU in the FLW Collegiate Fishing competition on Lake Erie out of Buffalo, New York. Well, Ross and his partner, went out Saturday on Erie. It was the first time fishing the big water for both of them.
It is more than a little daunting to be faced with that challenge for your first Collegiate event. Thankfully, one of the members of Dan Kimmel's greatlakesbass.com website came through with some pretty detailed information for them. With some idea of areas to look at, and baits to try, the two of them felt a little more confident.
The college teams are paired with an Everstart angler who acts as a boat driver only. He or she cannot give the college teams any information or help. The Everstart pros who were acting as drivers, had been fishing the prior two days, but had not made the top ten cut. I don't know how the FLW gets so many of them to volunteer to drive, but they do, and it's great!
Ross and his partner, decided to fish a shoal near the harbor. He said they got on fish pretty much right away. They caught them drop shotting with Gulp leeches. They caught 14 lbs. of fish, but needed to cull a couple of their smaller fish to make it in the top ten which took about 17 lbs. to make. Ross said he had a five pounder on, and fought it up under the boat, but he lost it. If they could have fished clean, he said, and culled with that five pounder they would have made the top ten. Here's a link to the FLW article on the Saturday event: N.C. State University wins FLW College Fishing title . Ross told me that he's going to send me some pictures and a write up of his first Erie tournament soon. He's just starting classes, so I'm sure he is going to be busy, but I'm also sure he'll get me the story fairly quickly.
Just a quick side note: getting things quickly triggered a connection, ... I talked to Dennis, and he said he forgot about putting together the Hamlin results website link. He said he'd work on it, and he'd have them to me soon.
As I said above the FLW Everstart ended Saturday, and it took some consistently huge weights to win it. You had to average nearly 20 lbs. over the three days to even have a chance at the top five. Anglers caught fish in a variety of ways, but the winner caught them big time using a drop shot in 50+ feet of water. Here is the article covering that event: Deep Water Honey Hole Delivers EverStart Northern Win .
The P.A.A. fished Lake Neely-Henry down in Alabama in the final event of their 2011 schedule this past weekend. Steve Kennedy used an aluminum flat bottomed boat to get way back in some creeks to pull off the win. He bested a surging Greg Vinson by just two ounces! Both Kennedy and Vinson fished very shallow for largemouths. The P.A.A. link above will take you to that story. Here is another link to the Bass Fan Neely-Henry finals write-up: Wins By Two-Tenths Of A Pound - Kennedy Narrowly Holds Off Vinson's Big Charge .
As I mentioned last time in the blog, The top 15 anglers on the P.A.A. points list will fish against the top FLW and B.A.S.S. pros in the Toyota Texas Bass Classic coming up this October. That's always a fun tournament to read about. It pits the best of the best against each other on some great Texas largemouth waters.
Speaking of B.A.S.S. I recently emailed Paul Sacks of the Michigan B.A.S.S. Federation in order find out how I would go about becoming a member. I want to be sure I have the necessary prerequisites that will allow me to sign up early for the B.A.S.S. Marshal program, if I decide to do it again next year. On the B.A.S.S. website, it says to register early, you need to be a Life Member, or a Federation member. If any of you are thinking of Marshaling you may want to consider joining the Michigan Federation. It looks like it will cost about $50 if you are already a B.A.S.S. member. Joining not only allows you to sign up early to Marshal, (Which usually means you get to Marshal 3 days instead of two for the same $100.) You would get Bass Times, the periodical the State puts out, as well as other some other things, like an opportunity to fish the State Championship, and a shot at fishing your way to the Bassmaster Classic.
I'm off to the Big O' Smokehouse in Caledonia to pick up some salmon I had smoked. They do a great job there, and can highly recommend them. They are right behind San Marcos , an authentic Mexican restaurant in Caledonia. My brother and I ate there when we dropped off the fish. It was very good, and I can vouch for a good meal there if your are in the area.
That's going to be it from me today. Start thinking about getting those bows out and shooting every day. It won't be long now until the zzzz of the long cast is overshadowed by the towannng of the bow string. Take care and enjoy your day.
August 18, 2011
I expected to be in recovery mode today. Sipping pain pills and enduring several weeks of a liquid diet, but here I am pretty much as I was starting the week, sitting home, putt-sing around.
Tuesday, I was suppose to have a transoral incisionless fundiplication (TIF) done. It's a procedure where they go down your throat with an instrument to fix your hiatal hernia, and then make folds in your stomach, and suture them to reconstruct the sphincter, at the end of your esophagus, where it enters the stomach. It's done if you have had heartburn for a long time, that medication won't control. I do quite well with Nexium to quell my heartburn, but my Priority Health insurance just sent me a letter saying that they would no longer cover the cost of prescriptions that aren't generic. So, I decided to pursue a surgical solution.
I went in to the hospital Tuesday morning at 5:30 a.m. They were ready for me at 7:30 a.m., and put me to sleep. I awoke at 9:00 a.m. with a nurse telling me that they weren't able to do the procedure. Later Dr. Scheeres, (one of the very few who do this procedure in the Grand Rapids area) came in to say that my stomach had what he called "old food" in it. We told him that before the "no food before surgery cut off," that we had went out for dinner, but he said that if I would have called to see if that was okay, he would have said yes. I hadn't eaten for at least eight hours, and that should have been plenty of time for my stomach to empty. So, now I have to go back in to have some tests done to see why my stomach isn't emptying. I may have what they call, a slow stomach. If that's the case, I may not qualify for this TIF procedure. I may have to go another route.
Oh well, it is what it is. Kind of disappointing, but nothing I can do about it. I would recommend though, that if you have heartburn, and most of you will as you age, to get it under control with medication. If you don't, you can develop a precancerous condition called "Barrett's Esophagus." It's a diagnosis you may avoid with early treatment of your heartburn.
This kind of goes along with a B.A.S.S., Don Barone, editorial that he recently posted on the Bassmaster's site. It seems Don, who hadn't been getting regular physicals, was recently checked out to see why his blood pressure was high. They did a PSA screening, which came back high. High PSA scores can be an indicator for prostrate cancer. Like heartburn, prostrate issues are also common in older men. In fact, in my last physical, my doctor said mine was enlarged. He didn't recommend any other testing, so I'm figuring I'm good for now, but after reading Barone's editiorial, maybe I'd better call him to see just where we're at with it. By the way, here's Don's article: 5:36 p.m. .
On a more lighter note, my young friend, Ross Parson, who I met through this site, emailed me with news that he had been selected by the captain of the CMU fishing club, to represent CMU in the upcoming FLW Collegiate fishing event on Lake Erie. College teams from all over the midwest, will be heading to Buffalo, New York to compete on the best smallmouth waters in the world, Lake Erie.
Ross on the right, and his buddy Eric after a Tear Drop tournament.
The Everstart anglers are fishing their own event out of Buffalo's NFTA Harbor starting today. Those who don't make the cut will be escorting a college team out on to Lake Erie for their contest on Saturday. In Collegiate fishing, two anglers ride with an Everstart pro as their boat driver. The Everstart pros cannot give the college anglers any information. They are just supplying the boat and driving for them.
Ross, as you can imagine, was very excited. He's got the fishing bug bad, and spends whatever free time he has, on any water he can find.
I went with him and his dad a while back to Manistee Lake to fish for the day. We were in separate boats, but we fished around each other, and had a good day. As we both went to take out our boats, we ran in to Danny Warner's Thursday night tournament group. Ross asked about them, and when he found out they were fishing a tournament, he really wanted to give it a try. I was dead dog tired, but I capitulated, and we fished the three hour event. As luck would have it, we won. We were both happy, but Ross was on cloud nine. That pretty much gave Ross bass fever, and it's hard to cure without a lot of time in a boat. I'm hoping that his tournament luck continues in Buffalo! I know he'll be giving it 200%.
Like most days, I've been doing a little of this, and a little of that, as I work on the blog. I've been watching the Everstart weigh-in for the last hour, and the top six guys have weighed over 20 lbs. each! They were saying that they had to fish in what were described as eight footers out on Erie. Some rough water to be sure. They will all get to fish again tomorrow. On Saturday, only the top ten, or is it twelve, will fish for the championship.
There is another spot in the country where they will be weighing fish this weekend in a big tournament. The P.A.A. Tour will be fishing Lake Neely-Henry in Alabama. It's their last event of the season. With most tour groups this last event is a real determiner for a variety of awards.
There are several anglers in the hunt for the points lead. Tommy Biffle won it last year, and is in second, with a good chance to repeat, this year. Todd Auten is currently the points leader in their AOY competition. The top fifteen anglers, at the end of the P.A.A. season, will fish with the point leaders of the FLW, and BASS, in the Toyota Texas Bass Classic this October. Here is the standings for the anglers, before they started fishing today: P.A.A. Angler of the Year Point Standings . The Neely-Henry event runs through Saturday.
I've been meaning to put up a picture that I've had for a while, but it just keeps slipping my mind. It's a shot of the Skinner Boys with their deer mounts from the 2010 deer season. I was there as Ricky walked up on his big deer, and I couldn't believe how big it was. I wasn't there when Rick shot his, and could only imagine how he felt. He waited until the season was almost done before this big boy walked out. He shot it with the pistol he uses for hunting. Both deer scored in the top few shot in the Mason County area last year. Congrats guys, what trophies!
Two 2010 monsters from Mason County, and the Skinner Boys
Take care and get ready to enjoy the weekend. Positive thoughts Ross' way as he fishes his first collegiate tournament. Good luck Ross.
August 14, 2011
The big news of the day of course is the Forrest L. Wood Cub Championship was won by Scott Martin. Scott, is the son of the very famous bass fishing legend Rowland Martin. His mother also worked as a fishing guide so he comes by his talents naturally. His father was working in Nashville and didn't think he'd be able to make the weigh-in, but in steps Johnny Morris, owner of Bass Pro Shops, and flies Roland and his second wife, on his private jet, so that he could be at the final weigh-in today. You could really see Scott choke up when he realized his dad was in the audience. Here is one of the early articles discussing Scott's big win: Martin Clinches 1st Major Title, Wins By 5 Pounds .
He'll have to settle with a paultry $601,000. He does have four kids to feed.
It was great to see Forest Wood there getting choked up as he presented Scott his check.
Martin's whole family was there to enjoy his big win.
Martin's wife was understandedly quite happy for her husband.
I'm sure they will be giving the Cup long looks for months and years to come.
Not always do you see real creativity when a new lure hits the shelves, but I ran across an article talking about Sebile's new crankbait they recently debuted. Take a look at this single hook crankbait. If you have a spot where there is lots of wood, and maybe tree tops this may be the bait for you. Click on this link: New Sebile Crank Makes Snags Less Frequent .
Matt Teeter use to fish the Tear Drop and a while ago he sent me some information on a boat that he would like to sell. It's a Storm High Performance Bass Boat . Matt sent me these pictures. I've included the specifics and his asking price on the websites "Items For Sale" page. It's in the menu box on the left side of the website's main page.
Matt's boat is loaded with stainless items to keep that Michigan rust at bay.
The boat really looks like it would be very fast.
Lots of storage!
If you're interested in all the details concerning the boat, check out the description Matt wrote on the Items For Sale section of the accessed from the main page.
I worked yesterday on formatting Nick Vawter's Hamlin Lake Tournament report and have it ready to go. Here it is.
2011 Tear Drop Tournament Trail
2011 Hamlin Lake Tear Drop Champions
Wes Herndon and Brian Macdonell
Final 2011 Stop for Tear Drop Anglers Fishing the Tear Drop Tournament Trail
Early Sunday, August, 7th, just outside of Ludington, Michigan 18 teams of Teardrop anglers made their way to one the most awaited tournaments of the season. Hamlin Lake .
Hamlin Lake in Mason County from 10,000 ft. Isn't that Anglers of the Year, Herndon and Macdonell, in the south end?
Hamlin Lake, in the last few years, is just not giving up big fish very often. There are lots of limit two pounders, but in order to win a tournament there you need a couple of larger fish. Thirteen pounds has been about the weight you need to win. Anticipation is heightened for this event, because it's the final event of the six lake series, and for some it is their last shot at a spot in the Classic.
Most of us were only vying for a top ten slot. Three boats, however, were having a friendly battle for that coveted Angler of the Year award. Dennis has a real nice set of plaques made and all who compete would love to have their names on them hanging on their wall at home.
Our day leading into the tournament started out like many before, working on our ride. The stator that we had installed the week before did not remedy our situation. My next part to look at replacing was the ECM. So I called a guy in California, named Eric Simon. He is supposed to be the Guru on 3.0L Mercury's. After describing my symptoms to him, Eric told me I might better focus my efforts on the cleaning of the injectors. So, Brent and I removed them and tried to clean them the Friday before Hamlin. Despite our efforts we couldn't make the problem any better. There are some small screens on the inlet of the injector, and I didn't dare to remove them to clean. We ended up borrowing Ron Hicks Procraft. Ron tried real hard to sell us his boat the last couple years. I told him why buy it, when I can always just borrow it. We took two handfuls of tackle from our boat, put into his, and made our way up to Ludington.
The morning started out pretty decent for us. I won my first 50/50 raffle, and it was for $60 to boot. Brent drew number 19 for take off, and remember I said earlier there were only 18 boats, so we'd be at the back of the pack at take off.
Dennis did something new before take off, and I think it really helped the guys as they readied for the mornings launch. Prior to the launch, he called out the takeoff numbers and each boat raised their hand as their number was called. This really helped for a smoother takeoff. Everybody knew who to follow.
Wes Herndon and Brian MacDonnel volunteered to send us all off. After all they were in the lead for AOY, and they are such good sports. When you fish as good as these guys you don't need the full eight hours of fishing time. Brian mentioned that morning that he just put a new power head on his motor. So, you know he was there hoping to recoup some cash.
We fished our usual spots for the first hour. Eighty feet of water with bright orange jitterbugs. Not a bite. Then we made a lure change up and fish started cooperating. We boated 5 quick smallies within 45 minutes. 3 of those ended up taking a ride to the scales later on. We culled up to almost 13 lbs. We were feeling pretty good. For the past few years Hamlin has averaged 2 lb. fish. Now, it seems that the average has increased slightly to around 2 1/2 lb. fish. I hope it keeps going.
We decided to come in just a few minutes early. When we got to the docks, we saw a rather large gathering. I figured the press must be there to interview Wes and Brian. But seems there was a sesquicentennial event going on. There we several pontoons lined up at the shore, and people were wearing festive 4th of July type attire. Either our presence pushed them on, or it was their time to move out, but they moved on and the group had room at the ramp to load boats on trailers. We slowly pulled boats from the water, and began the weigh in. As I took pictures, I could tell there were some guys tensing up as the weights began to rack up. It was going to be a close for several teams and their Classic fates could be decided by just a few ounces. This was going to be a close weigh in.
The team who sent us all off that morning kept everybody in suspense and weighed in last. Wes and Brian were the last to bring their fish up from their boat, and when they did they plopped the largest bag of the day on the scales.
These two guys really deserved everything they got this year. There track record over the years is hard to beat. Their mixed bag of bass weighed in at 13.08 lbs., and notched yet another first place for them this season. That makes a total of three first places finishes this year. Today's work produced another $450 for them. Staying shallow, and tossing soft plastics was the key. It also cemented their bid for this year's Angler of the Year Plaques.
Second place went to Josh and Kasey. These guys know Hamlin like the back of their hand. They also decided to abandon upper lake and fished all day in lower. They weighed in a very close sack that weighed 12.99 lbs. and earned $250.00. The difference between first and second equates to the weight of about 18 dimes. But wait it gets closer.
Second place this week on Hamlin was the team of Myers and Kyser.
Third place was the team of Dennis Cook, a.k.a. tournament director, and his partner Bruce Mitchell. Dennis and Bruce were perched off the sandbar in the narrows as we went out in the morning, and we found them not 100 yards from where we left them when we came back in. Their persistence paid off literally. They took home $125 for their 12.92 lb. sack of fish. Weight wise that's just about 14 dimes difference.
Third place honors go to Dennis "I Know Greens" Cook and Bruce "The Fridge" Mitchell.
Fourth place this time goes to Brent and myself. We never have any food in the boat when it's my tun to have my sandwich made. The one of us who catches the fewest fish in the morning has to make the lunchwiches. We had fun and tallied up a 12.87 lb. sack. The first keeper of the day was my 3.33 lb. smallie that also squeaked out big bass. The $45 for fourth place, added to $180 for big bass, added to the $60 raffle prize gets us professional cleaning on 6 fuel injectors. That also was 10 dimes behind 3rd place.
Fourth place this week was the Vawters, Nick and Brent.
The fifth and final money spot went to another father son team of Brian and Steven Tagg of Wyoming. They brought in 5 keepers to weigh in at 12.82 lbs. collecting for $45 of gas money. They also won the Lunch Money Lures for having second biggest bass weighing in at 3.23 lbs. They were another 5 dimes back.
Fifth place all the way from Wyoming, MI was the team of Brian and Steve Tagg.
This had to be one of the tightest money finishes on record. Only 0.26 lbs separated 1st from 5th place. That's the less than the weight of a roll of dimes between the top five.
All year, the Na-Tah-Ka on Big Bass Lake, has donated gift cards to be used for food or gas to different Tear Drop teams. The cards go to the first place team at the first tournament and then each subsequent contest they're awarded to the next place etc. This week the sixth place team received them.
Coming in sixth, and getting the Na-Tah-Ka cards were Matt Kaiser and Dave Yeager.
A big thank you goes out to this week's sponsors Bruce Mitchell Heating and Cooling of Ludington and Hamlin Grocery . If you've never been to Hamlin Grocery to try any one of many Deli choices you are really missing out. Whenever I head over to Hamlin or just running into Ludington, my lunch or dinner sandwich is coming from Hamlin Grocery.
When I was looking for links to acknowledge sponsors I found this clip for Bruce Mitchell Heating and Cooling. Check it out.
Set up time for the 2011 Tear Drop Tournament Trail Final Season Hamlin Weigh-in.
Weighmeister, Josh Meyers and Tournament Director Dennis Cook ready to weigh fish.
Fred and Jeff Brauneck with a nice limit of Hamlin Lake bass.
The Ludington team of Mike Meysar and Ricky Skinner Jr.
Terry Johnson and his son fished a couple Tear Drop events this year.
Jerry Johnson and Justin Brown had a nice looking limit.
Jack Kowalski and Allen Pike show off some Hamlin largemouth.
Ryan "Cash" Van DeBurg and his partner Doug Hall finished the season strong.
Two seasoned veterans of the Great Northwest Corner bass circuits, Brian Miller and Tony Maddox
Cadillac anglers Don Fowler and Doug Sprik.
The old timers of the group, Craig "Back Up and Dump" Stumbrie, and Rick "The Cementman" Skinner.
The host tournament will be on Big Bass Lake Sunday, August 14th. The Tear Drop sells ads in their flier each year. You can look at an online version of the flier by accessing the home page, and on the left there is a button to use to see the flier. The ads on the last page of the flier sell for $200 and are considered "Host Ads." Those ad buyers are contacted and can send someone to fish with a Tear Drop angler in the "Host Tournament." The winning host receives $200, the price of their ad, plus all the hosts and their Tear Drop, are treated to lunch. This year they will be fishing on Big Bass Lake, and lunch will be at the Na-Tah-Ka. If you are interested in purchasing a ad for next year's flier be sure to contact Dennis. His contact information is at the bottom of the first page of the flier.
Here's a computer shout out to the Ludington area sponsors of this years Tear Drop Tournament Trail: Thanks JC Marine , Hamlin Grocery , Ludington Car Care , and the House of Flavors . Do yourself a favor and click on each of these links. You'll discover some great Ludington area businesses that can satisfy a variety of your needs.
The final Tear Drop gathering will be the 2011 Classic. This year's Classic will be on Long Lake and Green Lake in Interlochen on September 17 & 18th. If you happen to be in the area, or decide to make it a camping weekend, by staying in the one of the nicest and most beautiful State Parks, come on up to Interlochen. This time of year the crowds are gone, and you can really enjoy Michigan's Great Northwest Corner. The Classic weigh-ins should be around 2:30 each day. They will, I think, be fishing Long Lake on Saturday and then Duck on Sunday. That's been the schedule in the past any way. If you get a chance come on up and enjoy the late summer weather, and all the great little shops and excellent restaurants in the Interlochen area. By the way the fishing isn't bad either!
Until then...keep a tight line.
Thanks once again to Nick "Rey de las aguas de pesca bajo" Vawter for writing up and submitting pictures on another Tear Drop tournament. Having done that job for many years, I know how long it takes to come up with a write up. It's always quite a bit longer than you would guess. Having the pictures really makes it that much better. They always say a picture's worth a thousand words. I know I really enjoy seeing them. If any of the Tear Drop anglers whose pictures have been on the blog want any of the pics, talk to Nick, or I may have them saved as well. You can go through places like Costco and get a coffee mug made with the pics. They are around $10, and really make for some nice memories.
August 12, 2011
The last couple of days I have been trying to get caught up with blog work. I hadn't broke the blog for August, so I archived July and saved it up above. You can click on the above links and negotiate through several years worth of blogs.
I have to get busy on the Hamlin article from Nick Vawter. He has sent me the pictures, but I haven't received the story from him yet. I can get the pictures resized though, so that I'll be ready for the story. One last piece of webpage work yet to be done, is to put a boat on the for sale page. Look for that picture and write up, maybe later today, or tomorrow.
I tried yesterday to watch the live weigh-in for the Northern B.A.S.S. Regional, but they must have had some technical difficulties because it looked like they were filming, but nothing was coming through like it should. I just checked again, and they are weighing in right now as I type for Day 3, but the video is not streaming. Third day weights are being deposited into the leaderboard, so you can kind of follow it that way. Jesse Weener caught two fish today and is currently in about 40th place, but there are quite a number of anglers to weigh.
I fired off an email yesterday to the Michigan B.A.S.S. Federation to see about joining. I am not sure, but I would guess that if I want to get preferred early registration to Marshal an event next year, that I will need to be a Federation member. Either way, for the minimal cost I'd like to join. If you have never been a member, you too should think about joining or forming a club. The State Championship is available to anyone at this point. Who knows, you may end up on the State Team like Jesse has done several times, and then have a shot to make it to the National Championship, like Don Fowler did, and maybe even end up in the Bassmaster Classic like this year's rookie Brandon Palaniuk.
Some fat guy and Brandon Palaniuk down in Florence, AL
Scott Martin, Rowland's son, is the Day 1 leader in the Forest Wood Cup. Here is a link to the Day 1 FLW Cup Leaderboard .
Martin had his 19 lbs. early the first day.
The weather, has been scorching hot, but it did an about face for the start of the tournament and got cooler, windy, and there was some rain and thunder. Today, the clear skies are back and the fishing appears to be much more difficult. Here is a Bass Fan link to news concerning Day 1 of the contest: Clouds, Cool Fuel Topwater Bite - Martin Whacks 19 By 9:00, Christie Junks To 2nd . If you're interested in watching today's weigh-in, here is the link: FLW Live . I must warn you though, I've been trying to activate the player today and nothing seems to open. Very frustrating when you go to these sites and things don't work as they should. Costs FLW and BASS some valuable air time.
Just a short piece today. I've got to get out and apply for my doe permit. If you're planning on doing that you only have three more days. August 15th is the last day for that. Leftover antlerless permits go on sale September 6th at 10:00 a.m. Take care. Have a good day, and enjoy the weekend. There may be a little rain here and there, but the system doesn't look it will be a major one.
Instead of a final quote of the day, here's a short video I took out the window of the plane as we flew back to Michigan. Some spectacular vistas even in the air.
August 11, 2011
A couple of noteworthy fishing news items today. Today is Day 1 of the FLW Forest Wood Cup on Lake Ouachita . The summer heat has broke a bit in Arkansas and one of the online reporters said it was cool enough for a jacket this morning. That's after a number of days of 100+ degree days.
If you follow the Cup online, and you can using this link, Live on the water coverage of the Forest Wood Cup , you will see that several anglers have limits early. Fukae and his coangler each have a five pounder in the boat. I'm glad to here that Shin is back on the water after his serious boat accident during an earlier tournament. I'll be watching the online weigh-in which begins at 4:00 p.m. this afternoon on FLW Live .
The other event I've been check on is the B.A.S.S. Federation Northern Regional in Fort Madison, Iowa on the Mississippi. This is the event that Don Fowler won a few years back when it was held on Lake Erie out of Vermillion, Ohio. By the way Don will be down in Vermillion in a couple weeks in advance of the B.A.S.S. Northern Open there.
I haven't heard where the Michigan team stands, and the only name I recognized from Michigan was Jesse Weener. Jesse was in 60th place after Day 1. Hopefully, he catches more than one fish today, but its been slim pickins with less than 20% of the field weighing a limit. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for Jesse! You can watch the weigh-ins for the Northern Regional live today. The BASS website says they start at 1:00 p.m., but it's 1:40 p.m. as I type and they are not showing anything. 1:00 p.m. seems awfully early to start the weigh-in. It's probably a typo. Here's the link to the live weigh-in if you want to check it out: Northern Regional Live Weigh-in .
Last night I worked on getting Nick Vawters Cadillac and Mitchell Tear Drop article coded for the net. Sorry about the delay. Speaking of delays, I have yet to get the standings from the Hamlin event from Dennis and will post them as soon as I do. Here's Nick's write up and pictures.
2011 Tear Drop Tournament Trail
2011 Cadillac and Mitchell Tear Drop Champions
Hamilton and King
Last Sunday, July 24th on Lakes Cadillac and Mitchell . The Teardrop group plied the 3,730 acres of combined waters searching for that limit of bass that would line their pockets with cash, or boost their points total in the race for angler of the year. Some, like my partner and I did neither, and some like King and Hamilton did both.
Cadillac sits just five miles south southwest of the geographical center of Michigan. It's roughly 90 miles north of Grand Rapids. It's a great little town of about 10,000 people. It's downtown has a touristy look and feel, and there are numerous shops and stores as well as a number of good eateries. Da Dawg House , located just north of the Lake Mitchell DNR access is one such place. A few of us ate at Da Dawg House after the tournament Sunday. The unique facade draws you in and the food keeps you coming back. As I said, it is just north of the State Park across from the big water park.
It seemed that each of us ordered something different from the menu. There was quite an assortment of entrees on the menu including jumbo shrimp, pork chops, and chili dogs. I ordered the "Big Dog." It's a foot long dog that comes smothered with chili. You have to use the knife and fork unless you want it dripping from your elbows.
My son, Brent, and I ate there a few times last year. One time was for breakfast, and we ordered the Dog Chow. Little did we know that when the waitress brought it out she donned a floppy eared dog hat, and everybody in the place barked with her. I was telling Josh about it, and sure enough when you order the "Big Dog" they do the same thing. The few seconds of embarrassment though was well worth the tasty treat.
Well, back to the fishing story. Sunday started out fairly calm and cloudy. The weather report was calling for a severe storm with lots of rain coming across the big lake. For all of you that live in Michigan, you know the report is much better predicted after it actually happens. We did get some rain, wind, and a few flashes of lightening, but much less than expected. The clouds remained for most of the day, but when the sun did sneak out, it was punishing.
Our day started off like the last three tournaments take offs. With us not being able to get on plane. The boat has been in the shop in search of the root cause of this problem every week following a tournament. The Thursday before, it was finally diagnosed with a bad stator. Of course no one in Grand Rapids had one. With that on order, we are hoping it fixes us before the final event on Hamlin Lake August 7th. Right now, I have to go to the bow while Brent tries to get her up on plane. Once that happens, I stumble back to try and stick my landing. If this continues, I know it's just a matter of time before I miss the seat and roll right out the back of the boat.
We worked hard all day to secure our 5 fish limit, but when we got to the scales, we found out we had boated the smallest 5 fish limit of the day.
No so for Larry King and Bob Hamilton. These two found a nice bag of bucketmouths that won them first place. Their 15.5 lbs of fish won them $470.00. Add $170.00 for the big bass. With all that cash these guys are livin' large. Plus the 60 points for taking first place moved them from 9th to 6th in the overall standings. Congrats!
Second place this week went to the new guys Justin Brown and his brother. If you recall Justin and his regular partner Jerry took second place at Crystal. The 14.55 lbs. of fish put $235.00 dollars in their jean pockets, and they advanced from 7th to 4th in the overall standings. Good job guys!
Second Place Finishers
The Brown Brothers
Third place went to Mike Mesyar and Rick Skinner Jr. They weighed in 13.73 lbs. and won $120.00. They are now within striking distance for a berth in the Classic. If they were to win on home waters at Hamlin, they stand a great chance.
Third Place Finishers
Mike Meysar and Ricky Skinner
Fourth place went to Harry Swank and Chris Mieras. Chris returned to fish one of his favorite spots with Harry. These guys have some history at Cadillac and Mitchell, and they used it to pin the scales down at 13.50 lbs. That finish gave them $45.00 for lunch. They remain in third place in the overall standings, and are one of only two teams that can catch the front running Wes Herndon and Brian Macdonell.
Fourth Place Finishers
Harry Swank and Chris Mieras
Fifth place went to Ryan Van De Burg of Hudsonville, and his partner Mike. Ryan's regular partner Douglas is out with a torn meniscus in his knee, and has to have surgery soon. Ryan and Mike found 5 nice largemouth weighing in at 13.46 lbs. to collect the last money spot of $45.00, and the Na-Ta-Ka gift cards.
Fifth Place Finishers
Ryan "Cash" Van DeBurg and his substitute partner Mike Anderson
Josh and Kasey came in 6th place to win the lunch money lures, and they gained 5 points on the leaders Herndon and Macdonell. When we were having lunch at Da Dawg House Josh mentioned that he and Kasey will fish to win, but was actually hoping Brian and Wes win AOY. That's sportsmanship!
Kasey holding fish while partner Josh works as the weighmeister.
Thanks to this tournament's sponsor the Na-Tah-Ka on Big Bass Lake in Irons. At each tournament we award in descending order of placing the Na-Tah-Ka gift cards.
As we wind down to the final tournament of the regular season, we find a heated race for the AOY. Wes and Brian are sporting a 6 point lead over Josh and Kasey, and Harry and Chris are just 8 points back from the leaders. One of these three teams will end up on top. Hamlin can be a tuffy and can be anybody's game. One good fish will sway the results.
Until then, keep a tight line.
Thanks again Nick for writing up another Tear Drop tournament report! I'm sorry about the long delay in getting it posted. You guys might get it up faster if you were to send some good way points. Here are the rest of the photos that Nick sent me from the Cadillac and Mitchell tournament.
Tear Drop Tournament Director Dennis Cook and his partner Bruce "Icebox" Mitchell
Terry Johnson came out of retirement to fish with the Tear Drop anglers again.
Fred must have thrown Jeff out of the boat.
Cadillac natives Don Fowler and Doug Sprik
John McMichael and Kyle Bonter
Dave Yeager
Jack Kowalski and Allen Pike
I thought I might as well post the last little bit of our vacation pictures. I thought I just heard a collective sigh of relief, but they are finally almost done and over with.
The last official day of our vacation we spent at the Grand Sierra Resort and Casino . You can see the resort from almost anywhere in Reno. It is a pretty big place. You name it and they seem to have it, from an outdoor driving range, indoor golf, inhouse movie theatre, go carts, one of those outdoor bungee sling shots and swing, huge pool, arcades, shopping, lots of restaurants, and of course the full casino gambit.
The rooms are very nice and include a microwave, refidge, etc. Nothing old or rundown in this place! They also have some first rate shows. Goo Goo Dolls were scheduled along with Liza Minnelli. Check it all out at this link: Grand Resort's Entertainment Calendar . Flights to Reno are cheaper than say flying in to San Francisco and or Las Vegas. It just might be a great escape for you for a few days.
Before we checked in to the Grand Sierra we went and had a bagel and coffee at a friend of ours shop called The Daily Bagel . We met the owner operator, Melanie Payne, through our boys when they stayed out there. She's a tremendous lady and has a great little shop just north of downtown Reno. Well worth the stop if you're in Reno.
The Grand Sierra Resort and Casino
The Grand Sierra Resort and Casino, the front door.
The opulence greets you at the door. This Pony Express sculpture was very impressive.
Lots of glitz and glamour. You could get lost in this place!
I don't know how many restaurants there are, but I can remember at least seven, ranging from pizza and sub shops for you and the kids, to fancy dining fare.
I seemed to find this candy shop, without getting lost, several times.
Here is a picture from inside of our room.
The first of three shots of the pool area. They have quite a shin dig pool side every Thursday.
There is lots to do for the entire family.
Everything is large at the Grand Sierra including the hot tub.
Big kids and little kids alike would have fun with all the different activities they have. We went and saw Bridesmaids at the theatre there for $3.00. They have couches for two to sit on instead of seats in the back of the theatre. I hadn't seen that before. We tried them and they were quite comfortable.
Before we turned in our rental car, Enterprise has an office in the hotel, we made one last trip to In N Out Burger. I tried their "Animal" fries there this time. I hadn't had them before. They are their hand cut fries that they peel and cut right at the restaurant, covered with melted cheese, grilled onions, and thousand island sauce. Mighty tasty!
It use to be Red Robin was just a West Coast thing. Maybe In N Out burger with expand east.
A view from our room as the sun began to set on the mountains.
Hot August Nights is an experience out in Reno. It's a big car show. We were a couple of days early, but a few cars had shown up early. This was a best in show winner last year.
Here's another oldie but goodie.
One more classic hot rod.
Another blog hits the dust! Enjoy the cooler weather, check out the FLW and or the B.A.S.S. Northern Regional weigh-in, and get yourself ready for what looks like a wet weekend. Enjoy!
August 10, 2011
It's been "hot as hades" down in Arkansas as the FLW Cup contenders ran through their practice days trying to figure out where the fish were going to be. The skuttle butt has been that there is a brim bedding going on. Maybe in the south the brim, or gills as us northerners call them, bed twice. Don't know, but I have seen bass bedding in late September up north here. You may think that I was seeing things, and I would be quite skeptical if I had heard it and not seen it myself.
While practicing for the Tear Drop Classic up on Duck Lake I not only saw beds, but I saw smallmouth doing their mating dance, swimming around each other etc. My take on this is that it's a false spawn triggered in some fish by the cooling water in the fall. It was also during a full moon. Have you ever experienced this?
The FLW pros are finishing up their season, sort of, with the Cup. The B.A.S.S. anglers who have not made the Classic have a couple of chances left. The Northern Open stop number two is August 25-27 out of Sandusky, Ohio. There are several B.A.S.S. pros who will be competing in the Northern and Central Opens. If any of them double qualify with a win in any of those remaining events, then B.A.S.S. moves down their list. Kelly Jordan, who I road with down on Lake Wheeler, would be the next angler to make the Classic if that happens. Kelly is a good guy and I hope he gets a chance in the Classic. He finish the season just one point out of the Classic.
Kelly Jordan is the next B.A.S.S. pro on the Classic list. He's hoping for a double qualifier out of either the Northern or Central Opens.
I have started working on transcribing and coding Nick Vawter's story on the Tear Drop's tournament on Cadillac and Mitchell. I think I should have it done today and hope to have it on the blog tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm going to finish up posting the vacation pictures from our recent trip. Here are the pics from Day 9 out of 10 from the Lake Tahoe area.
On Day 9 of our trip, we started out from Sacramento and then made the drive up the Sierra Nevada Mountains to the Truckee/Lake Tahoe area. The drive is all expressway, and although there are some switchbacks up the mountain it is much straighter than the two lane mountain road we traversed in and out of Yosemite.
The drive up puts you through a minimum of 6,000 ft. of elevation rise. You could end up higher if you were to drive up to one of the ski areas. You can see in the pictures the grooves in the highway caused by the chains that vehicles have to use in the winter. There are stretches where you simply are not allowed to travel without chains in the winter months. They get lots of snow and the winds can be brutal in the 60 mph plus range.
Speaking of lots of snow, one of the stops we made was at the Donner Memorial. They have this statue erected to mark the spot where the party wintered. It was built the way it was, to show how deep the snow was that year. The platform where the statues are standing is 22 ft. high. The snow was that deep, there wagons and animals were buried in the snow. They cut trees for shelter and heat. They cut the trees at where they stood on the snow. When the spring sun melted the snow, the tree stumps were 22 feet tall.
We met an old friend in Truckee. Josh is a former Newaygo resident, that has become a Tahoe/Truckee transplant. We were really happy to get to see him. He's a great young man who has really done well for himself. He manages five outdoor stores around Lake Tahoe.
Looking north down the street of Historic Downtown Truckee.
Had to put this shot in. It is a picture at the entrance to Squaw Valley Ski Resort of Tahoe Dave's Ski and Board Shop where my son started working when he first moved to Tahoe.
On both sides of the street, there large signs celebrating Squaws history with the Olympics.
Here's the other side of the street.
A look down the valley at the mountain where the ski runs of Squaw are situated.
Zoomed in a bit you can see the cables from the gondola that takes you up to High Camp.
Squaw is open year round, and in the village there they have lots of stuff going on.
A map showing the runs at Squaw.
One of the activities the kids have during the summer at Squaw.
One of the Redwoods, in Tahoe City that has been carved into a beautiful downtown memorial.
Another view of the sculpture looking from the street out over Lake Tahoe.
"Keep Tahoe Blue" is a bumper sticker you see a lot in the area. The water clarity is extraordinary. They test it by placing a one foot square white card in the water. They can see it 90 ft. deep. Lake Tahoe averages 1000 ft. deep. Not much shallow shoreline before it drops off deeeep.
One of my sons lived in Kings Beach on Lake Tahoe. When we would visit I would walk to this Safeway grocery store and get Starbucks and a donut and walk across the street to a beautiful little park where I could while the way the morning living out a postcard scene.
My wife and I bought a sandwich from the Safeway Deli and watched the sun set over Tahoe. The lake is rimmed with snow capped mountains, but they didn't show up well in my pictures because the sky is so bright.
I found a slide show of pictures that someone posted on You Tube. The area is truly a postcard picture in every direction. If you have seven minutes and want to see some beautiful pictures watch this video. The music may have not been my first choice but... You can click on the four arrows in the control bar of the video and it will make the pictures fill the screen.
The little park has these stone sculptures with Lake Tahoe facts.
A little closer view. There is enough water in Lake Tahoe to cover the whole state of California with one foot of water. While we were in Tahoe one year we experienced an earthquake while in Safeway. Later we heard instructions on TV for what to do if the earthquake would have been more severe. They said the lake would experience a tsunami and if you lived at lake level, and my son did, you needed to go to higher ground.
A view of the two stone monuments in the park. There was also a picnic area and a beach volleyball court.
As I mentioned in the Virginia City blog, Mark Twain cut his teeth working for papers in the Reno/Tahoe area.
A new sign as you enter Kings Beach. It is 72 miles around lake Tahoe. There is a two lane road that goes all the way around. There are several little towns, like Kings Beach, along the way.
Half of Lake Tahoe is in Nevada and half in California. Consequently, on the Nevada side, there are casinos. Because of the low taxes in Nevada, most of the big homes on the lake have been built on the Nevada side of the lake.
We spent the day in the Tahoe area, and then drove down the mountain into Reno. It's only about a 40 minute trip. On the way up the mountain, there are a couple of scenic turn outs. Here is one of them.
Well that's going to be it for me today. I have to make sure I save some time to work on the Tear Drop Cadillac/Mitchell article. Take care and enjoy this cooler weather. It gives you the feeling that Fall is on the way.
August 9, 2011
We're home and back in the Michigan humidity once again. We got home late Saturday night and are still adjusting to the three hour time difference. We had a great trip, and I'd like to say it's good to be back home, but actually it would be better to be on the road again.
I got a text Sunday from Nick Vawter concerning the Hamlin results. At first, I didn't remember that the Tear Drop anglers were fishing Sunday. I just lost track of time. Nick said that Herndon and Macdonell won again. The win also secured their status as Anglers of the Year. Congratulations Wes and Brian!
Nick went on to say that he would have the pictures and his write up ready soon. I still don't have his Cadillac story transcribed and encoded. Now that I'm home, I'll have more time to get caught up. You've probably noticed that I haven't broken the blog month up. I'm still posting under July. Oh well no bonus dollars for being timely this month.
The FlW Forest Wood Cup anglers are in their final day of practice today on Lake Ouachita in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Tomorrow is a media day, and Thursday will be Day 1 of the big event. Live coverage of the weigh-in will start at 5:00 p.m. CT, which means it will begin at 4:00 p.m. in our Eastern Time Zone.
The qualifiers for the FLW Cup are as follows. The top thirty pros and coanglers from the 2011 FLW Tour Majors, plus the top ten pros and coanglers from the FLW Eastern and Western Series, and the four Everstart Divisional Series winners and last years champion, the 2011 BFL All American Champion, the 2011 College Fishing Champion, and finally the 2011 TBF Champion. If I'm counting right, there will be 48 anglers competing for the Cup, not counting the coanglers.
The FLW Cup is a stand alone event and isn't included in the FLW Fantasy Fishing competition, unlike the Bassmaster Classic. We won't be able to participate in the FLW Fantasy Fishing until Sept. 15th when they fish Beaver Lake.
I watched Tommy Sanders this morning on his show he calls The Livewell . The show has footage of the recent Legends tournament that was held during All Star Week. It also had an interview with David Walker who won his first BASS title, in the last event of the season, on Lake Wheeler. The show finished up with a brief clip and shout out to Ot Defoe, the All Star Week Champion.
Well, I haven't gotten any derogatory emails saying that I have been boring people with my vacation trip pics. Once in a while I get chastised in an email for not promptly posting Tear Drop stuff. However, truth be told it cost me around $200 a year for the website, and I don't receive a nickel from anyone. So, I guess whatever gets posted, gets posted, on a take it or leave it basis. Sorry for the sarcasm and maybe a dash of cynicism, but that just happens more and more when you get older than dirt.
Day 8 of our trip had us on the road from Fresno to Yosemite National Park . From our hotel in Fresno, it was about 60 miles up into the park. However, we have learned that driving distances when you incorporate mountain roads does not translate to the usual sixty miles in an hour. It probably took us two and a half hours, but we made one stop for a snack and a couple of stops for photo ops.
There are several entrances to the park. We came in through the South Entrance which is very close to the Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias.
Yosemite is said to take its name from the Miwoks, a Native American tribe who lived in the area. Dr. Lafayette Bunnell, attached to the US Calvary Mariposa Battalion, interviewed Chief Tenaya after capturing him during what was called the Mariposa Wars.
The Chief referred to the Yosemite Valley area as the home of the "yohhe'me", a local tribe of Pai-Utes known as Ahwahneechee. The Chief called them the "yohhe'me," which translates to "They are killers" because they were an especially fierce group. The good doctor hearing that description of the tribe wrote down his own spelling, coming up with Yosemite.
If your are interested in more history of the park, or general info, check out this Yosemite Wikipedia Link .
My wife and I agreed, that if we were to go back to any one spot we visited for more time, we would go back to Yosemite. We'd go earlier or later in say September or early October though to try and avoid the crowds.
The park gets over 3.5 million visitors a year and August has to be a top month. Here are just a few of the photographs I took of the area. Looking at the pictures, after I loaded them on the computer, was a real let down. It's like reading a book and then going to see its cinematic form at the theatre. The movie is never as good as the book. Just like there is no way these pictures convey the grandeur of Yosemite! I do think that the short videos that I took with my little pocket camera give you a better feel of the panorama than the still pics do. If you go to You Tube and open an account, you can upload all you camera videos. I then just copy the link and put them in the blog. If you see these video links, you can make them full screen with just a click.
Our Fresno Marriott that we stayed in. These Mariotts are all consistently clean, well kept, and have great amenities. If you're traveling they are worth the extra $.
The south entrance to the park didn't have a nice wood sign to take a picture of. This one will have to do. It's functional, but not all that picturesque.
A map of Yosemite. Zoom in to read the wording, and get more detail.
A different look at Bridal Veil Falls from across the Merced River.
Another look down the Merced River. Picture postcard shots at almost every turn.
It was a problem for me to stop taking pictures.
One of my last pictures as we left the park.
After our day in Yosemite, we drove down the mountain out of Yosemite toward Sacramento. That's where we spent the night with intentions of getting up the next morning and driving back up the Sierras toward Truckee/Tahoe. It was a route that we had driven several times before on visits to see the boys. At one time, all three of our sons were working in the Tahoe area. I'll save the Truckee/Tahoe Day 9 pictures for another post.
In conclusion, I don't have a final quote of the day, but offer this link as a tribute to John Muir, who was a principal in promoting the National Park System. If you have time, read it over and watch the video. Here's the John Muir link . Take care, and enjoy the reduced humidity that has finally arrived.
August 6, 2011
Sitting in the Reno airport waiting for our flight out. We're heading to Salt Lake City, then to Minneapolis/St. Paul, and then on to Grand Rapids. The weather out here has been perfect. No rain whatsoever, and even though it's hot, it hasn't been bad at all. In fact, several of the evenings were quite cool.
I haven't been doing too much computer surfing. We've been on the go and staying quite busy. Earlier in the week, however, I saw on Bass Fan where Boyd Duckett was going to make an announcement concerning a new professional fishing tour. This morning I had a chance to check it out a little bit.
The new organization is being called "Major League Fishing." The Outdoor Channel looks to be a major sponsor, and will air the events. It's going to have 24 anglers who will be fishing waters with several new conditions and concepts. They will be able to keep any fish they catch, and I assume that to mean more than five fish, if local laws permit. They also will not be allowed to use any waypoints acquired before the event. They will also not have any pre-practice time on the water. The first event is scheduled for sometime this Fall on Lake Amistad. The actual date has not been announced yet. At the conclusion of the regular season, they will have a week long event called the "Major League Fishing Challenge Cup."
Check out the link above. There you will get some more information and see a list of all the "A" level pros who will be fishing the new series. Looks like it could be very entertaining!
With that bit of news, I'll get back to posting some of our western swing tour. As I said in the previous post, we spent the night at the Grand Sierra in Reno, NV. It's quite a hotel. It's got just about anything and everything someone might want to have a good time. We ate, cruised the Casino floor, and went to their movie theatre and saw Bridesmaids. My brother said it was a pretty funny movie, and he was right. If you ever get a chance to come out to the Reno/Tahoe area it's certainly a place you would be impressed with. It's a hoppin' place.
In the last blog, I posted pictures from the San Francisco area. From San Francisco, we headed south toward Sante Cruz. We planned on stopping there as well as making the drive through Pebble Beach. The area has a private eleven mile route you can drive that takes you by the homes, the beach and along the three golf courses there.
We stayed on the move from Pebble Beach, and stopped at the beach at Carmel. From there we continued down Highway 1 or the Pacific Highway through the Big Sur area.
We actually pushed it pretty hard during that leg. We bit off more of Highway 1 than we could chew. The whole way along the coast you probably don't average 20 mph. It's one twisty, turny road, and you really have to be careful with your trip planning. Once you decide to drive from Point A to B there really aren't any roads to turn off to go inland on.
Once we were through Big Sur proper, we decided to revisit Limekiln State Park. It was a spot where our boys have camped and that my wife had visited with them years ago. It was only about 30 miles from Big Sur, but as I said it took us well over an hour. Once we got there, we found that there wasn't any road inland for another 47 miles! We didn't get off the coast road until just after dark. We didn't get to our hotel in Fresno until after midnight.
Here are some of the pictures I took of our road trip from San Fran to Fresno via Highway 1.
We stayed a number of nights in Marriott Suites Hotels. The rooms are large and could sleep four to six people using the fold out couch. They have stoves, refrigerators, microwaves, dishwashers, plates, pans, cutlery, etc. Very nice.
The view as we parked at the beach in Santa Cruz .
They had a pier with shops and an amusement park along the beach.
They were catching fish off the pier. There were a number of anglers. One I talked to said the fishing has been good for mackerel.
Had to stop for a look at the Pier Bait Shop.They had these swimbaits hanging, but most were using squid and shrimp.
One of the Pier restaurants. We didn't see and "Woodies" per se except old Jeep Wagoneers. I had two Wagoneers for wheels in the past. Great vehicles, and I liked the look.
On the way back, from our walk out on the pier, we saw this group of seals. I was surprised at how many seals we saw along our drive. We didn't see any whales though, despite constant scanning.
My wife liked this little guy.
Another look at the beach on our way back to the car from our Santa Cruz pier walk.
On our way from Santa Cruz to Monterey, we passed through Watsonville. They have fields and fields of ever bearing strawberries and acres of red raspberries. We had to stop and buy some from this stand. Nothing like fresh picked strawberries!
My wife remembered this roadside market from an earlier trip. We bought more strawberries and several boxes of raspberries.
We didn't buy any avocados, but we ate them at several restaurants.
We bought more strawberries and ate them for the next couple of days. Mighty tasty snack. No sugar needed.
This area of California has field after field of all kinds of fruits, nuts, and produce. This market had everything and anything along those lines.
One of our first pictures when we parked in Monterey. This is not far from their famous aquarium.
Just before I took this picture a huge seal surfaced and then dove back down. In the crystal clear water he looked huge!
They charge you $10 to drive through the Pebble beach area. You can stop and park along the way and even picnic on the beach. It's a 17 mile drive. Very scenic!
When you hear of Pebble Beach you certainly think of golf. There are at least three courses you pass by on the 17 mile drive.
Along the drive you can stop at the beach and park. There were people having picnics and flying kites.
Driving through the area takes you a while because of all the great photo opportunities.
The golfers aren't the only ones who like the greens. These deer were certainly use to all the visitor and pretty much ignored them. I saw quite a few bucks.
All along the 17 mile drive there are magnificent homes. Somebodies got some $. I wonder how much tax these homeowners pay? I also wonder how they divvy up the proceeds from all the vehicles that take the 17 mile drive.
Once you're done with the Pebble Beach drive, it's a short jump down to Carmel. Just one of many shots I took along the way.
The views certainly command a high dollar in the real estate business.
Former Mayor of Carmel, Clint Eastwood, had a tough job. This is the beach at Carmel, CA.
If you look back north while at the beach in Carmel you can see Pebble Beach.
From Carmel, we were back on Highway One headed down to Big Sur.
Here's a short video that gives you just a taste for what it's like driving Highway 1. It's not for the faint of heart. You'd better have good brakes, and you should be sure to have a full tank of gas, because there are no towns for miles down many of the stretches.
If you get a little queasy driving windy, twisty, on the edge of a cliff road, then Highway 1 is not for you.
Hang on to your babies if you get out of the car at one of the pull offs. Some are just literally feet and maybe even inches from very steep drops to the ocean.
The pull offs provide photo ops and also are areas where you need to pull over if five or more cars are behind you. Don't want to hold up traffic.
The historic Rocky Creek Bridge built back in 1932.
How would you like this as your front porch view. There aren't many homes along this stretch of Highway 1, but this one is certainly a one of a kind place.
I hope the occupants of this house don't ever sleep walk!
Once we got to Big Sur we decided to drive on down to a state park called Limekiln. My wife wanted to hike back in to see a 100 ft. waterfall that she had hike to a few years back with our sons. We got there too late though and had to settle with sitting at the beach to watch the sun set. If you have good stereo speakers on your computer you could use this video of the waves on Limekiln beach looped for one of those falling asleep to tapes.
The good news this day, were all the spectacular vistas and scenery. The bad news, was once we left Limekiln we had 47 miles of Highway 1. It wasn't anything I was looking forward to at the end of an already long day. We left Limekiln at around 8:00 p.m. and didn't get into our hotel in Fresno until late, late, late, well after midnight.
Well we've left Reno, flew into Salt Lake City, to find our flight to Minneapolis/St. Paul is running a bit late. I hope we make our connecting flight.
August 5, 2011
Wholly crap batman! Got a call from Rick Skinner, and he informed me that during the first few moments of the Hamlin Lake Thursday night tournament, Danny Warner and Mike Meysar collided in the narrows. I don't really have the exact story, but it appears that Danny's boat hit a good size wave in the narrows that sent his boat careening to the left. Meysar turned to avoid him and ended up going up and over the back of Danny's boat. The collision tore the motor off the back of Meysar's boat. No one was thrown out of the boats, but Danny's passenger, a young girl, needed to be air lifted to the hospital. The report that I have today is that she is doing well, and that Danny, Meysar, and Ricky Skinner Jr. are just nursing bumps and bruises.
Rick said that they cancelled the tournament, and the anglers all donated their entry fees to the young girl that was injured. It was a terrible accident to be sure, and we will certainly keep they young girl in our thoughts and prayers. We are lucky that it didn't end up any worse than it did. With two twenty food boats coming together it could have been very bad. Here are a few of the pictures Rick sent me so far. He has some that he is going to send later tonight that maybe I can add.
Meysar's boat went up and over the back of Danny's Basscat
The motor looks like it broke off and hung from the cables.
Man, are we lucky this wasn't worse than it was in terms of injuries.
This is not a pretty sight.
It's kind of hard to jump from something as somber as a horrible accident to a vacation trip, but I'm going to give it a try. We spent the day yesterday driving up the mountains from Sacramento to the Truckee/Tahoe area. We stopped in Truckee to meet up with my son's best man and long time roommate Josh Hall formerly from Newaygo. Josh works for Porter's . He manages five of their stores. The young man has done well for himself. He and my son moved west to seek their fame and fortune in the music business. They had a band for a number of years. Josh is one wicked guitar player! It was really great to see him!
Josh and Jude enjoying time in Truckee, CA
After we left Josh, we drove to Tahoe City and got our first glimpse of brim full Lake Tahoe. We haven't been out for several years. We went to our favorite Safeway, bought sandwiches, and went across the street to enjoy the view.
I don't want to get too far ahead of the trip pics. I'm several days behind. Once we left the Guerneville, Russian River area, we headed to San Francisco. We went to China Town and to Fisherman's Wharf. Here are the shots from that day.
The gates to Chinatown on the corner of Grant and Bush Streets.
Up and down the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown
The famous San Francisco cable cars traverse the area
Street musicians play Chinese stringed instruments. We saw this guy five or six years ago when we were here.
The streets were shoulder to shoulder with tourists.
Like most places it's the art of the deal when purchasing an item.
If you're a shopper this is your nirvana. The stores are packed with all kinds of items.
Fisherman's Wharf has a number of street performers. Musicians to mimes.
Pier 39 is a haul out area for the sea lions that frequent the area.
The sea lions are a favorite of many who visit the wharf.
Pier 39 has a double decker merry-go-round and many shops.
Fisherman's Wharf is a favorite area of mine. I could have meandered the area for a whole day.
The area is kept up well. There are some homeless people about, but for the most part it is a beautiful area, and they have an In an Out Burger.
It's been hard to find time to get the blog up. I really haven't had any time to surf for fishing info. Sorting through all the pictures I've taken takes time. Then I have to resize them and place them and upload them. Just not enough hours in the day. We're at the Grand Sierra in Reno and it's quite a place. It's our last vacation night. We fly out of Reno tomorrow. That's it from me today. Had a great time today just taking it easy at the hotel. It has a huge pool, driving range, indoor golf, 50 lane bowling alley, and it's not too far from In and Out Burger. We had to make one more stop there today for lunch. I'll continue to put more pictures up from the trip. I've got Sante Cruz, Monterey, Big Sur, Yosemite, and Tahoe pictures yet, and they're SPECTACULAR!
August 4, 2011
Let's see, today we're in Sacramento, and no I haven't seen Jerry Brown or Arnold Schwarzenegger here in the Capitol City yet. Don't think we will be setting up any meetings either.
We plan on heading out this morning and driving back up the mountain to the Lake Tahoe area. We spent yesterday in Yosemite Valley which was simply "SPECTACULAR."
I'm behind with my trip picture posting, and I'm posting days 4 & 5. So, here are the pictures of our two days we spent in Guerneville, CA , which is in NorCal in the Sonoma Valley area just off the coast.
We were in Guerneville to attend Jai Robinson's wedding. The Robinson's are family friends going way back to high school days. Jai lives on a sailboat in Sausalito, and had access to a house on the Russian River, where the wedding took place. My son Nick and his wife met us there for the weekend. For family and friends who may want to see one of the video segments of Jai's wedding here is a three minute piece. My camera quit taking video after ten minutes. When it quit, I started another clip and this is it.
Here are some of the still shots I took before, during, and after the wedding.
I stood tenuously on the floating dock at Fredrick's home to take this shot of the Russian River.
I took this shot of the river, looking back towards town, from Fredrick's deck.
This is the house on the river. Redwoods, palms, lots of wild bamboo, and no bugs.
A picture, again from the deck, of wedding guests.
Looking down at the bar, which Frederick made from a big slab of Redwood.
Mother of the groom, and long time friend, Sue Robinson.
You might have guessed who ate a cupcake before they were suppose to, oops.
Let's just say I tried a few. The coconut were the best, lemon second, and the chocolates were good, and the raspberry was hard to beat!
Matt (from Grandville, MI) married Jai and Renee. That's Renee's brother on the right.
That would be Renee in the middle.
The Northwood Lodge is where we stayed while we were there. Nice place! They had rental cabins back in the Redwoods for larger groups to stay in.
At the Lodge, looking back toward those cabins. Palms and Redwoods... seems almost incongruous, but SPECTACULAR!
Guerneville was a tiny little resort town. They do have a Safeway! It's my favorite grocery store of the west. Best baked goods ever! SPECTACULAR!
Four tourist on a weekend wedding getaway.
The removal of the garter, with the awesome reggae band in the background.
After the wedding, we were told to go to where the Russian River meets the ocean at Goat Rock Beach and to go see the Armstrong Redwood Groove.
I just like fauna facts.
They are some SPECTACULAR trees!
We followed the river a short distance, where it met the ocean, at Goat Rock Beach
.
At the mouth of the river were a bunch of harbor seals. Couldn't zoom any closer.
Here's a short video I took with the little digital while standing on a beach bluff overlooking the mouth of the Russian River. Frederick had told us two whales had been hanging around at the mouth, but we just saw the group of harbor seals feeding in the river.
We had a great time at the wedding. The food and drink were excellent, SPECTACULAR! They had two huge grills going cooking chicken, delicious turkey brats, tri tip, ribs, and corn. They also had a table full of artisan breads, salads, California olives, and some very tasty pulled pork. The wedding party was really a three day ongoing event. The reggae band kept the night going late. We had a good time relishing our chance to see old friends, and getting to spend time with our number two son and his wife was a special bonus. By the way Nick, thanks for buying breakfast both days. My huevos and chorizo was SPECTACULAR.
That's going to be it for today. We are almost ready to get back on the road. Going up to Tahoe. One of my favorite places. Take care and have a great day!
August 3, 2011
Whew! It was a long day yesterday of having fun, and I have not been getting time to do any blogging. Since leaving Reno we drove over the pass up through Truckee/Tahoe and down the mountain to Clear Lake. From Clear Lake we drove to Guerneville, and spent two days with my son and his wife attending our friend Jason Robinson's wedding.
I called my son from Clear Lake. He had already arrived in Guerneville, CA to help with wedding preparations. He had to drive back down to Oakland to pick up his wife who couldn't fly in earlier with him. He also had to pick some things up down in San Fran for the wedding. He was worried about us checking in to our motel on time. I told him we were in Clear Lake and that the Garmin said only 38 miles to Guerneville.
I called him outside of a bait shop we had stopped at in Clear Lake. When I went back inside the bait shop and talked to the owner, he said Guerneville was two hours away! Thirty-eight miles, and it takes two hours? I was skeptical, but he was a local.
Lo and behold, the road to Guerneville wrapped around an old volcano and it was 20 mph switchbacks all the way. Windy, twisty, fall off the side of the mountain driving! It indeed took us all of two hours, but we made it in time to spare.
We are in Fresno today getting ready to drive up to Yosemite. Again, I don't have much blogging time, so I'm just going to post a bunch of pictures that we took on Day 3 of our trip. I'm posting a few days behind, but maybe tonight I'll be able to play catch up.
Before I post the pics, I assume that you have already read about Ott Defoe winning the Toyota Trucks All Star Event. He defeated Edwin Evers in the final day heads up competition to win his first ever B.A.S.S. event.
Ott has been hot all year. He's a young pro, and he won the Rookie of the Year crown on the B.A.S.S. tour this year. He's one of those guys though that has been around and fishing the top level tournaments for some time. To call him a rookie is a bit of a misnomer. Here is a link to the new Livewell Video where Tommy Sanders talks with Defoe about his win.
Speaking of fishing, I have some pictures below of the fabled Clear Lake. B.A.S.S. had a early tournament there last year. I thought about hiring a guide while was there. The wife was encouraging me to do so, but they were having a huge algae bloom, and I just didn't think the odds would be in my favor of catching a monster. June is probably the time to be out on the water, or maybe later in the fall. In any case, I got to see it, and get a feel for the place.
Leaving the dessert and heading up over the pass. The same route the Donner Party took.
This area, with its pines and snow capped peaks really does look like an episode of Bonanza.
We took a new route down the mountain which would take us north to Clear Lake.
There are so many vista points that it takes you much longer to go from point A to B because of all the photo ops.
From the dessert, through the mountains, and back down to the foothills
Lots of agriculture in the valley: walnuts, almonds, grapes, fruit and produce of all kinds.
We stopped and bought some peaches and nectarines at this stand. Best white nectarines I've ever eaten!
We thought at first that these were lemons, but the rows and rows of trees were all walnuts.
As we got closer to Clear Lake, we began leaving the fields and headed up the foothills.
You start seeing a lot of the California "brown."
This was an interesting bush that grew what looked to be acorns.
Bear Creek was another Vista Point as we reached the summit of the foothills outside of Clear Lake.
This is the view from the Bear Creek Vista Point.
From the low sixties in the mountains to the heat of the valley floor.
The town of Clear Lake, CA
The docks at one of the public launches on Clear Lake.
Skeet Reese's fave lake.
These guys said they caught about 20 fish that would have gone 15 to 16 lbs. Cranks are what they said they caught them on. I saw another boat though with all pig and jigs tied on.
They were experiencing a big algae bloom. It was nasty. Smelled like a sewage spill.
They take protecting their lakes seriously!
You must have your boat inspected or pay a big fine!
One last shot of Clear Lake. Maybe I'll be back some day.
As I said, I'll try and post some more of the trip pictures tonight. Day 4 and 5 were in Guerneville, CA at the wedding of Jason and Renae Robinson. It was a beautiful Northern California resort town in the midst of the Redwoods. Take care, and enjoy your day. I'll try not to fall into any waterfalls at Yosemite.
July 30, 2011
We've been busy. You know how it is when you are on a relaxing vacation trip. You do almost anything but relax. We've been go, go, going, but we're having a great time.
As I mentioned in the last entry we flew in to Reno, and are spending a day and a half in "The Biggest Little City." We did the downtown casino thing the first day, and on our second day we got up to go pick up our car with plans of driving to Virginia City.
We were within walking distance of the Enterprise lot. We stayed at the Sands for a whopping $14 a night. My wife surfs the net for some pretty good vacation bargains.
Once at the enterprise office, they told us that we were going to be upgraded to a larger car, but they would have to drive us to another of their offices to pick up the Chevy Impala. We weren't sure we really wanted the upgrade. We purposely asked for a small car to get better gas mileage. They told us the Impala got around 30 mpg, and although we were skeptical, we decided to accept it.
On our way to pick up the car, we passed a In and Out Burger, and a mall that had a big discount sporting store called Scheels . I made a mental note of both spots so that once we got the car we could make a couple of quick stops.
Scheels, turned out to be a pretty cool place. It was a very large sporting goods shop. (Besides all the sporting merchandise, they had a full size ferris wheel in the store.) My wife bought a pair of tennis shoes for walking, and I managed to find a couple of secret Sparks, Nevada fishing lures. They weren't really too secret. I bought a couple of smelt colored jigging spoons. I think they just might catch me a Michigan smallie!
Scheels Sporting Goods in Sparks, Nevada
Scheels reminds me of a Cabela's
After we left Scheels, we headed straight for In and Out Burger. They are a West Coast thing, that you need to put on your bucket list. They have a double-double burger meal with hand cut fries that is just something that you can't get back east. It is a great burger, and the fries have a taste that keeps you coming back!
In and Out Burger shops seemed to be crowded whenever you stop.
Just a simple burger joint, but unless you've been there it's hard to describe.
The menu is unencumbered.
These burgers not only look good, but they taste even better!
After pigging out at In and Out we headed up into the mountains toward Virginia City , which is south and east of Reno. Virginia City is one of the oldest communities in Nevada. It was named after James Fennimore, who was a miner from Virginia, and is said to be the miner that discovered the "Comstock Lode."
In its hey day, the city boasted a population of 30,000, and was known as the richest city in the country. During it's twenty year mining bonanza they took over 400 million dollars worth of silver out of the mines there.
Virginia City is also where Samuel Clemens first used his pen name Mark Twain while a reporter for a local paper.
The town was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1961. It has over two million visitors a year! I always associate it with the old TV show Bonanza, which was actually filmed not too far from the actual Virginia City.
Some of the dessert scenery on our way to Virginia City.
The switchbacks make you a bit dizzy.
It was higher up the mountain than I thought.
You can take a buggy trip of the area and learn a bit of history.
Lots of shops to peruse.
On our way back down the mountain we saw a herd of about twelve wild horses. We saw signs warning people to be on the lookout for them. I caught a glimpse of one going up the mountain, but my wife didn't see it and was bummed. On the way back down though we actually pulled off the narrow mountain road and watch a group of mustangs work there way to just feet from our car. Of course that was the time my camera battery died, and my wife couldn't find her camera. Consequently, no horse pictures.
After Virginia City, we headed back to the Sands and had their New York Strip special for $7.50. It was very good and it came with all the trimmings. There are good deals, if you look for them, that help keep the cost of a vacation trip down.
We turned in early knowing we had a pretty good drive ahead of us the next day. We're heading to Guerneville , CA for a wedding. On our way, we're going to make a little side trip to the big bass lake in Northern California, Clear Lake. I couldn't come this far without at least stopping for a few pictures.
Have a great day, and if you're interested in more of the trip, I'll have more pics up tomorrow. Don't forget to tune in to to see who wins the B.A.S.S. All Star event down on the Alabama River.
July 28, 2011
Again, it's been a few days since my last blog entry. It's summertime though, and sitting behind the computer doesn't come as easy as when there are snowdrifts in the yard.
As I think I mentioned in my last entry, we had some company come in for last weekend. My niece, her husband and their three kids came for a few days. We had a lot of fun catching some panfish, swimming, tubing, making smores, hot tubing, and cruising the area for deer. We were lucky and they got a chance to see two of the white albino deer that frequent an area near the cabin. It was late evening so we didn't get a very good photo op, but the deer walked to within literally feet from the car. Here are a few weekend pics.
One of the this weekend's spectacular sunsets!
My niece, her husband, and one precocious cutie pie.
The boys with one of the bonfires they created.
Not a great picture, but two of the white Iron's area deer.
This past weekend the Tear Drop anglers were out on Lakes Cadillac and Mitchell. King and Hamilton won the event. Nick has sent me his pictures so that I can begin resizing them for the web, and as work time allows, he'll get me his story soon. The links for both Cadillac and Mitchell and the overall standings thus far are up, and can be accessed on the main page under the Rules and Info button.
You probably are aware that KVD did not make the final 8 in the Toyota Tundra All Star Competition that took place this past weekend. I was following it online and all day long it looked like Kevin was going to ease in to a spot. I guess it was a bit of Karma that had Skeet come out of the backwater to nip KVD by ounces to claim a spot in the heads up finale. The finale eight will compete in a 1:1 winner take all competition this coming weekend. Eight will fish on Friday, four on Saturday and the final two will butt heads for the Championship on Sunday. Casey Ashley won bragging rights on Lake Jordan. No money was won, but he's getting plenty of PR that will translate into sponsorship dollars. Here's a B.A.S.S. article on last weekends first leg of the championship: Crazy Eights - Ashley tops eight qualifiers as Skeet knocks out KVD by 8 ounces .
If you have been perusing the new B.A.S.S. site you have been probably taking in Tommy Sanders new contribution called, "The Livewell." Here is the latest edition: Latest edition of the Livewell .
Well, I am no longer in Michigan. We left Wednesday morning at dawn on a flight that would end up here in Reno. When we fly, I always am looking out the window trying to figure out where we are. It's a lot harder than it sounds. Looking at things from the air can make it hard to get orientated. We headed north from Gerald R. Ford Int. in Grand Rapids. The sun was just coming up on my right so I knew we were heading north and would be crossing the lake heading to our first stop in Minneapolis/St. Paul. As we hit the coast, and began crossing the lake, I got excited to see a familiar landmark from the air. Tear Drop guys ought to recognize the spot where we crossed the lake.
Can you tell where we're at from the air as we crossed Lake Michigan?
Hamlin Lake from 10,000 feet.
What a cool way to start the morning!
Later today, I'll try and upload a video of us landing in Salt Lake City. It was kind of cool. We were coming in over the Great Salt Lake, and as we began to land the plane's shadow began chasing us. It was a unique few moments that I happened to capture on video. These new little hand help still cameras shoot some pretty good video. For now though here are a few shots from the air.
Flying over the Rocky Mountains
Coming in to Salt Lake City over the Great Salt Lake.
Not much green after the Rockies, but a lot of unusual desert colors.
We are heading to a wedding on the Russian River in northern California, NorCal for those who frequent the area. We decided to fly into Reno because it was cheaper to fly in to and cheaper to rent a car that if we had flown in to San Francisco. We stayed at the Sands in Reno last night for $14. We'll get our car today. We'll first go to In and Out Burger . If you have ever been out West, you probably already know about In and Out Burger. It has its own cult following. They only do burgers in a few different ways, because they don't cook them till you order them. They cut and make their own french fries, and their shakes are, well, let's just say great!
Last night, we walked around the old downtown area of Reno. We drove out here for the first time in the mid 70's. We ate ninety-nine cent breakfasts, and had prime rib for $5.00. Well, there are still some great deals, but prices have climbed a bit. It's still a neat area though.
The sign says it all!
Harrah's on Virginia Ave.
The Cal - Neva has some good food buys.
We are going to drive north today after lunch at In and Out Burger. We're going to take some time on the way to stop and explore Virginia City. I have many memories of the area based on all the hours I spent watching Haas and Little Joe on Bonanza. Bonanza was shot in the Reno Tahoe area.
Well, I'm on vacation, so I may or may not be back on today with some Virginia City, Lake Tahoe shots. Enjoy your day. I'm sure looking forward to mine.
